My Emperor Father Can Read Minds

Chapter 152

Regarding the matter of setting out to return to the capital, Wei Yu had already packed his luggage and was just one step away from leaving. But right at the end, his Second Brother gave him something else to do.

A sudden letter arrived from Yuanyang. In the letter, his Second Brother told him that the noble families of Yizhou wanted to negotiate. Wei Yu was immediately full of question marks.

“The noble families of Yizhou want to negotiate with the government? Where did they get the guts?”

The Eighth Prince was even more baffled than Wei Yu.

After all, noble families had always been at odds with the court. Even if they had dealings, it was always done in secret. This open talk of negotiation? This was the first time he’d heard of it.

Wei Yu thought for a moment. “They probably found out about the sugar situation. I’d guess they’ve lost quite a bit of money recently. Maybe they’re worried things will continue to go badly, so they want to talk to the government directly.”

That reasoning made sense to the Eighth Prince too, but what he was curious about was what exactly the noble families thought they could offer in a negotiation.

The Eighth Prince said, “What do you think they want to negotiate with? Zhe?”

“Probably,” Wei Yu leaned his head back. “They’ve always had the upper hand when it comes to raw materials. The Yizhou noble families control who knows how much farmland. We can’t just raid their estates just because we dislike them, can we? That would throw the whole realm into chaos.”

The Eighth Prince frowned and thought for a while, then said, “We’ve already set the rules for sugar prices. They can’t make money off high sugar prices anymore, so they can only work something out with the materials. Do you think they’ll stop selling sugar and instead sell zhe to us at high prices?” Wei Yu: “…Nice idea, but I’d advise you to forget it.”

Sell zhe at high prices? Even at a higher price, how much could it really sell for? It’s not gold, silver, or jade. Raw materials have never been as profitable as finished goods.

If the noble families were really thinking that way, Wei Yu didn’t know whether to call them foolish or just plain delusional.

The Eighth Prince thought about it and realized it was unlikely. At most, the noble families would use zhe to negotiate with the government, exchange some profits related to sugar for leniency, and in the end reach a balance that wouldn’t be too much of a loss for them.

“Let me take another look at Second Brother’s letter,” the Eighth Prince said, reaching out.

The letter from the Second Prince was still by Wei Yu’s side. Wei Yu handed it to him upon hearing that.

After reading it again, the Eighth Prince frowned. “People from the Yizhou noble families are going to be sent here. Clearly, it’s Second Brother’s job to handle the sugar price issue, but he wants you to take care of it. If you mess around, who knows how long it’ll drag out. If you’re late, fine, but if the talks go badly, you’ll take the blame.”

He tossed the letter aside, clearly annoyed.

Wei Yu glanced at his Eighth Brother, a little amused. “Eighth Brother, why be angry? Think about it another way—this is a chance to earn merit and benefit the people, isn’t it?”

At the moment, Wei Yu was dressed in a black robe embroidered with golden threads. Two thin gold chains fastened his collar, and his hair was tied up in a long phoenix-tail crown—luxurious with a touch of flamboyance. He sat crookedly on the couch, legs crossed, idly playing with two white jade beads in his hand.

He looked every bit the nobleman, but his lazy and unruly air made the Eighth Prince feel like he was looking at bad luck incarnate.

“You? Earning merit and helping the people? Just look at yourself right now!”

What was wrong with how he looked?

Wei Yu glanced down at himself. He thought he looked great.

People say clothes make the man and a saddle makes the horse. Normally he looked pretty drab, and now that he’d made a bit of money, his clothes were tight from growing taller—couldn’t he treat himself a little?

If you earn money, of course you should spend it!

Wei Yu waved his hand. “Ah, Eighth Brother, let’s be serious. Don’t get hung up on appearances!”

“Serious about what? That you’re going to be Second Brother’s errand boy?” The Eighth Prince couldn’t even bother to look at him directly.

How unpleasant that sounded.

Wei Yu shot him a look. “What errand boy? Sure, Second Brother is using me right now, but I’m using him too. We’re supposed to leave soon, but Second Brother still has to wait for sugar prices to fully stabilize and for the officials Father is sending to arrive. That’ll take one to three months, easily.”

“My arrangements in Ziyang County will need Second Brother’s help once I leave. And you know what our relationship with him is like. We can’t just expect his help and then refuse him when he needs ours, right?”

Wei Yu smiled. “Besides, I haven’t even left yet.”

The Eighth Prince sighed. “I’m just worried you won’t handle this well.”

This whole matter had nothing to do with them originally. Taking care of it casually was one thing. But now that the Yizhou noble families were coming to negotiate, it would inevitably involve broader planning for all of Yizhou. Just thinking about it made him realize how disastrous failure would be.

Wei Yu, on the other hand, wasn’t that worried.

He tossed the white jade beads in his hand. “Whatever. Soldiers block when the enemy comes, water dams when the flood arrives. If I can’t handle it, isn’t Second Brother still there?”

Wei Yu didn’t believe his Second Brother would actually dump the whole matter on him.

Besides—

Wei Yu suddenly blinked, a mysterious smile spreading on his face. He had been thinking about making a deal with the Yizhou noble families anyway.

—

At Second Brother’s request, his return trip was delayed. Wei Yu had to put his journey on hold and detour to Yuanyang with the Eighth Prince.

The Yizhou noble families arrived before Wei Yu.

To show respect, the heads of the Sun and Xie families came in person.

It was their first time in Jiaozhou, and as they passed through other counties on the way, they saw a few sugar-processing factories.

Though the factories were small, they produced a lot of sugar.

Both of them sent people to investigate. Since the sugar recipe was no longer a secret in Jiaozhou, production amounts weren’t confidential either. The information they got was: the government’s sugar recipe produced double what their Yizhou recipe could.

That news was shocking.

The two family heads were silent for a long time, shaken by the high yield. Their intentions for the negotiations even shifted somewhat.

After all, if Jiaozhou’s sugar recipe was this productive, then zhe wasn’t nearly as critical to the court as they had assumed.

What’s more, the people of Jiaozhou all knew the court was selling sugar recipes and encouraging sugar factories. To make money, all the government needed to do was set a fair price and announce they were buying zhe—next year, plenty of citizens would grow it.

Even if Jiaozhou’s zhe was lower quality, with the right recipe and high volume, give it two years and the court wouldn’t need Yizhou’s zhe at all!

Once they realized that, both men felt uneasy.

They truly hadn’t expected the court’s sugar recipe to be this good—better than the one they’d inherited and improved over generations!

No wonder the court had acted so decisively against Yizhou. They’d clearly had this planned from the start.

Feeling deflated, the two men said nothing. They even considered buying the recipe from the government themselves—after all, it would cut their raw material use in half. Bring the recipe back home, and even if smaller noble families lowered prices, they wouldn’t lose much with the court’s recipe.

Thanks to this round of self-inflicted brain damage, by the time Wei Yu met them, he was startled by how modest and friendly the two heads behaved.