“Third Uncle, you should consider joining in,” Zhenniang said mischievously to Elder Cheng San before leaving with the money.

“You crafty girl, so eager to get Elder Cheng to help you? Your Third Uncle won’t fall for it. At this moment, I’ll just watch the tigers fight from the mountain,” Elder Cheng San said, squinting his eyes.

Though the Cheng and Li families had good relations, they were still competitors, with business interests to consider. Elder Cheng had worried for the Li family earlier partly due to their good relationship, and partly because it had taken both families’ combined strength to compete with the Tian family in Huizhou. Now in Nanjing, if the Li family were severely wounded in this battle with the Tian family, the Cheng family alone would be too weak to compete. That’s why Elder Cheng had been anxious.

But now, seeing the Li family well-prepared, Elder Cheng preferred to wait and observe rather than intervene too early.

“Third Uncle, don’t say I didn’t warn you,” Zhenniang said with a grin.

“Girl, what do you mean by that?” Elder Cheng asked impatiently as Zhenniang played coy.

But Zhenniang had already left with her young maid, accompanied by two guards from Yihousheng carrying the money. Luo Jiu walked a few steps with them to see them off.

Zhenniang’s suggestion for Elder Cheng to join in wasn’t casual—it concerned the Zhu family. If she hadn’t helped the Zhu family with the ink liquid formula earlier, they would have already retreated like the Wei family and withdrawn from the Nanjing market.

Years ago, when Li Ink withdrew from Nanjing’s market, it left a power vacuum that allowed the Zhu and Wei families to establish themselves. However, with the rise of Huizhou ink, many merchants started sourcing ink there instead.

The Zhu, Wei, and other ink businesses had been increasingly squeezed by traveling merchants, and when the Li and Tian families entered Nanjing, it became the final straw.

Thus, the Wei family withdrew early, while the Zhu family barely held on thanks to the Li family’s ink liquid. Though this formula incident was Zhenniang’s deliberate plan, had she not prepared in advance, the Tian family would have obtained the formula from the Zhu family anyway. When things exploded, the Zhu family would face a significant impact, and if the Cheng family intervened then, they might be able to acquire the Zhu family’s market share.

The Zhu family could use this opportunity to completely withdraw from Nanjing’s ink market, like the Wei family, and return to develop in their hometown—perhaps not a bad strategy.

Of course, Zhenniang wouldn’t spell this out explicitly; it was up to Elder Cheng to seize the opportunity.

After all, following this incident, the Tian family wouldn’t be able to bother her Li family for quite some time.

“The Zhu family wants to leave Nanjing,” Luo Jiu observed knowingly as he accompanied Zhenniang out, imagining Elder Cheng’s agitated state inside—the older the man got, the more impatient he seemed to become.

Though Luo Jiu was no longer in the ink business, having grown up in the trade, his insight was sharp enough to see the Zhu family’s situation. However, the Cheng family, having just arrived, might not see it as clearly.

Zhenniang nodded slightly, then gave Luo Jiu a meaningful glance.

She resented the Cheng family for merely watching from the sidelines, hence her deliberate vagueness. Though Luo Jiu had seen through it, Zhenniang had wanted him to keep quiet about it but then felt she had no right to ask that of him, resulting in her ambiguous look.

Luo Wencheng, having thrived in the harsh environment of northern gold mining for years, had particular insight into human nature and had already understood Zhenniang’s thoughts.

“In such matters, Third Uncle has his judgment. Whether I say anything or not makes no difference,” Luo Jiu said with a smile.

People like Elder Cheng only trusted their judgment.

Zhenniang realized he was right and felt she had overthought things. She waved goodbye and returned to the ink shop with her people. Watching them enter, Luo Jiu shook his head and chuckled, “This girl isn’t so generous after all.”

“Boy, what did that girl mean?” Elder Cheng asked Luo Wencheng with a sour face when he returned.

Luo Jiu rubbed his nose, feigning innocence: “Third Uncle, how would I know? Though I’d say don’t just watch—gather more information. When the city gate is on fire, it affects even the fish in the moat. You might just catch a fish for your wine.”

Such a hint was enough; any more would put him in a difficult position.

Elder Cheng sipped his tea, sighing internally about how the younger generation were all like little foxes, playing games with him and pushing their agenda, showing no respect for elders. Times had truly changed.

Nevertheless, it didn’t matter. Whether to get involved and when—he would make his calculations, unswayed by others.

Events unfolded as Zhenniang had predicted. Early the next morning, as she was having breakfast with Second Madam, Zheng Fuli rushed in to report that Li Ink Shop was surrounded by previous customers, all with two demands: either Li’s family lowered their prices, or they would cancel their orders.

“Price reduction is impossible. Let them return the goods if they want. Also, make a list of merchants who aren’t returning goods,” Zhenniang instructed Zheng Fuli. Like separating wheat from chaff, she wanted to establish regional dealerships and needed to focus on those loyal merchants.

Having planned all responses, everyone followed the procedures smoothly, and there was no chaos at Li’s family’s door as returning merchants left satisfied.

This disappointed Second Young Master Tian, who had hoped to see drama, and his healing leg began to ache again.

“Second Brother, enough. Even Elder Brother couldn’t get the better of Li Zhenniang. This outcome is not bad at all,” Tian Ronghua said coolly, tired of seeing his second brother’s grimacing.

“Heh, that’s because Elder Brother was incompetent. This time, if not for Luo Wencheng helping Li Zhenniang, even if the Li family escaped one disaster, they’d still be severely wounded. Heh, this Luo fellow—I never saw this coming back in Huizhou. What a shame.” Second Master Tian clicked his tongue, leaving others wondering what he found regrettable.

At the dock, Wang Minghe was loading goods for transport to the capital.

“Brother Minghe, you’re still loading goods here? Haven’t you heard? Everyone’s returning goods now. Tian family’s ink liquid is half the price of the Li family’s,” several merchants who had just returned goods to purchase from the Tian family and enjoyed their hospitality called out as they passed the dock.

Wang Minghe was the merchant who had received Zhenniang’s medicinal ink and later attended Li Ink Shop’s opening ceremony using someone else’s invitation. Since the opening, he had been among the first merchants to obtain the Li family’s ink liquid, making a considerable profit these past two months.

He had heard about the Tian family producing ink liquid and competing with the Li family through price reduction, but he stood firm on two principles. First, the business relied on credibility—he couldn’t demand returns just because Tian’s family lowered prices. More importantly, he believed the Tian family’s price reduction was temporary and would eventually increase. If he returned goods now, he would thoroughly offend the Li family. In business, more friends meant more opportunities, and there was no need to make enemies. After all, it was just one batch of goods—earning less profit was acceptable.

Second, he believed in fate. His success had started with the Li family’s medicinal ink, and he had faith in the Li family. He wouldn’t return this batch of goods, though as a businessman, he couldn’t accept losses either. After delivering this shipment to the capital and returning, he planned to negotiate with Li’s family for better terms, believing they would likely agree.

So Wang Minghe just smiled without responding and continued loading.

Seeing his reaction, the others stopped talking after mocking him as a fool, wandering off while some contemplated ordering a batch of ink liquid from the Tian family to send to the capital, possibly taking over Wang Minghe’s market share.

Everyone had their calculations.

Regardless of others’ schemes, the Li family accepted returns while steadily producing ink liquid. Rumor had it their warehouse was full.

This puzzled many people, with much gossip about what the Li family was planning.

Even Han Yigui and Hu Zonglin had come to inquire.

Time passed into July, with increasingly stifling heat.

Tian’s family’s price war once again left both Li and Zhu ink shops nearly empty. However, thanks to their earlier ink donation, some academy students occasionally visited Li Ink Shop, sometimes buying one or two ink sticks, or several students pooling money to buy a set. From their reactions, there was still good recognition of the Li family’s medium and high-grade ink.

It was certainly a positive development.

Most of the time, though, the shop was empty.

With nothing to do, Zhenniang moved a chair to the doorway to enjoy the cool air. The official street had wind flowing from both ends, with old locust trees every few steps. Sitting in the shade was cooler than inside, where the air felt stuffy.

Under the tree shade, people chatted casually.

Suddenly, they saw some people carrying boxes, looking furious as they walked past, leaving behind an unbearable stench.

“What’s that awful smell?” people cooling off by the roadside covered their noses and asked.

“What else? It’s the Tian family’s ink. You truly get what you pay for—their ink has gone bad. How can we sell ink that smells this horrible? We have to demand an explanation from the Tian family. These inks aren’t even half a month old,” the porters, clearly shop assistants, complained indignantly when asked.

Only the merchant walking in front cast a regretful glance at Li Ink Shop’s sign before darkly telling his assistants: “Stop talking so much and hurry up.”

Hearing their master’s urging, the assistants fell silent and carried the boxes of ink liquid toward Tian Ink Shop.

Among the onlookers, someone jumped up: “Oh my! So that’s what spoiled ink smells like! I bought several bottles recently and kept them at home. These past few days, there’s been a strange smell. At first, my wife said we had more rats and spread some rat poison. I thought it was dead rats and spent days searching everywhere but found nothing. I never expected it to be spoiled ink. I must go home and check!”

The person hurried away, and soon several more groups carrying ink liquid headed toward the Tian family shop.

Zhenniang had long anticipated this situation with the Tian family’s ink liquid. Though she couldn’t be certain of Zeng Yipin’s intentions that day, she had taken precautions. She had implemented a strategy of appearing relaxed while maintaining tight internal control. While she had allowed Zeng Yipin to observe the surface processes of ink making, the anti-corruption and anti-precipitation materials she extracted using alchemical equipment were added to the glue separately—this was something only Zhenniang handled.

Even Zheng Fuli wasn’t fully aware of it. Of course, one other person in the ink shop knew—Ergou. When Zhenniang had made the contract with the Zhu family, she had originally planned to hand over these additives to Shopkeeper Zhu on the spot, but worried about Tian’s family obtaining the formula from the Zhu family, so she sent Ergou instead.

She had mentioned this to Zhu Guiyan, but not in detail. Zhu Gui only knew the Li family had held something back, which was common practice, so he hadn’t pressed the matter as long as the ink liquid produced was satisfactory.

In other words, only three people knew about the additives: Zhenniang, Madam Huang, and Ergou. Zhu Gui only knew something was held back but didn’t know what.

Following Zhenniang’s instructions, Ergou understood the additives’ importance and guarded them strictly.

Raised by Ugly Granny from childhood, he was practically family to the Li household and extremely loyal, making him very reliable—this was why Zhenniang had dared entrust him with this task.

Beyond the additives, Zhenniang had also adjusted the formula itself, increasing the proportion of indigo to make the ink darker and more lustrous. However, indigo was prone to spoilage. Though the formula included borneol for preservation, Zhenniang had increased the alcohol content, and in traditional medicine, alcohol and borneol could conflict. This would create a stimulating effect making the ink glue more prone to spoilage, especially in midsummer heat. It was inevitable that the ink would spoil.

Her ink liquid, with the additional preservative additives, would have no such problems.

Now, after waiting all this time, the Tian ink issue had finally emerged. The Tian family must have noticed in recent days, as the first batch of ink made was now a month old, and the ink liquid could only last about a month.

“Ha! The Tian family is in for trouble now,” Zhenniang thought. She would be busy too—with the Tian family’s ink problems, it was time for the Li family’s ink to sell well.

As for Elder Cheng, he had been frequently inviting Zhu Gui to dinner, clearly hoping to acquire the Zhu family business. Unfortunately, Third Uncle had moved too slowly—if he had intervened when she first hinted, the Zhu family would have sold their ink shop at a lower price. Now, Elder Cheng would have to pay more to acquire the Zhu family shop.

After all, though Zhu Gui knew the Li family had held something back, hearing that the formula had been stolen from Li’s family by Zeng Yipin, how could he be confident? At that time, he would have wanted to sell the shop as soon as possible. Now, with the Tian family’s ink shop scandal, even a fool would know to raise the price, let alone these veterans of the ink trade.

None of them were willing to take a loss.