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“Your Highness, the merchant from South comes after three months. From the tip-off I received, Merchant Xiang smuggle the ivory and sell them in the black market,” Li Tian informed Mingquan.

They saw Xiang Qu entering with his men. Xiang Qu was more than six feet tall, so many vendors in the pavilion, looked shorter before him.

“We need to catch him red-handed,” Mingquan said and slowly closed the window.

“They will be sitting next to this room. The arrangement was made last night to make sure the conversation can be heard,” Li Tian stated. Mingquan brought his hand forward. His long sleeves touched his knees and he sat on the floor chair.

He brought the teacup to his mouth and sipped a little. They heard heavy footsteps outside the room.

Mingquan placed the teacup on the table and heard the door open of the adjacent room.

“Bring my favorite rice wine,” Xiang Qu said.

Both Mingquan and Li Tian heard him speak.

.....

“Xiang Qu was born poor and it is said that he usually enjoys the things that commoners love because he was a commoner once,” Li Tian explained to him, keeping his voice low.

Mingquan hummed and they carefully listen to the conversation of Xiang Qu with the owner of the pavilion.

“How is the work going on?” Xiang Qu asked.

“We saw an increment in the trade last week.” For Mingquan and Li Tian, it was an unknown voice.

“There is good news, Merchant Xiang,” the same man said.

“Speak,” Xiang Qu allowed him.

“Prince Lóng Wei is no longer the Governor. The Fourth Prince is appointed as the Governor of the capital. It will be easier for us to do trade from now onward. For the past two months, the revenue could not be generated well as Prince Lóng Wei had his eyes on most of those activities which weren’t mentioned in the record-keeping book,” the man informed Xiang Qu, who smiled to hear him. He gulped the rice wine and plonked the teacup on the floor table.

“Recover the losses this time. I need five folds revenue,” Xiang Qu told the man.

“I will, Merchant Xiang,” the man said.

They stayed in the room for some time before going out. Mingquan stood up from his place and followed Xiang Qu accompanied by Li Tian.

As they descended the stairs, they were stopped by a troop of armed soldiers. The people present in the pavilion turned perplexed and some were terrified.

“What is going on here?” Xiang Qu roared when he heard someone stepping down from the stairs behind him.

“I am the new governor of Qinping, Qiu Mingquan.”

Li Tian commanded the soldiers to take Xiang Qu and his men captive.

Xiang Xu jumped from the wooden railing next to him and ran out of the pavilion.

Mingquan took the sword from Li Tian and chased Xiang Qu.

While running Xiang Qu hit an old woman, who was selling jujube. She fell to the ground and injured her hand. Mingquan quickly helped her and then looked ahead. He could not lose Xiang Qu and asked the nearby vendor to help the old woman.

He stood up and ran as fast as he could behind Xiang Qu.

While running, Mingquan told the people to get away from his way.

Xiang Qu quickly took his right and entered the silk market. He looked behind while running and saw Mingquan was after him.

“How could he run so fast?” He muttered under his breath and turned to the left.

Mingquan saw a cart of silk fabric coming from the front. He jumped over it and landed on the other side of the ground. Quickly standing up, he went in the same way that Xiang Qu had headed.

Mingquan came to a sudden halt as he reached a huge open field with silk fabrics hanging on the horizontal wooden sticks. Some were dyed in colors while others were white.

Mingquan took deep breaths as he looked around.

Xiang Qu was hiding far from him and peeked out to check on Mingquan. He quickly moved back when he saw Mingquan heading in the same way.

Xiang Qu checked the around his belt and cursed himself for not carrying even a dagger. He could not be caught today as it took him years to be this rich.

Mingquan slowly pulled the sword out as he saw the shoes and the next second he cut the pink fabric from the middle and pointed it at the neck.

The wind blew and he saw a woman in front of him. She was startled by the sudden attack on her and her elbow hit the wooden stand behind her. Mingquan withdrew the sword as his brows furrowed to see a young woman.

“Ahh,” the young woman screamed. To prevent herself from falling, she caught Mingquan’s arm. He could not balance them and fell along with her.

All the stands behind them started to fall while Xiang Qu quickly ran away after seeking that opportunity.

Mingquan fell on the top of the young woman and he lifted his head to look ahead. Xiang Qu wasn’t there. He quickly got up without caring about the woman on the ground.

He stepped up to run in the other direction when the woman stopped him.

Mingquan turned to face her and heard her, “Mister, you destroyed my entire day’s hard work.” She pointed at the fabrics that were fallen on the ground and got dirty.

“I apologize. I cannot talk to you now,” Mingquan said and turned to go away when the woman grasped his hand tightly.

Mingquan asked him to let her go but she shook her head.

“You must pay for this. I will be scolded if master Lee sees it,” the young woman said.

Mingquan quickly put his hand inside his inner pocket and handed her the pouch full of coins. “I think it will suffice this loss. The coins are of gold,” Mingquan said and pulled his hand back.

The young woman chuckled and grabbed him by his collar. “You need to wash these with me, Mister,” the young woman said.

“Miss, I cannot–” Before he could finish off his words, the young woman dragged him along with her.