Chapter Six: Never An Ordinary Person
Most young people in Changling knew that Xie Changsheng of the Xie Family was the best at spending money, and the family even had Xie Rou restrain him.
In terms of spending money, if Xie Changsheng were to say he was the best, no one would dare say they were better.
In the bone chilling white hair wind, Xie Changsheng grew silent. He thought of the first time he met Ding Ning. Back then, he had been spending recklessly.
“If they say he is dead, do not believe … have me spend all the money in his wallet?”
How much money would a wine shop youth have?
Xie Changsheng narrowed his eyes and slowly looked up at Shen Yi who held a wallet in his hands. But he did not go to take it. “Honestly, he really left the words for me, and not my father who had you come? To make me spend to forget that he is dead?”
“The meaning of a past wind means that someone from the past comes with the wind,” Shen Yi looked at Xie Changsheng and inexplicably said nonsense.
Xie Changsheng stilled, and visibly trembled. The last time he exchanged letters with Ding Ning, the man had left the words for past wind at the end. He had been confused, but now, Shen Yi was standing in the wind, looking at him and telling him the meaning of the two words of his friend.
Shen Yi looked at him and said, “Senior Sect Brother told me to tell you this, and I did not understand before. But when I saw you here today … did Senior Sect Brother, before he left Changling, sense that I will come see you at this time?”
No one could really perceive the future. But the other may have predicted that he could not help coming to the Donghu border. As to the person from the past coming with the wind … at the Donghu border, the white hair wind was constant once winter came, and this was not predicting the future.
If Ding Ning had planned beforehand, then what was in the wallet?
Xie Changsheng did not speak. He took the wallet that Shen Yi held tightly, and opened it. There was nothing inside that truly represented money, or any gems. There were only some very old jade pieces, leather or silk paper, all stamped with special marks, or sealed with lead.
When Xie Changsheng saw these items, he gasped. Because the temperature of the white hair wind here was so low, his gasp caused him to cough violently, and his face twisted.
For most people, these things were worthless, because most people did not know what these were. But as the only son of the richest family of Guanzhong, he knew these were vouchers.
Banks and casinos were some of the oldest businesses in the world. Many unseen banks and casinos were not famous, but very old, and had acc.u.mulated a large amount of wealth in absolute secret. Especially some banks who were not rich themselves, but they stored some things for people. Out of secrecy, even they did not know what treasures were stored in their own warehouses.
Because of some business contacts, Xie Changsheng knew almost all the public banks and underground banks, but there were some banks that even the Xie Family had not worked with. Not because those banks were not high ranking, but because they did not accept ordinary business. Only when the amount reached a level, and the amount each year was astounding would the banks manage it.
In other words, while the Xie Family was rich … they could not afford such a price. So even without the phrase, just from seeing these things, he was certain that this was not his father’s means of appeasing him. Each of the vouchers in the wallet represented astounding wealth. The wealth here could even be greater than the Xie Family.
Xie Changsheng coughed violently, and pressed the cold wallet to his chest, against his skin. During this process, his movements were slow, and he did not speak, but there was a storm inside of him.
During the past reformation, after Emperor Yuanwu took the throne, no rich businessman could acc.u.mulate such wealth. Only the old powers and n.o.bility from before the reforms could possess wealth more astounding than a dynasty’s treasury. And those old n.o.bility and powers were the best at hiding wealth. So this could only come from the former old powers and old n.o.bility.
Old n.o.bility of Changling?
So you were never an ordinary person.
Xie Changsheng sensed the coldness that seeped from the wallet to his skin. He shook his head in slight self-mockery, and slowly thought.
Then he raised his head and looked at Shen Yi with some coldness. He asked seriously, “Not only do I represent the Xie Family, your Shen Family is not small. I want to hear you answer what you asked me before.”
The extreme cold made people’s thoughts slow. Shen Yi thought for a moment before recalling what the question was. He spoke, “Senior Sect Brother had Ye Zhengnan came to ask me this before leaving. My answer was that he was my senior sect brother for a day, and would be so for my life, regardless whether it was him or Eldest Sect Brother Zhang Yi.”
“Senior Sect Brother for a day, and for a lifetime. You help those close to you and not the correct, just like me?” Xie Changsheng smiled with slight scorn and said, “you really do not fear dragging down your father?”
“Adults will make their choices, and if they did not agree with my actions, the family would have broken off their connection way back before I did anything,” Shen Yi looked at him and said, “so I only need to consider my own ideas.”
Xie Changsheng’s slightly mocking smile disappeared. He looked at Shen Yi for a long time in the wind. Then he bowed to Shen Yi and said, “I always thought that there was nothing good about you, and you were average, and you liked my sister. I thought you did not match my sister, a toad wanting to eat swan meat. So I disliked you all this time. But today, I have learned that you are not all good for nothing, and there are traits worthy of admiration. No wonder Cave Master Xue wanted you as his last student. I was stupid. If I had known before, I would have wanted to join. I wonder if he would have accepted me.”
Shen Yi unconsciously returned the bow. He thought of Xue w.a.n.gxu, of Ding Ning and Zhang Yi. He choked up and could not speak. “I do not know what you think.”
Xie Changsheng sorted out his clothes, and tied the black scarf tighter around his collar. Then he slowly said, “Regardless of what other people are certain about, I did not believe that he is dead, especially after hearing of his arrangements, I feel even less that he is dead.”
Shen Yi’s hard warmed, but his gaze remained dim.
“The fish are about to come out. You managed to make it in time for a big banquet.”
Xie Changsheng turned around, and the wild wind coming at him caused him to narrow his eyes. He was the best at spending money. He never felt spending money like water flowing was something wrong. But how to spend this astounding sum was a problem.
If even Zheng Xiu feels that you are dead, but you are not, then where did you go?
He slowly thought in his mind.
**
“You were never an ordinary person. Everyone in the world thinks you are dead, and no one expected you at my place.”
In an empty tent, an old woman who was carefully making b.u.t.ter tea looked up at the young man silently sitting in front of her and said.
Everything in the tent was simple, and the tent would look ordinary in any part of the plains. Yet outside this tent, in the cold wind and stormy snow, there were countless tents. Her tent was at the center of the tents.
This old woman was the queen dowager, the real power of the Wuzhi.
“The arrival of the ancestral mountain sword manuals and yourself show your sincerity, but Ding Ning, why do you not worry that I will kill you?”
The old woman smiled kindly, and poured a cup of hot tea into the bowl of the young person facing her. The young man sitting opposite her was Ding Ning.
“Why do you feel that I will agree to your conditions, that you are so certain I will work and act with you, especially after you did not conceal to me that you are the heir to the Nine Death Silkworm?” she said before Ding Ning could speak.
“Because of some things from the past.” Ding Ning raised the slightly salty and bitter tea, slowly drinking as he responded.
“Things from the past?” The old woman stilled.