The Legend of Fangren

Chapter 164 Therefore, poverty is relative.

"Young Miss, it's time for us to discuss business today. Several merchants who have worked with us heard we were here and came over specifically to wait for you on the second floor," the manager said.

"Okay, I'll be right there."

"Young Miss, it's time to eat. You can't let yourself get thin from hunger," the maid said.

"Okay, I'll be there in a bit."

Two days passed in the blink of an eye. Huang Ying was not only not bored with Go, but was completely addicted to it. Every day after breakfast, she would order the steward to find Fang Shi. Whenever she had free time, she would pull him over to the carriage tent that had been set up and play a game.

And it wasn't just Huang Ying who became interested; many people who had watched the game over the past two days also became interested. Initially, they would play a couple of games with Fang Shi, and later some people would carve their own set of chess pieces and grind some stone chess pieces. Before long, a Go craze was set up on this Li Huotai.

The Li Huo Palace is a major place for refining weapons, and there are almost no places for entertainment. Merchants who stay here usually have very little to do in their spare time except to talk business and trade. Now that Go has suddenly appeared, it is a good thing to relieve boredom and fatigue.

And through these chess games, many complete strangers surprisingly developed a mutual respect and appreciation for each other; some businessmen even—

Using chess as a means of socializing, he successfully closed several business deals.

It is evident that a simple and easy-to-use leisure activity can be helpful in many matters.

Soon, the game of Go spread beyond Lihuotai and was taken down the mountain by some merchants.

When Fang Shi and Huang Ying played Go, merchants would often come to visit them, all for the sake of the game.

"Young Master Fang is truly talented. It is admirable that he has come up with such a simple yet interesting game of Go. We have seen the business opportunity in it and feel that there is great potential. However, since the rules of this game are so simple, we wonder if there are any ways to improve it? If there are, we are willing to pay a high price to buy it and discuss the sale with Young Master Fang."

Although the person sitting in front of Fang Shi was Miss Huang, a member of a prominent business family, businessmen are driven by profit and will try to seize even the smallest opportunity. Unfortunately, Fang Shi repeatedly refused, saying that these were all the rules of the game and there was no room for advancement.

All the merchants who came to persuade him in the past two days received the same answer: they assumed that Fang Shi had been captured by Huang Ying and that they wouldn't even get a taste of the soup. Fortunately, Go is not a secret, and even with the existing methods, there is still hope.

That day, Huang Ying saw that Fang Shi had once again refused a merchant, so he asked him, "Brother Fang, do you really regard money as dirt?"

"Miss Huang, I've asked this several times in the past two days."

"I just don't understand. People always need money sometimes. Even if you're not greedy, it's good to earn some money and save it for a rainy day. You're still young, and who knows how many times you'll need money in the future?"

In recent years, the problem of wild animals has been on the rise. Many people with some wealth and good connections are trying to buy residences in the Middle Realm. Many small villages in the Middle Realm have been transformed into towns. While this may seem to make the Middle Realm more prosperous, the high concentration of people has actually led to changes in the supply and demand relationship, causing the prices of some imported materials to rise.

"So, Miss Huang still wants to do business with that bottle?"

"Yes." Huang Ying stared at the chessboard, distracted as she considered her next move. "If it were a few days ago, I certainly wouldn't have been so persistent, but who told you to come up with this game of Go?"

Over the past few days, the two have become much more familiar with each other through chess. Although Fang Shi still calls Huang Ying "Miss Huang," he could be a little more affectionate and call her "Sister Huang," and she wouldn't mind.

Fang Shi then asked, "What does Miss Huang think about using Go pieces for business?"

"I'm afraid that won't work." Huang Ying shook her hair slightly. "Although my family owns some shops related to chess, we only hire some carving craftsmen to make exquisite chess pieces to sell to other wealthy families."

The wealthy families she was referring to were, of course, in contrast to ordinary people, but the Middle Realm has no shortage of these wealthy people, and there have been even more of them in the last year or two.

"But even in a wealthy place like the Middle Realm, the only businesses selling Go pieces are small workshops that can't grow big. And Go pieces are so monotonous and densely packed that they're not suitable for complex carvings. You can even grind up some pebbles picked up from the roadside, and they don't fetch much. You're good at playing Go, but you're not as good at business as I am."

In front of Fang Shi, Huang Ying already referred to herself as her elder sister.

Fang Shi didn't rush to express his thoughts, but instead praised, "Miss Huang is so young and already so skilled in business; she is truly diligent."

Hearing him mention this, Huang Ying thought that Fang Shi wouldn't understand either, so she said, "Don't be fooled by the fact that we business tycoons seem to have no worries in our lives. We're full of people who are blinded by greed. My older brothers and sisters, for example, have always liked to scheme since they were little, treating everything around them as a bargaining chip."

"Do siblings really need to scheme against each other?"

"Of course, my older brothers and sisters were born to my father and several other mothers. There are so many people eyeing the huge Huang family fortune. When my father gets old, he will have to divide up the family business. Those who get more will naturally have more say. Guess why I want to start my own business? It's because my mother is the youngest among the older women and comes from a commoner background. She doesn't have the same extensive family connections as the other older women. If I don't want to be too down and out in the future, I have to have my own capital. Otherwise, you can see my good figure, little brother. It would be terrible if I were forced to marry someone I don't like. I don't want to become a victim of family marriage."

Huang Ying's aunts, such as the eldest, second, and third aunts, came from other families through marriage alliances. From childhood, she watched as the adults in her family appeared friendly on the surface, but in reality, they were all scheming and fighting among several families. Even her older brothers and sisters, with whom she had played closely when she was young, changed as they grew up.

She couldn't take it anymore, so she ran away, wanting to carve out her own niche.

Fang Shi was also ashamed. This kind of drama of sons seizing the throne sounded really familiar. The marriage alliance between the emperor and his ministers was even more classic. So, the Huang family of yours is the emperor's Huang.

So, the person sitting in front of me right now is a princess.

"Has Miss Huang accumulated any wealth over the years in business?"

"Sigh, it's not that easy. The business in the Middle Realm has long been divided up by the Huang family and several other big families. How can I compete with my older brothers and sisters for the family business? So I can only go out and do manual labor, wandering around the Five Realms. Anyway, I've made up my mind. No matter how rich the Middle Realm is, it's not mine. Once I've saved up some capital outside, I'll bring my mother out to live a good life. Let them fight over the family's stinking money."

"Good ambition."

No wonder Huang Ying was so much more approachable than those other spoiled brats. It turns out that even in her own extravagant and wasteful family, she was a "commoner" in a relatively sense—though this "commoner" was neither truly equal nor truly ordinary.