Chapter 728 - It's Not Over Yet
Long Tianba told his father everything that had happened today to him and even grumbled in a righteous manner, “It must be the people from ‘Celestial World’ who did this to me! They are a bunch of bullies. Not only did they take all of the valuables off of me, but they also sent people to beat me up...Father, you must support me on this!”
As soon as Long Yikui entered the capital, he made sure to ask around for some information. The person who was the best at doing business and had the most talent at making money was Princess Consort Xu. All of the merchants used the phrase: ‘we can only see her dust and have no hope of catching up’ to describe her.
She was in her preteens when she first entered the capital. Despite her young age, she managed to create her own business kingdom in the span of a few years. Furthermore, the businesses she made were unable to be copied by other people. If she truly wanted to, she could have expanded her ventures throughout the whole country and become the richest person in the Great Ming Dynasty. However, she also knew to stop before going too far and only developed her businesses within the capital.
When one spoke of her, one couldn’t forget Imperial Prince Xu. That year, he had pretty much given all of his belongings to the Yu Family as his betrothal gift to her. Now, all of the industries in his hands had been given to his wife to manage. He was afraid this might tire her, so he also found a lot of talented subordinates from other places to assist her.
As for the entertainment facility, Celestial World, it’d be too difficult for Long Yikui to not hear about it. All of the influential officials congregated there to play. It was said that one could merely stretch out one’s hand and end up hitting a few sons or grandsons of these high and mighty nobles. The wealthy and powerful could be found everywhere there. Furthermore, what made him even more cautious was the fact that this place was owned by Imperial Prince Xu. It was rumored that Princess Consort Xu had given him many ideas for this place before she married him.
His son actually daringly insulted their ‘Celestial World’ when he was on their turf and several times to boot! The fact that they didn’t shoo him out immediately was already courteous of them. As for taking all of his valuables as a deposit, that was a very light punishment with all things considered.
How could he, a very shrewd businessman, end up with such a stupid and idiotic son? Why didn’t his son think a little and realize that no matter how much money they had as merchants, there was no way for them to win against the high and noble officials? Imperial Prince Xu not only was a member of the imperial family and a close relative of the emperor, but he also was in charge of the Great Ming Empire’s most elite troops. Furthermore, he was one of the most trusted and favored officials of the emperor. With his high and mighty status, could mere commoners like them afford to offend him?
If anything that his son said today got transmitted to Imperial Prince Xu, the Long Family would not only be screwed in the capital but it’d be hard to say if they could also keep their place in Jiangnan either…The more Long Yikui thought about it, the more fearful he became, and the more he felt that the worst was yet to come. That night, he went through a lot of effort and spent a lot of money to get an audience with a first-ranked official in the capital.
Although that first-ranked official was quite irritated at being disturbed during the middle of the night, he was reluctantly willing to meet them after seeing the vast amounts of valuable gifts they had given him. However, when he found out that the Long Family had offended Imperial Prince Xu, the expression on his face immediately changed. He quickly told the main steward to return all of their gifts to them and had the servants shoo them out of the residence as quickly as they could.
If Imperial Prince Xu found out that he had taken the Long Family’s bribes, then it’d be hard to say if he’d even be able to keep his own official’s hat anymore. Furthermore, he warned Long Yikui, “Remember, you don’t know this official and have never come to this official’s home. Don’t you dare to drag me down to calamity after you guys provoked the dragon’s wrath!”
As they shooed them out, the head steward gave Long Yikui a tip out of kindness, “There’s nothing you can do or say. No matter who you beg, no one in the capital will be willing to brave Imperial Prince Xu’s wrath to say a word for you. If you’re smart, then you will obediently head to Imperial Prince Xu’s residence and admit your guilt and ask for your punishment ah…”
Only now did Long Yikui realize the severity of the matter. The next day, he brought his son along as they both went to ‘Celestial World’ to apologize. Not only did they bring double the amount of money that was owed, but he also had his son kneel in front of the office to beg for forgiveness.
The manager of the entertainment facility merely took five thousand and six hundred taels out of what was offered to them, which was the amount Long Tianba owed. Then he returned all of the items he had taken from Long Tianba on the previous day and said, “As for the matter in regards to you insulting our master, we, as servants, have no right to offer an opinion. Master of the Long Family, please leave ah!”
Finally, the manager gave them a ‘good intentioned’ tip, “The heir of the master is currently at the office. If your sincerity is enough to move his heart, perhaps…”
After getting some ‘advice’ from the manager, they asked to have an audience with the heir to Imperial Prince Xu’s Estate. Zhu Yunxuan didn’t put on any airs and courteously allowed them to meet him.
The father and son pair trembled as they explained the situation to him. Long Tianba, who finally knew how to be afraid, sobbed piteously in front of the heir. Furthermore, he even began slapping his still swollen face with his own hands as he berated himself for not knowing right from wrong, insulting the entertainment facility, and insulting Imperial Prince Xu and Princess Consort Xu. He claimed he deserved death for this and that no matter how the heir decided to punish him, he was willing to do it. He was willing to do anything to make up for his mistakes ah!
Zhu Yunxuan waited until Long Tianba had hit himself around twenty to thirty times before he finally opened his mouth as the other youth was about to turn dizzy, “This heir has already received your apology. You have also been duly punished for your insulting words. This heir will leave you with a parting word: ‘A loose tongue may cause a lot of trouble’, and it’ll be good for you to take mind of that in the future.”
After he spoke, he courteously escorted them out.
By the time Long Yikui and Long Tianba had left ‘Celestial World’, they were still confused. What did the heir mean earlier? Did he actually forgive them or not? When they left, the expensive and precious gifts they had brought along with them had all been summarily given back.
Zhu Yunxuan snorted coldly and spoke to himself, “Do they really think that by using the trick of injuring themselves to soften my heart and a mere apology would work on me? They insulted Lady Mother, so they won’t be let off that easily!”
If Long Yikui was smart, he would have taken his son back to Jiangnan and never let the Long Family set foot in the capital again. However, he had been dazzled by the profits he had earned in the capital. After observing for a few days and discovering that everything was calm, he thought that this issue had blown over and began bustling about in the capital again.
As for Long Tianba, once the wounds on his face healed, he became unruly again. The original group of wastrels he had hung out with were nowhere to be found now but, before long, he found a few more friends who were only interested in having fun and also had decent backgrounds. Long Tianba felt quite content now!
Within this group of friends was a fellow surnamed Dong who was the son of a general. This friend’s favorite activity was collecting jadeite stones. In order to get into his good graces, Long Tianba had given him a hanging green jadeite ornament that was made of the finest glass-quality jadeite before this guy had finally ‘deigned’ to treat him in a friendly manner.
On one particular day, Long Tianba had taken this Young Master Dong along to Wisdom Jade Pavillion and generously offered him to pick out any jadeite ornament he liked. Young Master Dong looked at all of the valuable and expensive jadeite specimens and sighed, “Although the jadeite ornaments here are very beautiful, I always feel like they’re missing something. I heard that Imperial Prince Xu also has a shop that sells raw jadeite ores. If I could personally pick out an ore that held beautiful jadeite, that would be so awesome ah! Unfortunately, my father is very strict and doesn’t allow me to participate in anything that involves gambling…”
Shrewd people would notice that this Young Master Dong was actually the personal bodyguard of Imperial Prince Xu’s heir, Dong Ming. In fact, he was the son of Dong Dali, who used to be Imperial Prince Xu’s personal bodyguard. Dong Dali was a valued subordinate of Imperial Prince Xu and was now the commander of the Firearms Barracks. Thus, saying that Dong Ming was the son of a general wasn’t a lie!
All of the people in the noble circles in the capital knew that the Long Family had offended Imperial Prince Xu’s Household. When they saw Dong Ming appear next to Long Tianba, they knew that the heir to Imperial Prince Xu was getting ready to strike. Thus, the noble customers here all observed this Long Tianba with barely concealed glee.
When Long Tianba found out that this was one of Imperial Prince Xu’s businesses, he immediately became a lot more timid. However, after thinking a bit, he decided that he was going to be spending money and not causing trouble, so it should be fine as long as he watched his tongue. Furthermore, he might even spend quite a bit of money, which might let the people from Imperial Prince Xu’s Household see him in a new light! This was also considered sending gifts to Imperial Prince Xu’s Estate too, right?
He went to speak to his father. Long Yikui considered this carefully before he finally warned, “It’s fine for you to take a look as it might be a good opportunity to see whether Imperial Prince Xu’s Estate has changed their outlook on us! However, you need to keep that mouth of yours shut tight this time and hold back on that arrogant side of yours! If you screw up this time, I will disown you from the family to avoid causing the rest of us calamity.”
Long Tianba hurriedly assented, “Father, don’t worry ah. I will make sure to do everything properly for you this time!”
The next day, Long Tianba invited Young Master Dong over to the ‘stone gambling hall’. At first, Young Master Dong declined, stating that he was afraid that his father would throw him into the army for some grueling training as punishment. Long Tianba said, “Young Master Dong, it’s not as if you’re participating in gambling personally, you’ll just be accompanying me to take a look. If your honored father finds out, he won’t blame you either!”
Young Master Dong hesitated for a long time before he finally ‘reluctantly’ agreed.
The gambling stone hall was a very large courtyard residence and a bunch of raw jadeite ores that didn’t look very impressive were inside the courtyard. When he saw these ‘stones’, Long Tianba was not impressed and silently cursed, ‘These stones can also be sold for a sky high price? Imperial Prince Xu is clearly ripping people off!’ However, since he had learned his previous lesson, he kept his thoughts to himself.
“Young Masters, do you want to participate in a ‘full gamble’ session or a ‘half gamble’ session?” The two of them had been led in by a clever young shop assistant. After greeting them, he politely asked them where they wanted to go.
Young Master Dong asked, “What does ‘full gamble’ and ‘half gamble’ mean?”
The shop assistant pointed at the ores in the space and smiled, “This courtyard’s jadeite ores all have not been opened. Whether or not they contain jadeite is all dependent on luck, so it’s called a ‘full gamble’. As for the rooms around the courtyard, all of them contain ores that have mostly been opened on one side and you can see the jadeite peeking out. However, the amount of jadeite inside is not guaranteed, so it’s called a ‘half gamble’. If you are proficient in examining the outside of these ores, then you can look at the ones in this courtyard. If this is your first time here, then we recommend that you look at the stones that have already been opened.”
Young Master Dong looked at Long Tianba and said, “I have no knowledge in betting on stones. What about you, Brother Long?”
Long Tianba coughed dryly a few times before saying, “Although I have some knowledge, I’m not proficient either. How about...we go into the room and then decide?”
They entered the room and there were all sorts of raw jadeite ores displayed on the shelves. Each ore had been sliced open, revealing the sparkling jadeite within.
“Wow! These rocks really have jadeite in them ah!” Long Tianba exclaimed in astonishment.
Young Master Dong and the shop assistant exchanged looks as they both disdained this Fourth Young Master Long to the extreme. The fact that the Long Family had such a stupid descendant meant that the family hadn’t acc.u.mulated enough merit. Was he truly doubting the fact that these ores had authentic jadeite in them? Or was he suspecting Imperial Prince Xu’s Estate for fooling the masses and practicing fraud? Even if one had doubts, one shouldn’t show it to the outside! He was truly idiotic to the extreme!