Chapter 37: Tempting the Miser into the Trap
"Really? If Your Imperial Highness likes the pearls Furong is wearing, then we can just trade!" Xia Furong"s eyes shone with delight.
"Really? You"re willing to exchange?" Yao Mowan maintained an innocent expression. Her pure eyes were filled with naivety.
"Of course Furong"s willing! Ahem… What Furong means is, if it can make Your Imperial Highness happy, of course Furong is willing suffer a little," said Xia Furong affectedly as she forced down the wild joy rising up inside her heart.
"That"s not good! Wan er never makes people suffer." Yao Mowan"s expression filled with disappointment and her gaze dimmed.
"Furong isn"t suffering at all! Furong"s perfectly willing to trade with Your Imperial Highness!" There was no way Xia Furong would allow Yao Mowan to change her mind and she immediately voiced her stance.
"Alright! Then just wait here. This empress will take off these garments and you can take them to take off the pearls before giving your pearls to this empress. How"s that?" Yao Mowan got up energetically.
"Of course it"s good!" Xia Furong nodded firmly and the greed in her eyes increased even more.
As Xia Furong watched Yao Mowan happily skip into her bedroom, she silently called her an imbecile. Anyone would be able to tell that the blood pearls on Yao Mowan"s outfit were over ten times more expensive than normal pearls. With this trade, she had earned at least a thousand taels in gold!
Once Yao Mowan walked out from the bedroom, Xia Furong immediately got up and walked over to her.
"I"ll give you this, but we did talk about this! You were the one that was willing, Wan er didn"t force you!" emphasized Yao Mowan seriously.
"Don"t worry, Your Imperial Highness. Even if King Chu comes, Furong would still say this." Xia Furong accepted the garments with feigned politeness, curtsied, then immediately left Guan Osprey Palace.
Once Xia Furong left, Yin Xue suddenly appeared next to Yao Mowan.
"Master, news has come from Ben Lei"s side." As Yin Xue spoke, she handed the message to Yao Mowan. Yao Mowan glanced in the direction Xia Furong had left in and her lips slowly curved into a meaningful smile. She then walked to the chaise lounge to sit down before opening the letter.
"Preposterous!" When Yao Mowan saw the contexts of the letter, her facial color rapidly changed and she rose to her feet indignantly. Her eyes instantly turned icy cold.
"Master?" Yin Xue had never seen Yao Mowan this angry before. In Yin Xue"s eyes, Yao Mowan has always seemed to possess the ability to control the entire situation. No matter how troublesome of an event occurred, she would always be able to deal with it skillfully and easily.
"We were actually robbed! It"s always been this empress robbing others, there has never been anyone that dared to rob this empress!" Yao Mowan handed the letter back to Yin Xue as she ground her teeth angrily.
Yin Xue took the letter and opened it. As she glanced through the contents, she couldn"t help but inhale sharply.
Reporting Master, the silk, tea leaves, and ironware that Yao Manifest Trade had been transporting towards the various nations the past three days have been simultaneously robbed, causing a loss of two thousand gold taels. This subordinate and the Elements were unable to find anything through investigation. All of Yao Manifest Trade"s caravans have now stopped transporting and are waiting for instructions. — Ben Lei.
Yin Xue"s brows furrowed as she read the letter, then she crushed the letter and it instantly turned to dust.
"Master, based on Yao Manifest Trade"s prestige in Mangyuan, normal bandits wouldn"t dare to provoke our caravans, but they"ve been robbed for three days in a row. This subordinate believes that someone is purposefully opposing Yao Manifest Trade!" Yin Xue looked towards Yao Mowan worriedly.
"Who would it be…" Yao Mowan lowered her eyes as she sank into thought. A bad feeling was rising up in her heart.
"This subordinate will write a letter to the Yin clan. Hopefully it"ll help," suggested Yin Xue.
"You can"t!" Yao Mowan immediately rejected the idea. Yin Xue looked towards Yao Mowan in confusion. She wanted to ask, but she stopped herself.
"If this consort"s guess isn"t wrong, the person behind this is very likely Chu Mobei, that pestilence demon! If it really is him, then the only reason he"s making such a large move is because he wants to disturb the waters and track down the person behind Yao Manifest Trade. Mowan is grateful that you"re willing to ask the Yin clan for help, but with Yin Xiong there, Chu Mobei will naturally find out about this. In this world, the only people that can make use of the Yin clan are you and Yin Xiong, so at that time, he"ll be able to easily guess that this empress is the owner of Yao Manifest Trade!" explained Yao Mowan.
"It was this subordinate"s carelessness. Then what do we do now?" Yin Xue was once again amazed by Yao Mowan"s farsightedness.
"Write back to Ben Lei. Starting today, stop all of Yao Manifest Trade"s caravans and have all business transactions take place in Mangyuan," said Yao Mowan solemnly, her eyes dark like whirlpools.
"But going on like this won"t be a solution?" Yin Xue was deeply worried. She was well aware of the fact that most of their income from Mangyuan came from trading with the other nations. In comparison, their local businesses didn"t earn that much.
"Have Ben Lei and the others endure this for the time being. This empress will naturally be able to come up with a way to deal with those hindersome bandits!" Yao Mowan suddenly thought of someone and her lips curved in a smile.
"Master… You couldn"t be planning to have Yan Nansheng make an appearance, right?" Yin Xue"s lips twitched. Thanks to Yao Mowan, whenever she entered Phoenix Feather Manor now, those servants would always look at her like she was a thief. As time pa.s.sed, she was no longer just an unwelcomed guest at Phoenix Feather Manor, she became the most unwelcomed guest at the manor.
"Items should be used to the fullest, people"s talents should also be used to the fullest. This empress simply thinks highly of him!" replied Yao Mowan indignantly.
"Master is wise…" Yin Xue nodded firmly. Yan Nansheng probably sincerely never wanted Yao Mowan to think highly of him!
That night, the full moon hung high in the sky, casting a silver shine on the earth. In Harmony Palace, Xia Furong was personally supervising Ah Zi and Ah Bi as they took the pearls off her garments to trade it for the red pearls from Yao Mowan"s garments.
After that earlier lesson, Ah Zi and Ah Bi were extremely careful with the pearls in fear that they would break them. These pearls that seemed incomparably valuable in Xia Furong"s eyes were nothing but fatal, poisonous snakes to Ah Zi and Ah Bi. If they were even the slightest bit careless, it may cause their deaths.
"Yao Mowan, that idiot. She"s actually using such precious blood pearls to trade with this princess? With this exchange, this consort can earn at least a thousand taels of gold! With these one thousand taels, this princess will be able to remake the prince consort"s residence!" Xia Furong propped up her cheek as she daydreamed about the luxurious life she would soon be able to enjoy and her lips hooked in delight.
"Princess, the a.s.sistant minister of the Chu Ministry of Rites came by today, saying that King Chu has set you and the prince consort"s departure date on the propitious day that"s ten days later." Ah Zi suddenly recalled about this matter and reported it.
"There"s only ten days…" muttered Xia Furong disappointedly.
"Princess, didn"t you want to return earlier?" Ah Zi looked towards Xia Furong in confusion.
"How could this princess have known that Yao Mowan was this easy to trick? Wouldn"t it be better to fish up more money from her? You two had better be careful. If you guys break even one pearl, this princess will break your heads!" Xia Furong"s black eyes lit up even more as she looked at the blood-colored pearls in front of her.
Ah Zi and Ah Bi immediately started concentrating with everything they had to carefully sew on the pearls. They didn"t dare to speak anymore.
The next day, Yao Mowan used the same method to trade the rainbow-colored scales on her garments for the gold scales on Xia Furong"s garments. With this, Xia Furong had stopped bothering Ye Junqing two days in a row.
"Yesterday, someone from the Ministry of Rites came to tell this prince to get ready to head back to Bactria after nine days. Have you thought of something yet?" Even without Xia Furong following him around, Ye Junqing"s mood was still very grave.
"Why does Mowan have to think of a way?" asked Yao Mowan in disagreement.
"Two thousand taels of gold! These two thousand taels of gold already includes the deed for this prince"s residence!" Ye Junqing gritted his teeth as he lifted two fingers. The unspoken implication was that two thousand taels of gold was his limit.
"Prince had better go get ready, lest you miss the auspicious hour." Yao Mowan remained unmoved.
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Credits: Translated by Chiyomira
[Chiyomira"s Corner]
Enjoy~