Chapter 14

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Jian Qingqing stood in front of the door and bowed to Manager Ding.

“Thank you for sending me out. Manager Ding, farewell.”

Manager Ding also bowed. “Goodbye, Little Brother Zhuang.”

Seeing Jian Qingqing leave, manager Ding signaled for the waiter to follow. Then, he returned to the tea room and bowed respectfully. “Master.”

“Yes.”

Surprisingly, there was a person sitting behind the tea room’s barrier!

This person was about 25 or 26 years old and wore a purple robe. At this moment, he was pouring the salt from the bamboo tube onto a piece of silk cloth.

He used his fingers to twist the fine salt and gave an ambiguous smile.

“Interesting.”

“Master, I have already ordered someone to follow. Soon, we will know which family he is from,” Manager Ding said respectfully.

“Which family? Not necessary.”

What did he mean? Manager Ding was puzzled, but he did not dare to ask directly. Instead, he said, “When did such a powerful figure appear in this small Shifeng County? I have never heard of other places producing such good salt. If it is in our hands, it will definitely become a great weapon for us.”

The purple-robed man swirled the teacup in his hand and said nonchalantly, “Our hands aren’t that big. We’re just afraid that if we can’t control it, it will backfire on us.”

At this moment, the waiter who had gone out to follow Jian Qingqing returned. He knelt outside the teahouse and begged for mercy, “Manager Ding, I’ve lost him.”

Manager ding was shocked. “How can that be? Isn’t he just a yellow-haired kid?!”

The purple-robed man let out a low laugh. “I expected that.”

He had no intention to talk about this anymore and changed the topic to another matter. “Oh right, I heard that Crown Prince Ming has returned to the Capital.”

Steward Ding nodded. “According to the news, Crown Prince Ming killed Prefect Song’s third son and went back early in the morning.”

The purple-robed man did not speak anymore. He lowered his head and thought about something. After a long while, he let out a soft laugh. “This is getting more and more interesting.”

It was time to return to the time when Jian Qingqing and Manager Ding parted ways. She had just left the alley when she felt someone following behind her. This was within her expectations.

She pretended not to know and continued walking down the street. When she arrived at a cloth workshop, she pulled down the cloth on her face and pretended to have a stomachache as she walked in. She asked a woman sitting at the counter, “Sister, can I borrow your toilet to use?”

The woman was in her twenties and was already the mother of three children. She was very happy to hear her call her sister. “Go, go. The toilet is in the backyard. Do you want me to take you there?”

“No need. Thank you, Sister. I’ll go alone.”

Jian Qingqing came to the backyard and took off her clothes. Then she tied two little ponytails on her head. This time, she changed from a servant-like boy to a little girl.

She weighed the silver wrapped in her clothes and could not help but smile.

“I’m rich! I’m rich!”

In this era, the currency was called ‘wen’.

She thought that four or five taels of silver was the limit, but she did not expect it to be ten taels! In this era, official salt cost 500 wen per catty, and illegal salt ranged from 200 wens to 500 wens. But when Manager Ding made his move, it was actually ten times more than official salt!

Of course, this was probably because of her ‘Master’ that she had fabricated. However, Jian Qingqing was very happy. She did not have the slightest bit of guilt in deceiving others.

She would not sell this salt a second time. She still wanted to keep it for her own family to eat.

She knew how to extract coarse salt into fine salt. Logically speaking, she should be able to earn a sum of money by selling with this method. However, she was just an ordinary person. In this era, she was considered a low-class person, if she sold it, it was unknown if she would still have the life to spend it.

Furthermore, even if Manager Ding was a good person and did not do anything to her, if he was involved in the sale of private salt, if they trace it back to her, she might be in danger.

Moreover, once the fine salt was out, it would definitely cause a stir in the entire Great Wei kingdom. This small private salt shop would definitely not be able to hold such a large treasure.

Therefore, although the money came quickly, but she also had to think of a safer way.