Hangzhou, West Lake.
As the saying goes, "Up above there is heaven; down below there are Suzhou and Hangzhou." The scenery of this place is truly beyond description. Even the air carries a cloying sweet scent, a mixture of money and rouge.
A luxurious painted pleasure boat swayed gently in the center of the lake. This boat was named the Lingyun Pavilion, meaning Reaching the Clouds. Just hearing the name, one would know that those who could sit on it were no ordinary people—they were people with ambitions to ascend to the heavens.
The sounds of string and bamboo instruments drifted from a private room on the boat's second floor, where several courtesans were playing the zither and flute. Sitting in the seat of honor was Xie An, the helmsman of the great Xie family. Holding a jade cup in his hand, he wore a smile that suggested everything was under his control, exuding an aura of absolute steadiness and composure.
Sitting opposite him was Wang Ruhai, the head of the Wang family. His face was covered in fierce, fleshy folds, and his large belly pressed against the table, making it wobble. Beside him was the head of the Ouyang family, Ouyang Feng, who held a folding fan to feign elegance, though his eyes darted around shiftily.
These three were the three great tycoons of the Jiangnan business world. Whenever they stomped their feet, the prices of goods across Jiangnan would tremble.
"Lord Xie, I toast this cup to you!"
Wang Ruhai raised his wine cup, his greasy face piling up with smiles.
"Brilliant! Absolutely brilliant!"
"Throwing those tens of thousands of acres of rotten land, along with those thousands of mouths to feed, all onto that Xu family girl at once. This trick of borrowing a knife to kill someone, combined with pulling the firewood from under the cauldron, is simply a stroke of genius!"
Wang Ruhai took a large gulp of wine, looking so pleased with himself that he was practically bubbling with joy.
"I heard that Xu Qinghuan, for the sake of those thousands of mud-legged peasants, has completely hollowed out the coffin money left behind by that old geezer Xu Youde!"
"Buying meat and handing out money, hahahaha!"
"Does she think she's the Savior Goddess of Mercy? I say she's a mud idol crossing the river—unable to even save herself!"
Ouyang Feng chimed in, waving the folding fan in his hand rapidly.
"Isn't that right! Thousands of mouths! Just chewing through rice every day will chew right through her little bit of fortune!"
"I bet that in less than three months, without us even having to lift a finger, those starving refugees will tear down the Liu Garden!"
"Three months? I think she'll barely last one!"
The private room was filled with an air of merriment.
Xie An took a sip of tea and set down his cup, his eyes revealing a hypocritical sense of pity for mankind.
"Ah, you two, don't say that."
Xie An sighed, though he was holding back a smile.
"Young people nowadays are just too arrogant. This County Princess Xu is still too young; she doesn't know the sinister nature of this world."
"She thinks she can do whatever she wants just because she holds an imperial sword? Little does she know that the business world is like a battlefield, where killing draws no blood."
Xie An stood up and walked to the window. Looking at the beautiful lake and mountains outside, he felt a surge of poetic inspiration.
"An ant trying to shake a great tree, ridiculously overestimating its own strength."
"Since she wants to be that tree-shaking ant, as her elders, we should just grant her wish."
Great poem! What a great poem!
Wang Ruhai and Ouyang Feng applauded wildly, their flattery ringing loud enough to shake the heavens.
"Lord Xie has brilliant literary talent! This imagery is absolutely superb!"
"That Xu Qinghuan is exactly that ant! We are the towering trees! What is she going to ram her head against?"
Just as the host and guests were enjoying themselves to the fullest, as if they could already picture the Xu family's bankruptcy and Xu Qinghuan kneeling on the ground begging for mercy.
With a whoosh, an eerie gust of wind suddenly blew over from the surface of the lake.
This wind was strange, swirling directly into the windows of the painted boat.
With a crash, the glazed cup in front of Wang Ruhai was blown right over by the wind.
Dark red wine spilled all over the table, dripping down the Sichuan brocade tablecloth.
Wang Ruhai shuddered in fright, his fat jiggling.
"Ouch! My wine!"
Beside him, Ouyang Feng hurriedly smoothed things over: "It's fine, it's fine! Shattered glass brings peace! This is a good omen!"
"It means we are going to shatter the Xu family!"
Hearing this, Wang Ruhai became happy: "Right, right, right! Shattered glass brings peace! This cup broke well, broke wonderfully!"
However, Xie An frowned slightly. For some unknown reason, his right eyelid suddenly started twitching wildly, twitching severely.
Just then, on the distant surface of the lake, a speedboat was rushing toward them like crazy. The boat was moving so fast that the waves churned up by its stern drenched the scholars and beauties on the neighboring pleasure boats.
"Is that our family's boat?"
Wang Ruhai squinted his eyes to look, then suddenly slapped his thigh.
"It's Lao Liu! The steward I sent to Jiangning to keep an eye on the Xu family's movements!"
"It must be good news arriving!"
Wang Ruhai stood up excitedly, the fat on his face trembling.
"It must be that the Xu family can't hold on anymore! The refugees have rioted! Has that girl Xu Qinghuan been scared to tears?"
"Quick! Let him come up! I want to hear the details! I want to hear how that girl cried for her parents!"
The painted boat pulled up alongside. That steward, Lao Liu, practically tumbled and crawled his way into the private room.
His hair was disheveled and his hat was skewed. The shoe on his left foot had flown off to who knows where, leaving him stepping on the carpet with one bare foot.
His face was covered in sweat, and his lips were pale—he was terrified.
"Master! Oh, Master!"
As soon as Lao Liu entered the door, he fell to his knees with a thud, his whole body shaking like a leaf.
Wang Ruhai was thrilled, thinking that this steward was just overly excited.
He picked up a newly poured cup of wine and slowly swirled it.
"What's the panic? The sky isn't falling."
"Come, speak slowly. Let Lord Xie and Family Head Ouyang Feng be happy too."
"Is the Xu family's rice granary empty? Or have those mud-legged peasants rebelled?"
Xie An also turned around, wearing a smile of total control, rolling two walnuts in his hand.
"Young people suffering a little setback is a good thing. Speak, what exactly happened?"
Lao Liu looked up, seeing his master's glowing red face, and was on the verge of crying out loud.
Happy? Happy my ass!
Lao Liu finally managed to take a deep breath, and then roared, "Master! Things have gone terribly wrong!"
"That female demon Xu Qinghuan! She put up a sign!"
Wang Ruhai was taken aback for a moment, then burst into loud laughter.
"Put up a sign? What kind of sign? A contract to sell herself? Hahahaha!"
"I told you she wouldn't be able to hold on! How many days has it been?"
Lao Liu shook his head desperately, his voice cracking as he shouted: "She's not selling herself! She's selling cloth! Selling cotton cloth!"
"The Jiangning Number One Cotton Factory has shipped its goods! An overwhelming amount of cotton cloth! It has completely piled up the docks!"
The air suddenly fell silent for a second. Wang Ruhai's laughter came to an abrupt halt.
Xie An's hand, which was rolling the walnuts, also stopped.
"Selling cloth?"
Wang Ruhai frowned, his face full of disdain.
"Relying on tenant farmers? How many bolts of cloth can they spin? It's probably just that shoddily made homespun cloth, right?"
"That kind of garbage, no one would even pick it up if you threw it on the street!"
"The cloth from our three families are premium goods produced by thousands of weaver girls working day and night! What does she have to fight us with?"
"I think she must be driven crazy by poverty."
Ouyang Feng also chimed in from the side: "Exactly! Even if she sells cloth, how much money can she make?"
"Right now, cotton cloth is in short supply on the market, and we've hyped the price up to eight hundred coins a bolt."
"With her kind of goods, selling it for four hundred coins would be the absolute maximum!"
Hearing these big shots still bragging so arrogantly, Lao Liu slapped his thigh in anxiety.
"No, Master!"
"It's not just a few bolts! It's tens of thousands of bolts! And they are still being shipped out continuously!"
"I also looked at the cloth. It's fine and dense, even better than our family's top-grade goods!"
"The most crucial thing is..."
Lao Liu swallowed hard, his eyes filled with fear.
"She... she, she set the price at..."
"How much?" Wang Ruhai was growing impatient. "Stop beating around the bush! Four hundred coins? Don't tell me it's three hundred?"
Lao Liu squeezed his eyes shut, held up a single finger, and roared:
"One hundred coins!!!"
