The soft paper sold by the Hou family was extremely popular for a time, but the business had not yet expanded to other places. Now, almost every slightly wealthy family in Beining was using it.
With comfortable and inexpensive soft toilet paper available, who would want dirty and hard toilet sticks?
Moreover, if these families who can afford soft paper have students, most of the paper they use for drawing and painting will be taken back with the housekeeper, which is good.
The Hou family not only ran businesses targeting women, but also their own family members.
“Sir, you must do us justice. The Hou family is trying to make us all starve. Xu Zheng is a big and powerful man who doesn’t care about this little bit of money, but we can’t do that. Every year, we give you more money than he does, but we earn less than him. This is all out of our loyalty. Please, sir, lend us a hand.”
The other three major paper manufacturers in Da Yan arrived at the Ministry of Revenue's residence in the dead of night, groveling before them. Jiang Liu wouldn't ignore them; if the three of them fell, his purse would be at least half empty.
"How stupid are you? We'll handle things the same way we handled them before. Do you really think you're so smart that you can outsmart anyone?"
"You mean... find some people from the martial arts world?" the man asked, making a horizontal gesture with his hand on his neck.
"Otherwise what? By the way, the Hou family embroidery workshop makes quite a bit of money. Let's get their book on needlework techniques."
"Yes, sir."
The three filed out, the torrential rain pattering against their paper umbrellas. Blood trickled down the man's leg to the carriage. Seeing that the carriage hadn't moved for a while, Chen Chengjing lifted the curtain and asked...
"Why have you stopped?"
"Sir, there's blood ahead, and there's a person lying there."
The man was soaking wet, pale-faced, and had two very deep wounds on his legs.
"Take it back."
Cheng Jing had lived his entire life relying on his father, the Grand Chancellor of the Great Yan Dynasty. It was also due to his noble heart that he couldn't bear to see this person disappear in the heavy rain. At worst, he would be scolded by his father. Anyway, he had lived for more than fifty years, so what difference would one more time make?
"Dad, I've brought someone back with me."
The old man pursed his lips and clicked his tongue.
"Now that you've said that, what big trouble have you picked up this time?"
The man blushed and stammered.
"He said... he wanted to sue Jiang Wenye, the Minister of Revenue, for embezzlement, bribery, hiring someone to commit murder, and causing his family to be ruined for the sake of a secret formula."
“Last time! Last time you picked up that accuser of the Vice Minister of Works, this time you picked up that accuser of the Minister of Revenue. Cheng Jing, why don’t you stop calling me Dad and go call Fan Tiezui Dad? I think you two get along quite well. The son picks up people, and the father gets the evidence and then spews it out in court. What do you think?”
"His legs were crippled by the Jingzhao Prefecture, he looks so pitiful... Father."
Chen Yunsong looked at his son, who was over fifty and still acting like a child, and felt a pang of heartache. Fortunately, he had a good grandson, so it wasn't a big problem. So what if he was the Minister of Revenue? He wasn't as high-ranking as Chen Yunsong, and Chen Yunsong could still protect him.
"Go back and tell him! Take good care of your injury!..."
"Wait for the right opportunity!" Chen Chengjing knew this phrase better than his father. Having picked up many people since he was a child, he always used these three sentences.
His father wasn't just making empty promises; he was genuinely waiting for the floodwaters to overflow, when a torrential downpour would fall from the sky, to see how he would react.
The martial world is essentially the underworld of Great Yan. In the eyes of these officials, their so-called heroes are nothing more than idle hooligans. The only thing in the martial world that is useful to them is the Zhanchen Tower.
To sever worldly ties and worries, all you need is to offer gold and silver.
I'll kill someone for you, you give me money, that's it.
"Oh, isn't this Master Zheng? Has someone offended an important person again today?"
Zhanchenlou also values its reputation, only receiving guests from the main family and refusing to see any servants or errand runners.
"Pingyang County, Hualiu Lane, Hou Family."
"The same as before? The entire family?"
"The entire family."
"Ten thousand taels of silver for the grand event!"
The man dropped the silver notes and left. He couldn't stand staying in this filthy place for even a moment. From the outside, the Zhanchen Tower's contact point looked no different from a restaurant, but for some reason, when he sat inside, he felt a chilling, bone-deep discomfort.
"Why is he trembling, Sister Liu?"
The woman, wearing a bright red peony ornament in season, smiled and said...
"He must have done something wrong. This is a big job. I need to ask the host who to send."
"...Pingyang County?"
"OK."
"Hualiu Lane?"
"Yes!"
The master of Zhanchen Tower wore a silver mask that covered half of his face. His magnetic voice was so alluring that it made people want to commit crimes. It would have been even better if his tone wasn't a rhetorical question.
Those thin lips make her look like a heartless person, she's so beautiful.
"Liu Xiaohua, you are truly my ancestor."
"What's wrong? What's missing? What kind of relative are you? I don't know anything about this."
Do you know where the leader of the martial arts alliance lives now?
Where?
"Pingyang County's red-light district! Her daughter works as a head chef at a brothel!"
The martial arts world is a criminal underworld, and that Alliance Leader Zhang is a criminal underworld boss, and a criminal underworld boss with explosive martial arts skills. His connections and influence are definitely not comparable to those of Zhanchen Tower.
"...What an annoyance. I'll return the money to him tonight." The woman frowned slightly, feeling irritated. Why was a martial arts alliance leader running around like this?
"You think you can just give it away like that? What about the reputation of Zhanchenlou?"
"Shame on you? You're dead already, what right do you have to be shameful! If you want to go pick them up, bring your own people, you're out of your mind!"
You think you've lived a long life? You're just sending people to the martial arts alliance leader's house to behead them. Everyone in that building is on the wanted list. If they really needed money, they could earn more by kidnapping their own people and taking them to the authorities.
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