Chapter 218: Tan Wo

Chapter 218: Tan Wo

Xiao Qinshi was helped by her maidservant early the next morning, leaving before dawn when the streets were empty to go back to her parents' house.

She had a bellyful of complaints to unload, but unexpectedly, her family was in a funk too.

"Where's Father?"

The eldest daughter-in-law, who ran the Qin household, had nothing but contempt for her sister-in-law and said coldly, "He went back to Zhuang Stockade before New Year's."

Xiao Qinshi furrowed her brows. "What's he going to Zhuang Stockade for? Has he actually gotten serious about it? Those savages in Zhuang Stockade are too dumb to think straight. At worst, we can raise the price of a bolt of cloth to a hundred coins, and they'll be happy to lick our Qin family's boots!"

She snorted, like she didn't have a drop of Zhuang blood in her, but saw herself as a real city slicker.

Madam Qin gave her a dirty look. "What do you know? You don't get to call the shots around here. You better figure out how to fix your reputation. What a dumb move, making the Qin family look bad."

Xiao Qinshi couldn't exactly tell her sister-in-law that the Zeng family had kicked her out. She choked down her anger but wasn't about to leave, and sure enough, she waited until Tan Wo got back from Zhuang Stockade.

When Tan Wo first heard from the Zeng family before New Year's that Song Tingzhou was going to Zhuang Stockade for the census, he didn't think much of it. A new broom sweeps clean—this was just some newbie trying to score points with the Zhuang Stockade.

Too bad—Zhuang Stockade belonged to him, and the Zhuang people only listened to him.

But soon he realized things were getting out of hand. First, Song Tingzhou came back to the city and actually brought Nongle with him. And he said Nongle accidentally killed Dalun over money?

Nongle got twenty years of hard labor, and Tan Wo finally figured out something was off. He first went to see his rival, the Yu family. Their sneaky plan had failed, and they flat-out admitted they'd tried to bribe the Zhuang Stockade folks, but it never worked.

The Yu family had been rooted in the city for generations, unlike the Qin family, who got rich quick and lucked into ties with the Zeng family. The Yu family head had way more smarts than Tan Wo.

Seeing that Assistant Prefect Song was young and sharp, the Yu family was the first to think about pimping out their kids to Song Tingzhou. But the Yu family head was clever; he got others to test the waters first. When he saw Song Tingzhou was dead set against it and hated that kind of thing, he knew the Qin family's approach was a dead end.

Since that didn't work, he tried a different angle. He found out Song Tingzhou's husband was a sharp businessman and tried every trick to get in good with him.

This guy had guts—he actually sent his own son to work in Meng Wan's workshop. Sure enough, the kid not only made over a dozen taels of silver but also brought home half a pig for New Year's.

Even Meng Wan didn't think the Yu family head would go that far, with the Yu family's young master slaving away in his workshop.

Tan Wo got a few half-truths out of the Yu family head and only then started to freak out. He didn't even stay home for New Year's, telling his servants to hitch up the cart and head straight back to Zhuang Stockade.

—They were building a road in Zhuang Stockade.

Starting from Heixian County heading toward Zhuang Stockade, people were smoothing out gravel and putting up wooden boards on both sides of the road. Carts full of water, lime powder, shell powder, fine sand, and pebbles were hauled back and forth nonstop.

Tan Wo was in a rush to get back to the stockade, but the quickest way was blocked, so he had to take the long way around. When he arrived at Zhuang Stockade, he found they were also building outward. At the stockade entrance, a temporary lime powder workshop had been set up, staffed by Heixian County constables, convicted criminals, and able-bodied Zhuang Stockade men.

People mixed the lime powder, poured it into custom wooden frames, leveled and smoothed it—their movements practiced and swift. The mountain roads were hard to build, and without modern large construction vehicles, they could only widen the existing paths as much as possible, ensuring even the narrowest spots could accommodate a horse-drawn cart.

Because it wasn't as wide as an official road, the progress was astonishingly fast. The roads near Zhuang Stockade were already usable.

When the Qin family's cart drove on it, even the driver was amazed. "Master, this road is excellent—smoother than the stone roads in the city."

He didn't need to say it; Tan Wo could feel from inside the cart that the bumps were almost negligible once on the new road. He lifted the curtain, braving the cold wind to gaze at the smooth, flat, dark gray surface beneath, murmuring, "So this is what the road in Heshan County looks like. No wonder... what a pity." If only Prefect Zeng had achieved such a feat.

The gate of Zhuang Stockade was wide open. Almost every household's yard was piled with bamboo weavings. The sound of women and young men at their looms was faint, drowned out by the joyful noise of children carrying bamboo strips for their elders.

"Father, this bundle of bamboo strips is all pressed."

"Naya, my good daughter, go rest. The day after tomorrow, I'll go to the city and buy you some Crispy Chicken."

"Great! I had a piece at Dafei's house—it was so delicious!"

Women and young men were weaving cloth, occasionally stepping out to chat with family or gather mushrooms in the mountains.

Men and the elderly were crafting various bamboo items, mostly simple ones designed to fit over jars. A few were making fine wooden goods, which took longer, custom art pieces ordered specifically from Wei Kai, fetching high prices—perhaps one order a month.

Tan Wo stared in disbelief at the changes in the stockade. Some children, seeing a stranger enter, merely glanced curiously before running off quickly.

Their parents had warned them that bad people might come, kidnap children, and lock them up, like Naya and the others who had only recently been found.

"Tan Wo? Why are you back?" Abu, the headman of Muzhen Stockade, greeted him with a cold face, his expression and tone showing no hint of welcome.

In the past, Tan Wo's return to the stockade had been met with the best food and warmest hospitality from the headmen. Even when he didn't come, the Qin family's stewards would walk around Zhuang Stockade with their heads held high, speaking down to the Zhuang people.

Tan Wo, having spent half his life outside and built the Qin family business to its current scale, was quicker-witted than these straightforward tribesmen. Though he didn't know why the stockade had changed so much, he kept his usual generous and genial demeanor. "Abu, it's been a while. I heard the lost children from the stockade have all been found—that's wonderful news! I brought some snacks and clothes for the kids."

In his mind, these people were still foolish and easy to fool. No matter what potion Assistant Prefect Song had fed them, a little sweetener from him would have the Zhuang people wagging their tails like dogs.

From the moment Tan Wo left these mountains, these people were no longer his kin—they were just livestock he kept penned up.

But instead of gratitude and emotion, he got a cold, "We don't need your things. Get out of Zhuang Stockade!"

Their conversation had already drawn the attention of many adults. They put down their bamboo strips and surrounded Tan Wo's cart.

"How dare you show your face here!"

"Get out of Zhuang Stockade—you're not welcome!"

"Get out!"

Tan Wo stared in shock at the Zhuang people's angry shouts, completely baffled as to how things had come to this.

By the time he realized the Zhuang people couldn't be won back, it was too late. He was literally beaten out of the stockade by the furious crowd, and the bags of fruit and half-worn clothes he'd brought were thrown into a muddy ditch.

Tan Wo spent the New Year on the road in a sorry state. Full of questions, he first went to Heixian County, the closest town to Zhuang Stockade, where he found Zhuang people moving about—something he had expected.

He guessed that Assistant Prefect Song had persuaded them to leave the stockade and engage with the outside world. But he never imagined there were actually two shops run by Zhuang people in the county town!

"Dani Mei? You opened a cloth shop in the county?" Tan Wo looked as if he'd seen a ghost.

Thinking that if not for Tan Wo's deception, her father wouldn't have ended up dead, Dani Mei and her mother reacted even more furiously than the parents of the lost children in Zhuang Stockade.

Because those children could still return to their parents, but Dalun was forever buried underground.

"None of your business—get out of my shop!"

Dani Mei put down her measuring stick to drive him out, while her mother grabbed the door bolt and swung it at Tan Wo.

Tan Wo's bruises from the Zhuang people's beating had barely faded, and now he took a few more blows from Dani Mei's mother. Fleeing the cloth shop in panic, he fumed to his attendant, "Go to our cloth store!"

The Qin family also had businesses in Heixian County. In fact, the entire fabric trade in Xiwu Prefecture was controlled by the Qin and Yu families. If he clamped down, he swore the Zhuang people wouldn't sell a single bolt of cloth in Xiwu Prefecture!

"Master, it won't work. This cloth shop has been officially registered with the prefectural office. And it's not just this one—several other Zhuang-run shops also have the backing of the Assistant Prefect's husband." The manager of the Qin family's cloth store in Heixian County said with a worried face.

They were mere merchants. Asking him to go head-to-head with the Assistant Prefect's wife was a joke at his expense.

Tan Wo finally understood. Assistant Prefect Song hadn't just gone to Zhuang Stockade for the census—he had secretly supported the Zhuang people in setting up businesses outside!

"What does this Song mean?" The Qin family had already suffered a blow to their reputation, and the Zhuang brocade they relied on to compete with the Yu family was no longer coming in. When Tan Wo returned home and told his wife and children, the whole family was frantic.

"Father, can't the weavers in our cloth store produce Zhuang brocade?" Xiao Qinshi, still at her maiden home, asked urgently when she heard about the family's business troubles.

Tan Wo irritably slapped the table. "What do you know! Da Nimei only started producing Zhuang brocade in the middle of last year. She hasn't even mastered the technique herself—how could I possibly have her teach the weavers at a cloth shop?"

Although he explained it this way to his daughter, only Tan Wo himself knew his true thoughts. He had always regarded the Zhuang people as his own property. The weavers from other cloth shops might be at risk of being bribed, but the Zhuang people deep in their stockade would absolutely work for him with undivided loyalty.

If it weren't for Song Tingzhou going to the Zhuang stockade for that damned census, and his husband meddling by opening shops for these Zhuang people, the Tan family's cloth would be unrivaled throughout the entire West Wu!

Several of Tan Wo's sons were also anxious. "Father, what should we do now? After we brought Da Nimei's Zhuang brocade to our shop, we've already taken orders from four or five cloth shops. Now they're all pressing for delivery—what are we going to give them?"

The orders weren't many, but they sold at high prices, and two of them were from cloth shops in other prefectural cities. They had collected deposits early but had yet to deliver the goods. Even with double compensation, the Tan family's reputation would be ruined. For the same price and goods, others would certainly prioritize the Yu family.

Tan Wo's eyes were bloodshot, glaring with rage. He had struggled for so many years, eventually managing to surpass the Yu family thanks to the Zeng family and Zhuang brocade. How could he accept such an ending now!

---

"Is Tan Wo back from the Zhuang stockade?" Meng Wan was practicing calligraphy in his study. Two charcoal braziers stood in the room, but a chill still hung in the air, forcing him to warm his hands by the fire every so often.

Tang Jinshuang had just returned from outside to report. He didn't think Meng Wan's study was much warmer than outside, so he pulled up a small stool and sat by the brazier to begin talking.

"Not just the stockade—I heard he also went to Da Nimei's shop and got thrown out." His tone was full of schadenfreude, clearly knowledgeable about the events in the Zhuang stockade.

"Ha." Meng Wan chuckled lightly. "Do you think he'll make things even worse for himself?"

Tang Jinshuang was taken aback. "Master, what do you mean?"

Meng Wan kept his brush moving. "Keep a close watch on the workshop... no, the cannery. But don't watch too tightly—leave them some opportunity to commit a crime."

That was a chilling statement. Tang Jinshuang dared not guess wildly, so he asked further, "You mean the Tan family will stoop to dirty tricks against the cannery?"

Seeing that Tang Jinshuang didn't fully grasp the meaning, Meng Wan put down his brush and sat beside him by the fire. "An ordinary merchant, when faced with official interference, might be afraid and back down. But the Tan family has grown accustomed to being the local bully in West Wu Prefecture, with hardly any experience of the world beyond their backyard. Prefect Zeng, when he was Assistant Prefect, was older, and other officials were willing to show him some deference. That gave Tan Wo a subtle delusion. Just from the way Xiao Qin Shi acts, it's easy to see the Tan family is arrogant—so arrogant that they willingly close their eyes to the truth."

He turned to Tang Jinshuang and asked, "If you were in West Wu Prefecture, with the highest-ranking official in the region as your in-law, and local merchants were languishing, almost entirely monopolized by you—then suddenly a new shop appears, backed by an official one rank lower than yours, a man known for recklessly expanding his businesses but with no real business sense, and he ruins your trade—what would you do?"

Tang Jinshuang pondered for a moment, then replied seriously, following Meng Wan's logic: "Although Magistrate Song's rank is lower than Prefect Zeng's, he is still an official. Direct confrontation is impossible. But if I back down, would it embarrass my in-laws or would it harm my own reputation?" The fact that he asked this already showed he was considering retreat.

That would be a normal person's reaction. But the Tan family clearly didn't belong in that category.

Meng Wan roasted two tangerines over the brazier. "If the Tan family could think of the Zengs, that would be fine—Prefect Zeng would talk them out of it. I'm just worried that out of pride, they'll do something dirty, then smugly go to Prefect Zeng to boast."

Tang Jinshuang was puzzled. "Should we go to Prefect Zeng then? Let him restrain the Tan family in advance?"

"No." Meng Wan used tongs to flip the tangerines, releasing a caramel-like sweet aroma.

"Why stop them? This is nothing but beneficial to us, without a single drawback. I only fear they aren't bold enough—I need to add more fuel to the fire."

Tang Jinshuang's eyes fixed on the red-hot coals around the tangerines. "Flame?"

Meng Wan handed Tang Jinshuang the manuscript he had just finished writing on his desk. "Take this manuscript out. Find a famous opera troupe, and have the troupe head compose a splendid play."