Joy of Life

Although many people did not get a good night’s sleep, many people had been busy. Some had not gone to bed for the entire night. The palace treasury spring bidding still opened on time the next morning despite the major event that happened in Suzhou.

These were the past rules of the court.

Even though Eunuch Huang and Guo Zheng had cited the lockdown on Suzhou and Xia Qifei’s assassination attempt in their request to postpone the date of the transport company bidding for a few days, Fan Xian remained resolute and decisive. He valiantly requested that the bidding start on time, not a moment late.

The Ming family had already obtained one extra night of time. If they were given more reaction time, who knew what else could happen?

Fan Xian rubbed the sore point between his brows and forcefully hid the tiredness on his face as he watched the merchant filed in in a line. He found that although the expressions’ on these Jiangnan giant merchants remained calm, there was a strange emotion hidden in their eyes. It seemed that the matter of Xia Qifei’s attempted assassination last night had brought enormous complications for them. Fan Xian was temporarily unable to determine whether this change was good...or bad for his plan.

The father and son of the Ming family were the second last to enter the courtyard. Behind them followed the clan’s close servant and accounts master. His face wore a warm smile, and he saluted all around. The officials and merchants skimmed their eyes across and then shifted their gaze. No one dared appear to be overly friendly in front of Fan Xian with the Ming family anymore.

When the father and son of the Ming family bowed in front of the main hall, Eunuch Huang and Guo Zheng greeted them with warm words. It was clear they were showing their support of the other party. Fan Xian watched coldly. He smiled and nodded his head before waving his hand for the other party to take their seats. Ming Qingda’s expression was very strange but appeared to be calm. It seemed that, for some reason, the other party was not afraid of him exacting revenge for the matter of Xia Qifei’s attempted assassination.

Before the front doors closed, the Jiangnan water bandits also arrived.

Behind Xia Qifei, other than the few old officials of the Ministry of Revenue that Fan Xian had sent over, there were only three close guards left. The other brothers had died last night on the street.

Xia Qifei’s face was deathly pale. It seemed that the heavy injury had not had a chance to heal at all. Today’s matter was of great importance, so he had to come, even if he had to push himself.

Compared to the bandages on his body, the white cloth on his forehead appeared to be particularly piercing and bright. His subordinates behind him were also wearing white strips of cloth on their foreheads. In the spring weather, it emanated an ice-like cold.

This was the first time in decades that mourning had been worn through the palace treasury doors.

The gazes of everyone in the courtyard were aimed at the group bandits of room B4 who wore mourning and carried a murderous aura on their bodies. With the Lingnan Xiong family and Quanzhou Sun family in the lead, the merchants left their rooms and greeted Xia Qifei, quietly offering words of comfort.

With the support of his subordinates, Xia Qifei slowly approached the main hall. He didn’t glance at the father and son in the first room and said in a quiet voice, “I still came.”

Eunuch Huang and Guo Zheng’s faces were a strange color.

The corner of Fan Xian’s eye twitched, but he immediately recovered his usual calm. He spread out his right hand and said firmly and determinedly, “As long as you come, there will be a seat for you here.”

Everyone understood the meaning of Fan Xian’s words, but Eunuch Huang and Guo Zheng were completely unable to use these words to accuse Fan Xian of anything. The Jiangnan governor, Xue Qing, had excused himself due to illness, so in the courtyard, Fan Xian’s title was the highest. It was clear that Xue Qing was giving Fan Xian free reign to do as he liked.

The Ming family’s supporters would not just watch as the situation came under Fan Xian’s control. After a quiet whisper, Eunuch Huang said, “Sir Xia, I heard that the fighting among the jianghu began again last night in Suzhou, and you suffered many losses...but, it does not conform to etiquette to wear mourning into the yard.”

Xia Qifei’s birth was, after all, dishonorable, thus the matriarch of the Ming family was able to have an ace of the Junshang Conference carry out the killing. After all, if they could kill Xia Qifei, it would solve many problems. Afterwards, the matter could be pushed onto the fighting on the jianghu.

Eunuch Huang’s words were nothing more than to make this point real.

Fan Xian did not care to bicker about such nominal things, but upon hearing Eunuch Huang’s “does not conform to etiquette to wear mourning into the yard,” his rage grew. In a quiet voice, he said, “Eunuch Huang, do not make me angry.”

Although these words were spoken quietly, his voice was like it had been scraped out of a crevasse in a glacier, like it had come out from an abyss under the ground. That icy chill caused all those who heard it to shiver without being cold.

Do not make me angry!

These words crawled into Eunuch Huang’s ears and caused him to involuntarily shiver. He quickly shut his mouth. He would not get in a huff with the wretched youth; he would let him be. Besides, the Ming family had prepared the whole night. As long as he kept an eye out, nothing would go wrong. If, at this time, he let Fan Xian use this opportunity to flip out—who could stop him? It would not be good to ruin the bigger picture.

To the side, Guo Zheng, who had been about to open his mouth, also felt his heart chill. He quickly swallowed the words he had been about to say. Last night, they had all expected Fan Xian to act impetuously in his anger; they had all already written their memorials and were prepared to grasp this to use against Fan Xian. Unexpectedly, he had, on the contrary, maintained his calm. This greatly disappointed him and Eunuch Huang, and they were both aware that they didn’t know when that nefarious flame Fan Xian kept bottled up in heart would explode out.

Thinking of the ministers that had fallen in Fan Xian’s hands, Guo Zheng also retreated. The Eldest Princess only wanted to protect the Ming family’s shares, not their reputation.

...

...

There was another cannon boom. The confetti flew wildly outside in the courtyard, and the smoke gradually thickened.

Fan Xian narrowed his eyes and looked at the somewhat familiar scene. For some reason, he remembered last year, on the day he left Shangjing, Northern Qi, the moment he learned of the death of Zhuang Mohan. On that day, the firecrackers on Shangjing’s city gates that were sending him off also seemed to be sending off Master Zhuang.

Were the firecrackers today sending off those who had died last night?

Xia Qifei led his subordinates silently into room B4 and removed the strip of white cloth from his head. He carefully spread it on the table, straight as a brush. His brothers behind him followed their boss and removed their white cloths and spread them out. Line by line, bold and powerful.

Fan Xian’s brows furrowed his brows very slightly, as to be barely noticeable, as he thought about something.

The palace treasury official responsible for announcements once again stood at the top of the stone steps. The second day of the palace treasury bidding had officially begun.

Yesterday, there had been five lots; the palace treasury had 16 lots. Other than the last two portions that were bound eight lots, there were three lots left and placed at the start to be announced.

The Ming family continued to follow the agreement between the Jiangnan merchants and did not bid. On the contrary, it seemed that Xia Qifei had not been perturbed by last night’s incident and made bids very steadily. He took one of the lots, and the other two were won by the Lingnan Xiong family and Hangzhou Chen family. This was probably something that had been agreed on last night at the Jiangnan Restaurant.

The lots that Xia Qifei had taken were still on the Northern route. When Fan Xian received the bid from Flower Hall and confirmed that Xia Qifei had won the bid, he couldn’t resist secretly nodding his head. Xia Qifei had not let his emotions affect his decisions, and he greatly approved of this.

The bidding on these three lots progressed without excitement. The prices were about the same as previous years, and there was nothing shocking about them at all. None of the merchants and officials present had much of a reaction at all because everyone knew today’s important show was still to come; it was in the eight lots that the Ming family had to win.

...

...

“The southeast route and the sea route, goods of the Second workshop. A total of four lots, bidding begins. The highest bidder...wins...”

The official of the palace treasury transport company stood on the stone steps and called out with expression. He had no idea how many years he had been calling these words. Every year after the words were called, only the Ming family would bid—no one would compete with them. Thus, this call felt lonely and boring, without interest and dull.

But, this year was not the same.

After the sound of the announcement landed, the first to push open their door and hand out the leather envelope was room B4.

The courtyard burst into noise as countless voices rose in discussion. Xia Qifei, this abandoned Seventh young master of the Ming family was finally beginning to strike against the Ming family.

The expression of Ming Qingda in room A1 did not change. It seemed he had long expected this situation. In previous years, because of the strength of his family in addition to the Eldest Princess watching from behind the scenes, there were no Jiangnan merchants who dared to bid against him. Thus the Ming family in the last eight lots was the same as the Cui family in the first six—they both played opposing roles.

After playing these roles for too long, it would eventually feel tiring. Today, there was finally someone to compete against the Ming family. Other than feeling a slight fear, Ming Qingda also felt a thread of excitement.

He smiled slightly and said to his son beside him, “20 percent more, push him down.”

Ming Lanshi paled in shock. His father intended to raise last year’s final price by 20 percent in the first round of bidding? If, in a moment, in the second round Xia Qifei had enough silver and continued on—how could they hold it?

Ming Qingda raised the tea cup beside him and drank a mouthful, and slowly said, “The extra 20 percent isn’t to crush Xia Qifei; it’s to crush others.”

Ming Lanshi was confused. Today in the palace treasury courtyard, other than Xia Qifei, who had the support of the imperial envoy? Who else dared to compete with us for the two large lots? In the heart of this young master, he was still convinced that Xia Qifei’s confidence came from Fan Xian privately transferring silver from the Ministry of Revenue, and the others did not have this power at all.

Ming Qingda didn’t say anything, but his heart was as clear as a mirror. Fan Xian had Xia Qifei sweep away all the goods yesterday to turn the other Jiangnan merchants into starving wolves, and a starving wolf would take a bite of anyone’s meat.

...

...

When two sealed leather envelopes had been handed into Flower Hall, all of the merchants and officials placed their buttocks back in their seats and let out a turbid breath. They knew the good show had officially begun.

It seemed many people did not guess the direction in which this show was going.

The door to room B1 was slowly pushed open and a sealed leather envelope was handed to the official outside of the door.

The Quanzhou Sun family!

The entire yard exploded into a clamor. No one had thought that the Quanzhou Sun family would come to steal this hot soup when the two tigers were fighting.

“The Sun family!” Ming Lanshi looked in shock at his father and said, “Where did his family get this much silver?”

Ming Qingda’s expression did not change. “The Sun family themselves don’t have enough. Can a few families not put together enough? Don’t you think Xiong Baling, that old bastard, has become too quiet today? And those families that have been staring at our family? If they didn’t have a secret motive, why would they look for so long? Flowers haven’t grown on my face yet!”

In the main hall, each of the officials sitting in the three grand chairs all had their own thoughts. Fan Xian had long expected this development and was not very surprised. However, Eunuch Huang and Guo Zheng were gnashing their teeth, thinking, that Quanzhou Sun family was too daring to come out at this moment and cause trouble.

Under the nervous gazes of everyone, the results of the first round of bidding came out. Fan Xian held the price contrast sheet from the Flower Hall and couldn’t help sighing in his heart, thinking that the Ming family was able to expand for so many years in Jiangnan for good reason. In Fan Xian’s plan, the last four lots were when he and the Ming family would fight vigorously to raise the price. Although the amount of silver moved from Northern Qi was enormous, the turnaround needed too long of a route, so there was still an upper limit. Furthermore, Xia Qifei had taken five lots in a row and paid out a huge amount in deposits.

If it was possible to falsely raise the price with no limits, Xia Qifei could simply bid empty prices and have the Ming family continuously vomit blood. The problem was, Fan Xian never understood Ming Qingda. He seemed to be not as simple as being only a master in name. Fan Xian was unable to determine if he actually falsely raised the price or whether or not Ming Qingda would disregard the Eldest Princess’ orders and wisely cut his losses.

With the amount of silver Fan Xian had in hand, if he used it to raise the price, he was only certain of being able to heavy hurt the Ming family in the second of the four bound lots.

If the Ming family actually did play it ruthlessly in the third round and let go of the four bound lots...and Xia Qifei raised the price too high, there could only be two results: One, he would completely be unable to pay the 40 percent deposit. After successfully winning the first four bound lots, he would have nothing left and could only watch as the Ming family easy took the last four bound lots. The second result was not one that Fan Xian wanted. He had no way of controlling the route used for smuggling towards Dongyi. In the eyes of the Ming family, it was a bid they could not lose out on. As for him, it was something of little value. He did not want Xia Qifei to truly win that bid. But, if the Ming family easily took the last four bound lots, Fan Xian could not swallow that either.

As for the first possibility—if the price really did explode—under the covetous eyes of Eunuch Huang and Guo Zheng and the gazes of all these people, all of the previous efforts for the palace treasury matter would have been wasted. Xia Qifei would probably have no way to survive.

...

...

In the plan Fan Xian made earlier for this first set of four bound lots, he wanted to have the Quanzhou Sun family fire the challenge, while Xia Qifei’s bidding was just a ruse and was not intended to be serious. Seeing the price sheet the Flower Hall handed over, Fan Xian knew that that old man of the Ming family had already guessed his plans, so he bid such a terrifying number on just the first round.

The Sun family dared to make a move today because of the message he had sent last night through Shi Chanli.

Faced with such a powerful suppression by the Ming family, and to thinking of the brazen assassination the Ming family ordered on Xia Qifei last night—attacking through both civil and martial means—Fan Xian began to worry that perhaps the Sun family would be so scared by this round of bidding as to not increase their bid.

The situation indeed developed in the direction that Fan Xian did not wish to see. When the announcer called out the Ming family’s bid of 3,080,000 liang of silver, the yard filled with noise.

From then on, the door to room B1 never opened again. The Sun family had indeed been scared.

Fan Xian narrowed his eyes and looked at the two masters of the Ming family in room A1. He began to calculate whether or not these two masters had, as the Overwatch Council had investigated, participated very little in the assassination incident last night. The main instigator was purely the old Ming matriarch.

Assassinating Xia Qifei seemed impetuous, but combined with the aggressive bidding today, it was able to scare away many of the Ming family’s enemies who thought to profit from the chaos. If Ming Qingda was truly a person who used opportunities like this, and even used his own mother, then Fan Xian felt there was a need to re-evaluate the other party.

After the bidding from the first round came out, Eunuch Huang and Guo Zheng stroked their beards and smiled. Only, there was not much of a beard on Eunuch Huang’s chin, so it appeared a little funny. But, it could be seen that these two were very pleased with the actions of the Ming family and reactions of the crowd.

Room B4 was calm. Through the window, Xia Qifei gave Fan Xian an inquiring look.

Fan Xian sighed helplessly and used the palm of his hands to smooth back the hair at his temples. This was a secret signal for Xia Qifei to go slowly. Since the Sun family had backed out, Xia Qifei had to continue bidding, but these bids must be made carefully.

It had to hurt the Ming family, but it could also not be too ruthless. It had to make the other party take over these first four bound lots in a satisfactory manner. Otherwise, they could go crazy and give up, throwing these four bound lots to him.

This was a difficult situation. Even though Xia Qifei had the old officials from the Ministry of Revenue to help, it was still difficult to handle the matter perfectly.

The announcing official once again stood on the stone steps. What they had twice expected, the fierce family battle between the Eldest of the Ming family and the Seventh, did not happen. The bandit in room B4 lost his aggression from yesterday and carefully placed his bids.

Although they were being cautious, the price of this first four bound lot was still slowly raised to a shocking price that left people bug-eyed and dumbfounded.

This was clearly because the Ming family had bid a price in the first round that was already 20 percent higher than that of last year’s final price. The other reason was because room B4 wrapped around the other party like sticky candy.

In the end, the successful bid went, as expected, to the Ming family. This result was the same as all the other years, only the bidding price was very different.

5,120,000!

Everyone’s mouth dropped open. Hearing this price, they thought that if the palace treasury’s rule for bidding was five rounds, Xia Qifei in room B4 and Ming Qingda in room A1 would probably raise this price to twice that of last years.

This price was truly absurdly high.

Fan Xian knew this only showed that when the palace treasury was under the control of the Eldest Princess, the price for the right to sell palace treasury goods was absurdly low. At this price, the Ming family would not suffer any losses. They might even still be able to turn a large profit, Of course, this was under the condition that the Ming family still dared to do their pirating business and continue their smuggling to Dongyi right under Fan Xian’s eyes.

Thus Fan Xian smiled. He was very pleased with this result. The Ming family could do nothing but throw money into this lot this year.

“Room A1, Ming family, 5,120,000 wins!”

As the usually listless official announced the highest bid in the dozens years of the palace treasury opening bid, he finally appeared spirited. The voice he used to announce the price was powerful and resonating. The “wins” word left his mouth and was immediately gone. Without any dragging, it appeared very clean.

No matter what attitude they had toward the Ming family, the merchants also felt a thread of excitement and cheered for this amount.

On the contrary, it was the father and son in room A1 whose faces did not wear any sign of joy. Particularly Ming Qingda, who had a thin line of worry between his brows.

He was thinking the same as Fan Xian, if there wasn’t the aid of some shady methods, these four lots...were certain to be a loss.

Most importantly, it seemed that there were masters helping Xia Qifei make his bids. Their grasp of the proper amount to bid was good. In a moment, the deposit for this bid of 5,120,00 would be 2 million...furthermore, the other party’s true battle for the bid would definitely be at the end.

Last night, the Ming Garden had pulled together silver through the night. The six houses only pulled together 600,000 liang, far removed from the 1,350,000 liang the old matriarch had set. This bid for the four bound lots had far exceeded Ming Qingda’s estimate. What were they going to do later?

There was still half of Taiping money house’s silver left, but no one knew what would happen next. Ming Qingda’s hands gently pressed on the wooden box beside him, thinking deeply.

Ming Lanshi glanced his exhausted looking father and felt his heart wrench. He knew his father had not slept at all last night. He had gone to a few of the big money houses in Suzhou to transfer silver. Not until the early hours of the morning did he finally have enough to put his heart at ease. In this box was the cash banknotes that the Zhaoshang money house had written with urgency.

“Do you think that the imperial envoy will also want the last four bound lots?” Ming Qingda sighed tiredly.

Ming Lanshi did not know how to reply.

The sun had shifted to into the middle of the day, and the palace treasury bidding took a break with the bailiffs of the Suzhou government and the transport company bringing in food for the various merchants. Although the food provided by the officials was not as delicate and sophisticated as it usually was in the houses’ of these giant merchants, they still ate with relish. They moved closer to the dispirited Quanzhou Sun family and asked about some matters.

Everyone was eagerly anticipating the afternoon; that was the final battle. In the morning, the giant sum of five million had already been bid, to what dazzling level would the afternoon reach?

No one noticed Ming Qingda silently walking up to the main hall and arriving at the side hall where the important figures were having lunch. Without trying to avoid suspicion, he smiled slightly and said, “Greetings Eunuch Huang and Imperial Censorate Guo, I have some things I want to report to the imperial envoy. Could we have some privacy?”

Eunuch Huang and Guo Zheng were greatly shocked, thinking: What is he playing at? Was the Ming family going to lean to Fan Xian’s side in front of everyone? But it wouldn’t be so public...Ming Qingda had long maintained the Ming family and had not insignificant relations with the officials at court. He also had his own dignity. Eunuch Huang and Guo Zheng met each other’s eyes. They had deep trust in Ming Qingda, so they smiled and retreated, leaving him and Fan Xian space to talk.

...

...

There was no one else in the hall. Ming Qingda lifted the front of his robe with some difficulty and knelt in front of Fan Xian. He did not say anything.

Fan Xian had a bowl in hand and chopsticks in the other, and he was currently moving between the dishes looking for something delectably to eat. His gaze did not drift to that side at all, he only said, “The four bound lots at the end, I...will still bid for them.”