Li Anlan took her son from Madam He’s arms. The little fellow immediately burrowed into her embrace, his chubby little hands scratching across her face. She intimately placed her son’s little hand in her mouth, and mother and son babbled alien-speak together. Liu Jinbao swept his gaze around the room once, then pulled open the door and went out. A room full of women—it wasn’t appropriate for him to stay here.

“Madam He, you look very happy today. If there’s something happy, speak up so we can all be cheerful together.” Li Anlan loosened her clothes, preparing to nurse her son, while glancing at Madam He.

The head of the Yun Family servants who came to Lingnan to care for the young master was her. From the moment the child was born, she naturally took over custody of the child. No matter how angry Li Anlan became, it was useless. Even after being beaten twice, she still stubbornly watched over the child, not allowing anyone Li Anlan found from outside to touch the young master even once.

She was from a peasant background. Her husband died early, and relying on her fierce temper and strong physique, she had single-handedly raised three children. Now at forty years old, she was in her prime. Two of her own children had already married, and she had a little grandson. Her youngest child had come to Lingnan with Manager Liu to learn skills. Uneasy about her youngest son, when the Yun Family recruited servants to work in Lingnan, she was the first to sign up.

A widow raising children—without the Yun Family’s great care, who knew what her life would have become? Even getting a meal would have been difficult, let alone marrying off children? She would forever remember when her eldest son got married, Old Madam specially sent someone to deliver a pearl-studded necklace—the most precious gift she had received in her entire life.

On the day her second son married, the Marquis and the Young Madam came to her home to drink a cup of wine and eat a bite of food. When the Madam left, she removed a hairpin from her head and gave it to the new daughter-in-law, making the in-laws who had originally looked down on a widow’s family green with envy. The Marquis even kicked the groom twice, telling him to properly honor his mother and not learn from him to be a prodigal son, making all the villagers burst into laughter.

What kind of prestige was this? Which widow’s child’s wedding had a marquis and an imperial-titled lady come to celebrate? That hairpin was made of pure silver with a phoenix on it! If peasant families went to have such a hairpin made themselves, they would be dragged to the magistrate’s office for a beating.

Madam He, who had been strong her whole life, felt this life hadn’t been lived in vain. Her youngest son was naturally restless, not one to stay home. He most envied those Yun Family stewards who traveled everywhere doing business. She had swallowed her pride and, taking advantage of doing needlework for the Madam, asked her once. Unexpectedly, the very next day the Madam sent someone to take her third son away, saying he first needed to learn the family’s rules, then would be sent out to learn skills. When her youngest son left, he hugged her legs and wailed, making her both proud and heartbroken.

She could never repay the Marquis’s family’s kindness in this lifetime. The young master was the Marquis’s flesh and blood, a person of the Yun Family. Every time she thought about how the young master actually had the surname Li, she felt extreme contempt for the Princess. Not observing proper womanly conduct was one thing, but the Marquis didn’t refuse to acknowledge his own child—why not quickly give the child the good Yun surname, but instead insist on following the mother’s surname? Wouldn’t this make the child have his spine poked in the future?

“Reporting to the Princess, my third son came to the mansion today saying he learned to use the abacus. Manager Liu promoted him to clerk. This old woman is happy about this.”

Madam He naturally knew the Marquis had arrived in Lingnan and was staying in the guards’ quarters without going out. Earlier he had even held the young master, beaming with joy, kissing him again and again. The young master also liked the Marquis—first time meeting, not shy at all, even pulling the Marquis’s hair into disarray. Father and son had laughed and played for quite a while. This was the treatment the young master should have. The Marquis was very angry at those fellows who wanted to bully the young master. This time, if one or two of those fellows didn’t die, this old woman would take their surname.

Li Anlan only had suspicions. The Yun Family servants seemed to have become even more proud. They had originally looked down on the newly recruited servants of the mansion, and now didn’t even raise their eyes.

She would rather be a servant woman watching the child than be the head steward of the inner courtyard. Besides having eyes only for the young master, she didn’t care about anything else. Behind the scenes, she even secretly called her son “Young Marquis.” Was her title of Princess inferior to a marquis?

But this was also good. The child’s origins had become an open secret. For her to use the Yun Family’s power to govern the territory, the benefits were great. Although every time she asked Manager Liu for money he looked distressed, he agreed every time.

Thinking of these things, Li Anlan ground her teeth in hatred. Wasn’t it said that the Lingnan industries were all given as my stipend? Why can’t I touch them?

“Son, Mother has no money now. How about lending Mother some of your money?” Li Anlan looked at her son sucking at her breast in her arms and set her sights on her son. It wasn’t excessive for a mother to use a bit of her own child’s money, right?

The richest person in Lingnan wasn’t Feng Ang, nor was it Li Anlan herself—it was her nursing son. Thinking of this made Li Anlan proud. As the landlord, no matter who it was, they had to give this child a share. If anyone was slightly unwilling, Liu Jinbao would immediately lead people to kill their way to their door. A few days ago, the imperial family said they wouldn’t give the stipend anymore. Liu Jinbao stubbornly asked them for a personal decree from His Majesty or Her Majesty the Empress—if that wouldn’t work, an order from His Highness the Crown Prince would do. Couldn’t produce one? Then obediently give the money. Liu Jinbao had even stuck the knife into his own thigh. From then on, money flowed like water into the baby’s treasury. The imperial family hadn’t been able to out-stubborn Liu Jinbao because this fellow wouldn’t take the imperial family along when he went out to plunder other countries. Only he knew where some prosperous small countries were. For his own benefits, the head steward of the Inner Palace had no choice but to present the baby with a generous gift, far more than the stipend money, just no longer mentioning the stipend matter. The imperial family needed face.

The little baby heard some commotion, spit out the nipple, called out to his mother with a cry, then buried his head to nurse again.

Li Anlan nodded with satisfaction and said righteously to Madam He, “The baby agreed. Tomorrow prepare five thousand strings of cash and grain for me. I have use for them.”

Originally thinking she would be refused again, unexpectedly Madam He bowed and said, “Since the young master agreed, of course there’s no problem. This old woman will prepare it for you tonight. Would you like gold or silver? Our Lingnan has too few copper coins—we still can’t produce five thousand strings of copper cash.”

Li Anlan looked in astonishment at Madam He with her face full of smiles, then lowered her head to look at her precious son. If she had known getting money was this easy, what had she been doing all this time? However she interpreted what her son said now was fine! What on earth had happened?

“What happened?” Feng Zhiyong was also asking this question. He had fully blocked the news of the ox-head gold’s appearance—why were people all over the streets now discussing the ox-head gold? If the Feng Family wanted to monopolize the mineral vein, it needed to proceed in secret. Now that people all over the world knew, what monopoly? Lingnan now wasn’t the time when the Feng Family alone was dominant. Noble families in Lingnan were as numerous as dogs, running everywhere. They wished they could dig even the mountain hollows with hoes. The Feng Family could provoke one family but couldn’t provoke all of them.

The elder of Meng Village only said he had saved a Han man who was injured and near death. That man, knowing how to repay kindness, seeing the village had no food, gave the gold to Meng Village. Now he himself was in the village recovering from his injuries. To know where the gold actually was, they needed to ask him personally. The guest said that as soon as his injuries improved a bit, he would immediately come to Yongzhou. He planned to draw a map of the gold mine’s location and sell it to whoever could pay. Meng Village’s hospitality was famous—these words had some credibility. To avoid someone getting there first, all the wandering knights, vagrants, aristocratic families, and powerful clans in the city made an agreement—wait for that person to appear, and no one was allowed to act privately, or they would be jointly attacked.

Yongzhou City seemed calm on the surface but undercurrents surged. Those wandering warriors had also formed alliances to resist the aristocratic families and powerful clans. Even if the Feng Family had all the advantages of timing, geography, and people, they were helpless against these desperados.

In a dilapidated government office, Yun Ye sat in a room with half its wall collapsed, inviting the host to drink tea. It wasn’t that the host didn’t want to treat—he couldn’t afford to. Through the drafty partition wall, Yun Ye could even hear the faint crying of women.

“Old Liu! You’re considered a capable official. You were doing well as Lanzhou County Magistrate. I even heard two years ago you were going to be promoted. How the hell did you get promoted to Lingnan? And what kind of bird official is Recording Officer? Can you even be called an official when you can’t even get a meal?”

The down-and-out thin man before him was that county magistrate who in Lanzhou had eaten until fat and prosperous. Cheng Yaojin had praised this fellow, saying he was a capable talent who might have a place in the court in the future. Yun Ye had always remembered this statement. Now seeing Li Fulu, Yun Ye decided to never again believe Old Cheng’s words. He had a complete crow’s mouth—whoever he praised became unlucky. Thinking about how he himself had been praised by Old Cheng countless times, cold sweat broke out on his back. Were his own miserable days all praised into existence by Old Cheng?

“My—dear—Marquis—!” Liu Fulu roared out these words one by one, choking up and unable to say more. A grown man crying like a baby in its first month, sobbing convulsively—this wouldn’t happen unless he was aggrieved to the extreme. After finally waiting for him to finish crying, there was no time to talk. The food the guards were ordered to buy back was placed on the table that had lost a leg. Liu Fulu was like a starving ghost reborn, like a fierce tiger descending the mountain—his eating manner was unseemly. After eating for a while, his old face reddened. He carried the food from the table into the back quarters, and soon came out wiping tears again.

“Marquis Yun, whatever you command, Liu Fulu will spare no effort.”

Seeing Liu Fulu like this, Yun Ye also felt uncomfortable. After all, he was an old friend. Seeing him so destitute, he couldn’t help but feel sad for him. What crime had he committed to be exiled to such a desolate wasteland, turning a fat man weighing a full two hundred jin into a skeletal thin man? Only Wang Cai had this experience.

“Old Liu, what wicked thing did you do to receive such punishment? His Majesty is an enlightened sovereign—he wouldn’t punish someone so severely for no reason. Your current situation is only slightly better than having your entire family executed.”

“I’d rather have my entire family executed than bring my whole family here to suffer! Marquis Yun, would you believe? I only embezzled two hundred strings of cash, just two hundred strings! And that wasn’t even squeezed from the common people—it was grabbed from Hu merchants. Who could have anticipated that just when I was about to be promoted, the matter came to light? Then I came here, completely in accordance with Great Tang law, neither adding to nor reducing the crime, just following the cold letter of the law. I had grievances with nowhere to appeal. In the past, at most one would be dismissed and sent home. Who knew that for me, it would be exile to pestilential lands as an official, never to return home for life.” Having finished speaking, he began wailing again…