695 The Lin Family Twenty Years Ago
Zhou Xingfa was pacing around the living room with his hands behind his back.
After a while, a servant ran over in a hurry and reported loudly, ” master, he���s here, he’s here!”
His voice was clearly excited.
Zhou Xingfa’s eyes lit up. “Is he really here? ”
“yes, master, ” the servant reported. “Ah Fu has brought him in.”
As soon as the servant finished his report, Zhou Xingfa saw Lin Deshan stepping in and immediately went over to greet him. He then clasped his hands and said apologetically, ” brother Lin, I’m really sorry!”
He knew that once Lin Deshan returned to Qingfeng city, he would immediately be noticed by his former enemies.
There were also rumors in Qingfeng city that the Lin family’s young master had disappeared with the Lin family’s most precious treasures, Lin’s medicinal manual and the thousand-year-old ginseng.
The Lin’s medicine manual recorded the prescriptions that the Lin family’s ancestors had developed over the past hundred years to treat various difficult and complicated diseases.
Who knew how many people wanted to get their hands on Lin’s medicine manual?
Now that Lin Deshan had suddenly returned to Qingfeng city, who knew how many people would be after him?
Lin Deshan immediately understood. “brother Zhou, what are you saying? If it wasn’t for the fact that brother Zhou helped me twenty years ago, would I still be alive now? Now that brother Zhou is in trouble, how can I turn a blind eye?”
Zhou Xingfa was still embarrassed, ” but this time, even though I need your help, I’m afraid I’ll have to trouble you greatly, brother Lin!”
Lin Deshan pretended to be angry and said, “Brother Zhou, why are you being so polite to me? There is no such thing as a burden. Now that brother Zhou is in trouble, I don’t know if I can be of much help. If I can really do my part to help Brother Zhou out of this predicament, I’ll do it even if I have to use my life in exchange.”
Zhou Xingfa was touched by Lin Deshan’s words, but he didn’t agree with them.
He said, “Brother Lin, please don’t say that. If I really need to use brother Lin’s life to exchange for the safety of the Zhou family, I would rather continue like this until I go bankrupt!”
Lin Deshan smiled helplessly. “alright, Brother Zhou, tell me what’s going on. Let’s discuss the countermeasures and solutions.”
Zhou Xingfa nodded. “brother Lin, please!”
Zhou Xingfa gestured for them to sit down.
After the two of them sat down, they talked about the cause of the incident while drinking tea.
“We had to go back to half a month ago… ” Zhou Xingfa said.
“Half a month ago, the third Prince, Yuwen Feiye, suddenly became an Imperial envoy and came to Qingfeng city to investigate the corruption and bribery of Governor Zhou Anping.
“It turned out that a month ago, the Inspectorate had received a report that the governor of Qingfeng city, Zhou Anping, had accepted a bribe from the great merchant Li Fazhi and two million taels of silver allocated by the Imperial court to save the victims of disasters.
“Qingfeng city is the territory of the crown prince’s maternal uncle. Zhou Anping and the crown prince’s uncle, ye Songyang, are in-laws. Zhou Anping’s first wife’s daughter married ye Songyang’s second wife’s son, so they were a match of equal social status.
“Thus, in his anger, the Emperor ordered the third emperor, Yuwen Feiye, to be the Imperial envoy to investigate the matter.
“As soon as Yuwen Feiye arrived, he immediately captured Zhou Anping’s family and threw them into prison. Then, he sent troops to surround the governor’s mansion. Not even a fly could escape.”
Zhou Xingfa had no way of knowing the current situation of the governor’s family.
Zhou Xingfa and Zhou Anping were related by blood. Zhou Xingfa’s grandfather and Zhou Anping’s grandfather were cousins, and Zhou Xingfa and Zhou Anping had been on good terms since they were young.
After Zhou Anping was promoted to the governor’s office, Zhou Xingfa’s business development was closely related to Zhou Anping.
After Zhou Anping’s incident, those business partners, customers, officials, and nobles did not dare to do business with Zhou Xingfa for fear of getting into trouble.
As such, Zhou Xingfa’s guang juyuan auction house was completely deserted, and its business plummeted. If this continued, it might never rise again.
He had no choice but to think of Lin Deshan, who had sold him the milkvetch flower.
This was because Lin Deshan had made a condition when he sold him the flower. He had also promised that they would cooperate further in the future.
Who didn’t understand what that meant?
Wasn’t he just telling Zhou Xingfa that in the future, there might be medicine like the milkvetch flower or even more valuable than the flower for guang juyuan auction house to sell?