chsdbacks Chapter 11 Li Youning's Letter
Chapter 11 Li Youning's Letter
Li Family Money Shop, Chiyun County.
At this moment, a large crowd rushed into the money exchange, holding silver notes, and went to the high counter, shouting:
"We need to withdraw money."
"Yes, yes, hurry up and give us our money back! Your money exchange is about to go bankrupt, and you won't let us withdraw our money. Are you trying to run away with the money?"
"Come out! Where are the Li family members? Come out!"
The money shop manager looked at these people and his face turned green. He hurriedly sent his apprentice to the backyard to report.
The backyard of the money exchange.
At this moment, almost everyone in the Li family, young and old, had gathered here.
"What should we do? What should we do? Is the bank going to collapse?" A graceful and elegant woman turned pale and said in a panic upon hearing the report.
"Shut up, don't talk nonsense!" Beside her, a burly man glared at her, drew his sword, stepped forward, and said to a composed middle-aged man seated in the main seat:
"Father, let me take some men and drive them away."
The man in the main seat was Li Mingyuan, the head of the Li family. Upon hearing what his eldest son, Li Yunfei, said, he immediately frowned and said:
"Yunfei! Your martial arts aptitude is decent, but you act too recklessly."
"If we drive everyone away today, the Li Family Money Shop will really be wiped out of Chiyun County."
Li Yunfei's face stiffened. "Then what should we do?" he asked.
"Does anyone know what to do?" Li Mingyuan asked, looking at the group of Li family members in the hall, a hint of expectation in his eyes.
His gaze swept past Li Yunfei and landed on his second son, Li Yunping. The fair-skinned Li Yunping lowered his head guiltily.
He then looked at his only daughter, Li Youning.
Li Youning frowned and said:
"I think we should appease them first, and as soon as possible, otherwise things will escalate and the bank may be destroyed today."
"But Father, I am foolish and do not know what to do."
Li Mingyuan nodded and said, "Your line of thinking is correct."
At the same time, he looked at the others and sighed inwardly.
The Li family has truly declined. After the old man passed away, the family's servants left one after another. Without the old man's connections and those servants who had previously brought them prosperity, the Li family immediately revealed the mediocrity of its descendants.
If they can't even handle such a small matter, even if the Li family manages to get through this hurdle, they won't go very far.
He said dejectedly, "I was prepared for this. Just watch and see, there's no need to panic."
Everyone was taken aback, but Li Yunping, the second son, said with a gleam in his eyes, "I knew Father would have a way."
Sure enough, news soon arrived from outside, and the shopkeeper, beaming with delight, came to report:
"The Jin Ding Money Shop in the prefectural city came to the rescue, bringing several cartloads of silver and jewels. When the customers saw this, they all left, and no one clamored to withdraw their money anymore."
The eldest son, Li Yunfei, who had been sullen, looked at Li Mingyuan with admiration after hearing this and said:
"So Father was prepared all along. The Golden Tripod Money Shop in the prefectural city does indeed have a past relationship with us. In that case..."
"I lied to them." After waving the shopkeeper away, Li Mingyuan interrupted Li Yunfei.
Seeing the puzzled looks on everyone's faces, he snorted coldly and said:
"The prefectural city is far from here, and the men I sent are still on their way."
"The so-called silver delivered by Jin Ding Money Shop was nothing more than money I took from our money shop's treasury."
"We're just sending a few unfamiliar faces here, pretending to be from the Golden Tripod Money Exchange. This is just a temporary measure."
He had barely finished speaking when the shopkeeper rushed in again, flustered, and said:
"Boss, something bad has happened!"
"Many martial artists say they don't believe our bank is still capable of holding their money safe. They are now building a ring outside the bank, declaring that they will challenge the bank's guards in three days."
"Two wins out of three!"
"They said they would challenge the guards at the Body Refining Realm, the Great Completion of Skin Refining Realm, and the Skin Refining Realm respectively."
"If they win, it means that the money houses are no longer able to protect their assets."
"I saw that among the people who came, there were many promising martial arts talents from previous years, making a great impression."
"Boss, what should we do?"
The people in the hall were shocked.
Li Mingyuan observed the expressions on everyone's faces and sighed inwardly, realizing that this was the real challenge the Li family was about to face.
He said, "Our Li family alone is absolutely no match for this battle."
"I often tell you to recruit martial artists with potential; now is your time to shine."
"Can anyone summon a martial artist of considerable standing?"
The second young master, Li Yunping, said, "Father, promising martial artists require a lot of money to recruit. If you could allow me to use the treasury..."
"No!" Li Mingyuan's expression changed.
"The money in the treasury must not be touched! Because we cannot guarantee that we will win."
"If we lose, customers will be flocking to the bank to withdraw their money."
"If we can't pay them back, it won't just be the bank going bankrupt; it will also mean the destruction of our families!"
"The money in the treasury must not be touched."
Upon hearing this, Li Yunping said sullenly:
"If we can't touch the money in the treasury, how much money does our Li family have left?"
"I had a sum of two hundred taels of silver before, which I said I would use to win over a martial artist who had mastered the art of skin refining, but my third sister used it to buy the Grass-Flying Manual and I don't know who she gave it to."
"Where would we get the money to recruit martial artists now?"
Upon hearing this, everyone's eyes turned to Li Youning.
Li Youning's expression changed, and she said, "I was only thinking of the family. Lu Ming does indeed have talent in lightness skills, but... but this day has come too soon!"
Li Yunping sneered, "I advised you several times back then, saying that the family was in dire straits and we needed to be cautious, but you wouldn't listen. Now that we've reached a life-or-death moment, where is the person you invested in?"
Feeling the subtle reproachful glances from her family members around her, Li Youning felt extremely wronged. She bit her lip slightly and said:
"I'll write to him now."
After she finished speaking, she immediately took out a pen and ink, wrote a letter, and had someone send it to the Military Affairs Department.
Li Mingyuan watched the servant leave with the letter, then suddenly asked:
"Ningning, has the person you invested in reached the Great Perfection of Skin Refining?"
Li Youning froze, and the calligraphy brush in her hand fell to the ground.
Disciples of the Martial Arts Department need to pass through the Stone Tablet Nine Palaces Stakes, which means reaching the Great Perfection of Skin Refinement, before they can leave.
She had been so confused that she forgot about it.
Seeing this, Li Yunping shook his head and said, "Third Sister, not to be mean, but..."
"Alright!" Li Mingyuan stopped him, glanced at Li Youning, and felt somewhat disappointed.
But there was no point in saying more now. At this critical moment of life and death, he did not want to see his family members blaming each other.
"Let's think about it again, see if there's any connection we can use..."
Li Mingyuan's words were followed by a deathly silence in the hall.
……
[Evolving leg techniques (90/100)...]
The Military Service Division compound, specifically compound number 74.
After Lu Ming finished practicing his final Grass-Flying Technique of the day, he saw that his experience had reached 90, just 10 points away from evolving his Leg Technique. He secretly looked forward to it.
Boom boom boom!
Just then, there was a knock on the door.
Lu Ming's heart skipped a beat; it must be Wei Jinlin who had arrived. He quickly walked to the door and opened it.
Sure enough, standing outside was a man in his thirties with an imposing presence—it was Wei Jinlin!
He welcomed Wei Jinlin inside, and Wei Jinlin closed the gate and led him to the stone tablet in the center of the front yard.
Just as he thought Wei Jinlin was going to teach him how to strike the stone tablet, Wei Jinlin suddenly took out a letter from his pocket and handed it to him, saying:
"There is a letter from you."
Lu Ming took the letter with a puzzled look, only to see that it was signed by Li Youning.
His lips twitched as he glanced at Wei Jinlin's broad, strong back.
Wei Jinlin, Director of the Military Service Department, concurrently serving as a martial arts instructor, steward of the miscellaneous goods room, and messenger.
Is it really necessary to be this stingy?
Lu Ming muttered to himself, then opened the letter and glanced at it, his gaze immediately hardening.