"Back in Xiping and Chen County, Seventh Ancestor tried to recruit me. Although I didn’t agree, I invested some money in his caravan’s shares. It wasn’t a lot, but over the years, it should have accumulated quite a sum."

Fu Tinghan had never demanded dividends, and with time, it should have grown substantially.

Zhao Hanzhang’s eyes sparkled with anticipation as she asked, "How much did you invest at the time?"

Fu Tinghan smiled and said, "Not much, just two hundred thousand copper coins."

Though he didn’t know how much money had been earned over the years, he was sure there was at least a guaranteed two hundred thousand.

He actually had money?

Zhao Hanzhang tried to recall that when she was in Xiping, she did have money. After all, she had her dowry and the treasures left by her grandfather, plus the Glazed Workshop had started bringing in significant profit for her, so she was quite generous, giving Fu Tinghan some money every month.

But she could guarantee that, aside from expenses, not much of that money would remain, not to mention that after arriving in Chen County, she had started to struggle financially, trying to make the most out of every copper coin. Fu Tinghan supported her too, and he was without money.

So, "Where did you get the twenty thousand as capital?"

Fu Tinghan replied, "Earned from Seventh Ancestor."

He said, "In Xiping, I improved the kiln’s temperature and control for him. He wanted to pay me, but it was just a trivial task for me, so I didn’t take the money. Porcelain is timeless in China. Although his kiln wasn’t renowned, it sold well among the middle-lower classes in Yu State, so I directly asked him to give me half a share of the kiln’s stock."

At that time, the kiln’s annual profits weren’t even a hundred thousand copper coins, since only occasionally good pieces could sell for around a hundred coins. The rest, such as bowls, dishes, plates, and bottles, mostly ranged from two cents to twenty cents.

After deducting travel and sales costs, along with manufacturing costs, Zhao Hu’s profits weren’t substantial.

And splitting half of the profits was equivalent to earning five thousand copper coins for Fu Tinghan in a year. Frankly, Zhao Hu could treat Fu Tinghan to a meal worth that sum.

So he didn’t think much of it at that time.

Zhao Hanzhang’s Glazed Workshop was so lucrative that compared to it, his kiln wasn’t worth mentioning.

Letting Fu Tinghan improve the kiln was more to maintain relationships and then lure him with profits, as he also wanted to start a Glazed Workshop.

Unfortunately, ensuing battles kept disrupting, and Zhao Hanzhang, the Xiping County Magistrate, first became the acting Prefectural Governor of Ru Nan County, and then escalated to Yu State Governor.

Her official rank and power rose just like stepping onto the clouds.

Thanks to Zhao Hanzhang, Zhao Hu’s business empire expanded rapidly along with her influence. Under such circumstances, Zhao Hu didn’t want to fall out with her, so he always had intentions to pull Fu Tinghan closer, yet dared not put in much effort.

And, out of his sight, his hardworking and clever craftsmen, inspired by the Glazed Workshop, had already fired new porcelain.

This type of porcelain is called Craquelure, its surface full of small cracks, some sparse, some dense, some thick, some thin, some long, some short, some curved, some straight, resembling the lines of tortoise shells or ice cracks.

Initially, this occurred because craftsmen controlled the firing improperly after Fu Tinghan improved the kiln temperature, causing the porcelain surface to crack. Although this was a defect, the cracks looked beautiful, so the craftsmen couldn’t resist pondering, contemplating how to create better Craquelure that naturally complements the surface.

Later, they succeeded and tentatively sold it among other porcelain pieces to test the market.

The fact shows that there is more than one person with the eye to discover beauty, and Huaxia people’s aesthetic appreciation is highly congruent to a certain extent.

Craquelure was well-received, temporarily becoming the bestseller in Zhao Hu’s kiln, and its price wasn’t low, thus the profit wasn’t low either.

Coupled with expansion benefiting from Zhao Hanzhang’s influence, the kiln business thrived.

Of course, Fu Tinghan didn’t know any of this at the time, he said, "In Chen County, the craftsmen and I helped him improve the loom and revised the bookkeeping method. The money earned in Chen County partly went into supporting military forces, the remaining twenty thousand copper coins were invested in his caravan, which has been thriving these years, so I suppose it earned quite a bit."

Fu Tinghan thought that the kiln probably didn’t earn much, over several years, half of the profits barely reached seventy to eighty thousand, but the caravan should have earned substantially, given his initial capital was twenty thousand.

He thought this and said it too, reassuring Zhao Hanzhang, "The extra money goes to you, after two years, the caravan’s return rate must exceed thirty percent, I’ll extract what I can."

"No," Zhao Hanzhang looked brightly at him, "You only take the profits, or you can tell Seventh Ancestor to reinvest the profits for shares, don’t take it out. Calculatively speaking, these two years you haven’t taken dividends, the money that’s due should be considered within the caravan’s capital funds."

Side-by-side, Zhao Erlang, hearing his sister not allowing them to take out money, quickly became anxious, "Sister, the county government is truly short of funds, if we don’t get some soon, I’m going to be embarrassed."

Zhao Hanzhang shot him a glance and said, "Why are you anxious? Didn’t say you wouldn’t get it."

Face? She hadn’t had it for a long time!

Still, looking at her brother’s tender face, Zhao Hanzhang couldn’t bear to let him lose too much face, and told Fu Tinghan, "Take the kiln profits."

Fu Tinghan said, "There shouldn’t be much, right?"

Zhao Hanzhang said wistfully, "That’s quite a lot, without paying attention you wouldn’t know, in these years Seventh Ancestor’s kiln has become renowned in the area, almost dominating the Central Plains pottery market now. You just take the kiln’s profits, if you can’t get twenty thousand out, ask him for the accounting books to audit!"

Zhao Hanzhang had already made up her mind, if Zhao Hu dared to withhold Professor Fu’s money, she would dare to have Ming Yu audit the accounts.

Ming Yu stepping in, who would dare falsify accounts?

Fu Tinghan half-believed, half-doubted, could that small kiln have developed so well in just over three years?

He called in Fu An and said, "Tomorrow morning, send a letter to Seventh Grandfather for me, saying I wish to withdraw the kiln’s profits of these years." 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

Fu An complied and went to prepare the letter.

The room suddenly fell silent, Zhao Erlang scratched his head, puzzledly glanced at his sister, then turned to look at his brother-in-law, confused, why weren’t they speaking?

Wasn’t the money issue solved?

According to his understanding, shouldn’t there be a joyful "yay" right now?

Sister’s "yay?"

Fu Tinghan looked at the silent Zhao Hanzhang and asked, "Are you really short on money?"

Zhao Hanzhang nodded and pointed at the drawing with her hand and said, "Building a dock is quite a significant expense."

Fu Tinghan didn’t say anything, Zhao Erlang needed funding for the county government was something he could help with, expanding the entire national treasury was beyond his capacity.

Revenue takes time, even generating wealth is a process...

Fu Tinghan felt unmoved, but looked at Zhao Hanzhang.

Zhao Hanzhang smiled and nodded at him, confirming his thoughts, "I want ’Zhao’ coin to completely replace the old currency. I’ll find more copper mines, refine more copper, and enrich the national treasury."

Fu Tinghan was silent for a moment before saying, "It’s not impossible, it’s copper coins, not paper money, it has intrinsic value, just like gold and silver..."

He paused here because he saw Zhao Hanzhang’s eyes gleaming like the rising sun bouncing above the hilltop, her entire presence brightened.

"You..."