Xu Hanyong was stunned for a moment, stepped forward to support him, and sighed: “This cannot be blamed on you. First, I am to blame for my negligence. When you pointed out that the silk was not good, I did not take it seriously. Second, I blame myself for previously excluding you.”
The reason grandfather reclaimed your two shops was because I went to grandfather and spoke about this matter. When all is said and done, I created the cause, and this is the result.”
“Big brother, since the matter has occurred, we can only try to salvage it. Hanren has come to ask if there is anything big brother needs Hanren to do.”
Xu Hanyong gently shook his head: “The workshop is out of silk, the shops lack goods, these can be endured. We can wait until the summer silkworm harvest. But in these few days, many buyers are requesting refunds. Once the news spreads, more buyers will come to request refunds and returns. How can the shop have so much cash to refund? If we cannot refund promptly, this will have an irreparable impact on the Xu family’s reputation.”
“Then Hanren will try to persuade those buyers to wait for a while, or convince them to exchange goods instead of requesting refunds. Big brother should still have many good materials in the city warehouse, right?”
Xu Hanyong sighed again: “For now, this is the only way. We will split up and try to persuade as many as we can.”
Xu Gui entered the main hall, with several people remaining in the hall. Xu Gui first paid his respects and then said, “Young Master, Zhang Quan has been captured.”
Xu Hanzong heard this with joy, walked to the door, and saw Zhang Quan and another small manager kneeling on the ground, tightly bound: “Where was he caught?”
Xu Gui glanced at Madam Xu and then replied, “Young Master, they were caught on the road in the western district.”
Zhang Quan, the head steward of the entire weaving workshop, noticed that the Young Master was coming to the workshop less and less due to his rivalry with the Second Young Master. Gradually, Zhang Quan developed the idea of stealing and selling raw silk from the workshop. To facilitate this, he found another small manager in the workshop who was somewhat related to him.
Initially, Zhang Quan was extremely cautious. After some time, seeing that the Young Master had not discovered anything, he sold more and more raw silk and finished products from the warehouse.
One day, just after waking up and still drowsy, he saw a piece of paper on the ground. Curiously, he picked it up and read the text, instantly becoming fully awake.
The paper read: “Stealing and selling silk, substituting inferior goods for good ones, lining your own pockets.”
Zhang Quan carefully read the note again from beginning to end. The handwriting was elegant yet unfamiliar, something he had never seen before.
Cold sweat began to pour down Zhang Quan’s back as he looked around. He was the only one living in this room, the door was closed, but the window was open for ventilation. The note was likely thrown in through the window.
Zhang Quan trembled as he burned the note. He could not calm down all day, and when others spoke to him, he would pause before responding. Looking at everyone in the workshop, he wondered if this person had left the note. There were few literate people in the workshop, and even fewer who could write so elegantly. Zhang Quan felt none of them seemed likely.
What made him uncertain was the intention behind the note. If it were someone from the Xu family, they would have arrested him and reported him to the authorities. If it were a well-intentioned warning, the tone did not seem like that. Could it be an attempt to blackmail him for money?
After thinking all day, Zhang Quan finally decided to run away. Regardless of who wrote the note, their intentions were not good. He had already made a lot of money from the workshop, and he would grab one more sum before leaving. This money would be enough to buy many fields back home and become a small landowner.
After nightfall, he stole the silver from the accounting room and escaped with his distant relative, the small manager.
Leaving the weaving workshop, there were two routes.
Zhang Quan dared not take the main city road and was afraid to walk through the wilderness in the middle of the night. He hurriedly ran along a small path, knowing that if he followed this path for forty or fifty li, he would reach a small county town. By then, it would be daylight, and they could hire a cart, which would be much easier.
Zhang Quan thought his plan was perfect, but unexpectedly, after running only two or three li, he saw a person standing in the middle of the road. Zhang Quan’s heart raced; in the pitch darkness, someone waiting on this small path in the middle of the night was clearly waiting for him.
Still, he trembled and asked, “Who’s there?”
The person spoke with a low, hoarse voice, muffled by a face covering: “Zhang Quan, the Xu family has always trusted you, yet you steal and sell silk from the workshop. Come back with me to confess.”
Hearing the voice, Zhang Quan realized it was an elderly woman. Seeing her form was not robust, his courage immediately grew. Having decided to run away, how could he obediently return to confess? If more people had come, he might have complied, but now there were only two men, and the other was just an elderly woman.
He stepped forward contemptuously and reached out to push her: “Move!”
Suddenly, he felt the world spinning.
Before he could react, he was thrown down, his arm twisted behind his back and raised high, his shoulder pinned down so he couldn’t move, his face pressed against the ground.
The small manager, frightened, tried to run but only managed two steps before being thrown down next to Zhang Quan.
Zhang Quan felt the pressure on his shoulder disappear as the elderly woman let go of him to catch the small manager. He tried to get up but in an instant, the small manager was pinned down. Hearing the elderly woman’s growl, “Stay down and don’t lift your head,” he dared not move, only whimpering, “Please have mercy, I have bank notes, take them all…”
At this moment, a distant fire flickered on the small path, and a group of people carrying torches approached. Yu Yi silently retreated into the darkness beside the road. Zhang Quan and the others remained motionless.
Soon, the group arrived, with Xu Gui leading.
Xu Gui saw Zhang Quan on the ground and immediately ordered his men to tie them up. He was secretly puzzled.
Madam Xu had instructed him to throw a note in Zhang Quan’s room, saying Zhang Quan would escape these days, and to have people watch him without alerting him. If he escaped, they were to wait until he left the weaving workshop before capturing him. After discovering Zhang Quan’s escape tonight, he immediately led people in pursuit. Arriving here, he found Zhang Quan and the small manager lying on the ground, with no one else around.
Following Madam Xu’s instructions, Xu Gui imprisoned Zhang Quan and the others without reporting to the Young Master. Today, after Madam Xu’s order, he brought them to the Xu residence.
Xu Hanzhong saw that Xu Gui had caught Zhang Quan, and he was overjoyed. Seeing Zhang Quan kneeling on the ground made him even angrier. He stepped forward and asked, confirming that the theft of raw silk and embezzlement were indeed done by Zhang Quan and the small manager beside him. He then ordered someone to lock Zhang Quan in the woodshed, planning to send him to the authorities the next day.
Xu Gui took out a thick stack of silver notes from Zhang Quan’s body and handed them back to Xu Hanzhong.
Xu Hanzhong counted them, and the joy on his face faded. He still sighed. Zhang Quan had sold the stolen silk at a low price, so the money did not fully cover the workshop’s losses.
