When the incident in Shunzhou first occurred, Han Yunqian had reminded his grandfather, Old Master Han, but Old Master Han hadn’t taken it too seriously at the time. Over the past few years, the Han family had maintained a decent reputation in Yanbei and hadn’t made any other enemies. Moreover, they were currently on the rise with their impending marriage alliance with the Yun family. Old Master Han simply thought the Lei family was secretly causing trouble, something the Han family had done to the Lei family plenty of times.

After problems arose with the northwest salt wells, although Han Yunqian had his suspicions, for certain reasons he didn’t mention them to his grandfather.

But subsequently, the Han family encountered difficulties with several more business ventures.

The Yun family had originally intended to use the Han family’s merchant status through their marriage alliance, with both families cooperating for mutual benefit. However, the head of the Yun family was an extremely cautious person. When the Han family encountered one problem after another, and the Yun family also suffered some losses, the Yun family head became alert and inwardly shocked.

Someone was targeting the Han family from the shadows. But now the Han family and the Yun family were tied together on the same boat. As the saying goes, you should respect the Buddha even if not the monk – there weren’t many families in Yanbei territory who dared to directly oppose the Yun family. Even Lei Ting, the head of the Lei family, had to show some respect to Old Master Yun and wouldn’t be so ruthless as to pit both the Yun and Han families together. Given the Lei family’s current power, even if Lei Ting had such ambitions, he didn’t yet have that capability.

Then this person behind the scenes…

Even the well-traveled Old Master Yun broke out in a cold sweat the more he thought about it.

The Yun family’s eldest son, Yun Wenting, had also detected the unusual nature of this matter early on. He advocated waiting and observing. After repeated deliberation and consideration, Old Master Yun temporarily suspended the cooperation arrangements previously made with the Han family.

If it were an ordinary family, they might have been so alarmed as to dissolve the engagement and distance themselves completely from the other party. Fortunately, the Yun family wasn’t ordinary. Yun Wenting and Han Yunqian remained close friends, and the Yun family had no intention of severing relations with the Han family – they simply wouldn’t discuss cooperation.

However, the Han family’s previously rapid development momentum slowed down due to the Yun family’s caution.

After Old Master Han came to his senses, he had been investigating to find out who was secretly targeting the Han family, but to no avail. The person behind the scenes would occasionally find opportunities to antagonize the Han family, making them suffer small losses and setbacks, and those who had business dealings with the Han family would also suffer as a result. But for some reason, this person behind the scenes never delivered a killing blow. Sometimes they could have been more ruthless, as if toying with the Han family like monkeys, but this very restraint made them even more formidable.

At this time, Old Master Han hadn’t yet realized that the methods used by the hand behind the scenes to toy with him were identical to those he had used to toy with the Ren family. Now the wheel of fortune had turned, except this person wasn’t as ruthless as he had been.

This continued until one day when another in-law family of the Hans, the Jiang family, sent someone. The visitor was Sixth Miss Jiang, Jiang Qianniang. Jiang Qianniang’s father, Jiang Yan, had become the Jiang family patriarch in the previous internal Jiang family struggle. He himself was also a capable person, so he quickly secured his position as patriarch.

Sixth Miss Jiang came to stay with her aunt’s family – the Han family. Her aunt, Jiang Shi, had married Han family’s Eldest Master as his second wife.

Regarding Sixth Miss Jiang’s arrival, Jiang Shi also felt somewhat surprised. Although Jiang Shi was Jiang Qianniang’s aunt, Jiang Qianniang’s father was only her cousin, and they were more than ten years apart in age. Their relationship was normally neither close nor distant.

So she hadn’t expected Jiang Qianniang, with whom she had little contact, to specifically come from Shunzhou to visit her.

However, Jiang Shi was a clever and shrewd woman who knew that the Jiang family’s main branch was now in charge. Since Jiang Qianniang said she came to see her, when facing this niece, she acted warmly and intimately, even personally walking to the second gate to receive her. Outsiders who saw this would think these aunt and niece had a very close relationship.

Jiang Shi wasn’t familiar with Jiang Qianniang. She was closer to Eighth Miss Jiang, Jiang Yuanniang, because before she married, she had lived with Jiang Yuanniang in a small building, the aunt and niece upstairs and downstairs, embroidering and chatting together to pass the time when they had nothing else to do. At that time, the Jiang family’s second branch was still in charge, but the shrewd Jiang Shi wouldn’t miss this opportunity to get closer to the main branch.

After entering the Han family and meeting the Han family elders, the aunt and niece closed the door and reminisced for an hour. No one knew what they discussed, but laughter kept coming from the room, sounding like they were having a pleasant conversation. When they came out for dinner, Jiang Shi’s eyes were slightly red.

Jiang Qianniang stayed at the Han family for one night. The next day, she said she wanted to visit some friends she had previously met in Yunyang City. The first person she wanted to call on was Ren Yaoqi, the Ren family young lady who had married into Yanbei Prince’s Manor.

After Jiang Qianniang and Jiang Shi left, Han Yunqian thoughtfully asked Hanyou: “Is Sixth Miss Jiang acquainted with Young Madam Xiao?”

Hanyou thought for a moment and said uncertainly: “They know each other, but probably aren’t too familiar. Speaking of which, the two Jiang family young ladies are more familiar with the Yun family young lady.” After saying this, Hanyou glanced at Han Yunqian.

Han Yunqian paid no attention to this, only frowning in contemplation.

When Ren Yaoqi learned that Madam Han and Jiang Qianniang had sent calling cards to Yanbei Prince’s Manor requesting to visit her, she wasn’t very surprised. She had them wait outside for a moment before having someone lead them to the small flower hall she used for receiving guests.

Xiao Jingxi’s Zhaoning Hall never received casual visitors, and Ren Yaoqi rarely received guests at Zhaoning Hall. She generally used the Yingya Pavilion in front of Zhaoning Hall. Yingya Pavilion wasn’t large – it had previously been vacant, but after Ren Yaoqi married into Yanbei Prince’s Manor, she had it cleaned up and used the main flower hall inside for receiving outside guests.

When Ren Yaoqi arrived, Jiang Shi and Jiang Qianniang had already finished half a cup of tea.

“Greetings to Young Madam.” Jiang Shi and Jiang Qianniang quickly rose to bow.

Ren Yaoqi casually supported Jiang Shi, who was closest to her, and smiled: “No need for such formality, please sit. I was just delayed and came late – please don’t mind.”

Jiang Qianniang smiled: “Young Madam is too kind. That you’re willing to see my aunt and me is already giving us great face.”

Ren Yaoqi smiled and glanced at Jiang Qianniang. She had decent looks and carried herself with the scholarly air of someone from a literary family, easily making people feel favorable toward her. However, Ren Yaoqi knew this girl wasn’t as harmless as she appeared on the surface – quite the contrary, she was very formidable.

Jiang Shi had a full, round face with willow-leaf eyebrows. Although her looks weren’t as striking as Jiang Qianniang’s and Jiang Yuanniang’s, she shared the snow-white skin of Jiang family daughters and was quite pleasant to look at. This was Ren Yaoqi’s first close contact with Jiang Shi, and her first impression was fairly good.

Jiang Qianniang was also secretly sizing up Ren Yaoqi. Compared to their last meeting, Ren Yaoqi had become even more striking. Although she didn’t have the dazzling beauty of her sister Ren Yaohua, she possessed a captivating elegance that made it hard to look away, with a particularly outstanding temperament.

Ostensibly, Jiang Qianniang had come to visit a friend today, but everyone present understood that Ren Yaoqi and Jiang Qianniang didn’t have any personal friendship, and Ren Yaoqi could have ignored their sudden request for an audience. However, no one in attendance brought up this point.

After chatting about the local specialties she had brought from Shunzhou, Jiang Qianniang said apologetically: “Actually, our unannounced visit today was quite presumptuous. Please don’t blame us, Young Madam.”

Ren Yaoqi looked up with a slight smile but didn’t respond, waiting for Jiang Qianniang to continue.

Jiang Qianniang pondered for a moment, glanced at Jiang Shi, then sighed: “Our Jiang family has been establishing schools in Shunzhou since our great-great-grandfather settled there. Speaking of Jiang Family Academy, although it can’t compare with Yunyang Academy, it has still benefited the local area and gained some reputation.”

Ren Yaoqi nodded: “Jiang Family Academy is indeed one of the top academies in Yanbei.”

Jiang Qianniang smiled bitterly and shook her head: “Yes, but that’s only surface glory. Our Jiang family’s ancestral rule states that no Jiang family descendants may engage in commerce, but the family’s clan lands and most of the family property are only passed to the eldest son of the main branch. Other Jiang family members can only rely on their allotted few acres of poor farmland or clan support to survive.” This was also why the Jiang family’s main and second branches had fought so fiercely.

Ren Yaoqi had heard about these matters and listened without comment.

Jiang Qianniang continued: “But the Jiang clan has four to five hundred members, most of whom are scholars with no practical skills who don’t engage in productive work. If they only relied on collecting rent from those few acres of farmland, most would starve to death. So later, the Jiang family came up with a compromise – they bought a large piece of land in the city and built two streets of shops, planning to rent out these shops for income. This way it wouldn’t count as engaging in commerce while still supporting more Jiang family members.”

At this point, Jiang Qianniang sighed: “This was originally a good thing, but unfortunately, we encountered some setbacks. The land my father bought for building the shops was purchased at a relatively low price, but now there are problems with that deed. It turns out the land belonged to three brothers jointly, and the two older brothers sold the younger brother’s share without his knowledge. Coincidentally, this younger brother recently sold his share again because he urgently needed money. Just as all the shops were nearly completed, we discovered that one-third of the land belongs to someone else. My father has been so worried about this matter that his hair has turned white.”

No wonder Jiang Qianniang’s father was anxious. He had been able to smoothly remove his uncle from power and assume the patriarch position because he had shown many clan members tangible benefits. This land was what he had originally convinced his grandfather to buy for building the commercial street. Now that there were problems with this land and some clan members’ interests would be damaged, his position as patriarch could become unstable.

“Can’t you find the other person who bought the land and buy back the land he holds?” Ren Yaoqi asked.