Mo Jiuye clutched a letter in his hand.
"This letter was written by Fei Nanyu. I'll find a safe place to read it later," he said.
Exiled prisoners were forbidden from exchanging letters with anyone. Although Peng Wang treated them well, Mo Jiuye didn't want to be too brazen in his affairs.
He Zhiran was eager to know the contents of the letter. By chance, Wu Jie happened to come over to help at that moment, so He Zhiran temporarily left her here and pulled Mo Jiuye back to their tent.
The contents of Fei Nanyu's letter were not very long.
First, he thanked them for helping protect Granny Fei, a favorable witness for him.
He also assured them that he would properly arrange a hiding place for Granny Fei. If his identity were to come to light one day, the first thing he would do is clear the injustice against the Mo Family.
In reading the letter, Mo Jiuye and He Zhiran looked beyond just the surface meaning.
When Fei Nanyu said "thank you for helping me protect Granny Fei," it showed that he was grateful to them.
And when he mentioned clearing the injustice against the Mo Family, it indicated that he clearly knew the Mo Family's full banishment was unjust, while also hinting at his intention to win over the Mo Family.
Mo Jiuye had completely lost confidence in the imperial court by now. As long as his family's name could be cleared, he would be very satisfied.
He had never considered anything more.
They both understood this history and chose to help Fei Nanyu out of self-interest.
From how things were developing, it seemed likely that the way the Mo Family's innocence would come to light could differ from historical records.
In any case, things were moving in a good direction, which was what both Mo Jiuye and He Zhiran were happy to see happen.
He Zhiran directly stored the letter in her space. The two of them acted as if nothing had happened and continued preparing lunch for everyone...
For three consecutive days, the city gates and docks remained sealed as more and more officials searched the city for Nan Heng's whereabouts.
News of Nan Heng's disappearance was also quickly sent by fast horse to the capital.
When Nan Heng had left the capital earlier, it was under the pretext of investigating the Salt Gang's strengths and weaknesses.
Undoubtedly, in Emperor Shunwu's mind, Nan Heng's disappearance was absolutely related to the Salt Gang.
The audacity of the Salt Gang had gone too far, to the point of daring to make a move against an imperial prince. This was something Emperor Shunwu could absolutely not tolerate.
Therefore, he decided to send people to lead an army of 10,000 to the salt lakes area, both to search for clues about Nan Heng's whereabouts and, more importantly, to completely destroy the Salt Gang's nest.
As a result, when this matter was discussed at the morning court session, surprisingly no one volunteered to lead the troops there.
The number of military generals in the Golden Hall could be counted on one hand.
Originally, with Mo Family members guarding the borders, some generals had the chance to take up posts in the capital.
Now that the entire Mo Family had been exiled, even those generals on the borders had resigned one after another.
Seeing this situation, the enemy had already begun to grow restless, occasionally dispatching troops to harass them.
For this reason, Emperor Shunwu could only choose some generals in the capital to dispatch to the borders.
As a result, the number of generals in the capital grew fewer and fewer. Those who appeared at the morning court were all either elderly generals or inexperienced newcomers.
Emperor Shunwu was furious over this and involuntarily recalled the scenes from when Mo Family father and son were still around.
To wipe out the Salt Gang as well, back then with one call from him Mo Yunfeng had immediately volunteered to lead troops there. Now without the Mo Family people, he had actually reached a point where he had no one left he could use.
However, Emperor Shunwu did not feel that there was anything wrong with how he had punished the Mo Family.
Compared to the Mo Family's aggressive ambition that left him anxious and unable to eat or sleep well everyday, he was still more at ease with the current circumstances...
In the end, it was still an elderly general named Jin who took the initiative to volunteer and rush to the salt lakes before Emperor Shunwu's rage was somewhat placated.
In contrast to Emperor Shunwu's fury, the suburban areas upstream from the salt lakes were filled with sounds of jubilation that never ceased.
The women had successfully produced the first batch of panda, teddy bear, and duck plush toys.
Tell me, what woman could resist the allure of such adorable plush toys? Seeing the toys they had made with their own hands, everyone laughed unreservedly for the first time.
He Zhiran was very satisfied with both the style and workmanship of these plush toys.
Together with Mo Jiuye, she hurried to the teahouse as promised to meet with Tang Mingrui.
Upon seeing the three types of plush toys, Tang Mingrui immediately lit up. Particularly that utterly adorable panda plushie, even a grown man like him couldn't help fawning over it.
"Eldest Sister Mo, is this an iron-eating beast?"
He Zhiran also liked the panda plush. Its silly and lovable appearance instantly softened one's heart a little.
"I had once seen illustrations of an iron-eating beast in books before. I felt they looked very cute, so I tried making them.
Also, I felt the name 'iron-eating beast' wouldn't appeal much to little girls. So I gave it a new name, panda."
"Panda. This name really suits it and sounds nice," Tang Mingrui generously praised.
Next, he looked at the teddy bear and rubber duck plushies, extremely satisfied with those as well.
Especially those teddy bear plushies—He Zhiran had brought twenty, each one dressed in different clothes to give the identically shaped bear toys a sense of distinction.
And the bright yellow duckling was equally adorable.
Only after carefully looking over each type of plush toy did Tang Mingrui solemnly ask:
"Eldest Sister Mo, all these plush toys are fine. Shall we talk about cooperation details now?"
He Zhiran knew clearly that Tang Mingrui was a businessman. Thus, she decided to temporarily hand over the initiative and first listen to his suggestions.
"For doing business, Master Tang understands it better. Why don't you share your thoughts first?"
Tang Mingrui did not decline.
"Eldest Sister Mo, the embroidery workshop sells these plush toys at three or two silvers each. I feel that's still an appropriate price. However, I don't plan to sell them at that price.
After all, the materials Eldest Sister Mo uses to make the plush toys come from Foreigners' goods. Surely the quantity is limited. That means the number of plush toys you can provide me is also limited.
Once the materials on hand have been used up, it will signal that there will no longer be additional plush toys. Therefore, I was thinking to sell them at a slightly higher price."
He Zhiran felt Tang Mingrui's explanation made a lot of sense.
Although she could purchase fabric for making plush toys without limit from the Taobao e-commerce platform, there was no way to explain that to outsiders here.
She also clearly understood one principle—this plush toy business couldn't be continued long-term.
"Based on Master Tang's opinion, what price would be appropriate for selling the plush toys?"
Tang Mingrui held up two hands. "This little brother was thinking of selling the plush toys for ten taels of silver each."
Ten taels?
He Zhiran truly admired Tang Mingrui. Converted to modern currency, ten taels of silver was 10,000 RMB. To think such a tiny plush toy could be worth so much...
Seeing that He Zhiran remained silent, Tang Mingrui assumed his quoted price had startled her. He quickly explained, "Eldest Sister Mo, the quantity of plush toys is limited. We can only selectively target rich people to sell them to.
Selling them this way, the turnover might not be very fast. But the profits will definitely be considerable.
Moreover, on our way traveling northwest from here, we will still pass through several cities. I believe that such nice and unique plush toys will surely be in high demand with scarce supply."
Although He Zhiran didn't understand business dealings, she could still fully comprehend the reason in Tang Mingrui's analysis.
At the same time, she also completely agreed with the latter's idea.
