At the Prime Minister's residence, Su Wen brought the IOUs home with him.
"Young Master, the Old Master has requested for you to meet him."
The moment he entered, Su Wen was informed by a servant that Su Changqing was waiting for him.
When the two met, Su Changqing frowned and asked, "You let Lan Qingqing go? You even let He Ping'an go with her?"
"Yes!" Su Wen did not deny it.
Unexpectedly, Su Changqing didn't ask him what he wanted He Ping'an to do, nor did he ask why he let Lan Qingqing go.
He only looked at Su Wen and remained silent for a moment before sighing. "After you're done competing for wealth, you can leave the main residence. I've already arranged for another mansion for you. Furthermore, your expenses have been too high recently. It's better for you to restrain yourself."
Su Wen smiled and said, "Father, you have so much money.There's no point in keeping it, so I might as well help you to spend it."
Su Changqing angrily said, "This month, you've already spent twenty million taels. Do you know what this means? This is one-fifth of the annual taxes Great Zhou gets!"
Su Wen shook his head and said, "Father, I've looked at our accounts and discovered that there's already 235.20 million taels of silver in the household's accounts. Do you know what sort of sum this money implies? If you don't spend it, what's the point of keeping it? It's only a matter of time before you get into trouble."
From Su Wen's point of view, his father was even more capable than He Shen, the most corrupt official in his own world's history.
However, when one amasses too much money, no matter where they decide to spend it, people would probably start to question.
Leaving the matter of others aside, Su Wen did not believe that the Emperor would not know how much money their Su family had. Even if he did not know the exact amount, he would at least have a rough gauge.
Even if the current Emperor Zhou did not care, what about in the future?
When the new Emperor ascended to the throne, he would discover that the Su family had always been greedy, but in the end, they had not spent any money. Was all their money accumulated at their residence?
How could they not think about what the Su family would do with the money?
Even if he didn't spend it, the other party would come out with some excuse of having an ascension gift to take everything. He might as well use it.
After all, to them, throwing out banknotes of silver was no different from throwing stones.
In this era, banks didn't even have interest, let alone know how to manage and grow money.
Su Changqing said angrily, "Don't tell me that if you spend it now, you won't be bringing trouble onto yourself? Everyone in the capital knows that your family has money!"
"That's why I plan to help you spend all your money before I leave the mansion! Furthermore, I want everyone to know that I, Su Wen, have lost all my money." Su Wen smiled.
Su Changqing was stunned. "Spend it all? I think you're crazy! How can you spend so much money? Even if you spend it all, will others believe that you've spent it all? They will only think that you have more money."
"Dad, why do you think Xue Meng wants to compete with me in wealth?"
Su Changqing sneered and said, "What else could it be? He just wants to take the opportunity to attack my corruption in the imperial court. Could it be that he's really going to fall out with us because of a brothel girl? His uncle Wu Qiuhan has always been at odds with me and has been scheming for a long time."
"Then what do you plan to do, Dad?"
"We have our own source of wealth. We only need to show that we have gotten it through open means."
Su Wen smiled. "Father, from what I see, you might as well admit your crimes."
"Huh?" Su Changqing looked at Su Wen in shock.
However, he was smart and instantly understood. He muttered, "You mean… you're talking about the opportunity to offer up money?"
"That's right! Father, you can take the chance to tell them about the source of your wealth. At the same time, you can admit that you have not taught your son well and offer up our wealth to His Majesty. You can use this opportunity to let Wu Qiuhan come to our house to investigate our private assets."
Su Changqing's eyes lit up as he muttered to himself, "How ruthless! You're too ruthless! Your move is akin to sacrificing 10,000 of your side to kill 1,000 enemies!"
Although he said that, Su Changqing knew that if he really did that, he would force the Xue family and Wu Qiuhan into a position where they couldn't back down.
Why? It was very simple. If Su Changqing failed to teach his son well, then had the Xue family been considered to have taught their son well?
If even the Prime Minister could confess, what about the Xue family?
One could pretend not to know, but how could Wu Qiuhan's relationship with the Xue family be hidden from the Zhou Emperor himself?
When the time came, who would the Zhou Emperor choose to side with? Su Changqing or Wu Qiuhan?
Moreover, Su Wen even mentioned that he wanted Wu Qiuhan to investigate the private assets of the Su family. To put it bluntly, it was because he was Su Changqing's political enemy. Everyone knew that the two of them did not get along, so he wanted everyone to know that the Su family had no private assets that they were holding in secret.
"But with this, I'm afraid many people will hate me. After all, there are quite a few hedonistic sons of the rich and powerful in the capital."
"That's good too. The more they hate me, the more assured His Majesty is of me."
"If you calculate carefully, apart from the loss of money, I would have benefitted in almost every other aspect."
Having thought up to this point, Su Changqing looked at his son in surprise.
How bold!
So much money. It was a fortune that many people dreamed of.
However, Su Wen insisted on offering all their money.
Even Su Changqing felt his heart ache when he thought about how he had to give all of his savings to the Zhou Emperor.
He looked at Su Wen and smiled. "In that case, you won't have any money to spend."
Su Wen shook his head and said, "Father, what are you talking about? You're not dead, and you're even the prime minister. How would there be a lack of people giving me money to spend? Furthermore, wouldn't I be able to win the Xue family's gold mine? Could it be that Your Majesty has the nerve to snatch something from me, a child?"
Su Changqing was instantly enraged, "Who the f*ck are you cursing! I'm going to beat this unfilial son of mine to death today!"
With that said, he pulled Su Wen and gave him a few punches. However, the results were still the same. Su Wen remained unfazed, while he himself injured his fists instead.
Su Changqing felt a headache coming on. He was clearly a shrewd, cunning, and scheming son. Why was his mouth so uncontrolled, always saying whatever he thought?
After finishing the 'fight', Su Changqing pondered for a bit and said, "He Ping'an is gone, but you still need experts to protect you. I'll think of someone for you in the next few days."
Su Wen already had someone in mind. "I think Zhao Jin is not bad."
Su Changqing rubbed his chin and said, "That's fine as well. I don't think he's suitable to be the commander of the residence guards. He's too domineering. Last time, he even wanted to feed He Sui feces."
Su Wen smiled and said, "This kind of person is suitable to be my bodyguard."
At the Prime Minister Residence's guardhouse, Zhao Jin was currently half-naked, with a pipe in his mouth and one foot on a stool. As he looked at the nine cards in his hand, a faint smile appeared on his lips!
"Twin Heavens Venerable, complete wipe! Haha, you bunch of brats still want to win my money?"
The other guards playing together with him wailed.
At that moment, the door opened and Ning Shuang appeared at the door.
She frowned before saying, "Zhao Jin, the Prime Minister has instructed that from today onwards, you will be Young Master's personal guard. The position of guard commander will be handed over to Zhou Cheng!"
Zhao Jin was ecstatic!
After speaking, Ning Shuang paused, before frowning deeper, "In the future, you have to be careful when following the Young Master. You can't be so sloppy. Also, the Young Master doesn't like the smell of smoke!"
Zhao Jin snapped at a big-eared person beside him, "F** k, who asked you to stuff this into my mouth? Don't you know that I don't smoke? Now you've made Miss Ning Shuang misunderstand! Also, why did you splash water on me just now, now all my clothes are wet!"
With that said, he turned his head and smiled apologetically. "Miss Ning Shuang, I'm not usually like this. Please put in a good word for me in front of Young Master."
Ning Shuang could not be bothered with him, simply turning to leave.