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They had already descended the mountain by nightfall. At the foot of the mountain were tents pitched by the people and soldiers, with campfires still burning. Groups of two or three people were chatting around the campfires, while others had gone to sleep early to get some rest.
Lu Chang washed Jingwan's feet, which had developed two blisters. He gently dried them, carried the wooden basin outside, and returned. He sat on the small bed made of wooden planks and covered Jingwan with a blanket.
Jingwan yawned: "Cousin, you should go to sleep too!"
Lu Chang stroked that beautiful face and said, "I'll have someone send you home tomorrow. You won't stay here anymore."
Jingwan's somewhat dizzy mind immediately cleared up. The map wasn't even finished yet, so why was she being asked to go back?
“Cousin, I don’t want to go back,” she said.
Lu Chang smiled and said, "This place isn't fun. Let's go back to Jinning. I'll ask Chunlai to play with you."
Jingwan then realized that in Lu Chang's heart, she was just a child, a child who only thought about playing all day long.
There were some things that needed to be said, so she sat up and told Lu Chang in a serious tone, "Cousin, I just wanted to help you."
Recalling what Lord Yuan had said that day, Jingwan felt even more guilty. She lowered her head and said dejectedly, "You have helped me so much, but since I came to Chaozhou, I always feel like a parasite. Besides eating your food and living in your house, I always make you angry. I don't know what use I am."
She looked up at him earnestly and said, "I like you, so I want to help you as much as possible. Actually, cousin, I'm a little scared. I'm afraid I'm useless and you won't like me."
Lu Chang smiled helplessly and intertwined his fingers with hers: "Jingwan, am I your family?"
Jingwan nodded without hesitation. He was her brother, her lover, and her closest family member.
Will your family dislike you or even abandon you because you haven't contributed to the family?
Jingwan actually thought about it and told Lu Chang, "Yes! My uncle and aunt want to sell me because I can't help them with anything!"
Lu Chang was so angry he couldn't speak: "They're not your family, think it over again!"
Judging from her expression, Lu Chang had a feeling she wouldn't say anything nice, so he spoke first: "Except for the Gao family!"
"I see..." Jingwan thought of her mother and Bojun, but still shook her head at Lu Chang: "No! My mother loves me very much, and so does my cousin. I don't need to do anything to feel their love for me."
Lu Chang pinched her cheek in praise: "Your cousin is the same, Jingwan. Some people are significant to others simply by existing. You are that to me."
Is this another way of expressing love? Jingwan buried half her face in the blanket, secretly laughing like a little mouse that had fallen into an oil tank. But after she finished laughing, she still insisted on not leaving.
She took Lu Chang's hand and asked him sincerely, "Cousin, how much longer are we going to stay in Lingnan?"
This is a really difficult question to answer. Even Lu Chang can't guarantee what the future holds. But given the current situation, they will probably have to stay for a very long time, long enough to be measured in years.
I thought she was getting bored or homesick, but she said, "If I have to stay here for many years, then I'll eat the food that grows here and drink the clear spring water flowing through the mountains. This will be my other hometown. The people of Lingnan are really kind. Although I can't understand what they say, they treat me very well. Look, when we were eating, that old lady even saved her roasted chicken leg for me. And in Jinning City, neighbors always bring fruit to my house. Cousin, the mountains and rivers nurtured me, and I want to do my best to give back to this land. I can't move stones, and I don't have the strength to carve stone steps, but I know the way. If I can open this road and thousands of people in Lingnan benefit from it, then I will have no regrets."
Fearing Lu Chang would disagree, she asked him again if he remembered what the mountain villager who had led them to Ding County had said.
Lu Chang didn't ask her to leave again, and Jingwan knew that he had agreed to let her stay.
Before leaving, he leaned closer and said, "Give me a shout-out to my dear cousin."
Jingwan gave him a firm kiss on the cheek and fell asleep peacefully.
Lu Chang came out of the tent and saw Yuan Cheng warming himself by the fire outside, clearly waiting for him.
He walked over, sat down on the ground, and sighed softly: "I was too stubborn. I always thought that what I gave her was the best, but she didn't actually want these things."
Yuan Cheng brushed aside the fire and smiled slightly: "You are indeed extremely vulgar. Don't ruin her spiritual energy."
Lu Chang did not refute this, since it was indeed true. He asked Yuan Chang if he was guarding the tent door tonight just to call him vulgar.
Yuan Cheng frowned, his mind filled with recent worries. He told Lu Chang that there was unusual activity in the Northwest.
Li Muyun rarely writes letters, but a few days ago he received a secret letter and learned that Pingdu had been keeping a close eye on this princess.
"The Emperor, misled by eunuchs, ordered the Princess to reduce the number of troops in the Northwest and relocate tens of thousands of people from the Northwest to the south. This move is nothing more than an attempt to gradually weaken His Highness's military power and the strength of the Northwest. The Princess can only resist for a while; in the long run, she will not be able to hold out. Lu Chang, I will be leaving Lingnan in a few months. At that time, you will take up the post of Governor of Chaozhou."
From the moment he arrived in Chaozhou, Yuan Cheng never thought he would stay for long. Lu Chang was bound to take over, and now the time had come.
He was ten years older than Lu Chang, and he treated him more like a younger brother than a superior-subordinate relationship. In his eyes, Lu Chang was still a young man who needed time to grow.
While his handling of the COVID-19 outbreaks in the two prefectures still showed some inexperience, his work in Chaozhou over the past few years has demonstrated Lu Chang's growth, just like his father, finally maturing into a strong and upright man.
He was confident in entrusting Chaozhou to Lu Chang, believing that in time, the entire Lingnan region would surely be brought under his control.
Yuan Cheng rarely did anything particularly endearing, but this time, he patted Lu Chang on the shoulder and smiled, saying, "The road ahead won't be easy, but no matter what, your parents' spirits in heaven will protect you. And A-Wan, don't let her down."
He got up, straightened his clothes, and left.
As Lu Chang watched him leave, a feeling of reluctance welled up in his heart. He had never imagined that he would consider a eunuch as a friend.
The construction of the stone steps is on track. Before the rainy season arrives, Jingwan handed the map of Daguanling to Lu Chang. Shiyu Water City has also been completed. The remaining details will be perfected one by one after use. There is no rush to complete it all at once.
Lu Chang took some time to bring Jingwan back to Jinning City, just because Cui Dongchi was visiting. Unfortunately, Chunlai was not with him.
When Jingwan asked about Chunlai, Cui Dongchi told her that Chunlai had fallen slightly ill and needed to rest at home.
Jingwan had no choice but to give up: "I'll go see Chunlai in a few days."
Before she could visit him, Chunlai came along when Cui Dongchi came looking for Lu Chang again.
She had lost a lot of weight, and her face was pale and soft, but she seemed to be in relatively good spirits.
Hearing Jingwan's concern about her condition, Chunlai glanced at Cui Dongchi before smiling and saying, "It was just a slight cold; I'm all better now."
Jingwan was relieved and took Chun to play on her small terrace, telling her about what she had seen and heard in the mountains.
Chunlai listened intently, and Jingwan noticed that her eyes were a little red, but she didn't dare to ask any questions.
Cui Dongchi did not visit without reason. He invested the most money in the construction of Shiyu Water City, and his fleet made a fortune as Shiyu Port grew.
Unfortunately, it still made the Feng family of Lingnan envious.
Lingnan has many harbors, but the four most famous harbors are all controlled by the Feng family. Relying on the prosperity of the ports, the land where the harbors are located has also become a world-renowned metropolis.
According to this view, Lingnan may not be as barren and barbaric as widely believed in the Central Plains. However, in reality, more than 90% of the wealth of the entire land was concentrated in the hands of the Feng family, and the rise of the four major cities came at the cost of the poverty and weakness of the entire Lingnan region.
As Feng Ji said, the once-great family has been hollowed out by termites. The Feng family's direct descendants are not as good at business as their ancestors, and they lack the right timing and location. Of the four major ports, only Qixing Port and Mingjin Port can still maintain their former dominant position. However, Yanjie Port has shown signs of decline in the past two years due to the eastward expansion of the coastline and the shrinking of the harbor. As for Beiwan Port, the inland waterway there is silted up and shipping is not possible. In the past two years, foreign merchant ships have rarely docked there.
The Feng family desperately needed an influx of fresh blood, so naturally they wanted to take over Shiyu Port, just as they had done with other ports in the past, using nothing more than some despicable means.
Those engaged in maritime trade were all family-run businesses. The Feng family, leveraging their dominant position in Lingnan, monopolized maritime trade within their own household.
They not only traded with the north, but also interacted with foreign lands. Merchant ships transported goods such as porcelain, sugar, and silk to foreign lands, and brought back rare and precious goods such as ivory and rhinoceros horns.
The people of Lingnan certainly couldn't afford these things, and the Feng family wasn't selling them to them, but rather reselling them northwards to cities like Pingdu, where wealthy and powerful families were concentrated, making a huge profit in the process.
Feng Sinian was the Director of Maritime Trade. He protected the Feng family from levying taxes privately. Any merchant ship passing through the Mingzhou area had to pay a thousand taels of silver to purchase a pass, otherwise they could not leave Mingzhou.
The Feng family was able to remain powerful for many years because of their excellent relationship with the nobles of the capital. Every year, members of the Feng family would visit the nobles in Pingdu. Whenever they left, they would take with them countless rare treasures and a large amount of gold and silver. By bribing the court and local officials, their status in Lingnan was unassailable.
Over the years, the one who has protected the Feng family is Yang Fujin, the emperor's father in the capital.
When Feng Sinian arrived in Chaozhou with his henchmen to take over Shiyu Port, Yuan Cheng, who was usually amiable, showed a rare coldness: "Lord Feng is too impatient. The port has only just begun to take over, and you're already eyeing it?"
Feng Sinian did not have much contact with Yuan Cheng, but he knew that Yuan Cheng was the leader of the eunuchs, just like Yang Changshi in the palace. He was not easy to offend, so he spoke to him in an official tone, saying that taking over the port was the duty of the Maritime Trade Office and that he had no selfish motives.
Yuan Cheng sneered: "Go back and wait, sir. I will give you an explanation tomorrow."
Although Feng Sinian did not understand the meaning, he still left with his subordinates first.
After he left, Yuan Cheng said to Lu Chang, "I will come to your house tonight. Please invite your uncle over as well."
Before leaving Lingnan, he wanted to eliminate a major cancer for Lu Chang.
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