Fake Eunuch: Discovering the Emperor is a Woman!

Han Jiang holds such affection for these waters as if they were his own children, filled with profound love.

Lin Yi gently patted Han Jiang's shoulder, saying, "Don't worry about this, it's all temporary. Once they relocate all the crayfish, I assure you this place will return to its original state."

The shallow shores of Longwan are exceedingly suitable for the breeding and cultivation of crayfish. Lin Yi had already decided to use this area as a nursery ground to provide crayfish juveniles to the people of Dayou.

For this plan, Lin Yi took Han Jiang aside.

"River Supervisor Han, are you willing to lead the people of the Moat in raising crayfish?"

Han Jiang was taken aback and curiously inquired, "Mr. Lin, aren't crayfish gifts from heaven? How can we cultivate them ourselves?"

Lin Yi chuckled with a mysterious air, suggesting that solutions are always devised by people, and nothing is too difficult for the determined.

The land upstream of the Moat is barren, and the majority of the people rely on fishing for livelihood, yet the fish in the Moat are scarce, rendering life quite impoverished for the locals.

Naturally, Han Jiang hoped for an opportunity to increase the community's income, to ensure they could eat well and wear warm clothes.

"We are willing, we all are, and we hope Mr. Lin will guide us."

Visibly excited, Han Jiang listened as Lin Yi, without hesitation, pulled out a sheet of white paper from his robe and quickly drew detailed plans for constructing two crayfish breeding ponds with a brush.

"Once the Fourth Prince's men clear out the crayfish from Longwan's shallow shores tomorrow, construct it according to these plans. This area will then become a crayfish farming base!"

After instructing Han Jiang, Lin Yi made his way back to the Imperial City at a leisurely pace.

Come evening, the market in the Imperial City was exceptionally lively. Lin Yi, having not seen such a bustling market in a long while, discreetly blended into the crowd.

During the scorching summer days, despite knowing the high price of crayfish, many people were still willing to spend money to buy several pounds.

As they said, taking advantage of the current affordability of crayfish to buy them quickly; in a few days, the prices would rise further, and they might not be able to afford them even if they had the money.

"Who told the common folk that the price of crayfish will continue to rise? Bai Lu, go and investigate immediately!" Lin Yi was rather astonished.

This wave of rumors successfully stimulated the purchasing desires of the people.

Soon, Bai Lu found out that the rumors were not spreading from Yang Gong, but from the laborers unloading the crayfish.

Clearly, this was one of the Fourth Prince's tactics.

'Well done, Fourth Prince, it seems you know how to sell crayfish.'

From an inconspicuous spot in the market, Lin Yi watched as the wealthy bought buckets of crayfish, while the common folk clenched their teeth to buy just half a pound.

Witnessing this disparity pained Lin Yi, but he was resolute, planning to indulge the wealthy for a couple of days before ensuring crayfish became affordable for every household.

Over these two days, the Fourth Prince earned a fortune from crayfish, with merchants' advance payments increasing, causing the Fourth Prince to wake from sleep laughing numerous times.

However, on the morning of the third day, the new steward, Lu, came running in frantically.

"Fourth Prince, there's trouble! We're running out of crayfish!"

The Fourth Prince, reluctant to leave the comfort of his consorts, was roused by the mention of the crayfish issue.

Steward Lu reported the accumulated preorders of 30,000 dan of crayfish and the stark reality that less than 500 dan remained upstream in the Moat.

The Fourth Prince was terrified, rendered nearly senseless as they had previously calculated and did not expect such a substantial shortfall.

"Investigate, investigate at once! How could there be such a large deficit!" roared the Fourth Prince.

"Reporting, Your Highness, we have checked no less than ten times, and indeed, there are less than 500 dan left," Steward Lu, trembling all over, desperately feared the Fourth Prince's displeasure might cost him his head.

Fourth Prince angrily tugged at his clothing and shouted, "You bunch of incompetents, why has the sedan chair not been prepared yet?"

Suddenly, the matter occurred, and Fourth Prince hastened non-stop towards the upstream of the Moat.

By the time he reached the upstream, the crawfish at Longwan Shallow Beach had already been picked clean.

And the crawfish from his own territory had hit bottom, clearly not even reaching 500 stones.

Following Lin Yi's advice, Yang Gong and his group secretly transported the high-priced crawfish bought from Fourth Prince to the hundreds of large pits that Lin Yi had previously dug.

At this moment, they frantically followed the crawfish transport carts to the upstream of the Moat.

When they saw Fourth Prince was also here, they clamorously demanded Fourth Prince hand over the 30,000 stones of crawfish.

"Fourth Prince, you have owed us those little crawfish for two days already, and we've already paid in advance. You can't bully us commoners."

Yang Gong boldly stepped forward.

"How is it you again? Yang Gong, back then you disappeared after leaving Zuimeng Music Workshop due to illness. How come you suddenly appear now? Was this a long-planned scheme?" Fourth Prince was so angry that his nose was crooked.

He didn't want the merchants to know about the insufficient stock of crawfish, so he tried to divert their attention by using Yang Gong.

Backed by Lin Yi, Yang Gong was no longer frightened by Fourth Prince's pressure.

In front of everyone, he generously shared how he had generously given Zuimeng Music Workshop to Fourth Prince at a loss of several thousand taels.

For a moment, Fourth Prince was left speechless and then, Yang Gong mentioned how his attitude was different when the merchants brought the prepayment to him three days ago.

Knowing he was at fault, Fourth Prince instantly deflated like a punctured ball, only able to keep sighing.

At this moment, an ignorant steward whispered, "Fourth Prince, all existing crawfish are accounted for, less than 100 stones."

"Damn it, did you not eat? Didn't you see that I am annoyed? Can't you speak louder!" Fourth Prince was irritable and confused, unable to listen to anything.

Steward Lu was frightened to the point of peeing himself, and he loudly reported, "Reporting to Prince, the existing crawfish are counted, less than 100 stones!"

"What? Less than 100 stones!?"

Fourth Prince was frantic and horrified. Such a number was scary enough, and now Steward Lu was revealing all their cards; who could withstand such a double blow!

"This—"

Before Fourth Prince could finish speaking, he fainted.

Although Yang Gong and others were also anxious, he knew everything was within Lin Yi's expectations, so they could only quietly wait for Fourth Prince to wake up.

Today, crawfish were out of stock at the market, inside Fourth Prince Mansion.

After checking Fourth Prince's pulse, Divine Doctor Zhang said there was nothing serious, knowing that Fourth Prince was deliberately not waking up.

But seeing the merchants anxiously waiting outside, Divine Doctor Zhang took out a Silver Needle and directly pricked Fourth Prince's minor acupoint.

"Hehe!"

Fourth Prince couldn't help but laugh out loud; he couldn't keep pretending anymore.

"Fourth Prince has awakened. I shall take my leave now and ask Fourth Prince to take good care of his health."

After Divine Doctor Zhang left, Yang Gong led the merchants immediately surrounding him.

…End of chapter…