“Heh heh, Chen’er, what are you saying. An old man protecting his son is only just and proper! It’s actually nothing major, just that the duke of Soaring Dragon sent over an invitation, welcoming all the dukes to a reception in celebration of a major event of joyous tidings at his manor.”
“Soaring Dragon dukedom?” The first person that Jiang Chen thought of was that Long Juxue.
“Our relationship with the Soaring Dragon dukedom isn’t deep enough to be invited to a banquet, is it?” Jiang Chen asked probingly.
“Ai, duke of Soaring Dragon! This is a barely veiled display of power to run roughshod over the Jiang family. Chen’er, since you ask, I will tell you. Keep your wits about you when you’re out and about, and don’t offend anyone from the Soaring Dragon duchy. The land of our Jiang Han territory is rich and fertile because it’s in the southern part of the kingdom. We even discovered a piece of land with a spirit vein running through it. Thus, our family has always had a large business deal cultivating spirit ingredients for the Pill King Garden.”
Discovering a piece of land with a spirit vein naturally made it have fertile soil for planting spirit ingredients. It was also quite normal to have business relations with the Pill King Garden, a place that specialized in pill medicine.
Jiang Chen listened quietly because he knew there was more to it.
“But recently, the duke of Soaring Dragon has approached me many times to rent the piece of land with the spirit ingredients garden.”
“Rent? It’s not as if renting property doesn’t exist between the dukedoms. What was his offered rental price?” Jiang Chen seemed to be slowly forming the picture.
“When I say the Soaring Dragon duchy is bullying us, this is what I mean. Based on our business with the Pill King Garden, this piece of land brings us five million silver in profit every year. But the duke of Soaring Dragon offered three hundred thousand silver to rent our land.”
Cultivating ingredients for the Pill King Garden resulted in revenues of roughly five million a year!
But renting it out to the duke of Soaring Dragon would directly shrink revenues to three hundred thousand!
Robbery, highway robbery through sheer display of power!
Jiang Chen understood everything at once. This duke of Soaring Dragon was playing on his power as the first duke of the kingdom. The so called banquet was one of false pretenses. Inviting the duke of Jiang Han was undoubtedly to pressure him in person and force him to acquiesce.
If pressure only came from the duke of Soaring Dragon, that would be simple. We’re all dukes of Eastern Kingdom; if you pressure me, then I will just simply ignore you.
It would be a violation of ancestral code of conduct and a huge taboo if dukes easily warred with each other.
Seeing as his father was so troubled, Jiang Chen felt that the pressure must not only come from the duke of Soaring Dragon.
“Is it that the Pill King Garden has secretly made a deal with the Soaring Dragon dukedom?” Jiang Chen asked.
Jiang Feng thought it was a bit odd and looked at Jiang Chen. “Well Chen’er, you normally don’t ask after these matters, but you’ve identified the hidden currents within this one. That is indeed the case, Pill King Garden has let out hints that even if we don’t rent to the Soaring Dragon dukedom, they plan on terminating the relationship after the Hidden Dragon Trials.”
Jiang Chen finally fully understood the situation. This was adding insult to injury.
The two sides had teamed up to sideline the owner of the land with the spirit vein.
This duke of Soaring Dragon was too scheming, this was conducting business without any skin in the game.
When faced with a choice between the Soaring Dragon dukedom and the Jiang Hang dukedom, the Pill King Garden naturally fawned on the former. After all, that was the first duke in the kingdom.
“Then, tonight’s banquet is a dinner where treachery is planned?” Jiang Chen toyed with the invitation with some interest. The duke of Soaring Dragon’s arrogance, and a sense of a petty villain winning the day emanated between the lines of text.
The crucial point was, the invitation took particular pains to remind the duke of Jiang Han to bring Jiang Chen as well.
Was this to create a package out of father and son for joint bitter humiliation?
“Chen’er, I’m thinking that I should go alone. You…”
“Go of course! Why not. I really want to open my eyes.” Jiang Chen laughed heartily. “I’d like to see if this duke of Soaring Dragon really has three heads and six arms.”
After his father’s explanation of this matter and the combination of all that had happened before, Jiang Chen had full reason to suspect that the duke of Soaring Dragon was involved in the fart that the previous Jiang Chen had released during the Rites.