Qiao Yuyan was speechless for a moment. Wen Tingyuan did not reveal his identity during the whole trip. The Xu family knew about this because Qiao Yuyan wrote a letter informing him in advance.
But Qiao Yuyan didn't say what he was here for specifically.
The appointment document stated that it was to monitor the tax situation in Jiangxi over the past two years, but in fact, it was simply to investigate the connections between Jiangxi and the Seventh Prince's forces.
This put her in a dilemma for a while. Just from what Xu Lu said, she knew that the entire southern region was basically related to the seventh prince's affairs, and it also involved a large amount of money.
As one of the top merchants in Jiangxi, the Xu family's future relationship with the Seventh Prince is really unpredictable.
What's more, there are Wei's words before, so it's almost certain that there are some unexplainable things here.
Originally, Qiao Yuyan planned to wait for her grandmother to get better and find a quiet time for the grandparent and grandson to have a detailed discussion.
Now that the second wife of the Xu family asked her like this, it was hard for her to say anything.
After all, there are too many complications behind this, and if you are not careful, you may end up being self-defeating.
Qiao Yuyan found that after this thought flashed through her at this moment, she felt deep sadness in her heart.
To her, the Xu family was closer than the Qiao family, but in a place like this, she actually had barriers and no longer had any taboos in speaking.
It was the old lady of the Xu family who noticed her dilemma and said with a smile: "Ya'er is a little girl from this family. How could she know about the affairs of their men? She is afraid that she still hasn't figured out what the three provinces and six departments in the court are."
What to do."
Xu Lu on the other end was very generous, "I don't know what this is about!"
In just three or two sentences, the topic was sidetracked.
The second wife of the Xu family may have some purpose in asking this, but she didn't see it at all in her subsequent conversation.
After dinner, the female relatives of the Xu family stayed in the room to talk to their grandparents and grandchildren. They talked and laughed about daily trivial matters. Qiao Yuyan had originally intended to wait for everyone to leave and talk to her grandmother alone.
As for myself, it turned out that I didn't wait for any chance at all.
When I woke up the next day, I was dragged out by Xu Lu to go shopping early in the morning. I visited all the places that the two of them liked to visit before.
As Xu Lu said, today's Jiangzhou does not seem as lively as before, but it is true that several foreign goods shops have opened, and the things in them are extremely difficult to see even in the capital.
If these things are transported to the capital and sold, it will really be a huge income.
Xu Lu became interested as soon as she heard this, but quickly waved her hands and said: "That's all, I don't think it can be done. The road to the capital is not peaceful now. There are water bandits on the waterway and robbers on the land. This time
I don’t know how much damage was done on the road, so let’s forget about it!”
Qiao Yuyan couldn't help but said in surprise: "Don't our family have our own shops in various parts of the capital? So what if we just bring some? If you can make some money, it's a profit! Wouldn't it be good for you to make dowry money in the future?"
Xu Lu then smiled and said: "How can my mother miss out on my dowry money? To be honest, I went to my mother's place to inquire about it last time. Not to mention the two hundred thousand in my dowry money.
There are always 150,000 or 60,000.
I'm just a big-bellied Maitreya Buddha, and I can't spend enough money to give birth to ten or eight children in my lifetime, so why should I bother to do that?!"
Qiao Yuyan was surprised. In the past, she didn't much interfere with family affairs. The key is that she didn't understand much when she did. But after going to the capital, she was in charge of the Qiao family's housework.
Later, both Xu and Wen Tingyuan handed over some properties to her, and she had a concrete concept of money.
So when I heard Xu Lu's tone, I was really surprised!
The Xu family is indeed rich, and the dowries given to cousins in the family were quite astonishing in the past, but they are far from this level. When a Xu Lu was married, the dowry amounted to 200,000 yuan.
You must know that Daqi's annual tax revenue is only four to five million.
What is this concept?!
It is obvious that Jiangzhou is getting poorer and the people's lives are becoming more and more miserable. Why does it seem that the Xu family's wealth is getting richer?
Moreover, the influence of the Xu family in the capital was indeed weakening. She calmed down and said, "When I save money, I will ask my mother-in-law to talk to me later, and I can use my family's business to make some money."
Go back with your foreign goods.
Only when I arrived in the capital did I realize the difficulties of having a big family and a big business! I had to save some money first, so I won’t panic if I have money in hand!"
Xu Lu sighed, "It would have been easier to say earlier, but I'm afraid it's not so easy now."
Qiao Yuyan was puzzled, "Are you saying it's not safe on the road? That's okay. I'm just not so greedy. A profit of one or two cents out of 100% is very impressive. You don't even know the women over there in the capital."
How much you like these foreign goods.
Just talk about a diorama like this, a palm-sized one, you only have two taels of silver here, and if you sell it for ten taels in the capital, someone will buy it!"
Xu Lu was also very moved when she heard this, "Is it true or false?"
But after he finished speaking, he said helplessly: "Well, even with such a profit, there is nothing we can do. Since last year, many of our businesses in the south have taken the initiative to shrink the market.
You also have some shops that were given to you by your grandmother, don’t you know? Our family’s business in the north is not even one-third of what it was two years ago!”
Qiao Yuyan was really shocked at this time, "Why is it that good business practices are no longer necessary? Now that the situation in the capital and surrounding northern prefectures is clearly stable, why can't we do good business?"
Speaking of this, Xu Lu shrugged, "It's funny for you to ask me this. I know so much because I care about family affairs. If it were in the past, I would definitely not even know this."
, you should be similar to me, don’t you still know my temper?”
Qiao Yuyan was speechless for a moment, because what Xu Lu said was true. When the two of them were in the Xu family, they knew how to have fun all day long, not to mention business matters, just the gentleman who came to the house.
It is very difficult to teach them to read.
When she heard what she said, Qiao Yuyan had no choice but to give up her inquiring thoughts. She still wanted to tell her grandmother about the specific matter, especially when Wei mentioned her eldest cousin with a verbal threat.
Now that she arrived in Jiangzhou, except that she didn't see her eldest cousin, everything seemed to be normal. This made her start to doubt the authenticity of Wei's words, or did the Xu family have passed the crisis smoothly?