Kays Translations

Chapter 63: Agents

A corpse of a Golden Core expert was hung up, instantly igniting the atmosphere. The crowd’s eyes were sharp; it wasn’t long before someone pointed out—this was Kong Donghua of the Kong family!

“What? A Golden Core corpse is hung in Qingyun Valley?!” Kong Yingzhi’s face changed drastically.

Waiting until dawn, his uncle still hadn’t returned. He was already very worried, and now that worry had solidified—this corpse of a Golden Core expert, aside from his uncle, couldn’t possibly belong to anyone else! There were very few Golden Core experts to begin with.

When Kong Yingzhi arrived in front of Qingyun Valley, it was already crowded and noisy; the way the crowd looked at Kong Yingzhi was quite interesting.

Kong Yingzhi stared blankly at the ragged corpse hanging before him, rage and sorrow boiling over as he shouted, “Li Xian, come out! Come out! Show yourself!”

Li Xian didn’t come out; instead, Fang Shijing stepped forward. “According to the laws of the Great Xia Kingdom, anyone who illegally trespasses into an officer’s residence shall be killed without mercy! Young Master Kong, do you have any questions?”

“Creak… No!” Kong Yingzhi’s face turned ashen.

“Good! Last night, Kong Donghua killed countless people and damaged numerous properties, causing us a loss of five thousand taels of gold. Young Master Kong, if you can make up for the five thousand taels of gold within three days, you can take the corpse away. Otherwise, I believe a Golden Core corpse could easily sell for six or seven thousand taels of gold.”

“You can’t go too far!” Kong Yingzhi was almost driven mad, wanting to charge forward and fight.

“Too far?” Fang Shijing sneered, not bothering to explain, and turned to leave.

The crowd murmured among themselves, mostly mocking; it was one thing to be a petty thief, but to be caught was quite embarrassing, especially for a family like the Kong family. Kong Xiang was a top official in the court, and this time they had truly brought shame upon themselves.

Hearing those cutting remarks, Kong Yingzhi was so furious that he almost lost his mind. After returning, he immediately took out five thousand taels of gold to redeem the corpse. However, this meant that the bidding and agency matters would have nothing to do with the Kong family this time.

Li Xian’s asking price was just right, swallowing up all the funds the Kong family had prepared.

In the afternoon, as Li Xian was counting the gold, marveling at Fang Shijing’s accurate valuation, Song Xing rushed in to report: “Young Master, young masters Shangguan Yong, Zhang Quan, and Yuan Zhao are here, waiting at the main gate.”

Li Xian chuckled, “Heh, these three fellows arrive right on cue. I’ll go meet them personally.”

In the distance, Yuan Zhao shouted, “Xian Di, Xian Di! We’ve come to see you! You left without saying goodbye in Wuyang, and it made me really sad.”

Li Xian had become immune to the term “Xian Di” by now; he simply smiled and replied, “I had matters to attend to at the time. Come in, I’ve been waiting for you for quite a while.”

Zhang Quan squinted his eyes and chuckled, “Xian Di, you’ve got great skills! You took out a Golden Core expert without a sound.”

“Hey, Golden Core experts are indeed formidable. Even with fifty siege crossbows shooting at once, they can only get injured, not killed. Sigh… Golden Core… too powerful…” Li Xian sighed.

Shangguan Yong appeared thoughtful and asked, “Xian Di, can I see your siege crossbow?”

“That’s out of the question; that’s my means of survival,” Li Xian laughed heartily on the surface, but inwardly he murmured, Not one of them is simple!

Yuan Zhao glanced around and his eyes twinkled. “Xian Di, you’ve done something quite big.”

“Big? Not really.”

Yuan Zhao was dissatisfied. “How can it not be! The Industrial Expo—you made the engine public! How can you face your brothers?”

Li Xian sneered inwardly. Why bring this up now, instead of during the expo? What are you trying to leverage? However, he feigned distress, saying, “There’s no way around it. His Majesty, the Wang family, and the Prime Minister all wanted to sanction me. I had to leak the textile machine.”

“What about this agency deal?” Yuan Zhao continued to press. “Xian Di, by doing this with the agency, you’re making our previous efforts worthless!”

So that’s it! Li Xian’s heart was clear as day. His tone became more upbeat and excited: “I’ve recently realized that the situation in the country is chaotic; everyone is shirking responsibility, and the market is too small. So I decided to leave the domestic market to the agents while we focus on developing the foreign market.

I remember Uncle Shangguan has connections in Qi, Uncle Zhang has connections in Chen, and Uncle Yuan has connections in Jin. As for our Li family, we’ll handle the market in the northern Cai Kingdom. How does that sound?”

“Are we just giving up on the domestic market like that?” Zhang Quan added.

“Leave it to the agents. As long as our products occupy the market, that should be enough, right? Didn’t I say before that we should unite the domestic merchants? How do we unite them? Agents are a very good way!” 

“Anything else?” Yuan Zhao asked.

Li Xian feigned ignorance: “That’s enough.”

Yuan Zhao jumped in frustration: “No, no, Brother Xian, you’ve forgotten. Previously, the four of us worked together to support the ‘Brilliant Stars’ business, and everyone managed the markets in the southeast, southwest, northeast, and northwest. ‘Brilliant Stars’ has part of our hard work in it.”

“You mean the sales business of Brilliant Stars, right? For the Brilliant Stars business, I plan to convert it entirely into an after-sales service center responsible for handling product issues.”

“After-sales?” Zhang Quan squinted and thought for a moment, then suddenly smiled, “Brother Xian, that’s a good idea. Yes, let’s convert it into after-sales. But today, I heard that Brother Xian has the ‘machines that make machines.’ Brother Xian, could you let me have a look?”

Zhang Quan’s straightforwardness left Li Xian momentarily at a loss for how to respond.

Fortunately, Xu Ren was always by Li Xian’s side.

Xu Ren immediately smiled slightly, “Young Master Zhang, these machines that make machines are the foundation of the ‘Brilliant Stars Group.’ Let’s keep some secrets for ourselves.”

With Xu Ren’s comment, Zhang Quan found it awkward to speak again.

Zhang Quan, Yuan Zhao, and Shangguan Yong stayed there for quite a while before reluctantly leaving, but they managed to extract quite a few benefits from Li Xian—at a 30% discount! While others got a 10% discount, the three of them could get supplies from Li Xian at a 30% discount.

It was only after the three left that Li Xian wiped his cold sweat; to temporarily win over these three unreliable allies, he had to make some sacrifices. Fortunately, aside from the textile costs being hard to reduce, the costs for steel, glass, and other materials were low enough that even selling at a 20% discount still left him with a profit.

Xu Ren rarely joked, “Young Master, none of your three friends are simple. I’m very curious how you managed to get along with them in the past.”

“I don’t know! Please don’t ask me questions I can’t answer in the future; it would make me seem ignorant and helpless!” Li Xian’s face darkened—come on, that wasn’t me in the past.

That night was much quieter, and no one came to Qingyun Valley to play the gentleman again. The next morning, Li Xian personally took charge, directing some construction ‘experts’ borrowed from his older brother to build a huge temporary exhibition venue.

Here, there were display walls shaped like the character “个” on all sides, with eaves on top. Both sides of the walls were filled with products, each accompanied by two prices—one was the suggested retail price, and the other was the 10% discount price. Let everyone have a look first; the bidding will begin in the afternoon.

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