Too high to reach

Chapter 370 Turning the Tide
Lately, the Qi Prince's estate has been facing some troubles.

Either the warehouse catches fire, or someone comes to cause trouble. Or the shop assistant runs away with the money.

Manager Zhao was uneasy and went to Prince Qi's residence. "The incidents happened too quickly and inexplicably. That shop assistant, he's worked there for so many years, living a stable life, why did he run away? And Song Jiafu, luckily his appearance made the other party underestimate him. His methods weren't very sophisticated... otherwise, he probably would have suffered losses too. This phenomenon is definitely not right."

"The Prince's letter already warned us. This is most likely Prince Yong'an's revenge. It's almost the end of the year, the time to make money... He's truly hateful!" The impact on her income made Mo Yi very resentful.

As everyone was discussing countermeasures, the head of the manor arrived unexpectedly. When he was led in by his servants, he looked flustered.

Upon seeing Mo Yi, he knelt down and kowtowed, saying, "Greetings to Your Majesty!" He had been freezing the whole way and his voice was trembling.

"Get up, sit down and talk. Pour him a hot cup of tea, and get him some hot noodle soup..."

"Your Highness, something has happened at the manor," the manor manager said as soon as he sat down. "Madam Feng has disappeared."

"Huh?!" Mo Yi, Granny Zhao, and the others present all looked at each other in surprise.

"Tell me what happened."

“Your Highness, it happened three days ago. It was snowing then, and it was cold on the mountain, so everyone was huddled indoors. There are two meals a day on the estate now. Madam Feng was still there when we had breakfast. But when we brought her her food in the afternoon, we found that no one was in the room. The maids who served her were all gathered elsewhere talking, and no one saw where she went.”

The subordinates summoned everyone from the mountain villa, and upon checking, discovered that Madam Wu was missing. They then searched the entire villa, searching down the mountain path with torches. Finally, the dog found Madam Wu buried in the snow in the ditch outside the gate. She was already dead.

Mo Yi and Granny Zhao exchanged another glance, both shocked.

"Mother Wu had no obvious external injuries; it looked like she had fallen into a ditch. She was knocked unconscious and froze to death... But why would she go there for no reason?"
Feng was nowhere to be found... They searched all night. The next day, they searched the villa and the nearby woods again. Still nothing...

However, her silver, jewelry, fur cloak, sturdy boots, and other valuables were all gone. It seemed she had run away… Your Highness, that mountain path is difficult even for a woman like her, let alone someone like her, to walk down it. The snow stings our eyes, the path is unclear, and slipping and falling is inevitable. If she were to fall into a ditch and not be able to climb out, she would truly freeze to death.”

"Has the Feng family been acting strangely lately? Are there any outsiders at the manor?" Mo Yi asked.

“These past few days, I’ve asked the people who serve her, and there’s nothing wrong with Madam Feng. It was cold the day before yesterday, and the estate has already prepared everything for winter. There haven’t been any outsiders for a while now. Normally, if Master wants to come to the hot springs, I have to clear the road in advance so the carriage can get up. It’s quite a lot of work. So it’s not easy for others to come up either. Besides, there are dogs on the estate, and they haven’t reacted much.”

Mo Yi looked at Granny Zhao with a puzzled expression: "Why is she running? She doesn't run when the road is easy to travel, but only when the snow has blocked the mountain..."

"Yes, Your Majesty, that's no joke. Without assistance, she simply couldn't have made it down!"

The headman nodded vigorously. "We have to be careful even if we walk alone. And if we take the wrong path and end up in the woods, we're really done for. The snow on the mountain has been quite heavy these past few days. I think... she might be dead, but we just haven't found her yet."

“No, not necessarily. If she dared to leave, then someone must have come to pick her up. The people on the estate are all there, so she must be an outsider, and a capable one at that,” Mo Yi said, shaking her head.

Could it be that she panicked when she heard I was pregnant?

"What does the mountain know about things happening in the manor?"

The head steward said, "Your Highness, a few days ago, the manor sent Steward Liu to visit. He said that the Prince had gone out and that we should be careful in everything we do... He made arrangements for the New Year, distributed New Year's goods and money. He didn't say anything else! Moreover, Steward Liu was always accompanied by his subordinates and never had any contact with Madam Feng."

Mo Yi pondered for a moment before asking again, "Wu Mama, is she the one who served me at the hot springs last time?"

The head of the farm said, "Your Majesty, it is she..."

She was talkative, hardworking, and very serious... warm and kind... Mo Yi felt sad.

What about her funeral arrangements?

“Mother Wu’s husband is on the estate. Her son is in Zhao’s army and probably won’t be able to come back. Her daughter-in-law is in the city with the children. Please rest assured, Your Majesty, the estate will take care of the funeral arrangements.”

Mo Yi turned to Hong Yan and gave her two hundred taels of silver, saying, "The manor will send her the highest possible amount. The same goes for the pension. This portion is from me personally. Make sure the funeral is conducted properly, and burn plenty of paper money."

"Thank you for your kindness, Your Highness." The head steward knelt down to express his gratitude. "The Prince and Your Highness have always treated us very well."

“Go back and continue the investigation. She either froze to death somewhere, or she was taken down the mountain by some capable person… It’s best to find out.”

He gave a few words of advice and then sent the person away.

Granny Zhao said, "Your Highness, let me check the people left in the manor, such as Zhou Dong and such..."

"The manor is investigating. While the prince is traveling, we're outwardly relaxed but inwardly vigilant. Taking her away at this time means they must know something. I just don't understand, what use would taking her away be?"

“Feng Liniang has been in the manor for so many years, she must still have some people around. And considering that she has Shaoge’er, if something happens to the prince, and you have no sons, she might be able to turn things around. You might as well go with her.”

"That's possible...considering the problems our industry is facing..."

It's hard to say whether it's the Prince of Yong'an who's starting his revenge in the capital...

……

Two days later, someone deposited silver at Yuanlong Silver Shop went to withdraw it because they needed it urgently at home...

However, the jewelry store used various excuses to delay payment.

The news spread:
"The banknote clearly states that it can be redeemed upon presentation of the note! But when we actually went to redeem the silver, they made all sorts of excuses and gave us a bad attitude!" "That's right! But when they went to deposit silver next to us, they were all smiles, surrounded by people, and even poured tea and gave us candy."

"Could it be that the jewelry store lost money and embezzled all our savings?"

"Could the owner have run away?!"

So, someone went to redeem it. And it turned out there was no problem; it could be redeemed…

But the story got distorted as it spread from one person to ten, and from ten to a hundred. Especially for ordinary people, a hundred or two hundred taels of silver represented their entire savings, and they valued even the smallest amount of interest.

When it comes to matters of life and death, you can never be too careful.

So, people gathered in twos and threes at the entrance of the jewelry store to discuss it. The store hadn't even opened yet, but people were already crowding around outside.

The next day, dozens of people had gathered around.

The third day was even worse; a huge crowd gathered, making a huge fuss. The unspoken message was, "The jewelry store cheated us out of our hard-earned money!"
In fact, all these people combined didn't have much silver saved up.

But this was quite a big deal, and as a result, some medium-sized customers started coming in...

The silver that customers deposit in the jewelry store cannot simply be kept in the vault. It must be invested and lent out.

Investing out is about making money. Lending out is about profiting from the interest rate difference.

Therefore, the vault of the jewelry store only stores some reserve silver and silver used to pay interest for a certain period of time.

If we keep redeeming clients like this, we might not be able to handle it if two big clients come along!

The shopkeeper was quite perceptive; sensing something was amiss, he went to report it to Prince Yong'an.

Prince Yong'an scoffed, "There's no need to worry about depositing silver. As long as they come to withdraw, we'll pay them! Once we suppress the momentum, everything will be fine. With the New Year approaching, deposits and withdrawals will be more frequent. There's no need to make a fuss!"

The shopkeeper opened his mouth, but seeing the prince's expression, he didn't dare to say anything more.

With the silver in the treasury decreasing, the cash supply is indeed starting to feel the pressure.

This kind of thing is like a snowball effect...

Once it starts, it's hard to control.

The problem is that some customers are very troublesome. They'll take a 500-tael silver note, exchange it for 100 taels of cash today, and then exchange it for a 400-tael silver note. They'll come back tomorrow and exchange it for another 100 taels…

The jewelry store was packed with people, and the staff were exhausted. They hadn't really accomplished anything all day.

Those who had planned to deposit their money have all switched to other places after seeing this situation.

This chaos finally alerted the major clients, and when they arrived, the jewelry store manager was completely at a loss.

Since small and medium-sized customers were making a fuss, they could only appease them for now. The jewelry store manager then suggested that large customers exchange their items in batches…

Then, at Qizhen Pavilion, big customers would buy things and pay with silver notes from Yuanlong Silver Shop.

As a result, the accountant politely declined...

The customer was furious and immediately summoned Manager Zhao to vent his anger.

Manager Zhao apologized repeatedly, but refused to accept the silver note. He said the customer didn't need to rush to pay and that he trusted the customer. He told him to pay whenever it was convenient for him.

"But we dare not accept banknotes from Yuanlong Silver Shop. We don't want to be unable to redeem them in the future, which would spoil our mood," he said sourly.

This caused an uproar!
Yuanlong Jewelry's major clients flocked to the store upon hearing the news, but where would they find so much cash to provide?
This jewelry store doesn't just belong to Prince Yong'an; there are two other undisclosed major shareholders. It's not that he's short of money, but rather that by binding their interests together, the three of them can work together to make more money.

He only panicked when the shareholders asked the question directly to Prince Yong'an...

He quickly transferred 100,000 taels of silver from several hidden vaults.

Then, he persuaded the jewelry store he had a close working relationship with to do a "ticket-for-ticket" deal, with that jewelry store backing him up...

After a flurry of activity, the commotion was barely brought under control.

Before long, Mo Yi obtained the addresses of several secret vaults and their defenses.

There's also a list of people with deep cooperative relationships with Prince Yong'an...

"It wasn't all for nothing, we managed to turn the tide..." she said with satisfaction.

"It's a pity we don't have enough manpower, otherwise we would have taken them down in one go!"

Granny Zhao sighed inwardly, "Her Highness has never run a jewelry store before, how could she know about these things? Besides, young girls can be quite ruthless..."