A thick stack of invitation cards lay on Yun Ye’s desk. After flipping through a few, he casually tossed them aside—no need to go. They were all extremely boring banquets. Going would only mean watching song and dance performances, drinking some wine, receiving a torrent of flattery, and appraising the beauty of the host family’s dancing girls. Yun Ye was long past being that young fellow who drooled at the sight of beauty. Having become a grandfather, Yun Ye believed he should learn to be more steady no matter what.

“Husband, you absolutely cannot skip the Liu family’s banquet.” Xinyue helped tidy the desk while speaking.

“Liu Zhengwu? He’s not in Chang’an. His younger brother isn’t qualified to invite me to his home.” Yun Ye leaned back, clasped his hands behind his head, and propped his feet up on the desk.

Xinyue had just finished tidying up when she saw Yun Ye mess it up again. Without any good humor, she came over and pulled his feet down. When she crouched down, her round bottom was very alluring, so Yun Ye’s hand habitually reached over to touch it.

Unexpectedly, Xinyue jumped away like a young girl, her face red as she said to Yun Ye: “You can’t do this anymore. If the children see, they’ll laugh themselves to death. We’re already elders.”

Yun Ye asked in surprise: “Elders can’t touch their own wives? What kind of reasoning is that? Precisely because I haven’t touched for several years, I need to touch more now. Come here—touching once won’t make a piece of meat fall off…”

Xinyue dodged far away, pointing at the invitation card on the desk: “Who said anything about Liu Zhengwu? This concubine is talking about Old Man Liu from the estate. Today is his great-grandson’s one-month celebration. He’s inviting you to drink wine.”

Yun Ye was even more puzzled, muttering: “He’s right next door. Just sending a grandson over to call me would do. Why go through the trouble of making an invitation card? All these empty formalities—with the money to buy an invitation card, buying the baby two more candies would be better.”

Needless to say, that bright red invitation card must be from Old Man Liu’s family. Only they would like this red-hot festive mood. Opening it for a look made him smile—the characters were well written, but what was with the handprint stamped at the end? This was the seal? Quite unique.

It was still early, so he lay in the reclining chair reading. Recently he’d been engrossed in the newly compiled “Classic of Mountains and Seas.” For instance, this passage: “Five hundred li further east is Chicken Mountain. Its peaks have much gold, its base much cinnabar. Black Water flows from there, flowing south into the sea. Within are 鱄 fish, shaped like crucian carp but with pig hair, sounding like piglets. When they appear, great drought afflicts all under heaven.”

He didn’t know if this creature had emerged into the world, but this year Guanzhong suffered severe drought. According to reports from the Ministry of Revenue, not only was Guanzhong suffering drought, but Shu hadn’t seen a single drop of rain this year either. In previous years, such severe drought would require the Emperor to issue an edict of self-reproach, but now Li Er merely said “open the granaries” and “sell grain at fair prices” with no further word.

The civil and military officials no longer inquired about this matter. Only the granary officials smiled from ear to ear—finally they could empty some granaries. Thus grain prices on the streets that had just begun rising immediately plummeted to rock bottom. No one knew exactly how much grain was in the government granaries. Every year new granaries had to be built. The Northern Great Granary had now completely become a world of grain. The reason for this was that common people were now quite clever—no one wanted to pay copper coins as tax, preferring to pay with grain. Suffering from this disaster wasn’t just the court—the Yun family granaries were the same. Xinyue greatly regretted not listening to Yun Ye’s suggestion back then to change grain payment to copper coins.

Now every three days someone had to inspect the grain in the granaries. Discovering even one moldy grain felt like the sky was falling. The Yun family wine workshops worked continuously but still couldn’t convert all their own grain into alcohol. Now the wine workshops opposite the estate had spread across the entire hillside. Half of the Yun family servants rotated to help at the wine workshops during the busiest times, yet manpower was still insufficient.

Chang’an was like a bottomless pit. No matter how much strong liquor the Yun family produced, it couldn’t fill Chang’an people’s bellies. As long as common people’s stomachs were filled, they wouldn’t rebel much. In recent years, Yun Ye hadn’t even issued a single decent bandit suppression document.

A delicate fragrance came from behind his neck. Yun Ye put down his book and stroked his daughter’s cheek with his backhand: “Don’t listen to your mother. You’re only eighteen years old this year—no rush to marry yourself off. Father still wants you to keep him company for a few more years. No hurry.”

“No hurry? Husband, other families’ daughters are already mothers at eighteen. By full count, Yun Lu is nineteen this year! Can’t you inquire around about which family has a suitable young man?” Na Rimu hurriedly walked out of the room to speak to Yun Ye.

“There are plenty of young men, but are there any my daughter would fancy? One by one racing horses and hunting with eagles, not studying properly, or else finding a leopard to crouch on their horse’s rump—I want to beat such fellows just looking at them. Still expect my daughter to fancy them?”

Xinyue had returned from the granary at some point and said with a laugh: “Back in the day, you were the foremost of Chang’an’s Three Scourges. Don’t go criticizing those young men’s profligacy. When it comes to being dissolute, who could compare to you few?”

Yun Ye quietly said something bad about Xinyue in his daughter’s ear. Yun Mu immediately covered her mouth to giggle. Xinyue pushed Yun Ye without good humor and urged him to quickly go to Old Man Liu’s house to offer congratulations.

Yun Ye walked ahead with hands behind his back while Liu Jinbao followed behind carrying two baskets of gifts. The roads on the Yun family estate had been completely paved, so there was little dust. The market in front of the gate had become a large marketplace over three li long, extending far to the foot of the mountain. That was the livestock trading market. Wang Cai loved going there and always wandered around the market watching the excitement. Seeing Yun Ye from afar, he called out and ran over. Yun Ye saw that the thin brocade on this fellow’s back had shifted, exposing a patch of red flesh, so he pulled the brocade back into place for him. Since they were going to a banquet, they’d go together—Old Man Liu’s fermented rice wine was excellent.

Farm family banquets had the best atmosphere. There were no half-naked dancing girls posing seductively. What you could see were the most simple, honest smiling faces. Though the faces were dark, their capacity for drink was good. The pot-head liquor produced by the Yun family was famously fine wine that other families couldn’t buy. Only when estate families held happy occasions or funerals and notified the wine workshop manager in advance could they obtain it.

Yun Ye downed three bowls in succession. Wang Cai wanted to drink but was slapped away by Yun Ye. Sun Simiao said this fellow had become a hot-tempered horse precisely because he drank too much alcohol, so now he was abstaining. Every day he also had to eat fresh medicinal herbs, which made Wang Cai suffer unbearably. No one in the entire Yun family estate would give him wine now.

Without wine to drink, Wang Cai began throwing tantrums and rolling around, raising large clouds of dust in the courtyard. The host family already knew Wang Cai’s problem—two young men held up a large curtain in between to prevent the dust from coming over. The guests laughed heartily and continued their toasts. Seeing his usual tactics didn’t work, Wang Cai obediently lay down behind Yun Ye and dozed off.

A string of small silver ornaments won the host’s delight. The host immediately hung them on the child, saying it would bring some noble fortune. After three rounds of wine and five courses of dishes, some white-bearded old men respectfully invited Yun Ye into the house to talk.

Knowing these people must have something to discuss since they invited him today, he deliberately didn’t leave, waiting for them to speak up. Estimating they themselves felt it was hard to say, their old faces flushed bright red. Unable to articulate anything coherent, they just kept inviting the Marquis to drink tea.

Yun Ye said with a smile: “Can’t drink anymore—drink more and I’ll have to visit the privy. Speak up. We’re all neighbors—what’s so hard to say? These years everyone’s days have been good. If you have any requests, just say so. We’ll discuss it together.”

Old Man Liu cupped his hands with a red face: “Marquis, by rights we old men shouldn’t harbor such sordid thoughts, but now it’s reached a critical point where we must speak. Since the Marquis says we’ll discuss it together, this old man will be thick-skinned and speak. If I say something wrong, please don’t hold it against this small person—just laugh it off.”

Yun Ye leaned forward: “Speak—I’m listening. Looks like it’s a big matter.”

“Marquis, you also know our estate has had good days these years. Every household has some loose silver. Accumulated over these years, it’s actually become no small amount. You also know this old man once buried copper coins in the pigsty, making everyone laugh for many years. Later, listening to your words, this old man deposited the money in banks. The first few years were fine—could get some interest silver. But these two years haven’t been good! Bank interest keeps dropping. Now depositing for a year is almost like depositing for nothing. So this old man wants to withdraw all the money and invest it in our family’s merchant caravans. Don’t dare request shares—just hope for a few more copper coins each year.”

Yun Ye was very surprised. In just these few years, these old farmers already knew about investing! Since the court’s several huge projects gradually completed, the banks’ loans had been steadily decreasing. Without loan interest, naturally deposit interest decreased too. He’d thought common people would just continue keeping money in banks, but unexpectedly they’d begun having simple investment ideas themselves.

Seeing Yun Ye deep in thought, Old Man Liu thought he’d overstepped and quickly said: “Marquis, don’t be troubled. This old man is just talking. Speaking of putting it in merchant caravans, naturally putting it in our family’s caravans would be appropriate. If it won’t work, just pretend this old man said nothing. I’ll go back and continue burying the money in the pigsty—watching it sooner or later is more reassuring.”

Yun Ye shook his head: “It’s not that I’m unwilling—I just didn’t expect it. You’re all familiar with the family’s merchant caravans. Many of your families’ children work as assistants in the caravans, so which caravan to invest in, you’ve presumably already thought through. Since this is so, gather up your money, go find Old Qian to register, and discuss with the Lady. Just say I’ve already agreed to this matter. Whether you want to invest in sea ships or pack trains is up to you. Think it through and then do it. But be careful! This isn’t like putting money in banks. The money earned certainly can’t compare to that bit of bank interest, but there are also times when it goes down the drain. This must be made clear in advance.”

Old Man Liu and the others chuckled. They naturally understood how it worked. What they wanted was simply to enter the Yun family’s commercial system. With this trade route, naturally some among them would wander everywhere along the commercial routes seeking their own opportunities to make their fortunes.