The Demon-Slaying Grandmaster

Chapter 128 The Gentleman on the Beam Has No Capital
Chen Jun thought about it, then tentatively offered a price that wasn't too high, saying, "My Lord, how about 7 taels?"

As soon as Li Jingxiao heard it, he knew that the price was 10% to 20% lower than the normal market price.

After all, this is the inner city and the west of the city.

A house of the same size and architecture in South City might only cost 40,000 to 50,000 silver coins.

But in the west of the city where the powerful and wealthy are concentrated, there are many princes' palaces, dukes' palaces, and marquis' palaces.

Doubling is normal.

Li Jingxiao didn't want to owe Chen Jun a favor just for ten or twenty thousand silver coins.

Besides, Li Jingxiao was not stupid. He knew very well how much a favor of 10,000 or 20,000 taels of silver would mean.

He smiled and said, "Master Chen, I am not short of money, don't worry that I can't afford it."

Chen Jun was stunned for a moment, then smiled bitterly.

This implies that if Li Jingxiao is willing to pay the market price, then he doesn't have to owe anyone a favor.

As for the Chen family's increasingly weak situation, Li Jingxiao doesn't care.

Not only was he unwilling to be Chen Jun's friend, it was even more impossible for him to be his backer.

Chen Jun sighed, "My Lord, how about 8 taels, plus three Nine Flower Jade Dew Pills?"

The initial price of Jiuhua Yulu Pills was 100 taels of silver.

At that time, Li Jingxiao thought that the price was quite unfair.

20 taels of silver were enough to cover the annual expenses of a small landlord's family of five.

Later, it was sold for 500 taels, and Xia Shouzhong and the other three eunuchs felt that they had made a profit.

Even now, some people are in urgent need of it to save their lives and offer 800 or even 1,000 taels of silver, but still cannot buy it.

Of course this is an exception.

But in the eyes of truly powerful people, in order to save their lives, they would not hesitate to give out not only 1 taels, but even 1 taels.

Moreover, as Li Jingxiao became more and more famous, the elixirs in his hands became more and more famous in the outside world.

Especially on the night of New Year's Eve, Jinyiwei commander Zhou Boyi was poisoned by a Gu, and everyone thought he was beyond saving.

But Li Jingxiao relied on Tongxidilong Pills and Exorcism Talisman to force the poisonous insect out of Zhou Boyi's body bit by bit.

He also used Tianwang Heart Protecting Pill, Tianxin Detoxification Pill and Jiuhua Yulu Pill to help Zhou Boyi recover quickly.

Although Zhou Boyi is now unemployed at home, he does not seem to have any health problems when he goes out to visit friends.

It can be seen that the elixir in Li Jingxiao's hand does have the effect of saving lives and healing the wounded.

Although Chen Jun was not qualified to attend the New Year's Eve party, he had heard about this from his colleagues and friends in the past few days.

There is a rumor among officials and nobles that as long as the person is not dead, they can be saved by using Tianwang Heart Protecting Pills and Jiuhua Yulu Pills together.

The two remaining Tianwang Heart Protecting Pills and Tianxin Detoxification Pills in Zhou Boyi's hand are now very precious.

Even if the prince or the relative asked for it, Zhou Boyi would ignore it.

Zhou Boyi probably knew in his heart that although he had retired from the position of commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard.

But the emperor would most likely not allow others to oppress him, otherwise who would be willing to follow him.

Naturally, he was even more reluctant to sell those two pills.

As a result, the outside world became more and more eager to pursue the elixir in Li Jingxiao's hands.

Li Jingxiao thought for a moment, nodded, and said, "It's fine to give you three pills, but if the Nine Flower Jade Dew Pills are not stored properly, their effectiveness will be greatly reduced in three months.

From now on, if the Chen family needs anything, they can come to me until they have used up all three."

Chen Jun felt it was inappropriate at first, as it was equivalent to handing over the life-saving matter to Li Jingxiao.

But on second thought, this is equivalent to visiting the client three times.

With more contact, outsiders might mistakenly think that I am friends with the Marquis just because they see me often going to the Marquis's Mansion.

So Chen Jun quickly agreed.

Li Jingxiao left Chen's house and counted the money in his hand as he walked home.

The Jia family expressed their gratitude several times, and not counting the gifts, the total amount of silver they gave was more than 8 taels.

The gifts Lin Ruhai gave included three thousand taels of silver and three hundred taels of gold ingots.

When he was promoted to earl and marquis, the gifts he received from nobles and officials in the capital totaled more than 20,000 silver coins.

However, all this money went into the family treasury.

It is managed by Qin Keqing.

The 30,000 taels of silver embezzled by the three managers of the Xing'an Earl's Mansion over the past ten years have been recovered.

He forced Dingcheng Earl Qiu Kaiwen to return 2 taels of silver.

He also forced Li's concubine to pay 1 taels of silver, which was the money he had embezzled from the Xing'an Earl's Mansion.

After a rough calculation, it seems to be only more than 60,000 taels.

Li Jingxiao also thought that if he could buy the neighbor's house on the right, he would no longer have to worry about not having enough space to live in.

Since Li Jingxiao had this idea, he had to consider the issue of money again.

The Left Pacification Division had a military strength of one thousand households, which meant food and wages for 1120 people.

But Li Jingxiao only recruited less than 100 people.

Every month, the empty salaries consumed 80% of the food wages of 1120 people.

There are more than one hundred people in the Left Pacification Office, but each of them receives only a share of the silver every month.

But each person got double the food.

With food in hand, people will naturally not panic and their morale will naturally be high.

After a few months, Li Jingxiao had lost more than 9 taels of silver in the form of unpaid wages.

In a year, there are at least 20,000 to 30,000 taels of silver.

Even if someone reports or impeaches me.

Li Jingxiao only needed to say one sentence: How can we use common sense to deal with evil spirits? This was enough to shut everyone up.

A talisman costs 10 taels of silver, and a Nine-Flower Jade Dew Pill costs 500 taels of silver.

Li Jingxiao can really talk nonsense as much as he wants. The Zuo Zhenfu Division spends no more than 20,000 to 30,000 taels of silver every year.

Whether it was fifty, sixty, or even one hundred thousand taels, he could always find a suitable reason to ensure that there were no loopholes in the accounts.

By then, the people in the Ministry of Revenue might even hate those who impeached Li Jingxiao.

This forced them to spend tens of thousands of taels of silver every year.

Moreover, if the Ministry of Revenue did not give the money, Li Jingxiao was brave enough to ask the retired emperor and the emperor for it.

As for salary, the third-rank official received a monthly salary of 200 strings of cash and 150 dan of millet.

He was the Shang Hujun (a third-rank honorary officer).

General Huaihua (a third-rank military official).

Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Palace Front Department (third-rank military officer)

The four official positions of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, from the fourth-rank Zhenfushi to the Xing'an Marquis, had a combined monthly salary of 900 strings of cash.

Although officials with official titles and honors have no real power, their salaries are real.

This was also one of the means used by the emperor to win over court officials.

The most exaggerated was the Song Dynasty, when Bao Heizi held more than a dozen official positions.

A salary of 2 strings of cash a year is a truly super high salary.

However, the money and food from the salary were also managed by Madam Qin Keqing.

After this calculation, he found that there were only less than 7 taels of silver in his small treasury.

Li Jingxiao couldn't help but curse in his heart, the houses in the capital were indeed too expensive.

No wonder the ancients said, "Living in the capital is not easy."

Even for some fourth- and fifth-rank officials, it is not difficult to support their families, but it is indeed difficult to live in a better place.

Li Jingxiao was embarrassed to ask his wife for money, lest Qin Keqing think that he was asking her, the wife of the first wife, to give money to the wife of the second wife to buy a house.

There was a shortfall of more than ten thousand taels. Li Jingxiao pondered carefully and suddenly thought of Ma Dao Po.

Even the witches and charlatans in the capital who, like Ma Dao Po, deceived people and used evil magic to harm people were targets for robbery.

Moreover, Ma Dao Po has been here for so many days, but no one has discovered any power behind her.

When she returned home and entered the hall, Qin Keqing hurriedly stood up and took off her man's cloak with her own hands.

She took his hand and asked, "Sir, how did the talk go?"

Li Jingxiao smiled and nodded, but he did not rush to tell his wife about his plan to buy the house on the right as well.

Whether they want to sell or not is another matter, but you can’t force them to leave, right?
He said to Qin Keqing, "It has been negotiated. The Chen family is indeed a family of officials who have served in Beijing for five generations.

There is also a smaller house in the west of the city, which I will move out of within 10 days.

Tomorrow I will go to see Eunuch Xia and ask the craftsmen from the Imperial Household Department to start work in 10 days.

We will try to renovate the house over there within a month.

When Yuanchun arrives, you two can stay on each side, so that the servants won't stay together and cause trouble."

Qin Keqing was overjoyed.

Although he felt that no matter how high Yuanchun's family background was, there was no fundamental conflict of interest between him, the eldest daughter-in-law, and her.

So Qin Keqing felt that she and Yuanchun should get along well.

But servants like to gossip and compare with each other, which is bound to cause trouble.

Of course, Qin Keqing also knew that her husband was worried that the two daughters-in-law would quarrel.

Just separate the room into a main room and a second room, and let each person live on one side.

He hurriedly asked, "Sir, how much does the Chen family want? I will have someone prepare the silver tomorrow."

Li Jingxiao took his wife's hand, sat beside him and said, "Okay, the money in the treasury belongs to the eldest wife and you are in charge.

The money for buying the house was paid by my husband himself."

When Qin Keqing heard this, she was secretly happy, but she looked at Li Jingxiao with resentment on her face.

"The official's private money seems to be quite a lot."

Li Jingxiao laughed heartily, "Without this ability, how can you support two wives and children?"

Qin Keqing smiled. It seemed that her husband was indeed good at making money.

The couple tacitly stopped talking about this topic and started talking about how to plan the house on the left.

The most important thing is to open a door in the backyards of the two houses so that the female family members will not have to go out of the main door when moving back and forth in the future.

As we chatted, it was already past 9 o'clock in the evening.

Li Jingxiao embraced his wife and began to move, but Qin Keqing blushed and whispered, "My lord, I have been exhausted all day. Please have mercy on me."

Li Jingxiao shook his head helplessly. Their sexual intercourse had indeed become more frequent these days.

It is normal for a new daughter-in-law to be unable to bear it.

Fortunately, I can compete with Qin Keqing every morning and gain more experience.

He ordered Baozhu and Ruizhu to prepare foot washing water and toiletries, and then fell asleep with his arms around Qin Keqing.

At around 1 a.m., Li Jingxiao suddenly opened his eyes.

He quietly took his wife's arm away from himself.

They got up and walked out of the bedroom quietly. Baozhu and Ruizhu also slept soundly tonight.

It seems that Qin Keqing and her two servants have indeed been lacking sleep these days.

After changing into a nightgown and leaving the main room, Li Jingxiao flashed and flew onto the roof.

After seeing the terrain clearly, he used his lightness skills to move silently across the houses.

After a while, it landed on a big tree outside Ma Dao Po's ancestral temple and quietly watched the movements in the temple.

After waiting for half an hour and making sure that everyone in the temple was asleep, he flew over and landed on the eaves of the main house.

One of them flipped over and hung upside down on the beam on the eaves.

He reached out his hand to the window, gently poked a hole, and looked inside.

Soon I saw a figure lying on the bed, sleeping soundly.

No need to guess, the person sleeping in the bedroom on the left side of the main house must be Ma Dao Po.

He turned around and landed on the ground, put his hand on the door, released his true energy, and quietly pulled the bolt open through the crack in the door.

Li Jingxiao quietly pushed open the door, sneaked into the bedroom, and tapped Ma Dao Po's neck with his finger magic.

This witch won’t wake up for several hours.

Without any scruples, Li Jingxiao quickly found a compartment hidden behind the portrait and embedded in the wall.

But when he opened it, he found there was no silver or banknotes inside.

It's an old book.

Fortunately, as his internal strength became more and more profound, Li Jingxiao's eyesight also continued to improve.

Even in the pitch-black room, for Li Jingxiao, it was not much different from dusk.

I opened the booklet and took a few glances, but soon became disappointed.

This is a book that records the Five Ghosts Curse, Paper Figures, Bone-shattering Spell, Soul-saving Spell, Opening the Pot Door and Closing the Wealth Door, and Yin-shooting Arrows, among other unorthodox techniques.

These unorthodox techniques are considered unique skills for ordinary people.

But to Li Jingxiao, it was like chicken ribs.

If you really want to learn, Maoshan actually has a lot of these unorthodox techniques.

If you want to know how to restrain evil ways and break evil magic, you naturally have to understand, or even be familiar with, the evil arts.

Maybe I have to learn it myself first to be able to crack it better.

However, Li Jingxiao thought about it and decided to learn the Five Ghosts Curse and Paper Man Technique.

In the future, when I encounter someone who I cannot deal with openly, I will need to use these unconventional methods.

In just a few minutes, I mastered both spells (1/100).

Only then did Li Jingxiao put the secret book back into the compartment.

But then I thought, since they are quick to learn anyway, I might as well learn all the other spells.

After more than ten minutes, he put the secret book back and continued to search the house.

It took a whole incense stick of time before they discovered that Ma Dao Po's money was actually placed in a wooden box in the house.

Damn it, should I say that Ma Daopo is too careless, or that I am thinking too complicatedly?

From the box, they found more than a dozen silver notes worth one hundred taels, and more than three hundred taels of silver in small change and ingots.

Li Jingxiao was about to leave when he suddenly thought, was he being cheated by such a small amount of money?
Sure enough, the floor tiles under the box containing silver and banknotes made a different sound when they were knocked.

When I pried it open, I instantly felt that the floor tiles were very heavy.

Holding it in my hand, it feels like each floor tile weighs at least two hundred taels of gold, and twelve tiles weigh 2400 taels of gold.

He took out a short knife and chopped it lightly, and golden light immediately appeared. Li Jingxiao cursed with a smile.

This witch is quite clever, but Li Jingxiao has seen these tricks in many TV dramas.

He collected all the gold nuggets and looked at Ma Dao Po who was sleeping.

Before the Chinese New Year, he was still thinking about killing Ma Dao Po and gaining experience from those in the capital who were doing the same evil things as her.

But after gaining experience from the early morning duel with his wife and two maids, Li Jingxiao's thoughts changed again.

If there were no such evil ways and sects in the capital, Li Jingxiao could easily guess that his status in the court would decline greatly.

Even if you clean up the capital city completely, the next person to be hostile and guarded against will be you.

You can say that Li Jingxiao harbored enemies for his own benefit, or that he aided and abetted the tyrant, but if a man does not work for himself, he will be punished by heaven and earth.

(End of this chapter)