Chapter 114 Baiquan

Xu Rong accepted the letter.

The envelope, like the boy, was dusty and grimy. When it was torn open, the letter inside was also in a sorry state, wrinkled as if it had been pickled in salt water.

It was a thin sheet of paper, much shorter than Xu Rong had expected: it began by greeting her, then confirmed the boy's identity as a servant, and finally said that the boy had delivered a message to her, and that was it.

There was no distress signal.

Xu Rong took a closer look and confirmed that the handwriting was indeed Bai Quan's. She had seen it once before; it was quite ugly in a distinctive way—given his lowly status, it was already difficult for him to recognize some common characters on his own, let alone expect him to be grammatically correct.

Xu Rong stuffed the letter back in his hand, then looked up and called to the boy, "Get up and sit down. Your name is Anzi?"

Xin Cheng moved the stool, and Hong Liu poured tea. The boy was somewhat at a loss as he was seated on the stool, holding the tea and nodding cautiously.

"What message did Bai Quan ask you to deliver?"

The boy looked around, then hesitated, saying, "My esteemed madam, the head manager instructed that this matter is of utmost importance and can only be told to you."

The maids understood and left. Bai Fu looked worried, but she still followed them out. Only Xu Rong and Lin Xin remained in the room. She gestured and said, "Tell me, what business did you do? What difficulties did you encounter?"

Anzi glanced at Lin Xin again, knowing he was the master of the house, so he didn't dare to ask him to leave. He honestly said, "I started working for the head manager in Suzhou. At first, we were in the silk business. Suzhou's weaving and embroidery are unparalleled. The head manager is very capable, and the business went very smoothly. Later, we added tea to the business, and then we did all sorts of things..."

He clearly knew the letter was brief—he must have received instructions from Bai Quan to describe everything in detail from the very beginning. As Xu Rong had predicted, Bai Quan was a man of the wind, and neither Suzhou nor the entire Jiangnan region could contain him. His footprints expanded, and his business grew larger and larger. In just over three years, he had properly established a trading company, which he named Jiqing.

"However, the head manager always said that he had a master behind him and that he was just used to do things for the master. So he didn't want the servants to call him 'Master' and only wanted to be called 'Manager'."

Anzi paused to catch his breath, then glanced discreetly at Xu Rong: "I used to think the head manager was just being modest, or perhaps trying to boost the reputation of our business, but I never expected things to go wrong like this—"

Bai Quan directly ordered him to return to the capital to deliver a message, and only then did he realize that it was true and that they really did have a powerful backer.

He entered one marquis's mansion, and in the blink of an eye, he was led to another. The people he met, one after another, all seemed like noble figures from the clouds, which calmed him down considerably. He then slowly began to speak.

Meanwhile, Bai Quan traveled all over the country, and because of his shrewdness and competence, he had never gotten into any trouble until the beginning of the year when he entered Gansu Province.

Xu Rong's brow twitched when he heard the place name.

I don't know if she's being overly sensitive, but I have a bad feeling about it.

"The head manager went to Gansu because he heard that the furs there were of good quality and wanted to see for himself and find a way to make a name for himself."

This is Bai Quan's usual business practice: he personally gets involved, establishes connections, and then hands it over to his subordinates.

"The head manager led the team from Yan'an into Shaanxi, passing through Qingyang Prefecture, and nothing happened until they headed west to Pingliang Prefecture. That place was too far away and desolate, with little law and order. As merchants, they never traveled empty-handed, so they carried a batch of goods, which unexpectedly attracted the attention of a local powerful family."

"The head manager is a man of the world and was not flustered at first. He negotiated with the powerful man several times, saying that he would sell to him at a discount. We are outsiders who have just arrived here, so we should just treat it as making friends."

Xu Rong nodded slightly.

"Who knew that the powerful local tyrant was so domineering, he actually wanted to get something for nothing and didn't want to spend a single penny. How could we allow that? We've traveled such a long way and brought quite a few people with us. The head manager told us to be prepared. Since there's no law in this area, we'll just have to fight it out. Once the chaos is over, we can spend some money to bribe the government."

In places without laws, officials are mostly corrupt and incompetent. Bai Quan had tried to report it to the authorities at first, but he must have failed before coming up with this idea. Even in peaceful times, there are still plenty of cases of local tyrants running rampant in remote areas.

Xu Rong and Lin Xin exchanged a glance, knowing that he understood as well, so they didn't ask any more questions and listened to An Zi continue.

"Who would have thought that, at the last minute, when all the men had their weapons in hand, the powerful tyrant actually brought in a squad of guards armed with bows!"

Anzi's face fell. "How are we supposed to fight this? We've all been arrested and thrown into a dark cell."

There were guards, and there were also dark cells—

This couldn't possibly be the setup of some powerful local tycoon.

Xu Rong knew her premonition had come true and whispered, "Is it Prince Qing?"

Anzi was taken aback, then quickly nodded: "Grandma, you're just as clever as the head shopkeeper said, you guessed it right away!"

It would be strange if you couldn't guess it.

Xu Rong didn't correct him, but asked, "Is that powerful figure Prince Qing himself?"

Anzi nodded with a bitter face: "It's him. Tell me, why would such a high-ranking prince do such a thing? If he had revealed his identity earlier, how would we dare to confront him? We would have given him whatever we wanted, and there would have been no trouble later."

Xu Rong didn't know either, but a prince who failed to seize the throne and was banished to Pingliang Prefecture could possibly become abnormal in any direction.

"You were also thrown into the dark dungeon, so how did you get out? What about Bai Quan? How is he now?"

“It was the head manager who pleaded for our release,” Anzi replied. “The head manager is now under Prince Qing’s wing. He has traveled to many places, and Prince Qing loves to hear him talk about his experiences in those places. He also thinks the head manager is capable and wants to recruit him.”

Xu Rong: "..."

I never expected it to go this way.

What's the most valuable thing in the 21st century? Talent.

What was the most valuable thing in this ancient capital a hundred years ago? It was its talent.

Gold shines wherever it goes.

Anzi quickly added, "But the head manager said that Grandma is his master and has been kind to him. He would never betray Grandma. Moreover, Prince Qing is somewhat capricious. The head manager is like walking on thin ice when he follows him. So he took the opportunity to secretly send a spies to deliver the message."

After he finished speaking, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a small paper packet wrapped in heavy oil paper: "This is the seal of the merchant guild. The head manager asked me to bring it to Grandma. He said that he dared not let Grandma take any risks. If he really could not rescue her, he would just hand the merchant guild over to Grandma. That way, Grandma would not have trusted him in vain, and he would be satisfied."