Dou Zhi was a strange Maid; from the very beginning she’d said she didn’t want to get married, only wanted to make money, then do nothing and sit around eating till she died.

Young Master Dou felt that living like a Daoist wasn’t very good; he had tried to persuade her a few times. Seeing her mind was made up, he agreed that after she turned forty, he’d let her buy out her contract and give her a big Manor to retire on.

But Dou Zhi said, the big Manor was fine, but she didn’t need to redeem herself. After all, life was easier leaning on the Dou Family. If she bought herself out and a woman like her held a big Manor alone, she’d easily be targeted and schemed against.

"Yes, this slave will go at once." Seeing that Young Master Dou insisted on going to be scammed, Dou Zhi said nothing more, quickly packed up and prepared the carriage.

In less than 30 minutes, Young Master Dou was sitting in a comfortable carriage, heading toward Qingfu Town.

After reaching Qingfu Town, they were stopped by Zezi: "Young Master Dou, our young master and Young Master are both at Master Ouyang’s residence. Please come with me."

Young Master Dou was overjoyed at these words and said to Dou Zhi, "And you said that Gu fellow was lying to me? Look, they even arranged to discuss business at Master Ouyang’s residence. How could that possibly be fake?"

Young Master Dou was delighted and endlessly curious: just what kind of huge deal could "benefit three generations"?

Dou Zhi lowered her head and said, "It was this slave who was short-sighted; young master is the wise one."

"Hmph." Young Master Dou, hearing this, was unbearably pleased with himself. He said to Zezi, "Lead the way." 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶

It was a pity that the more pleased with himself he was now, the more he’d collapse later.

...

At Master Ouyang’s Family, in the front courtyard study, Young Master Dou looked at the people in the room and was completely dumbfounded: "Are you all insane? Do you have a grudge against money?! It’s fine if you hate money, but I don’t—don’t drag me into this, all right?"

As he spoke, he looked at Gu Jinli and said, "This rotten idea is yours, isn’t it? I originally thought you were clever. Never thought you’d be... this dim-witted! This concerns the whole Great Chu. You think with just the Silver from a few of our families you can save all the common folk of Great Chu? Ha ha ha, you might as well go back to sleep and dream, that’d be faster!"

Young Master Dou was so furious he was about to explode. What he’d just said was already him holding back. If not for the Young Marquis’s sake, his cutting words could have scolded Gu Jinli into committing suicide on the spot.

Gu Jinli glanced at him and said, "I also thought you were clever. Never thought you’d be this stupid—you didn’t even understand what was said. Truly hopeless."

Young Master Dou nearly spat blood: "You come up with a rotten idea to screw me over, then call me stupid—does justice even exist anymore?!"

He sneered again: "What ’benefit three generations, profit and reputation both’? It’s clearly a money-losing deal that’ll make three generations poor, and you still want to drag me in to join you. My thanks. You all play by yourselves; leave me out of it."

Seeing Young Master Dou angry, Master Ouyang said to him, "Douzi, don’t be angry yet. Let Little Xiao Yu finish speaking."

Though Young Master Dou was furious and looked like he was ready to kill, he had no intention of leaving. He sat down and looked at Gu Jinli... After all, she was the Young Marquis’s fiancée; he had to give her some face.

Seeing that he’d calmed down, Gu Jinli said, "If this matter succeeds, it really can benefit three generations and bring both profit and reputation. I didn’t lie to you about that."

Young Master Dou said, "But this is a money-losing deal; it doesn’t make a profit. And to pull it off, we’d have to put in at least a hundred thousand tael of Silver up front, and afterward keep throwing in money without end. It’s a bottomless pit. My family may be an Imperial Merchant, but we’re not a gold vault, and I don’t have the final say over the Dou Family."

Gu Jinli said, "This deal isn’t a loss. Yes, we put in money up front, but we’ll be collecting interest every month."

At the mention of interest, Young Master Dou wanted to cry: "At most a hundred copper coins of interest a month—so much it makes a man want to end himself on the spot!"

To think you can even say that with a straight face—what can a hundred copper coins of monthly interest do? Forget him, even a single meal for the Maid Dou Zhi cost more than a hundred copper coins.

Huff, huff, huff. Young Master Dou exhaled a few times, telling himself not to lose his temper; dying of anger wouldn’t be worth it.

Gu Jinli said, "Farmers don’t have many ways to make money, so a hundred copper coins of interest a month is already a lot. Over a year, that’s more than one tael of Silver in interest per household—not little at all. Let it run ten or twenty years, and we can make quite a bit of Silver."

Only after collecting interest for ten or twenty years can you break even—did that sound like anything a human would say?

Young Master Dou nearly burst into tears from anger, but that still wasn’t the main point. He pointed at the contract on the table and said, "It says here that if the interest collected exceeds twenty percent of the principal, it’ll be considered the farmer has paid off the debt. The bank must return the IOU and can no longer collect either interest or principal."

Young Master Dou wanted to grab a knife and hack someone: "You lend money and don’t even want the principal back, just a bit of interest—do you call that doing business? You might as well go open a Charitable Hall!"

Isn’t that Gu fellow supposed to be good at business? How could she be this stupid this time?

Gu Jinli said, "You’re sharper at the numbers than anyone; you know full well this deal isn’t a loss. According to what’s written in the contract, not only can we get all the principal back, we can also take an extra twenty percent interest. Why wouldn’t we do it? It’s just that it’ll take longer to get the money back."

"Longer? It’s far too long!" Young Master Dou knew that in the end this deal wouldn’t technically lose money. "But having to wait ten years to recover the principal is like taking my life. No, absolutely not, this is too much of a loss. I’m not doing this deal."

Gu Jinli smiled and asked, "Not doing it? You don’t want to inherit the Dou Family anymore?"

Young Master Dou frowned and looked at Gu Jinli. "What do you mean?"

Gu Jinli said, "The Dou Family is an Imperial Merchant; you’re not short of money, you’re short of reputation. And this deal can earn enough reputation for you and for the Dou Family. That reputation won’t just help you inherit the Dou Family; it’ll also protect the Dou Family’s money—and lives."

"Throughout all dynasties, Emperors have loved money. Your Dou Family has so much Silver—can you really sleep soundly at night? But if you have reputation, the Emperor will scruple a bit and won’t dare move too harshly against your family."

Everyone knew how much Emperor Chu loved money, and how ruthless he could be in squeezing out Silver, so this deal really could help the Dou Family.

And once the Emperor saw the Dou Family put out such a huge sum of Silver, he wouldn’t easily lay a knife on them. After all, this money was lent to farmers, and in the end, the farmers’ money would become tax, falling into Emperor Chu’s hands. In other words, after taking a circuitous route through the Dou Family, the money would land in the Emperor’s hands without a single gust of bloody wind. Everyone would be all smiles.

After listening, Young Master Dou fell silent... Indeed, compared to Silver, reputation was what he and the Dou Family lacked most. And their Silver was too much and too hot to hold. With the national treasury empty, there was no guarantee the Emperor wouldn’t someday find some crime to seize their wealth.

Rather than having it seized under some trumped-up charge, it was better to do as Gu Jinli said—take the roundabout way and send the Silver into the Emperor’s hands.

Young Master Dou was persuaded, but he still had some worries. He looked at Master Ouyang and said, "Sir, I can put up Silver to do this deal, but can you guarantee the Dou Family’s safety? You know that word ’reputation’—if someone twists its meaning, it can also bring a death sentence down on us."