Reborn: The First Rank "Madam"

C50 – If You Are an Official You will be a Corrupt Official!

When Zuo Shaoqing returned to his room, he sent a message to Second Master. In less than an hour, Zuo Yunyang had arrived, sweating profusely.

Zuo Shaoqing brewed a pot of Longjing tea, which was given to him by Zuo Yunyang. He offered it as a gift and said, “Please forgive me for having to let Second Uncle come here because I have something important to discuss.”

“Haha… Why was Shao Qing so polite? It’s only right for Second Uncle to take care of your nephew.” Zuo Yunyang smiled as he waited for Zuo Shaoqing to finish.

Recently, his business had been booming every day. He was smiling from ear to ear every day, so he obviously didn’t care about Zuo Shaoqing’s bland attitude.

Zuo Yunyang finally understood that this Third Nephew had been hiding his identity very deeply. No one in the main house could see his true face, let alone know the relationship between him and Master Lu. Thinking back to Lady Ruan’s death a while ago, Zuo Yunyang made a bold guess.

Although his family didn’t have much of a dirty work in the backyard, he had heard quite a bit about it in the business world. Besides, his wife had once said that Lady Ruan’s death was somehow related to his elder sister-in-law.

The main house had always had its eyes up high, and the way it looked at the second house was full of disdain and contempt for the merchants. Zuo Yunyang was very happy to see them beat up.

While he was thinking happily on this side, he heard Zuo Shaoqing say, “I heard that someone was using his seal letter as a show of power in the Cao Sect. I interrogated my nephew yesterday, so I invited second uncle here just to find out the truth of the matter.”

Zuo Yunyang’s smile froze as he hurriedly explained, “Oh Shao Qing, how can Second Uncle be someone who doesn’t know the seriousness of the situation? I have only used Master Lu’s seal letter once, the Cao Sect have intercepted Second Uncle’s shipment, and Second Uncle is only borrowing Master Lu’s face.”

After that, no matter how the people in the underworld told him that they were afraid of him, it was none of his business.

Zuo Shaoqing cursed silently: “Old fox!” Then he raised his face into a smile, “I am of the same family with Second Uncle, of course, we are of the same side, but I can’t not give an explanation to Master Lu.”

“Then you mean…?”

Zuo Shaoqing didn’t answer and asked, “Second Uncle, do you think it would be feasible if we could do business together with the Wu Steel Manor?”

Zuo Yunyang opened his eyes wide, and the fat on his face trembled in excitement. “Nephew wants to put the business of kaleidoscope under the name of the Wu Steel Manor?”

“This is just a little thought from nephew. Whether or not it’s possible requires second uncle’s consent. If it’s possible, let’s… It will still depend on the lord’s decision.”

Zuo Yunyang quickly analyzed the pros and cons. Of course, he understood that with the status of the Wu Steel Manor, there were many families that they wanted to depend on. He was just a businessman, and if he wanted to enter the other party’s eyes, he would need an explanation.

However, it was good to have the big tree, the Wu Steel Manor, as cover, but how was one to split the profits? Zuo Yunyang directly asked his own question.

“Second Uncle is the businessman. Nephew doesn’t understand the twists and turns in this matter. Why don’t you discuss it with Master Lu?”

Zuo Yunyang’s eyes lit up. He was full of energy now, but he couldn’t help hesitating while he was excited. After all, he had to listen to his orders when discussing matters with the old man.

But with such a good opportunity, how could Zuo Yunyang let it go?

At night, Zuo Shaoqing was waiting at the side door of Zuo’s Mansion. Watching Wu Tie slowly approach under the moonlight, he actually had the feeling of meeting a beauty in the middle of the night.

However, the beauty was too tall and too imposing. Zuo Shaoqing looked up and said, “My father didn’t like this junior doing business, so I had to let Master Lu leave in the middle of the night.”

Lu Zheng scolded, “Obstinate.” Then he passed in front of Zuo Shaoqing with an expressionless face.

Zuo Shaoqing touched his nose and confirmed once again that Master Lu had a strong prejudice against scholars.

Zuo Shaoqing’s appointed place was the shop given to him by Zuo Yunyang, so he called the manager of the shop over as well, intending to meet this future god of wealth.

The manager of the general store was not very old. He had just turned into a young man. He was short, had thick black skin, was extremely shabby looking, had a moustache on his mouth, and had small, obscene eyes that shone with a shrewd light.

Seeing Zuo Shaoqing, he bowed slightly and said in a flattering tone, “Good morning, Master San!”

The corner of Zuo Shaoqing’s eyes twitched. He couldn’t believe that the person in front of him, who didn’t need anything in the future, was Ke Youliang, who would become famous in the business world.

“Supervisor Ke, no need to be so courteous. Second Uncle gave me this shop, and I won’t be managing it. You can decide what happens in the store from now on.”

The corner of Ke Youliang’s mouth curled up as he obediently responded. In his heart, he thought, “As expected, how could such a young master who only knows how to read books do business?”

Zuo Shaoqing did not care about what he was thinking, he just said: “Although I do not know much about business, but I know that the items sold in our shop are too ordinary, the Youuxi Town is only so big, the guest sources are limited, coincidentally, Second Uncle is in the process of doing the transportation business, I just want to borrow two ships from Second Uncle and run the sea. I wonder if Supervisor Ke has the ability to pilot the ship out to sea?”

Ke Youliang straightened his back in shock and looked seriously at Zuo Shaoqing for the first time, “Boss, what you mean is… Our store is going to change businesses?”

“That depends on whether you can get good stuff from overseas.” Zuo Shaoqing looked indifferent, as if he did not care whether the shop made money or not. He just suggested: “If you want to go, it would be best to find the staff by the end of the year and prepare everything. I will leave the rest to you.”

Ke Youliang would never have thought that Third Master Zuo was such a tough person. This was completely inconsistent with the rumors. He knew that the more difficult it was to deal with such a person, so he put aside the initial contempt and began to discuss it seriously.

“It’s good to go out to sea, but it’s too risky to go out to sea. I’m afraid Boss will have to prepare a lot of An family’s silver.” Ke Youliang looked at Zuo Shaoqing awkwardly, “This shop’s profitable master hasn’t touched a single cent, but it’s still not enough.”

“How much is the difference? Give me a number. If it’s not enough, I can ask second uncle to lend it to me.” In any case, he still had 30% of the profits, so he should ask second uncle first if it wasn’t too much.

When Ke Youliang heard these rich and overbearing words, he felt reassured. He gave Zuo Shaoqing a detailed list of everything that he needed, and everything that he needed was very clear.

Zuo Shaoqing nodded in satisfaction. It seemed that Ke Youliang had thought of going out to sea before, but he did not find a good time to report to his second uncle.

I really want to see Second Uncle’s regretful expression in the future.

Ke Youliang sized up the new owner from the corner of his eyes. Although the owner said that he was the one in charge of everything in the shop, he could tell that the owner was very serious about this matter.

Now that his indenture contract was in his hands, he couldn’t afford to be careless.

Zuo Shaoqing indeed didn’t know much about business, and could only rely on the memories of his previous life to give him some advice. Even so, it was enough to make Ke Youliang frightened and benefited a lot.

Walking out of the store, Zuo Shaoqing carefully observed the expressions of Lu Zheng and Zuo Yunyang. Zuo Shaoqing carefully observed the expressions of Lu Zheng and Zuo Yunyang.

After bidding farewell to Zuo Yunyang, Zuo Shaoqing followed behind Lu Zheng and walked on the dark and silent street. After mulling over for a while, he finally dared to ask: “How was the discussion between Master Lu and Second Uncle?”

Lu Zheng replied coldly, “Unscrupulous!”

“Ugh…” Zuo Shaoqing lowered his head and held back his laughter as he said as tactfully as possible: “It’s easier to earn money with evil merchants since it’s for you to earn money anyways, so the more the better.”

Lu Zheng glanced at him, but nobody knew what he was thinking.

Zuo Shaoqing didn’t see him talking and thought he was too philistine. He explained with a shy face, “Master Lu has a big family and has thousands of people to support. Money is indispensable.”

Lu Zheng commented in an indifferent tone, “If you become an official, you will definitely be greedy!”

Zuo Shaoqing’s heart skipped a beat and his face turned red from embarrassment. He looked at Lu Zheng with anticipation, “Master Lu… You are wrongly accused of being late in life…”

Lu Zheng shot him a glance and successfully stopped Zuo Shaoqing’s mouth.

Zuo Shaoqing’s heart skipped a beat again. He could actually see the teasing tone from Lu Zheng’s glance. Was the sky too dark and the eyes too dazzling?

Quickly following, Zuo Shaoqing has been trying to redeem his honest and honest image, from the harm of corrupt officials to the difficult situation of the current state of clearing officials, finally summing up: being an official should pay attention to weighing skills, can’t be too greedy or too honest.