"I promise you!" Su Muxiao shrieked. "Hurry up and bid! Hurry!"
Hardly had Su Muxiao finished speaking when Bai Zheng raised the number plate in her hand and shouted, "Nineteen thousand taels!"
The auctioneer's hand halted in mid - air. The entire Jizhen Tower fell silent once again.
"Crack~"
It was as if something had shattered.
Feng Jingyi tightly clutched his chest. He was now in so much pain that he couldn't utter a word.
His mind went blank. There was a buzzing in his ears, and he couldn't hear the outside sounds clearly. He lifted his eyes. It seemed that a maid had rushed in to help up Su Muxiao, who was sitting on the ground, and several waiters had come in to clean up the mess in the room.
He looked at Bai Zheng standing beside him. Her fair face wore a half - smile, and her pink lips moved up and down.
"I hope the Shangshu Mansion will send the two thousand taels over soon. Otherwise, it will be quite troublesome for His Highness the Fifth Prince to gather enough money."
Su Muxiao stared deeply at Bai Zheng, her eyes burning with raging anger. After a long while, supported by the maid, she turned around and gritted out a few words, "It's none of your business."
Bai Zheng smiled. Her laughter was as sweet and delicate as the chirping of a golden oriole in the forest.
"Zheng'er knows that cousin is always reliable in her actions. Even if she was impulsive today, she shouldn't have joked about such a large sum of money. I'm afraid someone must have instigated you?"
Seeing Su Muxiao slow down and turn her face slightly, Bai Zheng sighed and continued,
"Cousin is kind - hearted and doesn't guard against others when making friends. Maybe she hasn't thought carefully about why she's always the one who suffers losses."
Su Muxiao staggered. Her tone was stiff as she said, "Leave me alone!"
Bai Zheng nodded indifferently and said, "Take your time, cousin."
"Nineteen thousand taels, going once!" The auctioneer's voice rang out.
Bai Zheng ignored it. She sat back on the tidied - up chair, picked up a pastry that had been freshly placed on the table, and ate it leisurely.
She hadn't had dinner before coming out. After being tossed around by Su Muxiao, Bai Zheng finally felt hungry.
After taking a few bites, she suddenly looked up and found Feng Jingyi opposite, covering his chest, his face pale and his eyes listless as he stared blankly at her. Only then did she remember that she hadn't explained things to him properly. She quickly put down the pastry and said,
"Your Highness the Fifth Prince, please rest assured. There will surely be someone who will sincerely buy this papermaking technique. You don't have to worry about the money. As for the two thousand taels of silver, consider it Zheng'er's apology for making Your Highness frightened several times today."
As Bai Zheng said this, she picked up the teapot on the table and poured tea into the cup in front of Feng Jingyi, smiling apologetically and obsequiously.
Hearing Bai Zheng's words, Feng Jingyi gradually regained his voice. He heard himself asking,
"Do you mean Third Brother?"
"His Highness the Third Prince is probably enjoying watching Your Highness figure out how to come up with this sum of money." Bai Zheng shook her head.
"Nineteen thousand taels, going twice!"
The auctioneer's voice made Feng Jingyi tremble involuntarily, but his thoughts began to clear up gradually.
Since Feng Jingxuan had bid fourteen thousand taels, none of the merchants had followed the price. On the one hand, the price of fourteen thousand taels was beyond what an ordinary person could afford. On the other hand, those shrewd businessmen who could afford it didn't dare to openly compete with the royal family for things.
But now, the situation was completely different. The national treasury was so empty that it couldn't even come up with twenty thousand taels for disaster relief. Which prince could easily come up with nineteen thousand taels?
Therefore, no matter who bid the subsequent price, it was no longer a matter of competing with the royal family for things. Instead, it was providing a stable step for these princes who had bid high prices so that they could get off gracefully without falling too hard.
Looking around the entire Jizhen Tower, who else could come up with twenty thousand taels to save him?
Feng Jingyi's eyes suddenly focused. A red figure appeared in his mind.
Bai Zheng's gaze shifted again to the room that had remained silent until now. For some reason, the person she thought of wasn't Song Yiqing, but the gentle - looking man in green clothes with a pale complexion.
Since his health was not good and he hadn't participated in the auction from beginning to end, what on earth was his purpose for coming here?
Whispering sounds began to emerge downstairs. As the battle for the ownership of the papermaking technique was approaching its end, the people below became restless. Some sighed regretfully, while others clasped their hands in prayer.
This era had undergone great changes earlier because of her arrival. She didn't know if it was good or bad.
"Twenty thousand taels." While Bai Zheng was in a daze, a deep voice finally rang out.
The auctioneer was stunned for a moment, and his excitement could no longer be concealed on his face.
Although the Jizhen Tower had once sold an item for three hundred thousand taels of gold, that was a hundred years ago. At that time, the emperor at the end of the previous dynasty was extremely extravagant, which led to such a sky - high price.
But since the beginning of this dynasty, not to mention twenty thousand taels of silver, even ten thousand taels were countable!
Feng Jingyi squinted his eyes and said, "What benefits did Miss Bai offer to Young Master Song?"
Bai Zheng smiled. Since things had come to this point, there was no need to hide it anymore. "To be honest with Your Highness, I'm the one who found this papermaking technique."
"What!" Feng Jingyi exclaimed in shock.
"Finally, I've lived up to my trust in providing the twenty thousand taels of silver that His Highness the Crown Prince needs."
"Just to break off the engagement with Chu Feng, you sold such a good thing?" Feng Jingyi felt incredibly incredulous.
This was not twenty taels, but twenty thousand taels! If it was in her own hands, with such wealth, Chu Feng wouldn't dare to do anything to her.
"Precisely because it's a good thing, I, a mere daughter of a third - rank assistant minister, can't handle it." Bai Zheng said calmly.
Bai Yinan had just gotten out of the embezzlement case, and the Bai Mansion was still in the limelight. She had just come to this other world not long ago, with no capital, no connections, and no cards to rely on to continue to gain a foothold.
After all, a tall tree attracts the wind. She was already high - profile enough. It was better not to cause more trouble.
Moreover... Bai Zheng curled her lips. It was just the papermaking technique. She had plenty of such good things.
Feng Jingyi looked at Bai Zheng in sudden realization. He mumbled for a long time but finally only said, "Miss Bai is right." There was a sense of empathy in his tone.
"Twenty thousand taels, sold!" The auctioneer's gavel came down heavily.
The most lively and intense auction of the papermaking technique in the Jizhen Tower in nearly a hundred years finally came to an end with the sound of the gavel.
Bai Zheng smiled sweetly. She picked up her teacup and gently clinked it against Feng Jingyi's cup. "Cheers!"
Feng Jingyi was stunned. "Qie? Qier?"
Bai Zheng realized her mistake and laughed at herself. "It's a dialect from my maternal grandfather's family. It means to celebrate."
"Knock, knock, knock."
There was a knocking sound from outside the door.
"Come in." Bai Zheng shouted.
The door was immediately pushed open. It was actually the steward she had met last time.
The steward took out a gold ingot from his sleeve, walked up to Bai Zheng, and said respectfully,
"This is from Young Master Song who bought the papermaking technique. It was originally twenty thousand taels, but the Jizhen Tower will take ten percent as commission as usual. The remaining is eighteen thousand taels. This gold ingot engraved with the character 'Song' serves as proof."
In this era, there was no paper, so there were no banknotes. The Song family's business was large, and it was inconvenient without banknotes. When doing business with others, they mostly used gold ingots engraved with the character 'Song' as proof to ensure that the other party could exchange silver at any of the Song family's commercial firms.
Bai Zheng took the gold ingot and frowned.
Damn it! She had actually forgotten about the commission.