exchange
The shadow covering her suddenly dissipated, and Jingwan opened her eyes, looking in confusion. What suddenly appeared before her eyes was a toad!
Lu Chang held the toad right in front of her, and Jing Wan screamed in fright. She lunged towards the boulder, but there was nowhere to retreat. She wished she could squeeze a groove out of the boulder behind her.
Lu Chang casually tossed the dagger into the sea, clapped his hands, and said innocently, "I just saw that dagger squatting next to you. Luckily, I caught it so as not to scare you."
The girl's blush hadn't faded, and she was now tinged with annoyance, half from embarrassment at what she'd been thinking. She'd thought...
Lu Chang clapped his hands and pulled her up: "Come on, let's go home!"
Jingwan felt that Lu Chang was deliberately trying to make her misunderstand. They were just enjoying the sea view, but he made some ambiguous gestures, and his eyes were full of reproach. She was angry and refused to let him hold her hand. She hid her hands behind her back and her eyes were full of blame.
Her little mouth was pouting so high that Lu Chang's smile widened. He squatted down in front of Jing Wan and said, "Your cousin will carry you down the mountain again as punishment. Come back up!"
Jingwan was finally satisfied. She pounced on him and deliberately hugged his neck tightly. Lu Chang deliberately bounced her around, which scared the person on his back so that she dared not do anything rash.
When she arrived, she recounted her past; when she left, Lu Chang told Jing Wan about the guests who had come to his home. However, he and these guests were related by blood, which began with the lychee orchard when he first arrived.
Lu Chang asked her if she knew why he had this lychee orchard here.
Jingwan said, "Madam Lu did business in four places. Is this garden something she left for you?"
After much thought, this seemed to be the only possibility. The Gao family would never give it to him. General Lu was a native of the Northwest, having joined the army at a young age and having little connection with Lingnan. It seemed that only Madam Lu, who was skilled in business, would leave this estate to her son. Lu Chang asked doubtfully, "Who told you my mother was a businesswoman?"
My mother was cautious and discreet, never showing off her wealth to outsiders. The family business was run by others, and no one knew that she was the mastermind behind it all.
Jingwan replied, "I've never heard anyone say that; I'm just guessing. Once, someone from a general's mansion came to me to buy jade. When I delivered the jade to the mansion, I saw a woman holding an abacus, talking about business."
Lu Chang sighed, "She is really smart. She knows a lot and understands many principles, but she keeps them to herself."
“My father only knew how to fight, but war is the most expensive thing. My mother was forced to learn business and financial management, but I never expected that she would actually make a name for herself.”
To allow her father to focus on the war without having to worry about money, her mother engaged in many businesses. She sold tea, ran restaurants, and transported porcelain; her shops were located everywhere, both inland and in the north and south, east and west.
When he was still an infant, Lu Chang was lulled to sleep by the sound of her using an abacus.
Jingwan then understood why her cousin was able to build such a large mansion in Chaozhou with his meager salary from the imperial court—it turned out his pockets were overflowing!
"When the Lu family fell from grace, the imperial court seized some of the shops she operated in the Northwest, but that was only a very small part. Now, most of them are in my hands."
Jingwan was filled with trepidation. These were not things that could be said casually. After the war was quelled, the imperial court coveted the property of wealthy households in the northwest. The horse farm of Azhiqi's family was confiscated by the government.
"The lychee orchard in Lingnan was left to me by my mother. Amo, who took you to play that day, originally followed his father as a bandit in the mountains. Later, my mother asked his father to take care of the lychee orchard. After his father died, he continued to take care of it. However, doing business in Lingnan is not easy. All the key links of the production, transportation, and sale of goods are controlled by the Feng family in Lingnan."
“My mother was extremely good at business. Although she was a young lady from a respectable family, she was straightforward and honest. My father often said that her personality was very different from her appearance. She had been to Lingnan and met many merchants, some of whom she became very close to. Feng Ji of the Feng family was one of them. My mother told me that they had done business together in Lingnan and secretly swindled a large sum of money from the Feng family’s direct descendants!”
She recognized Feng Ji as her sworn brother and entrusted him to help take care of her business in Lingnan. The two had been exchanging letters for many years.
That day, Feng Ji came to his home and told him about the Feng family's situation.
Over the past decade or so, outsiders have only seen the Feng family's growing prosperity, becoming the largest clan in Lingnan. However, they are unaware that the family has long since fallen apart, with collateral branches vying for power, clan members disregarding social norms and ethics, engaging in sordid affairs that are shameful to be told to outsiders, and routinely exploiting the common people.
"It's less like the largest surname in Lingnan and more like the largest malignant tumor in Lingnan!" Feng Ji said angrily to Lu Chang at the time.
Although this was Lu Chang's first time meeting Feng Ji, he had often heard his mother mention him. Every year before the New Year, he would receive lychee honey sent by Feng Ji. His mother also said that her business in the south was largely thanks to the help of this sworn brother.
After her mother passed away, her sworn brother did not betray her, and the Lu family shops, which were unknown to the imperial court, were still well managed by the people she left behind.
But ultimately, it's all based on what others say. Human nature is complex and terrifying; you can't judge someone's character just by hearing a few words from them, especially not someone from the Feng family.
This clandestine visit could very well be a test.
He had heard the people's grievances, and he had heard them call the Feng family "big rats." The evil they had committed would eventually have to be repaid.
Now that the Feng family is in serious internal strife, Feng Ji knows he has found an opportunity. He wants to join forces with Lu Chang to remove the Feng family's direct descendants from their high position of power.
There were parts of those words that appealed to Lu Chang, but he remained calm and said that he was just a minor official and how could he possibly touch such a century-old tree?
"It's getting late, so I won't stay any longer." He told the steward to see the guest out. Seeing that he had no intention of continuing the conversation, Feng Ji sighed and left.
After listening to Lu Chang's explanation, Jingwan said, "My cousin wants to wait and see."
Lu Chang turned his head and smiled. He wanted to see her, but he couldn't. Yes, he was just observing the situation. He could use the Feng family or not; it all depended on how things developed in the future.
Jingwan didn't know why her cousin was telling her these things. He had never said them before. All she had to do was stay at home obediently, be happy every day, and live a life of eating, drinking, and having fun, just like that lazy cat.
It felt so good to be trusted like that. It was as if they had secrets that only the other knew, secrets that no one else in the world knew.
Back in the city, Lu Chang escorted her all the way to her small building. He didn't go upstairs; he just stood downstairs watching her.
Jingwan stood by the railing and smiled at him.
The next morning, Jingwan came to eat breakfast while yawning. Lu Chang was already sitting at the table. Seeing her yawning repeatedly, he knew that she had come back too late yesterday and was still not fully awake. He immediately told her to drink some porridge to fill her stomach and go back to sleep.
She looked at Lu Chang with misty eyes and said, "I'm so happy!"
In that short moment, Lu Chang felt that everything was worth it!
When Lu Chang arrived at the government office, no colleagues had come yet. He was already used to it; mediocrity and laziness were the norm among officials in Chaozhou, so it was not surprising. Even Fang Huai had not come. Remembering the strange things his colleagues had told him, Lu Chang thought for a moment, left the government office, and headed west of the city.
The western part of the city was mostly inhabited by poor people, living in thatched-roof shacks that barely provided shelter from the wind and rain. The roads were narrow and filthy, and even the air felt foul. Lu Chang had to ask several passersby for directions before finally finding Fang Huai's place.
When he asked about Fang Huai, the local people simply replied knowingly, "Lord Fang, look, he lives over there."
The way he addressed him as "Lord Fang" was neither sarcastic nor disdainful; one could even detect a hint of respect in his voice.
Standing in front of the Fang family's gate, I could not see them, but I could hear the sound of reading aloud.
It was the voice of several children, a mix of male and female voices, ringing like silver bells.
The room had windows, but most of the paper covering them was rotten. Looking through the small windows, there were indeed three or four children with little pigtails sitting inside, carrying books and reading with Fang Huai.
Fang Huai would read a sentence, and they would repeat it after him.
Lu Chang stood at the door and listened for a while before leaving.
Not long after he returned to the government office, he saw Fang Huai rush back, carrying his official documents. He then left in a hurry, and his assistant told him that he was going to visit some merchants who came to Chaozhou to do business, in order to ask them to donate some money to build a school.
He doesn't seem to be a bookworm; he knows that if the court is useless, he should ask the common people for help. But merchants are profit-driven, so why would they give him money for no reason?
Lu Chang wanted to see just how far Fang Huai could go for the sacred cause he envisioned. He had persisted for ten years without any results, yet he still wanted to continue this futile effort.
But he underestimated this person. Three days later, his assistant reported that a merchant from out of town had indeed donated money, and two more community schools would be built in Chaozhou. Children as young as five could enter the community schools for their first education. The assistant said that the person in charge of the community schools was a student of Fang Huai!
"He ran a school in his home for ten years without charging any fees. Instead, he even paid out of his own pocket to buy books and pens for the children. One child studied in his house for a few years, learned to read, and after leaving Lingnan, he did some business and returned after achieving some success, saying he wanted to come to the community school to be a teacher."
At that time, Lu Chang was handling official business and did not even notice that his pen had left ink marks on the document.
Fang Huai was indeed very happy. Firstly, a businessman had funded the construction of two new community schools. Although the schools were small, each only accommodating ten children, the thought of his children being able to attend school brought him comfort.
Then, a child he had taught in his youth wanted to come back and help him. He said that he was not knowledgeable enough to be a teacher, but he could stay at the school to take care of the children's food and lodging and to buy some reading materials.
“If it weren’t for your teacher teaching me to read and write, I would have been cheated even if I went out to do business. Now I have some savings, enough to live a normal life. Now that your teacher wants to continue running the school, how can I ignore it?”
Fang Huai wiped away his tears and smiled, seemingly relieved.
The following evening, when he returned home from his shift, he found a man in his forties waiting at his door. Judging from his clothes and appearance, he must be from a wealthy family.
The man smiled and said, "I've been waiting for you for a long time, sir. I have important matters to discuss with you regarding the development of education."
Fang Huai hurriedly extended his hand: "Please!"
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
