Chapter 374: Chapter 374: Vicious Thing
"Young Master, Young Master..." Santai hobbled after Di Rong, his face a mask of misery. "Are we... are we really going back to get more people?"
"Get more people for what? Isn’t it bad enough that I’ve been utterly humiliated!" Di Rong spun around and kicked him again.
Santai clutched his kicked rear with one hand and held a roast goose with the other, a foolish grin on his face.
"As long as we’re not getting anyone, it’s fine. It’s fine. Young Master, we can’t cause any more trouble..."
The sight of Santai’s idiotic expression just made Di Rong angrier. All because Santai had saved him from drowning in a river when they were children, his grandmother had made the boy his personal attendant.
But the boy had no brains and no guts, only knowing how to say, "Young Master, you can’t do this," or "Young Master, that’s not allowed."
If Di Rong hadn’t cherished the bond they’d formed growing up together, he would have sold him off long ago.
Santai began dusting off Di Rong’s brocade robe, asking worriedly, "Young Master, are you all right?"
At that moment, Di Rong’s clothes were dirty, his hair knot was coming undone, and a clear red mark was visible on one side of his face. He had never looked so pathetic.
"It’s none of your business!"
He rubbed the elbow that had been struck by the horsewhip, hissing in pain. ’Lucky for me, that woman doesn’t know how to use a whip. Otherwise, my skin would be split open, and that would be getting off lightly.’
Then he remembered how Ji Huan had made him lose all face on the street, and he ground his teeth so hard they audibly scraped together.
’No, I have to get even for this!’
He shook off Santai’s hand and asked impatiently, "Where’s Ma Chao?"
He had no idea what Ma Chao had been busy with these past few days; the guy was nowhere to be seen. If he had been here today, Di Rong wouldn’t have been pushed around like this.
He was much cleverer than Santai and full of schemes.
Santai thought for a moment. "I think he’s helping his mother look for a relative..."
"This dump of a place... what poor relative..."
Di Rong, thoroughly annoyed, turned around—and froze. "Ma Chao?"
Ma Chao didn’t hear him, hurriedly entering a shop.
Di Rong glanced at the plaque hanging over the entrance. It was a brokerage.
’He’s looking for a relative at a human trafficker’s office?’
He tilted his head. "Come on, let’s go take a look."
Inside the brokerage, an elderly female broker took a silver ingot from Ma Chao’s hand, grinning so widely her gums were showing.
Ma Chao seemed to ask something, and the female broker’s expression turned troubled.
Di Rong drew closer and managed to overhear a few fragments.
"...I’m really not hiding anything. My old friend hasn’t been in Yeyang for ages. She went with her son to make a living in the Southern regions... Her son struck it rich as a merchant and got out of this business long ago..."
Ma Chao asked, "Then where is her husband’s family?"
"Her husband’s family is right here in Yeyang County, but her man caught consumption and died long ago." The female broker clicked her tongue and shook her head, then suddenly recalled something. "But I think she still has a brother from her side of the family. You could try asking around for him... over in Juyong Town, in Huangban..."
’What town? What village? What is all this nonsense?’ Di Rong was growing impatient.
"Ma Chao, what are you doing?"
Ma Chao spun around. Seeing it was Di Rong, his expression flickered through several changes.
Forcing himself to calm down, he squeezed out a smile and asked obsequiously, "Young Master, what brings you here?"
"I go wherever I please!"
"Yes, yes, of course. The Young Master goes wherever he pleases..."
"Did you find your relative?"
Ma Chao’s expression stiffened, and he shot a furtive glare at Santai.
"Not yet, Young Master."
Di Rong paced around the room a few times with his hands behind his back, deciding the place was rather boring.
"A poor relative? Why bother looking! Come and have some fun with me."
Ma Chao chimed in, "The Young Master is absolutely right. I’ll do as you say and stop looking. What sort of fun did you have in mind?"
Di Rong waved his hand impatiently. "You decide. I’m not allowed to go riding, and it’s dreadfully boring."
Ma Chao’s eyes darted, and an idea struck him. "Why don’t we go check out the Lucky Gambling House? I hear it’s a very lively place."
"Really?" Di Rong’s eyes lit up. He had heard of gambling houses but had never been to one.
Santai immediately grew frantic. "Brother Ma, how can you take the Young Master to a gambling house? If the Wan Mansion finds out, we’ll be beaten with planks! Young Master, that’s a bad place, we can’t go..."
Ma Chao goaded him, "And why isn’t it a good place? All real men love it there. Why can’t our Young Master go? Are you saying he’s not a man?"
"I... I... that’s not what I meant... Young Master, please listen to me. You really can’t go. Let’s just go back to the mansion..."
At his age, Di Rong was especially eager to prove he was a man, so he was tempted when Ma Chao said it was a place all men loved.
On top of that, he was naturally rebellious; the more he was forbidden from doing something, the more he wanted to do it.
He turned and kicked Santai again, roaring, "If you want to go back, then go back by yourself! Better yet, scram right now and get out of my sight! And keep your mouth shut! If you dare tell anyone, I’ll whip you to death!"
Santai looked like he was about to cry.
’Ma Chao is getting more and more out of line,’ he thought. ’He’s always praising the Young Master’s riding skills, coaxing him to go galloping all over the place. Now he wants to take him to a gambling house. If this keeps up, is he going to take him to a brothel next?’
But the Young Master simply refused to listen to him. Santai was both frantic and helpless.
"If I’d known this would happen, I’d rather have let you get into that fight..." he muttered. ’Fighting is better than going to a gambling house, after all.’
Di Rong raised a fist to strike him. "You’re still bringing that up!"
Santai covered his head. "Go ahead and hit me, Young Master! But you are not going to the gambling house today, no matter what!"
Ma Chao acted as if he were only just noticing Di Rong’s sorry state, letting out a cry of alarm.
"Young Master, what happened to you? Who did this? Who would dare to provoke you? They must have a death wish!"
"Don’t ask! I ran into some crazy woman..."
"A woman? A woman can be beaten just the same! Young Master, just tell me where she is..." Ma Chao said, rolling up his sleeves with a look of righteous indignation.
Di Rong recalled what Ji Huan had said—that he could only rely on the Wan Mansion and his pack of bootlickers, that without them he was nothing. The more he thought about it, the uglier his expression became.
He was going to get even, but this time, he wanted to do it himself and teach that crazy woman a lesson.
"Do something for me. Find people to investigate that woman’s background and what she’s doing in Yeyang... The child came out of Yide Hall, so they must be connected to Yide Hall..."
After getting all the details, Ma Chao wholeheartedly promised he would get the job done, then asked tentatively, "So, Young Master, about the Lucky Gambling House..."
"We’re not going!"
The thought of Ji Huan and his recent humiliation drained all of Di Rong’s enthusiasm. He walked out of the brokerage with a gloomy expression.
Calling out to the Young Master, Ma Chao glanced back at the female broker before chasing after him, his meaning self-evident.
The female broker nodded with a smile. Once they were gone, her face fell and she spat on the ground.
"Vicious little bastard!"
「Yide Hall.」
After lunch, the shock of the morning’s events had mostly subsided for Ji Huan and Dabao.
They had waited all afternoon, but with no one from the Wan Family showing up, they figured the matter was closed. The conversation returned to the topic of the shop.
Ping’an told Xin Ziqi about their search for a property that morning. Xin Ziqi, knowing that Ji Huan had her heart set on the first shop, also advised her to buy it.
Renting it would cost two taels and two mace a month, which came to over twenty-plus taels a year. In six or seven years, that would add up to nearly one hundred and fifty taels. It wasn’t a good deal.
"If it’s a matter of money, you don’t have to worry," Xin Ziqi said. "The weather is getting colder, and the hand cream business is booming. Not just locally in Yeyang; we’ve started receiving payments over the past two months from the stock we pushed to other Prefecture Cities. Payments for the first batch of medical instruments from the Equipment Workshop are also starting to roll in, including from the Southern region. We can divide the profits next month. Cash flow won’t be an issue."
Recently, in addition to mass-producing hand cream, the pharmacy workshop had added a production line specifically for the four new medicines. The Equipment Workshop, on top of producing the previous medical instruments, was also rushing to manufacture wheelchairs. Ji Huan was well aware of how large the investment had been.
Although it was perfectly natural for her to take her share of the profits, she didn’t really want to hold Xin Ziqi back at such a critical time.
But Xin Ziqi said that a hundred-odd taels wouldn’t affect his operations. He explained that this profit-sharing wouldn’t be an especially large one for her, but it would be more than enough to cover the expense of buying the shop.
He finished with a rare joke, telling Ji Huan not to underestimate their business.
Ji Huan knew just how large the profit margins for the pharmacy workshop and Equipment Workshop would become as the business expanded, so she agreed to the plan.