Lin Mou didn't expect Qian Xiaowu's old creditor, Chen Laiwu from Xicheng to come visit him.

  "Master..." Chen Lai's face was flushed as he approached, "I've been rude to you the other day, I'm here to apologize today."

  "Mr. Lai has been polite," Lin Mou handed the horse over to Zhao Mengxiong and led it to the backyard, asking Qian Xiaowu if he knew that Zhao Hu, Lin Jingzhong, and Chen Enze had gone to the tea shop early in the morning and hadn't returned yet. He didn't want to entertain Lai Wu, but couldn't just leave him for Qian Xiaowu to deal with either. He said to Qian Xiaowu, "Has anyone served Mr. Lai tea?" As he walked towards the front courtyard's guest room, he thought about how to get rid of Lai Wu in the front courtyard. People like Chen Laiwu, who were local bullies, couldn't be easily offended. After all, they had come to visit with humility, and if they were offended, there might not be any big trouble, but they could use underhanded tactics to make people feel disgusted. It was best to leave this kind of person for Lin Jingzhong to deal with, as the Ji Yun Society needed to do business in Jiangning City and could use someone like Chen Laiwu.

  "No need, no need, I've had tea," Chen Laiwu said very politely. Lin asked him to sit down, but he only sat on the edge of the chair with half his buttocks and sat upright. "I knew long ago that Master Lin was a dragon among men, a top-notch figure. This morning, I heard about what happened at the government office yesterday, and I realized that I had underestimated you. Although I don't have much experience, I know that when doing things, one should follow in the footsteps of heroes... Ah, yes... attached to the tail of a fast horse. That government official is not a good person, he has done all sorts of evil things, such as framing innocent people and bullying widows..." Chen Laiwu spoke ill of the government official until Qian Xiaowu brought over tea, at which point he paused for a moment, leaned forward and said to Qian Xiaowu, "Xiaowu, you're now in charge of the Lin household, how dare I trouble you to make tea?"

  Qian Xiaowu naturally wouldn't have a good expression towards Chen Laifu, who forced him to sell his wife to pay off debts. He handed the tea over to the table and exchanged a few words with Lin before retreating out.

  Lin Xuan was pondering Chen Laiwu's intentions, recalling what Zhang Yubo had said the previous night - that Chen Laiwu and the steward of the Mu Guo Gong Fu were maternal cousins. The Mu Guo Gong and the Yong Chang Hou were both hereditary nobles in Jiangning City, and Chen Laiwu's ability to act recklessly in the western city was also relying on the power of the Mu Guo Gong Fu. For over 200 years, the Yong Chang Hou Fu and the Mu Guo Gong Fu had been prominent families in Jiangning, with thousands of descendants between them. Yet, despite their long history, the two families had rarely intermarried. It would be hard to convince anyone that there was no bad blood between them. Lin Xuan wondered to himself: Was this scoundrel Chen Laiwu sent by the Mu Guo Gong Fu to test the waters?

  Lin tied up Chen Laiwu, who was silent and still, and politely sent him out the door. He turned back to look at the table where Chen Laiwu had brought several packages of candied fruit as a gift when they met, and called out to Qian Xiaowu to take them away for disposal.

  "Throw it on the street?" Qian Xiaowu asked, a few packages of candied fruit were worth only thirty or fifty copper coins, Qian Xiaowu felt that even if he, a poor guy, came to thank him, the gift was too light. Chen Laifu was very polite with his words, but the gift he gave was too casual. Qian Xiaowu didn't understand why Lin Xuan had been putting up with Chen Laifu for so long.

  "No, people are hated, but things aren't," Lin Xie said with a smile. "Send one portion to Liu Niang, and you all take the rest to share and eat, don't waste good food..." In his heart, he thought that if Chen Laiwu was really sent by the Marquis of Mu's estate to probe their depth, then he would let the Marquis of Mu know that even though they drew swords at a single disagreement, they could also endure this slight.

  ************

  Chen Laiwu came out of the bamboo sieve alley, and outside the corner of the alley, a horse-drawn carriage was parked by the street. The curtain was lifted, and an old man in his fifties wearing a green shirt stuck his head out to ask: "How is it?"

  "He didn't even let me in, he was so polite to me, you saw it too, he sent me off at the door, that bow of his was quite standard," Chen Laiwu said, wiping his runny nose on his shoe sole, "I think this Lin Juzi is not some kind of extraordinary person..."

  "Hmm," said the old man with his hands clasped in his sleeves, smiling, "then provoke him a bit."

  "What's wrong with me to provoke him? I'm not afraid of him, but I'm afraid that Zhang Yubo will peel off a layer of my skin." Chen Laiwu shook his head and asked again, "Who exactly wants to test his water bottom, is it Old Master?"

  "Don't ask about that," the old man said, "and be more restrained at Cangzhou Bridge. If Zhang Yubo really wants to arrest you and flay you alive, don't think I'll come to rescue you." After finishing speaking, he let down the curtain and ordered the coachman to drive the carriage away from Bianjian Alley.

  ***********

  Lin was tied up in the courtyard reading a book for a while, when Zhao Hu and Lin Jingzhong returned.

  Lin Jingzhong walked into the courtyard and saw Lin Daiyu sitting in the yard reading a book. He said, "Enze is still at the shop. This morning when we went to the shop, we passed by a sign-making store. I thought of going in to ask about the sign for Jinyulou. Guess what happened?"

  "What's up?" Lin Xuan asked with a smile. He saw that Lin Jingzhong was beaming with joy, and he must have encountered something good at the pancake shop.

  "In the shop, a group of people were discussing last night's events at the government office. The owner of Yu Tai Tea House on Cangzhou Bridge was also there and knew that our family sold tea goods. He asked us to send over some tea for them to try. We had brought 100 catties of old tea with us, which was carefully selected by my father, so the quality was naturally excellent. We prepared the tea and sent it over before noon. The owner of Yu Tai Tea House was also there and after trying the tea, he thought it was good and asked us to send them 50 catties of new tea every month before it went on sale. He offered a good price too," Lin Jingzhong said with a smile, "To be honest, I was quite scared last night at the government office, but if I had known that we would have such a great opportunity today, I might have even spoken some bold words myself. Later, I'll go see Uncle Meng and ask him to lend us 1,000 catties of tea goods from his warehouse to meet our urgent needs..."

  It will take four months for the new tea to be released next year. In these four months, Ji Yun She can only get over 1,000 catties of old tea from the Gu family. Yu Tai Tea House wants to buy two-tenths of it today, no wonder Lin Jing Zhong is so excited, and Ji Yun She has not even officially opened yet. Even if Ji Yun She buys tea from the Gu family at a price 30% higher than that of Lin's warehouse, an ordinary high-grade tea would cost only 80 cents per catty, which can be sold for 200 cents in Jiangning. As long as the sales channel is smooth, when next year's new tea is released and the Gu family's 40,000 catties of tea arrive in Jiangning, they can make a profit of 3,000 to 4,000 taels of silver. Even after deducting the interest on the silver shares of Gu Wu Dun, Zhang Yu Bo and others, as well as various forms of courtesy elsewhere, this side can still net around 2,000 taels of silver. This is something that Lin Jing Zhong, who used to receive only one or two taels of silver per month from Lin's warehouse, would not have dared to think about before.

  Lin Xian smiled, if not for this benefit, why would he have mentioned the name of Jiyun Society when he strangled Fan Zhi last night? In two days, I'm afraid half of Jiangning City will know that Jiyun Society is at odds with Qingfeng Bank and Fanlou.

  Lin Jingzhong asked again: "By the way, you said that in this Jiangning City, how many rivals do Qingfeng Bank and Fanlou have?"

  "This is what you need to pay attention to in the future," Lin Xie told Lin Jingzhong about Chen Laiwu's visit, "Nowadays, it's all about being moderate and not losing face. Unless you can take down your opponent at once, even if you hate them to death, on the surface, you'll still be harmonious. This is called not losing dignity. Qingfeng Bank and Fanlou have opponents in Jiangning City who don't want to lose face either. Maybe they're afraid to openly oppose Qingfeng Bank and Fanlou, but in their hearts, they hope someone will take the lead and give Qingfeng Bank and Fanlou a hard time... We've just arrived in Jiangning and established ourselves, we don't have any dignity to lose. At worst, we can just leave Jiangning City..."

  Lin Jingzhong thought to himself, "Those who have nothing are the bravest. If we really want to compete for wealth and glory in Jiangning, how can we achieve it with a small heart?" However, he knew that it was easy to talk but hard to do, and he didn't have the courage to take risks when things happened. He used to be very arrogant, reading history books without thinking those heroic figures were anything special. But after experiencing these events over this period of time, he finally realized that it was the unremarkable aspects of those heroes that made them extraordinary, far surpassing ordinary people. He then remembered another thing and asked, "Yesterday, Meng De Shu said he wanted to lend us four men, but you refused him. Later when I go see him, if he brings up this matter again, how should I respond?"

  Lin tied up his thoughts for a moment and said: "This house doesn't need anyone else for the time being, you handle other things..."

  "I know, I know." Lin Jingzhong said.

  In this era, hometown sentiment is the most cohesive thing. In the imperial court, officials attach importance to their native place, in business and travel, they also attach importance to their native place, shops and restaurants emphasize hiring people from their hometown to work, even when serving as soldiers or fighting wars, they also emphasize being with fellow villagers, and even when becoming bandits or pirates, they usually gather people from the same village.

  The brand has been around for over a hundred years and has become a deeply ingrained tradition.

  Lin Jingzhong, Gu Tianqiao and Zhao Hu brought two apprentices from the Gu family last time they went back. Zhao Hu also brought his younger brother along, which is the same principle; Lin Fu proposed to recruit young soldiers from Dongyang to serve as prison guards for Jiang Island's large prison, and Gu Wudeng was quite moved by it, which is also the same principle.

  The warehouse's affairs will soon be underway, and this side will always face the problem of lacking suitable personnel. Yesterday, Lin Meng proposed to lend manpower to this side, worrying about Lin Lian's safety in Jiangning, and lending four martial artists to Lin Lian as bodyguards, which was rejected by Lin Lian; Lin Jingzhong then brought up this matter again, hoping to borrow four familiar hands from Lin Meng to run errands.

  Lin Mou then mentioned to Lin Jingzhong that he might go to Jiangdao Prison to serve as a prison officer, and Lin Jingzhong opened his eyes wide in surprise and asked: "How can it be so coincidental?"

  "Where would be a clever thing? For the position of Jiang Island Prison Officer, I have used up all my thoughts." Lin Xuan said with a smile.

  "Right, right," Lin Jingzhong suddenly enlightened, "The Jiang Island Prison is isolated outside the city, and there are no military camps to protect it on either side. The situation in front of the Chao Tian Tang is more complicated than other suburban areas. Others who want to sit in this position must have the ability and work style that makes people feel at ease."

  "Yes, this position is not so easy to sit securely, and there's no oil or water either," Lin said. "After things are settled, I'll have Zhou Ye and Zhao Hu go help me, and you'll need to take care of things here. Also, be careful to guard against Qingfeng Hang and Fanlou people making small moves behind your back."