Chapter 046 “Hire some people first and get ready to work” (08/12)
Fan Wenze collected the letter and went to Xie Chenyang’s room.
Xie Chenyang was still asleep, the quilt spread over his body, leaving his round toes and head uncovered.
Fan Wenze went to the side of the bed. He bent down and tried to cover his feet with the quilt, but he couldn’t resist pinching his toes.
Xie Chenyang’s toes subconsciously scrunched.
Despite the fact that he hadn’t slept all night, Fan Wenze felt wide awake.
His eyes darkened, and he yanked open the comforter and dove under.
Xie Chenyang woke up from his dream, his eyes not yet fully open, but his hands accurately caught Fan Winze’s head under the comforter. His voice was husky when he said, “What are you doing?”
Fan Wenze said vaguely, “Eating breakfast.”
Xie Chenyang: “…… F**k.” He closed his eyes again, not interfering with Fan Wenze’s breakfast, only his breathing gradually heaved up.
Fan Wenze finished his breakfast and then fell soundly asleep.
Xie Chenyang stayed at the edge of the bed and admired his sleeping face, but he couldn’t wait to pull him up and give him a spanking.
In the end, he changed his clothes and left the room with light steps, going to the courtyard to pull Yan Yan and Yan Yu out for a workout.
Only after he had beaten them down, did he carry water to Fan Wenze’s room to bathe.
When he came out refreshed, he met Yan Yue who rushed over.
“My Lord, is my Lady here? The Yao Kingdom’s transition team arrived.”
Xie Chenyang glanced at the still tightly closed door of his room.
Fan Wenze hadn’t come out yet, obviously still asleep.
Xie Chenyang straightened his sleeves. “Tell them to wait.”
Yan Yue: “…… Yes, sir.”
This time, they waited for two hours.
Midday had passed.
Xie Chenyang was not in a hurry to tell Fan Wenze about the matter and took him to eat lunch with him before he stated bluntly, “Someone from the Yao Kingdom has come.”
Fan Wenze: “When did they get here?”
“They’ve been here for more than two hours.”
Fan Wenze gave him a discreet glance. “I’ll go see them.”
Xie Chenyang wiped his mouth, watching Shen Shu and Zhao Xiaofeng collect the dishes.
[Has the location been chosen yet?]
You Huang: “It’s been selected. From Lanzhou City, you can bring eleven people with you, of which one has money and the other has talent.”
[Wow!]
You Huang: “I’ll pass the information to you.”
[Uh-huh.]
Fan Wenze’s handover in official matters was not done in a moment.
Xie Chenyang straightforwardly took Shen Shu and Zhao Xiaofeng with him out the door.
Knowing Xie Chenyang’s martial strength, Yan Yan and Yan Yu obeyed his orders and didn’t follow.
——-
Xie Chenyang arrived outside a large mansion.
Shen Shu went up and knocked on the door.
The person who opened the door was an old woman, eyeing them suspiciously. “Who are you looking for?”
Xie Chenyang: “I’m looking for Mr. Yan Qi. I have something important to talk about. Please let him know.”
The old woman eyed him for a moment and then closed the door behind her.
Shen Shu: “My lord?”
Xie Chenyang: “Wait.”
Without waiting too long, a clean-cut young servant came over and opened the door. “Our lord has invited you.”
“Thank you.”
Yan Qi was the son of a wealthy merchant in Lanzhou City. Just last week, his mother and sister were killed by thugs while they were out on a business trip, and none of them were able to return.
His mother was a devoted person and had only his father as a husband.
All of a sudden, the entire Yan family was left with only Yan Qi and his father.
On the grounds that he was a man and would eventually get married, his relatives were all forcing him to surrender his family’s property.
They could hardly endure the pressure anymore.
Many of the stores had been made impossible for them to operate normally.
They had already been given a time limit–if they didn’t hand over their property within seven days, they would forcefully rob the house.
And now, it was already the fourth day.
The Yan family’s servants were scared enough by those hungry wolf-like relatives and felt that with only two men left in charge of the house, they wouldn’t be able to resist; so they begged Yan Qi and Yan’s father to release them.
One after another, they all left. They either redeemed themselves or just stole away.
In short, there are only a few people left in this house.
When Xie Chenyang arrived at Yan Qi’s courtyard, he saw the haggard and worried Yan father, and Yan Qi, whose eyes were filled with sadness and unwillingness.
Yan Qi raised his head, confirmed that it was someone he did not recognize, and asked in a hushed voice, “What is this gentleman looking for me for?”
“I am Yu Chen, son of the previous governor.” Xie Chenyang sat down uninvited and locked eyes with Yan Qi. “And I’m also the husband of the current governor, Fan Wenze. Of course, Ah-Ze’s about to step down from his post. He’s only temporarily acting as the governor.”
“So, what is it that Fan’s Husband is looking for me for?” Yan Qi’s mind turned a thousand times, his face remaining composed. “Can it be that Fan’s husband has heard of my predicament and has come to help me?”
“Yes and no.”
Hearing Xie Chenyang’s answer, Yan Qi bitterly said, “Even if you have the intention to help, so what? Since ancient times, there has been no such thing as a man inheriting the family property; even if it goes to the public court, I will only be able to get a generous dowry.”
If you don’t have a daughter, your sisters can inherit the family property.
If there are no sisters, the clan can inherit from a daughter.
This has been the custom all along.
“Is that so? But I see the unwillingness and anger in your eyes,” Xie Chenyang said. ”Once the seven days are up, where will your father and son rebel against your aunt and sister-in-law’s family? That time, what are you going to do?”
Yan Qi did not speak.
“You’re thinking that even if you give away those stores and mansions, you don’t want to do it cheaply–take all the silver money you can and leave Lanzhou City with your father, is that right?”
In the original plot that Xie Chenyang received, there was nothing about Yan Qi.
But You Huang had access to that knowledge.
Yan Qi originally wanted to sell the stores and mansions, but the Yan House was surrounded by his aunt and sister-in-law’s people watching him, so he and his people couldn’t even get out during the day.
Even if the stalking slackened off in the middle of the night, he couldn’t find anyone to take over his stores and residence in the middle of the night.
Therefore in the original plot, Yan Qi, in the middle of the night on the last day of the time limit, packed away all the properties that could be taken away from Yan’s house, quietly left through a dog hole, and while those people did not yet know, he drove out of the city with his father and the grandchildren who were still willing to follow them as soon as the day dawned.
And for the deeds of those stores and mansions, he directly stuffed them into a store under another rich merchant’s name as he passed by.
Even though he was leaving Lanzhou City.
The Yao Kingdom and the Ji Kingdom were still at war, as chaos reigned without.
With three men and only one woman, they were quickly targeted. Not only was all of their property robbed, the three who were still in good appearance were also……
Xie Chenyang’s face sank slightly. “Even if you’re desperate, you should know that right now the two countries are at war and it’s a mess out there. It can be easily imagined what could happen to three men and one old woman.”
“So what?!” Yan Qi gritted his teeth and exclaimed. “Is it so bad? By what right? In the past, they have harmed my family many times in order to compete for the property. My mother and they have long since broken up, even if I destroy all of this family property. I will not give it to them!”
“Since you have the idea of destroying everything, why don’t you use this family property to make a way out for yourself and for men in the world who want to rebel against injustice?”
Xie Chenyang left Yan’s mansion without lingering and went to the next location.
This was the “commoner’s area” of Lanzhou City. The houses were rather old and the roads were poorly maintained.
Xie Chenyang stopped outside a courtyard. Shen Shu consciously went up and knocked on the door. The man who opened the door was a taller man.
Xie Chenyang looked at him with some surprise. Since coming to this world, it was really the first time he had seen such a strong-looking man.
Noticing his gaze, Tan Rong looked like he was used to it and said in a deep voice, “What’s the matter?”
“There’s something I want to talk to you about. Can you invite me in to have a chat while sitting?”
Tan Rong was the son of a blacksmith. His mother was a blacksmith who married a husband and took a retainer. But sadly for both, no matter whether it was the husband or the retainer, all those born from them were sons.
The Tan family had five sons in a row.
With a large crowd to feed, it was obvious that it wasn’t enough for Tan’s mother to maintain the blacksmith store alone, so her children weren’t spoiled and instead, they grew up following their mother’s ironworking and developing a muscular body.
Although Tan’s mother wanted a daughter, she couldn’t bear to sell or lose a son.
Without the strength to support them, she was forced to let them help with the ironworking and was plainly worried as she watched them grow stronger and stronger.
But her husband and retainer gave birth to sons consistently, and she suspected that it was her own problem, so she didn’t want to take on another retainer, and simply lived with it.
She thought that when she got older, she would use the silver money she had saved over the years to find some poorer families for her sons to marry. When she had settled her sons, she would adopt a daughter to carry on the family name.
Who would have known that, even though she was willing to pay for the dowry, those who saw her sons were unwilling to marry them?
Tan’s mother felt that her sons had become what they are today because they were helping her to make iron, and she was so worried that she couldn’t stop.
In the end, she was literally worried herself to death.
Without Mrs. Tan in charge of the blacksmith store, the customers became disdainful and switched to other shops, seeing that the manager was a man.
The already poor business became more and more depressed, and the family of seven had a hard time.
And then Mrs. Tan’s retainer couldn’t take it anymore; her son didn’t even want it, so he just ran away.
Only Tan’s father and five sons remain.
Xie Chenyang sighs: [Those people are the same. What’s wrong with men in charge of stores? Good craftsmanship is not on the line.]
You Huang: “This store opened in the commoner’s area. The customers are also ordinary people’s families, they do not care about good or bad craftsmanship, they can be made to work on it.
“Just like normal patriarchal ancient times, if a man opened a store and a woman opened a store, most of them would choose the man’s. The other small part of the people are all rushing to the woman’s, thinking of eating some tofu.” You Huang paused. “But in the eyes of the people in this era, Tan Rong and their five brothers do not have much beauty to speak of.”
[Blind eyes! This is clearly a tough guy! In modern times, he would be extremely popular!]
Xie Chenyang and You Huang briefly exchanged a few words before Tan Rong brought them into the hall.
His father and four brothers were there.
Seeing that Tan Rong had brought a guest, they were about to retreat, when Xie Chenyang said, “There’s no need. I’ll make it short–do you guys want to live? To live with honor and integrity?”
Without a doubt, one naturally wanted to.
Xie Chenyang quickly left the Tan Mansion.
Tan Rong and his family were close to being out of luck; it was good to convince them.
Xie Chenyang had given them a way to live. It was better than them sitting here and then not being able to survive.
You Huang: “These five brothers of the Tan family–their ironworking skills are pure. In the future, the weapons and all kinds of supplies that can be used can be operated by them. They have strength and can endure hardship; in addition to ironworking, they can also be taught other things that will be of great use.”
[Hey, find an iron mine later.]
You Huang: “Added to the list ……”
When Xie Chenyang returned to the house, the sun had already set.
Fan Wenze sat in the courtyard waiting for him, and as soon as he saw him, he asked directly, “Where did you go?”
“Went to meet a few people.” Xie Chenyang ran over and hugged him. ”Ah-Ze, have you handed it over yet?”
Fan Wenze hugged him back with a complicated expression. “Alright.”
He had already guessed his family’s opposition.
He didn’t dare to imagine if his family, like others, viewed his relationship with Xie Chenyang as a disgrace. If they wanted to hurt Xie Chenyang……what would happen to him?
Sorry for the delay again, I was at the C2E2 convention for the first time. It was a blast, but oh my gosh there were a ton of people! As a small-town person Chicago is mindbogglingly large and populated, and I NEVER want to drive there again. The convention was mostly comic book, Trading Card, and DnD focused, but there were still many anime and manga booths. I seen a Xie Lian and Hua Chang cosplay couple! And on the last day there was a singular Danmei stand selling official published books for only $10 a piece (goodbye my money)! I had lots of fun but dang am I tired. Had to call in from work today my legs were so sore.
Editor: Krone
Proofreader: Choux_choux
