In the small courtyard of Xishan.

"My mistake was that I shouldn't always hold a grudge and pick on Young Master Zhao." Mr. Liu finally realized the situation and behaved like a well-behaved quail.

"I shouldn't have issued an order prohibiting the transportation of grain to Kunshan, which delayed disaster relief in your county."

"I shouldn't have let the pirates intercept Wu Ji's grain ship. They ended up kidnapping Miss Jiang."

"I shouldn't deny it now that it's come to this..."

"Well, that's a good summary." Young Master Zhao took a sip of tea, crossed his legs and asked, "So what are you going to do?"

"As long as Master and Wu Ji can give Xiaoke a chance to start over, I am willing to pay 50,000 taels each!" Mr. Liu gritted his teeth.

"Bah!" Zhao Hao spat out the tea leaves in his mouth and cursed with a smile: "Liu Zhengqi, you are still playing dumb with me at this moment."

He glared and said, "You robbed five of my grain ships and you dare to ask me for 100,000 taels of silver! Your entire fortune and your entire family are only worth five grain ships?"

"That's intentional exorbitant demand to embarrass Wu Ji." Mr. Liu shrank his neck and said.

"I'm also asking for too much, what should I do?" Zhao Hao smiled coldly.

"Then, that family will raise it to 80,000... at most 100,000 taels." Mr. Liu said with a sad face, "Sir, you should know that I lost hundreds of thousands of taels on raw silk last year. Later, in order to stabilize the situation, I gave away hundreds of thousands of taels. These 200,000 taels are all the money in the account. I have to close a lot of businesses to get the money out."

"What about my elder brother's share?" Zhao Hao snorted without commenting, "Do you want him to make a wasted trip?"

"Well, then I'll borrow another fifty thousand taels. Will that work?" Mr. Liu said this in a crying voice, and finally couldn't help bursting into tears. It seemed that he really couldn't afford to pay the compensation this time.

"Alright, alright, stop wailing." Zhao Hao saw that the time was almost right, so he waved his hand and said, "The last thing I want is money. You seem quite pitiful, so let's try another way."

"Ah? Please tell me clearly, sir." Liu Zhengqi quickly wiped back his nose and looked at Zhao Hao eagerly.

"How about this." Zhao Hao rolled his eyes at him, thinking that he had wasted his breath just now. "You just heard that I want to build a large tea garden in Xishan."

"Yes." Liu Zhengqi nodded quickly and said, "That's easy. If you like any piece of land, just tell Xiaoke directly and I will definitely help you get it."

"What I'm interested in is..." Zhao Hao stretched out his finger and made a circle, "All of them."

"All?" Liu Zhengqi blinked in confusion. "What do you mean?"

"The whole meaning is the entire Xishan Island." Master Zhao said word by word.

"All, all Xishan Island?" Liu Zhengqi heard the sound of his jaw dropping to the ground.

"Puff..." Hua Bozhen sprayed a mouthful of tea onto Mr. Liu's face.

Liu Zhengqi wiped his face, put his chin back in place, and stammered:

"Sir, do you know how big Xishan is?"

"It's probably about the size of five Suzhou cities." Zhao Hao thought for a moment.

"Then, you still want them all?" Mr. Liu asked in astonishment.

"Yes, I want them all." Zhao Hao smiled faintly and said as a matter of course: "The first project invested by our Jiangnan Company must be large and grand enough."

"The whole West Mountain..." Hua Bozhen took out a handkerchief to wipe the water droplets on his beard and had to admit, "It is indeed large and magnificent."

"And we sailed around the island yesterday, but didn't see any houses." Zhao Hao said with a look of 'let you get a bargain': "Two hundred and fifty thousand taels of silver or Xishan Island, which one do you want to keep?"

"Of course I choose silver." Mr. Liu said with a bitter face, "But Xishan Island is not owned by me alone, it belongs to dozens or even hundreds of families."

"So you come and take care of it." Zhao Hao said in a deep voice: "I'll give you three days. After three days, this island must belong to Jiangnan Company!"

After a pause, he stood up and said with a cold smile: "Otherwise, you either pay us 500,000 taels of silver or wait to die."

"This..." Mr. Liu almost dropped his jaw again. "Why did it double?"

"This is a punishment that cannot be done." Zhao Hao looked at the shadow of the tree on the ground and drew a line with the tip of his shoe. "The timer has started. If the shadow reaches this position in three days and you still can't do it, you will die."

"Ah..." Mr. Liu stared blankly at the shadow of the tree on the ground and thought to himself, I haven't agreed yet.

"Sir, don't waste your time." Hua Bozhen kindly advised, "If you have time to waste here, you might as well save your time and go back to persuade those people."

"Uh..." Liu Zhengqi's expression changed several times, and he finally realized that it was useless to talk nonsense. He bowed hastily to Zhao Hao, turned around and ran away. He didn't even bother to look at his son.

"Hahaha!" Zhao Hao and Hua Bozhen laughed out loud when they saw him rolling and crawling in a miserable state.

"It's true that losing weight has its benefits. He couldn't run so fast before."

"Brother, tell me the truth." Hua Bozhen stopped laughing and asked Zhao Hao in a low voice. "Why do you want this Xishan Island? It can't be just for growing tea."

"Hahaha, what do you guess, brother?" Zhao Hao blinked.

"I can't guess it." Hua Bozhen shook his head and smiled bitterly, "My dear brother, your actions are unpredictable, how can I guess it?"

"Brother, I feel a little embarrassed when you say that." Zhao Hao didn't look embarrassed at all. "Let's eat first, and then I'll take you to see something good."

"You kid, you deliberately prevented me from eating properly." Hua Bozhen pointed at Zhao Hao, looking helpless.

"Then I can eat more." Zhao Hao took the wet wipes and wiped his hands with a smile.

~~

After a while, the food was served.

Taihu three white dishes, water shield soup and a braised silver carp are served with white rice from Wuji's boat. Except for the rice, all other ingredients are locally sourced.

Although the seasoning was not complete, the dish was naturally fresh and delicious. Both of them were hungry, so they ate with gusto.

“I never thought that these common ingredients could have such a unique flavor after simply cooking them.” Hua Bozheng scooped a spoonful of water shield soup, blew gently on the hot air, and exclaimed in praise.

"Although I grew up by the Taihu Lake, I never tire of fine food and delicate stews. How could I have ever eaten something cooked this way by fishermen?" Zhao Hao picked up a Taihu knife fish and carefully picked out the hair-like spines on it.

This kind of fish is delicious, fat but not greasy, Zhao Hao likes it very much...but it has too many bones.

Usually Qiaoqiao would pick the food and give it to him ready to eat.

Now that he was picking the fruit himself, Mr. Zhao realized how much trouble it was, and he put it aside after picking half of it.

I thought to myself that I had to bring Sister Qiaoqiao over as soon as possible, otherwise life would be very difficult.

"Hahaha, you're talking about me..." Hua Bozhen also made fun of him.

The two social parasites smiled at each other, and the elder brother stopped talking about the younger brother.

Hua Bozheng was thinking about what Zhao Hao was saying, so he pushed down his bowl and urged him to go and see the good stuff he was talking about.

Zhao Hao had no choice but to give up his precious lunch break and take Hua Bozhen through the village towards Yuanshan behind the village.

ps. The first of three consecutive updates, please give me double the monthly votes~~~