The follower's cold sweat immediately flowed from his forehead and he immediately knelt down and begged for mercy.
"Someone come."
When the follower heard An Zhongyi's voice, his eyes widened and he kept begging him.
"Master, please spare me! Master, please spare me! Please give me one more chance."
The two men who came in from the door and held the attendants looked at An Zhongyi, and seeing that he waved his hand with a gloomy face to let them go, they tried to pull the people out regardless of the attendants' pleas.
But when he suddenly met An Jingzhi at the door, An Zhongyi also saw An Jingzhi, and the situation was awkward.
"Dad, what is this?" An Jingzhi asked knowingly.
Seeing An Jingzhi's figure, the follower also looked at An Jingzhi with a pleading look.
An Zhongyi opened his mouth to explain, "My servants failed to protect my son properly, causing him to be abducted by thieves. Father is punishing them."
These followers have been doing their job diligently during the days they followed An Jingzhi. Moreover, it was obvious that they came prepared. In order to protect him, these followers have suffered many knife wounds. If An Jingzhi does not care, he knows that these followers will end up dead.
"Then punish them with 10 strokes of the cane and deduct half a month's salary."
Since his son had spoken, An Zhongyi would not refute him, "Then I will do as my son says."
After hearing this, the follower knelt down and kowtowed to An Jingzhi as if he had been pardoned, and then thanked An Zhongyi. Only then was he dragged away to be punished.
After a few people left, the scene fell into silence for a while.
An Jingzhi looked at An Zhongyi, and An Zhongyi also looked at him, but there was a hint of guilt in his eyes.
"My son, what's the matter with you? Is it because you don't have enough silver? I'll have someone bring you another 10,000 taels."
An Jingzhi had long known that An Zhongyi had a lot of silver. After he took the position of the head of the East Factory, he became a favorite of the emperor. From then on, he amassed countless wealth and owned hundreds of thousands of acres of fertile land. Every year, all kinds of people paid tribute to him.
Recovering his thoughts, An Jingzhi sat opposite An Zhongyi's study. The two sat face to face, and An Jingzhi's expression was more serious than ever.
"Dad, don't you want to know why those thieves kidnapped me and then released me today?"
An Zhongyi twitched the corner of his mouth. In fact, he already had a guess in his mind. After An Jingzhi said this, he confirmed his guess and his face was full of bitterness.
"Tell me, what did you say?"
As he spoke, he illuminated An Jingzhi's face, fearing that he would see any disgust on his face.
An Jingzhi's expression was very calm, as if he was stating something that had nothing to do with him.
"They say my father is a murderer."
An Zhongyi closed his eyes in pain, and only heard An Jingzhi continue to speak,
"Xiaobai also told me before that a businessman couldn't possibly command the people from the East Factory."
"I didn't think anything of it at first, but after thinking about it more, I realized something was amiss. I've been out shopping these past few days and have learned about the goings-on in the capital. Our house isn't something that just any wealthy merchant can afford. Besides, what kind of business did Dad do to amass such wealth in just ten years?"
"Plus what my son has seen in the capital, it's impossible for a businessman to control the Eastern Depot."
An Jingzhi paused, "So, Dad, what exactly are you? I want you to tell me in person."
An Jingzhi's expression has always been very calm, and even An Zhongyi couldn't tell what his son was thinking. But fortunately, so far, he has not seen any disgust on his son's face.
He sighed. He couldn't hide it in the first place. He had originally wanted to find an opportunity to confess, but he didn't expect that the matter would be directly exposed by others, so that he fell into a somewhat passive situation. "My father is indeed the Nine Thousand Years Old. This is what the world calls my father."
He stared at the other person closely, not daring to miss any expression on his face.
An Jingzhi was not frightened at all. Instead, he let out a long sigh, his body relaxed, and the tense atmosphere became comfortable. His tone was relaxed, "I knew it! So, Dad, you are the Ninth Prince. Dad, why didn't you tell me earlier? I was guessing what you do all day long, and I thought you were doing something incredible! No wonder you can command the people in the East Factory! So you are the boss!"
The other party's performance was completely beyond An Zhongyi's expectations. He looked at An Jingzhi in surprise, who looked as if he had realized what was going on and was very relieved.
"You, son, don't you hate your father?" His tone was cautious.
An Jingzhi said lazily, "Oh my God! I'm so happy that I don't even have time to hate Dad!"
"Before, I wondered if you were working for some big shot. I heard those big shots have bad tempers and are unpredictable. They might kill us all at any time. But now, we are big shots ourselves. We don't have to worry about other people's feelings!"
An Zhongyi really couldn't tell whether the other party really meant it or was just pretending, so he asked tentatively, "You, you're not afraid of Dad? Everyone says Dad is a murderous eunuch."
Perhaps it was the other person's behavior that gave him the courage to ask this question.
An Jingzhi's expression became somewhat excited, "Well done!"
Facing An Zhongyi's stunned gaze, An Jingzhi continued, "Shouldn't those corrupt officials be killed?! Only those educated people would feel sorry for these corrupt officials! Dad, you don't even know that the county magistrate you killed was from our county. He had his steward lend us money and then deliberately used tricks to make it so we couldn't pay it back. In the end, he owned us and all our land."
"And that high-ranking official? I heard he was a doctor. Anyway, I have no idea. The Magistrate Li who came to our county later was clearly a good man. Not only did he not collect more taxes from us, but he even helped us obtain a lot of life-saving grain from the court during the disaster. Just because of that doctor, Magistrate Li and his entire family were thrown into prison. I heard he was reported for corruption and brought to the capital for a house search."
An Jingzhi's tone was a little excited. "How could Magistrate Li be corrupt? He was afraid that the relief grain he requested would be taken away by his subordinates, so he stayed awake for seven consecutive days to monitor the grain distribution. After we all received the grain, Magistrate Li went back to sleep for three days and three nights. How could such a good official be corrupt?"
An Zhongyi remembered that the county magistrate he killed seemed to be a vassal of an official from a certain faction in the court. He just sent someone to investigate and found evidence of the other party's guilt, then he removed the other party's people and replaced them with his own people.
Magistrate Li, who was later replaced, did ask the court for food because of the local disaster. It was because of his words of help that the relief food was successfully obtained. However, the amount of food was reduced by half after it left the capital and reached its destination.
Even though An Zhongyi had considerable power at the time, he could not avoid it.
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