Chapter 33: You Are Not In Exile You Are Clearly Traveling!
Chapter 33: Binding Interests
Knowing that the bailiff in front of her wouldn't bring Captain Sun over, Chen Xue sighed, hoping he wouldn't take credit for himself.
After thinking for a moment, Chen Xue spoke up, "This is a medicinal herb business, with profits ranging from a few hundred taels to over a thousand."
"A medicinal herb business?" Bailiff Qian's eyes lit up. He hadn't done this business before and was not clear about it, but hearing Chen Xue say that the profits could reach over a thousand taels, he couldn't sit still.
"Tell me more!"
However, Chen Xue remained silent.
"Master Qian, leaving these supplies on the ground is not feasible, and we still need to continue our journey..."
Bailiff Qian's face immediately turned cold, knowing that Chen Xue was trying to leverage this matter against him, but he tolerated it, considering he didn't yet understand how the business operated.
"Move the boxes back and continue the journey."
He instructed his subordinates to move the supplies back onto the carriage. If Chen Xue wasn't lying, and this business could indeed make money, then these few supplies were insignificant.
After the supplies were returned, Bailiff Qian instructed everyone to continue the journey while walking and talking.
"It's like this. Our business is straightforward: we transport medicinal herbs to the Southern Barbarians and then sell them at high prices. Think about it, Master Qian, in the Southern Barbarian territories, resources are scarce. Items that cost one or two taels of silver here can be sold for double or triple the price, and people are eager to buy..."
Hearing Chen Xue's words, Bailiff Qian fell into contemplation. He had escorted several groups to the Southern Barbarians before and knew more about the situation there than Chen Xue did.
Take ordinary cloth, for example. In the capital, you could buy it for a few taels of silver, but in the Southern Barbarians, you couldn't even get it for a dozen taels. In other words, even if you had money, you couldn't buy it.
Therefore, many merchants would take goods to the Southern Barbarians to sell. In reality, they were doing the same thing.
In their carts, besides transporting some food for the prisoners, there were also some common items that they and the captain pooled their money together to purchase and sell at high prices in the Southern Barbarians.
Although they had never dealt in medicinal herbs before, they felt there was potential for profit in this line of business. After all, in the field of medicinal herbs, the profits were enormous.
However, as small bailiffs, they had no connections and couldn't participate in this line of business.
But Chen Xue's words made Bailiff Qian's eyes light up. After all, he wasn't selling goods in the capital, so he wouldn't be touching the interests of those bigwigs.
Think about it, a medicinal herb worth ten taels, when brought to the Southern Barbarians, even if sold for twenty taels, there would still be a profit.
Moreover, for goods like medicinal herbs, even if the price was multiplied tenfold, there would still be buyers.
"Not bad." Bailiff Qian nodded in satisfaction. "I will mention this matter to the captain..."
"Master Qian, about the previous matter..." Chen Xue couldn't help but speak, referring to the threats he made against them, the charges of escape and assaulting officials.
"Those matters were all misunderstandings." Bailiff Qian waved his hand. "I'll let it go this time. If there's a next time, don't blame us for being ruthless."
At this moment, Bailiff Qian's mind was solely focused on the lucrative business opportunity. He had no interest in paying attention to Chen Xue, so he casually dismissed her and left.
Once the bailiff left, everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
Back in the carriage, Chen Xue's mother looked worried. "Is the matter resolved this time?"
"It's temporarily resolved!"
"Temporarily?"
Upon hearing Chen Xue's words, her mother's heart tightened. "Why do you say it's temporary?"
Chen Yuan, who had been silent all this time, spoke up, "Because, no one knows which bailiff will come looking for trouble next time!"
Despite his previous status as a former Ministry of Revenue official, he was now just a prisoner under custody, bullied by lowly bailiffs and unable to resist.
"What should we do?"
"Mother, don't worry." Chen Xue smiled. "As long as we can handle Captain Sun this time, we'll be safe in the future."
"How easy is that!" Chen's mother shook her head. "Didn't you try to test him before? That Captain Sun is not easy to win over."
"It's not certain this time." Chen Xue's eyes sparkled.
"Does Xiao Xue have a good idea?" Chen Yuan was curious. He hadn't intervened before, fearing he might ruin his daughter's plan, so he wasn't aware of her intentions.
"What was that business you mentioned to the bailiff? Why didn't I know about it?"
"Well, you want to use interests to bind Captain Sun to us, right?" Chen Yuan saw through Chen Xue's plan at once. "But if you tell the bailiff directly, aren't you afraid he'll take the credit and tell Captain Sun himself?"
If the bailiff were to inform Captain Sun about the business in his own name, then it wouldn't have anything to do with them.
They wouldn't be able to use this business to bind Captain Sun to them, let alone link their interests with his.
"Don't worry, as long as Captain Sun isn't a fool, he will come to us." Chen Xue revealed a mysterious smile.
Then she looked at Xiao Die. Xiao Die usually didn't speak much, but she was quite good at acting.
...
"Captain!"
Bailiff Qian soon found Captain Sun, and seeing him return empty-handed, Captain Sun's face darkened.
"Failed?"
Bailiff Qian looked embarrassed, but quickly explained, "Captain, it's not my fault. The Chen family was deceived by the Stationmaster."
"Oh?" Captain Sun became interested. "Explain."
Bailiff Qian briefly explained that the Chen family had gathered a considerable amount of silver, bribed the Stationmaster, and then bought supplies from him. However, they were deceived, as each of the six or seven boxes contained only a small amount of supplies.
"That sounds like something that Stationmaster would do." Captain Sun didn't doubt it. Taking money without delivering goods was quite common. After all, the Chen family were just prisoners, even if they knew they had been deceived, there was nothing they could do about the magistrate.
"Without supplies, won't you ask the Chen family for money?" Captain Sun gave him a stern look. Last night, Guo Qiang's men had approached him again, asking him to cooperate with Zhao Guang in dealing with Chen Yuan.
He pretended to agree, but he had no intention of taking action. However, it didn't prevent him from suppressing the Chen family.
Moreover, he also took the opportunity to gather information and knew that behind the Chen family were supporters such as the Minister of Personnel. Compared to the Minister of Personnel, they were inferior, as the Minister of Personnel had the support of the Prime Minister.
Therefore, he understood Guo Qiang's determination and knew that the Chen family wouldn't survive much longer. So he thought he might as well squeeze out as much value as he could from them before they collapsed.
Upon hearing this, Bailiff Qian felt helpless. "Captain, you also know about the rumors surrounding the Chen family. Moreover, they have probably spent all their money on these supplies."
Captain Sun suddenly remembered the sensational news in the capital about the Chen family's assets being seized. Not even a single tael of silver was confiscated, so Chen Yuan had gained the reputation of being "penniless."
This was a bit tricky. Most of the Chen family's wealth had already been seized, and what was left was probably hidden away by them. But now, it seemed they couldn't squeeze much value out of them.
"Captain, I've discovered a new business that can definitely make a lot of money." Bailiff Qian suddenly spoke up.
"What business?"
"Selling medicinal herbs!"
As expected, just as Chen Yuan had thought, Bailiff Qian did not reveal that it was Chen Xue's idea, but rather presented it as his own discovery.
PS: Frustrated, these days there have been new collections, 4, 8... and dropped from the new book list... sigh...
In addition, thanks to the reader yy333 for the reward, knowing that someone is reading, little fish has motivation.
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