allonlinenovel Chapter 203: She wants the shipbuilding blueprints!
Chapter 203: She wants the shipbuilding blueprints!
After a while, the doctor arrived, and the carriage also arrived. Cao Kai was lifted into the carriage and left.
"Miss, it's windy at the dock, shall we head back first?" Xia Mo reminded her.
Yin Rou nodded.
She can't speak now; if she does, her true feelings will be revealed.
"Let's go," Xia Mo said, taking Yin Rou's hand as they left.
Huangfu Qian glanced at the harbor not far from the dock, then looked at Xia Mo, and silently followed Xia Mo away.
* * *
In Lingzhou Prefecture, the Yin family—
Officials came to our door.
The gatekeeper was uneasy when he saw that they were government officials, and he didn't understand why they would come.
The clerk in charge said, "We were sent by the government to check whether the house was built beyond the permitted specifications."
The gatekeeper's eyes flickered, and he stepped aside to let the clerk and the two constables he was with enter.
"How many courtyards does your house have?" the clerk asked.
In fact, the houses built by wealthy merchants and powerful people all exceeded the two-courtyard limit stipulated by the government, but the government turned a blind eye and rarely investigated seriously.
Clearly, Mr. Clerk came to cause trouble on purpose.
"Two entrances," the gatekeeper replied.
“No, your house occupies two acres of land, how could it only have two courtyards?!” the clerk immediately said.
"I'll show you around the house," the gatekeeper replied respectfully.
The clerk picked up the booklet in his hand, intending to write down three or four courtyards, but when he went into the front passageway, he was already in the backyard, which was clearly two courtyards.
"Why have you divided the house into so many small courtyards?" The clerk noticed that the house occupied a large area, but it did not exceed the two-courtyard limit stipulated by the imperial court!
But he came here to cause trouble! He was somewhat unwilling to give up.
"How many small courtyards are there in your backyard?" the clerk asked.
"The backyard is divided into five small courtyards in total. There are four secondary courtyards outside the main courtyard. We don't have permission to open the smaller main courtyards, but we can open the secondary courtyards. Would you like to see them, sir?" the gatekeeper asked politely.
Looking at the gatekeeper's open and honest demeanor, the clerk realized that even if he looked, he wouldn't be able to figure it out, so he retreated back to the front yard.
forecourt--
"Why are there so many rooms in your front yard? How many servants do you have?" The clerk's eyes flickered. According to government regulations, the number of slaves a wealthy merchant could buy was also limited.
"We only bought ten servants, one of whom is me. There are four men and six maids. As for the rooms, they are for hired workers, and we have signed long-term or short-term contracts," the gatekeeper answered methodically.
The clerk held his ink-stained brush, desperately wanting to omit the fact that the number of slaves exceeded the quota, but... this record could be easily verified by comparing it with the official documents in the government office; it was impossible to falsify!
The clerk looked at the gatekeeper and said, "No problem!"
The clerk practically spat out those five words through gritted teeth.
If the house doesn't exceed the standard, it means he won't earn any reward money on this trip.
“We are law-abiding citizens and will certainly abide by the rules set by the government,” the gatekeeper said solemnly again.
The clerk felt a surge of emotion, glanced at the two-acre house in Lingzhou Prefecture, worth 50,000 taels of silver, and then turned and left with a flick of his sleeve.
The clerk and the constable who had been looking for trouble had just left when Xia Mo and the others returned.
The gatekeeper immediately relayed the message to Huangfu Qian.
Huangfu Qian nodded, looked at Xia Mo, and said, "I might need to borrow your flying eagle."
Xia Mo raised an eyebrow: "Okay."
She now understood why Huangfu Qian wanted to borrow her flying eagle.
At the end of summer, he sent out a silent whistle with his divine sense ten miles away. About half an hour later, the eagle finally found the house and landed in the courtyard.
Even when the whistle was transmitted through Xia Mo's divine sense, the flying eagles heard it and landed without hesitation.
The female eagle, seeing Xia Mo, jumped around excitedly on the ground, her eagle eyes shining with an astonishing brightness.
Xia Mo took out a small, off-white pill and threw it out.
The female eagle stretched down her neck, nimbly caught it, and swallowed it.
“He has something for you to do, so just follow his instructions,” Xia Mo said.
The female eagle immediately looked at Huangfu Qian.
Huangfu Qian wrote a note, put it in a small bamboo tube, and said, "Send this to the military camp twenty miles away and let Jiang Dian receive it."
The female eagle nodded human-like, grabbed the small bamboo tube containing the note, and took flight, heading towards the horizon with a clear purpose: to reach the garrisoned troops.
Cao Kai used the influence of the Cao family to get government officials to make things difficult for Yin Rou.
Therefore, Huangfu Qian needed to make preparations in advance to make the government officials hesitant to act recklessly. As for using secret schemes, there were other countermeasures.
Even if Huangfu Qian didn't say it, he was certain that Xia Mo understood the deeper meaning behind his actions.
The female eagle delivered the message, and Huangfu Qian turned towards Xia Mo, heading towards the second courtyard, to the small hall of the courtyard where Yin Rou was resting.
Yin Rou was in the small hall, watching Huangfu Qian and Xia Mo switch places and walk forward, her eyes flickering slightly.
It seems that Steward Huang's identity is not simple!
Yin Rou looked at Xia Mo with a puzzled expression.
Huangfu Qian took out a bronze token with the character "Han" and an exquisite ship totem on it.
The moment Yin Rou saw the pattern on the bronze token, her eyes widened in astonishment as she looked at Huangfu Qian in disbelief.
“This is the Han family’s shipping business. From now on, you will be in charge of it,” Huangfu Qian said.
With trembling hands, Yin Rou solemnly accepted the bronze token. Her excited heart was still unable to calm down. She looked up again, this time looking up at Huangfu Qian.
Cao Family Shipping is a very large company with business all over the country. It can be said that if Cao Family Shipping is second, no one dares to claim to be first. However, there is one shipping company that Cao Family Shipping has to give way to and dare not offend easily. That shipping company is Han Family Shipping!
Han Family Shipping is not high-profile, and therefore, apart from those in high positions of power and a few wealthy businessmen, few people know about Han Family Shipping.
"Really... you're leaving it to me to manage?" Yin Rou swallowed hard and asked again, uncertainly.
“Yes,” Huangfu Qian nodded.
"Manager Huang believes in your abilities. He thinks you can lead Han Family Shipping to new heights. Don't let him down!" Xia Mo smiled happily.
Yin Rou wanted to reclaim her fortune and confront Cao Kai directly, so how could she do that without a ship? Clearly, Huangfu Qian had thought of this and made arrangements in advance.
Given Huangfu Qian's well-prepared methods, regaining the fortune wouldn't take too long.
Hehe, once this is over, she'll be able to go home and spend some time with her parents and brothers again.
The thought of going home to be with family at the end of summer made me even happier.
That is, at this moment—
In the courtyard where Cao Kai lived in the Cao residence—
Cao Kai's live streaming system realized that the task of plundering fortune might not go smoothly, so the system issued a new task for Cao Kai to complete, encouraging him to accelerate the plundering of fortune.
The screen in front of Cao Kai flickered and jumped directly to the mission interface, where a side mission appeared under the main mission.
Side Quest: Successfully resolve the crisis of delivering goods for human traffickers, and you will be rewarded with a shipbuilding blueprint.
The moment Xia Mo received this information with her divine sense, her vision brightened.
She wanted the shipbuilding blueprints!