Witch Wind

Chapter 135: Sky-High Contract (Part )

A few days later, in Feiyun Port, Caijinxuan.

This is the Feiyun Port Silk Business, a time-honored brand ranked among the top ten, specializing in silks and satins from the East, and occasionally doing some high-end custom-made clothing business.

Beihe Mingzhai, the former guard of Feiyun Port, was a loyal customer of Caijinxuan. During festivals and various grand ceremonies, the formal dresses worn by Beihe Mingzhai were all made by the skilled craftsmen of Caijinxuan.

The real dignitaries in Feiyun Port also knew that Caijinxuan was a secret agent of the Weaving Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Dayu Dynasty in Feiyun Port. These dignitaries in Dongyun were also happy to collude with Caijinxuan and provide various conveniences for Caijinxuan, so as to establish a relationship with the Weaving Department and facilitate their own import and export business.

Xing Tianqingshu rushed into Caijinxuan with two dying old ghosts.

A cloud slowly floated over, mixed in with the large white clouds, and quietly hovered above Caijin Pavilion. Xing Tianli sat cross-legged on the cloud, smelting the wreckage of the warship, inhaling and exhaling the Primordial Qi, while quietly listening to the movements in Caijin Pavilion.

Xing Tianli got wind of the situation not long after Xing Tianqingshu led his men to attack Sijin City and suffered a great defeat, and fled with the two old ghosts. He returned from the front line of Yunxiang Island, easily caught up with Xing Tianqingshu, and chased him all the way back to Feiyun Port.

Along the way, Xing Tianli also heard clearly the conversation between the two old ghosts and Xing Tianqingshu.

The biggest problem Xing Tianqingshu is facing now is money!
As long as he pays enough real money, Xing Tian Qingshu can get rid of the responsibility and clear his guilt for his defeat, or even the defeat and death of two royal priests.

Without money, let alone the guilt of the annihilation of nearly 10,000 elite soldiers of the weaving department, the revenge of these two priests alone would be enough to have Xing Tian and Qing Shu's entire family executed and all nine generations of their clan exterminated!
From this point of view, these two royal priests whose foundations of Taoism were destroyed by Wei Zhongxian are not bad people at all - in order to find a way out for their children and grandchildren, they don't even want Xing Tianqingshu to be responsible for their "failure". As long as Xing Tianqingshu pays enough silver and gets two places from the empress dowager for their children and grandchildren to practice in the ancestral land!
This is really magnanimous!
money!
As long as the problem can be solved with money without paying extra costs, the problem is really not a big deal!

Logically speaking, these few things shouldn't be a problem for Xing Tianqingshu.

Nanxun Town, Xingtian Clan, and Pingyuan Hall dominate Nanxun Town. Many surrounding towns, industries, and businesses are all controlled by Pingyuan Hall. After hundreds of years of operation, Pingyuan Hall has accumulated extremely huge wealth.

Just look at the businesses controlled by the branches of Pingyuan Hall, as well as the fields, mulberry forests, fish ponds, pastures, mines, caravans and other assets. If you really calculate it, this is an astronomical amount of wealth.

If the side branches are like this, how could the main branch of the Xingtian clan's Pingyuan Hall be short of money?

Putting aside Pingyuantang's own property, with Pingyuantang's fame and reputation in Nanxun Town and surrounding towns, Xing Tianqingshu can lend huge amounts of silver to wealthy merchants in the surrounding areas in the name of Pingyuantang!
The problem is, over the years, Xing Tianqingshu has been clinging to Princess Yihe's thigh like crazy. For this thick and beautiful jade leg, how much money has Xing Tianqingshu spent in vain over the years?
The little property of the main branch of the Xingtian clan's Pingyuan Hall was inexplicably wasted by Xingtian Qingshu in just ten years. How could such a large property and so much savings be wasted in ten years? Xingtian Qingshu himself was puzzled. Anyway, the savings of the Xingtian clan's Pingyuan Hall were not much.

So, what about borrowing?

In the exquisite tea room at the back hall of Caijinxuan, Xing Tianqingshu held the scalding hot teacup in both hands, letting his palms turn red from the cup. He was like a living dead, unaware of the pain of his palms being scalded by the boiling water. He just sat there with a sad face, staring blankly at the exquisite pond outside the window.

Several bloated and fat koi were swimming lazily in the pond. Xing Tianqingshu looked at the colorful koi and murmured, "How could this be? These fish are so free and spend their days swimming leisurely, but Benbo has ended up in such a situation? Money, money, money, where can I get this money?"

The direct descendants of Pingyuantang are out of money.

There are still a lot of real estates, but there is really not much cash left.

As for the twenty-four collateral branches of Pingyuan Hall, Xing Tianqingshu had considered them before - but after Xing Tianli pretended to be the special envoy of the Xingtian family of "Anyi", Xing Tianqingshu, and even Princess Yihe and others behind him, did not dare to take action against those collateral branches of Pingyuan Hall.

Even if they have a lot of wealth, with the support of Xingtian's "Anyi" clan, who would dare to touch a single penny of theirs?
Then, borrow from Nanxun Town and the surrounding towns and cities, and from the wealthy merchants who have business dealings with Xingtian's Pingyuan Hall?
this is a good idea.

With the reputation of the Pingyuan Hall of the Xingtian family, it would be easy to borrow 500,000 taels of silver from each of those wealthy merchants. In Nanxun Town, there were thousands of wealthy merchants with millions of taels of silver hidden in their homes!
One hundred million taels, two hundred million taels, haha, no matter how much silver it is, it’s not a problem!

As long as Xing Tian Qingshu used the name of the Xing Tian family's Pingyuan Hall as a guarantor, he could easily borrow a large sum of money in previous years!
The problem is that a few months ago, a huge case occurred in Nanxun Town!
In Nanxun Town and several surrounding towns, the cellars where the gold and silver of wealthy merchants who had close ties with the Pingyuan Hall of the Xingtian Clan and had extremely frequent business dealings with the clan had all been robbed!
Don't know when.

I don't know who did it.

Thousands of wealthy merchants and tens of thousands of secret cellars were dug out without disturbing any family. Not a single copper coin was left!

This case is shocking.

It was the critical moment for each family's Jiazi to be born. Such a shocking case, whether it was Princess Yihe, the government office of Jiangdong Province, or even the court of Dayu Dynasty, did not dare to let such a "shameful" case be exposed.

In particular, maybe this case was just a case where a certain gangster was short of money, so he suddenly had an idea and sent an "expert" to do the work secretly?

So, the case was suppressed.

Thousands of wealthy businessmen suffered heavy losses, and not a single one dared to reveal the news.

The shocking case seemed to have never happened, and there was no movement on the streets.

Even though there was no movement, the fact was that even if Xing Tianqingshu wanted to borrow money, he couldn't find anyone to borrow from - his own business partners had suffered heavy losses, many merchants had problems with their working capital, and their capital chain was almost broken. Everyone was struggling to raise funds to tide over the difficulties.

At this critical moment, even if Xing Tianqingshu used his own life as a guarantee, he could not borrow even a tael of silver!

And what the two old ghosts said was true - before they died, if Xing Tian Qingshu could not raise enough money to send their two grandsons to the ancestral land of the Dayu Dynasty to practice, they would die together with Xing Tian Qingshu!
Alas, the two old ghosts, Xing Tian and Qing Shu’s entire family were buried with them!

Well, it is impossible for the nine clans of Pingyuan Hall to be exterminated - after all, someone from the main family of Xingtian clan in Anyi has come forward. Even the Dayu Dynasty is unwilling to offend the three ancient families and attack the twenty-four branches of the Xingtian clan's Pingyuan Hall.

But Xing Tianqingshu's maternal family, the Zhang family on his biological father's side, are doomed.

All nine clans will be executed, for sure!

No one will be left alive, for sure.

"Money!" Xing Tianqingshu's body twitched as if he was seriously ill and on the verge of death. He was sweating all over. The sweat was gray in color. There was no heat in each drop of sweat. With every drop of sweat that came out of his pores, his face became paler.

There were footsteps, and the head shopkeeper of Caijinxuan came over quietly: "Master, there is a woman outside who calls herself Ma Suo and says she is an old friend of yours. She said she has a large number of high-end goods on hand. I wonder if you are interested?"

Marceau?

Xing Tianqingshu, whose brain was almost frozen, suddenly became active.

He jumped up with joy and almost threw himself on the stage to greet him.

Marceau.

Marceau of the Whispering Forest.

According to legend, she was the illegitimate daughter of the last king of the Kingdom of Farus. When Farus was changing, she secretly ran away to the last princess of the East Kingdom with a huge treasure of the kingdom!
Maso, who controls wonderful things like Dark Night Incense and Bliss Incense.

Dark Night Incense is exclusively supplied to the rich and powerful in the Dayu Dynasty. It is said that even the current emperor is smoking it!

The Bliss Incense is specially supplied to those poor people who are struggling with poverty. Although its price is only one percent of that of the Dark Night Incense, its sales volume is huge and it has tens of millions of customers. It can make a profit of tens of millions of taels of silver every month!

Really a huge profit!
Maso, the real female goddess of wealth!
But since the incident in the International Concession of Pinghai City a few months ago, the Whisper Forest has disappeared, and Maso has also disappeared. The supply of Dark Night Incense and Bliss Incense has also been cut off, and now it is only relying on a small amount of inventory to survive!

Xing Tianqingshu let out a shrill howl, and he finally realized that his hands were almost half-cooked by the scalding hot teacup. He dropped the teacup and cried, flew to the pond outside, and plunged his hands into the water.

He looked at the round and fair shopkeeper and cursed at the top of his lungs: "Fool, bring me the burn ointment. Ouch, my hand!"

After a flurry of activity, Xing Tianqingshu, who had wrapped his hands in a white scarf and applied a thick layer of burn ointment, opened the door with a smile on his face and warmly welcomed Ma Suo's arrival. Ma Suo, who was brought back to Feiyun Port from the front line of Yunxiang Island by Xing Tianli on a cloud, yawned lazily and cast a charming glance at Xing Tianqingshu: "Little guy, it's been a long time since we last met. Do you miss me?"

Xing Tianqingshu smiled humbly, bowed and nodded like a pug, and enthusiastically welcomed Marceau into Caijinxuan: "Merciful Holy Mother, you linger in my dreams every night... Especially, where is Miss Sally? Miss Lilier? Miss Doris?"

Xing Tianqingshu couldn't wait and called out the names of more than thirty code forest girls in one breath.

He and Maso have been friends for many years. In the Jiangnan region of Dayu Dynasty, the Ji Le incense from many provinces was sent to major provinces and counties through the channels of Xing Tian Qing Shu.

Therefore, in the Dark Language Forest, there are many girls who have a relationship with Xing Tianqingshu that goes beyond friendship.

Marceau looked a little embarrassed.

She quickly and instinctively looked up at the white clouds drifting in the wind - on one of the light clouds, Xing Tianli was looking down at them.

"They, unfortunately, died." Marceau wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes: "You know, an extremely terrible disaster happened in the International Concession, and they couldn't escape... But, little guy, I brought more good girls, you can definitely develop a new friendship with them."

Behind Maso, dozens of girls whom she had previously placed in Dongyun and who had never appeared in Pinghai City, straightened their chests lightly and cast seductive glances at Xing Tianqingshu.

Xing Tianqingshu swallowed hard, his eyes like the sticky mouthparts of a fly, fiercely sweeping over the graceful and beautiful figures of these girls. After a long while, he remembered the serious business and welcomed Maso and his party into Caijinxuan.

In the quiet tea room, Marceau held a long cigarette in his mouth and blew out smoke rings lightly.

She had no intention of tasting the fragrant tea that Xing Tianqingshu offered her. Instead, she gently tapped the tea with her slender fingers, creating tiny ripples in the teacup.

She admired the koi in the pond for a while, then sighed softly, "I never thought I would see you in Dongyun."

Xing Tianqingshu sighed: "Yeah, I didn't expect that Lilith, Lili'er, Dori'er... and so many other lovely girls, why did they... why did they... become unfortunate?"

After a while of worrying, Xing Tianqingshu murmured, "If you have any ornaments or clothes from them, please give me one or two. After all, we have a friendship. I will build a tomb for them in Nanxun Town, and have people sweep and worship them during festivals."

Marceau's face twitched.

She took a deep puff of her cigarette, exhaled a stream of smoke, and said in a deep voice, "Well, let the dead rest in peace. We who are still alive have to work hard to make a living."

Knocking his knuckles hard on the tea table, Maso said coldly: "I need silver, a lot of silver, enough to support this war."

Maso raised his chin and said proudly, "Do you know? I played a big role in the war between the multinational coalition forces and Dongyun."

"If we win, I will reap incredible rewards, enough to make me rich enough to rival an entire nation."

"However, in the process, the war requires astronomical military expenditures, bullets, shells, fuel, food, and even the body bags of those unfortunate little ones."

Maso sighed, "Let those Dongyun bastards die. Bury them where they died. Ashes to ashes, earth to earth. That's all. As for the soldiers from the hundred countries in the far west, the pension will be settled later, but at least a body bag should be given to them as a token of appreciation."

“It’s all money!”

"Fighting war means burning money."

Maso exhaled a puff of smoke and said in a deep voice: "So, I am very short of money now."

Xing Tianqingshu widened his eyes, looked at Maso, and sighed in sympathy: "Yes, we are short of money. We are all short of money."

Maso said seriously: "We need to open up a source of income. We need to get a large sum of money in a short period of time!"

Xing Tianqingshu's eyes sparkled, and he said in a deep voice: "Then, respected His Highness Maso, you must have brought me good news?"

Marceau crossed her legs and her calves swayed frivolously.

Xing Tianqing's gaze was fixed on the half of Marceau's white and unusually delicate calf that was exposed from under her skirt. He didn't know what he was thinking about, his face turned red inexplicably, and gradually, thin red lines seeped out of his eyeballs, and his breathing became much heavier.

Marceau shook her calves gently. The blue-green sunlight slanted through the glazed windows of the tea room and shone onto her white calves, making the exposed section of her calves look like white jade, reflecting a dazzling light.

She gently swung her calves in circles, following a strange frequency and trajectory, and Xing Tianqingshu's eyes became a little scattered.

"I have a large amount of Bliss Incense in my hand." Maso said softly, "The quantity is huge, enough for our current 100 million customers to use for two years. According to our previous transaction, the purchase price of this batch of goods is more than 2 billion taels, and once you sell it, you can earn at least five times the profit."

Xing Tianqingshu took a breath.

Maso said leisurely, "I'm in urgent need of money, so you only need to give me 200 million taels of silver, and you can take the goods away at any time. Of course, since the price is so favorable, you will be responsible for the transportation, storage and sales yourself."

Maso exhaled a light puff of smoke and said easily: "In a word, we will make the transaction at Feiyun Port. I will get the silver and you can take the goods away."

She smiled confidently and said, "You know the power of the Bliss Incense. I haven't done any serious business with you for several months. In the Great Jade Dynasty, some shops in provinces and counties have been out of stock for a long time, right? Some addicted customers are probably already asking for it at a high price."

"So, if you sell this item slowly, you should be able to sell it at a higher price. I won't get involved in the specific price, and I won't ask you for a share of the profits afterwards."

Xing Tianqingshu shuddered.

He looked at Maso with surprise and joy: "Really? Two hundred million taels of silver can take away this batch of goods?"

Maso shrugged her shoulders, her feet swaying more flexibly. "If it weren't for this damn war, if it weren't for the huge profits it could bring, and even allow me to gain control of dozens of Dongyun Islands, so that I could revive here and rebuild the Kingdom of Farus... I wouldn't make this deal at a loss."

Maso smiled frivolously and said, "Two hundred million taels of silver, to you, your partners, and your distributors, this is an insignificant amount, right?"

Xing Tianqingshu laughed dryly.

Perhaps a few months ago, he could have raised the money by simply finding a dozen distributors in Nanxun Town.

But now, haha!

He laughed dryly and said, "Right now, we may be in a bit of a tight spot. Does it have to be cash?"

Maso raised his eyebrows: "If you don't have cash, real estate and homesteads will also work..."

"For example, I can let you mortgage your Xingtian clan's ancestral home in Nanxun Town... Well, one million taels, how about that? Bring me the title deed, and I'll ask Renov and other generals from various countries to notarize it!"

Xing Tianqingshu's eyes suddenly lit up!
Then he gritted his teeth secretly, wishing he could strangle Maso to death - Nanxun Town, Xingtian family, Pingyuan Hall, such a large ancestral home, the ancestral home that stretches for several miles and completely surrounds the Baihetan Lake, it can be said to be the ancestral home of an entire city, and you can only be worth one million taels of silver?
It's really crazy.

Of course, this price is unacceptable. Xing Tianqingshu rolled up his sleeves and prepared to bargain with Maso!

(End of this chapter)