346 The Way A Gentleman Obtains Wealth (1/2)

Chapter 346: The Way A Gentleman Obtains Wealth

Translator: Nyoi-Bo StudioEditor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

The sky was big, and the earth was big, but none were greater than a gentleman. Without the gentleman, the teacher was leader. If the teacher traveled far, then the gentleman[JW1] was the greatest leader. The so-called gentleman was not the opposite of the mean man[JW2], rather it was the proper son of the gentleman. That is to say, the person who was still small, the Third Prince, was currently the biggest leader in Suzhou. Thus, Shi Chanli was not worried about much. After pretending to be distressed for a moment, he finally agreed to the prince's requests.

The Third Prince fiercely ordered the housemaids and eunuchs, who had just been chased out of the palace, to stay in the manor. He then casually took Shi Chanli and a few guards and left the manor. Seeing the little master disappear beyond the door, the eunuchs and housemaids began to shake with fear. They thought that without the commissioner present, everything had turned on its head. They couldn't resist offering up a prayer for the commissioner to hurry back. How could they guess that it was originally Fan Xian who wanted to borrow the Third Prince's identity to put pressure on people?

It was rare for the Third Prince to have an opportunity like this to play, so he was not in a rush. The group of people changed their outfits, disguising themselves as the young masters of a wealthy family. Shi Chanli, with fear, accepted the role of older brother. The Third Prince was naturally the younger brother. Sitting in the carriage, they went around Suzhou and saw many scenes. They also saw a few pleasure boats on the lake. Only then did the Third Prince's interest begin to wane.

”The weather is too cold, and the girls are wearing too much. How can we see the romance?” With an air of nobility, the young master furrowed his brows. ”Let's choose the place first. I'll have to put some effort into the business Fan Xian wants to do, otherwise if I tell him you just took me around randomly he will probably be angry.”

Shi Chanli secretly celebrated. It should have been like this long ago.

The problem of choosing a location was easily solved. They just had to find where in Suzhou was the liveliest. The group of people pushed their way in and found the busiest street in the area. They then looked around a bit and found there were already many brothels; this was already a developed hot area. With this, they set their general direction.

In this large area of the city, they examined whichever building had the best appearance and looked into whichever building appeared the most impressive. This group easily found their match. It was a restaurant that took up the best location on the street. It was a spacious and extravagant three-story building. The yard wall could be faintly seen in the back, and it took up a lot of land.

The Third Prince waved his little hand. ”No need to keep looking. I think this one is the best.”

Shi Chanli was unspeakably delighted. Managing Baoyue Brothel in Jingdou, he had been in business for a little while, but he had never thought that taking the prince to pick an address could be efficient to this extent. When doing things with money and power, it was indeed clean and tidy.

However, as he stood in front of the restaurant, he had a thought and said in a small voice, ”This place is too conspicuous. I think there has to be some background to this.”

The Third Prince paused and asked, ”Whose family background is bigger than mine in this world?”

Shi Chanli opened his mouth wide and couldn't say anything for a while. He forced down a mouthful of blood and carefully spoke, ”What if the governor has shares or the inspector general? Although I don't care, we do need to give these officials some face.”

Although the Third Prince was young, he was not a foolish person. He realized this was indeed the case. Governor Xue Qing was not someone he could lightly offend. Besides, he and his people had come all the way from Jingdou, it would not look good to take face away from major Jiangnan officials.

As he looked at the location of this restaurant, the more he looked, the more he wanted. The more he gazed, the better it looked. He furrowed his thin brows and thought for a while before saying, ”We should still ask. If we let such a perfect location pass, even if Fan Xian won't feel bad about it, I'll feel heart sore for days.”

This group had been standing outside the restaurant for a while. They had only been paying attention to the structure and were blocking the entrance. They weren't buying, only looking. As they stood outside the door pointing and whispering secretively, they immediately drew the attention of the people on the street. The people saw that their clothes were bright and guards were strong. They didn't look like people of the jianghu, so the merchants on the street restrained their gossip-loving hearts.

However, the shopkeeper of the restaurant was forced to go out. Pushing a professional smile on his face he asked, ”Sirs, would you like to come in to try our restaurant's signature dish? This is the Zhuyuan Restaurant. Along with the Jiangnan Inn, we are known together as the Suzhou Two. We do have some very good food.”

He saw that the group in front of him came from somewhere else. Their identities shouldn't be vulgar, thus he treated them carefully. Naturally, the Zhuyuan Restaurant had a background, but this merchant had a clever and nimble heart. He only talked business. Nothing in his speech showed any sense of accusing them of blocking the building.

Shi Chanli was startled and said with a warm smile, ”We are really very sorry. We weren't paying attention just then. Please don't take offense.”

The shopkeeper quickly replied that he was too kind. The Third Prince did not have the patience for the slow pace. ”Let's go in and sit down before we talk.” He then led the group of people in to the building. At the end he tossed out another order, ”Shopkeeper, arrange for a quiet room. There are some things I would like to inquire about.”

The shopkeeper paused, thinking the older brother hadn't spoken, so how come he rushed ahead? Shi Chanli coughed a few times to cover it up and followed him into the building.

The group had not yet taken their seats in one of the room before the shopkeeper entered to personally look after them. The Third Prince didn't waste words. ”Shopkeeper, are you selling this building?”

The shopkeeper had been surprised many times today. He thought that this young master's attitude was not small, but he had dealt with countless difficult situations in his life and so he smiled respectfully. ”Young master, at the moment, this building is doing good business. It doesn't seem like the owner has thoughts to sell it.”

”Pray ask, what is the owner's surname?” Shi Chanli was quietly angry at His Highness' impatience and asked in a warm, even tone.

Neither servile nor overbearing, the shopkeeper replied, ”The owner's surname is Qian.”

…

…

After the shopkeeper left, Shi Chanli frowned and said, ”This is our first trip to Suzhou. We don't know anything about the connections in Suzhou. We have no idea who this Qian person is.”

The Third Prince stood up and pushed open the window in the room. He started unconsciously, as if he had seen something strange.

Shi Chanli felt curious and stood behind him to see out the window. He was momentarily stunned in place.

They saw the back garden of the Zhuyuan Restaurant. Incredibly there was a flat lake in the garden. Although the lake was not wide, it was quiet and secluded. The two walls of the garden separated it from the noisy market. The grass in the garden was not yet green, but it was easy to see how beautiful the scene would be in spring.

”It's like…”

Both of then sighed at the same time. The comparison here was of course between the design behind this building and that of the Baoyue Brothel in Jingdou. If they built a few quiet and secluded yards on the grass, it would a twin of the Baoyue Brothel in Jingdou.

Seeing the back garden of the Zhuyuan Restaurant, both the former and later managers of the Baoyue Brothel were swayed enormously—they had to buy this building.

”Buy it!”

With great mutual understanding, the Third Prince and Shi Chanli both spoke at the same time again. They laughed out loud. The rest of the matter was simple. After they went back, they would think of a way to investigate the Zhuyuan Restaurant's background. They only hoped there wouldn't be anyone too strong in the background. If it involved officials who were too high ranking, things would become rather complicated

The Third Prince was so young, so where did all his sighs come from? ”If Fan Sizhe was here, he would probably sue the owner of this restaurant. He would point his finger at their nose and say the other person shamelessly copied his design.”

Shi Chanli thought for a bit. The second young master Fan did indeed have that kind of personality. He couldn't help huffing out a laugh.

”What's so funny?” The Third Prince gave him a glare. ”That cousin of mine is even darker than the older cousin…of course, neither of them are kind souls. They forcefully used a crafty escape plan, bullying me because of my youth, and cheated me of my shares. Don't forget, you played a part in this too!”

Shi Chanli shrank back and did not dare comment.

The group of people had a meal in the room. They greatly approved of the chef's abilities. It inspired the Third Prince to want to take the chef along with the building.

After they finished eating and were about to leave, the shopkeeper had urgently come back to their room. With a face full of sweat, he saluted them again. As he wiped away sweat he said in a small voice, ”Sirs, could we discuss your earlier offer to buy the building again?”

The Third Prince and his group were curious. It was clear that this building's business was booming. Furthermore, when this topic was brought up earlier, it was clear that the other party had defenses. How come his attitude had changed so much?

Shi Chanli asked, ”Shopkeeper, what do you mean?”

The shopkeeper laughed hollowly and said, ”The owner heard of this matter earlier and thought that since the business has not been as good as previous years, he might as well let it go if there were guests offering a price. He only hoped that the guests would give an appropriate price. The other thing was…he hoped that after this building changed hands, the guests would manage it well.”

Shi Chanli found it strange and was just about to ask more questions, when the Third Prince got ahead and smiled sweetly, ”Naturally. We are also business people. Of course we will manage this building well. Only, you mentioned an appropriate price earlier. I wonder what price would be considered appropriate?”

The room immediately became silent.

The shopkeeper froze. He wondered if this young master was asking him to set the price. The owner hadn't given instructions. How could he give a price? It seemed the owner intended to offer it up with both hands, but the other party didn't seem to realize this.

The sweat on his forehead came faster, and his face reddened as if the chill of spring had turned into the hottest months of the year. After a long while, the shopkeeper finally gathered enough courage and extended four fingers.

Shi Chanli paused. The guards in the room paused too, thinking, 40,000 liang? No matter how famous the lion heads[JW3] were here, no lion opened its mouth that wide.

Seeing the other party didn't comment, the shopkeeper felt a bit scared and quickly drew back three of the fingers, leaving just one solitary finger standing.

Shi Chanli almost spat again. This price drop was truly strange. He didn't have to say anything and the price dropped from 40,000 liang to 10,000 liang in the blink of an eye. After some thought, he felt that this price was pretty good. He nodded and said, ”Although 10,000 liang isn't much…but…”

The shopkeeper's legs went soft and he almost cried, ”Sir, you have it wrong, wrong.”

Shi Chanli was surprised, ”Wrong about what?”

”It's…1,000 liang,” The shopkeeper managed to squeeze out an innocent smile. ”Not 10,000 liang.”