The words showed that Shun Jian could not deny it and admitted to betraying the prince's portrait. Everyone was stunned for a moment and laughed together. The prince asked who came up with the idea, and Ming Shun immediately said: "The villain is the mastermind."

The prince nodded: "I understand, your wife's idea." Ming Shun was stunned.

Ming Duan looked at his younger brother and said, "When the Crown Prince meets you, he will know that you are an honest man. Where did you come up with such an idea?"

The prince said, "Your wife is still injured and you can't draw. Who painted that portrait?" Mingshun closed his mouth and lowered his head in silence. The prince smiled and said, "It doesn't matter if you don't want to say it. It won't take long for me to be natural."

Know."

Sure enough, soon the guard named Xiao Wu came back and whispered to the prince for a while. The prince waved his hand: "Let's go and have a look."

Everyone was laughing and joking with great interest, and walked together with Ming Shun. Ming Duan also asked the servants to tell the second mistress that the men had gone to have a drink. Ming Shun's gesture of killing the chicken and wiping his neck, the servant woman did not understand at all, and said with a smile: "You two masters

Just eat to your heart's content, we are at home."

Xiao Wu led the way and walked three streets until he came to an alley. There was a large locust tree at the entrance of the alley. Under the tree, an old woman sat mending her clothes. Xiao Wu suddenly turned around and pulled Ming Shun from behind.

, hooking his shoulders and stepping forward together.

Mingshun braced himself and shouted: "Aunt Liu." He stared at the branches on the ground.

The old woman raised her head and looked at him: "Shunzi is here?" But when she saw the people behind him, she frowned and said, "Are these officials your friends?"

"Not bad." The prince said loudly, and walked forward with a smile, "Hello, Aunt Liu."

Panic flashed in the old woman's eyes for a moment, but she didn't show any trace of it on her face. She smiled and nodded: "My little brother is very polite, and my old lady likes it."

Xiao Wu said: "Aunt Liu, is the young lady here?"

"Not here," the old woman said, "I went out for a walk."

The prince said: "No problem, let's go inside and wait for them."

The old woman said: "There are so many men here, so it's inconvenient."

Xiao Wu said: "Why is it inconvenient? The temple is a foreign place, there are no men or women, all the people who come are donors." He stretched out his hand and pointed. Everyone looked at it and saw a small small seat in the alley.

The nunnery is called Qingyue nunnery.

The prince said, "We are here to burn incense. Buddha and Bodhisattvas do not reject sincere people." He picked up his feet and walked away. The old woman was so anxious that she slapped her thigh.

The door of the nunnery was opened, and the prince strode straight in. Everyone suppressed their laughter and followed behind, and immediately stopped in unison. It happened to be a slightly overcast day, with light clouds as thin as a gauze curtain, vaguely covering the nunnery.

The sun was shining brightly. There was a large portrait of the Crown Prince placed in the courtyard, which was exactly the same as Miss Ruan San's, only about three times larger. There were more than twenty women sitting in front of the portrait, each with their

They were sitting on the painting table, painting the painting with brushstrokes and splashes of ink. There was a shelf beside them, and on the shelf hung the already painted portraits of the crown prince. Each of them had more than one portrait on the shelf.

Ming Duan couldn't hold his head anymore, he put his hands on his hands and laughed loudly. After hearing this, all the women turned around one after another, and saw the Crown Prince standing at the door. They looked at the Crown Prince, then looked back at the big portrait, then looked at the Crown Prince, and then looked at themselves

According to the description of the cat and the tiger, he was stunned for a moment. The group who came with the prince laughed together.

The prince couldn't help but laugh, nodded and said: "It's quite a small scale, it just hasn't become an assembly line. Mingshun, your wife is a person."

Ming Shun lowered his head and said: "My wife originally suggested setting up an assembly line, but the young lady refused, saying that if a painting is handled by many people, it will look different." Ming Duan had already stopped talking and laughed after hearing this, causing others to laugh again.

return.

The laughter could not disturb the room, so someone immediately asked, "Who is making the noise outside?" He walked out while talking.

The Crown Prince waved his hand: "Hello, Madam Tong." The one who came out was Madam Tong who had just left the Ming family. When she saw the Crown Prince, she seemed to be under a spell of immobilization. The Crown Prince said, "I asked you to wait for a while. Who knows?

Your steps were so lively and vigorous, and you disappeared before I finished speaking." He pointed at Xiao Wu and said, "Didn't you notice that someone was following you?"

The young lady had come to her senses, stepped forward and said, "Your Majesty, you really have a lot of talents under your command."

The prince smiled and said: "You don't need to explain to me. Ming Duan——"

"Wei Chen is here."

"It's up to you to settle the accounts."

"I obey the order." Ming Duan glanced at the young lady with a smile, then looked at the big portrait, "Your Majesty, the painting is really good."

The prince walked to the big portrait and looked at it for a while: "It's pretty good. Who painted it?"

The young lady bit her lower lip: "It was painted by my little girl."

The prince turned around and looked at her: "When have I seen you?"

"The prince has never seen the little girl." The young lady lowered her eyes, "The prince peeked at the prince at the door of the palace."

"Oh?" The prince said amusedly, "Do you have a crush on me?"

The young lady rolled her eyes: "All the young ladies in the city have a crush on the prince. The prince has not seen his female relatives since he returned to China. They don't know what the prince looks like. The little girl is just doing good deeds every day."

"Hahahaha..." Mingduan raised his head and laughed, and everyone laughed. The young lady gritted her teeth and glared at Mingduan.

"Wait a minute." A tall classmate came out from behind the prince, "The prince has never driven out in his car, how do you know which one is him?"

There was a hint of joking in the young lady's eyes: "My little girl recognizes Mr. Ming."

Ming Duan thought for a while, then opened and closed his mouth to suppress a laugh. Another classmate said: "Even though Mr. Ming was once with the Crown Prince..." Before he could finish his words, the tall man just stabbed him.

The young lady said with a sullen face: "Among all the adults, the shortest one is naturally the prince." Everyone burst out laughing again, even the painting girls in the courtyard started laughing.

The prince clapped his hands lazily and said, "Mingduan, I'll leave these difficult women to you." He turned around and left. Mingduan agreed from behind. The others followed him with smiles on their faces.

In an instant, only the two brothers of the Ming family were left. Ming Duan smiled and was about to speak, but Lady Tong rushed over and said, "First tell Mr. Ming, we really have no money."

Ming Shun also said: "The money they made from selling the paintings was all given to the doctor."

It turns out that there are a lot of people in the Jiaofang, and there are also many patients. There are only a few eunuchs in charge of the Jiaofang. How can they be willing to treat them? And many of them are injured and need to take good medicine to recover slowly. In the beginning, they were asking for a few eunuchs.

A guest gave alms, but now there is nothing to do. The young lady thought, she can't let her aunts and sisters wait to die. The patients can't wait and slowly think of ways to get money. By chance, someone heard that the Queen Mother sent her eunuchs to the photo studio to invite the master

After taking pictures of the ladies from various families, I guessed that the prince was about to choose a concubine, so I came up with the idea of ​​​​selling the portraits of the prince to his admirers. I didn’t want the business to be booming, and the price was still in short supply after repeated price increases. Now the women painting in this yard are all dyed

No one is good when it comes to illness.

After hearing this, Ming Duan thought and said, "So, the eunuch in charge of the Jiaofang Division is corrupt?"

The young lady chuckled and said, "How can the manager of the Jiaofang Department not be greedy? And no one is watching. Even if we know, we can't sue the officials. Our wealth and life are in his hands."

Mingshun said: "Brother, isn't it just like when we were in prison at first?"

Ming Duan nodded and said: "It is really inconvenient to monitor." Seeing that many of the girls were frightened, he said, "Don't be afraid, the prince is a wise master." He thought for a moment and said, "I just heard from the prince a few days ago that wool may not necessarily

It can come out on a sheep or a cow, just kill the dog."

Everyone else was stunned, but the young lady's eyes lit up: "Can it be done?"

Ming Duan said with a smile: "It should be possible." The young lady recited "Amitabha". Although everyone didn't know why, they felt relieved when they saw the expressions on their faces.

Ming Duan then inquired about the situation in the nunnery in detail. Ming Shun and his wife took him inside for a walk, but they saw old, weak, women and children lying in disorder in front of the Buddha. Some of them were really seriously ill, and they felt pity in their hearts.

At that time, Ming Duan returned to the Prince of Shu's Mansion and reported the matter of Qing Yue'an truthfully. The prince said: "It's good to be the prince, and you can check whoever you want." He then ordered someone to send an order to track down the eunuch in charge of Xianjiaofang Division. He asked again.

Mingduan, "Have the accounts been settled?"

"Forget it." Ming Duan took out a list. "They set up three sales points in Chengdu. One place sold them for eleven days, one place sold them for four days, and one place sold them for two days. The first one

It was in the art shop we found. After we couldn't sell it there, we found two other places. We only tried to sell ten paintings in the first two days..."

"Stop!" The Crown Prince waved his hand, "You don't have to calculate it for me. How much money is there in total?"

"Six thousand seven hundred and thirty taels."

The prince was stunned: "How much?"

"Six thousand seven hundred and thirty taels." Ming Duan repeated.

The prince slapped the case and said: "They only sold it for more than ten days, and they only got more than 6,000 silver?"

Ming Duan said seriously: "The prince is handsome."

The prince thought about it for a long time and said, "Do you think if the price goes up again, will anyone buy it?"

Ming Duan said: "If it goes up again, there will be imitations. The price in the last two days has been thirty, and Yi Weichen thinks this price is about right."

The prince nodded: "Forget it, let's go to thirty. Nine hundred taels a day is not bad. My grandmother is making a fuss about choosing a concubine for me at the moment. I'm afraid it will be bad after this period of time passes."

It’s hard to sell.”

"The prince has underestimated himself." Ming Duan said, "He has also underestimated the ladies of Shu."

One of the staff just realized that the prince wanted to sell his portrait, and his face was full of black lines: "Your Majesty...this...isn't good."

The prince said confidently: "Then you have an idea that will make a huge profit?" The staff was dumbfounded. The prince asked the girl's origin again. It turned out that she was the granddaughter of Tong Gui, who was the first inspector. She was twenty-three years old this year. Lord Tong himself was innocent, but because of

The disciple who protected him was found guilty, and the whole family was implicated. The prince shook his head and said: "This case is a bit serious."

It was extremely easy to investigate the case of the head of the Jiaofang Division. Those eunuchs thought that no one would ask about the affairs of the Jiaofang Division again, so they were unprepared. Since the investigators were under the Crown Prince, the accounts were sent to the Crown Prince first. Ming Duan first

Six thousand seven hundred and thirty taels of silver were withheld, which was regarded as the prince's private house confiscated from Qingyue Nunnery.

The king of Shu read the book and naturally approved the word "cut". The money found was more than four million taels, and all of it was transferred to the treasury. Situ Cen reminded: "Second brother, these guys still have their predecessors."

The king heard that this made sense, so he asked all the previous managers of the Jiaofang Department to be traced. After a thorough investigation, it was found that tens of millions of money had been added to the treasury of the Shu Kingdom. This will be discussed later.

Qingyue Nunnery has been taken over by the prince and handed over to Mingshun. The prince's mansion has been roughly repaired and will be moved in a few days. On this day, the prince and a few confidants went to the mansion to check, and met Mingshun at the door leading the young lady and his wife.

Two painting girls came out. The prince asked why, but it was the queen who said that the new house must have a door god, and Ming Duan handed over the business to his younger brother. The prince looked at him and said: "You are lucky enough not to let outsiders do it.

"Ming Duan smiled and cupped his hands.
To be continued...