Chapter 197: Young Lady Shang
“I’ve come to seek an audience with Young Lady Shang.” Under Xie Yu’s persistent questioning, Lu Yun had no choice but to reply.
“Haha!” Hearing this, Xie Yu immediately sized up Lu Yun with a face full of wicked grin and said: “Who would’ve thought, you also want to pluck this thorny fresh flower.” Shaking his head vigorously, he continued: “Though you look pretty good, I’m afraid you can’t compete with those ravenous wolves.”
“What does this have to do with anything,” Lu Yun couldn’t help but frown and say: “I just have business to visit her.”
“I know, I know, you need some reason to get close to Young Lady Shang.” Xie Yu chuckled slyly: “But I reckon you might be making a trip in vain. Don’t let her commoner status fool you—she’s beautiful, and her family is the richest under heaven. Even our Xie Clan’s Eldest Young Master couldn’t win her over.”
“Xie Tian?” Lu Yun asked indifferently: “He also wants to marry Young Lady Shang as his wife?”
“Yeah, our Eldest Young Master is of such status, yet for her he disregarded the rules against scholars and commoners marrying, intending to take her as his principal wife, but she wouldn’t have it—truly ungrateful!” With the expression of someone who’s been through it, he advised Lu Yun: “Little brother, I advise you not to waste your efforts. Hurry back. There are plenty who want to win her hand; you’re not even in the running.”
“…” Lu Yun completely lost interest in talking to this person, nodded, and continued reading his book.
After a while, that doorkeeper came in and said softly to Lu Yun: “Young Master Lu, our Young Lady invites you.”
Lu Yun nodded and stood up. Xie Yu stared at Lu Yun’s retreating figure in obvious surprise and asked the doorkeeper: “Who is he?”
“Young Master Lu Yun.” The doorkeeper tossed out the reply and hurried after Lu Yun out the door.
“It’s him?” Xie Yu’s jaw dropped in shock; now his own young master had a formidable rival.
Unknowingly, Lu Yun had already become a prominent figure in Luojing City. In the eyes of small fries like Xie Yu, he was someone who could rival their Eldest Young Master…
.
Lu Yun followed the doorkeeper up the stairs carpeted with thick carpet, ascending floor by floor. He saw that the second floor of the Shang Family General Office was extremely busy, with a corridor lined on both sides by over a dozen large suite doorways, each hanging a bronze plate. The bronze plates bore names like Zhengguanghe, Yunfengzheng, Runfayuan, Xintaihe, Longchangmao, Ju Quan Xin… and over a dozen other famous names that rang like thunder.
Not to mention Lu Yun—even seven- or eight-year-old kids were familiar with these names, as they covered nearly every industry in Great Xuan, visible everywhere in the states and counties.
For example, Yunfengzheng was Great Xuan’s largest pawnshop, Zhengguanghe the institution that minted Great Xuan’s coins, Runfayuan the world’s largest grain transport merchant house, Xintaihe the flagship of the merchant family’s carriage and horse company, Longchangmao the world’s largest silk and cloth shop, Ju Quan Xin Great Xuan’s largest money house… Though these rooms weren’t all that large, they were the head offices overseeing numerous branches under heaven, each managing hundreds or thousands of shops.
This floor was just the tip of the iceberg of the merchant family’s vast business. Up on the third floor were signboards for over a dozen more merchant houses like horse farms, estates, mining bureaus, shipyards, wine bureaus… and so on, plus the east and west annex buildings. In this Shang Family General Office were gathered over a hundred kinds of merchant family businesses, covering every aspect of Great Xuan—a true commercial empire.
The fourth floor was no longer open for public business shops, but rather the merchant family’s internal institutions. Their over a hundred lines of business all converged here for overall planning, subject to oversight, accounting, and unified command, coalescing into a true commercial empire. This was the central nerve center of the entire Shang Family General Office, with guards posted at the staircase entrance, barring unnecessary people from approaching.
The stairs leading to the top floor were even more heavily guarded, and Lu Yun grew all the more curious, wondering what the topmost floor of the entire Shang Family General Office would be like.
‘If the fourth floor is the nerve center of the Shang Family General Office, then this fifth floor should be the soul commanding the nerve center, right?’ Lu Yun couldn’t help but think to himself.
But when he reached the top floor, he couldn’t help but pause in astonishment. The entire floor had been renovated into a magnificent garden. There were small ponds with running water, artificial mountains built from Taihu Lake stones, brocade-scaled fish swimming in the ponds, and birds chirping on the mountains. Before his eyes was lush grass, trimmed bamboo and fresh flowers, and underfoot a winding path of stones, instantly evoking the sensation of a winding path leading to understanding the obscure.
Below was the clamorous dust of the mortal world; here was a paradise outside it. Lu Yun suddenly thought that what they called “great seclusion amid the city” must refer to exactly this. Otherwise, how could it merit the word “great”?
The doorkeeper escorted him to the staircase entrance and stopped, saying to Lu Yun: “Young Master Lu, please follow our Young Lady’s little maidservant inside. I’ll wait for you here.”
Lu Yun then saw a maidservant with twin childlike buns walk out from the winding path leading to understanding the obscure, smiling sweetly at him: “Young Master Lu, please come inside.”
Lu Yun nodded and followed the maidservant along the stone path, passing through a bamboo forest, until a delicate small pavilion with hanging gauze curtains came into view, a graceful silhouette of a woman vaguely visible inside.
“Young Master, please.” The maidservant gently lifted the gauze curtain, inviting Lu Yun to enter the pavilion and sit.
Lu Yun removed his shoes and stepped into the pavilion in just his white socks, where he saw a girl in a purple skirt, at the prime of youth and peerlessly beautiful, sitting upright in the seat of honor, gazing at him with a smile. Lu Yun glanced at the girl and felt her features were stunningly exquisite, too radiant to behold directly. Especially beneath those curved willow brows, a pair of large eyes like deep pool waters that drew one in inescapably at first sight.
Her age should be about the same as that Heavenly Maiden’s. Though her appearance seemed not quite as flawless as the Heavenly Maiden’s, she exuded a warm and gentle aura that involuntarily made one want to draw closer to her.
But Lu Yun didn’t dare underestimate her in the slightest due to her outward appearance. A woman who could control such a vast commercial empire must be ruthless and decisive, cold and bold to her core!
Thus, Lu Yun sat down opposite the Shang family Young Lady with a heart still as water, eyes on nose and nose on heart, treating her just like an ordinary man.
The little maidservant served fragrant tea and quietly withdrew. The Shang family Young Lady watched Lu Yun’s reaction with great interest, unable to resist laughing: “Young Master Lu seems very nervous. Could it be you’re afraid I’ll eat you?”
“No.” Lu Yun said with slight embarrassment: “I’m always like this. Please don’t mind, Young Lady.”
“Young Master Lu jests. A man who stayed calm before tens of thousands of starving disaster victims, knocked out our Xie Clan’s Eldest Young Master with teeth flying when words turned to blows, matched His Majesty the Emperor as a worthy opponent at chess, won the championship in the Lu Clan’s written exam in one stroke, was taken as a disciple by a Grandmaster, and felled a Black Rank Peak expert with one punch,” the Young Lady Shang shook her head with a smile: “How could he possibly be nervous before a mere little woman?”
“That’s just how I am; I can’t help it.” Lu Yun sighed lightly, finally overcoming a bit his psychological barrier around strangers, and said with a bitter smile: “Looks like Young Lady Shang did her homework before seeing me. Is this knowing your enemy and yourself for a hundred battles without defeat?”
“Not at all,” Young Lady Shang lightly shook her beautiful head with a smile: “Doesn’t Young Master Lu know how famous he is now? I’ve heard your heroic deeds so many times my ears have calluses. At least among those great clan young ladies, you can already be mentioned in the same breath as Cui Eldest Young Master, becoming one of their dream lovers.”
“…” Lu Yun couldn’t help recalling those flocks of twittering birds throwing themselves at him, a chill running through his heart.
After teasing Lu Yun a few words and seeing his extreme embarrassment, Young Lady Shang changed the subject with a smile: “I wonder what business Young Master has come for today?”
“I’d like to ask Young Lady Shang about something.” Lu Yun breathed a sigh of relief and said softly.
“What is it?” Young Lady Shang blinked her long lashes, asking with a beaming smile.
