Qin Shi Ambitious

Page 21

Without even having time to rest after continuous travel, Lu Wei immediately summoned the heads of various regions in Jicheng to learn in detail about the changes that had taken place in Jicheng over the past year.

After working through the night, I finally managed to record the key points each person dictated as the sky began to glow red on the horizon.

Before he could properly summarize and analyze this information, the request for an audience from several disciples surnamed Xu forced him to interrupt his thoughts.

I rubbed my temples wearily. No matter how strong the rejuvenation technique is, it's impossible for a person to always be tense.

Lu Wei, distracted by the suggestion Lu Yu had given him last year, said aloud:

"Let the Xu family in."

I am still nominally Xu Qiu's subordinate, and I cannot avoid seeing the Xu family.

Ten seconds later, the three young men stepped through the door and immediately knelt down, almost crawling to Lu Wei, tears streaming down their faces:

"Manager Lu, you must stand up for us!"

"Yan Chunjun has forcibly seized a large number of our Xu family's properties, all of which are registered under the name of Luqiu Pavilion!"

Ouch... my head hurts even more...

Lu Wei sighed, a major issue concerning his future prestige had been raised on the very second day after his return:

Yan Chunjun...

Chapter 29 Gao Jianli

Yan Chunjun has always been a troublesome person.

After comforting and seeing off the Xu family members, Lu Wei looked at the frequent appearances of the three words "Yan Chun Jun" in the case file and realized that his choice of how to get along with Yan Chun Jun would determine whether he could gain the sincere support of the disciples of Lu Qiu Ge.

"Should we just kill Yan Chun Jun...?"

When a problem arises, Lu Wei's first priority is to address whether the root cause of the problem can be resolved.

Yan Chunjun had almost no personal martial prowess; he relied on the poison of power to commit his evil deeds.

Killing someone with a sword is not difficult, but Lu Wei is not a Snow Maiden and is not qualified to be alone with Yan Chunjun. It is extremely difficult for him to get within five steps of the other party.

Moreover, given his current status, he needs to carefully consider whether it is worthwhile for him to personally take this risk.

After some thought, it became clear that solving the problem through physical means would be too difficult, and a brute-force approach was not an option.

In this way, by offering some benefits to Yan Chunjun, and then expanding Luqiu Pavilion's own pie, the problem can be silenced by the disciples below, thus becoming a way to appease them.

It's not technically difficult to do this, but he'll probably suffer some humiliation when he visits Lord Yanchun.

Moreover, the other party has a huge appetite, and the prepared benefits need to be planned in multiple ways...

Thinking of this, Lu Wei called in two disciples and gave each of them a task:

First, we sent a visiting card and gifts to Lord Yanchun's residence, explaining that the new manager of Luqiu Pavilion hoped to pay him a visit.

Secondly, a search order was issued among the peasant disciples of Jicheng to find a qin player named Gao Jianli.

We need to prepare for both possibilities, and the role of the assassin should naturally be filled by an outsider.

In fact, if possible, Lu Wei would even like to commission Luo Wang to eliminate the target, but unfortunately Yan Chunjun is of great value to Luo Wang.

If he were to do that, not only would the other party refuse the commission, but they would also investigate him, which would be a losing proposition.

...

At noon, the disciple who went to Lord Yanchun's residence returned.

None of the visiting cards or gifts were delivered to Lord Yanchun's residence; the messenger was directly turned away at the door.

"The guards at the manor said..." the disciple stammered as he reported, "Steward, your visiting card... is too dirty, it won't be delivered to the manor..."

"Hmm," Lu Wei leaned back in his chair, resting his hand on his forehead as he looked at Luqiu Pavilion's accounts from last year. Hearing his disciple's words, he showed no emotion whatsoever: "Go again this afternoon."

"Yes..."

In the evening, the disciple returned, with the visiting card and gifts still untouched, but the words he conveyed were more intense.

Lu Wei had been checking the accounts all day, and his eyes were extremely dry. However, he didn't care about the insulting words at all: after all, it was the disciple who delivered the invitation who was being scolded, and it was also the disciple who had to go through all the trouble of running back and forth.

With his head tilted back and eyes closed, Lu Wei calmly continued to give instructions:

"Go again tomorrow morning. As long as you can't get the stuff in, just make two trips a day. You don't need to report to me again until the task is completed."

"This..." The disciple who delivered the invitation slightly raised his head, maintaining his clasped-fist posture, and secretly glanced at the new manager: "Manager Lu... With Pavilion Master Xu absent, Lord Yanchun clearly looks down on our peasant family..."

"Just follow my orders. Your salary will be doubled during the days you're sending out visiting cards."

"Yes!" The disciple, who had initially felt a surge of resentment, instantly brightened up.

------

"Your Majesty, today, Luqiu Pavilion sent people twice."

In the main hall of Yan Chunjun's residence, Jueying knelt down and reported the news to the master sitting high on the throne: "The Farmer's family has arranged a new steward to take charge of Luqiu Pavilion's affairs, and he wishes to pay his respects to you."

After a year, Jueying officially became Yanchun Jun's confidant, surpassing the mansion steward in status and becoming Yanchun Jun's most trusted subordinate.

"Luqiu Pavilion?" Yan Chunjun slumped in his seat, his eyelids slightly narrowed. "Xu Qiu and Xu Sheng haven't shown up?"

"There is no news of the Xu family father and son! But this new steward was personally promoted by the Xu family father and son."

"Oh?" Yan Chunjun sat up a little straighter: "Was he present during your failed plan last year?"

Upon hearing this question, Jueying tensed up: "Yes."

"Then let's arrange for the butler to meet with this new steward and see what he has to say."

Yan Chunjun waved his hand, and the matter was settled. Jueying obediently left the hall.

From beginning to end, Lu Wei's name wasn't even worth mentioning by these two.

The next day, the news that the mansion steward had agreed to the meeting was reported to Lu Wei, but because there were too many powerful young men who wanted to visit Lord Yanchun recently, the meeting was postponed to two months later.

The time could not be changed. He was just a small farm steward. If it weren't for the close relationship between Luqiu Pavilion and the wealthy Xu family of Yan State, he probably would never have had the chance to talk to Steward Yanchun Jun in his entire life!

Lu Wei was not in a hurry. He told the Xu family that he would talk to Yan Chunjun's steward in two months to buy them patience. On the other hand, he quickly sent a message to the caravan that was returning to Yan State, urgently summoning Lu Yu back to Ji City.

"Brother Lu, what do you need me to do?"

As soon as Lu Yu returned, she rushed to the third floor of Luqiu Pavilion and called out excitedly.

When the messenger delivered the order from his boss that he should return first, Lu Yu gleefully teased his companion Lu Ye for a few moments, and then hurried towards the Yan Kingdom day and night.

He arrived in Jicheng in half the normal travel time.

Seeing his younger brother's dirty and tired appearance, Lu Wei was moved and got up to personally brush the dust off his shoulders, then gave the order:

"Ah Yu, go take a bath first and rest for two hours. Come out of the city with me at the end of Shen Shi (3-5 PM)."

"Yes!" Lu Yu responded loudly.

...

At the end of Shenshi (3-5 PM), Lu Wei and the energetic Lu Yu went to Longmen Inn for a bowl of noodles.

The original manager of the inn, Mr. Xu, has retired. According to the original plan, the inn should now be taken over by Lu Wei.

However, a change of events forced him to regretfully miss out on the innkeeper position, and he would never have the chance again.

Feeling sad, Lu Wei quickly ate another bowl of noodles.

After filling their stomachs, the two Lus officially left the city.

"Brother Lu, where are we going?"

Riding on horseback, Lu Yu asked again out of curiosity.

"Shu Town, twenty kilometers away," Lu Wei said with a smirk, "Let's go see Gao Jianli!"

"Who is Gao...Jianli?"

"A friend worth having." "Becoming his enemy would always be troublesome."

"I see..." Lu Yu silently kept her brother Lu's words in mind: "Gao Jianli... huh..."

...

At Hai hour (9-11 PM), Shuzhen was almost completely plunged into darkness, merging with the night.

The only place still lit up was the town's tavern.

The wine in Jicheng is too expensive, and it hurts the wandering knights to spend money. Shuzhen is only 20 kilometers away from Jicheng, and the prices are only about one-third of those in Jicheng.

Therefore, all sorts of people gather here.

Gao Jianli was one of them.

As a musician, he also learned a little swordsmanship to protect himself in order to avoid trouble.

However, compared to the enemies who came to hunt him down, his skills were simply not up to par.

Due to his arrogant personality, Gao Jianli once offended a powerful figure.

Since then, he has become one of the targets on the Luo Wang mission list.

Left with no other choice, Gao Jianli could only keep running away.

When he was short of money, he would go to taverns in various places to play the piano for a living.

Several years passed in this way. Although the hunt continued, his reputation spread through his work at the tavern.

Although this is by no means a good thing for a prey.

But Gao Jianli is still Gao Jianli. Knowing that there might be danger, he still doesn't change his ways.

Finding such a person is incredibly easy for farmers!

Chapter 30 Nighttime Carnage

"That's Gao Jianli?"

Lu Wei and Lu Yu entered the Shuzhen Tavern, found a table in the corner and sat down. After ordering some food from the waiter, the two began to talk quietly.

The target was dressed in a plain white musician's robe, with long brown hair flowing down his back and a single wisp of bangs partially covering his left eye, looking extremely dashing.

Lu Yuxin immediately felt indignant: "They don't look like they're being hunted down by the Luo Wang organization at all."