Chapter 85: The Past of Li Quan

Hearing Zhu Gaoxu say this, Li Quan did not dawdle; he stood up and said directly to Zhu Gaoxu, "Little Master, you may not know, but this humble servant has been in the Prince of Yan's Wangfu for ten years."

"At that time, the Prince of Yan's Wangfu did not have much of a family business in Kyoto; there were only three shops, and this humble servant was the manager of one of them."

"Originally, as a servant of the Prince of Yan's Wangfu, and being the manager of a restaurant to boot, life was quite comfortable."

"But who would have thought that by a stroke of luck, I met the child's mother. The Prince has always been lenient with his servants and allowed me to start a family."

As he spoke, Li Quan glanced at his daughter beside him.

However, Zhu Gaoxu saw a trace of dimness in the little girl's eyes, and Zhu Gaoxu guessed that Li Quan's wife must have passed away.

Sure enough, it was exactly as Zhu Gaoxu had guessed.

"Her mother was the daughter of an ordinary family in Jingcheng, but an influential family took a fancy to her and wanted to take her as a concubine. Her mother did not agree, and since we were in love, we discussed it, and I took the betrothal gifts to her home to propose."

"It was because of this that I was held in hatred by that influential family. They dared not go against the Wangfu, but it was too easy to bully a lowly servant like me."

Speaking of this, Li Quan must have thought of a sad matter, and his voice choked up for a moment.

"As one of the three managers of the Prince of Yan's Wangfu, I naturally blocked many people's paths at the time, and many people were jealous of me."

"So for a time, I was plagued by all kinds of trouble, and naturally, I could no longer be the manager of that restaurant."

"Later, when her mother gave birth to her, she died in difficult labor. For the sake of the child, I begged Wang Guanjia to give me an outside assignment."

"At that time, the Wangfu's business was growing, and Wang Guanjia saw that it was not easy for me to raise the child alone, and since I was literate and had experience as a manager, he sent me here."

Speaking of this, Li Quan might have thought of his late wife, and tears could not stop streaming from his eyes.

Zhu Gaoxu now understood some of Li Quan's past experiences. Not wanting to disturb him, Zhu Gaoxu nodded, signaling for Li Quan to continue.

After reaching out to wipe away his tears, Li Quan continued: "When I first arrived at this grocery store, I was quite satisfied, thinking I would manage it steadily. Even if I didn't earn much money, at least I could live like a human being; it was considered a good job within the Wangfu."

"But alas, the tree wants to be still, but the wind will not cease. Some of my old rivals in the Wangfu saw that I was back to being a manager, so they teamed up to scheme against me."

"I run a grocery store, and I have all the common items from the Wangfu here, so they made me send the goods I collected to the Wangfu. In truth, the Prince had already gone to his fief, and the Prince of Yan's Wangfu didn't have that much expenditure, but these people still made things difficult for me."

"They would withhold half of the goods I collected and let me barely scrape by with the other half."

"So over these years, although the shop has barely managed to survive, there really isn't any money left."

Hearing this, Zhu Gaoxu finally understood everything.

It was a struggle between servants.

There was no saying who was right or wrong.

Every class has its own way of survival; Zhu Gaoxu had no right to comment on the infighting among servants.

If one does not know the suffering, how can one dare to judge the faults?

Nodding, Zhu Gaoxu, having learned the general situation, did not delve any deeper.

"Let this matter end here. I do not wish to participate in the internal affairs, but now I am in charge of this shop. If anyone still doesn't know what's good for them and continues to harass you, you may tell me!"

Zhu Gaoxu did not intend to manage the past, but he could not let some servants ruin his plans.

After saying this, Zhu Gaoxu rose and headed to the backyard.

This time, Li Quan did not stop him and followed respectfully behind Zhu Gaoxu.

The backyard was not large, but it was not small either.

There were side rooms on the left and right, and the main room was in the center.

Zhu Gaoxu entered and inspected them one by one, feeling increasingly satisfied.

"Not bad! I won't touch the main room; keep it for you and your daughter. Clear out these side rooms for me; I will send people to renovate them later."

Li Quan dared not object, nodded, and waited behind for Zhu Gaoxu's further instructions.

The shop was only this big, so there was little for Zhu Gaoxu to order. Having said what needed to be said, Zhu Gaoxu left behind one hundred taels of silver and then departed the grocery store.

From beginning to end, Zhu Gaoxu never told Li Quan what he intended to buy.

Li Quan, of course, did not dare to ask.

Just like that, Li Quan watched Zhu Gaoxu walk further and further away until he disappeared at the end of the road. Then, not daring to delay, he first closed the shop and then began to look for people to renovate it.

As for Zhu Gaoxu, he did not return to the Military Camp immediately.

He was quite at ease with Mao Xiang there, so he turned and headed to the Ministry of Works.

Arriving at the Ministry of Works office, Zhu Gaoxu went inside and was immediately greeted by a minor official.

"What instructions does the Prince have for coming here?"

Zhu Gaoxu was quite well-known in the Ministry of Works, after all, he had often come to the office to find Yan Zhenzhi before.

It was just that Yan Zhenzhi had been assigned elsewhere, so this time he could only entrust the task to someone else.