Chapter Thirty: Farewell

  For two days, Wang Shi-cong had been seeing Liu Jin without giving any response, which clearly implied that Wang Shi-cong was allowed to seal off the Qunfang Pavilion.

  There is a kind of wisdom in the officialdom. Wang Shifu conveyed Cao Yuan's meaning to Liu Jin, and Liu Jin did not respond, which was tantamount to tacit consent. Otherwise, either Liu Jin would give him some hint or there would be some changes in the court. However, since the court has been calm recently without any movement, Wang Shifu understood Liu Jin's intention. This is a kind of tacit understanding. After all, Liu Jin is a person with status and position, he will not say to Wang Shifu: "It's okay, you can seal off the Qunfang Pavilion."

  Isn't this equivalent to saying that one can't defeat Cao Yuan?

  Wang Shi thought that Cao Yuan was still a bit short of strength to compete with Liu Jin, but this time he was able to make Liu Jin swallow this bitter pill, there must be someone behind the scenes.

  There were not many people in the Ming Dynasty who had a higher official position than Cao Yuan, and those who had the qualifications to be his backstage mastermind could be counted on one hand. Wang Shifu thought of Li Dongyang as soon as he made an inference, and when he thought of this, Wang Shifu did not dare to delay any longer and directly ordered the sealing of the Qunfang Pavilion.

  What a coincidence, Wang Shi's order was given to Li Qianshun, one of the officials of Shuntian Prefecture. After receiving this order, Li Qianshun did not feel any sense of revenge, but instead felt embarrassed. The previous incident had already made Li Qianshun aware that Jiang Xia and Liu Jin, the supervisor of the Eastern Depot, were related, and their relationship was not superficial. At the same time, he also knew after the fact that there was an unclear and inexplicable relationship between Guan Fang Ge and Liu Jin, so when he was asked to seal off Guan Fang Ge, Li Qianshun felt a chill run down his back.

  However, Wang Shifu's order has already been issued, and he can't not go. After thinking for a whole morning, Li Qianshun made up his mind: he must go, but after going, his attitude must be good, his posture must be low, and he must make it clear that this is an order from above. As for what happens next in the group, whether to deal with them or not, that's Wang Shifu's business, nothing to do with him.

  Li Qianshun was unaware that the Quanfang Pavilion had been closed for two days, waiting for him to seal it.

  Over the past two days, Kang Qingyan and Jiang Xia made a handover. Jiang Xia announced to the employees of Qunfang Pavilion that Qunfang Pavilion would be relocated. Of course, after relocation, it can no longer be called Qunfang Pavilion. Originally, when Jiang Xia and Zhu Houzhao discussed it, they planned to name it "Las Vegas", but Zhu Houzhao said he didn't understand what the name meant, so he didn't agree. In the end, the two confirmed that the new store would be named "Xiao Yao Mountain Villa".

  Jiang Xia went to see the so-called Xianyao Villa, which was indeed the residence of the former Minister of Works. The villa occupied a large area and was finely decorated, with clear functional divisions. The house was divided into three parts: the first part was the main entrance, where guests were received in a spacious hall.

  Jiang Xia decided to turn it into a large casino, which can accommodate three large gaming halls and twenty small VIP rooms. After passing the first floor, there is a small garden, and after passing through the garden, there is the second floor, originally the central courtyard, Jiang Xia considered turning this place into an auction house, restaurant and internal pawnshop.

  After passing the second gate, there is a long corridor. On the left side of the corridor is a large artificial lake, and the lake water is connected to the Tonghui River, which can be described as exquisite craftsmanship. And on the right side of the corridor is a large garden, where strange flowers and grasses are everywhere, and fake mountains and rocks stand tall, with extremely beautiful scenery. At the end of the corridor are three houses, each with three floors, and seven rooms on each floor, for a total of twenty-one rooms. This place is undoubtedly the most enchanting place.

  Behind the three houses is a row of outhouses, which are naturally the staff quarters and account rooms. It can be said that this house is really extraordinary, an excellent place for entertainment industry, and Jiang Xia seems to have seen a large amount of silver pouring into his own pocket.

  Because he held the deeds of all the people in the Qunfang Pavilion, everyone in the Qunfang Pavilion followed Jiang Xia and moved to the Xiangyao Building first. Of course, with the degree of support from the staff of the Qunfang Pavilion for Jiang Xia, even if Jiang Xia did not have the deed, there would still be many people willing to follow him.

  Because the suggestion to open Xiangyang Building was made by Zhang Yong, Zhu Houzhao let Zhang Yong help Jiang Xia prepare. The speed at which Zhang Yong mobilized manpower, material resources and financial resources far exceeded Jiang Xia's expectations, and the preparation for Xiangyang Building progressed very quickly.

  On this day, Kang Qingyan was ready to leave. The two of them agreed to have a last meal together at Qunfang Pavilion. After three rounds of wine and five flavors of dishes, Kang Qingyan took out a stack of silver bills from his bosom and handed it to Jiang Xia: "Here are 3,000 taels of silver. I want to buy something from you."

  Jiang Xia looked at Kang Qingyan with a suspicious gaze, then quickly covered his chest and said in a panicked tone: "You know, as a man of honor, I would never sell myself."

  Kang Qingyan glared at Jiang Xia with a bad temper, saying: "Don't worry, I didn't think of making you sell your body. What I want to buy is the formula for your Fei Feng Dan."

  "What's the formula for Fei Feng Dan?" Jiang Xia looked at Kang Qingyan with a smile and said, "What? Found it effective?"

  Indeed, Kang Qiang's complexion has improved a lot now, although she doesn't wear any makeup. Those yellowish-black spots on her face have faded away quite a bit, and I believe that after taking a few more doses of Fei Feng Dan, her complexion will become even better.

  Kang Qingyan nodded and said: "The effect of your Fei Feng Dan is indeed good, so I want to buy the formula."

  Jiang Xia shook his head and said, "I won't sell it. No matter how much silver you offer, I won't sell the formula. To be honest with you, I refined it for you to try because I wanted to see if it was effective. Now that I've confirmed its effectiveness, next I'll refine it specifically for sale as Fei Feng Dan. If you want some in the future, you'll probably have to pay silver for it."

  "You're using me as a guinea pig?" Kang Qingyan was both shocked and furious.

  Jiang Xia said straightforwardly, "So what? You've also benefited from it, and you even tried to take advantage of me by drugging me. I didn't even hold that against you."

  "Hmph!" Kang Qingyan coldly snorted and said: "It's your good fortune that I'm taking a liking to you, but you're also too unappreciative. Sooner or later, I'll get you into bed, you can escape the first day of the month but not the fifteenth."

  "Then let's wait and see." Jiang Xia said with a smile.

  After staring at each other for half a day, Kang Qingyan sighed and said: "I'm leaving by boat tonight. You're alone in the capital, be careful. You still don't understand your current situation. I can only give you four words: 'Good fortune brings wealth and honor, disaster brings calamity from heaven.'"

  Jiang Xia glanced at Kang Qingyan and smiled, saying: "You might as well not open a brothel, setting up a fortune-telling stall would probably earn you quite a bit of silver."

  Kang Qingyan saw that Jiang Xia didn't understand her meaning at all, and she couldn't help but sigh and shake her head: "Forget it, I'm trying to remind you for your own good, but you think I'm joking. You'll know what my words mean when you find out the truth later. Just take care of yourself."

  Jiang Xia didn't joke with Kang Qingyan again, he raised his wine cup and said: "Alright, although I don't fully understand what you mean, rest assured that I, Jiang Xia, am not a fool and won't put myself in danger easily. Since coming to this Qun Fang Pavilion, I have received your care from all sides, so I'll toast you one cup."

  Kang Qingyan looked at Jiang Xia, raised his wine glass and clinked it against his. After the two of them finished the fine wine in their cups, Kang Qingyan put down his cup and stood up, saying: "Alright, that's enough wine for now. Before I leave, there's something I want to ask you."

  Jiang Xia also stood up and asked: "What's the matter? Apart from that, I can promise you anything else as long as I can do it."

  Kang Qingyan opened his arms and said: "Can you hug me?"

  Jiang Xia looked at Kang Qingyan, who could be considered a top-notch mature woman. She was charming but not coquettish, beautiful but not vulgar. Her facial features were full of charm, and her figure was curvaceous in all the right places. It would be false to say that such a woman had no allure, and if Jiang Xia hadn't had his own standards for women, he might not have been able to resist Kang Qingyan's repeated temptations.

  Jiang Xia smiled and opened his arms, just about to walk up.

  Suddenly, the door of Qunfang Pavilion was pushed open. Li Qianshun first poked his head in and saw that the large hall had only Kang Qingyan and Jiang Xia, while Kang Qingyan was opening her arms to Jiang Xia. Li Qianshun immediately understood that he came at an inopportune time, and he chuckled: "I'm here under orders from above to seal off the shop, I didn't mean to disturb you, you can continue, just pretend I don't exist."

  Kang Qingyan, although capable of making such a bold move, felt embarrassed when Jiang Xia hugged her in front of outsiders. Kang Qingyan took a step back, but Jiang Xia smiled and walked over to wrap his arms around her waist. He leaned his head against her ear and whispered, "I know you're not just going to Jiangnan to manage the brothel, so be careful with everything. If anything happens, write me a letter and I'll help if I can."

  As Jiang Xia spoke, the warm air from his mouth all blew into Kang Qingyan's ears, causing her to soften and lean into his arms. Jiang Xia helped Kang Qingyan sit down, then said to Li Qianshou, "Everything that needs to be moved has been moved out of here, you can seal it up now."

  After finishing speaking, Jiang Xia looked at Kang Qingyan.

  Kang Qingyan took a deep breath and sighed, glancing around the group of flowers in the pavilion before following Jiang Xia out.

  After sending Kang Qingyan back to her temporary residence at the inn, Jiang Xia returned to Xiangyang Building.

  The Xiangyao Building was basically ready according to Jiang Xia's design. In the evening, Zhu Houzhao arrived at the Xiangyao Building.

  To keep it confidential, he entered the master bedroom on the top floor of the three-story building in the middle through the back door and met with Jiang Xia. Jiang Xia had prepared wine and food, and the two chatted while eating and drinking. Zhu Houzhao asked Jiang Xia: "Brother, now that everything is almost ready, when are we going to open?"

  "Three days later, we'll be opening. This time, we're going to come up with something special, let's call it 'Bunny Girl Night'."