Leng Changxi stopped. His hands on the door paused. However, the door opened automatically without any strength. Protecting Qin Yunuan behind him, Leng Changxi saw a row of people standing in order under the luffa stems in the courtyard. The one in the middle was sitting on the rattan chair which Qin Yunuan usually sat on when she was embroidering, looking magnificent. He smiled when seeing Qin Yunuan and Leng Changxi as if he had seen two old friends. He said, “General of Qi, Infanta of Qi, we haven’t seen each other for some time.”
The man sitting in the center was nobody else but Wanyan Su. He stood up with a smile. His eyes bypassed Leng Changxi, fixing on the white gauze covering Qin Yunuan’s eyes, and said in a concerned tone, “How about your eyes? They haven’t recovered yet.”
Qin Yunuan leaned to the side and said politely, “I feel better now. Your Highness, thank you for your concern.”
Although she could not see Wanyan Su, she could tell who he was through his voice. Besides, who else would know their true identities?
Wanyan Su asked his servants to take out two chairs for Leng Changxi and Qin Yunuan to sit. However, Leng Changxi merely waved his hands, “Your Highness, if you have something to say, just be frank.”
“Good,” Wanyan Su smiled, “General Leng, I know that you went to the warrior qualification test organized by the Grand Prince, but you didn’t attend it. With all the amazing skills you have, you must be the final winner to beat them all if you attended. What a pity! It seems that my eldest brother doesn’t have the luck to have you as his warrior. I, however, am in desperate need of talents like you. I wonder whether you are willing to…”
“No,” before Wanyan Su could finish his words, Leng Changxi turned his head to the other side slightly, “Your Highness, please go back.”
“I haven’t finished my words yet. General Leng, why do you refuse me so quickly?” Wanyan Su showed a mild smile, but his tone had become extremely solemn, “Speaking of power, you have no soldiers following you already, not a single one. Although there are still 3,000 the Leng Army living in a hard corner, they are no more than remnants of a defeated army, which can accomplish nothing. Infanta Ping, you have given me all the three trade routes you have, leaving only the ready-to-wear clothes and piece goods produced by Golden Butterfly Embroidery House in the relation of rights and interest between us. Therefore, you are no longer a threat to me. I advise you to be wiser.”
“Is it so?” Qin Yunuan sidestepped and smiled charmingly, “Now that we are useless to you, why have you kept sending people to track us since we entered North Di? Your surveillants are everywhere from Luguan to the Ghost City. We haven’t called you to account for that yet.”
Wanyan Su felt a little embarrassed. Qin Yunuan continued with a smile, “And the ‘threat’ you mentioned just now? Oh, if everything is good about the three trade routes, the grain business is satisfying, and the ready-to-wear clothes and piece goods produced by Golden Butterfly Embroidery House you receive are all normal, why are you waiting for us in such a remote place? What’s more, you know clearly that nobody in the North Di can rival Changxi besides the over-90 master of Qigong. The so-called means of livelihood you offer us is actually serving your own benefit, asking Changxi to work himself to death for you. Your highness, look at what you are. Are you qualified?”
Facing Qin Yunuan’s rebuttal, Wanyan Su could barely say a word. Qin Yunuan was right. He should have thought that. How could a shrewd woman like Qin Yunuan hand over the three trade routes so easily?
In fact, Qin Yunuan had made preparation in advance. None of the three trade routes was smooth, including problems either goods were trapped midway or local citizens ran riot. And the grain he was trading? Well, although the officials witnessed themselves that the white first-class rice was put on the carriages, when the carriages reached the destination, inside was a pile of moldy yellow rice which nobody would like to deal with even when the trader was suffering from the loss. Questioning Shen Xun, Boss Shen in the regions south of the River? He insisted that the problem happened in transportation, which was not his business. After all, seeing is believing. The loading process was witnessed. Wanyan Su could do nothing about it. Golden Butterfly Embroidery House, on the other hand, was procrastinating on restocking in the excuse of natural disasters. Wanyan Su had already paid much liquidated damages to shops in North Di for that. When he asked Golden Butterfly Embroidery House for an explanation, it handed out the contract they signed in the first place, on which wrote clearly, “In the event of a shortage due to unforeseen circumstances caused by natural or man-made disasters, which causes the goods cannot be delivered as agreed, Golden Butterfly Embroidery House should not bear any responsibilities.”
Within just three months, Wanyan Su’s confidence when he took the business over had turned into frustration. It had been clear to him by now the reason why Qin Yunuan was at ease when handing it to him. She was sure that without her, the business between North Di and Qi wouldn’t run without her. A prince as he was, he had to beg her on his knees one day.
“You are good at debating,” Wanyan Su moved closer to them slowly, “However, you should know that as a wife, you’d better not be too good,” he stared at Leng Changxi when speaking, “Otherwise, it will make your man look good-for-nothing.”
Sowing discord? Lifting an eyebrow, Qin Yunuan was about to speak when Leng Changxi’s cold voice rang out, “Her eloquence is exactly what I like. Besides, marrying her is enough to prove my capability. Your Highness, if you don’t want to buy the loofah, please leave.”
Leng Changxi pointed at several loofahs on the stem that was still shaping with his long, bamboo-like fingers. Looking at Wanyan Su, he seemed to intend to make the deal by force.
Wanyan Su twisted his lips, “I will buy. Who has said that I don’t want to buy them? Name the price of these loofahs, and I will buy them all.”
Qin Yunuan smiled. Her fingertip made a move in Leng Changxi’s palm, “The number is no more, no less. There are about five or six small loofahs on the stem. Each of them is worth 100 taels of silver. Your Highness, we accept cash only. If you don’t have one, we will cancel the deal.”
Qin Yunuan and Leng Changxi spoke with confidence even though they had nobody else with them, which, surprisingly, forced Wanyan Su, a prince of North Di, to keep silent. He couldn’t use violence because the two people were just making a shameless act, which could not be counted as a provocation.
“Just a few loofahs. I’ll buy them,” Wanyan Su gestured to his heelers with eyes, asking them to hand several gold ingots to Leng Changxi, “Is it enough?”
Although Qin Yunuan couldn’t see it, she knew that Wanyan Su would only pay more money than the price, not less. So she smiled, “No change. That’s my style of business.”
Wanyan Su flapped his sleeves, “No change is okay. There’s only one thing I want to ask you. The three trade routes and the grains. Now the key moment is coming, so I can’t allow any accident,” gritting his teeth, Wanyan Su changed into a more modest, gentler tone, “Madam Leng, please do not be too hard on me this time! I desire nothing but merely 10 percent of your benefit.”
For Wanyan Su, what had changed was not only his address to Qin Yunuan but also his mindset. He used to think that Leng Changxi and Qin Yunuan were too weak in North Di to reach West Xia all by themselves. Nevertheless, he burned a special spice on purpose in Qin Yunuan and Leng Changxi’s carriage when they were fleeing that would make Qin Yunuan’s eyes recover at an extremely low speed. The weaker they are, the more he could use during the negotiation. He was wrong. When it came to being bold but cautious and taking precautions, he was no rival to those people in the Central Plains.
“10 percent?” Qin Yunuan said ironically as the sarcasm of Wanyan Su’s greed and arrogance.
Wanyan Su gritted his teeth, “Well. All I crave is that the grains can be transported to North Di successfully through the three trade routes. Everything else should be normal as usual.”
A smile appeared on the corner of Qin Yunuan’s mouth, “Normal as usual?”
Wanyan Su’s lips twisted slightly. He didn’t look as pompous as he did when he first came here. Most obviously, his Adam’s apple was bobbing up and down frequently. He was going to touch his baseline.
“Madam Leng, name the price you prefer.”
But this time Qin Yunuan retreated behind Leng Changxi’s back, leaning to his arm like a lovable bird, “My husband is the one to make the decision.”
Leng Changxi was blunt, “We would like to cooperate with you besides your money for the loofahs.”
If the proposal to cooperate was mentioned earlier, Wanyan Su might have treated the two people as his inferiors. However, Qin Yunuan had been waiting for him patiently to find her himself. Therefore, their cooperation wouldn’t be so easy.
Leng Changxi smiled while saying, “Your Highness, don’t be nervous. I know that although you’ve been pushed aside by the Grand Prince to guard the frontier all the year round, you are confident to be the crown prince of North Di. Otherwise, you won’t risk cooperating with Nuan so actively. You opened the trade routes to gather military funds, imported the rice as grain for the army, and bought ready-to-wear clothes to prepare winter clothes for soldiers to wear in the cold winter of North Di. Your Highness, now that you’ve tried so hard to prepare, you wouldn’t like to see your plan fail in the next two or three months.”
Leng Changxi turned around and continued, “Grand Khan of North Di is old now. Among all his sons, there are only two prominent ones: you, or Fourth Prince, and Wanyan Ba, the Grand Prince. Since Sima Ray has been in collusion with Wanyan Ba, Wanyan Ba can be counted as our common enemy. Therefore, we can cooperate. You have the determination to be the crown prince and advisors who will give you suggestions. Nuan has numerous business resources and material supplies while I have the advanced military training method of Qi and close fighting skills. Your Highness, don’t you think that to reach your greater good, you cannot miss any one of the three things? What I ask for, on the other hand, is not much. I only need the clearance documents to Yeren Valley and West Xia after the success.”
All of a sudden, Wanyan Su asked discreetly, “Why will you go to Yeren Valley?”
Yeren Valley was the boundary between North Di and Liuli, a small country. It used to be the land of Qi 20 years ago. It was easy to guard but hard to attack. Qi had attacked it for many times since it was taken by North Di 20 years ago, but none of them succeeded. A legend had said that the origin of the royal family of Qi was here. The royal family of North Di thought that it was because the legend that Qi kept attacking to get it back. It pushed North Di to guard Yeren Valley more carefully. In the past few years, however, Qi had been more peaceful in the frontier, so North Di lowered its guard a little.
“Fourth Prince, you don’t need to ask. Just tell me whether you agree to the terms I offer.”
Wanyan Su hesitated a little when Leng Changxi said, “Exchanging the throne with two documents. It’s a good deal, isn’t it?”
“Let me think,” Wanyan Su said solemnly, “Grand Khan was angry when accidents happened in Yeren Valley one after another, so nobody was allowed to enter here ever since. Your requirement is equal to asking me to challenge Grand Khan’s authority.”
