Chapter 61: Careful
With Zhu Hao around, everything has a ready-made plan, and Yu San, as the executor, only needs to complete it step by step.
But Zhu Hao had already said it.
"Brother San, let's be frank... I am the major shareholder of this business, but you are the legal representative. If anything goes wrong, you will be held responsible. After all, 30% of the profit is not given for nothing... Of course, even though you can break even, you can't treat this business as a joke. You must do your best."
Yu San asked in confusion: "What is a legal person?"
Zhu Hao said solemnly, "It means that you are the main person in charge. To outsiders, you are the boss of the bookstore, but the bulk of the profits go to me... The accounts must be clear, and all the expenses and income must be recorded. I will come to check the accounts at any time. If I find that the accounts don't match, I will replace you."
Yu San patted his chest and said, "Brother Hao, who do you think I am? How could I do such a thing as forgetting my principles for the sake of profit? Besides..."
He wanted to say something else, but stopped talking.
Zhu Hao smiled slightly, knowing what he wanted to say. The gist was that the bulk of my earnings still went to your mother. If I were to forget my principles just for the sake of starting a small business with you, not only would I not be able to help your mother make money in the future, I would probably not be able to gain a foothold in Anlu.
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Yu San usually has a playful look on his face, but he is very capable in doing things.
He has a wide network of contacts and will never do things half-heartedly if he can arrange things on his own. Zhu Hao will look for him whenever he needs to do something . When the local environment and the distribution of power are unclear, he can be a powerful helper.
After half a day, Zhu Hao felt that his money was well spent.
At noon, Zhu Hao had lunch at home and told Zhu Niang that he would return to the palace later in the afternoon. Zhu Niang asked curiously, "Xiao Hao, you can go back early tomorrow morning. Why don't you stay at home and spend more time with mother, aunt, and sister?"
Zhu Hao said: "Mother, I want to go back to the palace as soon as possible to understand the situation, find out useful information, and complete the task assigned by my grandmother as soon as possible. I also want to play with the Prince of Xing during my rest time and cultivate a good relationship with him, so..."
Seeing that Zhu Hao had a lot of ideas, Zhu Niang did not doubt it and immediately nodded in agreement.
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After lunch, Zhu Hao went out of the city without taking a rest and arranged for people to renovate the salt fields to meet the needs of salt drying in autumn and winter.
It was already late when I got back, so I called Yu San to ask about leasing the venue. I learned that everything was going well. There was no need to pay any rent for the vacant land , but I just had to give instructions to the government and the local security guards. Yu San had already settled the matter and had taken care of all the necessary relationships.
"Brother Hao, we have spent almost three taels of silver, and those carpenters are working as fast as they can. What if the silver is not enough by then?"
Yu San was a little worried.
Five taels of silver may seem like a lot, but it is still not enough to run a business.
Zhu Hao smiled and said, "Now that the shed is set up, we can just hire a storyteller. It won't cost much... By the way, I remember there are storytelling venues in the east and south of the city. Have you been there?"
Yu San nodded and said, "I've seen it, but hiring someone is not cheap... If you pay them monthly, it would cost three hundred coins to work more than twenty days a month."
"Don't save a penny. The quality of the storyteller is directly related to the prosperity of the storytelling business, so you can't be careless. I'll leave the script for you. After you recruit people, you can start telling stories few people, you won't charge money. You can lose money to gain publicity. You can charge money when the storytelling reaches a critical moment... If it really doesn't work, you can go up and tell the stories yourself..."
Having said that, Zhu Hao looked at Yu San with a smile.
Yu San quickly waved his hands: "I don't have that ability, it's better to hire a proper storyteller, I can help out there."
Zhu Hao nodded: "I will give you a notebook first. It is not finished yet. You have to be alert and don't let anyone cheat you out of the notebook. You can decide how to arrange it."
Yu San raised his voice an octave higher: "Brother Hao, just watch out, if anyone dares to steal our things, we will make sure he has a miserable life!"
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Yu San spoke his harsh words with confidence, but Zhu Hao knew that Yu San was just putting on an act most of the time.
If Yu San really had such great ability, why couldn't he help every time Zhu Niang got into trouble?
But if you think about it carefully, every time Zhu Niang encountered trouble, it was related to the oppression of the Zhu family and the government. Even if Yu San had some power in the local area, he really didn't dare to fight against the government.
If it was just a conflict of interest between ordinary people and Yu San, Yu San might have some tricks up his sleeve.
Zhu Hao returned to Prince Xing's Mansion before sunset.
Lu Song was leading people to set up a scaffold in the yard. He was quite surprised to see Zhu Hao coming back.
"Lu Dianzhang, what are you busy with? Do you want me to help you?" Zhu Hao seemed very enthusiastic.
Lu Song looked around at his men, some of whom were covering their mouths and laughing.
Lu Song immediately said with a straight face: "How tall are you? Stay away from this kind of thing. If the shelf falls apart and hits you, you will only suffer."
In front of others, Lu Song maintained his usual cold attitude towards Zhu Hao, so as to avoid being noticed that the two of them had any private connection, but after the situation was almost set up, he still called Zhu Hao aside.
"Why don't you stay at home overnight? Why are you back so early?"
Lu Song's tone was full of vigilance.
Zhu Hao said, "I am a little kid, and I can't help if I stay at home... I want to adapt to the environment here as soon as possible. After all, I may have to live in the palace for most of the next many years... Lu Dianzhang, isn't Prince Xing's Palace also half your home?"
Lu Song was quite surprised to hear Zhu Hao's affectionate words.
Boy, do you think you can take charge of Prince Xing’s Mansion?
Zhu Hao asked, "Why are you setting up a scaffold in the yard?"
"This is none of your business."
Lu Song didn't explain.
Zhu Hao smiled and didn’t take Lu Song’s vigilance seriously… If you want to get rid of the control of the Jinyiwei as soon as possible, then we should cooperate sincerely and sort out the relatively unimportant situations in the Prince Xing’s Mansion. In this way, we will have something to report every ten days without really damaging the interests of the Prince Xing’s Mansion.
"By the way, Lu Dianzhang, when I passed by the West Street of the Palace, I saw a long procession of horse-drawn carriages coming. Judging from the size of the carriages, they did not seem to belong to ordinary wealthy families. Who is visiting the Palace?" Zhu Hao continued to ask.
Lu Song glared at Zhu Hao and said, "Don't ask what you shouldn't ask. I will tell you what I can tell you."
After saying this, he left with a gloomy face, as if he was carrying some unspeakable secret.
Zhu Hao curled his lips.
I thought to myself, if you don't tell me, you certainly won't tell Captain Lin. You keep so many secrets in your heart, and sooner or later Captain Lin's patience will wear out. It will be a big trouble if your secrets are exposed then.
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The palace study.
Yuan Zonggao is reporting to Zhu Youqiu.
Prince Ning sent an envoy to meet Zhu Youlang, but he was sent away by Yuan Zonggao.
"The Ning clan has lived in Jiangxi and Jiangxi for a long time and has not had much connection with our Huguang area. Why did they suddenly send an envoy to visit?" Zhu Youqiu frowned slightly, his face full of confusion.
Yuan Zonggao looked worried: "This Prince Ning has been restless since he was enfeoffed as a bastard in the tenth year of Hongzhi. In the second year of Zhengde, he bribed his close ministers Liu Jin, Qian Ning, the actor Zang Xian and others to keep fugitives. Recently, he has even contacted the dignitaries in the capital to restore his disbanded guards. He is extremely ambitious... If he succeeds, there will be no peace in Jiangxi, Jiangxi, and even Huguang."
"oh?"
Zhu Youqiu didn't take it too seriously.
He himself had no ambition to rebel. Although his son was nominally the first heir to the throne, he knew that even if Emperor Zhengde died suddenly, it would still be questionable whether his son could successfully ascend to the throne. After all, if the Empress Dowager and the regents were opposed, it would still be difficult for him to successfully enter the Forbidden City.
As for Prince Ning...
Since they had no contact in normal times, naturally he would not care about what was happening in Jianggan.
Yuan Zonggao continued, "Since last year, there have been bandits in Jiangxi and Jiangxi. Even Nanchang Prefecture has been disturbed, and even the Huguang area has been implicated. All this may be related to Prince Ning, otherwise he would have no excuse to restore or even expand the guards... This time, I had a brief exchange with the envoy. I heard that his words were disrespectful to the court, so I immediately dismissed him... Prince Xing should not have any contact with Prince Ning to avoid giving people a chance to criticize him."
At this time, Prince Ning Zhu Chenhao's ambition was growing rapidly. During the Zhengde period, the emperor's mischief caused great chaos in the administration of various places.
There were also a large number of treacherous officials in the court who relied on currying favor with the emperor to gain promotion and occupied high positions in a short period of time. They issued frequent orders and caused public resentment. This gave Zhu Chenhao an opportunity to realize his ambitions.
Zhu Chenhao naturally had to win over the princes in the areas surrounding Jiang and Gan, especially those who were prestigious and powerful, so that he could obtain financial, material and even human support when he started his rebellion, thus creating the effect of a united response from the whole country.
Zhu Youjun said: "Then let Yuan Changshi handle the Ning clan affairs."
Yuan Zonggao cupped his hands and said, "I will handle it properly."
Zhu Youqiu suddenly thought of something and asked, "The two companions and the prince's studies..."
"Prince Xing can rest assured."
Yuan Zonggao said, "I have already told Sui Jiaoshi to concentrate on teaching the Crown Prince, and only spend a little time teaching the Princess and the other children, and to distinguish the main from the secondary... If Prince Xing is interested in the Crown Prince's studies, he can call him in for an exam at any time."
Zhu Youjun nodded and said, "It has been a while since we have tested the Crown Prince on his studies. Yuan Changshi, please go and make arrangements."
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Night falls again.
Zhu Hao was writing at his desk under the candlestick. After an unknown amount of time, he suddenly felt tired. He stood up and stretched, then walked to the yard outside and found a stone step to sit down.
It is autumn now and the wind is a little cool.
Zhu Hao looked up at the shelf in front of him and thought for a long time but still had no idea what it was used for.
The courtyard was quiet and there was no one around. Zhu Hao stood up and walked to the door. He opened it and looked outside. Two patrolling guards came over immediately. One of them shouted at Zhu Hao, "Go back!"
Zhu Hao said: "I heard some noise outside, so I opened the door to see... Did you hear it?"
The guard didn't answer and came over to chase him away. Zhu Hao stuck out his tongue, quickly retreated back to the yard, and closed the gate immediately but did not bolt it.
Lu Song had instructed that the guards might come back to rest at any time at night, so the door must be kept open at all times.
Zhu Hao was the only one in the huge yard. He walked around the rack for a long time and suddenly thought of something. He went back to the house, got a summer dress he didn't wear, dipped it in water, and threw it directly on the rack.
The next morning, some guards who were preparing to go home after work discovered Zhu Hao's "masterpiece".
Someone reached out and took off Zhu Hao's clothes.
"Hey, what are you doing?"
Just at this moment Zhu Hao came out. When the guards saw him, they stopped and shouted at him.
Zhu Hao looked aggrieved: "I wet the bed last night, so I had no choice but to take my wet clothes to the yard to dry. After searching for a long time, I found that it was just right to hang them here..."
"ah?"
When the man heard this, he found that the clothes in his hands were wet, as if he had been bitten by a snake, and he immediately threw them to the ground.
"Ha ha ha ha……"
The guards nearby were all laughing, thinking that the man was looking for trouble and had his hands covered in urine.
Zhu Hao quickly went over to pick it up: "Don't throw it on the ground."
The guard almost wanted to fight with Zhu Hao, but he didn't dare to be rude... Zhu Hao had a special status in the palace and did not belong to the same system as them. They couldn't figure out the consequences of teaching Zhu Hao a lesson, and they didn't dare to take the risk.
"This is a grape rack, and you used it to hang clothes? And it's stained with urine? Humph, it seems that in the future, the nobles in the palace will have to eat grapes that are contaminated with your filth!"
These guards are really honest.
Not as cunning as Lu Song.
It turned out to be a grape rack!
You are planting grapes in my yard, aren't you afraid that I will poison the grapes?
It seems that I won’t be able to live in this yard for long!
