My sister broke off her engagement to marry someone richer? My older sister married me and became in

Guo Haipeng acted quickly, even with a sense of urgency, as if his life depended on it.

The next morning, he personally drove the pitch-black Volga, practically crashing into the courtyard.

"Brother Lu! I've got the stuff for you!"

He slammed a file bag onto the stone table with a "thud," and pulled out a gold-embossed invitation and a handwritten list from it.

The edges of the paper curled slightly from his forceful movements.

"This is the invitation to the tasting event, the admission ticket! This is the list of attendees that I got copied through old connections; you need to keep track of it!"

Lu Qingshan calmly accepted the thin paper, his gaze not lingering on the densely packed names, but directly landing on a name heavily circled in red.

Qian Shouyi.

Deputy General Manager of the Provincial Pharmaceutical Company.

Next to his name, Guo Haipeng wrote a line of anxious notes in pen.

He is an upright man who loves genuine products and despises those who sell inferior goods as superior ones and those who engage in fraud!

It is said that he once forced a merchant who was delivering counterfeit goods to swallow a moldy Ganoderma lucidum raw in public!

"See that? That's Qian Shouyi!"

Guo Haipeng lowered his voice, pointed at the name, and his tone was full of apprehension.

"He's the actual 'chief examiner' for this tasting event! He's in charge of procurement for the entire provincial company and is a renowned expert in medicinal herb identification in the province—his eyes are sharper than an X-ray! If we can catch his eye and get his approval, our deal is 80% done!"

Lu Qingshan nodded without saying anything, but handed the list to Lin Xiulan beside him.

Lin Xiulan took them carefully, looking at each name meticulously, as if she wanted to engrave them all in her heart.

Seeing Lu Qingshan's calm and composed demeanor, Guo Haipeng grew even more anxious and added.

"But! Brother Lu, I must make this clear from the start! This man is like a rock in a latrine, stinking and stubborn! He's impervious to reason and won't give face to anyone! Trying to get ahead by giving gifts? Absolutely not! It won't work!"

"Who said I'm going down a crooked path?"

Lu Qingshan finally spoke, pouring himself a glass of water, the surface of which reflected his calm eyes.

"Mr. Guo, we have the best products, and we're going to take the right path. For me, this kind of straightforward and unyielding person is actually the best judge."

Looking at the young man in front of him, Guo Haipeng felt a strange sense of calm as the young man exuded an air of complete control over everything.

Before he arrived, he was genuinely worried that Lu Qingshan, being young and impetuous, might be provoked by Wei Biao's underhanded tactics and lose his composure.

Now it seems I was overthinking things. This Brother Lu's heart is much deeper than I imagined.

For the next two days, Lu Qingshan did not go out.

The entire courtyard was eerily quiet, like the calm before a storm, the last moments of stillness on the sea.

Lin Xiulan became the busiest person. Following Lu Qingshan's instructions, she visited almost every antique market and carpentry shop in the provincial capital that had anything to do with the word "old".

The next afternoon, she brought back a box, her face showing a mixture of excitement and exhaustion.

It was a long, narrow box made of huanghuali wood, with a dark, oily color and a thick patina, exuding the unique warmth and charm of an old object.

"This is a box from the Ming Dynasty. I searched for it for a very long time before finally finding it in the hands of an old carpenter who was almost blind."

Lin Xiulan carefully opened the box, and a faint aroma of sandalwood and old wood wafted out instantly.

He said it was a writing box passed down from his master, specifically used to store writing brushes, ink, paper, and inkstones.

The inside of the box was lined with a layer of dark red silk. Although the edges were slightly worn, its former luxury was still evident.

Lu Qingshan reached out and stroked the warm texture of the wooden box. It was smooth and delicate to the touch, as if he could feel the sedimentation of hundreds of years of time.

He gave his wife a satisfied look, and the approval in his eyes made Lin Xiulan happier than any words.

"Very good, Xiulan, you did a great job."

He said in a deep voice, "A fine sword is for a hero, and a good horse is for a good saddle. Our Ginseng King is worthy of it."

With the treasure box in hand, the next step is to retrieve the treasure.

Lu Qingshan sent Hou San to fetch the cleanest and purest spring water from a mountain stream five miles outside the city.

He then found the set of special tools made of deer bone and antelope horn that his master Zou Yuan had given him.

He carefully lifted the eighty-year-old ginseng king out, and Lin Xiulan, watching from the side, couldn't help but hold her breath.

She watched as her husband used the softest wool brush, dipped in cool mountain spring water, as if he were polishing a piece of priceless porcelain.

It was as if they were bathing a newborn baby, carefully and meticulously cleaning the surface of the ginseng.

His movements were very light and slow, as if he were afraid of disturbing the soul sleeping in the ginseng.

He cleaned every wrinkle and every ginseng root, thinner than a hair, restoring its original jade-white color.

Finally, using a bright red silk rope, following the special "Dragon Raises Its Head" technique taught by Zou Yuan, he fixed the cleaned ginseng king in an extremely relaxed and domineering posture onto the dark red silk lining.

When everything was finished, the ginseng king lay quietly in an ancient rosewood box, its roots twisted like dragon claws, its body full like a reclining dragon, exuding an invisible aura of royalty.

Lin Xiulan watched quietly from the side, forgetting even to breathe.

Only now did she truly feel the profound and powerful vitality contained within this ginseng.

It is no longer just a "valuable thing", but a living legend.

This tranquility was shattered on the evening of the third day by a sudden screech of brakes and the sound of hurried footsteps.

Scarface Liu rushed back from outside, his hideous scar on his face slightly reddened with impatience and anger, making him look even more frightening.

"Brother Qingshan!"

As soon as he entered the courtyard, he didn't even look at anyone else and rushed straight to Lu Qingshan.

"That son of a bitch Wei Biao already knows you're going to the tasting event!"

"He's spreading the word all over the world now, paying people to go to teahouses and restaurants to spread the word that you're just a swindler who crawled out of some backwater in the countryside, trying to swindle people in the provincial capital with a rotten tree root!"

Scarface Liu was so angry that he trembled all over, his fists clenched so tightly that his knuckles turned white.

"He also said that at the tasting event, in front of all the industry peers in the province, he would expose your fraudulent practices and make you crawl on your knees and roll out of the provincial capital!"

Lin Xiulan was tidying up the yard when she heard this. The broom in her hand fell to the ground with a "clatter," and her face was instantly filled with worry and fear.

"What else did he do?" Lu Qingshan's face remained expressionless as he simply picked up the teacup on the table and asked casually.

"He spent a fortune!" Scarface Liu spat out the words through gritted teeth, his voice tinged with the stench of blood.

"I heard it cost a full five thousand yuan! They snatched a ginseng root from a passing merchant from the south!"

"This is supposedly a genuine 30-year-old wild ginseng, ready to 'compete' with you at the tasting event!"

"A treasure battle?" Lu Qingshan raised an eyebrow.

"Yes! It's a treasure battle!" Guo Haipeng also came out of the house quickly upon hearing the news, his face extremely solemn.

"This is the most vicious tactic in the industry! He wants to use his wealth and power to crush you in front of everyone! Once you lose, the 'liar' label will be stuck on you, and you'll never be able to recover in the provincial capital! This is a devastating blow!"

Lin Xiulan's brows furrowed tightly, and her voice trembled.

"Then...what can we do? Thirty-year-old wild ginseng...if he really brings out something that good, we..."

She didn't finish her sentence, but everyone understood her concerns.

In such a province-wide spectacle, being outshone in public is not just a matter of losing face, but a loss of credibility and a dead end!

However, Lu Qingshan smiled.

He leisurely picked up the teacup on the table, gently blew on the steam rising from the water, his relaxed demeanor completely out of place with the tense atmosphere around him.

"He's furious and I've led him by the nose."

Lin Xiulan and Guo Haipeng were both stunned, looking at him in confusion.

Lu Qingshan put down his teacup, looked at his wife with a reassuring gaze, and explained in the simplest terms:

"Why do you think he wants to compete with me in this contest?"

"Because he was scared. He couldn't figure out my strength, and he was also unsettled by the rumors of the 'Centennial Ginseng King,' so he wanted to use this most direct and brutal method to overwhelm me and get back at me."

"A 30-year-old wild ginseng, that sounds really scary."

Lu Qingshan paused, a mocking smile playing on his lips. "But think about it, what would happen if a toddler who's just learned to walk insisted on arm wrestling with a strong, grown man?"

He pointed to the rosewood box lying quietly on the table.

"Compared to his thirty-year-old 'baby ginseng,' ours is like that strong man."

"So, he's not here to put me down, Xiulan."

Lu Qingshan looked at his wife and said, word by word, "He deliberately washed his face clean and stretched it out in front of me, begging me to hit him hard with the sole of my shoe."

This powerful, almost arrogant confidence acted like a shot of adrenaline, instantly easing the tense atmosphere that had almost solidified in the courtyard.

……

The night before the tasting event.

The moonlight, like water, bathed the small courtyard.

Lu Qingshan closed the antique rosewood box, wrapped it in a clean silk cloth, and gently pushed it in front of Lin Xiulan.

"You'll come with me tomorrow."

Lin Xiulan froze instantly, almost instinctively waving her hands repeatedly, her face full of panic.

"Me? I can't do it, Aoyama, I really can't..."

"Those kinds of places are frequented by important figures from the province. I... I'm just a country bumpkin who doesn't know anything. I'll embarrass you."

Her voice carried an undisguised timidity and inferiority complex.

Lu Qingshan stood up, walked to her side, and reached out to hold her hand, which was a little cold from nervousness.

"Xiulan".

He didn't speak loudly, but looked into her eyes, each word clearly imprinted in her heart.

"You are the boss lady of 'Xiushan Industrial'. The 'Xiu' in 'Xiushan' is the same as the 'Xiu' in your name, Lin Xiulan."

"You have to be there for this kind of situation."

"I'm not asking you to scheme against those people, nor am I asking you to say empty words. I just want you to stand by my side and watch with your own eyes."

His voice wasn't loud, but it carried an undeniable power and a gentle warmth that reassured her.

"From today onward, you need to get used to it. Get used to standing by my side and watching how I resolve everything for you and for our family."

Lin Xiulan stared blankly at her husband's calm and confident profile. In the moonlight, his angular face was filled with absolute control over the future.

All the unease, tension, and fear in her heart seemed to be washed away by a warm torrent at this moment.

Instead, a surge of scalding warmth welled up from the deepest part of my heart and instantly flowed through my limbs and bones.

She nodded vigorously, her eyes no longer showing any hesitation or fear, but only overflowing trust and expectation.

"it is good."