Chapter 1186 The Suspicious Madam Wei
Shao Wanru went to several other pharmacies and bought almost all the ginseng over 70 or 80 years old there. Then, she took her people to Butterfly Clothing Shop.
Butterfly Clothing Shop had its name changed by the owner, but in the eyes of outsiders, nothing had changed. The shopkeeper was still the same one, and the goods in the shop were still outstanding. However, the shop-boys knew that their current owner was Princess Chen, so they were more confident in entertaining customers. In the past, they did not even dare to speak when there were rude customers, but now it was different.
When Shao Wanru came in, Madame Dong had already received the message. She came out to welcome her and then took Shao Wanru to the accountant’s office.
Sitting behind the large desk, Shao Wanru looked at the account book on the table and asked with a smile, “How’s business recently?”
“Don’t worry, Your Highness. Business is very good, and there are more profits than last month.” Madame Dong seemed to be in good spirits and reported with a smile. As she spoke, she walked to the desk, spotted the projects she had just flipped through, and showed them to Shao Wanru one by one.
These projects had made a lot of money recently.
“Didn’t Wei Dahai come to pester you?” Shao Wanru asked as she flipped through the account book.
“No, he didn’t. How could he have the money to come over? But his wife once sent a gift to me, saying that she wanted to reconcile. I asked someone to return the gift!” Madame Dong said disdainfully.
“A gift? What does she want?” Shao Wanru stopped and raised her watery eyes slightly in surprise.
“She only said that it was a coincidence and that the marriage was arranged by her father, so she had no choice. In this case, we should go our separate ways. But if I need any help, I can send my men to ask her for help. This is what she owes me, and she will try her best to compensate me.”
Madame Dong smiled indifferently and sneered.
She was no longer the naive Lady Dong Ming and would no longer be deceived by Madam Wei’s words. She sounded like a kind-hearted Madam and thought that Madame Dong would forget what she had done to her in the past ten years.
“Your Highness, this woman is not simple!” Madame Dong had experienced a lot. If it weren’t for Princess Chen, she and Dong Xiu’er might have died in a desolate place. They could be regarded as people who had died once. Her thoughts were much sharper. Since she had experienced much, she wouldn’t be blinded by illusions. “I always feel that Wei Dahai listens to her.”
“Wei Dahai’s wife is the only daughter of his father-in-law. Although his position is not the highest, he has some real power. At that time, he had a good character in the imperial court. It was very easy for him to marry his daughter to a son of an aristocratic family, but he chose Wei Dahai. After Wei Dahai married his daughter, he lived in his mansion. Although he is claimed to be not a live-in son-in-law, he’s basically one.”
Shao Wanru nodded. She had also heard about the story between Wei Dahai and Madam Wei from Chu Liuchen.
Madam Wei didn’t marry into an aristocratic family but married a poor boy with no background. Moreover, this poor boy had a fiancee whom he was going to marry, and she was even pregnant. It was inappropriate for Madam Wei to be with Wei Dahai no matter what.
Wei Dahai was not a good-looking man. Among the candidates at the same time, there were some who were better. He came from a poor family, had an average character, and had average grades on the exam. He was the most unimpressive one. However, Wei Dahai’s father-in-law took a fancy to him, which made people feel that there was something else behind it.
It seemed that there was another story behind this.
Could it be that Wei Dahai’s father-in-law had already known that Wei Dahai was Nanny Wei’s nephew at that time, so he deliberately married his daughter to him in order to curry favor with Nanny Wei? When Shao Wanru thought of this, she found that it made sense.
The Empress Dowager’s trusted Nanny was way more powerful than an official.
“You don’t need to talk to her. Whether it’s Wei Dahai’s matter or her matter, you don’t need to worry about it. If she comes here again, just tell her that I don’t allow it,” Shao Wanru ordered in a deep voice.
“If a stick doesn’t work, I’ll give them a carrot. Would they still not give up on Butterfly Clothing Shop?
“Is Wei Dahai so short of money? Where did he spend all his money? Why does he want so much money?”
“Don’t worry, Your Highness. I know what to do. No matter what they do, I’ll treat them as strangers. If they come to the store, they will just be ordinary customers.” Madame Dong was very open-minded. She had long given up on Wei Dahai, so it was impossible for her to have other thoughts. She only regarded him as an ordinary person with ill intentions.
Shao Wanru smiled slightly and was very satisfied with Madame Dong’s idea.
As the shopkeeper of a shop, Madame Dong naturally had less power than people like Wei Dahai. Even if Shao Wanru was the owner behind the scenes, sometimes she couldn’t take care of her. Madame Dong chose the safest way.
Madame Dong was not powerful enough to deal with Wei Dahai at all. Only Shao Wanru could deal with him. Madame Dong had better keep a low profile for the time being. She was afraid that Madame Dong would not be able to control herself and cause some trouble, which would be taken advantage of by Wei Dahai.
Shao Wanru looked down and suddenly saw a part of the account book. She looked at it with some doubt and asked, “Is this batch of goods sold so well?”
Madame Dong glanced at it and immediately explained with a smile, “I don’t know why. Usually, this kind of cloth would be piled up at this time. Although there are some unsold, there are not many. There was a big buyer this year, which made the shop make a lot of money.”
This batch of cloth was actually very ordinary. Compared with the other materials in Butterfly Clothing Shop, they were not at the same level at all.
Originally, Butterfly Clothing Shop did not sell this kind of cloth. Later, Shao Wanru felt that it should offer some materials specialized for common people. Even if they didn’t need a lot of those, they should keep some in reserve, so Shao Wanru asked Madame Dong to stock a batch of such goods.
That kind of cloth sold well for the first time. The shop didn’t lose money or make money. In the past, Butterfly Clothing Shop sold the same trending kinds as those in the capital city. It was good enough that some customers would buy the plain kinds.
At least in the end, there was an extra warehouse of cloth, which made the loss and the gain even on the account. The extra cloth could be regarded as a profit. It was just that no one bought it for the time being. When it was all sold out, there would be a large profit. It was just that it could not be sold.
Unexpectedly, all the materials in the warehouse were sold, and the shop immediately got a huge profit.
“It was all sold to a merchant?” Shao Wanru looked at the records below in surprise. It turned out that the remaining plain cloth was all sold to the same merchant, which was quite surprising.
“Yes, it was all sold to a merchant. He said that he wanted to transport it out, and he also ran a shop,” Madame Dong explained with a smile.
Shao Wanru nodded indifferently. It was best if the shop could sell it. She had wanted to sell the cloth at a low price on holidays before if no one bought it. It was better to sell this batch of goods at a discount than to keep it in the warehouse.
She didn’t expect that it had already been sold before she could come up with a good idea.
She rummaged through other places, asked a few questions, and then got on the carriage with a group of servant girls. Madame Dong sent them to the door.
Shao Wanru came here this time to support Madame Dong and let people know that the real owner of the shop had been replaced, so as not to have Butterfly Clothing Shop bullied by others again.
In the past, when she hid behind the scenes, she had encountered such a thing. Many tyrants felt that Butterfly Clothing Shop had no powerful backers, so they wanted to take advantage of it. Fortunately, it was Chu Liuchen who secretly took action every time, which made Butterfly Clothing Shop get better and better in the past three years.
Shao Wanru didn’t expect that on her trip to Butterfly Clothing Shop, she got the news about the goods instead of backing up the shop.
She still had something to do, so she had to go get it done. Of course, it was necessary to show weakness appropriately, which could confuse others.
“Grandma, why should I apologize to Yuyan? This has nothing to do with me.” Infanta Yuan’an sat on the bed with a livid face, her head still wrapped in a bandage.
Ruiping Great Elder Princess didn’t look well either. It had only been a few days since she sat in front of Infanta Yuan’an’s bed, but she seemed to have aged a lot. She used to look like a beautiful woman in her forties, but now she appeared very old and her eyes were very weak. When she entered the Palace, she was reprimanded by the Empress Dowager and the Emperor. For a time, the Ruiping Great Elder Princess had been given cold shoulders.
Prince Zhou had been granted so many noble ladies as consorts, and they entered his mansion together, which was a disgrace to Ruiping Great Elder Princess. Moreover, her pleading in the Palace didn’t work. She asked to meet the Empress, but she didn’t even see her.
At this time, she felt even more depressed. There was a burst of anger in her chest that could not be vented.
“Yuan’an, do you still want to be Princess Zhou?” Ruiping Great Elder Princess calmed down and pointed upward. “Do you want that position?”
“Why don’t I want it? It was originally mine. That bitch Yuyan made me like this. She should be grateful that I didn’t deal with her personally. She even has the gut to come here.” Thinking of Prince Zhou’s matter, Infanta Yuan’an cried with a grievance. She still hadn’t figured out why things had changed like this.
“Why didn’t Shao Wanru and Zhang Qilan get into trouble? Why was it me and Princess Yuyan? Yuyan must have done something in private to ruin my plan. It’s obvious that this bitch has selfish motives. I helped her so much, but she’s not grateful, and even pushed me out! If it weren’t for the fact that I was determined in the end and took the opportunity of her pushing me to hit the pillar heavily, I might have been held accountable now.”
“Since you want it, you have to hold back!” Ruiping Great Elder Princess said gloomily, “You and Princess Yuyan want to plot against Zhang Qilan and Shao Wanru. They are fine, but something happened to you two. Don’t you understand that you have fallen into their trap? Not only you but also Princess Yuyan!”
“But we were in Princess Yuyan’s place. How could Zhang Qilan and Shao Wanru know our intention? And they can’t do anything about it. It must be Princess Yuyan who has ruined my plan and pushed the blame on me. It’s better that she fell and was bitten to death by the dog!” Infanta Yuan’an said angrily. She wished that Princess Yuyan could be bitten to death by the dog.
“So, you’re going to take the blame and admit that you hurt Princess Yuyan?” Ruiping Great Elder Princess said coldly, staring at Infanta Yuan’an gloomily.
Infanta Yuan’an shivered under her gaze and suddenly understood. She reached out to grab Ruiping Great Elder Princess’s hand and said anxiously, “Grandma, it has nothing to do with me. Although I want to take action, I haven’t done it yet, have I? What should I do now? Am… am I, the future Princess Zhou, going to…”
Thinking of her grandma’s serious face after coming back from the Palace, Infanta Yuan’an panicked and grabbed Ruiping Great Elder Princess so hard that she felt a sharp pain.
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