Little did the Fourth Prince know that he pushed Zhen Ji away with a look of disdain, "This woman, her speaking skills are impeccable, but why on earth does she push herself into the fire at the critical moment?"

"Hmph, Yang Gong left all the remaining money to me but took the chance to escape himself. It's clear he knew these folks who couldn't afford to play would come asking for refunds, so he dumped the mess on me to deal with!"

"Absolutely disgraceful! Tomorrow, I will certainly not forgive him easily!"

After cursing Yang Gong in his heart, the Fourth Prince gave Zhen Ji a cold glance.

Originally, the Fourth Prince had been considering taking the opportunity to take Zhen Ji back to his mansion as a concubine.

But now, he wished he could slap himself twice for having such a thought, to bring such a foolish woman home—it's nothing but seeking trouble.

Luckily, the steward approached in time, took the silver note from the Fourth Prince, and feigned innocence.

"I think Zhen Ji must have heard wrong. Chairman Yang told me before he left to take good care of these Silver Taels. Look at your memory; you must have misremembered because you played too many tunes today."

Zhen Ji, who had just rebutted, was suddenly pushed by Hua Yue, and her eyes carried a warning.

It was only after Zhen Ji realized this that she nodded in confusion and explained, "Right right right, it was my mistake, it's yours."

Hearing this, everyone finally breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that their Silver is in the steward's hands and they could just approach him for it.

The Fourth Prince, too, heaved a sigh of relief.

"Someone! Bring me a chair."

Although relieved, the Fourth Prince's look towards Zhen Ji was filled with disgust, wishing to stay as far away from this foolish woman as possible.

The plump man bowed deeply to the Fourth Prince with respect, "Please, Fourth Prince, decide for us. We are just small merchants, wanting to spend a little money to have some fun. The owner of Zuimeng Music Workshop has run away; we don't want to listen to music anymore."

"Yes, surely the Fourth Prince will decide for us, return our Silver Taels."

The noise of refunding silver notes was all around, making the Fourth Prince extremely irritated. Tael swallowed is hard to spit out by anyone.

But with hundreds of people waiting for him to make a decision, the Fourth Prince couldn't shirk his responsibility.

Having heard the descriptions about Good Sound Music Workshop from the plump man and others, the Fourth Prince didn't question or refute.

Although he hadn't experienced it personally, just changing from a hundred-person parade team to a thousand-person parade team showed that Good Sound Music Workshop indeed attracted more people than Zuimeng Music Workshop.

In order to not refund the money, one must first pacify everyone's emotions, then surpass the Good Sound Music Workshop across the street to secure the silver notes in his pocket.

All of these consecutive issues required quite a bit of effort to resolve.

If Yang Gong hadn't taken those silver notes privately, there probably would have been about 5000 more taels.

The steward held the silver notes, not knowing what to do, just staring at the Fourth Prince.

A moment later, the Fourth Prince finally spoke.

"Everyone be quiet. As long as I am here, I will naturally decide for all of you. Take the silver notes down and tally up, see how many silver notes Yang Gong has left behind? And how many did he secretly take?"

Fourth Prince is no fool; his intention was for the steward to tally it down there, not in front of everybody—that way he could secretly hide the silver notes and let Yang Gong take the blame.

The steward, having been with the Fourth Prince for many years, naturally understood the prince's intention, pretended for a while.

"Reporting to the prince, Chairman Yang only left behind 1200 taels of silver notes."

The Fourth Prince was very pleased with this figure.

"Cough cough, as you have seen, Chairman Yang secretly took away thousands of taels of silver notes, leaving only these."

"Steward, go verify the amount of Silver Taels these guests have deposited, return five taels to each person first. If it's not enough, cover it from my side first."

"The remaining Silver Tael, when I find that scoundrel surnamed Yang tomorrow, I will reclaim justice for you all."

The crowd looked at each other uncertainly. They had prepaid amounts of either one hundred or two hundred Silver Tael, and now only five Silver Tael were being returned. Isn't this obviously making light of the situation?

However, since the Fourth Prince had already intervened, they felt it was inappropriate to further trouble matters. Hence, they could only take the insignificant five Silver Tael and leave.

After all the guests had left, the Fourth Prince, in his fury, hurled a cup to the ground!

Crash—

"Damn it! Yang Gong, that old fox, daring to dump this mess on my head, does he no longer cherish his life?"

"Summon someone, bring that rascal Yang Gong back to me right now!"

If it weren't for the butler's timely response, diffusing a crisis just now, the Silver Tael the Fourth Prince would have regurgitated might not have been just 1200.

Zhen Ji, still oblivious to her mistake, gently approached to console the Fourth Prince, only to be shoved away abruptly by him.

"Get lost, you wretched woman, you almost ruined my affairs! Summon everyone, let's head back to the Prince Mansion!"

Furious, the Fourth Prince stormed off, leaving behind Zhen Ji weeping ceaselessly on the ground.

"Wuu wuu wuu, the Fourth Prince doesn't want me anymore."

Crying her heart out, just four hours ago, she was the envy of her peers, favored by the Fourth Prince, thinking she had secured a carefree life ahead.

Yet, in less than half a day, the Fourth Prince heartlessly discarded her. Ridiculed by her peers, only Hua Yue gently embraced her, offering some warmth.

Back at the Prince Mansion, the Fourth Prince paced back and forth in his study, his mind in disarray, fixated on how to outdo the rival Good Sound Music Workshop, thus avoiding the return of Silver Tael.

Seizing his resolve, the butler grit his teeth and said, "Fourth Prince, our biggest rival is the Good Sound Music Workshop."

"Isn't that obvious? Do you think I can't see that?"

"My lord, I didn't mean that, I meant, if there were no Good Sound as a competitor, the guests would have no other choice but to listen to our performances at Zuimeng Music Workshop."

Upon hearing this, a spark lit up in the Fourth Prince's eyes.

Right, if there's no competition, Zuimeng Music Workshop could dominate, and then those wanting to listen will still obediently come and pay Silver Tael.

"Alright, leave this matter to you, but remember, leave no loose ends."

"At once. Fourth Prince, this is a letter from Chairman Yang for you."

Before leaving, the butler handed over an envelope.

The Fourth Prince, irked by Yang Gong's name, snorted, "Hmph, how dare he even leave me a letter; why doesn't he present himself before me instead?"

In the letter, Yang Gong sincerely apologized to the Fourth Prince and mentioned the investment of 5000 Silver Tael, in addition to handing over Zuimeng Music Workshop as a parting gift to the Fourth Prince.

Having unexpectedly gained the largest music workshop in the Imperial City and 5000 Silver Tael, the Fourth Prince couldn't stop grinning. Even if he compensated all the guests, he would still be making a substantial profit.

That night, the Fourth Prince laughed even in his dreams.

But as dawn broke, he was woken by the butler, who informed him that a large crowd was waiting outside the Prince Mansion demanding justice be served.

Lin Yi's Good Sound Music Workshop was bustling as usual, with people queuing up to request songs before dawn.

Those guests who managed to get merely five Silver Tael refunded last night were not content. To get ahead in the queue, they even paid commoners to stand in line.

Running low on money, they naturally sought the Fourth Prince to advocate for justice in returning their Silver Tael.

…End of chapter…

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