Chapter 108: The Stick and the Carrot
The next morning.
The morning sun is just rising, illuminating the ancient and vigorous old trees in the courtyard.
After Wei Changtian opened his eyes, he looked at Yang Liushi who was lying beside him, and was a little dazed in the silence.
Last night was the first time in two months that he did not enter a "dream path" state when falling asleep, and it was also the first time that he slept with a woman without any precautions.
It was quite relaxing without the hangover discomfort.
I just don’t know when will be the next time I can sleep so peacefully.
He sat up and shook his head, and Yang Liushi slowly woke up at this time.
"Sir, are you awake?"
"Well, you're awake too?"
"OK."
The two exchanged some nonsense words, then looked at each other and found it a little funny.
Yang Liushi moved her body slightly, leaned on Wei Changtian's chest and said coquettishly: "Master, you almost tortured me to death last night..."
"toss?"
Wei Changtian was stunned: "Am I not drunk?"
"Hehe, what are you thinking about, young master?"
Yang Liushi patted Wei Changtian's arm and said with a smile: "I mean to help you undress and wipe your body, and wait on you to sleep."
"oh."
Wei Changtian did not feel embarrassed and nodded, thinking that "having sex after drinking" really only exists in TV dramas.
Otherwise, when you are drunk, you won’t have the energy to do that kind of thing, and it’s hard to say whether you can find the right position.
Unless it was premeditated by one party.
He lay in bed for a while, rejected Yang Liushi's invitation for some "morning exercise", got out of bed and put on his clothes.
When the two of them pushed the door open and walked out, they happened to meet Yuan'er and Achun who were waiting outside.
"Sir, Sister Liu Shi..."
Yuan'er certainly knew that Yang Liushi and Wei Changtian had an "affair", but the former did not have a formal status like Lu Jingyao. Strictly speaking, her status was actually the same as her, a maidservant, so she always addressed her as "sister".
"Are you guys up? I'll go get some warm water."
She hurried into the side room to fetch the kettle on the stove, while Ah Chun stood beside her waiting with a copper basin.
But this washbasin is really big. It would be more accurate to say that I am holding it in my hands rather than carrying it.
"Ha ha ha ha."
Wei Changtian couldn't help laughing twice, then he went to the well to fetch a bucket of cold water and washed his face perfunctorily. When he looked up again, he saw a little head sticking out from the wall.
Judging from his appearance, he should be even younger than Ah Chun, with two small buns on the left and right sides of his head, so he must be a boy.
Is this the son of the widow next door?
Wei Changtian smiled at the boy, who was not afraid at all. His big eyes were full of curiosity.
This house has been empty for a long time. Now that so many people have moved in all of a sudden, it's normal to be curious.
"What's your name?"
Wei Changtian thought for a moment, then slowly walked to the wall, looked up and asked, "How old are you this year?"
“…”
The boy tilted his head and looked over, and after a long while he stretched out five chubby fingers.
Are you dumb?
Wei Changtian paused, and at this moment a call suddenly came from the next yard.
"Ran'er!"
The voice of the middle-aged woman should be that of the poor widow.
Hearing his mother's call, the boy shrank his head and quickly disappeared behind the wall. Then there were vague noises like "What are you doing here?"
Wei Changtian had no interest in eavesdropping on other people educating their children, so he shook his head and went into the house to have breakfast.
I didn't expect that my neighbor was even more miserable than I imagined. Not only was there no man in the family, but even his child was a mute.
If it were Xiao Feng, he would probably have found another charming, considerate and virtuous widow.
But I definitely don't have such an intention.
Even a virgin girl can't handle it, so there's really no need for her to take on this task.
Eh? Zhang San is almost 40 years old.
If he is willing, I can help to bring them together.
Taking a look at Zhang San who was eating quietly, Wei Changtian couldn't help but sigh in his heart.
I even help solve my employees’ marital problems. What a good boss I am!
…
Compared to the capital, Shuzhou City seems to have a stronger urban atmosphere.
Just after everyone finished breakfast, all kinds of shouting could be heard in the alley outside, all from peddlers doing all kinds of business.
There are needles and thread, firewood, rice, oil, salt, fresh fruits and snacks. If you want to buy anything, you just need to ask in the house and you can complete your shopping without leaving the house.
It should be considered the predecessor of "agent purchasing".
Wei Changtian sat at the gate of the house with great interest, watching the peddlers coming and going for a while, and bought a few strings of candied haws.
The hawthorns at this time are a bit old, but very cheap, only five copper coins for a bunch.
He asked for four strings, but after searching for a long time he realized that the smallest amount of money he had was a small silver ingot worth five taels. In the end, Yuan'er came out and paid twenty copper coins.
“Crunch~”
The vendor took the money with a smile on his face and quickly walked away carrying the straw stick.
"Honey, hey, hey - candied haws! If it's not sweet, I won't pay!"
Nine tones and eighteen tunes, a brown rope to pry the shoulder pole.
In the past life, this kind of behavior of shouting and hawking at the gate of the community early in the morning would be considered good if no one called the police for "disturbing the public".
Although there were no police at the time, two black carriages suddenly appeared from the corner of the alley and scared the vendor.
He tried to dodge in panic, but the alley was too narrow and he ended up falling to the ground.
Without having time to check if he was injured, the vendor hurriedly picked up the straw stick with the candied haws on it. Unfortunately, the straw stick had just fallen into the mud in the corner, and the dozen or so strings of candied haws were all covered in sticky black mud, obviously in danger.
“This, this…”
He looked up at the two carriages with tears in his eyes. The flag with the word "Mirror" stuck on the roof instantly gave up the idea of going forward to ask for an explanation.
Just now, a gentleman bought four strings of candied haws at once. The vendor thought he was lucky today, but then he encountered this...
well.
He sighed, brushed off his dusty clothes, and his slightly hunched figure carrying a bare straw stick slowly disappeared.
Just as he thought he was unlucky and limped around the alley to leave, the two "vehicles involved in the accident" slowly stopped.
After getting off the car, seven or eight men in tiger-dragon costumes immediately trotted to stand in front of Wei Changtian, and bowed in unison with a little nervousness.
"Master Wei, why are you sitting here..."
Chen Bo forced a smile and bowed his head, saying, "We are so presumptuous to come to your house today, please forgive us, sir."
“…”
The morning breeze blew through the two ancient locust trees in front of the door and also lifted the corners of everyone's clothes.
Wei Changtian glanced at Chen Bo without saying anything. Instead, he continued to sit lazily on the steps in front of the door and continued eating the candied haws in his hand.
“Click, click~”
The sound of the sugar coating breaking was clearly heard by everyone.
These usually arrogant "adults" of the Xuan Jing Si seemed to be under a spell of immobilization. They kept their heads bowed and dared not even breathe.
At this time, in the yard next door, a woman who was not very pretty but looked like a good wife and mother was secretly looking over here through the crack in the door, her face full of shock.
She was holding a basket of eggs in one hand and holding a little boy's hand in the other. She originally wanted to apologize for her son's "peek" behavior this morning.
But I didn't expect to see this scene just as I was about to go out.
Tiger and dragon costume, flag with the word "mirror" on it.
These are the officers from Xuan Jing Si. Why are they so respectful to that young man?
Her late husband was a famous escort in the city. Naturally, the woman had heard some stories about the underworld and understood how powerful the Xuan Jing Division was.
But precisely because she understood this, she became more and more confused about the identity of this new neighbor.
The woman couldn't help but look at him out of curiosity for a while, but she felt that her behavior was very impolite, so she wanted to close the door and go back to the house, and apologize on behalf of her son later.
But at this moment, the mysterious young man finally finished eating the candied haws and slowly stood up from the steps.
He just threw away the bare wooden stick and said to the trembling people in front of him: "Not bad... come in."
Not bad? A strange question suddenly popped up in the woman's mind.
Does this refer to the taste of candied haws? Or ...
In the main hall with simple yet elegant decoration, Yuan'er was serving tea to everyone one by one.
This was a very normal thing, but except for Wei Changtian, everyone else stood up slightly and leaned forward when receiving the tea, and every move they made was extremely careful and humble.
Wei Changtian saw it but was in no hurry to say anything. He waited until Yuan'er left before looking at Chen Bo with a smile.
"Master Chen, you brought so many people to see me. You look quite impressive."
"Young Master, you are joking..."
Chen Bo, who was sitting on the left, quickly apologized with a smile, "Many of my colleagues were away from the government office yesterday because they were on missions. Today, when they heard that I was coming to meet you, they all rushed to follow me."
"Let me introduce you, sir. This is Wang Daochang from the Buyi Guard, with the rank of a thousand households. This is Zhang Zhongsheng from the Zongmi Office, also with the rank of a thousand households. This is..."
Chen Bo quickly introduced each of them one by one.
Wei Changtian nodded indifferently, but he had already memorized the names of several people in his heart.
One pacification officer, two thousand households, and five hundred households.
It is estimated that these are all the "seniors" of the Xuan Jing Si Shuzhou branch.
There are more than eight hundred households for more than a thousand talents. This ratio is undoubtedly very low compared with the general government in the capital, but it is also normal.
After all, anyone who has worked in the system knows that it is extremely difficult to get promoted at the grassroots level.
"Master Chen, you didn't come here today just to let me recognize someone, right?"
After taking a sip of tea, Wei Changtian smiled and said, "If that's the case, then I have recognized them all now, and you can leave."
"Haha, if it's just such a small matter, we wouldn't dare to bother you..."
In order to ease the atmosphere, Chen Bo laughed twice very stiffly, but it made things even more awkward.
Fortunately, he was thick-skinned enough, and after laughing, he waved at someone.
The latter immediately moved a large wooden box to the center of the room, took out the key and opened the lid.
Wei Changtian had noticed this box a long time ago. He originally thought it contained gold, silver, jewelry or something like that, but only now did he discover that it actually contained rolls of account books.
"Master Chen, what does this mean?"
"Sir, this is the account of all the properties that the Shuzhou branch of Xuanjing Division has invested in."
Chen Bo picked up a random book and placed it in front of Wei Changtian, saying with some pain, "Most of them are in Shuzhou City, and there are also some in other counties."
"oh?"
Wei Changtian's eyes lit up, and he looked at Chen Bo with interest: "It looks like a lot, can you tell me what they are?"
"yes."
Chen Bo introduced them like a treasure trove: "There are two gambling houses and two brothels..."
"Three rice shops, one pawn shop, and one jewelry store..."
“…”
Chen Bo's speaking speed was acceptable, but he still hadn't finished speaking for half a minute.
The more Wei Changtian listened, the more surprised he became.
Good guy, I am a good guy!
Food, clothing, housing, transportation, food, drink, and entertainment, are they really fully covered?
Although most of them only invested a few percent of the shares, the number is still too much!
"Okay."
Interrupting Chen Bo who was still chattering, he asked directly: "Just tell me, what is the total net profit of these industries every year?"
"Almost 100,000 taels..."
After Chen Bo answered, fearing that Wei Changtian might misunderstand him, he quickly added: "But after deducting the expenses of managing the company, there isn't much left. It's just to subsidize the expenses of the company..."
Subsidy expenses...you are so bold to say that.
The imperial court will give salaries to the officials. After earning the money, some of it will be given to the subordinates as "bonuses", but most of it will go into your pockets.
Of course, although Wei Changtian thought so, he would definitely not dwell on such things.
After all, the Wei family took the largest share of the "tribute".
If you eat the meat yourself, you can't deny the soup to others.
Looking at the account book in front of him, Wei Changtian did not open it, but smiled and asked knowingly: "Master Chen, it seems that you have not only made great achievements in martial arts, but also are good at business."
"I just don't know why you want to show me these account books?"
"Of course we have to return these properties to their original owners, young master!" Chen Bo said with a serious expression.
"Return the property to its original owner?"
Wei Changtian said with a smile: "I have never contributed a single cent, nor have I paid a single cent, so where did you get this statement?"
"Sir, you are wrong."
Chen Bo no longer felt distressed at this moment, and his tone was extremely serious.
"The entire Xuan Jing Division belongs to the Wei family, not to mention the business of this little shop."
"Since you are from the Wei family, of course the property should be returned to its original owner!"
“…”
At this point, it's basically the same as if everything has been laid out on the table.
Chen Bo clearly wanted to show his loyalty by handing over the "financial power" in order to prevent the perverse Wei Changtian from writing a letter to Wei Xianzhi and having him removed or killed.
As for Wei Changtian, he has no interest in these industries at all.
Not to mention that he didn't know how to do business, the more important thing was that he was not short of money at all. From the beginning to the end, he just wanted to take control of the armed forces of the Shuzhou branch.
As for the expenses of these armed forces... whether it is court salary or private property subsidies, he doesn't bother to care.
Thinking of this, Wei Changtian finally shook his head in front of everyone's gaze.
"Master Chen, you should take this account book back."
"Master! We..."
No one expected this result. For a moment, they thought that Wei Changtian was determined to get rid of them, and they were horrified.
But before they could say anything, they heard Wei Changtian continue:
"Don't panic, I will tell you the truth now..."
The way to control subordinates is to use both the stick and the carrot.
The "stick" has been used enough, and now it's time to add some carrots.
Coherent plot, 2 chapters in 1~ (End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
