Quite shocked, Fang Shaolong had to think back about the entire conversation. What did this young girl know? And didn't she know? She had completely controlled the discussion from the beginning. But how much of it was pure speculation and how much was substantiated by proof?
Anyway, Fang Shaolong felt like he would never actually know what she was thinking. Thus, he chose to err on the side of caution. All his reactions, not matter how subtle they were, could be used by her to get more information. And as long as he wasn't sure of her goal, he had to make sure she learned as little as possible from him.
Ye Zhiyun was also rather surprised. His young mistress had indeed asked him about the Cao family but he had not found anything linking Fang Shaolong to either the family itself of its massacre. Clearly, he had been wrong considering the Hall Master's current reaction. The question was rather how Huang Cixi could have figured it out. But Ye Zhiyun knew her well enough to understand that he wouldn't get an answer unless she wanted him to know.
Finally, Fang Shaolong relaxed completely in his small chair and just stared at the ground before answering. Now, he was too afraid to give himself out if he were to look her in the eyes.
"Tell me what you want me to do exactly. Depending on your terms, I might wish to rather be sentenced to death by the Imperial City."
Huang Cixi let out a very small laugh and walked back to her desk. She leaned against it while facing the slumped man. If someone were to walk in on this scene, they would never believe that the girl was just a young girl of the Huang family and the man before her the powerful Hall Master of the Major Hall.
"Hall Master. I know for a fact that my conditions will be acceptable to you. You may not trust me, but I am always true to my word. And I only need your cooperation until I officially become matriarch." Once she became matriarch, Huang Cixi wouldn't need the help of the Major Hall that much. And she was convinced that she would get it anyway. If all her guesses were right, Fang Shaolong would in fact end up trusting her completely.
"Right now, I only have three main objectives. The first one is to reorganize the Xiliang Mines and some possessions of my family. Considering that you will give me all your shares, doing exactly what I want won't be too difficult and Ye Zhiyun will be able to handle it alone." Glancing at Ye Zhiyun, she saw him nod and that was all she needed to be sure of him. In fact, she didn't even intend to give him any specific instructions as she was fully confident in his ability. And she was right. In a matter of days, Ye Zhiyun would launch huge reforms in the management of the mines and of several other properties. After a few weeks, the profits would increase by a significant margin and the expenses would drop as well.
"So I first need you to let him manage the assets of my Huang family that the Major Hall currently handles. Given that you've chosen him as your first adviser, I'm pretty sure that you would have no objection at all, right?"
Indeed, Fang Shaolong had even intended to slowly give more authority to Ye Zhiyun. Before today, he had considered him as his successor. In fact, he was even convinced that he could become a major part of the Myriad Cherry Blossom Hall. Ye Zhiyun seemed to be more competent than some officials from the Imperial City, to the point that Fang Shaolong himself felt inferior to him in many matters. As such, he really had no problem with that, apart from the fact that he felt betrayed by this boy he had put his faith into. But Huang Cixi did not go overboard, demanding him to only handle assets of her own family. In the end, this was only a small part of what the Major Hall managed daily.
"By your silence, I guess this is fine. Then my second point. With the resources and profits I'll get from the Xiliang Mines, I will need to invest them in some specific venues. This time, I will really need your participation. No one must discover that I am the one investing and buying. Ye Zhiyun will give you lists of what I need to buy and how much I want to invest. Your goal will be to create fictive identities to allow me to do so discreetly. No one should even suspect that someone is buying large parts of anything.
"Finally, my last goal is about information. Yes my family has some networks, but your Myriad Cherry Blossom Hall is an expert in the domain. I am sure you have many experts that could potentially even rival Spirit Master Xiao in terms of intelligence gathering. Here are the things I am interested in.
"I want to know exactly what everyone owns in my own family and more generally in the Wu Province. Particularly, I'm interested to know that about Huang Si and Governor Leng. But that's just a very small detail in the end. What I'm more interested in right now concerns the demonic cultivators. I've seen firsthand how dangerous they can be for our kingdom. And I have the detestable feeling that they have infiltrated our administration way deeper than we all would like to believe. Thus, I want to know more about the investigation that took place over the Cao family massacre. More specifically, I need you to find out why the Imperial City took over and how they came to accuse the Wolf Head Sect so fast. Right now, I cannot tell you everything you'll need to investigate because it will depend on what you find. But this is the main idea.
"Moreover, I have need of your investigative talents right away. You will send your best men to tail Gui Bei. This is a supposition, but I suspect that he is in some way connected to the demonic cultivators. Maybe he is not even conscious of that yet, but the secret he found to enhance his cultivation might very well be related to them. However, this boy has a terrifying instinct. He's been able to feel the spiritual senses of a 6th-grade Spirit Warrior on him."
After hearing all of this, Fang Shaolong was still silent. But he was actively thinking about all of this. The first two points were not really a problem for him. What was worrying him more was the part about gathering information. She could tell him that it served one purpose and use it for another. Could he really risk giving her everything she desired?
"If you worry about me misusing your intel, you should not. I will let you in command of everything. Neither Ye Zhiyun nor me will have access to the direct reports from your men. But I expect to receive your own synthesis as soon as possible."
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This new condition made Fang Shaolong raise his head. If she respected her word, he could literally hide any information from her. In fact, he could even investigate her as well without her knowing any of it. In some sense, this was a way to build trust between them. The more Fang Shaolong trusted her, the more he would give. And this showed that Huang Cixi also trusted him to give her useful and true informations. Anytime, he could feed her lies or half-truths. However, he still had to think about it for several more minutes. During this time, Huang Cixi did not reveal any sign of distress. She just patiently waited.
"I agree."
"I knew we would see eye to eye." With a bright smile, Huang Cixi took some documents and handed them over to Fang Shaolong.
In them, he saw several of her plans. She had already written down everything she wanted him to do in very specific details. Clearly, she had been convinced from the beginning that he would accept her terms. And what he read was exactly what she had said with way more details. It pained him but he had to admit that some of her plans were better than his.
"Hall Master, I won't bother you any longer. You may go now. I still have things to discuss with Ye Zhiyun concerning the management of my properties. He will join you back in a few hours."
Just like that, Huang Cixi had more or less taken charge of the Major Hall. Of course, Fang Shaolong kept managing it and she only controlled a small fraction of the operations. But as time would go by, Fang Shaolong would listen to her more and more. And as trust would build up, dependence would as well. If it went on long enough, all sectors of the Major Hall would have some of Huang Cixi's plans implemented in them. Moreover, Ye Zhiyun would stay as the first adviser of Fang Shaolong of course. And she could somewhat influence the hiring of new employees to push more of her own men.
After Fang Shaolong's pitiful departure, Ye Zhiyun did not ask anything to his young mistress. If she didn't tell him something, this meant that he didn't need to know at all. Huang Cixi gave him general instructions on the way she wanted things to go. With Ye Zhiyun's competence, she didn't need to tell him every single detail. She trusted him enough to figure it out by himself, and even to develop better ideas than her. Among all her servants, Ye Zhiyun was the one she trusted the most, both at a personal level but also in terms of ability.
-
Three hours passed by and both of them discussed about all the sectors Huang Cixi wanted to invest in. After that, Ye Zhiyun went back to the Major Hall and met back with Fang Shaolong.
The man was still a bit mulling over the situation in his head. When he saw Ye Zhiyun, it saddened the young man a bit. Indeed, Fang Shaolong had always watched him with an ounce of pride and admiration. However, there was now doubt and mistrust. Ye Zhiyun knew though that it would change. He was fully confident in his young mistress' talent. If she had chosen to expose him to Hall Master Fang, it meant that she knew this would be beneficial in the long run. Over time, Fang Shaolong would come to recognize her competence and even trust her. By extension, this would revive his trust in Ye Zhiyun. Maybe, they would never be able to get over this betrayal. But at the end of the day, Ye Zhiyun was only fully loyal to Huang Cixi. Even so, this didn't mean that he liked the situation.
Ye Zhiyun had fled a city of lies and deceptions when even his close friends had turned on him and his kin. Soon after his escape, he had found Huang Cixi. To be more accurate, she had found him, a diamond in the dirt. Since then, he had vowed to dedicate his life to her, even if it meant lying and deceiving. Although he despised both, he had sadly gotten accustomed to both early in life.
The two men shared an office and the atmosphere was terribly gloomy. Thankfully, both had a lot of work to do...
Fang Shaolong created many documents to forge pure fictive identities. With them, he would accomplish Huang Cixi's goal of buying off small parts of many businesses. Among the economy of the Wu Province, there were many small properties one could buy and many rights as well. Patrons were also numerous to both alchemists, blacksmiths, and many other occupations either productive or artistic. By buying lands, buildings, various rights, it was possible to obtain quite a rent. Although economic power was not considered very noble, this was undeniably a great tool of power and influence.
In the School of Ren Dao, art and crafts were deemed noble pursuits in life for cultivators. For commoners, agriculture was also considered way more noble than commerce or trade. Indeed, people who allowed other humans to survive and even thrive, either by what they were producing, creating, crafting, inventing or by their fight against enemies of mankind, these were the people who were the most respected. The Myriad Cherry Blossom Hall had always understood that it was necessary to dabble in commerce and trade though. Their prestige was thanks to their patronage of many artists, philosophers and craftsmen. They also gave a lot of resources to various religious and secular sects and institutes to keep their hegemony. But on the other side, they received a fair part of their money from less noble activities such as commerce and trade.
After that, Fang Shaolong would give very specific directions to the intelligence branch of his hall. According to what he had heard from Huang Cixi, he decided to send his best men after Gui Bei to observe him. Of course, he had deduced that most of what had happened during the poetry gathering was in fact a performance to make Gui Bei reveal his secrets.
On the other hand, Ye Zhiyun stayed busy for several days while reorganizing the Xiliang Mines. With Fang Shaolong's manipulation of the accounts, it was difficult to sort everything out. But now that he knew everything, he was able to do so in an inconspicuous way. According to his projections, the mines could increase their profit by 4 or 5%. In fact, he could have increased that by threefold but Huang Cixi wanted the mines to still be profitable in hundreds, if not thousands of years down the line. This was an advantage of cultivators over mortals, they could think and plan over very long spans of time.
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In parallel, another discussion was going on in Huang Cixi's private study. The girl was now alone with Huang Liyue. Clearly, the bodyguard was a little pissed off about Fang Shaolong.
"Who could have thought that the Hall Master of the Major Hall was a vulgar thief?! Young Mistress, do you trust a man who's been stealing from our family? Do you not want to punish him?"
"Well, it depends on the reason why he's been stealing... And he will repay us, way more than you can possibly imagine."
The cryptic words of Huang Cixi would not have convinced Huang Liyue before. But after witnessing her these last few days, she was sure that this girl knew what she was doing. However, it didn't mean that she was completely on board with her way of handling the situation.
"Do you know his reasons? Does it have anything to do with the Cao family? He seemed to change when you talked about that..."
After this question, Huang Cixi stayed silent for a while.