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The shop owner Sun looked at his confidant, Sun Cai, who was practically standing nose-to-nose with him, and asked, “What do you want to say?”
Sun Cai smirked and whispered, “If the shop owner is troubled by this matter, I might have an idea.”
Shop owner Sun was anxious and had developed blisters on his lips from chewing on them. He kicked his confidant’s backside in frustration and urged, “Quit stalling and tell me the idea already!”
“Hehe, master, don’t be upset. I’ll tell you right away.”
Sun Cai leaned in close and whispered into Shop owner Sun’s ear for quite a while. As he watched Shop owner Sun’s eyes light up more and more, Sun Cai knew that his words had struck a chord. He breathed a sigh of relief.
Being a confidant to Shop owner Sun had its perks, and Sun Cai received a good amount of silver as rewards on a regular basis. However, not too long ago, he had inadvertently developed a gambling addiction.
At first, he won a couple of rounds, but as time went on, he started losing more and more. He had initially thought of recouping his losses and quitting, but instead of recovering his initial investment, he ended up accumulating even more debt.
This led to an increasing gambling addiction, and eventually, he owed a substantial sum to the gambling den. The people from the gambling den had threatened to chop off both his hands if he didn’t repay the debt soon.
He became terrified and, while helping Shop owner Sun pack things in the storeroom, discreetly switched some counterfeit goods with the genuine ones. He then took the real items and exchanged them for money to repay his gambling debt.
That wasn’t the worst part. The real trouble came when news somehow spread about his affair with one of the maids in Shop owner Sun’s courtyard.
There were many maids in the courtyard, and over time, some of them became lonely. Since Sun Cai worked for Shop owner Sun and occasionally had to run errands and deliver items to a few courtyards, he ended up getting involved with one of the maids.
Even though nobody would believe such rumors if they were spread, given Shop owner Sun’s suspicious nature, he would definitely become suspicious.
Now, the maid with whom Sun Cai had an affair was pregnant, and the child might very well be his.
Sun Cai had initially planned to wait until the child was born, then scheme to take Shop owner Sun’s wealth and assets.
But no matter how carefully he planned, he hadn’t anticipated that all these compromising details about him would be investigated and used to threaten him.
All these pieces of blackmail were still in the hands of the person who had discovered them. If he didn’t complete the task assigned by that person to their satisfaction, they could expose him at any time, and his life would be over.
And that person happened to be Shen Yu’an and Liang Hui, the ones who had arranged to send the message and threaten him.
At this moment, behind the auspicious grain shop, Shen Yu’an and Liang Hui sat facing each other.
Listening to the news brought by Chu Yi, Shen Yu’an waved him away. Before he left, she didn’t forget to give him the antidote to the poison he had been given over the past half month.
Shen Yu’an fanned herself to beat the heat, smiling as she said, “It’s done. Now, we’ll see what they do next.”
Liang Hui leaned back in his chair and admired, “Miss Shen’s little maid is quite impressive. She managed to extract a lot of useful information from Sun Cai and made him forget that he saw us in the process.”
Shen Yu’an shot him a warning glance and said, “Don’t even think about her.”
Shen Yu’an hadn’t forgotten that when Hua Ling used her Gu technique to ‘interrogate’ Sun Cai, Liang Hui had a look of seeing a treasure.
Liang Hui smiled and said, “I heard that during the previous dynasty, the Gu Clan was wiped out in a pursuit?”
Among Miss Shen’s entourage, he has managed to uncover two young men skilled in Gu techniques.
Currently, some members of the Shen family were living in the town, and the Shen residence was only separated from the grain shop’s courtyard by a single door, fostering close interactions.
Liang Hui, the cunning old fox, managed to extract information from Hua Ling and Hua Nan without them even realizing it.
Shen Yu’an deflected this question and asked, “How are the preparations going for the two neighboring towns and the shops in the county?”
Liang Hui replied, “Everything is in order. We’ve also transported enough grain to last for two months.”
He was genuinely curious about how Shen Yu’an’s so-called friend had managed to secure so much grain, but he also understood that certain questions were best left unasked.
The two of them changed the subject, discussing other grain shops’ situations and how to handle the upcoming moves by the other three grain shops.
Meanwhile, on the other side, after receiving Sun Cai’s idea, Shop owner Sun found it quite feasible. Delighted, he rewarded Sun Cai with a couple of taels of silver and sent him to Dushi’s Grain Shop and Wangji’s Grain Shop to invite the other two shop owners for a meeting.
Sun Cai, beaming, took the silver he had received and dispatched two individuals to deliver the invitations. He then headed to the gambling den several streets away and lost all the money he had just received, dejectedly walking out.
While Shop owner Sun was busy meeting with the other two shop owners, Sun Cai sneakily made his way to the courtyard of Shop owner Sun’s maid. He shared an intimate moment with her while ensuring no one was watching, she quickly welcomed him inside when she saw him approaching.
In no time, indescribable sounds emanated from the room, and even the maids guarding from a distance blushed.
In the main hall of Shop owner Sun’s residence, three rather greasy-looking men were seated, discussing matters.
Shop owner Sun glanced at the other two shop owners and spoke, “I’ve invited you here because I’ve come up with a way to deal with that auspicious grain shop. Do you two have any interest in joining me in this venture?”
“Oh?”
The other two shop owners were intrigued, and their hatred for the auspicious grain shop was no less than Shop owner Sun’s. The auspicious grain shop had come and snatched all their businesses in this town. While they had more than one grain shop, bowing down to their competitor was something they couldn’t accept.
Moreover, there were plenty of people in town, and securing all the customers was a significant piece of the pie. They weren’t willing to let go.
Shop owner Wang and Shop owner Du quickly asked, “Shop owner Sun, please tell us your plan. We’ll do our best to assist.”
Shop owner Sun raised his eyes and confidently said, “The auspicious grain shop, so arrogant and trying to cut off our livelihoods, we don’t have to show them any mercy. We can simply empty their granary.”
“Empty it?” Shop owner Wang inquired, sounding puzzled.
Shop owner Du added, “Not to mention we don’t know where their granary is, even if we did, how could we secretly steal so much grain without them noticing?”
Upon hearing Shop owner Du mention stealing, Shop owner Sun gave him a disdainful look. He had been planning to make a sarcastic comment but decided to soften his tone since they needed to cooperate.
“This ’emptying’ isn’t about theft. We can buy up all their grain.”