chapter 7

Murong Yun Shu did not go to the Shaolin Temple immediately because it was only March now and it was still five months away until the martial arts tournament started. For a person like Chu Changge, he would definitely not show up too early for the tournament, but not too late either.

It only took two months to go from from Jin Ling Province to Shaolin Temple, so she had about three months left to clean up the mess at Murong Sect.

Murong Sect’s jewelry store was still operating at a loss as per usual, the bank was also gradually becoming insolvent. Anticipating that Murong House was going to go bankrupt sooner or later, even the sweeper aunt was so anxious that the fire caught her eyebrows, but the owner, Murong Yun Shu didn’t react at all, as if nothing had happened. She ate, slept, reads, wrote, played chess, and played musical instruments every day. What a relaxing life.

“Miss, can’t you act like a normal person?” Lu’er really hoped she could draw a bitter gourd on that no-reaction face.

Murong Yun Shu completely ignored Lu’er, she laid on a chair with her eyes closed and continued sunbathing, as her mouth lazily answered: “You should beg yourself instead. If you continue chirping around, sooner or later, you’ll turn into a sparrow.”

“……Miss!” Lu’er face turned red, she wished iron could turn into steel at once. “People are spreading rumors, they said that you are joining hands with Mojiao Sect and will bring disaster to the world. They are hoping that Murong Sect will fall down so they can laugh at us.”

“Then they’ll need to wait for a long time.”

Lu’er eyes became sharp as she heard Murong Yun Shu’s words and asked: “Miss, could it be that you have already thought of a plan to comeback from the dead?”

“I won’t join hands with Mojiao Sect to harm the world.”

“…….” Lu’er really wanted to be able to highlight her main point during her speech.

*

Murong Yun Shu had just finished her sunbath when the people she had been waiting for had finally arrived.

“Manager Qian, Manager Yin.” Murong Yun Shu immediately greeted these two people when she walked into the study room. They handed her the financial report to let her take a look, she quickly read through the pages and said: “The bank will rest for 10 days, while the jewelry shop will continue to operate as usual.”

Both of the managers were shocked: “The jewelry shop has been at a continuous loss, if it wasn’t for the support of the bank, it wouldn’t even be able to maintain itself for a few days, if I were to give up one of them, I’d choose to give up the jewelry shop.”

“Don’t you think there’s something fishy going on?”

“What?”

“When my father was alive, the business of the bank was thriving, but he frequently took a lot of money out from the bank instead, turning the bank into an empty shell, that’s the main reason why the bank fell like mud when he passed away. However, he was a smart and astute person, why would he want to destroy his own bank?”

“About this…” Manager Yin didn’t understand either, he looked at Manager Qian with a puzzled gaze.

Manager Qian looked sad about it: “Master only said that he had no choice but to do things like that, he never explained the reason why.”

Murong Yun Shu lightly nodded her head, she gave Manager Qian a letter: “This is the information delivered from the capital.”

Manager Qian opened the letter and read, his face suddenly turned as gray as dust, his lips quivered: “How, how could, how could this be…….”

“The Kingdom desires to own Huifeng Bank……” Manager Qian read out the few words from the title, he was so shocked that he couldn’t continue reading.

“The Kingdom desires a revolution, they are prepared to distribute a small amount of cash from the official bank, but to do this they’ll need a powerful bank as their strong backup. Currently, Huifeng bank is the Kingdom’s only bank that develops globally. Once they successfully own the bank, it will mean their revolution had succeeded by half already.”

Manager Qian suddenly got enlightened: “That’s the reason why master took all the money out so urgently, so even if the Kingdom manages to take over the bank later, the bank would only be an empty shell which is heavily in debt.”

“How did Miss think to send people to the capital to seek for such information?” Manager Yin was still curious.

“It was the visit of my cousin brother that reminded me.” Murong Yun Shu said: “I couldn’t understand why my father wanted to take all the money from the bank until a few days ago. When my cousin brother came to Jin Ling Province, it made me realize that the matter could have a connection with the Kingdom, so I sent people to find out.”

Ever since four years ago when Hua Ling Tian went to the capital, he never came back to Jin Ling Province. Both of them had been communicating with letters, even when Murong Yun Shu’s father had passed away, he only sent a letter to comfort her because the Empress Dowager didn’t allow him to leave the palace. However, he suddenly appeared in Jin Ling Province a few days ago, which must mean he must have gotten the Empress Dowager’s permission, and the reason that the Empress Dowager must have agreed must be connected with Murong Sect.

As expected, according to the information given, the mission that allowed Hua Ling Tian to come to Jin Ling Province was to convince Murong Yun Shu to hand over the Huifeng Bank. Of course, his attempt to convince her was by offering marriage to her, but she rejected him anyway.

Murong Yun Shu felt helpless as she came to know of this, the palace was surely a creepy and scary place, for in just only four years, her intimate brother had changed and he even tried to deceive her feelings.

Manager Yin: “Then what should we do? We can’t pretend to be a sitting duck and wait for the kingdom to take over the bank, right?”

It was the first time seeing Murong Yun Shu’s face turn cold as she heard the words, her bright eyes were sparkling with anger, her soft voice contained an inviolable power: “Things that belong to me, such as Murong Sect, I will definitely not allow anybody to take it as they please!”

Manager Yin: “But we can’t fight against the kingdom.” Even the sly old master could only accept the poor fate of the bank, who else could save it?

“We can’t fight against the kingdom, but someone can.”

“Who?”

“God.”

Manager Qian was immediately stunned, the matter had become a crisis but how could miss still have the mood to joke, moreover, her face was serious when she joked……

*

After Murong Yun Shu sent away the two managers, she went back to the yard and sunbathed, this time there was a book of a collection of poetry in her hand.

“Miss, here’s your tea.” Lu’er passed the freshly made tea to Murong Yun Shu, her face was full of complaints. Miss is acting way too leisurely, which made her feel insecure.

“Mmm.” Murong Yun Shu was thirsty, she immediately drank the tea: “Ouch- “She suddenly jumped out from the bench and stepped two steps away, the beautiful ceramic teacup fell onto the book. The tea splashed all over the place. Luckily, Lu’er was fast enough to catch the teacup before it rolled down to the floor.

“Are you trying to kill your owner?” Murong Yun Shu was burnt by the hot tea, she stuck out her tongue while scolding Lu’er.

“I didn’t know you’d be in such a hurry to drink the tea.” Lu’er also stuck out her tongue, she looked down and smirked. Ha, the calm Mistress had finally reacted exaggeratedly! God had finally seen her plight and blessed her!

“You can’t even help with such small matter, what do I need you for?”

When Lu’er heard the words, she immediately became anxious: “Miss, please don’t send me away! I promise I’ll think like how you think in the future, like a worm in your stomach.”

“Did you just curse me to grow worms in my stomach?”

“……I swear, I would dare curse myself but I dare not curse Miss.” Lu’er really hoped she could tie her neck and commit suicide, she really really hoped.

Murong Yun Shu raised her eyebrow and looked like she had chosen to believe her. She took the book of poetry that had become wet from the tea and swung it lightly, she put the book on the stone table to let it dry and turned around to prepare to leave. Her mood had already been spoiled by the cup of tea.

“Miss!” Lu’er shouted, she pointed at the wet collection of poetry and said: “There are words in the book!”

“If a book didn’t have words, could it still be called a book?” Murong Yun Shu didn’t have any spare thoughts about it, she didn’t give any reaction and continued walking back.

“It’s not those kinds of words…….It’s a completely different kind of writing…….” Lu’er couldn’t explain clearly, she ran in front of Murong Yun Shu and pulled her to the stone table, she pointed at the gray words on the book and said: “Look.”

Murong Yun Shu was shocked, in the book where the spot had been drenched by the tea, there really were words on it, it looked like the word for ‘Jian’.

“Bring me a bowl of water.”

“Alright.”

In a short period of time, Lu’er quickly brought a bowl of water and put it on the stone table.

Murong Yun Shu carefully tore off the pages one by one and then she soaked them into the water bowl. The first few pages didn’t have any words, a few pages in the middle had words, while the last few pages didn’t have any words.

After putting all the words together, she combined them into a message – “Five hundred thousand silver taels hidden in Mingjian Sect.”

Five hundred thousand silver taels!

It was the exact amount that was found to be missing for the debt.

Murong Yun Shu was suddenly enlightened, now she knew that her father had hidden the silver taels inside Mingjian Sect. No wonder she couldn’t find the missing money in Murong House no matter how hard she looked, no wonder Mingjian Sect wanted to break the betrothal so urgently…….

But she didnn’t understand, why would her father not tell her directly?