Chapter 585 Interest Chain
When Zhu Lan heard the steward say that the money in Mr. Liu's account might be used for double loans, he immediately figured out some things.
Double loan is usury, which also shows that the extra money when they deposit it again is the high interest charged.
Judging from the amount of interest, the interest rate that Mr. Liu loaned out was far higher than the limit set by the Daliang government, which had violated the law.
As for why this part of the interest should be transferred to a small account separately...
Zhu Lan guessed that every time someone bribed Master Xu through the Qijun Tea House, the bribe money was deposited in the Tongyun Money House in the capital. Master Liu asked someone to take the bill of exchange back to Maoxian. After the money house in Maoxian recorded the account, Master Liu and Wu Zhiyuan immediately took out the money to lend it out and earn high interest.
As for this loan, Master Xu was certainly not aware of it, so the principal used for loan had to be deposited back into the money house in the end in case Master Xu checked the accounts.
As for the high interest, it was deposited into another account of Mr. Liu and became the property of him and Wu Zhiyuan.
A typical case of getting something for nothing.
However, the most interesting thing is the relationship between Tutor Xu, Wu Zhiyuan, and Mr. Liu.
Mr. Liu has no relationship with the Xu family, but he was involved in the incident of Tutor Xu taking bribes, and even the bribe money was in his name. There are only two possibilities.
The first is that Master Xu trusts Master Liu extremely due to some kind of friendship.
The second possibility is that Master Xu holds a fatal handle on Master Liu, which makes him afraid to betray.
It is too early to draw conclusions about which possibility it is.
However, Mr. Liu and Wu Zhiyuan colluded with each other and made profits by lending money without the knowledge of Master Xu, which shows that these two people are not only greedy for money, but also not 100% loyal to Master Xu.
Zhu Lan curled the corners of his mouth. The chain of evidence in his hand was not perfect yet, but as long as the enemy had internal conflicts, it would be easy to deal with.
There are two things to do right now. First, we need to find out why Mr. Liu obeys the Xu family. Second, we need to see if we can find more clues from the double loan incident.
Zhu Lan decided to start with Beidai. This matter was easy to investigate, but he had to find a few people who had borrowed from Beidai first.
What kind of person would choose a loan with such a high interest rate?
Zhu Lan looked at Manager Mi and asked:
"Manager Mi, please recall now which people have applied for loans from the bank in the past year but were not approved?"
Manager Mi thought for a long time and slowly said a few names.
Zhu Lan asked again: "Do you know anyone among them who failed to borrow money from a bank but still got the money in the end?"
…
Zhu Lan left Tongyun Money House and did not go directly back to the place arranged by the Xu family.
She turned into an alley and soon stopped in front of a newly opened lantern shop.
A woman in the shop was making a kite with bamboo strips. She looked up and saw a customer. She smiled at Zhu Lan and let her choose for herself.
Zhu Lan carefully selected for a moment, picked up a red kite, paid for it, but did not leave. Instead, he asked the woman:
"Sister, is this your own shop?"
The woman smiled again and said that she and her husband opened the shop together, but she spent more time in the shop.
Zhu Lan suddenly said "Oh" and couldn't help but said:
“That’s great. Actually, I’ve always wanted to do some small business and open a shop.
"Alas, it's a pity that I don't have the capital. I wanted to go to a bank to borrow some money, but the bank manager refused to let me. He's really tricky!"
The woman was also kind-hearted, so she asked her, "Sister, you look very cultured, like a scholar, why do you want to do business?"
Zhu Lan seemed a little embarrassed, saying that he had studied for a few years, but gave up after failing the imperial examinations. He had a lot of books at home, so he thought about opening a bookstore.
The woman sighed and said to Zhu Lan:
"In fact, when my family opened this shop, we also went to Tongyun Bank to borrow some money, but the manager told us about the risks...
I don’t understand, but they just don’t want to pay us, fearing that we won’t be able to make back our investment and pay it back, just like you.”
Zhu Lan quickly asked how the shop was opened.
Seeing that she was a young girl, the woman didn't think much about it and said with a smile:
"What else can I do? Think of another way.
My husband is bold and skilled, and he thought that opening a kite shop would definitely make money, so he borrowed money from Mr. Liu in the city. "
Zhu Lan seemed to be in a dilemma. "But I heard that the interest rate for lending money from Mr. Liu is very high..."
"Yes, it's a little high. Business has been good since we opened our shop, but I only paid off the interest last month." The woman smiled again and said that no matter what, the debt has been paid off now, and the money earned in the future will be theirs.
Zhu Lan seemed to be somewhat tempted after hearing this, and asked what would happen if the money could not be repaid. Would Master Liu hire thugs to come and collect the debt?
The woman shook her head. "If you can't pay the money back, the government will take care of it!"
"The government is in charge of this?" Zhu Lan asked, "Isn't it illegal for Master Liu to set such a high interest rate?"
The woman gave her a strange look.
"What law is being broken? Even the county magistrate agrees to this, so how can it be illegal?"
As Zhu Lan walked back to Xu's house, he felt that things were becoming more and more interesting.
In fact, she should have thought of it earlier. Tutor Xu was a veteran of three dynasties and the emperor's teacher. Many people wanted to curry favor with him.
As the magistrate of Mao County, Zhu Qian, the local official of the Taifu's hometown, how could he not seize the opportunity to curry favor with Wu Zhiyuan?
The purpose of my coming out this time was to secretly investigate the Xu family, and I didn't want to cause any trouble.
But the corrupt officials are right in front of us, and it would be impolite not to catch them.
Zhu Zhongcheng is a very particular person.
…
Zhu Lan returned to the residence arranged by Wu Zhiyuan, which was a house where ordinary people lived.
Wu Zhiyuan said that this was a relative's house, and that family had gone on a long journey, so they vacated the house for Zhu Lan and Yan Jing to stay in temporarily.
Zhu Lan knew that the four maids were guarding near the house, so she was not worried about anyone eavesdropping.
As it grew darker, Zhu Lan took out a tinderbox and lit the only oil lamp in the room.
The white flame lit up, emitting a faint yellow light, and could only cast the blurry shadows of the two people on the wall.
Yan Jing looked at Zhu Lan eagerly, as if expecting something, but Zhu Lan had already put away the fire starter.
Yan Jing had no choice but to look away and stare at the oil lamp on the table, a puzzled look on her rosy face.
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