The next morning, the couple was having breakfast with their younger siblings when the butler came to report that three people had come to visit them at the gate, claiming to be members of the Heaven and Earth Alliance.
Li Mai nodded. "Let's invite them to the main hall first, serve them some tea and snacks, and we'll go over after we finish our meal."
The butler acknowledged and left.
After the meal, Zhou Lin drove the carriage, taking Zhou Tao and Nan Su towards the shop.
At the main gate, Zhou Lei sat on the back of their carriage and went out. Passing by the library, he jumped off to say goodbye to his older brother and sister and went inside to study.
"Second brother, have you told eldest brother and sister-in-law about the Xu family's matter?" Zhou Tao asked with a smile as she leaned close to the carriage curtain to chat with Zhou Lin.
Zhou Lin coughed lightly and shook his head. "No, don't tell your sister-in-law and brother about this. It's just something people are saying. It's not appropriate to talk about it anymore."
“Hey, what’s wrong with that? I think it’s perfect. Although we come from a farming background, we’re all doing business now, aren’t we? Even though we can’t compare to other families in town, as long as we work hard, one day we’ll be just like them.”
Zhou Tao has a simpler way of looking at things. She thinks her second brother is a good person. He is good-looking and tall. Now that the family is not short of money, why should she think that she is not good enough for the Xu family's daughter?
The Xu family is the second largest merchant family in town, ranking second in wealth and power after the Lu family. They have never been on good terms with the Lu family, but they have never actually fought each other. They just compete with each other in business.
The Xu family has two sons and one daughter. The two sons are born of the principal wife, while the daughter is born of a concubine. Although she is born of a concubine, she is said to be highly valued by her family, and her two older brothers especially dote on her.
The Xu family had a shop on the same street where Zhou Lin and Xu Shun ran their business. One day, when Miss Xu went to her family's shop, she saw Zhou Lin and took notice of him.
His family had also secretly visited Zhou Lin, especially after learning that he was Li Mai's brother-in-law. The Xu family had the same idea and, without Zhou Lin's knowledge, bought a few small items from Zhou Lin's shop and asked Zhou Lin to deliver them to their residence.
So, Zhou Lin visited the Xu residence a few days ago. However, to his surprise, the very next day, news spread that the Xu family had taken a liking to Zhou Lin and wanted to recruit him as their son-in-law.
However, since her second brother forbade her to talk about it, Zhou Tao didn't plan to interfere. If her sister-in-law and brother were in town, and if the Xu family had any designs on her, they would definitely come looking for them.
After dinner, Li Mai and Zhou Quan returned to their courtyard and went to the hall. There, they saw three people standing respectfully to one side, not sitting down or drinking tea or eating snacks.
Li Mai glanced at the three people and her impression of them improved somewhat.
She and Zhou Quan sat in the main seats and gestured to the three of them, "Please sit down. Aren't you all injured? It will be more comfortable to sit down."
As soon as she finished speaking, the three men knelt down in front of her with a thud.
"Greetings, Boss! Thank you for saving my life last night. From now on, when the Heaven and Earth Alliance disbands, I, Jinshi, will serve Madam as our boss. I belong to Madam in life and in death." The junior leader knelt down and kowtowed to Li Mai.
The two people behind him quickly followed suit and kowtowed.
Li Mai's lips twitched, but Zhou Quan's face turned completely black.
He gritted his teeth and glared at the young leader who called himself Jin Shi, "I'll give you a chance to speak again."
Jin Shi gasped, then looked up at Zhou Quan blankly. Realizing he hadn't explained himself clearly, he quickly kowtowed again and explained, "No, young master, it's not what you think. Last night, Madam saved my life. I, Jin Shi, have nothing and can't offer any reward to repay Madam, so I plan to spend the rest of my life working for her to repay her. It's definitely not what you think, definitely not, hehe!"
After a dry laugh, he quickly wiped the cold sweat from his forehead.
Originally, he was just a small-time hoodlum. He never expected to meet such masters as Li Mai and Zhou Quan. If he didn't quickly submit to them, would he be waiting for them to eliminate him?
Although the Heaven and Earth Alliance had never killed anyone in the town before, they had done plenty of petty theft and other misdeeds, and several of them had fallen into the hands of this Miss Li!
Zhou Quan looked at him with a detached gaze, said nothing, and then looked at Li Mai.
Li Mai shook his head. "I don't lack people to do things, so I won't take you on. You don't need to break up either. You're quite good at organizing these people together."
"I heard about what happened last night, and we dealt with the troublemakers in the back mountain. There were five of them in total. You should be glad that only two of them came out; three of them were injured."
"You've done a great job. You've gone from petty theft to protecting the people without expecting anything in return. This shows that you've done a good job as the leader. The Heaven and Earth Alliance will continue to exist!"
“However, I suggest you change your way of life from now on!” Li Mai said.
Now that we've embarked on the right path, let's keep going!
“Get up and talk. Have you eaten breakfast? If not, have some tea and snacks.” Li Mai pointed to the guest table.
"Not yet, thank you, young master and madam." Jin Shi stood up, said thank you, sat down, picked up his teacup and took a sip. He woke up in the morning and knew that Li Mai had rescued him last night. He hadn't eaten anything, so he quickly brought people over to thank Li Mai first, afraid that if he arrived late, Li Mai would not be in the manor.
There were chopsticks on the plate where the snacks were served, and Li Mai told them to just use the chopsticks to pick up the food and eat it.
The three of them carefully and silently lowered their heads to eat.
Li Mai continued, "You all eat, and listen to my advice."
She told Jinshi about the results of her discussion with Zhou Quan last night.
"After some consideration, this is the best path I think you can take right now. Of course, if you want to establish a legitimate school, you need to produce something. I see that some of you have pretty good kung fu skills. You can focus on improving your skills and teach the disciples you take in to practice martial arts properly."
"You also need to establish corresponding rules and regulations. If you are accepted by a local area, you must protect the people of that area. So, if you establish a sect in this town, you must protect the people in this town and the villages below it."
Jin Shi listened quietly while eating. After Li Mai finished speaking, he also finished eating. He quickly took a sip of tea to make sure there was nothing in his mouth, and then asked, "Young Master Zhou, Madam Zhou, I would like to ask if the government can agree to let our Heaven and Earth Alliance establish a sect in this town? Our Heaven and Earth Alliance has been here for five or six years, and the government has arrested some of our people."
"Then tell me, what have you brought to the people of this town in the past five or six years?" Li Mai asked calmly.
Jin Shi silently shut his mouth and said nothing.
“See? You can’t even name a single good thing you’ve done for the people. Why should the people’s officials praise you?” Li Mai said, then looked at him quietly, waiting for his reply.
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