Joy of Life

Fan Xian’s chopsticks pushed the food around on the plate and picked out a piece of beef seeped in sesame oil. He placed to on his white rice before bringing it slowly to his lips. He chewed it finely, savoring the taste, and still did not acknowledge Ming Qingda kneeling at the side.

Ming Qingda was not a simple person. What this one kneel represented was also not that simple.

Fan Xian needed time to think.

Only when he finished thinking did he gently put down his bowl and chopsticks, and said, “Master Ming, your age is much more advanced than mine. How can I live with this?”

The imperial envoy’s hands raised him without effort, and Ming Qingda had to stand.

The conversation between official and merchant began calmly and seriously. Fan Xian looked at him and asked, “What did you want to explain?”

What kind of explanation could bring back the lives of Fan Xian’s subordinates? How could Fan Xian let go of the Ming family? Ming Qingda did not know and did not need to know. What he needed right now was for Fan Xian to temporarily let go of the Ming family so the clan and those in Jingdou could have the necessary time to adjust. The situation was too unclear. Even if he was going to be an opportunist, he had to know which way the wind was blowing...

He only hoped that his position was enough to have the imperial envoy let up the pressure a little, to have the imperial envoy believe that he had the strong desire to lean toward his side.

Fan Xian did not wait for this astute and circumspect old Ming master to reply and said, “You are not sincere, so it doesn’t matter if you defect.”

Ming Qingda’s expression was calm, but he sighed and said, “You won’t trust me.”

“It is not I who cannot trust you,” Fan Xian lowered his head and said. “You don’t even trust yourself. You’ve been on that boat too long. If you want to get off...it’s very difficult. You should be understand this, if you are still on that boat, the other people on the boat will always ensure your safety. If you come on to my boat, what will happen to the goods you left on the other boat?”

These goods were naturally not those goods. Ming Qingda also understood this clearly. Hearing Fan Xian’s words, he knew he would not be able to persuade this young imperial envoy. With a trace of exhaustion, he self-deprecatingly begged, “Please point me on a bright path.”

Fan Xian’s gaze remained among the dishes on the table. After some thought, he quietly said, “You have many brothers. I recently heard that...Master Xia in room B4 is also your brother?”

Ming Qingda’s expression did not change, but his heart began to hurt. The Ming family had followed Fan Xian’s enemy for too long. If they wanted Fan Xian to truly believe the Ming family was willing to fall to his side, he had be able to completely control the Ming family in his hands. Xia Qifei clearly was the pawn through which Fan Xian would control the Ming family. Switched with any other person, Fan Xian would not accept this agreement.

Fan Xian’s words were undoubtedly a condition for him. Only Ming Qingda could not accept this condition, no matter what. Never mind the fact that Ming Qing would never let go of his own family’s business, every time he thought of Xia Qifei’s cold eyes and the miserable whip scars beneath his shirt, his heart began to twist.

In the present situation, the Overwatch Council was on the attack while the Ming family was on the defense, and the Ming family was backing up step by step. Today’s price surge in the palace treasury bidding was on the first of a chain. Problems would follow on each other’s heels, and the Ming family would be shaken about by the wind and rain.

Only at this moment did Ming Qingda discover that this young imperial envoy was so cautious and conservative, severe and sinister in his bones. He was not moved at all by the enormous lure he had put out. What Fan Xian wanted was much more than what he was able to give. It was more than 400,00 liang. It was more than the future secret cooperation of the Ming family in Jiangnan. It was a rather egotistical and arrogant desire for complete control of the palace treasury’s production.

“Please, will Sir give us a way out,” Ming Qingda laughed bitterly and said. Earlier he wanted a bright path, but at the moment he could only ask for a way out. “If the last four lots go down like this, with the tens of thousands of descendants in the clan and countless servants on the sides, I fear that next year the family will not be able to feed them all.”

“The Ming family does not lack silver.”

Fan Xian looked at the master of the Ming family in front of him, and his approval of him grew in his heart. Clearly these were words to threaten him, yet they were said warmly and lowly, and did not pierce the ears at all. On the contrary, a comfortable smoothness shone through. “The four lots in a moment...it will be as if the Ming family has spat out the silver they swallowed in previous years.”

He inclined his head slightly and narrowed his eyes as he sized up the slightly declining looking Ming Qingda. In his heart, he guessed at what this master of the Ming family was planning to do. He said, “You should know about my past. I very much do not approval of the methods you used in the past to sell things. Of course, I am not an unreasonable bandit. As long as you do things more reliably, I will also be more reliable.”

The so-called reliability was referring to the incident last night.

Fan Xian used the tip of his chopsticks to knock on the edge of the porcelain dish making a crisp ding sound. “To hold the bowl like a dragon spitting pearls, to reach with chopsticks like a phoenix bending its head. To eat until mostly full, to pack away what is not finished...being a person is like eating a meal. The pose must be beautiful, and one must know one’s limits. This is good enough.”

Ming Qingda knew he would not be able to gain any more progress in front of this imperial envoy. Having received Fan Xian’s last words, his heart relaxed a tiny bit. Although he could not believe all of it, he definitely believed Fan Xian did not intended to force the Ming family into collapse. The other party still wanted to control the Ming family rather than destroy them.

To want to control the enormous Ming family...Xia Qifei couldn’t do it...mother couldn’t do it, only he could. Ming Qingda had this confidence. Because of this, he was definitely going to vomit blood for the last four lots. He understood that in the future, there was still space for negotiation with the imperial envoy.

Merchants were the least afraid of negotiation, haggling over the price was their forte.

Ming Qingda respectfully bowed to Fan Xian again and retreated.

Watching the Ming master of this generation’s slightly bent and slightly old looking back, Fan Xian once again placed his chopsticks gently on the table. He narrowed his eyes. Even now he still could not see Ming Qingda’s limits.

The kneel earlier represented a wealth of meanings. Surrender? To ask for peace? Defection? As compensation for last night’s incident? If the Ming family truly wanted to lean toward him, then this kind of public palace treasury situation today was actually the best place to show his true feelings.

The problem was that, Fan Xian did not believe, at all, that the old man would willingly surrender. He hadn’t finished playing his own cards, and the Ming family had not yet reached the end of their lines. If a big tree that was used to standing on the other side of the river wanted to uproot itself and move to this side of the river, the pain and sacrifice it would have to go through would be more than what the Ming family was willing to pay.

Why would the other party assume such a lowly stance? Above him, there was still that old matriarch. If the Ming family wanted to lean in a direction, this kind of important decision that affected all the futures of the tens of thousands in their clan, Ming Qingda did not yet have the power to make this decision alone.

Furthermore, this kneel was not in secret. Someone should have already seen, and it would immediately spread. Fan Xian’s eyes narrowed even further. Was the other party playing the pity card? In this world that has not yet produced Ah Bian, perhaps the pity card was still a viable move. But, to purposely kneel in front of others, how pitiful could this be?

If it had been a different official faced with the inclination that Ming Qingda had shown, they would definitely be secretly joyful. Only Fan Xian did not think this way. Just as Ming Qingda thought, he wanted too much, and the Ming family could not provide it. Furthermore, he had already prepared for this a long time. He had the confidence to consume the Ming family and was not here to accept the Ming family’s defection.

Since he was able to consume the Ming family regardless of the time, why would he still haggle with the Ming family to obtain their surrender?

It was not because he did not want to, or could not do so, in was because he disdained to do so.

...

...

The clean breeze seeped through the door and blew away the lingering smells of food in the courtyard. It also blew away a trace of the firecrackers scent on the heavy atmosphere that could still not be moved. Tension filled the courtyard, like millennia-old ice or a massive rock at the bottom of a river. The spring sun and wind could not melt it, and the large waves in the river could not move it.

The voice of the transport company official responsible for the announcements had become raspy, not because he had spoken too much or not had drunk enough water, it was only because he was nervous.

The merchants along the A and B corridors in each room could not remain seated. Separated by the lattice windows and standing within the high thresholds, they nervously watched outside.

There was still the bidding for the last four palace treasury lots. After two rounds of bidding, no one was still cheering. No one was even wiping away the cold sweat from their foreheads.

The Quanzhou Sun family, who had been scared by the Ming family in the morning, listened to the prices with a pale face. His eyes looked listlessly outside and was scared anew by those two crazy families. All the merchants felt that today they had their eyes opened wide, but at the same time, they had also been greatly shocked.

That was silver! How could the Ming family in room A1 and the Xia family in room B4 dare to throw it out like that? Was there no difference, in their eyes, between those thick stacks of banknotes and waste paper?

Lingnan Xiong looked outside with red eyes and could not believe his own ears. He asked the accounts master beside him, “Did the announcer report it wrong last time?”

The accounts master of the Xiong family wiped the cold sweat from his forehead. “A number audited by the Flower Hall, how could it be wrong...my god, a few of the Xia master’s brothers were killed yesterday and today he is ruthless and crazy...but this Ming family is actually going crazy with him! The old Ming master isn’t a bandit.”

Xiong Bailing was so nervous he didn’t have time to swallow his saliva. It stuck in the middle and he almost choked. He turned his hand, took the tea from the hand of one of his subordinates, and chugged it down. He lowered his voice and cursed, “Even if Xia Qifei is the Seventh Ming, I think that the two brothers are fighting with real fire...watching brothers fight is very exciting. It looks like the Ming family are all a bit crazy.”

It was not only the announcer whose voice was shaking and the Jiangnan merchants who couldn’t stop wiping away their sweat, even the three figures sitting in the main hall were beginning to become nervous.

Hearing the prices for the second round, Eunuch Huang and Guo Zheng met each other’s gazes, and their faces became completely pale. The two of them had never thought that the palace treasury bidding for the final four bound lots would be raised by Fan Xian and the Ming family to...such a horrifying price.

The Ming family was definitely going to suffer a loss on these four bound lots, and it was going to be a great loss. For Eunuch Huang and Guo Zheng, the less that entered the Ming family’s accounts, the silver that could not see the light of day that was sent from Jiangnan to the capital would lessen greatly. Thinking of this, their stares at Fan Xian became somewhat poisonous.

Although Fan Xian had a powerful state of mind to maintain his outward appearance of calm, a careful observer would still be able to see the slight tremor at the washed and starched sleeves of the imperial envoy’s official purple robes, the slightly tight press of the thin and delicate lips, and the slight redness below his earlobes.

After all, an occasion like this was rare to see. The Qing Emperor was said to be the richest person in the world. Fan Xian would dare to bet that the Qing Emperor, who had never entered the warehouse of the Ministry of Revenue, had never seen so many banknotes that floated through the sky with the raspy and shaky voice of the official announcer.

11,500,00 liang of silver!

Ten years after the establishment of the Qing Kingdom, the finances and taxes of the entire country added together was only 10 million liang! Even in today’s extremely wealthy Qing Kingdom, an amount of silver that large was still an unbelievable number. If this 10 million was used to buy death soldiers in Jiangnan, it would be enough to destroy the small countries all around Dongyi with just the wave of a hand. It was enough to be a tyrant in a region.

An amount of silver this large, how many beauties could it buy? How many warhorses and weaponry could it make? If the entire amount was invested into the people’s welfare, how many riverbanks could it fix? How many pots of porridge could it cook? How many halls could it open? How many people could it save? Yet...if it were all changed into silver ingots, how many people could it crush?

The 5 million in the morning was already the highest bid in the history of the palace treasury, yet the afternoon had easily broken the record. Particularly in the second round of bidding, the Ming family forcefully pushed the price above 10 million. This not only broke the record, it also broke everyone’s psychological barriers.

This outcome was because of a few reasons, of course credit laid with the situation the Ming family was currently in, beset with difficulties inside and outside, as well as the large amounts of silver and gold that Fan Xian had borrowed from the hands of the Northern Qi Emperor. The Ming family needed to win this bid, and Xia Qifei had the power to hedge it. After all of these factors were added together, it created this horrifying number.

Fan Xian drank some tea and forced down the emotions in his heart. He made a hidden gesture.

Enough, stop here. Have a rest. Have a rest.

...

...

It was not until now that Fan Xian gradually understood Ming Qingda’s thoughts, the Emperor’s thoughts, many people’s thoughts.

When Ming Qingda was bidding, he closely followed Fan Xian’s plan. One reason was the pressure from Xinyang. The thoughts for another reason were a little mysterious. He did nothing but give silver to those around. If he bid a low price, he must give a portion of what he earned to Xinyang. If he bid a high price, it was the same as giving the silver to the palace treasury, which was the same as giving it to the Emperor and Fan Xian.

Ming Qingda saw that the matter was difficult and the court needed his silver, so he decided to go all out. He wished he could bring out half of his family business, then he could both win the bid and align with Fan Xian’s intentions. Then of the people he couldn’t afford to offend on either side, he wouldn’t have offended either.

The only pity was offending the money. This much silver and gold, who knew how many years it would take before the Ming family recovered their strength? The so-called spending money to avoid disaster, this time the Ming family had really put down blood money on avoiding disaster.

From Fan Xian’s perspective, the Ming family’s financial power had already reached a terrifying stage. The Qing Emperor would definitely not allow this kind of existence to expand. He would either weaken the other party or completely destroy them.

This was the true purpose the Emperor sent Fan Xian to Jiangnan.

And Ming Qingda had also clearly grasped this intention.

However, back in the day Shen Wansan still died. Would the Ming family survive? These were future matters, and Fan Xian did not have a way to completely control it. However, Fan Xian felt that the Ming family’s behavior was very useful, so he had made a hand gesture to stop Xia Qifei bidding.

He was not purposely causing mischief or being merciful, rather, Fan Xian knew that the old Ming master had not finished performing his show. Eleven million and five hundred thousand liang of silver was already enough. Fan Xian did not want the court to discuss too much and bring him too many negative evaluations.

Seeing that the bandits of room B4 had stopped bidding, everyone, including the officials and merchants, did not feel anger at not seeing the whole show. Rather, they all let out a breath at the same time like a heavy weight had been lifted off their shoulders.

The bidding this afternoon was too terrifying; that number was too sensitive. The merchants did not wish to cause something bad to happen, and the officials also did not wish for the situation to develop to an explosive degree.

In the Flower Hall, the Ministry of Revenue and the palace treasury worked together and began auditing work. They finally confirmed the lot and used a vermillion brush to carefully and nervously write the documents, then handed it to the front hall.

The announcing official walked to the stone steps. He swallowed to soothe his hoarse and scorching throat. In a shaky he voice he said, “Goods along the southeast roads, the water roads, four lots bound together. Room A1, Ming family, 11,500,000 liang...wins!”

No one cheered, no one clamored. Everyone wished they could quickly escape the courtyard of the palace treasury and get as far away from this number as possible.

“Father! Father!”

It was at this moment, a cry of alarm came from inside room A1, closest to the main hall.

In a moment, everyone rose from their chairs in shock and looked in that direction. They didn’t know what had happened to the Ming family.

“Father! What’s wrong? Help! Help! Come save him!”

From room A1 came the panicked sounds of young master Ming Lanshi as he called for him. In the clamor, officials quickly pushed open the door and entered. Only then did they discover that the master of the Ming family, Ming Qingda’s face was ashen and he had fainted on the ground.

Regardless of official or merchant, everyone thought they knew what had happened. Everyone thought that the master of the Ming family was pressured by internal and external pressures to forcefully take this four bound lot and had been forced to pay an astronomical amount. Thinking of the fact that the Ming family may deteriorate because of this sum, the old Ming master was attacked by anxiety and had thus fainted and could not wake up.

Everyone knew who had forced the Ming family to their present miserable circumstances. All the eyes in the courtyard swung unconsciously toward the imperial envoy standing on the stone step.

Fan Xian did not panic. He narrowed his eyes and chided, “What are you all panicked about? Quickly seal the warehouse and deposit the silver. When the process is done, quickly send Master Ming to the doctor!”

There was an entire procedure for the opening and closing of the palace treasury. There were also a lot of banknotes in the courtyard, so it took some time before the still unconscious Master Ming was lifted out and put on a Ming carriage, which Fan Xian had given special permission to drive to the door, and was taken directly to the doctors.”

...

...

No one had expected that the lively palace treasury bidding, which had created a number of new records and caused so many dangers, would have such a dismal and dull ending.

Watching the Ming carriage drive away and thinking of the Ming master whose life hung in the balance, the Jiangnan merchants couldn’t but help sigh incessantly as a few threads of sympathy welled up in their hearts.

The Ming family left first. After the merchants had been inspected, they also left the palace treasury courtyard. The rest were all officials, who began the final winding up work.

Since they made a living through selling money, the work of checking the 40 percent deposit was the most important.

The three important figures stood in the Flower Hall and watched as the Ministry of Revenue and transport company officials registered the accounts and applied the seal.

Fan Xian saw at the very bottom of the Ming family’s final 4 million liang deposit a thick stack of banknotes issued from Zhaoshang money house. His eyes narrowed slightly, and he knew this matter was finally complete.

In his original plan, when the Ming family was forced to use the Zhaoshang issued banknotes for the last four bound lots, Fan Xian had to purposely make it difficult for them. After all, Zhaoshang’s reputation was not as good as Tianxia’s. When the time came, Eunuch Huang and Guo Zheng would speak up for the Ming family and, thus, Fan Xian could once again remove himself of all suspicion.

Only, he hadn’t expected Ming Qingda to do things so cleanly. Fan Xian was too lazy to make a fuss about the small things. Only when Ming Qingda fainted at the end...

“Pretend, keep on pretending.”

Fan Xian smiled coldly in his heart but wore a sympathetic expression on his face. He sighed to the Eunuch Huang beside him and said, “The Ming family won the bid with difficulty, but Master Ming is indeed quite advanced in years and cannot suffer these surprises and has fainted. It will be fine as long as this happy matter doesn’t turn into a funeral.”

Eunuch Hong, who was rubbing his fingers and drooling over the silver, was still slightly nervous. Hearing the imperial envoy speak, he almost broke his finger in shock. He opened his mouth to curse but did not dare to do so. How can there be people like you who play with others and then make such cynical remarks?

Eunuch Huang huffed angrily and did not say anything. Instead, Guo Zheng smiled superficially and said, “This year, the palace treasury’s income is a full 80 percent more than previous years. Once this gets back to Jingdou, the Emperor will definitely heavily reward you. You’ll certainly be granted the title of king or marquis imminently.”

Given Fan Xian’s identity and the power he currently held, his future titles as king and marquis was sure to happen. He didn’t want to hear Guo Zheng’s fawning. He smiled coldly and said, “It is all due to you all and the Jiangnan merchants who are so considerate of the court. To be willing to suffer heavy losses to supplement the palace treasury...as for myself, I have not been of much use in this matter.”

Guo Zheng choked and thought: Today the Ming family almost soiled their pants, isn’t that all your doing? And you have the face to say you have not done much? He huffed coldly and did not speak anymore. Only in his heart he endlessly cursed, Act, keep on acting!