Ever since the Yun Family’s ancestral master failed in his attempt to peek at the Eastern Emperor Taiyi, rumors had already spread among the common folk that the Yun Family was no good family. Their ancestral master did things like a thief—how good could the descendants be?

What Chang’an people now most enjoyed watching at night was the Yun Family’s ancestral master fleeing in a sorry state. Served him right for being dealt with by the sun! The Yun Family ancestral master’s size grew smaller and smaller, his starlight increasingly dim. He no longer had the domineering aura of crossing the Milky Way from a few days ago. Justice defeating evil had always been a topic people loved to discuss. Seeing Yun Ye stripped of all his official positions by the wise and sagacious Emperor, countless brilliant personages all sighed: “The Way of Heaven is the Way of Man!”

The tragic Linghu Defen family was just short of crying out their grievances on Vermillion Bird Avenue. They rallied countless moral personages to begin verbally and literally attacking the Yun Family. The small leaflets pioneered by the Yun Family were of course indispensable. For a time, the Yun Family almost became rats crossing the street that everyone shouted to beat.

Yun Ye was clever in that his whole family didn’t live in the city. If Chang’an’s idle people dared to run to the Yun Family estate to make trouble, the result would be broken legs. So no matter how much clamoring there was in Chang’an city, Yun Ye lived carefree days on the Yun Family estate.

Yun Ye wasn’t the Dou Family, nor was he the Linghu Family. He knew how to deal with this kind of scene of public indignation—cold treatment. As long as this wave passed, all would be well. At worst, he just wouldn’t go to Chang’an recently.

Yun Ye was enduring, but those who hoped for the Yun Family’s downfall refused to quiet down. Countless memorials piled up on the Emperor’s desk. Inside was only one content—strip the Yun Family of their noble rank.

Pig teammates! Wei Zheng was so angry he stamped his feet. The Yun Family held a hereditary marquis title with an iron certificate of immunity. This was the most basic foundation stone of a nation. It could only be awarded for extraordinary great merit. The Yun Family’s conferment as hereditary marquis didn’t rely on flattery—there were real and substantial achievements. Conquering Goguryeo, killing water bandits—these achievements weren’t unusual. Randomly pull out a fierce general from court, and the merit on his person wouldn’t be less than the Yun Family’s. But as long as the Great Tang’s people still needed to eat potatoes and corn for one day, the court couldn’t forget the fundamentals.

When the title was originally conferred, not a single civil or military official in the full court had objections. When potatoes began large-scale planting in the Great Tang, the court changed the Yun Family from Marquis to hereditary Marquis—this was also proper meaning. Wei Zheng himself was a witness to the ceremony. How could this be refuted?

They had great merit to the nation and to the myriad people. Could they not even give the Yun Family the last bit of dignity? How would the Emperor who originally rewarded the Yun Family justify himself? Moreover, in the Emperor’s view, Yun Ye was taking the blame for him and may not have done anything wrong. It was only due to pressure from the court that he was forced to act.

Now the best method was for everyone not to mention the Yun Family, letting the Yun Family’s reputation slowly rot in the people’s curses, letting the Emperor gradually forget Yun Ye’s existence. The Great Tang had myriad complex affairs—the Emperor couldn’t constantly focus on one person. Attacking the Yun Family in a group like this now would only make the Emperor feel disgusted.

Sure enough, during morning court, on the Emperor’s dragon desk sat a potato and an ear of corn. When ministers impeached Yun Ye, the Emperor showed them the potato and corn, asking if their families had planted them. If they had planted them, why had they forgotten such kindness and turned their backs to push a meritorious official to death?

No one could get around these two things. Not only did the Emperor not strip the Yun Family of their noble rank, he instead conferred the Yun Family’s eldest son Yun Shou as Captain and the second son as Cavalry Captain.

The court fell silent, but Chang’an marketplace spread the news far and wide. The Yun Family’s history of rising to prominence was exposed piece by piece, item by item, in broad daylight. Their sinister viciousness and methods of scraping the ground three feet deep left people dumbstruck. Good heavens! Being neighbors with such a family was sinful!

Han Fulu, owner of a general store in Pingchang Ward—since Daxing City was built, his ancestors had operated a general store in Pingchang Ward. Although they couldn’t be greatly wealthy and noble, they could still be clothed and fed without worry. In daily life, they built bridges and repaired roads, never fell behind others, and were especially praised by everyone for being good neighbors. By rights, such good people should be blessed by heaven.

Unfortunately, Yun Ye wanted to open a general store in Pingchang Ward, named Convenience Store. The general store of good old Han Fulu blocked their path to wealth. If Yun Ye had used his power to pressure people, naturally the authorities would have cried injustice for Han Fulu. Hatefully, that Yun Ye used skills learned from foreigners, stubbornly using methods of buying high and selling low to force Han Fulu into a dead end.

Three months—in just three months, Han Fulu’s general store had no customers. The pitiful honest man, forced without options, could only hang himself. Convenience Store took the opportunity to purchase the general store at a low price. Before long, Han Fulu’s wife and children had no choice but to sell off family property and seek refuge with relatives. To this day, their whereabouts are unknown—truly worrying…

Yun Ye held such a small leaflet and read it with relish. Reaching the clever parts, he couldn’t help clapping in praise. He truly had to admire the wisdom of the ancients. Attacking by generalizing from a single point, not mentioning a single word about Convenience Store’s achievements, only talking about how miserable that general store owner was, making people sympathetic. He estimated that by now, all of Chang’an had no good feelings toward the Yun Family.

In a society based on human relationships, reputation was more important than life. They definitely hadn’t told lies. Han Fulu must really have existed and definitely hanged himself. What they said were all facts—they hadn’t lied. Even if you tried to refute it, you had nowhere to start. You could only make things darker the more you tried to clean them. This thing was clearly from an expert’s hand at first glance.

He Shao, who had hurried back from Yuezhou, now sat in a chair drenched in sweat, anxiously looking at the smiling Yun Ye and saying: “Marquis Yun, continuing like this is not a solution! Although you’ve already sold your shares in Convenience Store, please, for the sake of past friendship, help me one more time. I, Old He, truly have no way to deal with such a situation.”

“If it were matters in the business field, feel free to leave them to me. But now this matter isn’t business anymore—it’s become about moral righteousness. If it were one or two people talking, it wouldn’t matter. Now the entire city’s common people are saying this—the trouble is huge. How about we withdraw?”

“Why is that? If you withdraw, they’ll be overjoyed—they can take advantage of the opening. If Convenience Store wants to make a comeback, it will be difficult. Besides, was it easy for us to advance this far? Why should we retreat?”

“But now public sentiment is激奋. Many people have crowded to the shop entrance to curse at us.”

“Old He, for someone who’s a veteran in the business world, you still can’t see what they’re trying to do?”

“Marquis, aren’t they just trying to fundamentally defeat you?”

“You could say yes, you could say no. Their ultimate goal is actually to increase their own strength. Authority is one kind of power, money is another. They want to attack me while conveniently achieving the goal of making money. So, once you withdraw, they’ll enter the market. This goal is obvious—they want us to retreat so they can enter.”

He Shao’s small eyes immediately narrowed to slits. As soon as business was mentioned, he always had this appearance. He couldn’t stand being oppressed by others. These years of doing business unobstructed had cultivated the aura of a commercial overlord.

“They think this business is something anyone can do? Without following behind to study properly, they now want to swallow us in one bite? Fine! Since the Marquis says this is business, then I, Old He, will bring out business methods to fight with them.”

“What do you plan to do?” Yun Ye put down the leaflet, looking at He Shao with interest.

“They’re coming on strong—I’ll just yield. What’s most valuable about Convenience Store isn’t the general stores in the wards, but the spider web-like supply channels. Originally, those merchant caravans going to foreign lands and other regions have begged me countless times, wanting to haul goods to other places to sell. To prevent gaps appearing in Chang’an locally, I didn’t agree. As you know, Chang’an’s goods are always in short supply in other regions.”

“This time, we’ll call the fleet over from the sea and transport all of Chang’an’s goods to other regions. Convenience Store locally in Chang’an will no longer stock goods. These years, to make things convenient for Chang’an people, we’ve already lost too much profit. Now we’ll take the opportunity to make a fortune. Not only will this batch go to other regions, but all future goods will also go entirely to other regions. I want them to open their shops but have no goods to buy.”

“They’ll always find goods. You can’t control their supply sources in Chang’an.”

“Marquis, we truly can’t do it, but silver coins definitely can. Shipping to other regions, our profit will be at least forty percent more. I’ll take out twenty percent of that to distribute to the workshops. Do you still think we have no way to control supply sources?”

“Anyway, you’re all fighting with your capital. It depends on your skill. Oh right, from the day you launch, Lantian County will organize farmers who grow winter vegetables to come to the capital to sell vegetables. This way the common people can also earn a couple more coins. Those vegetables won’t be sold to Convenience Store anymore. Also, Yuezhou is now extremely short of chickens, ducks, pigs, and sheep. Some time ago, Master Guan asked me to think of ways to transport more over. Yuezhou is quite prosperous now and doesn’t lack money. You go do it.”

He Shao came in drenched in sweat but left with chest out and head high. Experts naturally had an expert’s dignity. This dignity also couldn’t be violated. When people fight on principle, they won’t consider consequences.

Chang’an workshops’ production capacity was already severely insufficient. Moreover, the best products all came from the Yun Family estate. This estate that now stretched for three li—rather than calling it a farm, you might as well call it a sizable market town. The county seats of outlying areas, few were as large as the Yun Family estate. Almost all of the Yun Family’s wasteland had already been covered by houses in uneven rows. Those who bought land were all craftsmen. The reason was that the Yun Family estate was the largest raw material supply base.

Yun Ye reclined in his lounging chair with a blanket over his knees, holding a book in his hands. He had always been full of interest in the “Classic of Mountains and Seas.” The strange and bizarre things in it fascinated him. No one knew better than him how difficult it was to imagine a strange beast or an unusual landform out of thin air. If you don’t believe it, think about it now in your head—try to come up with any new thing that can’t be mixed with other species, and see how difficult it is.

Yun Ye didn’t think he had this ability. The more you’ve seen, the greater the difficulty of creation. So now tracing back to the source and reading the “Classic of Mountains and Seas” was also endlessly interesting. Such leisurely days were truly rare for Yun Ye.