West Chang'an Street, Xu Mansion.

The sound of "pa pa pa" continued to be heard in the study.

Xu Fan was seen holding a board about an inch wide and beating his son again and again.

Xu Yuanchun lay on a stool, biting a cotton towel in his mouth. His body twisted constantly as his father beat him, and various expressions of pain appeared on his face.

"Master, please stop beating her." Seeing her son's buttocks swollen like a steamed cake, Ji Shi mustered up the courage to grab Xu Fan's arm and begged bitterly, "What unforgivable thing did Yuanchun do to deserve you to beat her to death?"

"Ask him yourself!" Xu Fan was still furious, and pointed a stick at his son and cursed, "He has brought shame to our Xu family!"

"Ah, Yuanchun, what did you do?" Ji was shocked and quickly pulled the cotton towel out of her son's mouth.

"Woo woo, mother, I just lost the bet and have to take someone else as my master." Xu Fan cried with tears in her eyes, "I don't want to take this master either, but who can let him really go to heaven? Li Maocai and Chen Yiqin are unwilling to go back on their word, and I am the only one who has no say, which is a disgrace to our Xu family."

"You're talking nonsense! When did our Xu family have this family rule?!" While his wife was not paying attention, Xu Fan slapped Xu Yuanchun on the butt with a stick again.

There was nothing stuffed in Xu Yuanchun's mouth this time, and he screamed in pain, almost blowing the roof off.

"Keep your voice down!" Xu Fan glared at him and said, "Your grandfather took medicine and just went to bed."

"..." Xu Yuanchun sobbed and dared not say a word, thinking to herself, if you don't hit me, then I won't scream, right?

"Master, it's just a matter of apprenticeship. It's just a child playing around. It's no big deal." Ji took the opportunity to snatch the board from Xu Fan's hand.

"What's the big deal?" Xu Fan was so angry that he gestured and said, "Today is such an important day. All the officials in the court and two or three thousand students were concentrating on listening to my father's lectures! Then suddenly, a big ball fell from the sky and almost caught my father!"

"Is it the one flying in the sky?" Today, when Ji and a group of ladies were visiting the garden, they also saw the big colorful balloon passing through the sky above the capital. At that time, everyone praised it for being beautiful.

"I didn't expect that he was targeting my father-in-law..."

"You didn't expect there would be so many things!" Xu Fan said angrily again, "Do you know who else was on that balloon besides the boy named Zhao?"

"Who else?"

"Lanling County Lady!" Xu Fan growled, and was about to kick his son's butt again. "What use do I have for this idiot? He watched the county lady being snatched away by the kid named Zhao, and not only did he want revenge, he even wanted to worship him as his master! How could I have given birth to such a coward!"

Seeing that Xu Fan was about to go crazy again, Ji Shi hurriedly stopped her husband and said to her son, "Go away, you evil creature. Are you still here to make your father angry?!"

"Hey, I'll go back and reflect on myself." Xu Yuanchun didn't care about the burning pain in his buttocks anymore. He quickly got up, pulled up his pants with both hands, and ran out while sticking out his neck and saying, "I won't give up. There's still a long time to go. Maybe he'll fall in love with another girl, and then I'll have a chance..."

"Have you heard what people say?" Xu Fan laughed in anger, "This is the first time I've heard that there's a queue for this kind of thing!"

"Oh, this child is too honest." As soon as her son went out, Ji quickly closed the door, fearing that her husband would chase her out and kill her.

"But wasn't it the master who led him down this path? I just don't understand. For a family like ours, we can choose any girl we want. Why did we have to marry that unruly county lady?"

"What do you know!" Xu Fan sat down angrily.

"Yes, I don't understand anything." Ji brought a cup of tea to her husband and sighed distressedly, "I just feel sorry for my eight thousand taels of silver."

"What eight thousand taels of silver?" Xu Fan asked with a frown.

"You've been busy these past two days, so I didn't have time to tell you." Ji took out a few Royal Xishan Coal Industry stocks from her sleeve and said, "These are what the Princess sold to us the other day when she hosted a dinner. I originally thought that since Yuanchun likes the county lady and you've always wanted to marry the Princess, I gritted my teeth and subscribed to 800 shares."

"Eight hundred shares? So many?" Xu Fan was surprised at first.

According to the custom at that time, the "one share" people often referred to was a tenth of the shares. I had never heard of any business being divided into 800 shares.

But after looking at the words on the stock, he burst out laughing again: "So there are 100,000 shares... Ten taels of silver per share, that's one million taels. It seems that our eldest princess really doesn't want to be lonely."

"I heard that she is going to open a coal mine in Xishan." Ji told Xu Fan everything she heard, "It seems that she has bought more than 2,000 coal mines and is also going to rebuild the road in Xishan."

The princess did not elaborate on the matter of acquiring the coal mine, and Ji Shi did not know what a coal mine or an abandoned coal mine was, so he treated them all as the same thing.

"What a big deal." Xu Fan couldn't help but gasp, thinking that it seemed that after the eldest princess withdrew from the royal property, she invested all her wealth in Xishan.

He shook the eight hundred shares in his hand and couldn't help but smile: "I think your eight thousand taels of silver are a sure win."

"Really?" Ji was overjoyed when he heard that: "That's great. How about I buy some more?"

"It's not impossible." Xu Fan nodded.

~~

In this day and age, all wealthy people face the same dilemma, which is the extreme lack of investment channels.

In addition to a series of upstream and downstream businesses related to overseas trade, the only businesses that can make big money are money shops and salt merchants.

However, these two industries are already saturated and have their own thresholds. Even for a powerful family like the Xu family, it is very difficult to get involved, let alone other wealthy people.

Even in overseas trade itself, participants in every business, upstream and downstream, have already agreed on the price. No one can sell an extra bundle of silk or a pound of tea.

Therefore, there is no motivation to expand reproduction.

Unable to find places to invest, the huge amount of silver flowing into the country from overseas trade could only be squandered or hoarded.

But who wants to let silver grow mold in a cellar? Is there any difference between silver piled up there with nowhere to go and dirt?

Therefore, as soon as the young cabinet minister foresaw the financial prospects of Xishan Coal Industry, he immediately encouraged his wife to invest more.

"It may take a while." Unexpectedly, Ji was in trouble.

"I heard from the princess that she doesn't need the money at all. It was her godson who persuaded her to take out 5,000 shares to share so that everyone can get some benefit from it."

"Who is her godson?" Xu Fan was stunned, and suddenly thought of a name and said, "Could it be that boy surnamed Zhao?"

"It seems his surname is Zhao." Ji frowned and thought hard: "Oh, right, his name is Zhao Hao."

"It's him!" Xu Fan's face changed immediately, and he gritted his teeth and said, "I won't invest anymore. You have to return these 800 shares!"

"Ah? Is it really that big of a grudge?" Ji couldn't help but ask in confusion: "Didn't the master always say that grudges are grudges and business is business?"

"You don't understand." Xu Fan said with a gloomy face: "They are promoting Zhao Shouzheng's policy paper. What will it look like if we get involved?"

"You're right to withdraw the money." He lowered his voice and said, "Because I will definitely ruin this matter for them!"

ps. Third update, please give me monthly tickets and recommendation tickets~~~