#108 - Carrots and sticks

The next day, early morning.

The morning sun peeked out, illuminating the ancient, gnarled tree in the courtyard.

Wei Changtian opened his eyes and looked at Yang Liushi, who was lying beside him, a dazed expression on his face.

Last night was the first time in two months that he hadn't entered "Dream Dao" while falling asleep, and it was also the first time he had slept with a woman completely unguarded.

"Young Master, are you awake?"

"Yes, are you awake too?"

"Yes."

The two exchanged a few meaningless words, and after looking at each other, they both found it a little funny.

Yang Liushi moved slightly, leaned against Wei Changtian's chest, and said coquettishly:

"Young Master, you almost tormented me to death last night..."

"Tormented?"

Wei Changtian was stunned: "Wasn't I drunk?"

"Giggle, giggle, giggle, where is Young Master's mind wandering?"

Yang Liushi gently patted Wei Changtian's arm and said with a smile: "I was talking about helping you undress, wipe your body, and serve you to sleep."

"Oh."

Wei Changtian didn't feel embarrassed either. He nodded, thinking that "drunkenness leads to debauchery" only existed in TV dramas.

Otherwise, if you're drunk, how can you still have the mind to do that kind of thing? It's hard to say whether you can even find the right spot.

Unless it's premeditated by one party.

He lay in bed for a while longer, refused Yang Liushi's invitation for a "morning exercise", turned over, got out of bed, and put on his clothes.

When the two of them pushed open the door and walked out, they happened to meet Yuan'er and A Chun, who were waiting outside.

"Young Master, Sister Liushi..."

Yuan'er certainly knew that Yang Liushi had a "illicit relationship" with Wei Changtian, but the former didn't have a formal title like Lu Jingyao. Strictly speaking, her status was actually the same as her, a chambermaid, so she had always addressed her as "Sister".

"You're up? I'll go prepare warm water now."

She quickly ran into the side room to fetch the kettle that was simmering on the stove, while A Chun was standing next to her, holding a copper washbasin.

However, this washbasin was really a bit too big. Rather than saying she was holding it, it would be better to say she was carrying it.

"Hahahaha."

Wei Changtian couldn't help but laugh twice. He went to the well to draw a bucket of cold water and perfunctorily washed his face. When he looked up again, he happened to see a small head peeking out from the wall.

Judging from the looks of it, he shouldn't even be as big as A Chun. He had two small buns tied on the left and right sides of his head. It was a boy.

This was the son of the widow next door?

Wei Changtian smiled at the boy, but the latter wasn't afraid. His big eyes were full of curiosity.

This mansion had been empty for a long time, and now that so many people had suddenly moved in, it was normal to be curious.

"What's your name?"

Wei Changtian thought for a moment, then slowly walked to the wall, looked up, and asked: "How old are you this year?"

"..."

The boy tilted his head and looked over. After a long while, he stretched out five chubby fingers.

Was he mute?

Wei Changtian paused, and just at this moment, a shout suddenly came from the yard next door.

"Ran'er!"

It was a middle-aged woman's voice, probably that poor bereaved person.

Hearing his mother's call, the boy quickly retracted his head and disappeared behind the wall, followed by some vague noises like "What are you doing here?".

Wei Changtian didn't have the interest to eavesdrop on other people's parenting, shook his head, and went inside to eat breakfast.

He didn't expect that his neighbor was even more miserable than he imagined. Not only was there no man in the family, but even the child was mute.

If it were Xiao Feng, he would probably gain another charming and considerate widow.

However, he had no intention of doing that.

He couldn't even handle the young ladies, so there was really no need to take over this situation.

Huh?

Speaking of which, Zhang San was almost forty, wasn't he?

If he was willing, he could help match them up.

After taking a look at Zhang San, who was eating his meal in silence, Wei Changtian couldn't help but sigh in his heart.

I'm really a good boss for even helping to solve the marriage problems of my employees!

...

Compared to the capital, the atmosphere of the market in Shuzhou City seemed to be even stronger.

As soon as everyone had finished breakfast, all kinds of shouts rang out in the alley outside, all from peddlers selling various goods.

Needles, threads, firewood, rice, oil, salt, fresh fruits, and snacks were all available. If you wanted to buy something, you only needed to call out from the house, and you could complete your shopping without leaving your home.

It should be considered the predecessor of "purchasing agents".

Wei Changtian sat at the gate of the mansion with great interest and watched the peddlers coming and going for a while, and even bought a few skewers of candied hawthorns.

The hawthorns at this time were already a bit old, but they were very cheap, only five copper coins per skewer.

He asked for four skewers, but after searching for a long time, he realized that the smallest denomination of money he had on him was a five-tael silver ingot. In the end, Yuan'er ran out and paid twenty copper coins.

"Creak~"

Smiling happily as he received the money, the peddler quickly carried the grass stick and walked away.

"Candied~hawthorns~ Hey~hey~—candied hawthorns! No money if it's not sweet!"

Nine tunes and eighteen melodies, a brown rope prying a carrying pole.

If it were put in his previous life, this kind of behavior of shouting and selling at the entrance of the community early in the morning would be considered good if people didn't call the police to report him for "disturbing the peace".

It was just that although there were no police at this time, two black carriages that suddenly appeared from the corner of the alley startled the peddler.

He hurriedly wanted to dodge, but the alley was too narrow, and in the end, he fell to the ground on his butt.

Without time to check whether he was injured, the peddler quickly picked up the grass stick with the candied hawthorns stuck in it. Unfortunately, the grass stick had just fallen into the mud at the corner of the wall, and all ten or so skewers of candied hawthorns were covered in thick black mud, obviously unusable.

"This, this..."

Tears welled up in his eyes as he looked up at the two carriages. The "Mirror" flag inserted on the top of the carriage instantly extinguished his thoughts of going to demand an explanation.

Just now, an old man had bought four skewers of candied hawthorns at once. The peddler originally thought that he was lucky today, but in the blink of an eye, he encountered this incident...

Alas.

He sighed, patted the clothes covered in dust, and the slightly hunched figure slowly disappeared with the bare grass stick.

Just as he resigned himself to his fate and limped away, the two "hit-and-run vehicles" slowly stopped.

Seven or eight men wearing tiger jiao uniforms got out of the car and immediately trotted to Wei Changtian, standing in front of him, bowing slightly, and looking slightly nervous.

"Young Master Wei, why are you sitting here..."

Chen Bo squeezed out a smile and said with his head lowered: "We have taken the liberty to visit today, please forgive us, Young Master."

"..."

The morning breeze blew through the two ancient pagoda trees in front of the door, and also raised the corners of everyone's clothes.

Wei Changtian glanced at Chen Bo, didn't say anything, but continued to sit on the steps in front of the door in a nonchalant manner, and continued to eat the candied hawthorns in his hand.

"Crack, crack~"

The sound of the sugar coating breaking was clearly transmitted into everyone's ears.

These usually arrogant Suspension Mirror Division "adults" were like they had been cast with a holding spell, one by one still maintaining the posture of bowing their heads, not even daring to breathe loudly.

At this time, in the next yard, a woman who was not very beautiful but looked like a virtuous wife and loving mother was secretly looking this way through the crack in the door, her face full of shock.

With one hand, she carried a basket of eggs, and with the other, she held a little boy's hand, originally intending to apologize for her son's "peeking" behavior this morning.

But she never expected to witness this scene just as she was about to leave.

Tiger dragon uniform, Mirror character flag.

These were constables from the Hanging Mirror Court! Why were they being so respectful to that young master?

Her late husband was a famous镖师 (镖师 is a martial arts related job, similar to bodyguard) in the city. Naturally, the woman had been influenced by some Jianghu (the martial arts world) affairs and understood the power of the Hanging Mirror Court.

But it was precisely because she understood that she couldn't figure out the identity of this newly moved-in neighbor even more.

The woman couldn't resist her curiosity and watched for a while, but then felt that her behavior was impolite, so she wanted to close the door and return to her house, waiting until later to apologize for her son.

However, just at this moment, that mysterious and unpredictable young master finally finished his candied hawthorns and slowly stood up from the steps.

He casually threw away the bare wooden stick and said to the trembling crowd in front of him:

"Not bad... Come in."

Not bad?

A somewhat inexplicable question suddenly popped up in the woman's mind.

Was this referring to the taste of the candied hawthorns?

Or...

In the simple yet elegant main hall, Yuān'er was serving tea to everyone one by one.

This was a very normal thing, but everyone except Wei Changtian slightly rose and gave a token gesture of support when receiving the tea, every move was exceptionally careful and humble.

Wei Changtian watched this without rushing to speak, and only after Yuān'er retreated did he look at Chen Bo with a smile that was not quite a smile.

"Lord Chen, you've brought so many people to see me, quite the imposing manner."

"Young Master is joking..."

Chen Bo, sitting on the left-hand side, hurriedly smiled obsequiously: "Yesterday, many colleagues were on duty and not in the yamen. Today, when they heard that I was coming to pay respects to Young Master, they all clamored to come along."

"Let me introduce you to Young Master, this is Wang Daochang of the Brocade-Clothed Guard, holding the official position of a chiliarch; this is Zhang Zhongshèng of the Secret Sect Department, also holding the official position of a chiliarch, this is..."

Soon, Chen Bo introduced everyone one by one.

Wei Changtian nodded indifferently, but he had already memorized all of their names in his heart.

One Pacifier, two chiliarchs, and five centurions.

It was estimated that this was all the "high-level" personnel of the Hanging Mirror Court's Shǔ Prefecture Branch.

With over a thousand people, there were only eight or more centurion-level positions. This ratio was undoubtedly very low compared to the Capital City Headquarters, but it was also a normal situation.

After all, anyone who had worked within the system knew that it was too difficult to get promoted at the grassroots level.

"Lord Chen, you didn't come here today just to have me meet everyone, did you?"

Taking a sip of tea, Wei Changtian smiled and said, "If that's the case, then I've already met everyone, you can leave."

"Haha, if it were just such a trivial matter, we naturally wouldn't dare to bother Young Master..."

In order to ease the atmosphere, Chen Bo gave a very stiff laugh, but it only made him look more awkward.

Fortunately, he had a thick skin. After laughing, he waved to one person.

The latter immediately carried a large wooden box to the center of the room and took out the key to open the lid.

Wei Changtian had noticed this box a long time ago. He originally thought it was something like gold, silver, and jewels, but now he realized that it was actually filled with scrolls of account books.

"Lord Chen, what does this mean?"

"Young Master, these are the account books of all the industries invested in by the Hanging Mirror Court's Shǔ Prefecture Branch."

Chen Bo casually picked up one and placed it in front of Wei Changtian, saying with some heartache: "Most of them are in Shǔ Prefecture City, and there are also some in other counties."

"Oh?"

Wei Changtian's eyes lit up, and he glanced at Chen Bo with great interest: "It looks like quite a lot. Tell me, what do you have?"

"Yes."

Chen Bo introduced as if he knew his family treasures: "There are two gambling dens, two brothels..."

"Three rice shops, one pawnshop, one jewelry store..."

"..."

Chen Bo's speech speed was okay, but he still hadn't finished speaking after half a minute.

And Wei Changtian was getting more and more surprised as he listened.

Good heavens, I'm directly saying, good heavens!

Clothing, food, housing, transportation, eating, drinking, and entertainment, it's really completely covered, isn't it?

Although most of these are only a few shares, the number is too much!

"Alright."

Interrupting Chen Bo, who was still chattering endlessly, he directly asked: "Just tell me, what is the total net profit of these industries each year?"

"Almost one hundred thousand taels..."

After Chen Bo answered, he was afraid that Wei Changtian would misunderstand, so he quickly added: "But after deducting expenses such as bribing superiors and subordinates, there is not much left, just to subsidize the expenses of the division..."

Subsidize expenses... You really dare to say that.

The imperial court will give the constables their salaries. After this money is earned, in addition to giving some to the subordinates as a "bonus," most of it still goes into the pockets of you few.

Of course, although Wei Changtian thought so, he would definitely not dwell on this kind of thing.

After all, the Wei family took the biggest share of the "tribute."

If you eat meat, you can't stop others from drinking the soup.

Looking at the account books in front of him, Wei Changtian didn't open them, but smiled and knowingly asked: "Lord Chen, it seems that you are not only accomplished in martial arts, but also a good hand at business."

"I just don't know why you want to show me these account books?"

"Naturally, it is to return these industries to their original owner, hand them back to Young Master!" Chen Bo said with a serious face.

"Return to the original owner?"

Wei Changtian said amusedly: "I have not contributed a single effort, nor have I contributed a single penny, where does this kind of statement come from?"

"Young Master, this is not true."

Chen Bo didn't feel bad at this moment, and his tone was extremely serious.

"The entire Hanging Mirror Court belongs to the Wei family, let alone a mere bit of shop business."

"Since Young Master is a member of the Wei family, then of course, it is a return to the original owner!"

"..."

When the words are said to this point, it is basically the same as being completely laid out on the table.

Chen Bo clearly wanted to express his loyalty by handing over the "financial power," so as not to have the eccentric Wei Changtian really send a letter to Wei Xianzhe to get himself fired or killed.

As for Wei Changtian, he had no interest in these industries at all.

Not to mention that he didn't understand business, but more importantly, he didn't lack money at all. From beginning to end, he only wanted to control the armed forces of the Shǔ Prefecture Branch.

As for the expenses of these armed forces... whether it was the court's salary or private subsidies, he was too lazy to care.

Thinking of this, Wei Changtian finally shook his head in the eyes of everyone.

"Lord Chen, you should take these account books back."

"Young Master! We..."

Everyone never expected this result. For a moment, they thought that Wei Changtian was determined to deal with them, and they couldn't help but be shocked.

But before they could say anything, they heard Wei Changtian continue to say:

"Everyone, don't panic. Now that things have come to this, I will tell you the truth..."

The way to control subordinates is to combine the carrot and the stick.

The "stick" has been knocked almost enough, and now it is time to give some carrots.

Seamless plot, 2-in-1 big chapter~