The Jiuzhen Store had already booked 80 catties of lychees. Not only were the Fengjing noble families eagerly waiting, Zheng Ruqian was also looking forward to it with bated breath.
But then the carriage overturned.
Wang Xiaosong, who was responsible for transporting the goods, was stunned like a fool, and it took him a long time to regain his senses.
Zheng Ruqian still held out a glimmer of hope. He poked his butt into the carriage, searching to see if he could salvage even a little.
But after groping around for half a day, he didn't even see a branch.
It was obvious that the Liao Family had shouldered the blame.
Zheng Ruqian was heartbroken and inconsolable. He screamed at the top of his lungs, "My lychees, my lychees! Damn the Liao Family, give me back my lychees!"
It is said that the marketplace is like a battlefield, where people fight viciously for profits. There are countless underhanded tactics, and Jiang Sheng and her brother had experienced conspiracies and plots from the very beginning when they started delivering vegetables.
With the decision to transport lychees, retaliation from the Liao Family was expected, but when it happened, it was still as painful as cutting one's own flesh.
"This carriage could have yielded 20-30 catties of lychees. At 50 taels per catty, that's over 1,000 taels..." Jiang Sheng calculated as she sniffed mucus.
Zheng Ruqian felt even more gutted, and the siblings were on the verge of bursting into tears.
Just as they were about to break down, Wang Xiaosong regained his senses. He scratched his head with a silly grin as he glanced around blankly. Staring at his employers' tear and mucus-stained faces, he asked, "Why are you all crying? Did someone die?"
"My lychees died," Zheng Ruqian said viciously. "I'm mourning for my lychees!"
If he had a knife on him, he would have charged out and hacked people down.
But there was only a confused laborer in front of him. "What Liao Family? What lychees? Our lychees have already been transported back to the courtyard. They're probably being unloaded now."
Zheng Ruqian's breathing hitched abruptly, as if trying to swallow his sobs to no avail. It ended in a long hiccup instead.
"We're almost out of Fengjing. Why are the employer and young miss here?" Wang Xiaosong scratched his head with a silly smile. "Let's hurry back. It'll be dark soon."
Zheng Ruqian trembled, unable to speak. He hiccuped again.
Jiang Sheng was afraid her brother would be scared to death. She quickly stepped forward to speak on his behalf, "Brother Xiaosong, why are you standing here in a daze? Whose carriage is this that actually overturned here? My brother thought there was something wrong with our lychees!"
Wang Xiaosong's smile gradually disappeared.
The lychees did almost meet with trouble. While they were on the road, a carriage suddenly charged at them head-on from the opposite direction. No matter which way they tried to evade it, the other carriage kept adjusting its position to target them.
It was obvious they were trying to intentionally crash and get them killed.
Wang Xiaosong certainly did not want to die. He urgently pulled on the reins to brake, but failed to control the other carriage.
Just as the two carriages were about to collide, in a flash, another carriage shot out from an oblique angle. It directly rammed the other carriage and overturned it, then someone jumped down to heave up the other carriage's driver before running off.
Wang Xiaosong and the two newly hired laborers were dumbfounded by the scene.
In the end, they split up into two groups. One group delivered the lychees first while the other stayed behind to investigate, but they didn't discover anything significant from investigating. Still, they had given their employers a mighty huge shock.
Back in the second courtyard.
Zheng Ruqian was still scared out of his wits. Only after personally witnessing the branches and large fruit inside icy compartments did he close the wooden boxes with relief, finally able to put his heart back in his stomach.
Wang Xiaosong fawned on his employer, trying to placate him.
"Alright alright, as long as everyone is fine. That's more important than anything else," Xu Mo stepped forward to smooth things over.
Before Jiang Sheng and Wen Zhiyun could chime in agreement, Chang Yan spoke up coolly, "Things turned out fine this time, but what about next time?"
The current situation was that they were competing with the Liao Family for the lychee business. The Liaos were unhappy about it and thus employed all sorts of despicable means, seeking to destroy them.
All the previous businesses Zheng Ruqian engaged in were first attempts - expanding business, opening up new ventures, new beginnings at most. At worst, he would be shut out. He had never encountered competitors before.
Let alone coping with underhanded schemes and plots from outsiders.
Unlike now, the Liao Family had been in business for many years. They knew best where it hurts and would strike at those spots relentlessly. Their methods were extremely nasty and sinister yet also effective.
To make things worse, the disparity between the two sides was huge, like an egg versus a rock. If it came down to collision, only they would end up utterly smashed.
The Jiuzhen Store could put up bulletin notices, the second batch of lychees might enjoy good luck, but what about the next, and the time after the next? How long could they stay vigilant? How could they guarantee no further incidents?
"I finally understand why the profits for lychees are so high, yet only the Liaos have been transporting them," Zheng Ruqian said, unusually somber.
This business required 20 days of running around and toiling, which was tiring but also lucrative. Yet other businessmen had never dipped their fingers in it.
The only explanation was that the Liao Family was too overbearing. They would not tolerate anyone else encroaching on the supply chain, thus establishing a monopoly.
"As long as I continue dealing in lychees, as long as I invade the Liao Family's interests, they will never let me off," Zheng Ruqian concluded with knitted brows.
The situation had become extremely grave all of a sudden. Whether to continue transporting lychees became a difficult problem.
If they continued, it meant confronting the Liaos and having to live in constant dread, under perpetual threat of annihilation.
If they stopped, they would feel aggrieved. The Liao Family could have engaged in open and upright market competition, yet they employed all sorts of despicable means to oppress people. It was truly hard to endure.
Zheng Ruqian struggled to come up with countermeasures while the others also found it hard to remain cheerful.
Only Chang Yan was still relatively calm. As he rubbed six little wooden men, he said, "Don't panic. Wait and observe first."
There was no such thing as a fluke in this world. Especially at critical life-and-death junctures, instances of seemingly good luck all stemmed from people helping covertly in the shadows.
Take that burly man with simultaneous vomiting and diarrhea for example.
Also take that carriage of lychees that narrowly avoided calamity.
Inside the Jiang Family's lopsided carriage.
The sudden collision overturned ordinary carriages instantly while the Jiangs' better-quality carriage could not escape rattling precariously.
Sandwiched between his two elder brothers, Jiang Chengyu had yet to recover from the earlier panic, his large eyeballs still glancing around nervously.
"Big Brother, can you give us some forewarning next time?" Jiang Chengfeng was also in discomfort. "I understand you dote on our little sister, but you shouldn't gamble with all our lives for a joke."
He could have just hacked the horses' legs or cut their reins. Yet he had insisted on mutually assured destruction.
Moreover, that was merely a carriage full of lychees. How could that compare to three lives?
"It wasn't merely a carriage of lychees," Jiang Chengyuan said gravely. "There were also two people on it, with another person in the carriage behind. The Liao Family intended to claim lives with this."
While their lives counted, so did the lives of commoners.
Most importantly, he did not wish to see his sister sadness and tears.
When they stopped outside the Liao Residence, Jiang Chengfeng resigned himself to bending over and lugging in the trussed-up Liao family coachman.
As the doors opened after their knocking and announcing their arrival, the Liao family patriarch happily came out to meet his eldest nephew, intending to improve relations. But his smile vanished at the sight of the coachman at Jiang Chengyuan's feet.
"Chengyuan, what are you doing, boy?" He kept his composure. "Now that you've come, why did you also bring someone along? Hurry and release him. I've just received a new batch of fresh lychees. Come on in."
