Unexpectedly, Huo Yuan was quite familiar with the ginseng market because the Huo family’s main ginseng business was located in Bianzhou Prefecture, and was managed by him.
Seeing Cai Wei’s curiosity, Huo Yuan detailed how to identify ginseng, the different prices of different types of ginseng, speaking very meticulously.
After listening to Huo Yuan’s introduction, Cai Wei laughed heartily. She knew ginseng was expensive, but she didn’t know that a hundred-year-old ginseng could fetch a price over a thousand taels of silver. If so, wouldn’t her thousand-year-old ginseng be sold for over ten thousand taels? And she had so many of them. If she sold them all, wouldn’t she be making a mountain of silver!
Rich! She was going to be rich! She celebrated with joy and excitement in her heart!
Lady Du was busy taking care of the children’s tea and dim sum. She turned back and saw Cai Wei and Huo Yuan were engrossed in enjoyable conversation, she couldn’t help but show a look of concern and subtly coughed.
Cai Wei noticed her mother’s unusual behaviour, knowing that she was overthinking and helplessly rolled her eyes in exasperation, giving Huo Yuan an apologetic smile.
Huo Yuan didn’t mind. Seeing Cai Wei’s playful appearance, he laughed heartily. He stopped conversing so much with her and instead began to chat with Wen’er and Wu’er...
As for Li Jingui, after being publicly humiliated by Huo Yuan, he was no longer in the mood to visit Ying’er. He stormed off with his bootlickers and upon returning home, entered the Flower Hall to see his dad, Magistrate Li, drinking tea with his biological mother, Lady Wang, with his two concubines and several siblings also present.
Seeing Li Jingui’s return, the whole family stood up excitedly. Magistrate Li rushed up quickly and anxiously pulled his son closer.
"Jingui, your dad heard that you finally invited Young Master Huo to dinner today? How did it go? Is Young Master Huo willing to deal with you again?"
Upon hearing the words ’Young Master Huo’, Li Jingui was so furious that he slammed the table and cried out, "What the damn Young Master Huo! He’s nothing more than a dishonest merchant. He’s not worthy of my attention! Even if he prostrates himself to curry favor with me, I wouldn’t bother with him!"
Upon hearing this, Magistrate Li felt a chill in his heart, realizing that his son had screwed up and failed to woo the future head of the Huo family. In his urgency, he grabbed his son’s ear and scolded him, wishing his son could have been more competent.
"Useless! You’ve made many useless friends, but when it comes to making connections that actually matter, you fall short! Where has all your social maneuvering skill gone?"
"Ouch, ouch, Dad, let go..."
Li Jingui cried out, clutching his ear.
Magistrate Li cherishes his only legitimate son and of course, did not dare to inflict too much pain. Hearing his son cry out, he released his grip, but he still grumbled angrily, "You’d better find out what he likes and court his favor! I don’t believe that he will refuse to deal with you."
Li Jingui cried out in grievance: "What could he possibly like? Either wealth or women. Speaking of wealth, he’s the richest man in the entire Great Jin. And as for women, I chose Ying’er, the most sought-after courtesan, to accompany him and he had her thrown out! You tell me, Dad, what other methods do I have to get close to him?"
Magistrate Li was taken aback. "What? Even Ying’er was thrown out? How is that possible?"
Ying’er, after all, is a well-known courtesan in half of Yushu County. With her slim waist and voluptuous figure, she is full of charm, whose enchantments had once caused him back pain for half a month, almost causing him to be incapacitated before he had to distance himself from her.
But he firmly believed that no man could resist Ying’er’s allure!"
Li Jingui rubbed his ear, sneered, and looked at his dad as if he was looking at a country bumpkin. "What is Ying’er? She’s just a common prostitute frequented by many. The woman Huo Yuan likes is clean and untouched, so tender that she could be squeezed out water. She can’t be compared with Ying’er!"