Lv Songyuan first bowed gracefully. Then, she slowly scanned the surroundings before speaking, "Today is the first banquet Uncle Feng has hosted since he returned to the capital. I shouldn't have come to disrupt it. But I was afraid that if I came late, a great disaster might occur, so I came rashly."
Feng Yuanji paused for a moment and said, "Niece of the Lv family, please speak your mind."
He and Grand Tutor Lv were both pillars of the state. One charged into battles and commanded the country's troops, while the other sat in the court as the leader of the civil officials. However, they rarely interacted with each other in private. There was no other reason; they simply didn't get along! Feng Yuanji disliked the intrigues in the court the most, yet Grand Tutor Lv was a master at it. So when Lv Songyuan suddenly showed up, Feng Yuanji was slightly surprised. He couldn't figure out if she came on her own or was sent by Grand Tutor Lv.
However, Lv Songyuan didn't continue. Instead, she picked up a bowl of wine on the table and smiled faintly. "Do you all know what kind of wine this is?"
A general replied blankly, "It's the wine from Jinyutang! It's the most famous wine in the capital now!"
"Correct, the wine from Jinyutang!" Lv Songyuan's gaze fell on Li Wanming, and her voice turned cold. "It's exactly the wine from the Li family's wine shop, Jinyutang!"
She walked over slowly, with a cold glint in her eyes. "Miss Cheng, have you ever told everyone how you opened your wine shop?"
Li Wanming was utterly confused. How else could it be opened? Of course, she just rented a shop and that was it... What else?
Lv Songyuan curled her lips into a smile and said, "According to the laws of the Great Sheng Dynasty, anyone who brews or sells alcohol must register with the Ministry of Revenue, undergo inspections and registration, and obtain a business license before they can operate. This is the management regulation of the court and is also for the safety of the common people. After all, alcohol is something to be consumed. If just anyone, who doesn't know where they got a recipe from, brews rotten and moldy grains and fruits into wine, it could cost people's lives..." As she spoke, her eyes were filled with a cold and venomous light.
She specifically chose this day when the general's mansion was hosting a grand banquet to come here, aiming to expose Li Wanming in front of everyone! The operation of wine shops in the capital required registration with the Ministry of Revenue, which was clearly stipulated in the laws of the Great Sheng Dynasty. However, due to the complicated procedures and the long time it took, merchants who sold alcohol often opened their shops first and then slowly went through the procedures while doing business. As long as no one reported, the officials wouldn't pursue the matter. This was an open secret among many businesses in the capital. No one took it seriously. Even the Ministry of Revenue didn't care. Often, some wine shops had been open for two or three years before they finally got their business licenses.
Lv Songyuan was certain that Li Wanming must be the same! She was just a rural girl who had returned to the capital two years ago and didn't understand the intricacies of the capital's business. Maybe she thought it was the same as in Fujian, where all you needed to do was rent a shop and start business... Well, she had miscalculated!
Lv Songyuan gently raised her wrist and spilled the amber - colored wine on the ground. "Miss Cheng, you violated the law and operated without a license, ruining the business trade of the Great Sheng Dynasty... Your intentions are malicious. You have deceived the emperor and deserve to be executed according to the law!"
Everyone in the room was stunned. No one had expected that coming to a banquet would involve a case of deceiving the emperor. Everyone's eyes nervously shifted back and forth between Li Wanming and Lv Songyuan.
Liang Xiong stood up and said in a rough voice, "Miss Lv, you're being too harsh! Even if my younger sister by adoption was a bit negligent and didn't have time to get the business license, it can't be considered deceiving the emperor, right?"
Lv Songyuan squinted her eyes. Younger sister by adoption? She didn't expect that during a meal, Li Wanming had even found an elder brother by adoption. First, there was the Princess Chengping, and now there was General Yunhui. This bitch really knew how to find backers for herself!
"General, you're wrong," Lv Songyuan said unhurriedly. "If it were an ordinary wine shop, it wouldn't be a big deal. But the Li family's wine shop was once personally selected by the emperor to supply alcohol for the general's welcome banquet. It had even entered the imperial palace and graced the grand occasion. Such wine coming from a small workshop that hasn't been approved by the Ministry of Revenue, isn't that deceiving the emperor?"
Lv Songyuan looked at Li Wanming, her eyes filled with a determined and ruthless look. "For personal gain, deceiving the emperor is, of course, a great crime of deceiving the emperor!"
She actually didn't have any major grudges against Li Wanming. Even if there was a conflict at the Princess Chengping's flower - viewing banquet, it was just to vent anger for the Princess Chang and a squabble among young ladies. It was far from the point of wanting to exterminate the other's three clans and never stop until one of them was dead. The problem was that once, Lv Songyuan saw Zhao Yanke go to the Li family's wine shop. Seeing that man, who was always cold - faced to her, smiling and chatting with Li Wanming...
Lv Songyuan almost bit her lips until they bled. She tightly clenched her fists, and her long fingernails broke in her palm, but she didn't feel it. For more than a year, she had been humble and tried her best to please Zhao Yanke, but he always avoided her as if she were a ferocious beast... Now, he was smiling at another woman?
She was already married but still wasn't being proper and was seducing the emperor here? Moreover, Zhao Yanke was the emperor. If he wanted a woman, he would surely get her... At that moment, Lv Songyuan felt an unprecedented sense of crisis. She clearly realized that the position of the empress, which belonged to her, might be taken away. No! She would never allow it! There was only one empress in the Great Sheng Dynasty, and it could only be her and must be her!
From that moment on, Lv Songyuan had been waiting for an opportunity, an opportunity to kill Li Wanming. Fortunately, later, Guo Xinyue came to her and told her that one must have a business license to brew wine in the capital... A malicious plan gradually took shape in her mind. She just waited to choose the most suitable moment to strike and make Li Wanming never be able to rise again!
Lv Songyuan planned this privately and didn't tell her father. If she had, Grand Tutor Lv would surely have stopped her and scolded her head - on, "Are you crazy? Li Wanming is the Princess Consort of the Prince Ning. How could she become the empress? Does the emperor think his throne is too stable to rob the Princess Consort of the Prince Ning?"
It was a pity that there were no "ifs". The identity of the Prince Ning was a secret among the noble families. The family heads had already been warned not to tell their wives and children.
...
By now, Li Wanming had understood Lv Songyuan's intention. However, she wasn't panicked at all. Because she had the business license! Even before the wine shop opened, she had already asked Pei Yanqi to get this license for her! For this, she even gave up a 10% stake in the wine shop... Just thinking about having to give Pei Yanqi a share of the profits at the end of the year made Li Wanming feel heart - aching.
She listened to Lv Songyuan putting one big hat after another on her in a righteous manner but didn't explain. Instead, she just looked at Guo Xinyue behind Lv Songyuan. She was more curious about what role Guo Xinyue had played in this matter. How did she get involved with this daughter of the grand tutor?