Di Ming

Chapter 112 Lord Ning

"Three hundred and eighty taels of gold, over six thousand eight hundred taels of silver, three hundred ordination certificates, over one thousand strings of copper coins, over eight hundred bolts of Songjiang cotton cloth, over three hundred bolts of silk, over fifty bolts of Suzhou brocade..."

"More than 3,000 shi of millet, more than 2,000 jin of dried meat, more than 120 dan of salt, more than 400 jin of gunpowder, more than 1,000 jin of copper, more than 5,000 jin of pig iron, more than 100 jin of raw lacquer..."

Seeing this, Ning Caiwei felt much more at ease.

Little Tiger, our initial capital problem is completely solved!
Excluding supplies, the gold, silver, and ordination certificates alone are estimated to be worth 14,000 taels of silver!

These reserves of supplies are more than enough to cope with any blockade outside the mountains.

The essential salt alone is enough to feed thousands of people for six years!
Could the government's inspectors and soldiers really maintain a six-year blockade? They couldn't even hold out for six days in the mountains.

Besides, many important figures within a hundred miles need the Green-Headed Monk's presence. Why take the suppression of bandits and thieves so seriously?

The bandits' warehouse was well hidden, located in a cave behind the Hall of Righteousness.

Besides money and supplies, Green-Headed Monk also wrote about the important figures who had colluded with him.

Among the names Zhu Yin was familiar with were Wang Chaoque, Zhang Shixun, and Liu Yuanchu.

There was a long list of unfamiliar names, including Chunhua Inspector, Jiangning County Clerk, Jiangning County Chief Constable, Right Thousand-Household Commander of the Prefectural Army Guard, and Thousand-Household Commander of the Xiaoling Guard Horse Herding Office, among others.

There were also some local gentry.

These people would tip off the government whenever they went into the mountains to suppress bandits.

If it's to deliver a message, send someone disguised as a hunter to shoot arrows with messages tied to them into the mountain village.

If you want to hire Green-Headed Monk to do dirty work, you must be someone you know well and know the way. Don't take jobs from other people to avoid falling into his trap.

Of course, acquaintances outside the mountains wouldn't easily contact the Green-Headed Monk. They wouldn't make contact unless there was dirty work to be done or the government wasn't cracking down on them.

Not to mention other places, even in Chunhua Township, the three major families had all hired Green-Headed Monk to do dirty work.

Three years ago, the Liu family hired Green-Headed Monk to send men down the mountain to wipe out the entire family of the owner of the Soft Jade Pavilion in Chunhua Town.

Then the Wang family monopolized the brothel business in the entire town.

Two years ago, the Zhang family hired the Green-Headed Monk to wipe out the Jia family from the neighboring village. The Jia family's eldest son, who was about to take the provincial examination and had a good chance of passing, was killed, and their beautiful daughter was taken as a concubine by the Zhang family.

Two years ago, the Wang family hired Green-Headed Monk to send men to kill the Luo family, the owner of a weaving workshop in Qingqiao Village. After the Luo family was wiped out, the Wang family took over the weaving workshop and incorporated the Luo family's weavers into their ranks.

Several years ago, the town's opera troupe, "Liyue Troupe," was ambushed and killed by bandits hired by three major families on its way to the town for some unknown reason.

Dozens of members of the Liyue Troupe were killed, their gold and silver were stolen, and the beautiful actresses in the troupe were all abducted to a mountain stronghold, where they all met a tragic end.

Four years ago, the retired official of Yingtian Prefecture was killed by bandits while passing through the vicinity on his way back to Fujian.

Because of his retirement from the eighth rank, he had offended Registrar Wang many years ago.

Of course, there is no evidence for these things. On the surface, they are all bandits robbing and looting, and the outside world does not know that these three families are responsible.

Based solely on Green-Headed Monk's account, Zhu Yin couldn't do anything to the three major families.

With the cover of these important figures, and the fact that the mountain stronghold was easy to defend and difficult to attack, Green-Headed Monk lived a carefree life in the mountains, thirty miles from Nanjing, for ten years!
The Green-Headed Monk's power was almost entirely nurtured by these important figures.

Green-headed Monk also planned to capture craftsmen to go up the mountain to manufacture cannons, muskets, and armor, in preparation for a long-term occupation of the mountain.

Zhu Yin led Ning Caiwei and the others to the bandits' warehouse. After opening it with a key, they saw it was full of various supplies, stored in different categories.

Ning Caiwei immediately went to the treasury, opened it, and found it filled with neatly stacked gold, silver, and copper coins, as well as a stack of ordination certificates.

The estimated value is 14,000 taels of silver. Of that, the ordination certificate, worth 3,000 taels of silver, was, of course, money that the Green-Headed Monk was preparing to escape at any time.

Even if the stronghold falls and he can't escape with the heavy gold and silver, he can at least take the ordination certificate with him.

They were all sealed off, saving Ning Caiwei the trouble.

"Hongying! Kangxi! Come here, load the money into the cart first." Ning Caiwei was beaming with joy.

Several people came over together and loaded the gold, silver and copper coins onto the cart.

Zhu Yin was more concerned with supplies, especially grain, salt, copper, and iron.

After checking them one by one, I found that they were all well preserved.

Green-headed Monk is indeed a talented individual. Even as a bandit, he could manage logistics well.

He walked over and said to Ning Caiwei, "You can't take all the money with you."

"Huh?" Ning Caiwei opened her mouth slightly. "You don't want to divide up gold and silver too, do you? Isn't dividing up land, houses, and grain enough?"

Zhu Yin said, "We will take the gold, silver, and ordination certificates with us, but we need to distribute these more than a thousand strings of copper coins to them."

“Although the mountain stronghold is small, it is still a small society. How can it not have currency? The Bright Camp, with more than 700 people, is still a village. We can’t just barter, can we?”

Ning Caiwei nodded: "Alright. Then let's divide it into one thousand strings of cash. I'll keep the remaining two hundred strings."

“A thousand strings of cash is enough to circulate,” Zhu Yin said with a smile. “With fields, houses, cattle, and grain, and each person having a little over a string of copper coins, they can farm and weave while training soldiers to protect themselves. That would be a utopian life.”

Ning Caiwei whispered, "You're just lying. You're deceiving them into training an elite force under the guise of protecting the mountain stronghold."

Zhu Yin whispered in her ear, "How is this a lie? If they don't train their martial arts skills, how can they defend themselves? They might as well go down the mountain and continue to be beasts of burden sooner or later."

"They may be a weapon for me after training, but they can also protect themselves."

Once all the gold and silver were loaded onto the cart, Li Jiayi and the other three arrived.

“Young Master,” Li Jiayi handed over the roster, “everyone is willing to stay. There are 724 people in total.”

Zhu Yin laughed and said, "I really don't believe it. Doesn't anyone want to go down the mountain and go home? Surely there are some."

Li Jiayi laughed too, "Of course there are. However, they dare not go back. If they dare to go down the mountain, they might be..."

Zhu Yin didn't ask any more questions. Since he trusted Li Jiayi, he should give him certain authority.

In many things, you can't be too soft-hearted.

Compassion does not command troops!

If the situation isn't controlled from the start, the camp of over seven hundred people could easily spiral out of control.

Zhu Yin said, "Zhang Dingzhu and Liu Shan'a will stay and help you as deputy battalion commanders. You are the smartest, and the other two are skilled in martial arts. The three of you working together will be able to manage the Bright Camp well and make the stronghold impregnable."

Qi Jiguang and Ding Huogen carefully selected four people, and Zhu Yin left three of them behind.

They only took Zhou Desi with them.

This shows how much Zhu Yin valued the Bright Camp.

Li Jiayi said, "Young Master, please rest assured. We are veterans from Daishan Island, all of whom have served as flag commanders and squad leaders. Training them will not be difficult."

"We'll use General Qi's training methods to form the Mandarin Duck Battle Formation. With at most a year of diligent training, if they can don armor, three hundred men can easily defeat a thousand government troops!"

"After three years of rigorous training, they will become the elite of the elite, and everyone will be able to serve as a flag leader or squad leader."

Zhu Yin nodded and said, "I'll write you a report later. Training soldiers, management, armor making, gun manufacturing, farming, literacy... everything must be done according to the methods and regulations."

"The Brightness Battalion is a military-civilian unit, divided into male and female battalions. Today, you will temporarily select a group of squad leaders, and organize the men and women into squads, and use the squad leaders to manage them."

"After ten days or half a month, we will select more than twenty squad leaders from among the seventy-odd squad leaders."

"A month later, select seven or eight centurions from among the twenty-odd squad leaders... Once the organization is in place, the camp will be easier to manage."

"You can keep all the bandits' weapons. Food and supplies will be allocated by the camp headquarters..."

Li Jiayi and the other two listened to Zhu Yin's instructions and could not help but admire him.

Young Master is truly a prodigy; his thoughts are far more thorough and insightful than theirs.

Many of their methods were simply ingenious.

The group discussed until late morning, finalizing many things before Zhu Yin ordered everyone to gather for a public trial of Green-Headed Monk.

In order to establish the authority of Li Jiayi and the other two, Zhu Yin had Li Jiayi and the others preside over the public trial.

He's too young and wants to navigate the officialdom; it's not wise for him to stand out too much. Manipulating things from behind the scenes is the best option.

All he needed to do was let everyone know that it was Li Jiayi's young master who rescued them from their cage and gave them a new life.

When everyone saw the Green-Headed Monk reduced to a pig or sheep to be slaughtered, they gritted their teeth and felt immense pleasure.

Amidst public outrage, Li Jiayi and two others sentenced Green-Headed Monk to be cut in half at the waist.

Lancha swung Green-Headed Monk's broadsword and with a snap, cut Green-Headed Monk in two.

The heinous Green-Headed Monk was cut in half at the waist, and crawled on the ground covered in blood for a while before he died.

In the end, he didn't get a happy ending.

This was already Zhu Yin being lenient because he did well in the exam.

Zhu Yin was a man of his word.

Otherwise, Green-Headed Monk's fate would be ten or a hundred times more painful than being cut in half at the waist; he might wail for a whole day without dying.

The green-headed monk crawled on the ground with his upper body down, heading towards Zhu Yin. Lan Cha tried to stop him, but Zhu Yin said calmly, "Let him come over."

The green-headed monk, dragging a pile of entrails and covered in blood, crawled up to Zhu Yin. His bloodshot eyes stared intently at Zhu Yin, like a demon crawling out of hell.

This scene sent chills down everyone's spines.

Ning Caiwei turned pale with fright and dared not look any longer.

Green-headed Monk's expression was ferocious and pained; his hatred was almost tangible.

He wanted to see fear on Zhu Yin's face, so that the child would have nightmares every night!

However, he was disappointed again.

The boy showed no fear whatsoever; instead, he smiled and mocked condescendingly.

Do not!
The green-headed monk was filled with boundless hatred. However, his mouth was stuffed with a turban, so he couldn't utter a single curse.

Zhu Yin looked at the white clouds on the horizon and said calmly, "I don't know if it was right or wrong for me to come into this world."

"I've killed more than one person like you. In the future, many more will follow in your footsteps. Many people will die."

The green-headed monk trembled as he reached out and, with all his might, grabbed Zhu Yin's boots.

Zhu Yin kicked out, easily breaking free from the Green-Headed Monk's weak hand.

You've dirtied my boots.

He lowered his head, gazing down at the green-headed monk who was now only half-dead, calmly facing those venomous eyes, and murmured in a voice only the other could hear:

"You call yourself a great Bodhisattva, but the real Bodhisattva is me. I have the heart of a Bodhisattva even when I'm a killer." That's the kind of person I am.

"I will kill many people, to create a peaceful and prosperous world, to create a bright and clear sky, to create dignity for the Chinese nation, and to create a world full of happiness. But I am too lonely, do you understand?"

Green-headed Monk didn't understand, and he died without understanding!

Devil! Devil!
This child is not human; he is a demon from Buddhist scriptures!
With a hateful rage, Green-Headed Monk used his own blood to scribble two hideous blood-red characters on the ground: Devil!

Zhu Yin looked at the two words from the Buddhist scripture and smiled slightly.

"Even if I were a devil, Buddha could not save me. Only history, only the Spring and Autumn Annals, can save me."

This time, Green-Headed Monk seemed to understand. After writing the word "devil," he exhausted all his life force and his consciousness fell into boundless darkness.

His eyes remained wide open until death, filled with pain and confusion.

Zhu Yin looked at his corpse and shook his head:
"There are indeed people in the world who steal their whole lives, even their entire families, yet they do so with a dignified and respectable air. How can someone like you, who openly steals, possibly last long?"

"Your skills are far inferior to theirs. How can a mere mountain bandit compare to a traitor to the nation?"

The trial and execution of Green-Headed Monk signified the establishment of a new legal system in the mountain stronghold.

After publicly executing the bandit leader Green-Headed Monk, Zhu Yin ordered the distribution of land, farmland, and grain... He used both kindness and severity, and acted swiftly and decisively.

After completing these tasks, Zhu Yin quietly left "Bright Summit," handing over all executive duties to Li Jiayi and the other two.

In order to help Li Jiayi and the others stabilize the situation, Zhu Yin temporarily left behind Meh, Niman, and Zhou Desi, allowing the three to provide armed assistance to Li Jiayi and the others in suppressing any possible riots.

In this way, those who left with Zhu Yin and Ning Caiwei were only Lancha, Galo, Ding Hongying, the Kangxi brothers, and Murong Gou Dan.

Just as they were about to leave the mountain stronghold, Ning Caiwei suddenly said, "Huh? Where's Murong Gou Dan?"

Zhu Yin then realized that he hadn't seen Murong Gou Dan in a long time.

"Dog Egg!" Kangxi and Kangxi and Qianlong shouted together.

After shouting for a while, they heard Gou Dan's excited voice coming from the steep slope beside the mountain road: "Hey, here they are! We found baby eagles! A pair! And they're falcons!"

Then, Gou Dan held a large bird's nest like a treasure, inside which were two small birds, each less than a fist in size, with feathers that were golden and silvery.

"Chirp chirp—" Two young falcons spread their tender wings, but could not take off and could only flap in vain.

"My lord is in luck!" Gou Dan grinned from ear to ear. "Among all the eagles in the world, this falcon, though not as good as the gyrfalcon, is still among the top three!"

"My father said that there are 360 ​​kinds of feathered insects, the first being the gyrfalcon, the second the golden eagle, and the third the saker falcon!"

"It's rare to find a couple like them!"

"But actually, my father also said that the falcon is better than the golden eagle because the falcon is smarter, smarter than the gyrfalcon, easier to recognize its master, and more obedient."

When Gou Dan talks about eagle training, he becomes beaming with confidence.

"These two falcons, one has pledged allegiance to the master, and the other to the young lady; they are extremely useful..."

Zhu Yin and Ning Caiwei were both a little excited by what he said.

Zhu Yin had also heard of the saker falcon, also known as the white eagle, which is a large bird of prey with a high level of intelligence.

Later generations of Middle Eastern tycoons loved falcons, using them not only for hunting but also for warning and as bodyguards.

Once given a command, the falcon will attack its prey, demonstrating formidable fighting prowess. Moreover, it is remarkably obedient. While not as famous as the gyrfalcon, the falcon's ability to cooperate with humans may surpass that of the gyrfalcon.

Therefore, in later generations, the price of the falcon actually exceeded that of the gyrfalcon.

Saker falcons were not rare in ancient times, but Han Chinese who could tame them were very few.

I just happened to find a treasure like Murong Gou Dan.

Zhu Yin seemed to see his future self, riding a black horse, with a falcon perched on his shoulder, and a black tiger following behind.

How cool would that be?

Just as Zhu Yin was about to speak, Gou Dan suddenly seemed to remember something, "My lord! We must leave quickly! Otherwise, we'll be in trouble when the mother eagle returns!"

He wrapped the bird's nest in his clothes and started running along the narrow mountain path.

Zhu Yin and the others were also a little nervous when they saw this, so they quickly drove the mules that were pulling gold and silver down the mountain.

They only breathed a sigh of relief after walking several miles.

Zhu Yin and Ning Caiwei exchanged a glance and both smiled smugly.

This time, they eliminated the threat of Green-Headed Monk, rescued more than 700 people, acquired a mountain stronghold, and even established a Bright Camp.

They also confiscated more than 10,000 taels of embezzled money.

In the end, I also got two little birds.

My breasts feel better now.

Hahaha!
Zhu Yin and Ning Caiwei were in extremely good spirits and both wanted to sing a folk song.

Even when the mule's tail brushed against Ning Caiwei's face, Ning Caiwei didn't get angry. Instead, she took the opportunity to giggle and slap the mule's rump, laughing and scolding, "You're so annoying!"

Zhu Yin laughed and said, "I've found you the money. Now it's up to you to do what you want."

Ning Caiwei said, "Go back and get a good night's sleep. Tomorrow morning we'll head into the city to Tianyu Pavilion and eat there at a low price!"

"We already have one military outpost; the next step is a commercial outpost."

She clenched her little pink fist and said, "Little tiger, just wait and see if you become the richest man in Jiangnan."

Zhu Yin said, "I'll go into the city with you tomorrow to visit Magistrate Zhuang and ask about admission to the Imperial Academy and the imperial rewards."

Ning Caiwei turned to look at him, a blade of grass dangling from her lips, and glanced sideways at him, saying, "Do you still want to see Zhuang Shu?"

Zhu Yin touched his nose, wisely ignoring it, and simply smiled calmly, indicating that he understood without a trace.

"There's one more person we might be taking action against in the next few days," Zhu Yin said, changing the subject.

"That Indian monk?" Ning Caiwei sneered. "I'm waiting for him. In a few days, I'll give him a chance. If he's courting death, then he can't blame me."

Zhu Yin smiled, picked an autumn flower from the roadside, and tucked it into Ning Caiwei's hair bun.

"Well, it's beautiful."

"Sigh, another person is going to die."

…………

Zhu Yin and the others did not return to the village immediately, but waited on the eastern mountain until dusk before crossing the wooden bridge to leave the mountain.

No one in the village knew that Zhu Yin and his men had driven back several mules and brought back a lot of gold and silver.

Once the mules entered the courtyard, the gold and silver were unloaded and immediately transported into the Zhu family's treasury.

The previously empty silver vaults were filled again.

Ning Caiwei took the ledger and wrote down the amounts of gold, silver, copper coins, and ordination certificates one by one. Then she took more than three hundred taels of gold.

This gold was used to purchase the Tianyu Pavilion.

The two discussed things until 3:45 PM before finally taking off their clothes and going to sleep.

...............

Early the next morning, Zhu Yin and Ning Caiwei, along with Lan Cha and Hong Ying, entered the city and first went to Tianyu Pavilion.

Tianyu Pavilion is a two-story commercial building facing the street, with carved beams and painted rafters, elegant and exquisite.

Upon entering the main gate, the entire first floor is lined with mahogany counters displaying various jade and jewelry items. Not only jade and pearls, but also agate, coral, gemstones, and more – a dazzling array.

Just from the first floor, you can tell it's a long-established store.

However, the group of waiters behind the counter looked listless.

They also tend to ignore customers when they enter the store.

Those who didn't know the situation might have thought it was negligence. But Ning Caiwei, who knew the inside story, knew that it was just a temporary lapse in management.

"I am the maternal cousin of the young mistress of your esteemed business. Please inform my cousin, Ms. Cai, that I have urgent business to discuss with her and that I am here to help."

Ning Caiwei spoke to the shop manager with a hidden meaning in her words.

The steward, hearing her certainty, didn't seem to be lying, and knowing that the young mistress's surname was Cai, immediately smiled ingratiatingly and said:
"Please wait a moment, young lady. I will go and fetch the young mistress right away."

In the tea room of the back hall on the second floor of Tianyu Pavilion, a woman in her early twenties sat there with a worried expression, absentmindedly flipping through the book in her hands.

With her husband's family relentlessly pressuring her, how many more days can she hold out in this Tianyu Pavilion?

Now, the huge Dong Mansion is like a den of demons, and she doesn't dare to go back.

However, selling Tianyu Pavilion cheaply without anyone noticing and getting three thousand taels of silver to escape is no easy task these days.

Several buyers, knowing full well that she was selling at a bargain price, still tried to take advantage of her vulnerability to drive down the price, which was utterly outrageous.

They're trying to wait until tomorrow or the day after to lower the price themselves.

"Young Madam!" A voice suddenly rang out from outside, "A young lady, about ten years old, has come downstairs. She says she's the Young Madam's cousin and has come to help her..."

"A cousin from her maternal family? Here to help the Li family?" Madam Cai's eyes lit up. "Quickly, invite her in. She might be a buyer for Tianyu Pavilion!"

"Yes!" The steward quickly accepted the order and left.

Soon, Zhu Yin and Ning Caiwei were taken to the tea room.

When Madam Cai saw the two children, who looked like a golden boy and a jade girl, she immediately felt a sense of goodwill towards them and thought that someone was inconvenient to come forward and had deliberately sent the two children instead.

After exchanging greetings, Ning Caiwei got straight to the point: "Sister Cai, we learned by chance that you were going to sell Tianyu Pavilion, which is why we have taken the liberty of coming here today."

“We know the price, and we understand your difficulties, so we won’t haggle.”

Madam Cai's face lit up with joy. "Good! The Li family won't raise the price! Let's be frank, we can go to the brokerage today to transfer the property!"

"However, the Li family wants gold, or a certificate of ordination, but not silver."

Three thousand taels of silver was too heavy for her to carry away, and it would be easy for her to be discovered.

She didn't care at all who the buyer was.

Ning Caiwei smiled and said, "We've already thought of everything for you and prepared gold long ago."

After saying that, he took out a bag of gold ingots.

Zhu Yin also took out a packet of gold ingots.

Two heavy bags of gold ingots, weighing over twenty pounds, were placed on the table.

Lady Cai was surprised by their thoughtfulness; they brought gold directly to her.

Just as she was about to put away the gold, the steward came upstairs again and said, "Young Madam, the buyer, Master Chen, has arrived and said he has decided to buy Tianyu Pavilion."

Madam Cai said coldly, "Why didn't he come earlier? He only made his move today because he couldn't help but want to slash us again. Does he think the Li family is easy to bully? Go tell him that he was a step too late, and the Li family has already been sold to someone else."

"Yes!" the steward replied.

"Wait!" Ning Caiwei immediately stopped the steward. "Please tell that Master Chen that the young mistress has temporarily returned to the Dong family and is not here at the moment. She is expected to arrive this afternoon."

"Let him come back this afternoon or tomorrow."

Madam Cai patted her chest and said with a embarrassed smile, "It was my ignorance that led me to say this. Little sister is much more suitable."

She hadn't expected that Ning Caiwei, despite her young age, was far more shrewd and experienced than she was.

If the steward were to reply according to his own words, Master Chen would likely be unwilling to accept it and would immediately cause a scene.

Then it's all over.

Ning Caiwei was also very fortunate at this moment.

If we had arrived any later, Master Chen would have gotten there first.

Downstairs, Master Chen heard that Madam Cai had temporarily returned to the Dong family, but he had no doubts and immediately arranged to come again at noon.

Then, Master Chen left full of anticipation.

He thought that since he had arrived early, Tianyu Pavilion would be his property within a day.

Little did they know that Ning Caiwei acted extremely quickly, and just half an hour later, she and Cai had completed the contract at the brokerage.

Because the transaction amount wasn't particularly large, it didn't need to go through the government; the transfer was done directly at the brokerage firm.

At 7:00 AM, Tianyu Pavilion legally belonged to Ning Caiwei.

The reason for using Ning Caiwei's name was, of course, that Zhu Yin wanted to navigate the officialdom and was not suited to directly engage in business; it was not appropriate for him to have a large number of properties under his personal name.

Lady Cai was afraid that if the news got out, her husband's family would come after her. She took the gold, handed over all the keys, and hurriedly left Tianyu Pavilion with her daughter and two trusted maids, leaving the city that same day.

As for the goods in the store, she only took a portion of them, leaving most of them for Ning Caiwei, which was quite generous of her.

These jade artifacts alone are worth a total of three thousand taels.

It's a complete waste of money to sell it off at rock-bottom prices.

The Dong family remained completely unaware that the Tianyu Pavilion had changed owners.

Ning Caiwei finally felt relieved after receiving the shop deed.

This was the fastest acquisition she ever made, and the project was of extremely high quality!

She made 20,000 to 30,000 taels of silver from this acquisition!

The commercial buildings, real estate, and inventory of Tianyu Pavilion, along with the reputation and credibility of this century-old business, are worth at least 30,000 taels!

She only paid three thousand taels!
One hour can yield ten times the profit!
Even Zhu Yin, who wasn't particularly interested in business, got a little excited.

Wow, well done!

"Mr. Ning, President Ning, congratulations on moving into Tianyu Pavilion," Zhu Yin said with a smile.

Ning Caiwei chuckled, "I'm Boss Ning, but I'm also the boss's wife. The real boss is Little Tiger, you know. I'm just an employee, hee hee."

Upon assuming the role of owner, Ning Caiwei immediately summoned all the managers and waiters for a reprimand:
"The fact that you stayed here, and that the manager even helped the young mistress sell the shop, shows that you still have some sense of loyalty. I will forgive and forget about your previous actions of taking advantage of the situation and selling counterfeit goods!"

"But from this day forward, you shall abide by my rules!"

Ning Caiwei was speaking when suddenly an exasperated voice came from outside the door:

"Nonsense! Who are you! Where is Mrs. Dong? This shop was supposed to be sold to me!"

"This is the shop that Chen Zhongju booked!"

Ning Caiwei and Zhu Yin turned around and saw a man dressed in fine clothes walking in with an angry expression.

It was none other than Master Chen.

It turned out that after leaving Tianyu Pavilion, the more he thought about it, the more uneasy he felt.

So before noon, he rushed over again to prevent someone from getting there first.

As soon as he arrived at the door, he heard his new employer's reprimand, which shocked and angered him.

"You bought it?" Ning Caiwei sneered. "Who are you? Do you have a shop deed?"

"You can check with the brokerage firm; presumably, their contracts have already been submitted to the government for registration. See who owns this Tianyu Pavilion now."

"Whose daughter is this young lady?" Master Chen calmed down, trying to suppress his anger and frustration. "What is your father's name?"

His intuition told him that this young girl was not simple and was not someone to be trifled with.

Ning Caiwei shook her head. "You don't need to ask about my background. In short, you probably can't afford to offend me."

"Very well!" Master Chen's face flushed red. "First come, first served! It's business! I have no objection! I hope Tianyu Pavilion will prosper in the future!"

After saying that, he stomped his foot and stormed out.

As soon as he stepped out, in a fit of anger, he couldn't help but slap himself twice.

It's truly hateful! It's infuriating!
The news of Tianyu Pavilion changing hands spread like wildfire. Many people were surprised, never expecting such a century-old establishment to suddenly change ownership.

Before Zhu Yin and Ning Caiwei had finished taking inventory of Tianyu Pavilion's stock, a large group of people stormed in aggressively.

"Tianyu Pavilion is the ancestral property of the Dong family! That vile woman Cai has no right to sell it!"

"Where is Cai Shi? Come out!"

"What nonsense about a new owner! This deal is null and void! What right does the Cai family, an outsider, have to sell off our Dong family's Tianyu Pavilion without authorization!"

"Report to the authorities! Report to the authorities! Someone is defrauding the Dong family! They're trying to seize their assets!"

P.S.: 7600-word chapter! So tiring. That's all for today. These numbers...writing this was like rolling on a bed of nails. Thank you to all the readers who have been following, voting, and commenting. Goodnight.

(End of this chapter)