That night, in the Hall of Pure Radiance.
The Prince of Ning sat in an armchair and said, "You were so reckless. If I hadn't sent someone to rescue you, what would you have done?"
Xiao Jingnan smiled. "Since it involves the Princess Dowager, Father, you wouldn't have just stood by."
...
"You knew all along?"
"The Thirteen Guilds in the capital, including the wine, rice, cloth, jewelry, and gambling houses, all have the Princess Dowager's influence behind them. I wouldn't have let my wife venture into the wine - making business without investigating this thoroughly."
The Prince of Ning pondered for a moment and then sighed.
"What you did was too risky."
"Fortunately, Princess Danyang was just trying to get back at Princess Chengping this time and didn't dig deeper. If she had known that the young clerk in the wine shop who was arrested was you, she might really have let you die in prison..."
"She won't."
Xiao Jingnan said, "If the Empress Dowager wants to control the court, she will surely need the support of our Xiao family. Father has been keeping a low profile all these years, and our family has done an excellent job of maintaining a seemingly neutral stance."
"But that woman, she's a madwoman..."
"Even a madwoman has her weaknesses."
There was a glint in Xiao Jingnan's eyes. "Her weaknesses are greed and arrogance."
"In the case of the Capital Prefecture, if she had just used her brain a little, she should have known that something that could catch the attention of the Ministry of Justice, the Court of Judicial Review, and the Censorate must have a powerful backer. But she actually thought it was because of Wan Ming's drumming on the grievance drum..."
"That's arrogance, looking down on everyone."
"The three major judicial departments are nothing more than the royal family's dogs in her eyes."
"As for greed... As a princess dowager with a fief of three thousand households, she still controls the guilds in the capital and competes for profits with a small wine shop. Princess Danyang will surely end up in trouble one day."
The Prince of Ning stood up, paced back and forth with his hands behind his back, and asked, "What are you going to do?"
Xiao Jingnan spread his hands. "What can I do? The game has already begun. Of course, I'll just sit back and wait for things to develop."
The Thirteen Guilds in the capital deal with thousands of taels of silver every day.
How many pairs of greedy eyes are fixed on this place...
Previously, with the Princess Dowager in control, they could only be envious but didn't dare to interfere rashly.
But now it's different.
The three judicial departments have intervened, and the Princess Dowager no longer has absolute control.
It's like a tiny crack has appeared in the towering copper - walled fortress. Just a fleeting glimmer of gold is enough to attract all kinds of villains!
The guilds in the capital will no longer blindly follow the Princess Dowager's lead.
That's enough!
The Prince of Ning frowned for a while and then relaxed. "Well, you'll enter the court sooner or later. These things are inevitable. By the way, you've really found a good wife."
He looked at Xiao Jingnan and held up four fingers. "She didn't even frown when facing forty strokes of the rod!"
When he proposed this plan, he actually wanted to test Li Wanming.
But he didn't expect that she would agree so quickly!
This was a bit unexpected.
"According to Lu Ping and Wu Yao, if Xu Kai had been a moment later, the rod would have hit her. But she was so calm, not the least bit flustered."
The Prince of Ning praised, "A woman of great courage! She is no less heroic than a man!"
Xiao Jingnan lowered his eyes. After a while, he replied with a smile, "Yes."
When he was arrested, he wasn't really worried.
After all, his father was the Prince of Ning, who could do as he pleased in the capital. Who would really dare to do anything to him?
But he didn't expect that the Prince of Ning would suggest that Li Wanming drum on the grievance drum!
And Li Wanming actually did it!
On the way back, he asked her worriedly, "Forty strokes of the rod could kill you... Didn't you think about it?"
Li Wanming looked up and replied, "But I have to save you..."
At that moment, he was extremely shocked.
They had only had a marriage of convenience for a few months, but she was so devoted to him that she was willing to risk her life to save him!
He always thought that Li Wanming was heartless, but he didn't expect that he had become so important to her...
For a moment, words like "sacrificing herself to save her husband", "going through fire and water", "love as firm as gold", and "deep - seated affection" flashed through his mind, and he was almost moved to tears.
Then, he heard Li Wanming say, "Don't worry. We're brothers for life. I won't let you die!"
...
His passionate emotions disappeared completely in an instant.
The tears that hadn't had time to flow were all held back.
It took him a long time to adjust his mood and say, "It's my fortune to have a brother like you."
Li Wanming patted his shoulder proudly. "Of course!"
Now, hearing his father praise Li Wanming and say that he had found a good wife, Xiao Jingnan felt extremely frustrated!
If his father knew that his wife wanted to be just his brother, he wondered what his father would think.
Li Wanming was so smart at times, resourceful and sharp - tongued, never willing to suffer the slightest loss.
But at other times, she was as stupid as a fool, turning a blind eye to all the signs around her. She could really drive people crazy!
In a nutshell, she was single - minded and couldn't see the obvious!
But on second thought, he didn't seem to have any right to blame her.
He had had impure motives from the very beginning of this marriage and had deceived her.
On the contrary, that "fool" had been straightforward from start to finish, being honest about her feelings.
The moon was hazy. The thin clouds covered the already dim moonlight, making the courtyard even darker.
Xiao Jingnan left the Hall of Pure Radiance and walked back with a long sigh and a worried frown.
He had a feeling that even though they had been married for a few months, Li Wanming still only regarded him as a business partner, never as a husband...
Once a man and a woman got stuck in the realm of friendship, it would be difficult to break through later.
Sigh...
When he returned to the Snowfall Pavilion, Xiao Jingnan's face turned even uglier.
Because that woman didn't even notice that he hadn't come back and didn't even leave a lamp for him!
After standing in the courtyard for a while, Xiao Jingnan angrily strode into the side room next to the main hall. With a "bang", he slammed the door shut, causing a flurry of rustling in the courtyard...
————————
The purchase of raw materials went very smoothly.
Just as Xiao Jingnan had expected, the grain price in the capital had dropped significantly.
Even better, when the owners of the grain warehouses and godowns heard that it was Li Wanming's wine shop making the purchase, they all opened their warehouses and let Lu Ping and Wu Yao choose at will.
The story of the little woman resolutely drumming on the grievance drum had spread all over the capital.
Of course, they had also heard about the case that had caught the attention of the three major judicial departments.
On the one hand, they all praised Li Wanming for sacrificing herself to save her husband and her heroic courage. On the other hand, they secretly suspected that there must be some powerful background behind this small wine shop. Even someone like Wei Chengbiao had to suffer a setback because of her.
So, Li Wanming's purchase went smoothly all the way in the capital.
In just half a day, she had bought all the raw materials needed for wine - making, and was also given many miscellaneous goods such as sorghum, soybeans, peach kernels, plums, and silk trees. There was a great variety of them.
Li Wanming was overjoyed. On a whim, she used these raw materials to brew other wines with different flavors.
Finally, one day before Princess Chengping's flower - viewing banquet, all five hundred jars of wine were ready.