Chapter 170: Private Freelancer

Qiao Yuan's attention was pulled back by the surrounding scent of books, ink, and tea.

Having already arrived here, his fear and anxiety did not deepen; instead, he calmed down a little.

He recalled the information he had previously inquired about regarding Wen Gu.

Since that person came from a family of poetry and ritual, should he prepare a few lines of poetry to bridge the distance later?

Just as he was thinking this, footsteps came from outside.

Qiao Yuan could not care about anything else and hurriedly bowed in that direction.

Halfway through the bow, he suddenly noticed that the person who entered was not right.

Wen Gu was not yet twenty, but the person who entered looked about the same age as himself.

Clerk Lu looked over this Master Qiao in the tea room and asked, "Are you Qiao Yuan?"

Qiao Yuan bowed respectfully: "This humble one is indeed."

Clerk Lu said: "My surname is Lu, and I am a clerk here. Deputy Envoy Wen has temporary business; please wait a moment."

They were not intentionally leaving Qiao Yuan hanging here. Lao Zhao had some temporary matters to find him about, so Wen Gu had gone to Zhao Fu.

Clerk Lu had someone come in to change the pot of tea: "Sit down; it will likely take another half an hour or so."

Qiao Yuan thanked him repeatedly, feeling very restrained.

Seeing that Qiao Yuan had brought benefits to the Patrol Guard Division, Clerk Lu did not make things difficult for him; he simply came in to pass on the message and then returned to the office. At this time, in the office, Cheng Zhi and Clerk Fang were both waiting.

Seeing Clerk Lu return, Clerk Fang asked impatiently: "How is it? Does that man surnamed Qiao have anything special about him?"

Clerk Lu shook his head, saying with a puzzled expression: "I cannot see anything special; he looks like a very common small merchant."

Clerk Fang was confused: "If there is nothing outstanding about him, why did Deputy Envoy Wen call him here?"

Cheng Zhi also expressed his own opinion: "Could it be about that batch of Sugar from his merchant caravan..."

Fang and Lu both said: "What 'his' Sugar? Is it recorded in the official case files?"

Qiao Yuan did not want to report his own smuggling, and there were no official documents recorded; if it was lost, then it was not his property!

Whoever finds it, it belongs to them!

If our Patrol Guard Division finds it, it belongs to our Patrol Guard Division!

Fair and square!

"Oh, right, right!" Cheng Zhi corrected himself, "It is *our* Sugar!"

It was not that he could not remember, but that his logical thinking often could not keep up.

After spending these days together, the two clerks, Fang and Lu, already understood Cheng Zhi.

He was a truly honest man!

To be honest, if not for the changing times, even if Cheng Zhi could pass the imperial examinations, he would not have gone far.

Even now, if Cheng Zhi's backer were not Wen Gu, but anyone else, Cheng Zhi would not have had an easy time; he might have become cannon fodder at any moment, without even a scrap left.

"Alright, hurry up and get to work!" Clerk Lu returned to his station and reminded the other two to work quickly and stop being curious, as it was delaying things. When Cheng Zhi first arrived, they had worried that Wen Gu would cut staff and lay off one of the two of them.

But now, they no longer thought that way, and the atmosphere in the office was becoming increasingly harmonious.

They were even looking forward to: when would Deputy Envoy Wen recruit another person?!

There was too much work; three people were not enough!

On the other side, in the small tea room.

Qiao Yuan hesitated, then sat down.

From the moment he received the news until now, he had not had a drop of water, and he was indeed quite thirsty.

Nowadays, all supplies were in short supply, and tea had gradually become a luxury; without some family wealth, one really could not afford to drink it.

He could not bear to drink tea in his own home, but now that he had come to the Patrol Guard Division, he was able to drink a few cups.

Although it was not high-quality tea, it was rare during a time of material shortages.

After easing his thirst, Qiao Yuan continued to analyze.

The meaning of the clerk's words just now was that Deputy Envoy Wen really did have temporary business and was not intentionally leaving him hanging.

That is to say, there was still time to calm down and carefully ponder how to handle things later.

Was he going to have his home raided?

That should not be the case.

If he were to have his home raided for the level of profit he gained from smuggling, then every single wealthy family and noble in Xinzhou City would have to go to the Eighteen Levels of Hell to suffer punishment!

Although his status could not be compared to the nobles, Xinzhou City currently maintained a delicate order; Qiao Yuan had neither rebelled nor made enemies with the nobles, and the nobles would not even look twice at his little bit of family wealth. If a small fry like him were to have his home raided for this, many people would have to run! A home raid was unlikely.

Then why call him here for tea?

The batch of Sugar robbed by horse bandits?

He had already accepted his losses, and the Patrol Guard Division did not seem to want to give up that batch of Sugar.

He had been smuggling at the time and it was not on record, so even legally, that cargo would not be returned to him now.

Why go to such unnecessary trouble?

Qiao Yuan was very clear about his own status. He was never a prominent figure before, and now that he had arrived in Xinzhou, he had only opened a shop next to the house he had purchased and acted as a small shopkeeper himself.

He just brought goods from the south from time to time, sold them, and traded for other supplies to make a living.

He could only show off in front of the poor; in the eyes of the nobles, he was worthless.

Could it be that Wen Gu wanted him to help with business?

Could the Shen Family not do it? The Shen Family's commercial scale was much larger!

Besides, with Wen Gu's current status, as long as word got out, plenty of people would crowd over to be his pawns.

How could the other party look favorably upon his meager skills!

Qiao Yuan did not understand why Wen Gu had called him over.

Thinking left and right, making all sorts of guesses, time passed without me noticing. Finally, footsteps were heard outside again, and there was more than one person.

Qiao Yuan hurriedly stood up to look over.

The person in the lead was very young and had a refined, scholarly air, which was even more obvious when set against the group of martial men beside him.

Qiao Yuan hurriedly bowed, but his gaze involuntarily swept to Yu He beside Wen Gu, then looked at the blade Yu He was carrying.

The few elegant poems he had just thought of were all scared out of his mind!

He had seen Yu He before.

Back when they were "clearing house" in Xinzhou City, he had seen Yu He from a distance leading men to raid the residence of a certain wealthy household.

That murderous aura could be felt from far away, and he still couldn't forget it to this day.

Now, the aura on Yu He was steady, and in theory, he shouldn't be raided himself. But there was no helping it; a conditioned reflex had already formed, the scene from back then flashed automatically in his mind, and fear bubbled up.

The tea he had just drunk turned into sweat, which poured down with a *swish*.

Wen Gu walked quickly into the tea room.

"I was held up by temporary business, making Shopkeeper Qiao wait a long time. My apologies!"

Qiao Yuan came back to his senses and hurriedly bowed again: "Business comes first, business comes first! Deputy Envoy Wen is the one who is..."

"Working hard!"

He screamed internally: What virtue or ability do I have to make you so polite to me!

Could it be that he wants to sell me out?

Based on his many years of experience in business, when a superior is this amiable to you, you must be on high alert!

His life should be fine for the moment, but!

How big a pit lies ahead, that is unknown.

Wen Gu sat down and didn't mention Sugar for half a word, instead saying: "I hear Shopkeeper Qiao has connections among the various tribes in Beidi?"

With so much refined Sugar being shipped out, there must be buyers.

As a merchant from the South, where did you get connections in the northern grasslands? How did you hook up with the Beidi tribes?

Qiao Yuan took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down.

Now the Zhao Family is in charge of Xinzhou and does not pursue past matters, but colluding with the enemy and betraying the country is not among them!

Fearing he would be misunderstood, Qiao Yuan didn't even have time to wipe his sweat and hurriedly explained:

"It was a fellow townsman who acted as a go-between to facilitate the trade! It was purely commercial dealings!"

The one who acted as a go-between for Qiao Yuan was an old fellow townsman, only that fellow townsman had offended a noble a few years ago and fled to the North.

"I heard he climbed up to a tribal noble, and that noble was addicted to sweetness and liked to eat sweet things. To show off his status, he even demanded it had to be refined Sugar!" Qiao Yuan had sugarcane fields in the South.

As for exactly how many, he didn't dare to elaborate.

Since the rise of the sugar industry, sugar had turned from an import to an export, and the profits were too great!

Under the lure of huge profits, merchants expanded their plantations, and some even converted rice paddies to grow sugarcane.

The imperial court used laws to restrict it, but whether the government decrees could be effective when they reached the local level was another matter.

He, Qiao Yuan, could only be considered a small fry; there were plenty of gentry, powerful clans, and noble families with even more sugarcane fields!

Even when the world was at peace before, the imperial court didn't dare to investigate too closely.

That Qiao Yuan could receive orders from Beidi tribal nobles was entirely thanks to that fellow townsman.

That fellow townsman of his was not a professional broker or intermediary.

"Back home, he was just an Idler, without a proper job, usually looking for odd jobs everywhere to earn some food..."

He was a man who, once fed, had no other burdens.

"It was just that one time, he accidentally offended a noble, so he ran to the North..."

A few years later, the other party took the initiative to contact Qiao Yuan, saying his current employer wanted to buy some refined Sugar.

That fellow townsman of his also wanted to earn some "intermediary fees" from it and had put in a lot of effort with the tribal nobles in the North to secure the job. It was just that the times changed too fast, and no one got what they wanted.

The Evil Plague arose everywhere, and most of the survivors of the Beidi grassland tribes ran to the Qi Clan.

A portion of the Qi Clan's cavalry consisted of people from the tribes.

If that fellow townsman was lucky enough to survive, he should have gone over with them.

And Qiao Yuan had come to Xinzhou; they might not meet again in this lifetime. The probability of meeting an old acquaintance in a strange land was too low!

Wen Gu listened to Qiao Yuan's account and suddenly asked: "What do they use to trade with you?"

Qiao Yuan said: "Gold."

Wen Gu looked a bit interested: "So generous, trading directly with gold? Do they have gold mines in their hands?"

Qiao Yuan lowered his head even further: "I... I don't know."

He really didn't know, but in the process of chatting privately with that fellow townsman back then, he had made some guesses through the bits of information the other party revealed.

That was why Qiao Yuan privately referred to certain tribal nobles in the North as "filthy rich dogs."

The other party had gold mines in their hands! They were willing to spend gold to buy things!

It made his heart ache just thinking about it.

Damn those Caishan Horse Bandits!

It was a pity; regardless of whether there were gold mines before, the gold mines couldn't be of much use for the time being.

However...

I heard the tribes north of Xinzhou have moved away; the people are gone, but the mines can't move! Is Deputy Envoy Wen interested in gold mines?

Wen Gu was also pondering matters in the North.

The tribes north of Xinzhou also suffered severely from the plague. For the sake of survival, after the Head of the Family of the Qi Clan took the initiative to contact them, most of the surviving tribes went to the Qi Clan. A large stretch of grassland near Xinzhou was now empty.

Lao Zhao planned to send people over to raise sheep to provide meat for Xinzhou, and the wool could also be used to make textiles or felt blankets for warmth.

When the time comes, have someone keep an eye out; if a gold mine is discovered, we can smelt a batch of gold while we're at it, to prepare for a rainy day.

However, compared to the potential gold mine in the north, Wen Gu was more interested in the person who had acted as a go-between for Qiao Yuan.

Great powers plant secret agents among one another, but besides these "official personnel," one can also cultivate capable people among the common folk.

Qiao Yuan was still pondering how to bring up the matter of the gold mine; he truly did not know, yet he worried about being suspected of intentionally concealing it.

Instead, he heard Wen Gu say: "Tell me more about your fellow townsman, that freelance professional among the common folk."

The other few merchants who had gathered with Qiao Yuan had been keeping a close watch on the Qiao family.

They wanted to see the Qiao family's fate before deciding on their own future choices.

However, after waiting and waiting, they did not see the Patrol Guard Division raid the Qiao residence; on the contrary, Qiao Yuan returned exactly as he had left. Only, compared to before he went, he was no longer pale upon his return, his legs were no longer weak, he did not pant urgently while walking, and he went home in a relaxed manner.

At a glance, it was clear he was fine.

After returning home, Qiao Yuan kept his doors tightly shut and declined all visitors.

"What on earth did the Patrol Guard Division say to him?"

"It couldn't be that they want him to work for the Patrol Guard Division from now on, could it?"

Besides doing business, what else could that man Qiao Yuan possibly do?

Besides, there is no shortage of merchants in Xinzhou City; why would it be Qiao Yuan?

The few of us aren't any worse than him!

The few of them wanted to invite Qiao Yuan out again.

Qiao Yuan used the excuse of feeling unwell and needing two days of quiet rest to decline.

"This old Qiao! Is he holding a grudge? Resenting us?"

"He only said he needed two days of quiet rest, so let's invite him again in two days."

Qiao Residence.

Qiao Yuan lay on the bed resting.

His posture was peaceful.

Without fear, his heart was at ease, and now he could carefully think things over.

Think back on some more detailed past events regarding that fellow townsman who had acted as his go-between.

For instance, his former life as an Idler... no, carefully recalling the other party's former freelance career.

Deputy Envoy Wen wanted to learn about this person.

Qiao Yuan turned over.

He suddenly thought of something. Today, when he was invited by Deputy Envoy Wen for tea, he felt that this person, Wen Gu, did not seem interested in gold?

In the future, if he wanted to give Deputy Envoy Wen a gift, what should he give?

A person?

He couldn't possibly tie up that fellow townsman and send him over, could he?

When Qiao Yuan drifted off into a hazy sleep, he was still pondering this matter.

Fellow townsman, where are you!