Xiomu shifted her gaze to the jade material on the desk, looking at it while drawing something on paper. However, after a short while, she crumpled up the paper and threw it into the bamboo basket in the corner, let out a soft sigh, stood up, and gazed out of the window.

  In the southern countryside, by the third month of the lunar calendar, summer has already begun to show its face. The lotus leaves in the pond have unfolded and are floating gently on the surface; peaches and plums on the trees can be seen with tiny fruit shadows; willow branches full of leaves sway back and forth along the edge of the pond in the gentle breeze.

  In the late spring and early summer, the scenery was so beautiful, but Ye Zhuo's mind was a bit disturbed. The reason was none other than the words Nie Bowen said before he left.

  "Whoever has the least power is the one who kneels on the ground and kowtows to others?" Ye Zhuo's eyes narrowed, but the narrowed eyes still revealed a sharp and intimidating light.

  She put the jade material on the table into a box, locked it, and then placed the box in a hole in the wall behind a painting. Then she walked out of the door, locked it from outside, and said to Qiuyue who was embroidering in the outer room: "Let's go, first back home, and then we'll take a walk on Jade Street."

  "Jade Street?" Autumn Moon raised her head, "Just the two of us?"

  Ye Zhuo was taken aback by this question, seemed stunned for a moment, then listlessly waved his hand: "Forget it, not going, let's wait until after tomorrow."

  Qiu Yue looked at her inexplicably, unaware of what his own daughter wanted to do.

  After all this commotion, Ye Zhuo's mood had inexplicably calmed down. She returned to her room, took out the jade material, and examined it carefully.

  That day, the five pieces of jade material received, four of them were mid-to-high-end jade materials, valued between 1,000 to 1,500 taels. But all of them had a characteristic, that is, on each piece of jade material, there were at least two or more colors, making it suitable for carving ornaments. Therefore, as long as the design was clever and exquisite craftsmanship was applied, obtaining high profits would not be difficult.

  The difficulty lies in this piece of jade material in her hands.

  This piece of jade is quite ordinary, just a piece of 8-inch long and 5-inch wide glutinous rice yellow green jade. The whole body is the same color and texture from top to bottom. Jade like this, because of its pure color and uniform texture, the value lies in the jade itself, so it's usually used to carve some jade bangles, pendants, rings and other jewelry, and then use the small pieces that are dug out to carve some ring faces, earrings, which can maximize its value without needing special design.

  So when the two old jade carvers first received this piece of jade, they specially invited Ye Yiqi to take a look. When Ye Yiqi saw that this piece of jade was actually brought by someone from Qingyuanfang, one of the larger jade shops in town, he was overjoyed but also felt quite embarrassed.

  The Qiaosi Hall received business from workshops like Qingyuanfang on its first day of operation, which is undoubtedly a great thing for the Qiaosi Hall. Once the news gets out, it will definitely attract more business. Moreover, if this design is done well, there may be opportunities to continue cooperating with Qingyuanfang in the future, providing a stable source of customers.

  But on the other hand, this piece of jade is too ordinary, so ordinary that it only needs to be carved with care. No matter what pattern you design, it's all the same profit. But if that's really the case, why would someone spend over a hundred taels of silver to come to your Cui Si Hall? They're coming to you because they want you to design the most exquisite patterns to make even more money. If you don't make enough, Qing Yuan Fang won't have any good reviews. And if word gets out on the first day of business that Cui Si Hall has a bad reputation, it's not far from closing down.

  Whether or not to accept this business made Ye Yuqi very difficult. And Ye Zhuo was not in the Jade Workshop, so he didn't even have someone to discuss it with.

  It was still the old jade carver, Master Kang's words that made Ye Yuqi make up his mind. He said: "This is the first day of opening for business. What reason is there to not do any business that comes our way? If this gets out and people say we don't even dare to accept the most ordinary pieces of jade, wouldn't that become a joke in Nanshan Town? In the future, who would still be willing to bring us jade to work on? Since it's all just talk anyway, might as well take it and let Ye try. The more difficult the design, the more it shows one's skill. As long as Ye has real ability, there's nothing to fear."

  So, this piece of jade ended up in Ye Zhuo's hands.

  Ye Zhuo used his fingertips to gently rub the jade material, feeling the warm and delicate sensation transmitted from the tip of his fingers, and slowly closed his eyes.

  Let the jade material increase its value through carving, except for the exquisite design and fine craftsmanship, it seems that there is no third way to go. Whether it was the piece of uncarved jade left by Ye Pu or the one she got from Gu Xuan's mansion during the competition, they all belonged to the same color, texture, and had no fancy patterns to make them stand out as Hetian sheep fat jade. The only thing that could increase their value was fine craftsmanship. And this piece of jade material in front of us, although the type of jade is different, but its nature is exactly the same.

  If she were to infuse it with her unique spiritual craftsmanship and then polish it with her exclusive techniques, the jade might increase in value by several hundred taels. But was that the purpose of her Ingenious Studio?

  Ye Zhuo thought of this and couldn't help but smile bitterly, shaking his head.

  Another is that the color and texture of jade are not uniform, which can be cleverly used to create natural color changes and texture changes, like her previous designs of jade carvings and Nie Bao Yi's carved "cucumber"…

  Calabaza?

  Ye Chou suddenly opened his eyes and looked at the jade material on the table.

  What inspired her was not the design of that "calabaza", but the "chain life" carved by Nie Bao Yi. Although, the Nie family only used "chain life" to show off their exquisite carving skills to increase the value of jade carvings, Ye Zhuo now had a bold idea.

  Since the value of this piece of jade lies in its volume, can't she increase its volume and thereby enhance its value?

  Of course, jade is not dough and cannot be inflated by adding yeast. But what if we design it to make its visual effect larger? For example, using the leftover material to carve out a few long chains and hang them on a frame or wall, wouldn't that make it look much more majestic than before?

  Thinking of this, Ye Zhuo became excited. If this idea works out, all those ordinary jade materials can be designed in the same way from now on.

  She gathered up her jade materials and stood up, walking out while calling: "Autumn Moon, come with me to the Jade Carving Workshop."

  "Oh, okay." Autumn Moon hastily put down the embroidery in her hand and followed Ye Zhuo out the door.

  Two people walked through the garden to the front yard, and as they were about to leave the gate, Zhao Shu came out of a small house on the side and said to Ye Zhuo: "Miss, I saw earlier that a fat old man with two servants came to knock on the door of Du Gongzi's house. Du Wang went in and opened the door, and the man claimed to be Tian Zhanggui from Qingyuanfang, wanting to visit Du Gongzi. Du Wang went in for a while and said that Du Gongzi had just returned from the deep mountains and needed rest, so he couldn't see guests for the time being, and asked Tian Zhanggui to come back another day."

  "Qing Yuan Fang? Qing Yuan Fang again?" Ye Zhuo's eyebrows furrowed.

  When she got the jade material, she had asked Ye Yuqi if he had any past dealings with Qingyuan Fang.

  Although fellow practitioners are enemies, everyone is mixed on the same street to make a living, and no one can say whether the other will be successful or not, and you will ask for help from each other that day. So everyone knows the truth of "leaving a thread in everything, it's good to meet again later". If there were no previous episodes, they would never take out difficult problems to make things difficult for others as soon as they opened their business.

  Ye Yuxiu was also extremely puzzled by this question. His previous life had been relatively difficult, and he had never come into contact with people at the level of the boss of Qingyuanfang, so he couldn't think of when he had offended these people.

  "It's possible that they want to test you. Anyway, just design well and it will be fine. If you really can't come up with a good plan, don't worry about it. Didn't we have a clause in the contract? If the other party is not satisfied with your design, we'll buy the jade material at 10% above market price. Just explain the situation of this piece of jade to everyone and I'm sure they will only say that Qingyuanfang is trying to make things difficult for us, being unreasonable, rather than saying that your design skills are not good enough."

  Now, just as Qing Yuan Fang had come up with this difficult problem to test her, someone from the other side came to visit Du Hao Ran, who had just returned from the deep mountains. And he and she had just left Nie's house not long ago. Is it a coincidence or is there another reason?

  Ye Zhuo sank into deep thought for half a day. The expression on his face slowly relaxed, and he asked Zhao Shu: "What was the expression on Tian Guan's face when he heard Du Wang's words?"

  Still with a smile on his face. Not the slightest bit angry, he politely told Du to get some rest and that he would come back to bother him in two days.

  Ye Zhuo nodded and said to Qiuyue: "Let's go."

  Qiu Yue knew Ye Zhuo best. Seeing the expression on Ye Zhuo's face and hearing her ask this, she knew that Ye Zhuo had figured something out. As they walked out of the alley and got into Wei Da Xiang's car, she couldn't help but ask: "Miss, what did you think of?"

  Ye Zhuo wouldn't hide anything from Ye Yuqi, but he would keep it a secret from Qiu Yue. Seeing her ask, he replied in a low voice: "This Qing Yuan Workshop is likely to be a workshop under the name of Master Gu or the Second Prince."

  "Ah?" Akizuki's eyes widened.

  She thought for a moment, furrowed her brow: "If it's really Master Gu's workshop, why would they make things difficult for you? Isn't Master Gu very good to you?"

  "This... might actually be a test for me. If I can design this piece of jade well, they may very likely come to collaborate with me."

  "Really? That's great." Akizuki smiled. She knew the purpose of Ye Zuo opening Cui Si Guan, and she had no doubt about Ye Zuo's ability, believing that he would definitely design a work that would satisfy Qing Yuan Fang very much.

  Ye Zhuo shook his head, with no joy on his face.

  To become a strong collaborator of the Second Prince's faction, and not just someone who kneels on the ground to kowtow to others, relying solely on design skills is far from enough. What the Second Prince's faction needs most urgently now is a jade mine. With a jade mine, they can snatch the southern jade stone business from the Nie family, suppress their development, and weaken the power of the First Prince's faction. Without a jade mine, even with great power and occupying the most advantageous position in the court, there is no way to do so. Because the Second Prince absolutely cannot forcibly seize the existing jade mine from the Nie family.

  The eldest prince, although defeated in the struggle for imperial power, is still the emperor's son. The two brothers are at odds with each other, directly snatching meat from each other's mouths, this eating manner is too ugly, it will give the emperor a very bad impression: such heartlessness and disregard for fraternal affection, if he ascends to the throne in the future, will there be any way out for other princes? The emperor, apart from being an emperor, is also a father, he would never let such a child take over. If the second prince really does this, the crown prince position that has been obtained may have unexpected changes.

  So, the second prince wanted to cut off the financial pillar of the eldest prince, and grab the mining rights of the jade mine in the south. The only way was for him to find a jade mine himself, and compete with the Nie family, then slowly suppress them. Therefore, Du Haoran, who had the ability to gamble on mines, became the focal point of contention between the two factions. This was also the reason why Nie Bowen would rather have a falling out with Du Haoran than let him leave the Nie family.

  It's also because of this that she is facing the test of Qingyuan Alley, while Du Haoran can make the owner of Qingyuan Alley personally visit him at home. Even after being rejected, he doesn't dare to show a hint of displeasure. This is the difference between high and low abilities!

  I wish she had the ability to mine for gems!

  This was also why Ye Zhuo had just gone to Yu Jie to take a walk. She wanted to try her own gambling skills again, and then see if there was any possibility of gambling for mines.

  She thought that the Nie family had been sending people to keep an eye on Qingyun Alley, and it was very likely that they would also be keeping an eye on her. She wanted to go gamble with stones, but she might end up revealing her own trump card under the eyes of the Nie family. So she suppressed this idea and decided to wait until Du Haoran had clarified his attitude towards the Nie family before doing anything.

  The horse carriage soon arrived at the Jade Carving Workshop. The two old men, Ma and Kang, had met Ye Zhuo when they signed the contract, and the original jade carver of the workshop was also familiar with Ye Zhuo. Ye Zhuo greeted them and chatted for a few sentences before entering the inner room to find a piece of pure-colored jade material that was just the right size. After saying something to everyone, he went out and prepared to head home.

  She stepped down from the stairs and was about to get into the car when she suddenly heard a voice behind her: "Ye Zhoubiao, niece." Turning around, it was Zheng Fangjing.

  Ye Zhuo stopped in her tracks, nodding at him: "Big Brother." Her expression was bland. Although she had never thought of marrying Zheng Fangjing, Liu's treacherous behavior made her extremely disgusted, and by extension, she didn't have a good impression of Zheng Fangjing either.

  Zheng Fangjing saw Ye Zhuo's attitude was cold, and his surprised expression at the unexpected encounter stiffened for a moment. His eyes were extremely complex as he muttered: "Long time no see, are you okay?"

  Ye Zhuo is pretty and capable, she's the most outstanding girl Zheng Fangjing has ever met. He liked her from the moment he saw her for the first time, but...

  Zheng Fangjing thought of his mother's behavior, and his eyes dimmed, no longer daring to look directly at Ye Zhuo.

  "It's okay." Ye Zhuo nodded, "Uncle, how's your body?"

  "Ah, okay. My father got a job as an assistant in the government office due to his relationship with my uncle, although it's been busy, but his spirit is better than before." Zheng Fangjing tried to make himself appear more natural.

  Thanks cute kitty, just right size, Fei Xiu Yu's pink vote!

  xs.o