Chapter 40: Credit Trouble
How could such a small matter be impeached and reported to Your Majesty?
Li Ziyan was unaware of the seriousness of the matter and panicked. Her forced composure gradually collapsed. "Master! I didn't do that! How could the debt I owed be charged to you?"
"Pay it back, pay it back now!" Zhou Zhizhang ordered!
He had completely lost face in the court today! Everyone else praised the prosperity of the Marquis's Mansion, and he enjoyed these compliments, which greatly satisfied his vanity. However, he did not expect that the credit he owed to be impeached by the censor would be like a slap in the face!
Let everyone know that the Marquis' Mansion is a false prosperity.
It looks good on the surface, but the inside is like the flesh of a winter melon, hollow and shriveled.
Li Ziyan was so anxious that she almost stamped her feet. Her lips trembled as she walked forward and whispered in his ear, "Your Highness, it's not that I don't want to return it, it's that I don't have it."
"Where's the money? Where did the money go!" Zhou Zhizhang whispered with gritted teeth.
"Throw it all in to fill your deficit!" Li Ziyan said quietly with a sad look on her face.
Zhou Zhizhang was shocked all over, and then he realized that the mansion was really out of money, and he had to expand the Su family business as soon as possible.
He gritted his teeth, pulled out a family jade pendant from his sleeve, and threw it to Shopkeeper Xu: "I didn't bring much silver with me. This piece of jade can be worth five thousand taels. Take it as collateral for now."
"Okay, thank you, My Lord!" Shopkeeper Xu bowed deeply, stroked the jade pendant and smiled contentedly.
Qin Zhengyu also smiled and said, "Thank you for your cooperation, Your Highness. This is how our shop can make a living."
Zhou Zhizhang knew that the censors' impeachment of the Jing'an Marquis's Mansion for buying things on credit must have been done by Qin Zhengyu, who knew several officials in the Censorate.
Why did my wife owe money to Qin Zhengyu's shop?
Zhou Zhizhang thought this was such a coincidence.
The commotion here was quite big, and coupled with Qin Zhengyu's arrogance that was exactly the same as that of the Regent, many people laughed at the Marquis' Mansion.
Zhou Zhizhang and his wife hated Qin Zhengyu so much that their teeth itched.
Qin Zhengyu weighed the ancestral jade pendant and sneered as he turned to leave. "Want to borrow money from the Regent? No way!"
What Li Zi Yan owed was the debt she owed before she sold Huashang to Su Luo. Qin Zhengyu naturally had to go out and collect it and argue for the profits of his prince.
The pleasure of enjoying the flowers in the peach forest was ruined like this.
Li Ziyan bit her lip: "Go back home!"
"Hey, Lady Jing'an, wouldn't you like to enjoy the flowers for a while?" A noble lady asked with ill intention.
"I'm allergic to the fragrance of flowers, so I won't appreciate it. You guys can enjoy it slowly." Li Zi Yan gritted her teeth.
As soon as she got in the car, Zhou Yan, Li Jiaojiao and Su Luo came from three directions.
Li Jiaojiao's eyes were slightly red, obviously she had been crying. Zhou Yan had a stern face and looked angry when he looked at Li Jiaojiao. Li Ziyan could tell at a glance that the two had had a quarrel.
Su Luo seemed to be in a happy mood, with a bunch of peach blossoms tied together with vines lying in her arms.
None of these three people were there when I needed them!
Just thinking about this made Li Zi Yan furious.
"What's this, mother?" Zhou Yan asked delicately.
"Take out all your salary and savings and use them to deal with the emergency." Li Ziyan spoke distractedly and briefly recounted what had just happened.
"What?! Mother! What are you doing? You are buying silver on credit everywhere?" Zhou Yan exclaimed.
Li Ziyan hurriedly covered his mouth: "Keep your voice down! The carriage is not soundproof! Do you want the people outside to hear and laugh at our mansion?"
"Do you think it's free to make friends with noble ladies? Do you think it's free to please the Empress Dowager? Last time on her birthday, I gave her a gold-threaded and white jade screen worth five thousand taels of silver, and even this is the worst gift from any of the family members!"
"And... do you know how those ladies are just beasts, playing cards like that?" Li Ziyan kept cursing and angrily said,
"You are now a fourth-rank lieutenant general in the Imperial Guards. I played mahjong with your superior, the governor's wife, and deliberately lost her a full two thousand five hundred taels of silver. This coaxed her into a happy mood, and she promised to speak well of you to the governor."
Whenever Li Zi Yan thought of these things, she became so angry that her heart ached. She covered her chest with silk and was so heartbroken that she couldn't breathe. That was all pure silver!
Soon, the figure of Su Luo and her mother who committed suicide due to depression flashed through her mind.
Li Ziyan felt more relaxed and determined to get the huge Su family property.
But she didn't intend to tell Zhou Yan about this plan. Zhou Yan hadn't learned even one tenth of her cunningness, so he couldn't do it and she had to do it.
Zhou Yan saw what Li Ziyan was planning again and sighed, "Mother, please don't try to take my salary. I've already spent it all."
He couldn't explain it, but he had lost everything to Su Luo.
She knew Zhou Yan was a lavish spender, especially one who gave a lot to Li Jiaojiao, so Li Ziyan asked Li Jiaojiao directly, "How about you?"
"I...Auntie was joking. How could Jiaojiao have any private money?" Li Jiaojiao's face was full of sincerity.
In fact, what she was thinking was, the money she had worked so hard to dig out from the Marquis' Mansion, and then spit it out? She was dreaming.
Li Ziyan took a deep breath, closed her eyes impatiently, and cursed silently in her heart: These two people are unreliable!
When Su Luo lifted the Xiang bamboo curtain and was about to sit in.
Li Ziyan's face was filled with doting and filial piety, and she even poured a cup of tea and handed it to her: "Luo'er, you've been wandering around Feiyu Mountain for so long, you must be thirsty, right? Have some tea, mother made it for you."
"Thank you, mother." Su Luo took it but didn't drink it.
Su Luo knew what Li Ziyan was going to do without her having to say anything. When Li Ziyan was about to speak, Su Luo pretended to sigh in melancholy: "Alas."
He blocked Li Ziyan's words in his throat and had to ask, "What happened to Luo'er?"
"To be honest, mother, the Su family has recently encountered a crisis and business turnover is difficult." Su Luo's face was full of worry. "I don't know what to do?"
Li Ziyan's smile froze for a moment, and she clenched the cup in her hand: "Tell me about it?"
Zhou Yan knew about this, and he felt very sad. After all, he had lost so much salary.
"My mother's cloth business has seen profits drop by 70% annually. Not only that, but even her inn business has been shut down month by month by competitors, and now she's losing money everywhere."
Su Luo made up lies, and the first step was to make them feel that the Su Mansion was no longer profitable, or even that the Su Mansion was a hot potato. In this way, she could discourage the Su Mansion from taking advantage of the situation.
"But I see that the inns under your Su Mansion are constantly bustling with guests, and even the cloth shops are packed with customers. And those chain blacksmith shops are almost opening in other countries. How can you be losing money?"
Li Ziyan looked worried on the surface, but there was actually a hint of suspicion in her eyes. Could it be that he was lying to her?
It’s not like she hasn’t sent people to keep an eye on the Su family’s assets!
Su Luo's eyes were red as she uttered eight words with difficulty: "Golden exterior, rotten interior."
Li Ziyan fell into a long silence. She thought of the Jing'an Marquis Mansion, which was also the same. On the surface, it looked prosperous, but in reality...
Forget it! Forget it! How many noble families in the capital are not like this?
It's just that a lean camel is bigger than a horse.
Li Ziyan suddenly said sadly, "Luo'er, your Su family is rich and powerful. Even if there is a loss, it will definitely be more than the money in the Marquis' Mansion."
"I'm sure you're aware of today's credit issue, so can you please...give Mother a little silver? Not much, just 60,000 taels, which is just a drop in the bucket for the Su Mansion."
Sixty thousand taels!?
And she said "give", not borrow!
Su Luo's forehead jumped and she almost lost control of her expression. She didn't say anything, but she had already come up with a plan.
Li Ziyan stared at her micro-expressions carefully. She was very confident about defrauding a little girl of money.
Controlling Su Luo is just a piece of cake!
Just when Li Zi Yan was full of confidence, Su Luo started crying!
Li Ziyan suddenly froze.
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