NOVEL NEXT Chapter 626: Cannot Cheat or Deceive
Thinking about the silver tael the singers personally brought over only to be taken by Lin Yi made the Fourth Prince grit his teeth in frustration.
However, losing a music workshop meant the value of crayfish skyrocketed tenfold, which could be considered a compensation.
To ensure the money pocketed wouldn't fly away again, the Fourth Prince had people guard the crayfish pits upstream of the moat all day long, leaving no room for mistakes.
On the first day the crayfish went to market, a total of 100 bushels were sold, earning Yang Gong and his associates a hefty sum.
Following Lin Yi's plan, they would feign selling crayfish outside the Imperial City, increasing their order to the Fourth Prince by 2000 bushels.
A deposit for 2000 bushels was no small amount, and the Fourth Prince was tempted, but for safety, he decided to refuse after confirming that the current crayfish inventory wasn't sufficient.
Having just turned down Yang Gong's order, Lin Yi promptly sprang into action.
On the Dragon Pond Shallow Beach, Lin Yi looked at the empty waters and couldn't help but laugh.
"Who would have thought the people of Dayu liked crayfish so much? Well then, I will treat you all to eat your fill. Come, come, come, all you soldiers who have been guarding the Dragon Pond Shallow Beach, it's been tough. Come have a meal."
[Ding ding ding, host successfully purchased 500 tons of crayfish, paying 50 million Heavenly Bead Coins. The goods have been dispatched to the Dragon Pond Shallow Beach.]
[Ding ding ding, host successfully purchased 50 seafood meal boxes, paying 8000 Heavenly Bead Coins.]
Taking advantage of the guard's mealtime, the Dragon Pond Shallow Beach crackled with the filling of crayfish.
Suddenly, a sharp-eyed guard shouted.
"Oh no, look, what are those? So many crayfish."
Upon his words, the guards put down their cutlery in unison and ran to see.
The next second, they were stunned by the scene before them.
The entire Dragon Pond Shallow Beach was densely packed with crayfish, some even spilling out of the water.
"My goodness, where did all these crayfish come from? Did they fall from the sky?"
Everyone was amazed, realizing that these crayfish could certainly fetch a good price if sold.
Lin Yi, having eaten and drunk his fill, strolled over leisurely.
Seeing that many crayfish were even emerging from the water, he frowned.
This area of the Dragon Pond Shallow Beach was bigger than the body of water the Fourth Prince had fenced off, how could it not accommodate 500 tons of crayfish?
For this, he specifically called Han Jiang.
Han Jiang explained that the Fourth Prince's water area was deeper, hence it could contain more crayfish.
But Lin Yi was puzzled.
In ancient times, 1 bushel was equal to 120 jin, which is 60 kilograms, hence his 500 tons was just 8333 bushels.
According to Han Jiang's estimation, the Fourth Prince's area could at most contain twice as much crayfish as two Dragon Pond Shallow Beaches.
Thus, it was evident that the Fourth Prince did not have 50,000 dan of crayfish.
And to secure an equal amount of advance payment, the Fourth Prince would definitely need to buy crayfish from Lin Yi.
"Hehe, my crayfish are also purchased with money, Fourth Prince, you better hurry up with the time."
To ensure his crayfish opened up a market, Lin Yi deliberately leaked news that yet another large batch of crayfish was found at Dragon Pond Shallow Beach.
Sure enough, the Fourth Prince rushed over after receiving the news and saw Lin Yi still leisurely enjoying his tea, utterly content.
But looking at his own subordinates, he almost wished he could scold them mercilessly.
"Humph, how could you mess this up? It's only less than a hundred meters away, can't you see clearly? Missing a whole pond of crawfish, are you trying to kill me with anger?"
Those missed crawfish could have been worth at least 30,000 taels of silver at current prices.
However, speaking of being angry, Fourth Prince still approached Lin Yi politely.
Lin Yi, however, was lying asleep on a comfortable rocking chair, impervious to Fourth Prince's calls.
Fourth Prince looked enviously at the crawfish in Dragon Pond Shallow Beach, each noticeably larger than his own. If brought to the market, they would sell out in no time.
With no other choice, since upstream in the moat Fourth Prince had already sent people to check, and only Lin Yi had crawfish, he had to wait even if Lin Yi was asleep.
Half an hour later, Lin Yi finally woke up, opened his eyes suddenly, and noticed Fourth Prince by his side.
After Fourth Prince explained his intentions, Lin Yi agreed straightforwardly.
"Thank you, Sir Lin, for selling these 20,000 stones of crawfish to me. Here is a silver note worth 100,000 taels."
Fourth Prince swept his hand magnanimously, spending 100,000 taels without even blinking.
"Wait a moment!"
Lin Yi suddenly froze, exclaiming in shock, "Fourth Prince, I don't have 20,000 stones of crawfish here. Maybe you should weigh them.
This batch of crawfish was personally ordered by Lin Yi from the Nine-Eyed Mall, and he knew very well how much they weighed.
"No, no, there's no need to weigh them. Please spare me some leeway, Sir Lin. I aim to earn a bit more, look, I'm even offering you the Zuimeng Music Workshop."
But as soon as Fourth Prince heard Lin Yi mention weighing the crawfish, he immediately panicked.
In Fourth Prince's mind, the area of Dragon Pond Shallow Beach was much larger than what he had enclosed. His own crawfish amounted to 50,000 stones, so surely Dragon Pond Shallow Beach held more than 20,000 stones.
If it turned out to be more than 20,000 stones, he would have to pay more silver.
Fourth Prince definitely didn't want that, so his best strategy was to avoid finalizing the deal.
Lin Yi fell into thought. He always prided himself on being honest and upright, and while he could sell for a high price, he should not shortchange, deceive, or swindle.
But this time, it was Fourth Prince himself who didn't want to finalize the deal, and Lin Yi was not keen on profiting from this.
To prevent Fourth Prince from regretting and seeking compensation later, Lin Yi especially wrote a clarification.
The gist was that Fourth Prince's 100,000 taels of silver were only for buying this batch of crawfish from Dragon Pond Shallow Beach, and not for buying the beach itself.
Since Fourth Prince was unwilling to weigh them, they would settle at 100,000 taels of silver, with the actual quantity over or under 20,000 stones being irrelevant to Lin Yi.
At this moment, Fourth Prince, eager to possess more crawfish, couldn't focus on Lin Yi's explanations. All he could think about was how the merchants would continue paying him later.
"Alright, that's a small matter. Someone, bring a pen for His Highness to sign."
After signing, Fourth Prince immediately paid the 100,000 taels of silver, as if worried Lin Yi might reconsider. Then, hastily ordering his men to empty the beach of its crawfish, he needed these jumbo crawfish to make a good profit.
Lin Yi smiled, Fourth Prince's keenness for business truly was a favorite among his allies.
[Ding Ding Ding, the system has detected that the host has successfully sold 500 tons of crawfish, rewarding 500 billion Heavenly Bead Coins. Please check your account.]
'Hehe, just a blink of an eye and 500 billion Heavenly Bead Coins are credited to my account. The system is really becoming user-friendly.'
Just as Lin Yi was satisfied and ready to leave, he noticed Han Jiang, the Water Control Bureau official, looking distressed.
"Han Water Control, what's the matter?" Lin Yi was puzzled.
Han Jiang shook his head helplessly, pointing to Fourth Prince's people who were driving carts directly onto the shallow beach, and said with pain in his heart.
"Although this shallow beach is seldom visited, it will likely be completely changed due to the way these carts are ruining it."
...End of this chapter...