Chapter 730   - The Heir's Might

Long Tianba felt his heart race, but he had never had that much money on him. The only he could do was shamelessly beg the manager of the gambling stone house to use his Long Family’s identity jade token as a deposit and get a IOU slip for 15 million taels. By doing that, he finally managed to buy that ore from the half gamble area.

The results were obvious. Although the sliver that had been sliced off showed a bright green jadeite, the rest of the ore only had a little bit of gemstone and the rest was just granite. The ten million he had previously made had completely disappeared and now he had a 15 million debt to pay. Long Tianba immediately felt cold sweat pour down his body and his legs trembled before he fell to the ground. There was no way for him to get back up.

This was worse than the time he had screwed up at Celestial World and only owed a few thousand taels. Then, his father was still able to wipe his bum for him. 15 million taels, on the other hand, was likely how much his whole family made in an entire year. Even though he was only an idle young master at home, he at least had this much knowledge!

He suspected that the gambling stone hall had set a trap for him. However, no one at the hall forced him to buy this ore. If he wasn’t too greedy and decided to leave after making ten million, then how could something like this happen later?

This wasn’t something he could hide and hope it went away. Long Tianba somehow managed to get back to the guest house. When he saw his father, he knelt immediately in front of him and sobbed out the story.

Once Long Yikui understood the situation, he kicked his son hard and then kicked him a few more times. He sat down heavily on his chair, holding his chest while breathing heavily before finally retrieving a calming pill from his chest pocket and taking it down with a cup of tea. Then, he threw his teacup to the ground in a pique of fury. Shattered porcelain bits flew through the air and one of them even cut Long Tianba’s face.

“Father, beat me heavily to relieve your anger ah! It’s all this son’s fault for losing my head and not staying in control!” Long Tianba hugged onto his father’s legs and cried like a child. He was truly frightened this time and relentlessly promised that he would be good in the future and not cause any trouble for the family.

At this time, Long Yikui had pretty much had a good idea of what had happened. There was someone in the shadows who had set a trap for this unfilial son of his ah! Perhaps there were other people who had lay down family fortunes in the course of one night at the gambling stone hall. However, even the most proficient stone identifiers wouldn’t be as lucky as his son to get jadeite with every stone he chose. His son wasn’t someone who had a heart of steel. Thus, he had naturally been blinded by the prospects of incredible wealth and fallen into this perfect trap that someone else had set.

He thought back to the day when he brought his son along to Celestial World’s office to apologize to the heir of Imperial Prince Xu. At that time, he was wondering why the heir would let them off so easily. After all this time, the crux of the matter had finally appeared. However, if they were able to appease the heir by spending 15 million taels, that might actually be a worthwhile investment.

The only thing he didn’t understand was how the trap had been set so well. Was there actually a hidden expert at Imperial Prince Xu’s Estate who was able to clearly tell which stones had jadeite or not? The last ore that his son had bought was especially astounding. There was a sliver of bright green jadeite in the giant stone, so the odds had to be high. NIne out of ten people would have bet that the raw ore would have a jackpot waiting inside. If that expert had made an error of judgement, wouldn’t that have let this stupid son of his out of the trap?

Inside Imperial Prince Xu’s residence, the heir, Zhu Yunxuan, was currently pouring a cup of tea for the little divine stone. He smiled, “Older Brother Yuan, this was all thanks to your help. I know you don’t drink wine, so let me use some tea to thank you instead.”

Zhu Yunxuan was very curious about this Yuan Zi’s true identity. The youth was able to identify with a hundred percent accuracy which ores had jadeite and how much they’d be worth. Furthermore, he was even able to tell that an ore held some top-notch green jadeite, could it be...that he had x-ray vision? However, his lady mother had once solemnly warned him to not investigate the secrets that orbited around Yuan Zi. Thus, no matter how curious he was, he could only restrain himself.

The little divine merely took a small sip of tea before placing the cup down. He gave his master’s eldest son the side eye before huffing, “Call me Uncle Yuan! In fact, when you were in your mother’s belly and a tiny sprout, I, your Uncle Yuan, had saved yours and your mother’s life. If it weren’t for the fact that I showed up in the nick of time, you and your mother would both be long dead ah!”

Zhu Yunxuan felt his lips twitch, “You always use that fact to make me quiet. If you’re not tired of saying that, I’m tired of hearing it! Alright ah, since you don’t want to talk about this, we won’t talk about it any longer. However, you look to be around my age. Isn’t calling you ‘uncle’ making you seem too old?”

“I’m of the older generation ah! Little Xuanxuan ah, children should act like your children. Stop acting like your father all the time with that stiff look on your face!” The little divine stone reached out a hand to ruffle Zhu Yunxuan’s hair but the youth avoided his grasp.

“I’m already thirteen years old and no longer a child! At around the same age, my lord father got the heavy responsibility of traveling with the imperial sh.i.p.s to find high-yielding crops for the Great Ming Dynasty and came back gloriously!” Zhu Yunxuan rolled his eyes at the little divine stone. He only revealed his more childish side in front of trusted people.

The little divine stone shook its head, “Your father was fifteen years old when he traveled to the west and came back when he was seventeen years old. If you want to compare yourself to him, wait a few more years and grow up first!”

“Your Highness, Her Highness asks that if you’re not too busy to go see her.” Princess Consort Xu’s first-ranked personal maidservant, Chuntao, came into the study after obtaining permission and smiled at the prince.

Zhu Yunxuan replied, “Alright, go back to my lady mother. I’ll head over right now.”

Seeing that Chuntao had gone a good distance, he spoke to the little divine stone, “Older Brother Yuan, what do you think my lady mother wants me for? Did you tell her everything?”

“I told you, call me Uncle Yuan!!” The little divine stone succeeded in ruffling Zhu Yunxuan’s hair as it grinned proudly, “Do I look like someone who can’t keep a secret ah? Your mother is in charge of all of the businesses under the estate, so did you really think you could hide anything from her? Go see her quickly and don’t let her wait too long for you!”

When Yu Xiaocao saw her son, she passed over a piece of a new pastry she had made and smiled, “Come try the new apple pie that I made. I know you don’t like sweets so I especially made sure to not add too much sugar.”

“Mhmm! Delicious!!” Zhu Yunxuan finished the entire slice of apple pie, leaving only crumbs. He was similar to his father and didn’t know how to use pretty words to compliment the taste of food. He could only use his actions to show how much he truly liked this apple pie.

“Little Baozi, I know everything you’ve done recently with the businesses. It’s time to let it go ah. Otherwise, people will start gossiping maliciously, stating that our Imperial Prince Xu’s Household only knows how to use our power to bully others.” Yu Xiaocao picked up a piece of caramel apple pie and ate it with obvious pleasure as she casually spoke to her son.

Zhu Yunxuan smiled, “Lady Mother, there’s no need for you to worry about this. Are you not confident in the things I arrange? Before Lord Father left the capital with his troops, he had especially warned me to protect you and Younger Sister well. If I let someone who insulted you off too easily, that would go against my moral principles!”

Xiaocao felt a bit troubled by her son’s desire to protect her and show his filial respects. She stroked her son’s silky hair and smiled, “Our Little Baozi has grown up and is a tiny man who knows how to protect his own mother!”

Zhu Yunxuan grumbled a bit awkwardly, “Lady Mother, can you get rid of the ‘tiny’ you like to use so much? I’m not a kid anymore!”

“But in my eyes, you will always be a tiny, soft, and red little bun!” Yu Xiaocao hugged her son, who was now taller than her, and saw that his ears were slowly turning so red that it looked like blood was coming up. Yu Xiaocao was the best at teasing her own son.

The situation at the gambling stone hall was only resolved once Long Yikui managed to somehow scr.a.p.e up 15 million taels and personally delivered it to the place to resolve the lingering debt.

However, Long Yikui gradually discovered that it was getting harder and harder for him to do business in the capital. First he was swindled out of a large bunch of silk bolts, which was worth more than eight million. For the Long Family, who was now short on cash, that was just adding insult to injury.

Following that, he discovered that the customers he previously had at the silk shop slowly disappeared and business cooled down. Another silk shop had opened across the street from his and its business was booming. It was as if it had stolen all of his customers. Furthermore, the merchants behind that silk show were the arch-enemy of the Long Family, the Qin Family. In the past, the Qin Family had been suppressed for many years by the Long Family and had nowhere left to grow.

Long Yikui also discovered that the Qin Family had also begun to overthrow the steel hold the Long Family previously had on them and slowly became more prominent. It looked like all of the silk merchants in the north had decided to buy in bulk from the Qin Family. Even when the goods at the Qin Family were not as good or if the Long Family tried to lower their prices, the merchants still only went to the Qin Family.

In Jiangnan, the bitter fight between the Long Family and Qin Family came out in the morning as they struggled for business...the Qin Family had been suppressed by the Long Family for many years. If it hadn’t been for the fact that someone had given them a lot of support, the Qin Family absolutely would not have developed as quickly as they were. Only now did Long Yikui realize that the 15 million taels hadn’t resolved Imperial Prince Xu’s Household’s fury against them. In fact, that was only the prelude to the rest of this disaster.

It was no longer suitable for him to continue doing business in the capital. Long Yikui made the hard decision to close the silk shop and sell all of the remaining silk bolts at a lower price. However, even when he lowered the prices so much that he wouldn’t even get back how much he originally spent on them, no one would buy any. If he brought it all back, he’d have to spend a lot of money on transportation and storage. Helpless, he put out a sign that stated that everything was seventy percent off. A strange customer bought everything that remained in the store.

Just as Long Yikui finished wrapping up everything inside to leave, he inadvertently looked towards the Qin Family’s silk shop and discovered that the customer who had bought everything from him was bringing everything into their warehouse. It was very obvious that the silk had come from his shop earlier. What made him more angry was that the Qin Family took out a sign stating they had a fifty percent sale for the next two days. The bustling busy shop across from his contrasted sharply with his pitifully empty one.

This wasn’t the end. The fight between the Long Family and the Qin Family in Jiangnan had just started. For a very long time, the Long Family had encountered setback after setback and the title of the richest family in Jiangnan had been given to the Qin Family. Because of the giant mistake that occurred in the capital, the Long Family had also stripped the position of the head of the family from Long Yikui and had given it to Long Yixing from the fourth branch.

Although Long Yixing was very talented, he could only pause the inevitable decline of the Long Family by seceding some of the benefits the family previously had. Then, he trusted someone with connections to beg the soft-hearted Princess Consort Xu for mercy before the Long Family finally avoided complete defeat.

When Zhu Junyang came back from his trip, he heard about what had happened and praised his son to the skies. This also succeeded in winning a stern look from his wife.

Consequently, the saying that ‘the heir to Imperial Prince Xu’s Estate isn’t someone to be messed with’ was now engraved deeply within the hearts of all of the nobles in the capital. Thus, the legend that Princess Consort Xu was the person who could not be touched became even more prominent...