Chapter 222: Merchant Guild

Chapter 222: Chamber of Commerce

Dong Dong helped Juan Niang put on her clothes as he wept, "She is my sister, Juan'er. I am your brother. Will you come with me? I can earn money to support you and give you a good life."

Juan Niang looked at Meng Wan in confusion. She remembered that the last time her mother scolded and beat her in public, it was Meng Wan who stood up for her. And she could sense that both her mother and grandmother were afraid of him.

Meng Wan patted her head. "Juan Niang, you should know that Xiao Qin Shi is not your real mother, right?"

Juan Niang nodded silently.

"This brother Dong Dong lost his younger sister a few years ago. She is exactly the same age as you, and has the same birthmark on her back..." As Meng Wan spoke, he noticed that Juan Niang's mouth did look somewhat like Dong Dong's. But she was so thin—almost emaciated—that the slight resemblance to chubby-faced Dong Dong was barely visible.

Juan Niang's eyes grew hot. "Then is brother Dong Dong my real brother?" She longed for family. In the Zeng family, she was nominally a young lady, but in truth no one treated her as kin. Even the servants mocked her behind her back.

Ever since Dong Dong saw the wounds on Juan Niang's body, his tears had not stopped. "You are my sister. Your name is Dong Juan'er—Juan meaning 'graceful'."

Juan'er wiped her eyes and broke down sobbing. "But they called me Zhao Di!"

Dong Dong's heart ached beyond measure. He held his sister and repeated over and over, "Your name is Dong Juan'er. You are your parents' treasure. Not Zhao Di, not..."

Meng Wan jumped down from the carriage, leaving this small space to the ill-fated siblings.

Seeing this, the old Madam Zeng understood Meng Wan's intention. She greeted the reluctant Xiao Qin Shi and took her leave.

Since the Dong siblings were occupying the carriage, Meng Wan wanted to give them more time together. He got onto Song Tingzhou's horse and let him take him home instead.

"In the prefectural city, things are more convenient than in Heshan County. We can keep searching—maybe we'll find more children. After all, I promised them, so I must do my best." Leaning against Song Tingzhou, Meng Wan heard faint sobbing from the carriage and felt moved. Since having A Yan, he seemed to have grown more patient with children.

Song Tingzhou wrapped an arm around him, pulling the reins unhurriedly, and said in a clear voice, "We can post missing persons notices with a reward—for the money alone, people will actively search."

Meng Wan tilted his head up to look at Song Tingzhou's well-defined jawline, his eyes curving into a smile. "By my reckoning, Third Uncle should be arriving soon."

Song Tingzhou looked down at his smiling face and smiled too. "Zhao Yuan and Ze Ning sent a letter a few days ago. Everything is fine with them in the capital." Most importantly, his bachelor brother-in-law had finally married. Of course, this trivial bit of news wasn't worth telling Wan'er.

Speaking of letters, Meng Wan remembered the letters the family had received recently. "Several of the Song children back home passed the county and prefectural exams for xiucai and tongsheng. According to the clan leader, a few want to continue studying further, but the rest have reached their limit and want to stop."

Song Tingzhou pondered for a moment. "I have already submitted a memorial to the court recommending the implementation of the poll-tax-merged-into-land-tax system throughout Xiwu Prefecture. Your workshops have also helped improve the livelihoods of many commoners. The people are living and working in peace. It's time to promote literacy in the towns and mountain villages."

Especially among the Zhuang, Yao, and Miao peoples, who could barely communicate at all. At the very least, the Yu official language should be taught in their villages.

Bouncing on the horse's back, Meng Wan soon entered the city. Seeing the shops eager to revive and the hope in the eyes of the people, he instantly understood Song Tingzhou's intention. "You want to summon them to Xiwu? Leaving their hometown—I wonder if they'd be willing?"

When they reached their doorstep, Song Tingzhou dismounted first, then helped Meng Wan down. "I'll write a letter tonight to ask. Those willing to come, we'll help them settle here, with benefits ten percent higher than what they had in Springs Town." The prefecture had far too few scholars. Gathering even a hundred teachers would be difficult. If their own clan could fill the gap, that would be best; if not, they would recruit from elsewhere.

It was still early. After sending Meng Wan back, Song Tingzhou went directly to the yamen to work.

Dong Dong and Juan Niang both had swollen eyes from crying, especially Juan Niang, who was young and had experienced such turmoil. Even though Dong Dong cherished her, she couldn't help but feel anxious.

"Juan Niang, rest assured. Your brother is a manager at the lotus root workshop. He earns enough to take good care of you." Meng Wan spoke to the girl in a light tone.

Dong Dong handed his handkerchief to his sister, and upon hearing Meng Wan's words, he laughed through his tears. "In another year, I'll have saved enough to buy a small courtyard. Then we'll settle down in Heshan."

The word "home" is simply expressed by two things: a house and family. Simple, yet it gives people infinite strength and hope.

Thus, Juan Niang, with a tiny sprout of anticipation in her heart, nervously returned to Heshan with Dong Dong.

As the morning sun rose, Meng Wan watched their receding figures walking together and smiled softly. Seeing everyone moving toward better lives also filled his own heart to the brim.

Tang Jinshuang came from the direction of the workshop. Seeing Meng Wan bathed in the warm orange sunlight, glowing radiantly, he couldn't help but catch his breath. His master—in temperament, ability, insight, and appearance—had no flaw. Except that he sometimes had a mischievous streak.

"Oh, what brings you here? Isn't Xiao Yu pestering you?"

Tang Jinshuang lowered his head. Here it began.

"Ahem, master, has Dong Dong left?" Tang Jinshuang awkwardly changed the subject.

Meng Wan gazed into the distance. "Yes, he took his sister back to Heshan County. They went with the merchant caravan, and I also asked Gui Cheng to see them off."

"So she really is his sister." Tang Jinshuang was happy for Dong Dong.

"But he and Chen Daniu just got engaged. Juan Niang..."

Meng Wan naturally knew his concern. "Don't worry. The Chen family is decent. They even raised their neighbor's child—how could they not accommodate Juan Niang? When Dong Geer and Daniu get married, go back and attend the ceremony, and bring my gift for me."

"I trust your judgment, master." Having had a difficult early life, Tang Jinshuang was always full of worries, but he trusted Meng Wan without reservation.

Meng Wan patted his shoulder and teased, "When you get married, I'll give you an even bigger gift."

Tang Jinshuang replied numbly, "I will serve you for life, master, and never marry."

Meng Wan sighed. "I respect your choice, but I hope you won't let the shadows of the past hold you back. If you meet the right person, give it a try. I think Xiao Yu is quite good."

Tang Jinshuang turned his face away, his expression full of resistance.

"Alright, I'll stop. How are the preparations for the chamber of commerce going? Have we notified everyone?" Meng Wan's tone turned serious.

Tang Jinshuang had come precisely for this. "Except for the Qin family, we've notified every merchant we could reach in the prefectural city, the county, and the towns. Merchants have been arriving in the city since yesterday. I expect many will attend the chamber of commerce on time."

Meng Wan played with the jade pendant hanging at his waist. "I once heard my master's master and Third Uncle say that merchants in Yangzhou formed their own chambers of commerce. They divided into large and small groups by trade—big ones leading small ones, small ones relying on big ones. Together, they controlled nearly ninety percent of Yangzhou's business."

Tang Jinshuang looked at Meng Wan's calm, stern face and inexplicably found it reminiscent of Song Tingzhou when he was cold-faced. "Will we also unite the large and small chambers to control all trade in Xiwu Prefecture?"

"No." Meng Wan denied it quickly. He had never wanted to control the merchants of Xiwu or suppress outside traders. His goal was to enable free trade between Xiwu Prefecture—indeed, the entire Lingnan region—and other lands.

Meng Wan spoke with force. "I don't care if they want to set up their own private chambers of commerce. The reason I've gathered all the merchants of Xiwu is simple: I want them to look beyond their own little plots and focus on the outside world."

—Three days later, the first chamber of commerce of Xiwu Prefecture.

It was March, and Lingnan had not yet entered the rainy season proper, but temperatures had risen and rainfall had increased. The sky was dark today, with raindrops falling from time to time.

In the open space in front of Zhen Guan Workshop, twelve simple hexagonal wooden pavilions had been built recently. Each pavilion contained a bamboo table and ten bamboo chairs arranged in a circle.

Though not every merchant in Xiwu Prefecture had shown up, the reputation of Meng Wan, the Prefect's Lord, meant that nine of the twelve pavilions were full.

The merchants had taken seats according to arrival order. They gathered around and expressed their doubts to Meng Wan, who sat facing them from the central pavilion.

"Your meaning, Meng Fulang... forgive our dullness, but we truly do not understand."

Meng Wan was dressed today in a dark red front-buttoned long robe. He wore his hair in a simple bun fastened with a gold hairpin adorned with a pearl. It was not an overly ornate outfit, but the craftsmanship was fine, and it could not mask his striking, forthright temperament. At this moment, he seemed less like an official's husband and more like a seasoned merchant.

Seated among these merchants—old and young, facing their contemptuous, skeptical, curious, and appraising gazes—he spoke bluntly. "Pineapples from Qinzhou, bayberries from Liuzhou, mangoes from Lianzhou, bananas from Nanning, lychees and oranges from Xiwu... Haven't you noticed? This land beneath our feet, mocked by other regions, is actually rich in resources. It produces a variety of species unimaginable elsewhere in Yu."

A small merchant muttered, "They're just worthless fruits that can't be shipped out."

The others remained silent, but clearly thought the same. They had come to this ridiculous chamber of commerce, led by a xiaoge, only because they feared the fall of the Qin family and Song Tingzhou's official position—not because they were convinced by Meng Wan.

Meng Wan sat in the central pavilion, flanked by his personal guard Xue Sheng, Tang Jinshuang, Huang Ye, and seven or eight workshop managers.

"I know word has spread that I know nothing about business. In truth, apart from running the sugar workshop and lotus root workshop in Heshan, and the three workshops behind me, I have no proper shops or storefronts."

Meng Wan was neither exaggerating nor showing off; he was simply stating facts. As he spoke, the doubting murmurs across every pavilion faded away.

When the three factories in Xiwu Prefecture were first built with such fanfare, everyone was extremely surprised and impressed. However, the Zhen Guan Workshop subsequently failed to generate profits, with Meng Wan pouring countless sums of his own money into it instead. On top of Xiao Qin Shi stirring things up, unfavorable rumors about Meng Wan began to spread among the people. It wasn’t until Prefect Zeng retired and the Qin family collapsed that those whispers didn't dare come out in the open.

But had they forgotten that the most popular and profitable business in all of Lingnan, the Heshan Sugar Mill, was also the brainchild of this same Meng Fulang? And the mysterious Lotus Workshop, which only sold to out-of-town merchants, had made unknown but huge profits. Sure, they worried about Meng Wan supposedly messing up. He had already earned money they could never make in their lifetimes.

Seeing the crowd fall silent, Meng Wan calmly gave the order, “Jinshuang, have the items distributed to the managers.”

Tang Jinshuang followed the order and left, soon emerging again from Zhen Guan Workshop followed by a dozen workers, carrying simple bamboo baskets. They placed two jars of preserves, ten bowls, and ten spoons on every table in the pavilions.

“Some of you may be well-informed and already know what the three workshops behind me produce. But most of you probably don’t. Today, since everyone is here, I’ll tell you: the Zhen Guan Workshop produces the fruit preserve jars before you.”

Meng Wan stood up, picked up a fruit preserve jar, and removed a matching bamboo opener from its outer bamboo-woven cover. “Everyone, take this tool, place it at the jar’s rim, and apply a little pressure…”

With a “pop,” the lid came off.

Everyone momentarily forgot their earlier minor grievances, focusing intently on the delicate treat before them. Even they had never seen such a cleverly designed item before. Leaving aside the taste of the contents, the outer packaging alone showed thoughtful design.

Without needing Meng Wan’s further instructions, after opening the lids, everyone almost simultaneously started sharing the contents.

“The taste is acceptable, a bit sweet; women and young men would like it.”

“Plenty of juice, thick syrup, and quite pleasant to drink.”

“I still prefer fresh oranges.”

“I think it’s more convenient and practical than fresh oranges.”

Everyone started chattering all at once. Listening to their chatter, a faint smile gradually spread across Meng Wan’s lips. He clapped his hands, the sharp sound drawing everyone’s attention.

“Do you know that the fruit preserve jars you’re eating were made over four months ago and have been stored since then?”

As soon as he said this, everyone present was astonished. Some even jumped up, completely losing their cool.

“What! Meng Fulang, what do you mean? You're giving us stuff that's been sitting around for four months? You, you, you! I…”

Meng Wan ate a piece of orange preserve from his own jar right in front of them, cutting them off.

“Would I poison you all? The fruit preserve jars before me can last up to six months without spoiling!”

Those merchants had never heard of such an incredible thing, but recalling the taste they had just had, they had to believe it.

“Truly… can it really last six months?”

“Is it because the sugar's sweetness hides the fruit spoiling?”

“No, no—one can still tell if the fruit is good or bad; the contents of the jar are definitely not spoiled.”

“Then Meng Fulang must be lying; this stuff was just made and hasn’t been stored for four months.”

“That…”

If Meng Fulang had gone to all this trouble to gather them, what would he gain by lying? Deep down, they had started to believe that the Zhen Guan Workshop that Meng Wan set up really had something special about it.