Chapter 44: A Generous Stake as a Gift

It turned out that the three sentences Chai Xiao had just whispered into her ear were each more shocking than the last.

The first sentence:
"To scatter roses leaves a fragrance in the hand; giving is more blessed than receiving."

The second sentence:
"Would you believe me? If we reward them handsomely this time, within a month, we will cultivate twelve Wang Hais, Fan Lis, Bai Guis, and even Dou Yis, rather than merely twelve female guards."

The third sentence:
"Raising money, hoarding weapons, and gathering people are all important right now, but gathering people is the most crucial. Once you have people, why worry about lacking money or weapons?"

When the reigning Emperor Yuan was still the Prince of Yu, Consort Yun had been taken as a secondary consort, giving her the opportunity to read numerous classics, histories, and philosophical writings.

Later, after becoming an imperial consort, due to her son's lack of ambition, she gradually fell out of favor and turned to studying many Buddhist scriptures to find inner peace.

The first sentence her son had just spoken was a Buddhist aphorism.
When helping others, one also gains benefit and happiness for oneself.
The sense of happiness and fulfillment brought by "giving" is far greater than that brought by "receiving."

As for the figures he mentioned in the second sentence, without exception, they were towering "kings of commerce" throughout history.

Wang Hai.
The sixth-generation descendant of Ebo, the progenitor of the Shang dynasty, and the seventh ruler of the State of Shang.
He domesticated cattle and horses, invented ox-carts as a means of transportation, and propelled the rapid development of his tribe's agriculture.
Due to a surplus of agricultural and pastoral products, he used ox-carts to haul goods to external tribes for bartering.
This marked the earliest commercial activity in Chinese history.
Over time, people came to refer to the trading merchants of the Shang tribe as "Shang ren" (merchants), the exchanged goods as "Shang pin" (commodities), and the profession as "Shang ye" (commerce).
Wang Hai was also revered as the "Progenitor of Chinese Commerce."

Fan Li.
Who styled himself Lord Taozhu, a high minister of the State of Yue during the Spring and Autumn period.
After assisting King Goujian of Yue in destroying Wu and restoring his state, he understood all too well that "when the birds are gone, the good bows are stored away; when the cunning hares are dead, the hounds are cooked," and thus abandoned his official career to enter commerce.
Regarding the seizure of business opportunities, he emphasized: "When goods are as expensive as mud, sell them decisively; when they are as cheap as pearls and jade, buy them boldly."
When commodity prices were high, one should sell as if disposing of dirt; when prices were low, one should buy boldly as if acquiring precious gems and jade.
Regarding the choice of business location, he emphasized conducting trade in places with convenient transportation and flourishing commerce.
As for his attitude toward wealth, he became immensely wealthy through commerce three times, and gave away his entire fortune three times.
Not only did he help the poor, but he also won renown for himself and inner peace, truly embodying the principle that "giving is more blessed than receiving."
He was revered by later generations as the "Sage of Commerce."

Bai Gui.
A native of Luoyang in the Eastern Zhou dynasty during the Warring States period.
He advocated the principle: "What others discard, I take; what others take, I give." When everyone else was dumping goods, he bought at low prices; when everyone else was panic-buying, he sold at high prices.
He focused on selecting operational varieties and excelled in trading commodities such as grain and silk.
He excelled at grasping market supply and demand as well as price fluctuations, thereby securing lavish profits.
He was praised by Sima Qian as the "Ancestral Master of Commerce."

Dou Yi.
A famous self-made merchant in the mid-Tang dynasty, known as the "Little Fufeng Fellow of the Tang Dynasty."
He planted elm-tree seeds into saplings and sold them, accumulating his first pot of gold.
He used materials like worn hemp shoes and broken roof tiles to manufacture "ritual candles," selling them when firewood prices soared terrifyingly during heavy snowstorms, thereby reaping astronomical profits.
Using a prize-game method, he attracted children to throw stones and tiles to fill up a stinking puddle in the Western Market of Chang'an, and built the "Dou Family Shops" storefronts to rent them out.

Rising overnight to become the richest man in Chang'an.

As for the third sentence spoken by her son—that gathering people is more important than raising money or hoarding weapons—it was expressed in plain language, yet it was fraught with profound meaning.

Generations of people rise and fall; history flows endlessly from antiquity to the present.
As long as the green mountains remain, there is no need to worry about firewood.
The *Art of War by Sun Tzu* states: "The Moral Law causes the people to be in complete accord with their ruler, so that they will follow him regardless of their lives, undismayed by any danger."
If a leader pours out his heart and soul to forge a shared conviction with the people, the people will be willing to live and die with him without fear.
*Records of the Grand Historian* also states: "A fur coat worth a thousand pieces of gold is not made from the underarm fur of a single fox. The rafters of a terrace are not the branches of a single tree. The prosperity of the Three Dynasties was not the wisdom of a single man."
The flourishing of the Xia, Shang, and Zhou dynasties was not achieved by the wisdom of one individual alone.
A leader must widely recruit talented individuals, rally the hearts of the people, and rely on the collective wisdom and strength of the masses to accomplish great undertakings.
These were all top-tier strategies of "winning the hearts of the people first"!

This rascal, ever since waking up early this morning, had continuously practiced open-source and cost-cutting measures, devising all sorts of ways to acquire money.
If it were merely these, one could only say he had shed his good-for-nothing temperament and wished to accomplish something.
Yet right now, his courting of talent and winning over popular sentiment was far simpler than merely "accomplishing something."
Once one's thoughts reached this step, what was on one's mind was nothing less than the entire "realm under heaven"!

Could it be that he truly intended to contend with the Second Prince for supremacy over the realm?
However, when had he come to understand these principles?
Could he have understood them entirely overnight?
Or had he understood them all along and merely feigned ignorance until now?

Chai Xiao smiled at the Twelve Golden Hairpins.
"Thus, just as mother said, the stakes you wagered earlier were a bet on whether this bride-selection martial arts competition could turn a profit."
"Now, everyone believes it will certainly turn a profit, so this gamble is concluded, and your money cannot be reclaimed!"
"Alas!"
Upon hearing this, the Twelve Golden Hairpins could not help but shake their heads.
They had thought the Young Master would differ from what Consort Yun had said.
"However!"
Chai Xiao raised his voice.
"You Twelve Golden Hairpins, together with Zhuque, have all participated in this bride-selection event, and moreover, as vital characters!"
"Therefore, an exception is made to open a new gamble for you now—to wager on just how much profit can be made in the end!"
"Of course, since it is a newly opened wager, a fresh stake is required!"
"As for me, I shall take out the three hundred taels won from all of you just now, and add another two hundred taels to serve as expenses for building the stage, making tickets, and preparing materials."
With that, he pulled out the silver notes that were still protruding from the corner of his tunic—the exact stack won from the previous wager, consisting of miscellaneous denominations.
Then, he drew out another two hundred taels in silver notes.
At the sight of this, Consort Yun hurriedly covered her face.
This scoundrel, why did he constantly use those two hundred taels—swindled from the Second Prince for the beauty hugging-pillow—as increased wagering stakes wherever he went?
If she remembered correctly, didn't he also use those exact two hundred taels to make Yao Jin's elite guards and Xiang Shouyue's imperial guards compete for supremacy on the lion-dance arena?
Could a wagering stake really be recycled in such a manner?
He truly had no fear of losing; he only knew how to win!

That being said, he was, after all, her biological son, and she had to support and echo him.
"Since His Highness has staked his all and produced five hundred taels, I cannot lag behind either. I shall also put up five hundred taels!"
This time, it was the turn of the Twelve Golden Hairpins to panic.

"Your Ladyship, Young Master, the silver we saved with such difficulty was already entirely wagered in the previous bet on whether it would turn a profit!"
"Indeed! Had we known, we wouldn't have bet with the Young Master on whether it would profit, but instead joined this one on how much it would make!"
"Alas! We are now penniless! Surely we cannot pawn our own bodies at a pawnshop to get silver? And who knows if they'd even fetch five taels?"
"Hush! Speak no nonsense! People like us were long ago sold to the imperial household. Even if we were to be pawned, it would be up to Her Ladyship and the Young Master; how could it ever fall to us?"

At this moment, Zhuque, who had gone to convey the verbal decree to the Inner Directorate, returned.
Seeing everyone chatting animatedly back and forth, she quietly asked Jianyu a few questions and finally figured out what was going on.
"Your Ladyship, Young Master, the silver I had on hand is almost exhausted, with only the last eighty taels remaining. Add it all to this stake!"
"Very well!"
Chai Xiao's eyes lit up. Like an autumn wind sweeping away fallen leaves, he snatched up the silver notes that Consort Yun and Zhuque had pulled out with manifest reluctance.
Then, he fixed his gaze upon the Twelve Golden Hairpins.
They were already speechless, devoid of any further recourse. Every single one of them spread open their hands and slumped despondently, resembling frost-bitten eggplants.
Even less did they anticipate that the Young Master would bestow a bounty that could definitively be called an "unexpected pleasant surprise."
Furthermore, this directly altered the subsequent life trajectories of many among them.

Chai Xiao merely smiled knowingly.
"All out of money?"
"Then I shall present you with a super-value grand gift package!"
"As I said just now, you are all pivotal characters in this bride-selection event. Without you, these fictional characters would remain mere fictions and could never become flesh-and-blood realities."
"As you yourselves stated, using your bodies as collateral at a pawnshop wouldn't even fetch five taels, and ownership wouldn't even rest with you."
"Now, let us shatter all of that. We shall take each of your performances as the wagering stake, calculating it as ten taels per person. How does that sound?"

The Twelve Golden Hairpins were startled, and then broke into cheers of jubilation.
"Wonders never cease! This is simply marvelous!"
"Young Master is bestowing special grace upon us today!"
"Quickly, offer your thanks to the Young Master!"
The maidens, chattering back and forth, prepared to kneel down in unison to express their gratitude.
Then they heard Chai Xiao say:
"You must remember this day!"
"Ten taels per person does not mean you are only worth this paltry sum of silver!"
"In my view, the value of each and every one of you far surpasses this."
"Yet ten taels for each of you amounts to one hundred and twenty taels in total, accounting for one-tenth of the entire stake."
"This stake does not merely win back double your original stake when the profits are made—meaning a simple return of two hundred and forty taels."
"You may not fully understand yet, but engrave this firmly in your minds: this one-tenth represents 'shares,' which is to say, the 'right to profit distribution.'"
" To put it bluntly, conservatively estimating, if the ticket sales and food items of this bride-selection event generate a profit of twenty thousand taels, you will be entitled to a dividend of two thousand taels!"

Two thousand taels?
The Twelve Golden Hairpins instantly lost their previous noisy chatter; every single one of them stood rooted to the spot as if struck by an immobilization spell, dumbfounded.
Moreover, not a single word could escape their lips.
In the garden of the Prince's Manor, an abrupt, eerie silence descended.
Only the "coo-coo-coo" sound of an unidentified bird flying overhead could be heard.