dognovel Chapter 52 Transmigration God, You're Being Too Favoritistic!
Chapter 52 Transmigration God, You're Being Too Favoritistic!
Despite his efforts, Yinzhuo not only failed to swindle any benefits from his father, but also nearly got himself into trouble with his second elder brother, the Crown Prince. This made our sixth prince fully realize a very real problem—to achieve financial freedom by begging from our father, Emperor Kangxi, was simply a pipe dream.
However, to become wealthy, there are only two conventional methods: increasing income and reducing expenditure. But Yinzhuo has been living a life of luxury for so many years, so it is naturally unlikely that he will cut back on expenses. Now, the only way for him is to increase income, but how to increase income has stumped our Sixth Prince.
"Sigh, dear time-traveling god, I'm definitely not your favorite child. You're being way too biased..."
It's no wonder that Yinzhuo felt this way. The place he transmigrated to was really terrible. If he had transmigrated to the pre-Qin period, the Han Dynasty, the Tang Dynasty, or even the previous dynasty, he wouldn't be so helpless as he is now. The three essentials of a transmigrator are salt making, glassmaking, and soap making, but he can't use any of them now.
It's important to understand that salt and iron were strictly controlled and supervised by the government in any era. Private sales were practically a death sentence for anyone involved. Even if Yinzhuo had the greatest courage, he wouldn't dare to touch that hornet's nest. Therefore, salt production was the first item he passed on.
Speaking of glass, you have to know that Yinzhuo traveled back to the Qing Dynasty. As early as the late Ming Dynasty, merchant ships from capitalist countries such as England, France, and the Netherlands came to ports such as Guangzhou, Ningbo, Zhangzhou, and Quanzhou in China and started doing business with the locals. Glass also entered China with these merchant ships at this time. Items such as glass windows, mercury mirrors, glass cups, and snuff bottles are expensive now, but they are not rare items.
However, the glassmaking technology was only introduced through the Thirteen Factories of Guangzhou at the end of the Kangxi era. Yinzhuo thought that there was still a long time before the end of the Kangxi era, so it was not impossible to make a profit by taking advantage of this time difference.
As for soap, sorry, there's really no room for Yinzhuo to make any progress. Nowadays, soap-making technology is very mature. Not only can they make inexpensive products for ordinary households, but they've also gone further and used flowers, spices, goat milk, and even Chinese medicine to make all kinds of scented soaps. Now, Yinzhuo uses soap specially formulated by the Imperial Hospital according to his preferences for bathing and washing his face every day, so this aspect is basically useless.
“My lord, why don’t you eat first before continuing to think about how to make money? If you ask me, why are you wasting your brainpower thinking about this? His Majesty would never let you be short of money. It’s just that the weather is warm now. If it were winter, the oil in the food would solidify when it gets cold, and given your picky nature, you definitely wouldn’t eat it…”
Yinzhuo's mind was now completely occupied with how to make money. Upon hearing Dexi's words, he basically followed him to the dining room on his own. However, after taking only a few steps, he suddenly stopped and looked up at Dexi beside him.
"Say what you just said, repeat it again."
Although Dexi didn't know which of his words had offended the prince, he dared not disobey Yinzhuo's order to repeat it.
"Your Majesty, why are you wasting your brain thinking about all this? Does His Majesty really think you'd be short of money?"
"Not this sentence, but the next sentence."
That's only because he's his master. Otherwise, Dexi would definitely have given him a dirty look. What's the rush? He's already finished saying that sentence, and he's about to move on to the next one.
"This servant says it's only because the weather is warm now. If it were winter and the food got cold, the oil inside would solidify, and you would definitely become picky and refuse to eat it."
This time, Dexi didn't give his master a chance to interrupt him and said everything in one breath. Of course, Yinzhuo wouldn't interrupt him either, because he had already heard what he wanted to hear.
"Oil, yes, it's oil! How come I didn't think of that before? Peanut oil, rapeseed oil, soybean oil, sunflower oil, corn oil—that's all money! Dexi, go to Xiahe's place later and collect ten taels of silver. This is a reward from me; consider it a thank you gift for reminding me."
Yinzhuo no longer complained that the time-traveling god was biased. After all, there were no other advantages to traveling to the Qing Dynasty, but it was rich in resources. Peanuts, melon seeds, and corn, which are the mainstays of modern oil extraction, were not widely cultivated at the time, but as long as you looked carefully, you could definitely find them within the territory of the Qing Dynasty.
Oh, and we should also look for potatoes and sweet potatoes. Once he's made his oil, we can start making fried chicken and fries, which would be another considerable source of income.
Yinzhuo was immersed in his beautiful fantasy for a while before suddenly realizing a very serious problem. Now he was just a bald prince, with no one under his command except for the people in his courtyard. He didn't have a single person. He was still making oil, frying chicken and fries, and living a life of financial freedom. No one was helping him. Relying on himself was just wishful thinking...
Yinzhuo's previous high spirits vanished completely in an instant; he felt that his great dream was about to die in the womb.
As the saying goes, don't panic when things happen, just take action... Go visit your father first, maybe that will solve the problem. If the great Emperor Kangxi knew that his troublesome son was now treating him like a guinea pig at a wishing well, I wonder if he would regret it so much that he would want to take back the Enze Garden that he had just bestowed upon Yinzhuo a few days ago.
The problem is that Kangxi didn't know this, so when he saw Yinzhuo coming over, his attitude was quite gentle, completely like a kind father.
"You just got a new garden, why haven't you gone to take a look over there? Instead, you've been coming here so often. You don't happen to have your eye on one of my things, do you?"
Emperor Kangxi was truly afraid of Yinzhuo's bandit-like behavior. Not only was he domineering and unreasonable, but he was also incredibly shameless. If you didn't agree to his request, he wouldn't be in a hurry and would just keep pestering you. If you got angry, he would act cute and unreasonable. If you tried to be as shameless as him, he would be even more shameless than you.
"Hehe, Father, you really understand me. I'm a little short on cash lately, so I was thinking of starting my own business to earn some money. After all, it's not sustainable to always rely on you for money. But don't worry, Father, I won't take this for nothing. If this is done, I'll give you 30% of the profits every year."
After being Yinzhuo's father for so many years, this was the first time Kangxi had seen him make money, so he was immediately intrigued. However, when he saw Yinzhuo's pretentious and charming appearance, he couldn't help but tease him.
"Have you forgotten the rule that Manchus are not allowed to engage in business? And as a prince, haven't you heard the saying that one should not compete with the common people for profit?"
Hey, why are you taking these nice-looking rules so seriously? Putting aside others, just look at your son, the ninth son, who was the most business-savvy in history. Why didn't you tell him not to compete with the people for profit back then? Now you're using this to shut me up. Is that really meaningful?