As expected, the Bao family head quickly delivered the goods to my 30 shops. Aside from the withheld stored goods, of course. I didn’t think he’ll be nice enough to send it all over in any case. This is more than enough for my plans.

Next I’ll need shopkeepers, I was hoping I could use the maids in my house for that, but it seems like a tall order considering Father isn’t fond of having too many maids in our house. In total our family barely has 50 maids, compared to a typical Duke house, which employs up to a thousand servants easily.

I instruct Leticia to find a few maids she finds trustworthy, and teach them to be able to handle basic store service. That handles the part on training, but the raw manpower issue remains unsolved.

I’ll have to pay a visit to Yuan Zheng.

I walk in through the storefront casually.

“Welc- If it isn’t Qiu young master, to what do I owe this honour?”, Yuan Zheng smiles upon seeing me, greeting politely.

“I’m here to get money from you.”, I say casually.

Yuan Zheng’s eyebrow twitches, maintaining his smile, he asks, “Are you selling something, young master?”

“No. I’m here to borrow money.”

“Young master, this is something you should visit a bank for, my humble shop can’t possibly be able to lend a member of a Duke House money.”

“But I’m not borrowing it from your shop.”

“Then why are you here?”, he asks, exasperated..

:”I’m borrowing money from you.”

“W-wha-”

“It’s simple, really. I have a plan for something big, and if you intend to expand upon your shop, you can consider this an investment.”, I state frankly.

“Young master, you know very well I can’t just give you the money on a gut feeling. May I know more about that plan of yours?”, he says with a sharp look in his eyes, he’s ready to negotiate.

Unfortunately, I’m not here for a negotiation.

“I’ve stated my plans, I intend to borrow 2,000 gold coins from you. If you agree, I stake on my name that you’ll receive double that amount on half a year’s time.”

2,000 gold is the annual income of a large noble family. Even my Duke house doesn’t have an income much higher than that. We do still have many precious materials mined, so we’re much more well off than the average large noble family still.

A normal merchant won’t have so much spare cash. However, I trust that Yuan Zheng isn’t as simple as he looks. How could an ordinary merchant be able to give away a precious middle grade meditation technique of unknown origin so easily? The unknown origin is key, if it’s from a ruin unknown to most people, how could the person possessing it have an ordinary background?

I’ve checked and checked, and there’s no record of my meditation technique anywhere. There’s nothing close to it. While it’s a mediocre effect, it still represents an unknown ruin.

“2- 2,000 gold?! I couldn’t possibly possess that amount of money, you must be joking.”, he express shock and declines.