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The temperature in Jiangnan was a great deal warmer than in Jingdou. Although it snowed heavily earlier in the year in Suzhou and Hangzhou, the snow clouds in the sky were pulled by the seaside directly into the interior of Qing Kingdom and buried all the farmlands, rivers, and valleys under snow. Once the beginning of the year passed and winter reached its end, the snow in Jiangnan stopped and the sun came out. The snow melted and immediately lost its chill.

The trees outside Suzhou even sprouted new tender growths early.

Ming Qingda, the current master of the Ming family and known as the wealthiest merchant in the world, was sitting inside a little pavilion in the Ming garden. His gaze surpassed the high garden walls and landed among the tender growths in the trees. Although the walls around the garden were very tall and became a tightly defended fortress once the doors were closed, these high walls could not stop his gaze or hide the frail but gradually growing signs of spring.

Although it was winter, he still anticipated the spring.

Ming Qingda let out a breath. A glimmer of radiance appeared on his tired, old face. He thought happily that winter was about to end. The flowers and trees were going to come alive again. The Ming family, this giant Ming family, should also be coming alive again.

Within a year, the Ming family had experienced too much misfortune. The enormous fortune they earned each year in the past from the palace treasury had been cut by half, and their various trade routes were being endlessly harassed by the Overwatch Council. The flow between goods and cash was difficult. There was a gradual sense of impending doom.

Furthermore, the old matriarch, who had been secretly managing the Ming family, had been “forced to death” by the imperial envoy, the Third Ming master had almost been exiled, and there was suddenly an extra Seventh Ming who wanted a piece of the family fortune.

Numerous attacks fell on the Ming family and made it difficult for Ming Qingda to breathe and survive. He knew that the person behind all of these things was the Emperor on the dragon chair. The person carrying out these things was imperial envoy Fan Xian, who appeared warm but had sinister thoughts. Fortunately, in this half a year, Fan Xian had mostly stayed in Hangzhou and played around in Wuzhou and Danzhou. He rarely returned to the Suzhou palace treasury to oversee matters. In particular, during the two months around the end of the year, Fan Xian had left Jiangnan and returned to Jingdou.

After Fan Xian left Jiangnan, the dark cloud over the Ming family also moved away. Although the Jiangnan branch of the Overwatch Council continued to work hard to carry out Fan Xian’s orders to put pressure on the Ming family business, the Ming family had deep connections in Jiangnan. There were countless officials who extended a helping hand in secret, so the Ming family business had immediately come alive again and welcomed a rarely seen liveliness.

That was why, earlier, Ming Qingda sighed happily as he looked at the new growth outside the garden walls.

However, his face immediately darkened because he suddenly realized he had let the joy get to his head. Spring was here, trees were sprouting but...the imperial envoy was coming back.

His mood immediately became gloomy. He stood up angrily. He shook his sleeve and walked toward his own courtyard. Ming Garden took up an expansive piece of land. Most of the men lived in the garden. According to tradition, after the old Ming matriarch died, Ming Qingda, the master who truly held the speaking power, should move into the old Matriarch’s courtyard that was in the highest position in the garden. However, Ming Qingda resolutely refused to agree to the discussion in the clan. As an excuse, he said he missed his mother and turned the courtyard in a memorial hall.

He knew why he didn’t move into that little courtyard. He was afraid that once he woke up in there, he would see a white cloth tied to the beams and a pair of endlessly kicking little feet.

That morning, he had dealt with matters from the trading companies and country estates owned by the clan. Ming Qingda had picked up a boiling hot towel and rubbed it vigorously over his face. He felt a tiredness that seeped out from his bones. This family was too big. There were too many things to worry about. In the past, he could easily handle specific matters as the head of the family because most of the direction and the collusion with the nobles in court were single-handedly dealt with by the old Ming matriarch, so there was no need for him to tire himself over it.

It was not the same now. He had to personally handle the secret communications with Jingdou. What gave him the biggest headache was that the imperial envoy had never stopped his attack on the Ming family. Outside crisis was imminent, and now there were problems within the Ming family. Through the lawsuit, Fan Xian had forcefully stuffed Xia Qifei, the vile spawn, into the family. Furthermore, he had heard that the Third Ming was recently very close to Xia Qifei.

In front of pressure from the court, there wasn’t much that Ming Qingda could do. He could only watch as Xia Qifei moved step by step closer to the nucleus of the Ming family. A month ago, on the first day of the year, he had actually watched with his own eyes as Xia Qifei returned to the clan and worshipped the ancestors.

With the internal problems and external crisis, Ming Qingda almost couldn’t hang on anymore. But, he had to persist. For the clan, he had to endure until the Eldest Princess succeeded.

He looked at the two people beside him and sighed in his heart. Beside him were a man and a woman. They were the people he now trusted the most. One was his son, Ming Lanshi, the other was once the old matriarch’s personal serving girl, his present second concubine.

If it weren’t for this serving girl, it would have been impossible for Ming Qingda to completely take over the old Ming matriarch’s secrets and become the true master of the Ming family. So, he had given sufficient compensation and love to this woman.

As for Ming Lanshi...Ming Qingda glanced at his son and furrowed his brows. He knew that Ming Lanshi was capable and had good judgement. However, the father and son recently had some major disagreements over the future of the Ming family.

In Ming Lanshi’s opinion, since the court was suppressing them so harshly and the palace treasury was firmly controlled by Fan Xian, it was already impossible for the Ming family to obtain a huge profit through the palace treasury like in the past. They should use this opportunity to gradually leave this business and use the Ming family’s large amounts of land and various networks to transfer into carrying out commercial trading between Qing Kingdom and Dongyi, no longer operating as the palace treasury’s royal merchants. In this way, the court and imperial envoy would be grateful, and they would be able to maintain the Ming family’s foundation.

However, Ming Qingda resolutely opposed this suggestion. Even though the Ming family was struggling a great deal right now, he still did not allow the clan to move away from the palace treasury at all and had the intention of developing toward a different direction.

The concubine left the front hall. Ming Qingda looked at his son and furrowed his brows. “Your suggestion last night...it can’t be done.”

“Why not?” Ming Lanshi asked unhappily. “Who can stand against the court? If we don’t pull back now...once Fan Xian returns to Jiangnan again, I’m afraid we won’t be able to pull back even if we want to.”

“What can Fan Xian do?” Ming Qingda glanced at him. “Can he move troops and have us all killed?”

“Who knows? The imperial envoy is the Emperor’s illegitimate child. If he truly acted without regard to the rules, who would he be afraid of?” Ming Lanshi knew that Fan Xian would not do such a thing but couldn’t resist saying it.

“We also have people in the Palace.” Ming Qingda furrowed his brows. “The empress dowager, the empress, and the Eldest Princess...could these people really not defeat an illegitimate child of the Emperor?”

“What about our business? If Fan Xian continued to do as he did last year...how much silver will the Ming family have to put in to make up for the losses?” Ming Lanshi asked aggrieved. “In the past, when we did business for the palace treasury, we could earn however we want. For every sale we make now, we lose money on another. When we bid for the lots, we set the price too high. It was impossible to make a profit. Plus, we are harassed daily by the Overwatch Council people. Father, if this continues, we can’t support it for long. In another three months, I think the clan will have to start selling land.”

“What are you anxious about?” Ming Qingda asked with disapproval. “We have to continue the palace treasury business. This is the Eldest Princess’ intentions. If we let go at this time, perhaps Fan Xian would let us go. But, how will we explain it to the Eldest Princess? Without the label of the palace treasury, the Ming family is like a fat piece of meat and could be eaten by someone at any moment.”

He didn’t notice that he had said this to his son a year ago.

“Then...we could at least send fewer goods to Dongyi and reduce our losses,” Ming Lanshi said, probingly.

Ming Qingda shook his head and resolutely said, “No! We can’t offend Sigu Jian...we still need Taiping money house’s cash.”

Speaking of cash, the father and son fell silent at the same time. Under the powerful suppression by the court and Fan Xian, the reason then Ming family was still able to stand tall and keep their large landholdings was completely due to their positive relationship with Dongyi, and the endless supply of cash from the Taiping and Zhaoshang money houses.

“What if...I’m saying, what if, Taiping and Zhaoshang felt that our family couldn’t handle it anymore and recalled their silver?”

“Recall their silver? The collateral we put up was land and the trading company.” Ming Qingda laughed coldly. “What will the money houses do with these things? Are they going to sell them? They can only continue to support us. Otherwise, all they take back is a bunch of dead things, things that are impossible to make money from.”

“What should we do?”

“Endure!” Ming Qingda stood up and slightly tightened his fists. He coughed and resolutely said, “As long as the Taiping money house and the Zhaoshang money house don’t have problems, we can endure. Fan Xian won’t be able to do anything to me.”

“How long will we have to endure?” Having watched the trials the clan had gone through this year, Ming Lanshi was finding it difficult to maintain his spirit.

“Until Fan Xian falls; until the Emperor knows he’s wrong.” Ming Qingda’s eyes were sunken. A glimmer of viciousness shone through his exhaustion. “Even if it’s two or three years, we have to endure. We have to wait until there is news from Jingdou.”

“There are too many areas in which this family needs money. We’ll probably have to continue moving silver from the money houses,” Ming Lanshi said worriedly.

“A portion of the clan was forcefully given to Xia Qifei.” Ming Qingda closed his eyes and calculated. “Even if the Third and Fourth, who were born of the concubine, had other thoughts, they don’t have much in their hands. Most of it is in our hands. As long as we don’t over borrow from the money houses, it will be fine.”

As a far-thinking businessman, although he didn’t think that the Taiping and Zhaoshang money houses would suddenly pull the rug from under their feet, he, who was always cautious, knew to keep the risk as low as possible.

The street in Suzhou that was full of money houses was not very long. The limestone streets appeared particularly quiet. The people who could come there had either reached some level of poverty or some level of wealth.

As the inheritor of the Ming family, Ming Lanshi belonged to the latter. When he quietly came to the green banner of the Zhaoshang money house, he was immediately respectfully welcomed in by the head shopkeeper.

Ever since Fan Xian had come to Jiangnan, the Ming family’s outside borrowing had increased, particularly in the case of the palace treasury bidding. The powerful and widespread Taiping money house was not able to provide so much cash on such short notice, so the Ming family had taken a risk and asked for help from Zhaoshang money house.

Unexpectedly, the Zhaoshang money house had worked very hard and delivered. This cooperation left the Ming family with a good impression. After carrying out a detailed background investigation, the Ming family confirmed that the source of the Zhaoshang money house’s capital came from the legacy of Shen Zhong, once the commander of the Northern Qi Brocade Guards, as well as a clan in Dongyi, and so the Ming family was assured.

The cooperation between the two grew by the day. They worked closely together. Other than the Taiping money house, the Zhaoshang money house had already become the Ming family’s biggest partner. In a year, the Ming family had borrowed over 3 million liang of silver from this money house.

Ming Lanshi was there to borrow money again. The two sides signed the contract and notary documents with great familiarity and completed each other’s paperwork.

An awkward expression suddenly appeared on the head shopkeeper’s face. He said, “Young master Ming, there is something I’m not sure if I should say.”

Ming Lanshi furrowed his brows slightly. His heart jumped. Had the Zhaoshang money house suddenly developed doubts of some kind concerning the Ming family?

As expected, the normal looking head shopkeeper probingly said, “These two months have been good, but I heard...the imperial envoy is about to return to Jiangnan.”

Ming Lanshi huffed coldly, thinking, The entire world knew that his family did not get along with Fan Xian. But if the Zhaoshang conference wasn’t scared before, why are you scared now?

The head shopkeeper smiled warmly and said, “The Ming family has been in the Jiangnan business world for a hundred years. Our small money house would not dare to suspect anything. However...I wish to remind the young master, there are plenty of money-making businesses in this world, so why fight with the court?”

Ming Lanshi’s heart jumped. This perfectly matched his desire to transfer the Ming family onto a different path. However, he was not the head of the Ming family. He suddenly developed a glimmer of suspicion toward the head shopkeeper. In front of this outsider, he wouldn’t say anything. He smiled slightly and said, “What business could be more profitable than the palace treasury?”

The head shopkeeper chuckled and didn’t say anything more.

...

...

After the Ming family carriage had left the limestone paved street, the head shopkeeper of the Zhaoshang money house bent his body slightly and returned to the strictly guarded treasury. The treasury housed cash and receipts from various sources. It was clear that the head shopkeeper was careful with the Ming family’s borrowing slip in his hand. He carefully placed it in a separate wooden compartment and glanced inside.

Inside was a very thick stack of receipts. If Zhaoshang money house forced the Ming family to return the money right now and would not break a deal with the court and pull out from the palace treasury business, they could only sell off their abundant family property to return the money.

Of course, the Zhaoshang money house would not do such a thing.

The head shopkeeper suddenly thought of something and smiled at his assistant by his side. “How much silver has the Sixth Ming master borrowed?”

“It has already surpassed the limit.” The assistant spoke respectfully. He was very admiring of the head shopkeeper’s methods because he knew that, at this moment, the Zhaoshang money house actually already owned almost half of the Ming family. Although the value of the Ming family property was far more than this, for things such as wealth, once it was reflected on a receipt, at a rather clever moment, it would always shrink a great deal.

“That guest...he brought the seal?”

“Yes.”

The head shopkeeper nodded and knew the master was preparing to act. However, wasn’t he not in Jiangnan yet?

In a side room in the back of the Zhaoshang money house, the head shopkeeper immediately saw the green banner and respectfully asked, “Sir, what should be done now?”

The moment Thirteenth Wang had entered Suzhou, he had come to Zhaoshang money house. He knew of the partnership between this money house and the Ming family, but he would never have guessed, no, it should be that no one in the world would have guessed, that this money house...was actually Fan Xian’s.

His lips tasted slightly bitter. He once again understood why his master took Fan Xian so seriously and why he had sent him to represent part of his attitude. He also knew that the words Fan Xian had said to him in that broken-down temple were not false. The Zhaoshang money house already had enough receipts from the Ming family. In this matter, he was only a debt collector...he couldn’t change this.

Even if he informed Dongyi and the Ming family right now, he still could not change the destined reality.

The Ming family was done for. More accurately speaking, before Ming Qingda knelt in front of Fan Xian, before he secretly killed the old Ming matriarch, before he used a mournful attitude to beg for the world’s sympathy and delayed Fan Xian’s thunderbolt...the Ming family was already done for.

Everything the Ming family had done was extra and a powerless struggle.

The reason Fan Xian had not made a move earlier was because he still had to deal with the pressure from Jingdou. He was taking action now because he knew that the nobility in Jingdou would not have the extra power to help the Ming family.

Thirteenth Wang furrowed his brows and wondered what Fan Xian would do to delay the Eldest Princess’ support to the Ming family,

“I don’t understand these things.” Thirteenth Wang sighed. “When are you going to collect the debt? I’ll go with you.”

The head shopkeeper smiled. A long time ago, he was a successful official in the Ministry of Revenue. Now, he was a successful high-interest moneylender. For such things as clearing shop, he was very good at it. “The owner still has some things to do in tandem. I’ll have to trouble sir to wait a few more days in Suzhou.”

Thirteenth Wang thought to himself, Fan Xian wanted to settle the accounts with the Ming family, the receipts alone would not be enough. What other actions did he have?

...

...

Fan Xian’s action in Jiangnan had begun early because he needed this time difference. The Jingdou action that would truly cause the Jiangnan action was slowly starting.

One day in February, the owner of the Dongyi cloth store, who was overwrought by the delays, finally received a piece of good news. The banknotes he had given out had worked. Tomorrow, yes, tomorrow, the embroidered cloths...could be delivered into the Palace.