This is just a small incident. The Cai Family and Kuai Family would never become hostile with each other. Cai He may be a hedonistic son but even he knew who he could offend. This is not like the vegetable seller whose life he could easily ruin. If we were to offend the Kuai Family, he would get reprimanded by his elder brother and even involve Kuai Liang. As a result, he may suffer consequences that he could not handle.
“Hmph! Fine. I will let it go!” Cai He harrumphed as he made his promise to forget grudges.
“Thank you, Lord Cai!” Fatty Liang and Wu De quickly thanked Cai He after hearing this.
“Remember to send Luo Xiang to my room.” Cai He said and then he left his box. He would not offend Kuai Ran but at the same, he must definitely take Luo Xiang. Cai He did not even need to take out a single coin and honestly, he also envied how rich the merchants were.
“Yes, yes!” The two merchants were quite reluctant but they had no choice except to pay up if they wanted to avoid disaster.
“Thank you sirs.” Luo Xiang greeted the two merchants respectfully. Even serving people would be different. The two merchants were rich but they were already middle aged men. On the other hand, Cai He was still young and Luo Xiang would be able to influence him with her charms.
“Don’t mention it.” The two replied as though their hearts were bleeding. The two then forked out the money and Luo Xiang was sent to Cai He’s room. The two merchants truly suffered a huge loss. However, the two merchants now had a closer relationship with each other as they had both avoided the terrible scenario of Cai He’s retaliation. The two merchants then left the sweet feast as they no longer had enough money to spend.
“That was really tense!” Fatty Liang commented fearfully. If they had truly offended Cai He, their lives at Jingzhou were over. At best, their businesses would come to an end. At worst, they would be charged with various crimes and even lose their homes and their families. It was common sense that one must never provoke Cai He.
“You can still speak? All of this is your fault! Why did you insist on provoking Cai He?” Wu De shouted. In the end, they both lost so much money and obtained nothing. Wu De himself was also accused wrongly.
“How was I supposed to know I was competing against Cai He?” Fatty Liang also shouted back furiously.
“Regardless, did you think we could afford to offend anyone in Sky boxes?” Wu De replied in frustration. The people in the Sky ranked boxes were all important or respected people.
“Didn’t you help me cover my cost which is why I did this?” Fatty Liang directed the blame back at Wu De. It was because Wu De said he would help out with the cost a little which was why Fatty Liang continued to raise the price higher.
“What about it? Did you think I would let you to obtain Luo Xiang on your own?”
“In the end, we both wasted our money and got nothing!” Fatty Liang’s words caused the both of them to become silent for a while. They both had gloomy expressions. Who asked them to be merchants? Merchants were of the lowest class in society. This was a common fact.
So what if they had money? All that did was attract a noble’s attention. The worst part was that any noble would be able to force them to a dead end. They did not even need to be as influential as Cai He. It would be even worse if it was during times of peace. Their children would not be allowed to attend school.
“Let’s go back and sleep early.” Wu De said and patted Fatty Liang’s back. The two of them always argued but they did not have much hatred for each other.
“This time we must really give our thanks to Lord Kuai Ran and also Lord Wang Shu.” Fatty Liang said as he thought about his benefactors. He could recognize Kuai Ran as the heir of the esteemed Kuai Family but he did not know who Wang Shu was.
“That’s enough. Do you think someone like Kuai Ran would meet with us?”
Kuai Ran was the Young Master of the Kuai Family while they were merchants. Even if they wanted to meet with Kuai Ran, they would never obtain that opportunity.
“Let’s go back.” The two of them shook their heads and wanted to leave. They could only leave on foot as merchants were not allowed to ride on palanquins.
“Where are you two going at this hour?” A voice came from behind the two merchants. A housekeeper than walked out of the brothel.
“You are?” Fatty Liang and Wu De asked in fear. They wondered if Cai He had sent this man after them. Fatty Liang had it slightly better because he was fat but both his legs and Wu De’s legs had turned soft to the point that they had difficulty standing.
“Haha. There is no need to be so nervous.” The housekeeper replied with a smile but the two merchant’s fear did not go away. Nobles were people that could hide their evil intentions behind a smile and then backstab you the moment you turn around.
Wu De also looked around to see if a few more people would suddenly rush out from the dark to attack them.
“Didn’t you say you would let us go? We really did not know that it was you, otherwise we would never have competed against you! I beg of you, let us go!”1
The ‘housekeeper’, Jia Xu, simply looked at the two, not knowing whether to laugh or cry.
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They talked as though they were talking to the actual person involved (by using the word you) and not a proxy. Also changed the sentence a bit to ‘make more sense’. Raw said “we did not know you liked Luo Xiang.” – which is stupid since you wouldn’t be throwing money at something you don’t like.
