It doesn't matter what the lord is.

Lid had no choice but to hand the box to Alayya, but he did not forget to ask Langte:

"Then this matter..."

Qi Zheng said lightly:

"Talk to me. What do you want to talk about?"

Lid seemed to be suppressed by his aura. He was silent for a while and answered obediently:

"We want to do some long-term business here, not only steel business, but also some other things... Yunyang has come up with a lot of good things now, and we have some connections, so we can get a lot of them, so we want to sell them here. For example, you know the sparkling wine that was very popular before but sold out very quickly? In fact, I still have a batch of stocks here, but the taxes are too high. Sir, how about we cooperate?"

As Reed spoke, he kept an eye on Qi Zheng's expression. When he mentioned sparkling wine, Reed noticed that Qi Zheng raised his eyebrows for a moment, but the next moment his eyes shifted to the side, indicating that he was a little disappointed.

Qi Zheng replied calmly without changing his tone:

"If you do business in Xiqin, you must abide by the rules of Xiqin. I came here today to give you a warning. If you do it again, you will not be allowed to do business in Xiqin."

After saying that, he stood up and walked out of the house. The tax officials followed him. Langte glared at Lid and hurriedly followed.

After everyone had left, the owner of Longsheng Weapon Shop thought for a moment and said to Lid:

"Alas... this is my fault. Who knows what the tax officials got into? They suddenly became interested in tonight's dinner and wanted to come with Langte."

Lid laughed and said to him:

"It doesn't matter. It's also my fault for not listening to the boss's advice."

Seeing Lid's sincere attitude, the boss was relieved. He had already offended Langte a little today. If he offended Lid again, it would be a loss. As long as Lid still did business with him, he would make money. At worst, he could change his backer in the future.

The boss followed Lid's words and said:

"Oh, let's stop blaming each other. The main thing is that we lost tonight. You prepared a gift and I prepared delicious food, but in the end, we got nothing."

Lid shook his head and said calmly:

"No, I already got what I wanted."

6. Who doesn’t love money?

Outside the hotel, Alayya followed Lid and asked in confusion:

"Master, what are we going to do now?"

Reed replied briefly:

“Send money.”

"But didn't that guy named Langte just reject us?"

“It’s not like I’m giving him money.”

Alaiya held the box of jewels in her arms, which was a habit she had developed from the past. Although Lid was no longer short of money, she felt at ease holding the money. She would unconsciously wonder how long the money could support her and her young master. After realizing that the number had become very large, she would quietly feel happy.

Of course, she would feel doubly painful when she gave the money away.

"Is it going to be sent directly to the tax director? He doesn't seem to be taking this route..."

Alaiya reminded Lid softly.

Reed shook his head:

"We don't have a way to ask the tax director to do it directly, but there are other ways."

Lid was very grateful that Langte didn't hold it firmly, and let the gift box fall on the table. Although even if Langte held it firmly, Lid would try his best to drop the box on the table. When the room was illuminated by the treasure, everyone looked at the treasure on the table, and Lid was observing each of their reactions.

There was only fear in Langte's eyes, Qi Zheng's eyes were full of scrutiny and coldness, and the rest of the tax officials were mostly shocked, except for one middle-aged fat man who showed obvious greed. The gift was personally arranged by Lid, and the value was definitely not low, at least a few hundred gold coins. This bait was spread out, and there was no fear that no fish would take the bait.

Reed noted the man's breath and followed him with Alayya.

After walking around for a few times, the two men came to a house of medium size, and Reed knocked on the door.

The person who opened the door was naturally the fat man. He rubbed his eyes and muttered "Who is it?". After seeing the figures of Lid and Alaiya, his eyes widened instantly. He looked around first, and after confirming that there was no one around, he blocked the door with his body and said in a low voice:

"Why are you here?"

Lid pretended to be sad and said:

"I have offended Lord Langte and Lord Qi Zheng tonight. I am a little worried. I want to ask you to help mediate so that my future business will not be affected. Don't worry, I will definitely not make it difficult for you."

The fat man's eyes moved between Lid and Alaiya, looked at the box in Alaiya's arms, moved his body to make room, and said:

"Come in and talk."

……

At the table with only three people, everyone behaved much more naturally.

The fat man took a sip of sake and said to Lid:

"My name is Gao Qiu, a minor official in the tax bureau. My position is higher than Langte's, but not by much. As for your matter, it's easy to handle with Langte. I can just say hello to him later. But it's difficult to handle with Lord Qi Zheng. It's a bit troublesome."

Lid toasted him with a glass of wine, signaled Alaiya with his eyes to open the box, then took out a few pieces of jewelry, calmly put them in Gao Qiu's pocket, and said:

"Please explain clearly, brother."

Gao Qiu looked at Li De with admiration. Not to mention how eye-catching this box is today, if Li De ran into someone on the road, the other party would immediately follow the clues to investigate as soon as they saw that the box was not with Li De. The best thing to do is to give the things inside and take the box back intact later.

"Lord Qi Zheng has been an official for many years, and he is well-known for his clean conduct in the officialdom of Xi Qin. You can tell from what happened tonight that he is basically the type that is hard to persuade. If you want to ask him to do something, you really can't do it without some connections..."

Reed picked up a few more pieces of jewelry and stuffed them over.

Gao Qiu stopped drinking, thought for a while, and said:

"There is a woman living in the third alley of Qingfeng Street, at the northernmost part of Yuanyang City."

Lid stuffed a few more pieces of jewelry into his pocket. He felt like he was talking to a toy that could only be used with coins, except that those toys would sing "Dad's dad is grandpa" for you after you put in the coins, while this fat guy named Gao Qiu could only be a riddle teller. Even Alaiya was vaguely impatient, but Lid still held his temper.

Gao Qiu took the last sip of wine. From the weight in his pocket, he knew that Reed's box was almost empty.

He lowered his voice and said:

"First, you should take a box of good tea as a stepping stone. After receiving the tea, the woman will ask to meet you. Before meeting her, you should prepare a gift. Remember, the bigger the event, the bigger the gift. Don't be stingy. Then you go to see her. She will drink tea with you, and then ask you if you know calligraphy. You must answer yes. She will take out a piece of rice paper and ask you to leave a message. You write what you want Qi Zheng to do on it. If she returns the gift to you after a few days, it means that she can't do it. If she invites you to drink tea again, it means that it is done."

Lid also took a sip of wine and said to Gao Qiu:

"This... Thank you for your advice, brother. But I still don't understand one thing. This process is so obscure and complicated. How did Brother Gaoqiu know about it?"

Gao Qiu laughed and said to Lid:

"If you hadn't prepared with sufficient sincerity this time, you would have needed to go through a lot of detours to get the money to me. Similarly, if you had prepared tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of gold coins instead of a few hundred, Qi Zheng would probably have just given you a few words of advice, and you wouldn't have had to come to me."

Lid finished the last sip of wine and said softly:

"This kind of thing is... common in Xi Qin?"

Gao Qiu thought that Li De was still worried about Qi Zheng's words, "If you do this again, don't do business in Xi Qin," so he patted his chest and promised:

"I don't know about other industries, but it's always been like this with taxation. Don't worry, as long as you're willing, nothing can't be settled. Who can't get along with money... and who doesn't have problems at home? My mother had a serious illness more than ten years ago. I don't know how much she has spent on medicine over the years. Most of the money I got from outside was spent on her. That's why I took the risk this time and told you all this... Qi Zheng's only son is an idiot. He has found countless folk remedies to cure his son. How could he have done it without money? He needs money more than I do."

Reed listened silently, and when it was getting darker, Gao Qiu waved his hand and drove him and Alayya out.

A cold wind blew, and Reed's drunken look completely disappeared.

His eyes looked a little cold.

Alayya asked softly:

"Master, did that guy named Gao Qiu make you unhappy?"

Lid looked at her hand on the sword and shook his head:

"I just find it weird."

Lid took Alayya to the hotel and said as they walked:

"Everyone knows that the politics of Western Qin is clear and the laws are strict, but this is the case in Yuanyang City. An ordinary tax officer knows how his superiors accept bribes. Doesn't the lord of Western Qin really know? What is he thinking? It has only been 20 years since the rise of Western Qin. If it really relied on reforms to make a fortune, then the trampling of the legal system would definitely hurt its foundation. But today, Western Qin is still as strong as ever... There must be something wrong here."

Lid looked at Yuanyang City. It was only eight o'clock in the evening, but all the lights in Yuanyang City were off.

The streets were empty and the echo of footsteps could be heard.

The dark city exuded a gloomy atmosphere. Not to mention Lid, even Alayya couldn't help but tighten her sword.

7. Walking in the Rain

Although Yunyang is not very powerful, He Yue has always tried his best to meet Li De's reasonable requests.

Before Li De came to Xi Qin this time, he mentioned the funding issue to He Yue, and He Yue also prepared a lot of cash for him. In addition to the money earned from the steel sales, Li De is now very well-off. He went to the tea shop and bought a box of the best tea, and gave it to the woman as Gao Qiu said, and soon received her invitation.

The woman's name was Wan Qing, she was about 30 years old, and had a mature charm. She was dressed in a cheongsam-like outfit, crossed her legs, and kept looking at Lid. She asked her servants to open the gift just now. The value inside was very high, not at all like the price that a foreign merchant could offer, but more like the money prepared by a local who was preparing to buy an official position.

In the subsequent calligraphy session, Lid only wrote a short sentence:

"I want to see Celius."

Wan Qing naturally knew the importance of Selius, but in her opinion, this was not a very difficult task to complete. Because Lid only asked to meet Selius, but did not say how to meet him or what to talk about when they met. These were all feasible. For example, letting Lid dress up as Qi Zheng's follower and accompany Qi Zheng to report to Selius also met this condition, and the money could be easily obtained.

But when she handed the calligraphy left by Lid to Qi Zheng, the old tax official who had experienced countless storms showed a pensive expression.

He drummed his hands on the table, going over Reed's words and actions at the dinner table over and over in his mind.

Not for any other reason, but because the timing is so strange.

Everyone knew that the prince of Western Qin, Ying Bai, had been put in solitary confinement. The power struggle that had been predictable had suddenly changed, and the officials of Western Qin were also in a state of panic. The other sons of the lord of Western Qin suddenly stepped out from behind the scenes and began to win over ministers in an immature way. Many radical ministers, who wanted to win the credit of following the emperor, had already begun to work for a certain prince to give them advice.

However, as a leading figure in the Western Qin officialdom, Selius has never revealed his position.

He was respectful and friendly to all the young masters, but when those young masters showed their intention to recruit him, he chose to play dumb without exception. No one knew what he wanted, not even Qi Zheng. At this time, a strange businessman suddenly came to Yuanyang City and gave a large sum of money just to meet Selius. Is there any connection between them?

Qi Zheng looked at the gift list in his hand, which was worth at least two or three thousand gold coins. He no longer believed that Lid was just an ordinary steel merchant. The other party was obviously well prepared and had gone through a lot just to ask him to do this. If this matter was not handled well, Qi Zheng himself might get into trouble.

Qi was deep in thought when suddenly a little boy about ten years old ran in from outside. The boy's head was a full circle bigger than that of an average person, his eyes were bulging, and there was saliva at the corners of his mouth. He was holding a stone and said loudly:

"Hoo, hoo, hoo, let's kill the spider!"

Qi was looking at the boy who was swinging stones. There were some new scars on the boy's body, and he didn't know where they came from.

Qi Zheng stopped him and said:

"Archie, there are no spiders here."

The little boy, Qi Zheng’s son Aqi, raised his head and looked at his father.

After a moment he laughed and said naively:

"Yes. Look, here, there, everywhere... So many red eyes... Hehe..."

Aqi pointed at Qi Zheng's head and said:

"There's one on Dad's head, too. There's a big spider lying there, drooling a lot."

Even though he had seen it many times, Qi Zheng still felt that the child's smile made him feel creepy. When he thought about the high-priced medicines prescribed by the doctor, it was simply a bottomless black hole. He looked at the gift list in his hand and was reluctant to return it. After thinking for a long time, he folded the gift list several times and put it in the drawer.

Not long after, Wanqing contacted Lid again and invited Lid to her place for tea.

There was clear tea in the gilded cup. As Lid drank, he heard Wan Qing say:

"My Lord has agreed. We don't ask what you want to discuss with Lord Celius, but we won't introduce you directly."

Wan Qing's attitude was very good. She didn't finish her words in one breath, nor did she drag them out too much. Instead, she conveyed Qi Zheng's words slowly and calmly:

"However, tomorrow my master will invite Lord Celius to our house for tea, during which he will mention your matter. Of course, my master will not say that he is entrusted by someone. He will only say that there is a foreigner who visits every day recently and wants to ask us to introduce him, but we did not agree. Then when the banquet is about to end, you will wait at the door and pretend that it is an accidental encounter. If nothing unexpected happens, Lord Celius should listen to what you want to say, and whether you can make him interested in you within a few minutes is your business."

Lid nodded, tapped the edge of the teacup with his fingers, and said with a smile:

"That's enough."

Wan Qing also nodded and refilled Lid's cup of tea. Coincidentally, there was a thunder outside. Wan Qing seemed a little scared and spilled some tea on the table.

"It's going to rain... It seems that this year's spring rains are coming more frequently than in previous years."

She glanced out the window, wiped the water stains on the table with a handkerchief, and used words to cover up her embarrassment:

"Do you have an umbrella?"

……

It rained heavily.

On the outskirts of Xiqin, a young man wearing a bamboo hat was walking with his head down and accidentally bumped into a farmer who was returning from the field with a hoe.

"Watch the road!"

The farmer scolded him in annoyance, but the young man raised his head slightly, and the pair of eyes under his bamboo hat just glanced at the farmer, which made the farmer shudder all over. He felt a bad feeling from the soles of his feet straight to the top of his head, and he almost lost his balance.