Chapter 204: Respond Leisurely
Translator: Transn Editor: Transn
Everything is gone after death!
Zheng Xi’s death was beyond everyone’s expectation. That included not only the fact of his death, but also the reason of his death.
A Garrison of the city was poisoned to death within three months of him taking office!
It was a rare fantastic story in even the whole Great Jin, let alone in Jiang City.
“Terrifying! Really terrifying! How can an imperial court official be killed like that in just three months! Where is the justice? Where is the fair?”
Prince Ning Mansion, the Capital City.
The angry growl spread all over the Prince’s Mansion. All of the servants and maids shrunk and lowered their heads, they even didn’t dare to breathe heavily but murmured in their hearts, “I wonder which unlucky guy has irritated His Royal Highness. It seems that His Royal Highness is going to kill him. How terrible!”
“Your Royal Highness, that’s really odd. I think we’d better give the matter some further thought and discuss it later!”
“Give the matter some further thought and discuss it later? Since Zheng Xi has already been killed, is there any sense in giving further thoughts and discussing it later?”
Prince Ning had a handsome face and was of a great stature. Even when he was calm, an august temperament would be revealed from his eyes and brows. However, now that he was angry, that temperament became more and more imposing. The entire lobby was covered by a surgent rage. The people in the lobby could only keep quiet out of fear.
But that intellectual in white who suggested Prince Ning give the matter some further thought and to discuss it later was perfectly calm and collected. He turned a blind eye and coldly looked on until Prince Ning gradually cooled down, “Your Royal Highness, Zheng Xi has been poisoned to death by a peculiar venom. Even if we want to investigate right now, we have no way to start!”
“Have no way to start? Do you think I’m that stupid? The one who will earn the most profit from Zheng Xi’s death has is the most suspicious. Go and arrest those who are most likely to earn a profit and investigate them one by one. I don’t believe I still won’t obtain any results!”
“It’s infeasible to do so!”
“Infeasible? Why?” Prince Ning roared, like an irritated male lion.
“Zheng Xi’s death benefits Zhou Bao, the commander of the Navy of Jiang City, the most. But it’s difficult for us to cope with him.
“Well, he’s just a commander of the Navy of Jiang City, how hard can he be to cope with?”
“Your Royal Highness, Zhou Bao is not only a commander of the Navy of Jiang City but also an Outer Core Elder of the Wu Family in Yunzhou. What’s more, he has a close relations.h.i.+p with w.a.n.g She.” the intellectual in white said gently, “Most important of all, his own strength is no weaker than a common Level Seven expert. The Level Seven expert Dragon Granny of the Meng Family in Ningzhou was bombarded to death by him in public. Your Royal Highness may have heard about it before.”
“It’s him!” Prince Ning changed his expression, then he astringed his flaming Qi Power, “Yeah, I remember, it’s him, the commander of the Navy of Jiang City.”
Junior Leopard didn’t have many opportunities to push himself forward in Jianghu. To be exact, the only resounding affair he made was to slay Dragon Granny with a Level Four cultivation when he came to Jiang City. Such an example had never been heard of in the martial arts world, thus he was famous in Jianghu till now. However, a man in Jianghu would remember more firmly that he was an Elder of the Wu Family and had a close relations.h.i.+p with w.a.n.g She. As for his identification of a commander of the Navy of Jiang City, people used to ignore it as it was really not worth mentioning.
And so did Prince Ning. But he was reminded by his scholar who named Yuanzhi.
“So Yuanzhi, in your opinion, Zheng Xi’s death benefits Zhou Bao the most. Will he be the murderer?”
“In a sense, he has enough reason to kill Zheng Xi due to his profit being rooted so deeply in Jiang City. The Navy of Jiang City has already been in his control. He has occupied 60% of the whole profit in Luo River. Zheng Xi’s office violated much of his interest. Yet he still has little possibility to be the murderer.”
“What’s the reason?”
“According to our information, Zhou Bao wasn’t in Jiang City when Zheng Xi took his office. He left for Shuzhou and didn’t come back until the day prior to Zheng Xi’s death. When he came back, he didn’t even know that the Garrison of Jiang City had been changed.”
“Shuzhou?” Prince Ning raised his eyebrows, “Did he go to Shuzhou for the Golden Goose Cup?”
“I suppose yes. But he returned without accomplis.h.i.+ng anything, just like most people.”
“To get to Yuezhou from Zhonghe City, Shuzhou is the only way. Do you think…”
“That’s impossible. It takes at least 6 months when someone goes to Shuzhou from Zhonghe City and then goes to South Yuezhou State from Shuzhou. But he only left two months before, that’s just enough to go to Shuzhou from Zhonghe Prefecture and then go back.”
“What if he has a swift horse or possesses an advanced Lightness Skill? Don’t forget, though he’s only Level Four, he has killed a Level Seven expert before.”
From Yuezhou to Zhonghe Prefecture, only two horses in Great Jin can finish such a tour in just two months. It’s impossible for us to not know anything if there’s one more such horse in the world. As for Lightness Skills…” Yuanzhi paused and smiled, “Your Royal Highness, you yourself as an expert, are clearer than me that Lightness Skills have a limit. In those days when Xue Wuya was chased by Lu Shaoyou to thousands of miles away, he spent three months escaping to Yunzhou from the West County of Yangzhou. The distance between South Yuezhou State and Zhonghe Prefecture is even longer than that. It’s impossible for him to do so.”
“So in your opinion, what happened in Yuezhou is none of his business?”
“What happened in Yuezhou is definitely none of his business. Moreover, I think, neither does Zheng Xi’s death.”
“Why are you so sure?”
“I’ve said that he had just been back the night before. Even if he schemed immediately, there was not enough time. What’s more, generally speaking, when faced with a new superior, no matter how he seems to be, you definitely will try to contact him first, right? Granted that he has a prejudice against you, you should try to alleviate the disparities. At last, if you find it’s impossible for you to ease your relation, you should spend time weighing the gains and losses and scheme carefully. How should he kill Zheng Xi directly, even before their further communication? More importantly, Zheng Xi was poisoned to death. Though Zhou Bao has some weird martial arts, I’ve never heard that he has skills in poisoning.” “The Wu Family in Yunzhou has kept their foothold in the world for 500 years, yet they have no expert with skills in poisoning. Additionally, Zheng Xi is a Level Five expert, the common venom cannot catch him. The venom Zheng Xi suffered is extremely rare and even Physician Sun couldn’t distinguish it. If he didn’t scheme it for long and deliberately planned, how could he find such rare venom?”
“Schemed it for long? Deliberately planned?” Prince Ning stared somewhere in the lobby, the intention to kill surged in his eyes, “You mean, it’s none of Jiang City’s business.”
“A small place like Jiang City cannot arrange such a composition!” Yuanzhi shook his head, “Neither could Zhou Bao, therefore…”
“Therefore, it’s one of my several nice brothers who did it!”
“Besides them, there’s no one else,” Yuanzhi said softly.
“Which one is the most likely to do so?”
“Everyone!”
“Should I just let it go?”
“Of course not! Since it has already involved other Royal Highnesses, we have no choice but to give the matter some further thought and discuss it later. Your Royal Highness, our urgent affairs are not to find out the ident.i.ty of the murderer, but to focus on Zhonghe City. Zheng Xi is just a n.o.body and the imperial court will take charge of his death. As for the position, we can send another person there, it’s not a big deal. What matters is the overall situation, Your Royal Highness. We can’t procrastinate on it.”
“Yes, your words make sense. What matters is the overall situation! We can’t procrastinate on the overall situation because of Zheng Xi. How rubbish he is!” Prince Ning nodded his head, “So Yuanzhi, in your opinion, is it possible for us to draw Zhou Bao over?”
“It was possible one year ago. But now, Zhou Bao has become an Outer Core Elder of Wu Family, and his ident.i.ty is a bit sensitive. So we’d better not to have designs on him.”
“Well, there is nothing else we can do.” Prince Ning sighed softly, “So who should be sent to Jiang City this time?”
“With so many followers, I’m sure Your Royal Highness must have your consideration of the most suitable person… So, Yuanzhi asks for my leave.”
Yuanzhi made an obeisance and then left.
“Your Royal Highness!” The other people in the lobby didn’t regain control of themselves until they saw Yuanzhi come out and disappear in the flowering shrub of the yard, “Your Royal Highness, Chen Yuanzhi…”
“His words make sense. Just do as he said.” Prince Ning waved his hands softly. He seemed to be a little tired.
…
…
“Your Excellency, how unexpected that Zheng Xi should die easily. His death profits us a lot!”
The navy barrack, Jiang City.
There was the excited voice of Zhu Ba.
It had been two months since Zheng Xi had died from poisoning. After the initial shock and various kinds of conjecture, all went quiet.
A Garrison appointed by the imperial court was poisoned to death in three months, that definitely would become a resounding affair. Zheng Xi was not only a subordinate of Prince Ning, he was also an imperial court official. Such accidents really shamed the imperial court. Therefore the ministry of penalty organized the smartest official team of Investigative Bureau to investigate the matter in Jiang City.
As the one who won the most benefit from Zheng Xi’s death, Junior Leopard was regarded as a key suspect. But as what Chen Yuanzhi had a.n.a.lyzed before in Prince Ning’s Mansion, the Investigative Bureau disregarded Junior Leopard after the investigation and a.n.a.lysis.
So Junior Leopard was free to solve the problem of River Heart Island.
He had a presentiment that he may lose the position of being a commander of the Navy of Jiang City before long. Though Zheng Xi had died, the imperial court would send someone else to take the office. Moreover, from the full fury when Prince Ning broke in, he must be going to send another person to replace Zheng Xi. Now that Li Yuan had been transferred, it was impossible for him to be a commander of the Navy of Jiang City since he had lost his backer in Jiang City.
But it didn’t mean that he would just give up his interest in River Heart Island.
Zheng Xi’s death earned him precious time to manipulate everything.
At first, the permanent status of the dock of Broken Dragon Beach in River Heart Island has put on the agenda again. Previously, because of Junior Leopard’s might, no one dared to have any such designs on the dock. However, they had always cast their covetous eyes on it.
When he came back from the Garrison Mansion, Junior Leopard began to loosen his control on the dock. He also asked the shopkeeper Zhao to add fuel to the fire. Therefore within one day, all of the well-informed people in Jiang City knew that Junior Leopard and the Navy of Jiang City were about to give up the dock.
Actually, it wasn’t beyond people’s expectations. Prince Ning’s mighty intervention informed them all that Junior Leopard couldn’t remain here for long. Since it was so, he’d better rake it in before he left.
But little did they expect that while Junior Leopard loosened control, he didn’t give up the benefit, rather he took complete charge of River Heart Island another way.
The right of controlling River Heart Island’s dock was delivered to the chamber of commerce in Jiang City from the Navy of Jiang City. The chamber of commerce in Jiang City bought a centurial right to use the dock, as is done in the other docks of Jiang City. The only difference was that a new name, Anyuan Store, appeared in the core member list of the chamber of commerce in Jiang City.
Anyuan Store!
It was named by Junior Leopard. In the third day after Zheng Xi’s death, a small warehouse was quietly opened in Jiang City. It started the business without any sound and no one knew it was Junior Leopard that opened it. Additionally, no one knew that the owners were all of the soldiers of the Navy of Jiang City. In this small warehouse, Junior Leopard had a 15% share, the leaders of the Navy of Jiang City, such as w.a.n.g Cheng, Jiang Xiao, Zhu Ba, w.a.n.g Datong and Yuan Long, each occupied a 5% share, and the rest share belonged to other soldiers of the Navy of Jiang City. As a matter of fact, except for Junior Leopard, w.a.n.g Cheng and the rest of the leaders, no one knew about it, including all of the soldiers of the Navy of Jiang City.
This news was not announced until Zhu Ba got married five days later when each of the influencers in Jiang City began to learn that there was one more compet.i.tor vying for a share of Jiang City’s huge interest. More importantly, this compet.i.tor was much stronger than most. And till now, they figured out why Junior Leopard would willingly loosen his control towards the dock of River Heart Island and even towards the warehouse. Basically, he had just transferred the interest to the right hand from the left.
And this transfer changed the whole situation a lot.
Anyuan Store was only a warehouse and shop, just the same as any other shop which gained benefit from Jiang City’s River Heart Island. Compared with before, the only difference lay on the proportion. Previously, the Navy of Jiang City occupied the profit on their own, but now all shops could share the profit. After transferring, Junior Leopard had shared his joys and sorrows with several of the most powerful shops in Jiang City. They became a community of shared interests.
Being members of the Chamber of Commerce in Jiang City, they were all glad to have such a powerful partner. Since Anyuan Store was closely bound up to the Navy of Jiang City, which took control of the s.h.i.+pping and was faintly in connection with some powerful water bandits on Luo River, the Chamber of Commerce in Jiang City would definitely like to accept it. What a ready-made protective umbrella the Anyuan Store was.
What was more, Anyuan Store belonged not to Junior Leopard himself, but the whole Navy of Jiang City. A Navy Commander could be changed, but how could the people of the Navy of Jiang City all be changed?
Could it be possible?
Since that was the case, even if Junior Leopard wasn’t a commander of the Navy of Jiang City any longer, all of the navy in Jiang City would never let this situation be changed for the sake of their own benefits.
Thus accepting Anyuan Store meant adding insurance on Luo River for both themselves and the Chamber of Commerce in Jiang City. In this way, fear of attacks from behind would never appear when s.h.i.+ps of the Chamber of Commerce went to and from the docks to the warehouses of River Heart Island on Luo River.
That was the reason why Zhu Ba cried out in excitement in the barrack of the Navy of Jiang City. After all, after everything was done and affirmed, the people all earned huge benefits.
Additionally, Zhu Ba happened to be a bridegroom when he earned a great estate, of course, he became very excited.
“Shut up! I have told you untold times not to mention Zheng Xi. Zheng Xi’s death is none of our business!” Junior Leopard scolded him, but could not hide the smile on his face.
Because Zheng Xi was dead and the new Guard of Jiang City hadn’t a.s.sumed office yet, Junior Leopard had enough time to handle all of the affairs. If Zheng Xi had remained there, he wouldn’t be able to carry it on successfully. After all, being a Garrison of Jiang City, Zheng Xi did have a voice in the proprietorial right of the dock. What was more, he had come to Jiang City with Prince Ning’s mission. Taking control of River Heart Island would have helped Prince Ning’s mission a lot. But now, Zheng Xi had died and Junior Leopard could easily draw each powerful influence in Jiang City over and tie them up with profit. In this way, even if the new Garrison was here, he would lose his bearings.
Basically, a Garrison is only a military supervisor. If he b.u.t.ted too much into local affairs, he would violate a taboo.
“Your Excellency, you’re really going away?”
Though being scolded by Junior Leopard, Zhu Ba didn’t feel upset. On the contrary, his face was filled with a flattering smile.
“Your Admiral has written to me that he must leave Zhonghe Prefecture. He has asked me to leave with him.” When referring to this affair, Junior Leopard raised his eyebrows. He actually also felt very unsatisfied about it. But under such circ.u.mstances, he had no other choice. As soon as the new Admiral arrived here, the commander of the Navy of Jiang City had to be changed. There was no sense for him to prop up here. It was better to go back to follow Li Yuan than being a featherbed after the new arrival. With a mighty Admiral supporting him, the prospects would be brighter.”
“Then I’ll go with you, Your Excellency!” Zhu Ba shouted. It was not long since Junior Leopard came to Jiang City, but he gained the maximum benefits. All the time Junior Leopard regarded him with special attention. Even though he was reckless, he wasn’t an idiot. Junior Leopard was young, but his future was promising. There wasn’t any harm but some benefits for Zhu Ba to follow him. At least it was better than staying in Jiang City.
Who knew what the new Navy Commander looked like! If he couldn’t get along well with him, he’d better leave here as early as possible.
“What the h.e.l.l are you talking about? You know the heaven is high and the Emperor is far away in Jiang City. If I serve the general by his side, I’m only a common guard. There are so many people above me while few under me. You will earn no benefit if you follow me!” Junior Leopard glared at him and cursed, “Just stay in Jiang City honestly and help Commander w.a.n.g to take charge of this area. I promise that you’ll gain a lot.”
“Gain a lot? What kind of profit?” Hearing that he could gain a lot, Zhu Ba became very excited. He had become more and more ambitious because of Junior Leopard’s generosity, and wouldn’t be satisfied with ordinary goods as such.
“Shut up! Don’t make a fool of yourself here!” Junior Leopard waved his hand and said to w.a.n.g Cheng and the rest when he turned back. “Affairs in Jiang City are neither complex nor simple. We need to get along well with the bosses of the Chamber of Commerce in Jiang City and our county leader. As long as we obey the rules and don’t violate the laws in Jin, no one can run against us. As for those county leaders in Multiple Chain Dock, you’re more familiar with them than me. Therefore if the new commander does want to look for trouble, you know what to do!”
w.a.n.g Cheng and the rest all laughed tacitly, they answered together, “Brilliant, Your Excellency.”
…
The turbulent weather crashed its way through Luo River. It had rained for several days and that led to a flood tide. The water-level rose sharply. The water beside the River Heart Island rose almost to the port. These days, because of the turbulent river, the whole water transport in Jiang City was in a state of emergency. So there were many s.h.i.+pwrecks on Broken Dragon Beach. The ports on River Heart Island were all in a mess. But they were no longer Junior Leopard’s business now.
The Navy Commander would take office tomorrow, and he was going to leave today.
He wasn’t willing to a.s.sociate with the new commander. Actually, there was little he could change. The specific affairs of the Navy of Jiang City were in w.a.n.g Cheng’s charge. He was innocent.
He remembered clearly that Zheng Xi was poisoned by him, with the Demon Devil Needles and invisible venom.
…
It seemed to be complex while it was simple.
Junior Leopard didn’t want to give up his profit, neither did he want to clash with Zheng Xi. Therefore he employed a way which was the most extreme and direct, and, at the same time, the least suspicious.
Just as what Chen Yuanzhi a.n.a.lyzed in Prince Ning Mansion, no one thought he would kill his boss on the first day when he returned. That was illogical.
But Junior Leopard did. He did such a totally illogical thing. This earned him precious time to peel out his profit from the position of Navy Commander to the satisfaction of all.
Since what happened in Jiang City had come to a conclusion, there was no need for him to stay here, in case of new problems cropped up unexpectedly.
Li Yuan stated clearly in the letter to Junior Leopard that his transfer from Zhonghe City was not a flat regulation transfer but a promotion, he needed helpers. Junior Leopard performed well in Jiang City and presented formidable competence and leaders.h.i.+p. More importantly, Junior Leopard’s power was equal to a Level Seven expert now, so he appreciated Junior Leopard very much. Only if Junior Leopard went to follow him, would he definitely put Junior Leopard in an important position?
To that, Junior Leopard just dismissed it with a laugh. Though he was only Level Four, he had proved to the world that he could bombard a Level Seven expert to death, with a bitter fact.
No one would refuse to make a Level Seven expert his subordinate, no matter who he was. Li Yuan was no exception.
Actually, except for Li Yuan, he also received several secret letters, all of which were aimed at canva.s.sing him. Although he was an Outer Core Elder of the Wu Family, all of the influences which sent letters to canvas him were stronger than the Wu Family. They also provided better treatment than the Wu Family.
But Junior Leopard was not satisfied with it. The treatment and advantage they promised were indeed better and more than what the Wu Family provided. But if he deserted the Wu Family and swore allegiance to other schools for such petty favors, his reputation in Jianghu would be ruined. What was more, with Anyuan Store in his hand, he could gain more and more benefit in the future. Hence he didn’t care about their invitations at all.
“Well, Little Du, we’d better go to find Admiral Li to see if he’ll give me a surprise!”
Staring at the rus.h.i.+ng river, Junior Leopard softly touched the silvery fur on Little Du’s neck and said.