Chapter 412
The Youngest Son of the Eunhae Trading Company Chapter 412
Chapter 412. The Long-Awaited Harvest (7)
Mae-Joo and I discussed the terms and added them to the contract.
Then we each signed the contract, and I paid the price on the spot with a voucher.
“But both Cheongpa Roju and Maechu Roju don't want to leave your business. Honestly, isn't 1,000 nyang enough to change your life?”
Maechu Roju replied to my question.
“That's because Unnie loves that tavern so much.”
Well, she did say that she built Cheongpa Roju herself.
“Then what about you, Maek-chui?”
“I was sold here when I was ten years old, and I saved up money to buy this tavern. This tavern is my everything, so how could I leave?”
Hearing this, I thought both of them were amazing.
It is impossible for an ordinary person to save up enough money to build or buy a tavern as a courtesan.
“But you must feel sad to hand over this brothel to me.”
“My heart aches a little, but what can I do? I have a responsibility to take care of this brothel, and since I can no longer fulfill that responsibility, I have no choice but to hand it over to someone else who can.”
She smiled faintly.
“Still, I feel relieved to have been freed from such a heavy burden.”
I handed her the 500 nyan bill.
“Please take this. It should be enough to live on for the rest of the year.”
“What?”
“The 1,000 nyan I gave you earlier is the price for taking over this teahouse. It is now yours.”
“Ah! You're rich.”
I smiled faintly and replied.
“Since I bought this brothel, I will provide the operating funds separately.”
“I will do my best to run this brothel.”
.
.
.
With Chugetsu-ro in my possession, I returned to Seongpa-ro with confidence.
“Are you here?”
Seo Woo, a samurai at Cheongpa-ru, greeted me with a clasped hands greeting.
“It seems that there are more people trying to sell information than before.”
“That's right. It seems that word has spread as more people have actually received rice.”
“I see.”
The head of the Hao Clan's Hangzhou branch must be getting nervous and anxious.
I wonder when he will come to bow his head to me.
I hope it's not too late.
***
Hao Clan's Hangzhou branch.
“Here is the performance report for this time.”
The Chief Administrator handed the report to Branch Leader Yeon-yeon, who took it, opened it, and frowned as she looked through it.
“...”
The results were disastrous.
Although Hao Clan claimed that each branch operated independently, they were still an organization that operated under the control of the Hao Clan.
Therefore, they had to report their results to the headquarters once a month.
If they submitted this report as is, there was only one thing the headquarters would do.
Replace the branch manager.
At that moment, the Chief Administrator said to her.
“Branch Manager, I have something to tell you. Currently, our Hangzhou Branch is not fulfilling its role as a Hao Clan branch at all.”
“...”
That meant only one thing.
She had to apologize to Eunseoho.
Then, the Chief Administrator looked at Yeon-eun's wrist and smiled bitterly.
Her wrist was filled with gorgeous gold bracelets.
‘As a branch director, she should sell her own jewelry for the branch...’
Currently, almost everything that could be sold from the Hao Clan's assets had been sold, but the branch director's jewelry remained.
‘She wasn't fit to be a branch director from the beginning.’
No matter how talented he is, what good is it? He's not even as talented as the average member.
“And there is a report that Captain Eun Seo-ho has acquired four additional taverns and brothels in the Seoho area.”
“What?”
Yeon-yeon asked in a sharp voice.
“He acquired four more?”
“Yes.”
“Are they rolling in money? Where on earth did they get the money...?”
“As you know, Eunhaesang is ranked 25th among the 100 largest trading companies in the country. It is the fastest growing trading company in recent years. It's not impossible for them to have that kind of money, is it?”
“...”
Yeon-yeon kept her mouth shut.
When gathering information on Eun Seo-ho, the first thing he found out was the size of Eunhae Trading Company, so it was information he already knew.
Come to think of it, Yeon-yeon's mistake was that he didn't properly investigate Eun Seo-ho before taking action.
“Anyway, I will report this as it is.”
Yeon-yeon, who had been biting her nails in agony, looked up at the chief administrator and said.
“Chief administrator, if you report it like this, I'll be fired.”
“I know.”
“You know that, and you're still going to report it?”
“Then what should I do? This is the reality.”
“Let's fix it.”
At Yeon-yeon's words, the Chief Administrator widened his eyes and shook his head.
“What? Are you saying we should fabricate the report? I can't do that!”
“Then what should we do? If I get fired, you're finished too! Do you think I'll let you get away with this?”
“Even if I fabricate the report, don't you think your superiors will find out? I can't do it. Just kill me!”
“What? You bastard!”
“I told you to go apologize! All you had to do was apologize, but you let your pride get in the way and caused all this trouble. How dare you?”
“You...”
“We have nothing left to sell, and I can't even pay the monthly salaries. What are you doing?”
The Chief Administrator's pent-up anger exploded.
“Is it a branch office if there's only one branch manager? As the branch manager, shouldn't you do whatever it takes to make the branch run smoothly?”
“How dare a chief administrator talk to the branch manager like that...”
“Shut up and listen!”
He yelled.
“You're just greedy! And don't call me this and that! I'm not your son, and I'm old enough to be your father!”
“You... You...”
Yeon-eun was taken aback by the reaction of the chief administrator, who had always obediently followed his orders.
The chief administrator took a piece of paper from his pocket and placed it on the table.
Bang!
It was his letter of resignation.
“I resign! And I am leaving the Hao Clan!”
Seeing the Chief Administrator leave like that, Yeon-yeon grabbed her head and shouted.
“What am I supposed to do now?”
Yeon-yeon raged for a while before finally calming down and getting up from her seat.
“This is all because of that bastard Eun Seo-ho.”
She shouted outside.
“Is anyone out there?”
“Yes, you called?”
“Get ready to go out. I have somewhere to go.”
Soon, she got ready and set off. She arrived at a place called Rat's Nest, which was the back alley of Hangzhou.
There, she found the third building and knocked on the door. Then, a small door on the main door opened.
“What is it?”
“I want you to take someone out.”
“Who is the target?”
“Eun Seo-ho. He is the captain of the Eunhae Trading Company.”
There was a moment of silence.
“I can't do that.”
“What?”
“Who do you think Hangzhou owes its livelihood to? You want us to kill him? Get out of here! I'm warning you, if you touch him, you'll die!”
Bang!
The door was slammed shut, and Yeon-eun could only blink in confusion.
***
I patted my full stomach.
Was it because I was full from taking over five taverns and brothels near Seoho?
Or was it because of the dinner I just ate?
Or maybe it was because of the person who came to see me.
“So where are you now?”
“We have invited him to this floor.”
The waiter Dong-ah led me to the second floor. Soon, I saw a middle-aged man sitting at a table drinking tea.
Dong-ah told me who he was.
He was Huang An, the chief administrator of the Hao Clan's Hangzhou branch.
When I approached him, he stood up and greeted me with a clasped hands greeting.
“Greetings, Captain.”
“Nice to meet you. You are indeed the Chief Administrator of the Hao Clan. You recognized me even though I haven't introduced myself.”
“Of course. You are a famous figure in Hangzhou.”
He continued.
“And I am no longer the Chief Administrator of the Hao Clan.”
“What?”
You are no longer the Chief Administrator of the Hao Clan?
“I was the Chief Administrator of the Hao Clan an hour ago, but I resigned.”
“I see.”
So he resigned and came to me within an hour?
His drive made me laugh.
And I guessed why he came to me.
“That is why I came here.”
He knelt down.
He knelt in front of me.
“Please hire me!”
Just as I thought.
“I understand why you're confused. But I can be useful.”
He eagerly explained his career to me.
Seeing him, I laughed to myself once again.
When the chief administrator of an organization runs away like this, it means that he has nowhere else to go.
But why didn't he come to apologize to me?
Regardless, the fact that he came to me was a good thing.
According to Cheongpa Roo and Dong-ah, the waiter, Chief Administrator Hwang An was a very talented administrator.
Now that I was the owner of Cheongpa-ru, they had no reason to lie to me, so this was reliable information.
It would not be a good businessman to kick away such a talented person who had come to me.
I bowed and took his hand.
“You don't need to say anything. How could I not know the abilities of Chief Administrator Huang?”
“I am grateful for your words.”
“You look thin and frail, so it seems you have had a difficult time.”
“I don't want to speak ill of my former employer, but...yes, that's how it was.”
“Very well. I will hire you.”
“Are you serious?”
“Yes.”
I nodded.
“Then let's discuss your monthly salary.”
.
.
.
That is how Chief Administrator Huang An came to work under Qingpa Lu.
He obtained some information from him.
The most important piece of information was that the branch chief of the Yeonyeon Branch had tried to falsify the report sent to the Hao Clan headquarters.
Would someone who had planned to falsify the report really give up after the Chief Administrator resigned?
That was impossible.
Thanks to him, I was able to come up with a plan to get rid of the branch chief in one fell swoop.
“Mr. Jin Yu.”
“Yes.”
“Is there a Hao Clan in Hangzhou?”
“You don't mean the ordinary information seller Hao Clan, do you?”
“Yes.”
The Hao Clan I am referring to is not the branch, but the main Hao Clan.
In other words, they are different from courtesans and waiters who simply obtain and sell information.
The members of the main Hao Clan are highly skilled in martial arts and are also skilled at hiding their identities.
However, thanks to his skill in killing, Jin Yu is exceptionally skilled at discovering those who hide their identities.
“If you mean the Hao Clan you are referring to, then yes, there is one. He came to Cheongpa-ru a while ago to sell information.”
***
A restaurant in Hangzhou.
There used to be five waiters at this restaurant, but now there are only two.
This is because the number of customers has decreased significantly.
They bustled about, watching the restaurant owner. At that moment, a group of people entered the inn.
“Welcome!”
“Please have a seat.”
There were five people in the group.
One of the waiters' eyes lit up. He recognized who had just entered the restaurant.
That waiter was Shiroku.
He was actually a member of the Hao Clan and one of the hundred eyes and ears who were directly under the Sect Leader.
“The most famous Eun Seo-ho, Captain of the Purple Mist Pills, and Huang An, Chief Administrator of the Hangzhou Branch. What are those two doing?”
As No. 16 tilted his head, Eun Seo-ho and Huang An exchanged words.
“Is this the place that serves the most delicious West Lake vinegar fish, a specialty of Hangzhou?”
“Yes, it is.”
West Lake vinegar fish is a representative dish of West Lake, which is rich in freshwater fish. It is a dish made by steaming freshwater fish and sprinkling it with sweet and sour sauce.
“Thanks to you, Captain, I get to eat such delicious food.”
“Don't mention it. Thanks to you, Chief Administrator, I was able to find a good restaurant.”
“You haven't even eaten yet, and you're already saying that?”
“I trust the discernment of the former Chief Administrator of the Hao Clan.”
At those words, the Sixteen Lords pricked up their ears.
“Former Chief Administrator of the Hao Clan? Former? Does that mean he left the clan?”
He kept his expression neutral as he took their orders and served the food one by one.
“By the way, you resigned! That must have been a difficult decision.”
“Yes, it was. But I had no choice. They were even trying to falsify the reports sent to headquarters. I didn't want to die.”
“I understand.”
“Thank you for welcoming me like this. I'm glad I came.”
Falsifying reports sent to headquarters is a serious crime that could get you fired.
The eyes of No. 16, who was listening intently to the conversation, flashed coldly.
***
I was at a restaurant.
One of the waiters was subtly focusing his attention on us.
It was the waiter who had come to sell us information, as Jin-yu Musha had said.
By the way, the Seohocho here... is really delicious, isn't it?
It's even better than my favorite Seohocho restaurant in my previous life.
Then this place must have gone out of business in my previous life as well.
In that case, I should take over this place too.
By the way, judging from the meaningful look on the waiter's face, it seemed that our plan was working.
You shouldn't have put off coming to apologize to me.
It's too late now.