My cultivation disguise has been exposed by Xiao Sizi.

The snow in Chang'an has finally stopped.

As dawn broke, white steam carrying a slightly fishy and muttony smell rose from in front of the meat stalls in the West Market.

The snow on the street was trampled into a muddy mess by the early-rising vendors, and the cold wind blew in from the alley entrance, making people shiver.

Lu Fu, the purchasing manager of the Lu family of Fanyang, was wearing a thick padded jacket and picking through half a frozen pork carcass at a meat stall.

"How much is this meat? It's too fatty. Trim some of the leaner cuts off." Lu Fu said sternly, tapping the greasy cutting board with his wooden stick, his tone revealing his usual imperious manner.

Butcher Zhang, the butcher at the butcher stall, was sharpening his boning knife. He glanced up at the waist tag with the character "Lu" engraved on it and let out a cold snort.

"Fat meat is thirty coins a pound, lean meat is forty coins a pound. Buy if you want, go elsewhere if you don't." Zhang the butcher continued sharpening his knife without looking up.

Lu Fu's eyes widened, and he slammed the wooden stick in his hand heavily on the cutting board, making the bits of meat on the board jump.

"You pig butcher, are you blind? I'm from the Lu family of Fanyang! In the past, when I came to buy from you, you always picked out the best fat meat, practically giving it away for free, and treated me well. How dare you put on airs with me today?"

Butcher Zhang stopped what he was doing, threw the whetstone into the basin, and stood up straight. A cold smile stretched across his fleshy face, and he spat heavily on the ground.

"The past is the past, today is today. Your Lu family sells charcoal for more than gold, and you're deliberately trying to freeze us poor folks to death in this snowy weather. You think I'd give it to you for free? The fact that you didn't mix sand into this meat today is already a favor to God!"

Lu Fu was so angry that his face turned ashen, and the veins on his forehead throbbed. He was about to erupt in a tirade of curses.

"Hey, Butcher Zhang, business's booming this morning!"

A drawn-out voice, tinged with a hint of deliberate boasting, came from behind Lu Fu.

Cui Wang, the purchasing servant of the Cui family of Qinghe, walked over with a swaggering gait, carrying a huge bamboo basket in his hand.

When Butcher Zhang saw the Qinghe Cui family badge on Cui Wang's waist, his tense, dark face instantly broke into a bright smile.

He shoved Lu Fu aside, who was blocking his way, and his sharp boning knife flashed up and down. In the blink of an eye, the fattest piece of pork belly was cleanly and neatly cut off and strung on a sturdy straw rope.

"Brother Cui! Why bother making this trip in this freezing weather! Here, take this freshly slaughtered pig, it couldn't be fatter and more delicious!"

Butcher Zhang handed over the pork with both hands, shaking his head like a rattle-drum, refusing to accept the copper coin from Cui Wang.

"Aren't you slapping me in the face? If it weren't for the iron stove and honeycomb briquettes sold by Miss Cui, my mother, whose old leg was acting up, would have been frozen stiff in bed long ago! Take this meat back; consider it my humble offering to Miss Cui!"

Cui Wang sighed and deliberately threw the copper coin in his hand onto the chopping board, making such a loud noise that the whole street could hear it.

"No, no, no! The young lady specifically instructed that the Cui family of Qinghe is a respectable family, and we must never take things for free. Look at this basket of mine, from one end of the street to the other, the neighbors all insist on stuffing things into it."

Cui Wang flipped the basket in his hand forward. Inside, there were more than a dozen free-range eggs, two plump cabbages, and even half a plucked old hen under the basket.

"Aunt Li stuffs cabbages in, Uncle Wang stuffs hens in. The chickens and ducks in my backyard are almost piled up like a mountain, and their squawking at midnight gives me a headache." Cui Wang put on a worried look, turned his head, and squinted at Lu Fu, who was trembling with anger.

"Oh, isn't this the steward of the Lu family? What, you have to pay for your own pork and get scolded?"

Cui Wang covered his mouth and laughed in a sarcastic tone.

"Ah, that's true. Unlike us, who are treated like royalty by the locals wherever we go, we can't spend our money even if we want to. If you follow the right master, life is full of worries. Manager Lu will probably never experience this kind of trouble in his life."

Lu Fu felt a surge of blood rushing to his chest, and a metallic taste rose in his throat.

He pointed at Cui Wang, his lips trembling, but he couldn't utter a single word. Finally, he stomped his foot, abandoned his purchase of meat, and slunk out of the alley, pushing through the crowd.

Behind him, a burst of cheerful sounds erupted, mixed with the laughter of Butcher Zhang and the neighbors.

……

The council hall of the Cui family residence in Qinghe.

The hall was warmed by the underfloor heating, as warm as spring. Cui Ming sat in a grand chair, listening to the vivid reports from his subordinates, his smile so wide that the wrinkles at the corners of his eyes were squeezed together.

"Good! What a convenient excuse for not being able to spend money!"

Cui Ren, the head of the Cui family, sat in the main seat, holding two shiny walnuts in his hands. His face was ruddy, and he looked as if he had become ten years younger.

In the past, the council chamber was always filled with a gloomy, calculating atmosphere, and everyone had to speak in hushed tones. Now, however, the atmosphere was so lively that it was like a theater celebrating a wedding.

Cui Ming picked up the celadon teacup and took a big, satisfying gulp.

"Master, you didn't see it with your own eyes. Last night at the workshop in the south of the city, the Lu family of Fanyang, as expected, went to their wits' end and sent assassins to steal the formula. And what happened? They didn't even get close to the threshold of our warehouse before they were blown to bits by that iron lump that His Highness Prince Wei left outside!"

As Cui Ming spoke, he gestured with his hands to describe the horrific scene of the explosion.

"The firelight was so bright that it could be seen clearly even ten miles away. This morning, even the stray dogs outside the city wouldn't touch the scraps of meat, but the Hundred Cavalrymen swept them up in sacks and piled them up right at the gate of the Lu family's villa!"

"That's wonderful! Absolutely wonderful!"

Several elders sitting at the lower end of the table were so excited that they slapped their thighs and laughed so hard they almost fell over.