Chapter 228 Looking Back is Desperate
On this side, Madam Shen was ruthlessly driven away by her daughter. On the other side, Shen Xiuhe hurried on his way and finally arrived at the palace outside the capital.
After entering the palace, he went to look for his daughter Shen Nian, but learned that Shen Nian had been sent to the Queen's Palace by the Queen Mother.
Chen Nian was named a princess and was to be married off. Before that, the queen was responsible for teaching the rules and preparing the dowry, and she also stayed with the queen.
Shen Xiuhe's face was gloomy, and he soon found out the whole story.
Upon learning that his daughter had been caught in public having an affair with the Yuan Dynasty prince, Shen Xiuhe felt dizzy and nearly fell to the ground.
But after all, she was his daughter whom he had given birth to and raised for more than ten years. When Shen Xiuhe arrived in front of the queen, he prostrated himself and bowed.
"My daughter is stupid, ignorant, and ugly, and I am truly unfitted for the important task of marriage. I beg the Empress to show mercy."
Shen Xiuhe knelt and kowtowed heavily.
Queen Wei looked down at the bright red nail polish on her hand, and said with a smile, "Miss Shen and the Yuan Dynasty Crown Prince Mu Huali are in love. Now that the imperial decree has been issued, Lord Shen has come to ask me for help, but I am powerless to do anything."
Chen Xiuhe kowtowed again. "If there is anyone who can ask Your Majesty to revoke your order, it is only you, Your Majesty. Please, Your Majesty, consider my loyalty over the years and help me protect my only remaining daughter."
"But, this is not easy for me to do."
The Queen slowly sat up straight. "Even though I am the Queen of a dynasty, I still have many difficulties. I need help from others when I need it. Lord Shen, can you understand?"
Shen Xiuhe knelt on the ground, his hands supporting the ground shaking.
"I know that your eldest daughter, who was separated from you long ago, is not close to you. Now, Xie Yunqing's two children also disown you. Your youngest son is already disabled, leaving only your daughter, Shen Nian... Now Shen Nian wants to marry into the Yuan Dynasty. If I were you, I would find it difficult to accept."
Queen Wei sighed, "It's not that I don't want to help, it's just that I myself have many difficulties."
The veins on Shen Xiuhe's forehead throbbed. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. The hall fell into dead silence.
After a moment, Chen Xiuhe spoke in a hoarse voice, "If Your Majesty can use me in any way, I will be at your service. I only ask Your Majesty... to help me save my daughter."
Queen Wei chuckled softly, "If I don't help you, will you refuse to obey my orders?"
Shen Xiuhe trembled and knelt even lower: "I dare not."
Queen Wei clicked her tongue and said, "It's good that Lord Shen knows."
After she finished speaking, she raised her chin, and a slender palace maid beside her handed a piece of paper to Shen Xiuhe with a smile.
Shen Xiuhe's fingers trembled slightly as he opened it. When he saw what was inside, he was shocked and knelt down quickly: "Please have mercy, Madam."
He gritted his teeth and said, "My daughter is destined to suffer this misfortune. I shouldn't have asked Your Majesty for this. I will never mention this matter again. Please have mercy on me."
Queen Wei lowered her eyes and chuckled softly, "Master Shen may have misunderstood. This is not a transaction... but an order."
She said, "If I don't save your daughter, will you stop working for me?"
Chen Xiuhe's face turned pale and his eyes were red: "Your Majesty, I have already sacrificed a daughter in what happened back then... Can't Your Majesty let me go?"
The Queen opened her eyes slightly and said, "Master Shen, what are you talking about? Aren't your daughters all fine?"
Chen Xiuhe closed his eyes and kowtowed heavily: "Please have mercy on me, Your Majesty, and let me live. Please, Your Majesty!"
Empress Wei narrowed her eyes and then slowly leaned back. "Lord Shen, please think carefully before you reply. You are still useful now. If what happened back then were to be exposed, even if you wanted to work for me, you wouldn't have the chance."
Shen Xiuhe's whole body trembled, as if all his strength was drained away in an instant.
After a while, he left the Queen's Palace.
As he was walking through the palace, he suddenly saw the palace where the Queen Mother was not far away. He stopped and looked inside.
He knew that his other daughter was over there, but... she didn't consider him as a father at all.
One wrong step leads to another. A slight change in thought at the beginning will lead to a hopeless situation when you look back.
Chen Ning didn't know that Chen Xiuhe was watching her from across the wall... She was forcibly conscripted by the Queen Mother.
"The accounts have been sealed. I will be returning to Beijing in a few days. You should take a good rest now. When you return, your good days will be over."
The Queen Mother glanced at Chen Ning and said, "I'm handing over the weaving and dyeing bureau to you. You can't be like those shallow-minded people and embarrass me."
Shen Ning smiled helplessly: "Can I not answer it?"
"dream!"
The Queen Mother snorted, "Are you just thinking about starting your own little business to make money? You're so short-sighted... Let me take care of the weaving and dyeing bureau. There will be other things in the future. The inner treasury is huge. Isn't it better than you guarding your little piece of land?"
Shen Ning laughed bitterly: "My humble servant's land is small, so there are few troubles."
The Queen Mother rolled her eyes at her and said, "I have your back. I'll take care of everything for you. Why are you afraid of trouble? Look at your potential."
At this time, Aunt Gui came in from outside and whispered, "Empress Dowager, the person has been sent over."
The Queen Mother nodded and said, "Just send them over. After all, one is her future daughter-in-law, and the other is a marriage for a foreign alliance. It's Queen Wei's job to take care of it. I don't bother to look after those two anymore."
Early in the morning, the Queen Mother asked Nanny Gui to send Xu Wanqing and Shen Nian to the Queen.
The reason why those two were summoned to the palace to attend to the sick was to bring Shen Ning to his side and give him a beating. Now that it is no longer necessary, those two have become particularly annoying.
"None of them are presentable. They're just an eyesore."
The Queen Mother was very disgusted, and then looked at Chen Ning: "Listen carefully to me, I will tell you about the Royal Treasury..."
The reason why the Queen Mother decided to hand over the Royal Weaving and Dyeing Bureau to Chen Ning was not only because she felt that Chen Ning was "one of her own", but also because she wanted to sell the raw silk that Chen Ning had stockpiled in the past few days.
After the maritime ban was lifted, merchants from France and Goryeo immediately came to Daxuan. The most popular product among those tall-nosed foreigners was high-quality raw silk.
Even though the price of top-grade raw silk from Daxuan has now reached one tael and eight cents, those French merchants still flock to it. The reason is that the profit is sufficient.
Here, one spends one tael and eight cents to buy high-quality raw silk. However, the price of the best raw silk can almost double if it is shipped to Japan via Ryukyu.
Of the 300,000 catties of raw silk in Chen Ning's hands, 50,000 catties were sold to the weaving and dyeing bureau, and the rest were all sold to French merchants at one tael and eight cents per catty, netting 450,000 taels of silver.
Most of these more than 200,000 kilograms of raw silk were purchased at the lowest price. Including storage, labor and other costs, the cost per kilogram was less than six cents.
In other words, Shen Ning made a profit of three hundred thousand taels of silver from this business...
Xiao Nanchen had given her a lot of silver before, and after the raw silk was sold, Shen Ning wanted to return the money to him. However, instead of returning the money, she was severely "punished and taught a lesson" by His Royal Highness Prince Ding for a long time on the charge of "deliberately alienating him."
Xie Yunqing was also shocked by the profit.
It can be said that her daughter earned as much in one business as she did in ten years...
Just as many people in the capital mocked Chen Ning and Xie Yunqing for borrowing money to stock up on silk, so many people are jealous now.
That's hundreds of thousands of taels of silver, not everyone can afford it.
It was for this reason that the Queen Mother saw the ability of this "monkey" and immediately decided to fire the Prince's Mansion, which was short-sighted and loved to cause trouble, and replaced it with Shen Ning, a professional manager, without giving Shen Ning any room to refuse.
Just as Shen Ning was being forced by the Empress Dowager to tell her about the business and operation of the Royal Treasury, in the capital, Shen Xiang prepared generous gifts and went to visit Xie Yunqing.
The Queen Mother has already given her order. Now, the Prince's Mansion no longer hopes to change the Queen Mother's mind and take back the Weaving and Dyeing Bureau. They only hope that Chen Ning, the new manager, will show mercy when checking the accounts.
After all, the Prince's Mansion had managed the weaving and dyeing bureau for the Empress Dowager over the years and had made a lot of profit from it. To be more precise, it had been extremely ruthless and had skimmed off a lot of profits.
Of course Xie Yunqing didn't see him.
Her daughter didn't know how precarious it was to work for the Empress Dowager. As a mother, she couldn't help, but of course she couldn't cause trouble for her child.
As for Shen Xiang, the Prince's Mansion was a wealthy family with no shortage of thousands of taels of silver, but she had the heart to embezzle her own mother's money, which was enough to show what kind of person she was. She would not trust such a person at all, no matter how kindly he smiled or how attentive his attitude was.
It's not that I sympathize with Old Madam Shen. She deserves to end up like this. However, a glimpse of the whole picture reveals that people like Shen Xiang should be stayed away from as far as possible.
Xie Yunqing avoided him, and Shen Xiang couldn't find a way, so she finally found Shen Chengxi. As a result, as soon as they met, Shen Chengxi's face changed, and he said directly: "Come here, beat her out."
Shen Xiang was so embarrassed and angry: "How dare you! I am the princess of a county prince and your aunt, you..."
But before he could finish his words, Shen Chengxi threw a cane at him: "Get out, I don't even have a father, why do I need an aunt! Get out..."
Shen Chengxi already knew that Shen Xiang and Old Madam Shen were conspiring to bankrupt his mother and sister and divide their property.
We had lived together for more than ten years, but these people were so shameless and vicious, and now they even had the nerve to call themselves aunts!
This kind of person doesn't even recognize his own mother, so how could he recognize others? He is just profit-driven!
At this time, a servant came over and said, "Master, the palace said that the young lady will be back in a few days, and the Lotus Pond Garden has not been cleaned up yet."
While Shen Ning was not at home and Shen Chengxi was recovering from his injuries, he asked someone to tidy up and renovate the Lotus Pond Garden for Shen Ning.
Just a moment ago, Shen Chengxi had angrily driven Shen Xiang out, and when he heard that his sister was coming back, his expression immediately changed.
"Then what are you waiting for? Add more people and finish it as soon as possible... How's the pepper wall? Fix it as soon as possible. Autumn is almost here, and winter will come after autumn. Keep an eye on the pepper wall and make sure it's finished. Don't let my sister get cold..."
The person next to him covered his lips and laughed, "Young Master is too anxious. Winter is still early. Besides, the eldest lady might marry into Prince Ding's mansion before winter comes."
Shen Chengxi fell silent.
Yes, my sister is engaged, and the wedding date will be set soon.
Before he had the chance to be a good brother, his sister was about to get married. Once she married into Prince Ding's mansion... he would really have no chance to make amends.
After a pause, Shen Chengxi said: "Stop talking nonsense, go and watch people do their work. If there is any mistake, watch your legs."
The attendants beside him quickly retreated...
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