Chapter 41: The Abyss and the Clouds
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“Come! Let me test you again!”
“Just now, we calculated on the basis of thirty-two contestants entering the elimination round.”
“If enough people sign up, the elimination round will begin with sixty-four contestants.”
“In other words, after determining the champion, we extend the event by one day, bringing us to the seventh day!”
“So, how much will we earn that day? And what will the total income be over seven days?”
In truth, this was simply the general term and summation formula for a geometric progression.
The reason Chai Xiao had taken the trouble to circle the leaf once more was that Jian Yu had already led everyone through the calculation up to N. By extending it to N plus one, everyone would grasp what appeared to be a complicated formula.
Sure enough, under his guidance, the Twelve Golden Hairpins, along with Consort Yun and Vermilion Bird, quickly called out the answers.
“On the seventh day, the income will be twice that of the sixth day.”
“In other words, twice five thousand four hundred and forty taels—ten thousand eight hundred and eighty taels.”
“The total income for seven days will be twice the seventh day’s income, minus the income from the first day.”
“That means twice ten thousand eight hundred and eighty taels—twenty-one thousand seven hundred and sixty taels—minus one hundred and seventy taels.”
“That gives us twenty-one thousand five hundred and ninety taels!”
As they announced these two figures, everyone felt as though they had finally discovered the pattern. Smiles spread across their faces.
Chai Xiao saw what they were thinking and began to sum things up.
“You must remember that fleeting feeling of understanding you have just experienced!”
“The farther we go, the larger the sums become!”
“And the income from the first day is practically negligible!”
“Extending the event by one day is equivalent to earning the sum of all the previous days.”
“And the total income is almost equal to twice what is earned on the final day.”
After saying this, he paused and looked at the women with a smile.
They all burst into applause.
“We’ve got it!”
“The income from the next day equals the sum of all the preceding days!”
“The total income is twice the income of the final day!”
“The income from the first day becomes more and more negligible as time goes on!”
Seeing that his “lesson” had achieved its purpose, Chai Xiao lowered the leaf in his hand and asked with a smile, “Now, do you still think that earning only from ticket sales is too little?”
Hearing their lord ask this, the Twelve Golden Hairpins, including Jian Yu, all shook their heads vigorously.
A person’s appearance reflects the heart.
The expressions on their faces were no longer those of “So this is possible?” or “Why didn’t I think of that?”
They now said only, “My heavens!”
Their hearts had been shaken to the core, as though they had been thrown into a surging mountain torrent.
Every number was like a rapidly spinning whirlpool, wrapping around their bodies and devouring them.
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At that moment, all sense of time and space lost its meaning, leaving behind nothing but bewilderment.
Yet very soon, their bodies were released from another whirlpool.
And by then, they were entirely different—new bodies, new understanding, utterly transformed.
So it really was possible!
In a mere seven days, ticket sales alone could bring in twenty-one thousand seven hundred and sixty taels—more than a hundred times the one hundred and seventy taels they had initially expected.
Only moments earlier, they had still been questioning whether an income of merely one hundred and seventy taels would even cover the three hundred taels of capital invested.
Now, it had multiplied more than a hundredfold!
If those twenty-odd thousand taels were divided among more than ten people, each person could receive roughly two thousand taels.
That was a fortune!
They would never have to worry about money again for the rest of their lives!
Consort Yun and Vermilion Bird were equally stunned.
They had already imagined that Chai Xiao could use this venture to earn a considerable sum, but never had they dreamed it would be so much!
He had merely set up a platform for a martial contest to win a bride and run it for seven days, yet he had effortlessly brought twenty thousand taels of silver into his possession.
And this was only the first of the many methods he had mentioned.
If things continued like this, earning a million taels of silver was not merely possible—it was highly likely!
Most astonishing of all was that there had been nothing particularly extraordinary about his plan at the beginning.
They had simply thought, “So this can be done too. It sounds promising; we might as well give it a try.”
They had never expected that the next moment would feel like stepping into a nine-tiered celestial pagoda, or crossing into nine towering mountains.
Each tier rose higher than the last, each mountain was steeper than the one before.
Before they knew it, he had led them to the summit of the nine pagodas and the peak of the nine mountains, completely overturning their understanding of the world.
And just as they thought they could catch their breath and calm themselves, he thrust them into nine layers of roaring waves.
Each wave rose higher than the one before, each surge came faster than the last.
They could do nothing but spin helplessly.
Who could say whether the path ahead ended at a cliff a hundred yards high or plunged into an abyss ten thousand yards deep?
When they finally burst through, they discovered that they were high above the clouds. What they had entered earlier had not been a deep ocean at all, but a sea of clouds.
Chai Xiao was not surprised by the shock on their faces.
“If we extend the event by another three days, holding it through the tenth day, we could earn more than three hundred thousand taels!”
“But that is merely wishful thinking!”
“Because the number of days we can hold the event depends on two crucial factors.”
“The first is the number of people who sign up.”
“The Great Xu Royal City has a population of roughly forty to fifty thousand. I learned that by asking the old servants at the Princely Residence.”
“Even if the entire city poured into the streets to watch your martial contest to win a bride, the actual number of applicants would not exceed two thousand.”
“That is because there is a limit imposed by the suitable age range.”
“Taking forty thousand people as the basis, the ratio of men to women is approximately one to one, leaving twenty thousand men.”
“Of those, perhaps one quarter would fall within the suitable age range—men between eighteen and forty—giving us roughly five thousand.”
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“Among them, the unmarried would account for half. Naturally, we can also disregard married men who come looking for a concubine.”
“In other words, two thousand applicants at most.”
“Then the elimination round can begin with the top one hundred and twenty-eight contestants advancing to the top sixty-four.”
“The current arrangement, with the top sixty-four advancing to the top thirty-two, is appropriate!”
“The second crucial factor is whether the spectators can afford the tickets.”
“At present, the event has been extended to the seventh day.”
“That means a first-row seat in the VIP section now costs thirty-two taels of silver per person.”
“And the price of admission to the VIP section—in other words, a seat in the fifth row—has risen to six taels and four mace per person.”
“Even the cheapest seated ticket has risen from the original ten copper coins to six hundred and forty copper coins, more than half a tael of silver.”
“This is already an utterly high-end expense!”
“If we extend the event further, to the eighth or ninth day, the price of a first-row seat will rise to sixty-four taels or one hundred and twenty-eight taels.”
“That might still be possible in the imperial capital, but here in our relatively remote Great Xu Royal City, no one will be able to afford it!”
“Therefore, we must dare to think big. What we are earning is certainly not a trifling sum of several hundred or several thousand taels.”
“But neither can we become excessively greedy and imagine earning one hundred thousand, two hundred thousand, or even three hundred thousand taels all at once. That would be nothing more than a fool’s dream!”
“Know what can be done, and know even more clearly what cannot. Know when to advance, and know when to retreat.”
“Only then can we earn great wealth—legitimate wealth, and wealth that lasts.”
After hearing this, all the women nodded repeatedly.
Consort Yun led the applause.
“Well said! Know what can be done, and know even more clearly what cannot. Know when to advance, and know when to retreat. Earn great wealth, legitimate wealth, and wealth that lasts!”
Then she glanced at the corner of the banknotes protruding from her son’s arms and sighed softly.
“看来 my fifty taels, Vermilion Bird’s fifty taels, and your twenty, fifteen, or ten taels are never coming back!”
“Pfft!”
Vermilion Bird and the Twelve Golden Hairpins all burst out laughing, yet not one of them showed the slightest regret.
Spending a few dozen taels of silver to learn so many ways of making a fortune from their lord was worth it!
Consort Yun suddenly called out in a low voice, “You little girls! Now that you know how much money can be made from ticket sales, why aren’t you hurrying to build the platform? Are you waiting for the windfall to blow in on its own?”
“Yes!”
The Twelve Golden Hairpins answered obediently, but none of them could bring themselves to leave.
They followed behind Jian Yu, looking pitifully at Her Grace Consort Yun, then gazing imploringly at their lord, and finally turning their eyes toward the stone table.
“You…”
Consort Yun was about to scold them, but when she followed their gazes and saw the thirteen untouched leaves on the stone table, she could not help laughing.
“So you want to hear what other methods there are for making money!”
“All right. Sharpening the axe does not delay the work of cutting wood!”
“Son, you might as well tell us everything at once. What other ways are there to make a great deal of money from this martial contest to win a bride?”
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