plumnovel #440 - After the meeting, I met with Catherine (Part 1)
#440 - After the meeting, I met with Catherine (Part 1)
After the meeting, the city councilors and civic elites left with mixed feelings of joy and sorrow. Regardless of their sentiments, they were powerless to resist.
After all, Horn was there to announce a decision, not to solicit their opinions.
What was there left to say for the defeated?
With the meeting concluded here, Horn's schedule was not yet finished.
Before the meeting, Catherine had arranged a small, 'one-on-one meeting' with him, as mentioned earlier.
Following Catherine, he went up to the third floor, pushed open the door that exuded the fragrance of flowers, and a two-room suite came into view.
The midday sun streamed in through the windows, shining through the crystal glass onto the desk, and gusts of wind blew in through the cracks, causing the papers under the ink bottle to constantly curl up.
Catherine dragged over a chair, knocked on the door to have a maid bring in black tea, and then gracefully nodded and smiled at Horn, "Could you wait a moment? I need to freshen up and change my clothes."
"Didn't you brush your teeth this morning? You've already put on makeup, what are you washing your face for?" Horn asked, puzzled, "And your clothes aren't dirty, why do you need to change?"
Catherine was choked by Horn's words, pouting her lips, "A lady's freshening up and changing clothes means going to the restroom!"
Horn casually sat down on the soft cushion chair, nonchalantly saying, "Oh, are you going to take a dump or pee? It's okay, I'll wait for you."
Catherine, her face flushed red, didn't argue further. She stomped heavily, slamming the door to the inner bedroom with a bang.
After Catherine left, the entire bedroom quieted down. Sitting in the chair, Horn felt bored, so he simply stood up and began to look around the room.
It has to be said, the Meggett family truly lived up to its reputation as a merchant family. The outer study of this bedroom alone was nearly a hundred square meters – and that's a hundred square meters without any shared common area!
Not to mention the bedroom inside.
The room didn't have much furniture, just a long desk, three chairs, a low table, a cabinet, and two bookshelves, with a clean carpet underneath.
Walking to the corner by the fireplace, he reached out and opened the box next to the fireplace, which was full of high-quality silver-scarred charcoal, the kind that wouldn't produce any smoke when burned.
A section of silver-scarred charcoal the length of an elbow cost 1 denarius, and the value of this box of charcoal was 1 gold pound.
The furthest point from the fireplace was the two bookshelves. Horn's eyes lit up as he scanned them, and he strolled over to the bookshelves.
The books in these two bookshelves were neatly arranged, twenty books on each shelf, no more, no less, five layers in total, totaling two hundred books on both bookshelves.
Seeing that Catherine wasn't coming out after so long, Horn's reading addiction flared up again.
He casually picked out a book titled 'The Biography of Charlemagne,' tucked it under his arm, and began to read it aloud in the sunlight.
"…I know he loves you so painfully, so painfully, and I also know you love him so… hiss, this, this is freaking 'The Biography of Charlemagne'?"
"Thump!" A clear sound of falling came from behind the door of Catherine's bedroom. Amidst the hurried footsteps of "thump, thump, thump," Catherine, with a purple bruise on her forehead, burst open the door.
She was barefoot, wearing a snow-white nightgown, not even having time to put on a bra, and charged over in one wave after another.
Seeing Catherine rushing towards him like a runaway truck with bloodshot eyes, Horn was so frightened that he took three steps back, dropping the book in his hand.
Pouncing on the book to pick it up, Catherine, with hands moving like afterimages, hid the 'Biography of Charlemagne' behind her back and roared in exasperation, "Did no one tell you that you can't rummage through a lady's study?"
"I just wanted to find a book to pass the time. If it were sensitive private books, of course, I wouldn't flip through them, but the book said 'The Biography of Charlemagne,'" Horn scratched his scalp, pretending not to understand, "It's just that I've never seen this version before, let me take a look."
"No, you're not allowed to look."
"Don't be so stingy, I didn't do it on purpose. Otherwise, you can give me another one, are there any others? Let me see."
"Not allowed to look." Seeing that Horn actually had a tendency to walk towards the bookshelf, Catherine hurriedly pounced to the side of the bookshelf.
She faced Horn, spreading her arms, sticking out her butt, and raising her head, as if she were a hen protecting her chicks, blocking Horn, her face flushed red, panting heavily like a protective old cow.
"These two hundred books of yours, they wouldn't all be romance novels, would they?" Horn looked at Catherine's flushed face with a playful smile, "Quite the girlish heart."
"Bullshit! They're all proper books."
"Then give me one to look at."
"Impossible, these are my personal books, no lending allowed!"
Her amber eyes stared at Horn, her moist eyes both shy and angry, like an angry fawn, the blush on her cheeks already spreading from her earlobes to her snow-white wrists.
Despite being thirty-one years old, Catherine's appearance as a young woman and her voluptuous figure were accompanied by a demeanor and shyness as if she were a young girl.
Seeing that Catherine's red temperature was approaching the warning limit, and even weeds and new shoots began to sprout in the soil of the flower pots on the windowsill, Horn raised his hands high and took a step back:
"Okay, okay, romance novels aren't rare, everyone has hobbies. Jeanne also bought a large box of ranger comics and even talks in her sleep."
"Who said they were romance novels, you must have seen it wrong."
Resentfully returning the book to its place, Catherine stood in front of the bookshelf, panting for a minute before forcibly suppressing the blood pressure that had surged into her brain.
Afraid that Horn would once again launch a surprise attack on the bookshelf, she didn't continue changing her clothes, but instead tightened the straps of her nightgown at the chest, barefoot, and plopped down behind the desk.
Ignoring Catherine's resentful gaze, Horn continued to look around, as if he had some aesthetic insight into the decoration.
The newest novels are first published at 69 books!.
"What were you going to talk to me about?" Horn took the initiative to ask Catherine.
Although he had a preparation in his mind about what Catherine wanted to say, Horn still let Catherine speak first.
Pulling out a drawer, Catherine, who had finally calmed down, took out a notebook and tossed it to Horn with a flourish:
"Thirty years ago, Rapid Falls City was known for its textile and dye industries. After my arrival, the banking and financial industries began to flourish.
Currently, there are 20 firms in Rapid Falls City engaged in banking and currency exchange, and I hold controlling shares in 12 of them.
Of the remaining 8, 5 have formed an alliance and are struggling to survive, while the other 3 are my allies, branch industries of old merchant guilds, so I haven't touched them.
According to my estimate of the 5 allied firms, the total number of gold pounds in circulation among the 20 banking guilds in Rapid Falls City can reach 250,000."
One person, one merchant guild, controls three-quarters of the banking industry in Rapid Falls City, and even occupies half of the market itself. This is basically a monopoly.
No wonder it is said that Catherine is the actual controller of the banking industry in Rapid Falls City. This is a big tycoon.
Crossing his legs, Horn placed the ledger on his lap, opened the pages, looked at it seriously for a while, then frowned slightly and unconsciously read aloud, "…The prince's hand caressed the singer's chest…"
"Ah!"
Catherine's face flushed red again. She screamed, jumping up on the spot, and pounced over from the desk, ink bottles, quills, and scrolls falling all over the floor.
Snatching the ledger from Horn's hand, she held it tightly in front of her chest.
Catherine, her face completely red, lowered her head with lingering fear, wanting to see which book it was.
But when she opened it, she only saw rows of dense numbers and words under the cover of the ledger.
In Catherine's increasingly dangerous gaze and increasingly rapid breathing, Horn laughed sheepishly, "Just kidding, don't be angry, cough cough, so the city of Rapid Falls has 250,000 gold pounds buried in its warehouses?"