My Emperor Father Can Read Minds

Chapter 157

Since it was only a temporary stay, Xie Liang and Sun Xizhao each rented an inn in Yuanyang.

As soon as they returned, they gathered in one room to discuss the business alliance.

Sun Xizhao: “Brother Xie, did you understand anything about the business alliance?”

Xie Liang: “Don’t ask me, I was about to ask you.”

Sun Xizhao: “Ah, then it seems neither of us understands. That’s great.”

Xie Liang: …

What’s great about that?

So Brother Sun really has gone mad from talking to the Wise King, hasn’t he?

The two of them sat in thought for a while.

Sun Xizhao asked Xie Liang, “How do you plan to choose?” Xie Liang paused, and instead of answering, asked back, “Do you think this business alliance idea is entirely the Wise King’s doing, or is it the court’s…”

Who’s really behind the business alliance? That question still mattered quite a bit. After all, the former was just a prince, but the latter represented the entire Great Wei dynasty.

“What difference does it make? The Wise King said the Emperor already knows about it. Even if the business alliance is under his name, the court and the royal family will definitely get involved behind the scenes. That matter doesn’t concern us much. What matters is whether we benefit from it.”

Sun Xizhao shook his head slightly. “Since the Wise King dares to work with us, it must have been long planned. He’s probably just waiting for us to finalize things.”

Xie Liang thought for a moment, then suddenly sighed, “I keep feeling like we’ve fallen into the court’s trap.”

Sun Xizhao was just pouring himself some tea. Hearing this, he chuckled, “Even if you know they lured us in—so what? Can you not come?”

How could there be such coincidences in the world? They arrive, and the other side just happens to bring up the business alliance and doing trade in Great Liang. Isn’t that clearly targeted at their Yizhou noble families?

They had wanted to negotiate with the government on their own terms, but even if they hadn’t come, the authorities would likely have come knocking anyway…

Sun Xizhao and Xie Liang were both deeply thoughtful types. They didn’t believe in coincidence. They just pieced together what they knew, supplemented it with speculation and logic, and eventually arrived at what they believed was the truth.

Xie Liang gave a bitter smile. “The court is truly calculating. First they cut off our access to the white sugar trade in Great Wei, and just as the timing seems right, they come to us with this proposal about trading in Great Liang. It sounds like compensation, but they’ve lost nothing. All the damage is to us. They’re just relying on the fact that we don’t dare oppose them.”

Sun Xizhao glanced at him. “So… do you dare?”

Xie Liang: …

No, he didn’t dare.

As the two were talking in the room, a servant’s voice suddenly came from outside.

“Master, someone from the Wise King has delivered two items.”

Sun Xizhao and Xie Liang stopped talking.

The Wise King?

They exchanged a confused glance and quickly got up to go outside.

As soon as Sun Xizhao opened the door, he saw his household servant.

In the corridor, aside from the guard, there was only the servant, holding a box in his hands.

The servant said, “Master, the man claimed to be a guard of the Wise King. He left this box and departed, saying it contains a little… specialty from Ziyang, a gift for the two masters.”

What?

“Ziyang specialty? This is something brought from Ziyang County?”

Xie Liang stepped forward and couldn’t help opening the box.

The first thing to catch their eye was the snow-white bottled salt.

“Huh? What are these bottles? They look quite novel…”

Xie Liang, intrigued, picked one up.

There was another one in the box, but Sun Xizhao didn’t take it. Though he was curious, he merely glanced a few times at Xie Liang’s hand, then turned his attention to the two bars of soap in the box.

Creamy white, solid blocks, square-shaped, smooth to the touch, with little smell. He couldn’t tell what they were.

Sun Xizhao turned the soap over in his hand. “What is this? It doesn’t look like a snack, and it’s not some sort of clever trinket.”

Xie Liang looked over and spotted a folded slip of paper pressed under the items.

“Brother Sun, look—there’s a piece of paper.”

Sun Xizhao quickly pulled it out and opened it.

There wasn’t much on the paper—just a simple instruction sheet describing the glass bottles and soap.

Upon reading it, both Sun Xizhao and Xie Liang were stunned.

“Bottled salt? This is white salt? I thought it was sugar. So this bottle is called a glass bottle…”

“Soap? Oh, so it’s like Chinese honey locust… If it cleans better than locust pods, fetch some water! I want to try this soap myself…”

After some fussing, Sun Xizhao and Xie Liang returned to their seats.

But this time, both looked slightly dazed.

Sun Xizhao looked down at his hands. The slippery, clean feeling after using the soap still lingered. And when he recalled the pale gray, dirty water from washing just his hands, he felt a bit suffocated.

His hands… were really that dirty?

He regularly washed his hands and kept them clean—how could a single use of soap make the water look that filthy?

Xie Liang stared at the bottled salt on the table, eyes dazed.

White salt, glass… When did the court produce such good things? The Salt Bureau in Yuanyang had already been selling bottled salt, yet in Yizhou, they had heard nothing about it. Clearly this had all been planned in advance—they were the only ones kept in the dark.

After quite some time, the two of them finally stirred.

Sun Xizhao said solemnly, “Brother Xie, let’s cooperate. I choose to work with the court.”

Xie Liang nodded. “Makes sense. Let’s cooperate first. We’ll work with the court for now, and once we fully understand the business alliance rules, then decide whether to join.”

Sun Xizhao: “Exactly. The Wise King said the alliance hasn’t been officially formed yet—we still have time to think it over.”

After speaking, Sun Xizhao and Xie Liang exchanged a look and both gave a bitter smile.

They had no choice. Not cooperating simply wasn’t an option.

Look at the kind of quality goods the Wise King brought them—none of that could’ve been developed overnight.

The court must have been preparing all this behind the scenes for quite some time.

Who knows how long they had been planning before finally revealing all this to the world now? And with that level of preparation, every aspect must already be locked in place.

White sugar, soap, business alliance… The court made its move in both Jiaozhou and Yizhou—methodical and forceful. As heads of noble families in Yizhou, if they tried to stubbornly resist the court, it wouldn’t be long before the authorities started cracking down on the gentry.

As the leaders of major aristocratic families, Xie Liang and Sun Xizhao had to consider many things.

If they could secure benefits for their families without clashing with the court, they would never choose the extreme path.

So given the current situation, the two of them decided to accept the Wise King’s proposal.

Had Wei Yu known what they were thinking, he likely could only sigh and say, “Overthinking is a disease.”

Maybe people with too many schemes just can’t help themselves.