By the time Li Boyong returned to the clan ancestral hall, his hands were still trembling.
Not from fear.
From rage.
Never in his life had he been humiliated so thoroughly in public.
A Salt Censor and a woman from another family had actually dared to interfere with Li family affairs on Li family territory, even threatening him with confiscation of the family estate and the destruction of the clan.
Bang!
He slammed his palm onto the table. The teacup jumped, splashing tea all over the floor.
“Father…” His eldest son, Li Yanzhao, stood at the doorway and looked at him cautiously. “The uncles are here.”
“Let them in.”
Li Boyong drew a deep breath and forced down the anger on his face. He was the clan head. He could not lose control in front of the clansmen.
The three clan elders and the other men of the Li family filed inside.
Every one of them looked grim, as though thick storm clouds hung over their heads.
“Sit.” Li Boyong waved a hand.
No one spoke.
The clink of teacups and scrape of chairs sounded one after another, yet still no one said a word.
In the end, Fifth Granduncle was the first who could no longer hold back.
“Boyong, are we really just going to let the matter with Yanming’s wife go?”
Li Boyong glanced at him.
“What else can we do? Censor Lin spoke personally. Did you not hear him? He threatened to confiscate the family estate. If he says it, he can do it.”
The flesh on Fifth Granduncle’s face twitched. He gave an unwilling snort.
“So what if he’s the Salt Censor? The Li family has operated in Weiyang for decades. Our roots run deep. He’s only just arrived…”
“He may have just arrived, but he is still the Salt Censor.”
Li Boyong cut him off.
“The salt permits are in his hands. If he says you don’t get one, then you don’t get one. What are you going to do, take your grievance to the authorities? Once you get there, the man sitting in judgment may very well ask you, ‘Who stands before this court, and why are you bringing a case against this official?’”
“Picture that. Still think it’s funny?”
Fifth Granduncle fell silent.
Third Granduncle stroked his beard and spoke slowly.
“We can put aside what happened in the mourning hall for now, but we cannot wait when it comes to the businesses Yanming left behind. Those shops, the salt firm, the docks, all of them are part of the Li family’s foundation. We can hardly leave them in a woman’s hands.”
That went straight to the heart of the matter.
Everyone nodded almost simultaneously.
Li Boyong lifted his teacup and took a sip, suppressing his irritation.
“Yanming’s wife intends to observe mourning for three years. During that time, she’ll remain at home and rarely go out. Someone will have to manage the businesses.”
“The clan will send a few people to inspect the various shops. First, get the accounts in order. Then we can gradually take over.”
He paused and deliberately emphasized his next words.
“Remember, don’t use force. She’s a widow. We’re helping her.”
“On paper, all the businesses will still belong to her. But as for their actual operation…”
“Three years is more than enough time for us to do plenty.”
Several of them exchanged looks before revealing knowing smiles.
“Yanzhao.” Li Boyong turned to his eldest son. “You’ll make the rounds yourself tomorrow. Start with the salt firm in the east of the city. That one is the most profitable.”
“Yes, Father,” Li Yanzhao replied.
Li Boyong then looked toward the head of the third branch.
“Third Brother, you handle the docks. Yanming has three warehouses there. The annual storage fees alone bring in a considerable sum. Replace the warehouse managers with our own people first.”
“All right.”
“The fifth branch will take the cloth shop in the west of the city. It’s in a good location and never lacks tenants. Yanming’s wife is only a woman and surely knows nothing about running a business. Tell her the clan is helping her make better use of the property, then take the shop back first.”
The head of the fifth branch nodded repeatedly.
Li Boyong continued assigning the businesses one by one, carving up the assets Li Yanming had left behind like pieces of a cake and handing each portion to a different branch to “manage.”
No one saw anything wrong with it.
As far as they were concerned, Li Yanming was dead, leaving behind a young widow and four children.
Naturally, the businesses should return to the clan.
Those were the rules.
The same rules that had been passed down for generations.
A widow should consider herself lucky if she could preserve her life.
As for the property?
She could dream.
Early the next morning, Li Yanzhao took several men to the salt firm in the east of the city.
The firm stood on one of the busiest streets in Weiyang. It occupied three storefronts, with storerooms and living quarters for the accountant in the rear courtyard.
While Li Yanming had been alive, the salt firm had earned more than ten thousand taels of silver a year, making it one of the Li family’s most valuable businesses.
Li Yanzhao stood outside and looked up at the signboard hanging above the entrance.
Li Ji Salt Firm.
The corner of his mouth lifted slightly.
That signboard will be mine soon.
He straightened his clothes and strode inside.
The clerk behind the counter froze when he saw him, then hurried forward.
“Young Master Li, what brings you here?”
“I came to take a look.”
Li Yanzhao glanced around. Business was proceeding as usual, with customers coming and going.
“Yanming is gone, but the business still has to continue. My father sent me to see whether the clan can help with anything.”
The clerk’s expression turned strange.
“Young Master Li, about that…”
“What is it?” Li Yanzhao frowned.
“This salt firm…” The clerk hesitated. “It doesn’t belong to the Li family anymore.”
Li Yanzhao thought he had misheard.
“What did you say?”
“The salt firm has already been sold.” The clerk forced himself to continue. “More than half a month ago, before news of Master Li and Eldest Young Master Li’s deaths had spread, the Young Madam used her connections to sell it.”
“The deed was signed on the spot, and the ownership was transferred at the government office.”
“The current owner is Landlord Zhang. Even the accountant was sent over by him. We old employees were simply rehired to keep the shop running.”
A loud buzzing filled Li Yanzhao’s ears.
He barely heard anything the clerk said after that.
“Sold?”
“Who sold it?”
“The Young Madam sold it.”
The clerk lowered his voice. “Miss Shanhu, the maid who serves the Young Madam, came in person with Master Li’s and Eldest Young Master Li’s seals. The property deeds and land deeds were all transferred. We only just found out ourselves.”
Li Yanzhao stood frozen in place, unable to react for a long moment.
Then he abruptly turned around, strode out of the salt firm, mounted his horse, and immediately headed for the docks.
The situation there was exactly the same as at the salt firm.
All three warehouses had changed hands.
The managers had been replaced, and even the goods stored inside no longer belonged to the Li family.
“Impossible…”
Li Yanzhao muttered to himself, “How could it have happened so quickly…?”
He mounted his horse again and rushed to the cloth shop in the west of the city, the grain shop in the south, the pawnshop in the north…
There was not a single exception.
Every business Yanming had left behind had been sold, from the salt firm to the docks, from the cloth shop to the tea shop, from the pawnshop to the grain shop.
Within half a month, everything had been sold off completely.
More than a dozen shops, three dockside warehouses, and two rural estates.
All of it was gone.
Li Yanzhao’s face turned as white as paper.
In a daze, he returned to the ancestral hall and told Li Boyong what he had discovered.
Li Boyong was drinking tea. The moment he heard the news, the cup slipped from his hand and shattered across the floor.
He looked up in disbelief.
“What did you say?”
“That woman, Weisheng He, learned before we did that all the men of the main branch were dead. She sold off all the Li family businesses before we could make a move.”
Li Yanzhao’s voice trembled.
“She didn’t leave a single one.”
“Impossible!” Li Boyong shot to his feet. “Think about the timing. She was still pregnant then. How could a pregnant woman sell more than ten shops, three warehouses, and two estates in half a month? She would have had to find buyers in advance, complete the paperwork, handle the transfers…”
“Where did she get the people or the time to do all that?”