After the engagement was called off, the senior sister of the sect took the initiative to consummate

Qin Yichen stopped and turned to look at Chu Lianyue, coldly asking, "Is there anything else, Madam?"

Chu Lianyue's expression turned somewhat unpleasant. She hesitated for a moment, but finally mustered up her courage and said, "Your Highness, my husband accidentally offended you at your welcoming banquet. On his behalf, I apologize to you and beg you to have mercy on him."

Qin Yichen's lips curled up slightly, revealing a mocking smile. "Madam, do you think Lord Xia will be imprisoned indefinitely just because he offended me?"

"I am not so petty as to risk my future by imprisoning a military governor. If he has only offended me, a few days of imprisonment will suffice as a minor punishment."

His voice revealed a hint of dissatisfaction and disdain, as if he did not accept Chu Lianyue's apology.

Upon hearing this, Chu Lianyue's face turned deathly pale, and she almost lost her balance. She stammered, "Then...then does Your Highness mean that my master has committed a crime?"

"This is confidential and must not be disclosed!"

Qin Yichen said with a serious expression, as if this matter was of great importance and absolutely could not be known by others.

However, when he saw Chu Lian Yue's anxious and pleading eyes, his expression was somewhat moved.

He hesitated for a moment, but ultimately decided to reveal some information to her, "but considering how hard you've worked today, I'll say a few words."

Qin Yichen's tone softened slightly, but he still maintained an air of authority.

Upon hearing this, Chu Lianyue looked anxious and quickly said, "Your Highness, please speak. I am all ears!"

Her voice revealed both awe of Qin Yichen and a desire for the truth.

Qin Yichen took a deep breath and said slowly, "Madam, you should leave Jiangnan as soon as possible, or it will be too late."

His words were brief and direct, yet they struck Chu Lianyue like a bolt from the blue, causing her body to tremble violently.

"Please, Your Highness, spare my master!"

Chu Lianyue's face turned deathly pale instantly. She knelt down, tears streaming down her face, and begged for mercy.

She knew that Qin Yichen had a prominent background, and perhaps only he could save her husband.

"Let him go?"

Qin Yichen sneered: "You want me to condone criminals? What benefit would that bring me?"

"This this……"

Chu Lianyue looked troubled.

Yes.

Her family had no relation to the Prince of Jin, so why would he risk his life to save her husband?

Should we really follow that scoundrel Wang Fa's advice, offer ourselves to him, seduce him with our beauty, and serve him wholeheartedly?

How are they any different from courtesans?

Qin Yichen snorted coldly, "Think it over, then come back to Zhao Benwang. Remember, you only have one chance!"

Having said that, he turned and left without any hesitation.

Despite Chu Lianyue's repeated attempts to persuade him to stay, he remained unmoved.

After leaving the inn, Qin Yichen glanced at the room he had just been in. "Trying to get something for free? Dream on!"

"If it weren't for the fact that you still have some use to me, I wouldn't have attended this banquet today."

"When you ask someone for a favor, you have to act like you're asking for a favor. Don't you understand such a simple principle, or are you just putting on airs and pretending to be confused?"

……

Three days passed in a flash.

The entire salt market of the Qin Dynasty was stabilized.

Having experienced the hardship of high-priced salt, the affordable and high-quality snowflake salt is now more sought after and loved by the people.

With the backing of unscrupulous salt merchants, the snowflake salt sold in the name of the imperial court became an instant hit.

The people were deeply grateful to Emperor Qin and Qin Yichen.

In an instant, the will of the people was with them.

Meanwhile, the salt merchants of Jiangnan were suffering greatly.

Not only did the shops go unvisited every day, but they were also subjected to a barrage of insults, and the salt merchants were branded as infamous.

Even worse, some people vandalized and burned down shops.

Salt merchants dared not even leave their homes unless it was for important business, because if they did, they would be pelted with rotten eggs and vegetable leaves, or surrounded and verbally abused.

Sure enough, on this day, the four salt merchants, who had not shown their faces for several days, secretly gathered again at Baihualou.

Fan Jian stormed into the room, pointing his finger at Xu Yuan as soon as he entered, and began to curse: "It's all because of you, you son of a bitch, that I suffered such heavy losses!"

"You didn't do anything right, but instead did those despicable things. Now look what happened, my shop got smashed up by those scoundrels!"

Liu Yishou chimed in, "That's right, Patriarch Xu, you have to give us an explanation!"

"If you hadn't been so focused on profiting from the national crisis, we wouldn't have suffered such a huge loss!"

The man with the goatee chimed in, "That's right, Patriarch Xu, you have to compensate us for our losses!"

For a moment, the room was filled with a great deal of noise, with the three people talking back and forth, their voices growing louder and louder.

Xu Yuan's face turned ashen. He slammed his hand on the table, stood up, and roared, "Shut the hell up, all of you!"

The roar shook the entire room, and Fan Jian, Liu Yishou, and the man with the goat horn were all stunned into silence.

You can hear the needle drop.

Xu Yuan glared at them fiercely, her eyes filled with anger and disdain, and then said, "It was I who proposed the alliance, that's true, but wasn't it because you thought it would be profitable that you agreed to the alliance?"

"Now that there's a problem, you all blame me. Who gave you the nerve? A bunch of shameless scoundrels!"

He became more and more agitated as he spoke, pointing his finger at Fan Jian's nose: "What right do you have to criticize me?"

"When you asked my wife to sleep with you, why didn't you say that was immoral?"

"Everyone says you shouldn't mess with your friend's wife, but you're the one who specifically chooses to sleep with your friend's wife, aren't you? Is that something a human being does?"

He was visibly agitated, and pointed at Liu Yishou, saying, "What right do you have to blame me?"

"Did that extra 20% of the profits go into the pocket of that bastard?"

"The weather is unpredictable, and fortune can change in an instant. Could I have foreseen this situation?"

No one feels comfortable being insulted to their face.

Not to mention Liu Yishou, the "smiling tiger"?

A hint of anger flashed across his face, and he was about to retort, but before he could utter a word, Xu Yuan interrupted him sharply: "Shut up! You can speak later!"

Xu Yuan's murderous expression stunned Liu Yishou, and he swallowed back the words that were about to come out.

Seeing that Liu Yishou was babbling on and on without saying anything more about Hua, Xu Yuan ignored him and instead turned her attention directly to the man with the goat horn beard.

This time, Xu Yuan was even angrier than before. His eyes were wide open, as if they were about to spit fire. "The most shameless one is you, you opportunistic fence-sitter!"

"Back when you were lusting after my wife's body, you called me more affectionately than your own father."

"When we're having a threesome, I'm having so much fun I'm practically losing my bearings. Humph, is my wife really that much of a joke? No effort required, no responsibility?"

"Now that something's happened, all you do is yell at me for compensation? When you slept with my wife, did you ever pay for her services? Bah! Who do you think you are!"

……