The Famous Detective of the Red Mansion

It was almost noon.

Being half asleep and half awake, Shuirong heard a crisp sound from the compartment. He got up from the bed in a daze, pushed open the door, and looked out. Unexpectedly, before he could see clearly what was happening in the hall, he was first reflected with a green color.

In the small hall, a graceful woman was kneeling on the ground, dedicated to burning and melting a section of wax. The brilliant green light was emitted by the burning of the wax.

“My beloved.”

Shuirong couldn't help but smile bitterly and said, "How many times have I said that if you accidentally burn yourself, I will be sad? Just hand over such rough work to the maidservants.”

This woman was naturally Princess Consort Wei.

She turned a deaf ear and blew out the candle on the table. She then took a piece of mink skin, dipped it in the melted wax, and carefully wrapped the two bowstrings.

After tying the mink skin tightly with a ribbon, she stood up and gave a greeting. She calmly said, "I want to take care of the things I use myself, so I can feel more secure in my heart.”

Seeing her wearing a light pink biker on her upper body and riding pants on her lower body, with a heroic and handsome appearance that didn't make her eyebrows stand, she was born with a sense of happiness. The protruding parts, however, were tense and full of various styles.

Especially when he saw the two slender legs tightly overlapping, Shuirong felt a sense of dryness rising in his lower abdomen. He wished he could take the place of the black horse in the stable and let her ride ”freely” on him.

Unfortunately, Princess Consort Wei came from a reserved identity and refused to engage in any daytime sexual activities. Therefore, Shuirong could only clamp his tail and come forward to please her, asking, "Is this ”rosin wax” that I ordered someone to burn still useful?”

“This ”rosin wax” is naturally excellent.”

Wei-Shi first gave a thumbs up, but then said sternly, "It's just that the Royal Residence is currently struggling and owes a lot to the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Therefore, this item is equivalent to gold, and I always feel uneasy when using it.”

She deliberately advised Shuirong not to be too extravagant and wasteful.

But upon hearing this, Shuirong laughed and said, "My beloved, don't worry about it. Now that my Brother-in-law and I are partnering to run a business, we can earn hundreds of thousands of taels of silver in just a few months. What will a few pieces of rosin wax be?”

Upon hearing this, Wei-Shi was about to inquire more about it, but suddenly remembered something and quickly changed her mind, saying, "By the way, my Brother just sent someone over to spread a message, saying that when you wake up, there are some things that need to be reported in person.”

Shuirong laughed again and said proudly, "Maybe there's some good news again. Let me go and meet my Brother-in-law first. When I come back, I'll tell you about this great deal.”

As he spoke, he gave Wei-Shi a peck on the face and ran out as if fleeing.

He happily went all the way to the flower hall, but after seeing Wei Rusong's face somewhat uncertain, Shuirong's heart suddenly became a bit uneasy. He quickly pursued and asked, "Brother, is there something unexpected?”

“Well…”

After a moment of hesitation, Wei Rusong pretended to be fine and spread out his hand, saying, "It's not a big deal, but some inconspicuous things want to make a windfall.”

As he spoke, he briefly recounted to Shuirong about the situation where someone near Honglu Temple was selling high-quality golden shells, as well as his subsequent countermeasures.

Finally, he said lightly, "Even with just two thousand medium-quality golden shells, he won't be able to make any waves. As long as we handle them properly, we may be able to take advantage of the situation and make another surge.”

Shuirong was infected by Wei Rusong's relaxed attitude and felt that it was no big deal. It was only about two thousand high-quality golden shells. It was like the five hundred in Jia She's hand. It was the stock that a merchant had withheld.

Eating these two thousand golden shells might cost at least 30,000 taels of silver, but once the average golden shell rose to thirty taels of silver per shell as expected, wouldn't it still be possible to earn an extra sum?

Therefore, Shuirong also smiled and said, "Unfortunately, there are only two thousand. If we could have more…”

“Your Highness, Your Highness!”

Without waiting for Shuirong to finish speaking, a person burst into the room like a mourner. It was Steward Liu who had previously received the silver and went to the nearby Honglu Temple to sweep the goods.

When he arrived in the hall, sweating profusely, he fell on his knees with a loud thud and trembled on the ground, saying, "The big deal is not going well, Your Highness! I was ordered to buy those two thousand golden shells, but to my surprise, the other party took out another 20,000 medium-quality golden shells and continued to sell them.”

“Not only that, they also lowered the price directly to ten taels of silver per coin.”

Got another 20000 out?!

Just now, it was still too small, but upon hearing this astonishing quantity, Shuirong was immediately stunned and speechless.

Wei Rusong's face suddenly lost all his blood color. In the warehouse of Prince Beijing’s Residence, there were only 16000 medium-quality golden shells. Taking out 22000 at once, perhaps only Prince Zhongshun’s Residence could do so!

But how could this be possible?!

Even fools should know what catastrophic consequences a grand low-price sale of 22000 medium-quality golden shells would have!

Was Prince Zhongshun crazy?

One should know that if the price of this pottery, pearls, gold, and shells collapsed, he would at least lose hundreds of thousands of taels of profits!

“Brother-in-law…”

Shuirong swallowed his saliva and spat out, looking eagerly at Wei Rusong. "What should I do?”

How would Wei Rusong come up with a solution?

After a while, he struggled to open his mouth, but before he could say anything, he heard a report from someone outside the door, "I would like to inform you, Prince Beijing, the Chief Historian of Prince Zhongshun’s Residence, Zhou Mo, just sent a letter saying that it was written by Prince Zhongshun to you.”

Letter from Prince Zhongshun?!

“Quickly, please submit that letter to me,” Shuirong said urgently.

Someone immediately came in and presented the letter with both hands.

Shuirong grabbed the letter with his hand, opened it, and looked at it.

Prince Zhongshun stated in his letter that he had recently unexpectedly discovered that the Hu Merchants of the Western Regions were fabricating a conspiracy. These damn barbarians wanted to use worthless shells to deceive the people of the Zhou Dynasty into obtaining their wealth!

After learning about this matter, the sense of mission of Prince Zhongshun as a vassal arose spontaneously, and he decided to rely on his strength to pierce this insane conspiracy!

Therefore, he has been collecting pottery, pearls, gold, and shells in recent months, not to make a fortune in the country, but to make it worthless first and let the Hu Merchant's conspiracy break free!

Unexpectedly, this day's great kindness even brought trouble. Starting from May 25th, he secretly sent a servant to purchase pottery, pearls, gold, and shells, but he was often intercepted by people on official roads, taking away pottery, pearls, gold, and shells with half-grabbing and half-buying.

Four times before and after, over 50,000 golden shells disappeared.

After a long investigation by Prince Zhongshun, he was unable to identify the person behind the scenes. Now he has to go to the Palace to escape the heat, he didn’t have time to settle this. Therefore, he had written a request to Shuirong to investigate on his behalf.

When Shuirong saw this, his handsome and already black pot bottom face, tried hard to lift his head and gritted his teeth, asking, "Steward Liu, how many vendors have been intercepted in our Residence since the 25th of last month? How many gold shells have we received?”

Although Steward Liu saw that his face was not right, how would he dare to deceive him?

Busy and respectful, he replied, "Report to Your Highness, since the 25th of last month, a total of seven merchants have been intercepted and more than 60000 gold shells have been obtained.”

Before he could finish listening, Shuirong kicked Steward Liu backward and angrily roared, "Damn fool, you've been fooled for so long, and you haven’t even noticed anything?!”

Shuirong has come to understand that more than half of the golden shells he recently bought were the inventory of Prince Zhongshun!

Adding in the more than 2000 medium-quality golden shells he bought at the market price before, he unknowingly had already been taken 60000 taels of silver by him!

But why did Prince Zhongshun do this?

Abandoning hundreds of thousands of taels of profits to pit oneself with these 60000 taels of silver? Wasn’t this behavior too strange?!

Unable to understand, Wei Rusong picked up the letter from the ground and quickly scanned it. Then he suddenly exclaimed in surprise, "Damn it! We've always forgotten about the variable of His Majesty.”

“His Majesty?”

“Yes, His Majesty.”

Wei Rusong smiled bitterly and said, "Apart from His Majesty, who else can make Prince Zhongshun give up the silver he easily obtained and personally come forward to clean up the mess? It must be because His Majesty, after inquiring about this matter, felt that it was harmful to the people, so he ordered Prince Zhongshun to rein in the situation on a cliff.”

As he spoke, he shook the letter in his hand again and said helplessly, "However, Prince Zhongshun was unwilling to invest in us, so he had his idea on us and deceived us with money to fill his gap.”

“Fortunately, we thought we had a plan and were able to pick up a big bargain with him without any risk, but to our surprise, he played with us in applause.”

Halfway through the conversation, he saw Shuirong swaying a few times, almost falling to the ground.

Wei Rusong quickly stopped speaking and reached out to help Shuirong. While waiting to inquire with concern, he heard Shuirong gritting his teeth and saying, "This old thief is really deceiving people too much.”

During the conversation, a trace of blood seeped out of his mouth.

Upon seeing this, Wei Rusong realized that he was extremely angry and hurt his heart. Therefore, he hurriedly said, "Prince, please take care of your health. It's just a meager 60000 taels of silver. Since I came up with this idea at the beginning, I should have come up with the silver.”

He was taking care of everything here, but someone outside the door reported in a panic, "Your Highness, something big has happened! Zhou Mo, the Head Steward of Prince Zhongshun's Residence, led someone to surround and beat up Steward Chen of our Residence and even pointed out that he was delaying their job by blocking the way. He wanted to drag him to see the official in the Central Judicial Office.”

Upon hearing this, Shuirong immediately straightened his back and said in a resentful voice, "Okay, great! He took my silver and even sent someone to knock on me. It's really... Really..."

As he spoke, two red tides suddenly appeared on his face, and then his throat trembled, and he burst out with a whoosh of blood!