Tie Ci raised her face to see an unfamiliar middle-aged man. He looked honest and reliable, but his eyes were very shrewd. She roughly understood what kind of person he was and beckoned, “Oh, it’s you. Come sit. The city gates closed today so we can’t get in. I’ll stay here for the night—didn’t expect you to come out.”
The middle-aged man smiled and came over, sitting down very naturally. The servant following him poured tea for both of them, smiling as he said, “They won’t let you enter the city, but they do let you leave. Haven’t seen Young Master for several years—you look even more spirited! Thanks to your grace in helping our manager escape his bond and finding a good teacher for our young master. Young Master Peng is doing very well with his studies now.”
This was reporting the other party’s surname. Tie Ci waved her hand and smiled, “We’re all family. How is Manager Peng lately?”
After exchanging pleasantries, Manager Peng naturally said he would arrange lodging for Young Master. The group left the tea pavilion. Just as they stood up, the tea guests at the next table called for their bill. The tea pavilion waiter was about to come over when suddenly another tall, fierce-looking man entered from outside, looking around for someone. Seeing a table of young men drinking tea, his eyes lit up and he went over to sit down.
Those young men looked at the newcomer in bewilderment. The newcomer sneakily pulled something from his sleeve under the table, showed it to everyone briefly, then quickly put it away, whispering, “Gentlemen, you look like people who know quality goods. Want the latest lightweight folding umbrellas from Gui Qizhai? You can’t buy these on the market if you’re not a VIP customer!”
The several well-dressed men exchanged glances and suddenly understood.
Oh, a scalper.
The recently opened Gui Qizhai in Kunzhou was famous for being “hard to reach the upper floor, with many rare items.” Not only did the second floor require reaching a certain purchase value to access, with every item upstairs being peculiar, but even the ordinary goods on the first floor had many novel designs that were hard to obtain. It opened to such popularity that the entrance threshold was crushed, so even the first floor began limiting daily customer numbers, requiring long queues. This popularity gave birth to a new profession—queuing and buying on behalf of others, or simply queuing all day to buy goods and resell them at high prices. Because there were too many people queuing, the latter was quite popular.
Therefore, when this man appeared, the several young masters immediately understood, put their arms around his shoulders, and began calling him brother while secretly negotiating prices.
Several tea guests who had originally planned to follow Tie Ci and the others out looked at each other, all feeling that table looked more like a clandestine meeting, so they all sat back down.
Outside the tea pavilion, Tie Ci, who had walked quite far away, found that surprisingly no one had followed and was somewhat puzzled.
Manager Peng smiled without looking back, “Don’t worry, the surveillance will be detained.”
Tie Ci knew that the managers of her master’s various commercial establishments were all shrewd people, so she asked no more questions.
Manager Peng didn’t take her to an inn, but brought her to a small courtyard not far from the city gates. This courtyard had a small wooden building with a platform on the second floor for drying vegetables and grain, from which one could see the city guards patrolling and forming ranks on the city walls.
Downstairs, the two sat facing each other as Manager Peng took out a box and pushed it toward Tie Ci with a respectful expression.
Tie Ci opened the box to see a black jade tablet with several letters carved on it. She flipped it over and saw “Valid for nationwide branch transfers and withdrawals” carved on the back.
Tie Ci was stunned.
This was a black card from her master’s commercial establishments, representing withdrawal authority from her master’s businesses. So far among her master’s disciples, only eldest senior brother and third senior sister had them. As far as she knew, the black cards themselves had different grades. At minimum, eldest senior brother’s black card had letters filled with pearl powder—black background with white letters—while this card had letters filled with gold powder, black background with gold letters. This should be the highest grade black card.
Manager Peng said respectfully, “Your Highness, from today forward, all personnel from Kaiyuan Commercial House’s thirteen shops in Yannan are at your disposal. Daily shop revenues are all here. The shops have prepared and you can withdraw half of all shops’ daily stored silver at any time. You can also use the black card to withdraw silver from our newly opened bank in Yannan. Previously, Elder Yun said the people here were wicked and the land barren, not worth coming to make money, so there aren’t many shops. If you need to deploy personnel and funds from surrounding Qianzhou and Huguang shops, there are also account books here. If you want nationwide shop totals, that would probably take some time…” He was about to pull out ledgers.
“Wait, wait.” Tie Ci interrupted his flow of words. “Why did Master suddenly give me a black card?”
She knew her identity was sensitive and had never intended to pry into her master’s commercial empire, fully understanding her master’s reservations. Among all dynasties’ crown princesses, she was quite poor. During those many years of palace surveillance, she couldn’t extensively develop her own enterprises or freely court wealthy merchants. Though Gu Xiaoxiao helped her establish and manage some businesses, they were mostly distributed in places like Central Province. But since she didn’t need to befriend important officials or manage relationships, being poor didn’t matter. The Crown Princess’s allowance and Xiaoxiao’s profit shares were enough for her expenses.
She hadn’t expected her master to suddenly let go and give her such a shock.
Not a surprise—a shock. Though her master seemed carefree and unrestrained, she was actually a cautious person with many secrets. Tie Ci dared say that even eldest senior brother and third senior sister, who spent the most time with her master, might not be clear about everything. Her master always seemed to maintain a sense of separation from this mortal world, transcendent and detached, observing the world with cold eyes. Though she cared about Tie Ci’s affairs, it was more as an observer. Tie Ci couldn’t think of any reason for her to suddenly change her mind. Even if she changed her mind about finding a successor, it shouldn’t be someone in the imperial family.
In the past, Tie Ci would have been moved to tears with gratitude. But now she suddenly remembered what Chazi had said to her in the Mo tribe valley.
At this moment she suddenly understood.
Not hesitating to undermine his own foundation to force her master to make concessions—this was that madman’s style.
She suddenly fell silent. Manager Peng thought she was moved by Elder Yun’s generosity and said with emotion, “Elder Yun’s feelings for Your Highness are truly incomparable…”
Even old commercial house hands like him were startled and internally disapproved when they heard this decision.
After all, they knew how vast Yun Buci’s commercial empire really was. Such a foundation would be perfect for assisting an emperor, but entrusting it entirely to an emperor—who knew if it might cause trouble in the future?
After all, everyone knew the imperial family was an abyss that could devour everything.
Tie Ci appeared wise and benevolent now, but once people controlled power, they would change.
However, it was said that when everyone pleaded with her, Elder Yun just laughed heartily, waved her hand, and said, “You’re overthinking. I’m the most powerful person in this world.”
Elder Yun’s speech was always scattered, but she never brooked defiance on key matters. Everyone could only smile bitterly and comply.
Manager Peng looked at Tie Ci’s turbulent expression, thinking she was immersed in emotion, and felt somewhat comforted.
In his view, these high-ranking people would always make false courteous refusals when receiving such gifts. He had prepared persuasive arguments, but after Tie Ci was silent for a while, she looked up and smiled, calmly accepting the box. “In that case, please thank Master for me. Indeed, I need the money and the people. I want to know how the Yannan Prince’s daughter heir and her brother are doing now.”
Manager Peng was stunned, then straightened his expression. “The daughter heir should have married the day before yesterday, but for some reason the date was suddenly changed. In three days she’ll marry out from the prince’s mansion to the Chang family in Huichuan. We inquired privately and it seems that on the wedding day, the daughter heir’s foolish brother suddenly escaped and nearly got out of the prince’s mansion, causing the wedding to be temporarily canceled.”
“Where is You Weixing now?”
“He should have been moved, but we haven’t found out where yet.”
“I want to enter the city with you.”
Manager Peng stood up. The servant behind him stepped forward, and upon closer look, Tie Ci discovered he was about the same height and build as herself.
She and the servant exchanged clothes. Tie Ci disguised herself as a servant and followed Manager Peng out. When passing near the tea pavilion, they saw a tall man being dragged out noisily by a group of people dressed as tea guests. The tall man’s hands were twisted behind him as he craned his neck and cursed, “What? Why are you arresting me? What’s wrong with me reselling some things?”
The secret agents disguised as tea guests said angrily, “Shut up! You’re disrupting our business and you still think you’re right!”
In the scuffle, Manager Peng and Tie Ci had already passed by them. Manager Peng even proactively greeted them with a smile.
At the city gate, because Manager Peng was bringing his servant, they smoothly returned to the city. Tie Ci saw Manager Peng stuff a package into the guard’s arms as they passed, and the man beamed as he accepted it.
Once in the city, they headed straight for Gui Qizhai. The long queue at the entrance amazed Tie Ci. Manager Peng led her around to the back entrance, introduced her to several capable assistants, then went to the front to handle business.
Soon, a carriage drove out from a courtyard beside Gui Qizhai, traveling along Kunzhou’s central axis on Tiannan Street. Passing Mirror Pool and circling Yijiang Bright Moon Tower and Narrative Ancient Tower, they could see the magnificent deep red gates of the Yannan Prince’s mansion, comparable to a royal palace, with endless deep gray high walls and towering arrow towers at the four corners.
Within two li of the prince’s mansion there were no buildings, only broad streets with prince’s troops stationed on both sides. Not only people—even a mouse scurrying across the street would be shot by hundreds of arrows simultaneously.
Carriages passing outside this cordoned street would also be seen off by murderous gazes, forcing passengers to frequently urge speed to quickly pass this unsettling section.
Normally such heavily guarded mansions would make people feel distant, but strangely, just outside this broad, empty street, small markets had gathered with many people setting up stalls selling rouge and powder, ready-made clothes and preserved fruits—everything.
Since the prince’s mansion was located in Kunzhou’s center at the most scenic spot, surrounded by one pool and three towers with crowds of visitors, especially out-of-town guests who inevitably came to climb Yijiang Bright Moon Tower for views, visit Narrative Ancient Tower to read, and eat insects at Jade Feast Tower, markets naturally formed here. Tie Ci had thought these three towers, being close to the prince’s mansion, would naturally be controlled to prevent spying on the mansion, but now it seemed these three places were open to the public without any restrictions.
Tie Ci sat in Jade Feast Tower on Hairpin Flower Street, looking down at the bustling streets below. From here she could see across this prosperous long street to the suddenly quiet cross street at its end, and the tightly closed prince’s mansion gates beyond.
At this moment, the gates suddenly opened.
Ordinary people couldn’t see clearly, but Tie Ci naturally could. Several people emerged from the prince’s mansion, surrounding a young man as they strolled leisurely toward Hairpin Flower Street.
The vendors on this street all seemed familiar with him, standing to greet him when they saw him.
“Young Master Nan is out shopping!”
“Young Master Nan, today’s porcini mushrooms are fresh—let me give you some!”
“Young Master Nan, try my fried cakes, just out of the pot!”
“Young Master Nan, Niunie made a new pair of socks and asked this old woman to give them to you!”
In the crowd, You Weinan, who was refined and clean with kind eyebrows and gentle eyes, smiled as he ate a piece of fried cake here and received a package of mushrooms there, very amiable without any airs.
His servant followed behind, collecting a large pile of handkerchiefs, belts, and towels in no time—some sent by others, some boldly thrown by girls from the street. You Weinan accepted them all with smiles.
One girl’s aim was off and her handkerchief landed on his face. He reached to remove it, smiled as he sniffed it, then casually wiped his face with it.
Good-natured laughter arose from all sides, and that girl’s face burned like fire.
Tie Ci heard several female guests crowding by the window, laughing and pointing, “Look, Master You!”
“Should call him Young Master You now! Didn’t they say the people’s petition has already been submitted to the court?”
“Exactly, exactly! Master You is so talented and good-natured—if he doesn’t become heir, who will? That fool? Or the daughter heir who’s about to become someone else’s wife?”
A burst of light laughter.
You Weinan walked along greeting people, obviously familiar with all the street vendors and on excellent terms with them.
Tie Ci leaned against the window, her gaze sweeping across his face that bore three parts resemblance to Weixing’s.
Fragmentary whispered words drifted on the wind.
“…today five hundred thirty-two people entered the street…outer city…four hundred eighty-nine…currently no suspicious…”
“Someone inquiring about the prince’s mansion…investigating closely…”
“All is well…”
In the crowd, You Weinan wandered the street like an ordinary tourist, always surrounded by people wanting to talk with him, making it impossible to tell who was giving him low-voiced reports.
Walking to the foot of Jade Feast Tower, You Weinan suddenly felt something and looked up.
Author’s Note: I originally wanted to take a break from daily updates today since I’m out of drafts and need to go out on business. But hearing about double monthly votes, I gritted my teeth and updated anyway. Double votes are rare, and maintaining daily updates is even rarer—how about a vote?