Chapter 424: Zhang Family Manor
“No way, Old Qian’s ambition is too great. Is he preparing to conquer the world?” Lu Xuan could hardly believe his own deduction. “If he succeeds in all this, it won’t be Wen Zong or Ma Dugong becoming Stalin, but Qian Shuiting becoming emperor, with the Qian dynasty passing down for generations. What’s the point of us even being here!”
He hadn’t been biding his time in the Great Library just to be a stepping stone for the “second generation” to take over!
“This is a bit too obvious!” Lu Xuan cursed in frustration. “Do they take us Elders for fools?” But five minutes later, he had calmed down. “Am I overthinking this?” Because those who proposed the formation of the Youth League and supported the proposal were mostly unrelated to the core of the Otaku Party, and could even be considered their opponents. It was unlikely they would come out to support Old Qian.
He had originally thought that this Youth League proposal was a pre-emptive move by the bigwigs on the Executive Committee to make a comeback after this storm. Now it seemed that was not the case.
He really couldn’t understand the rhythm of it. Could this be Wen and Ma’s bargaining chip to buy off Qian Shuiting? Yes, that was a possibility. But he felt it wasn’t that simple.
His years of experience in the officialdom told him that the easier something was to figure out, the more he needed to think about it. If he still couldn’t figure it out, he should just wait and see.
“Forget it, it’s the weekend. I should relax a bit first.” Lu Xuan stretched, letting out a earth-shattering yawn. The hallway was deserted. The door to the office opposite was closed. It was Saturday, and Cheng Yongxin had slipped away early. She was probably either reading a book with a cup of South Sea coffee at the cafe or writing something…
He organized his public opinion analysis, marked it up, and locked it in his office safe. Then he tidied up the various documents and books on his desk. Some needed to be filed, some returned. He sorted them into different file baskets. There were dedicated naturalized staff to handle these things. Soon, his desk was clean and tidy. This was a work habit he had developed over a long time. A messy desk full of documents only proved that the person’s work efficiency was low, nothing more.
When Liu Ziming saw Lu Xuan come out of the library’s main entrance, his face was a mask of indifference. He hadn’t seen this look in a long time. Having followed Elder Lu for many years, he knew that the more impassive his master’s face was, the more likely he and his sister were to suffer. He stood with the utmost respect, waiting for instructions.
Lu Xuan walked past him without a word. Liu Ziming, with quick hands, took the briefcase he was handed. It contained nothing but a folding umbrella from the old time, a notebook, and a few pens. Lu Xuan had a strong sense of confidentiality and never casually took documents or books out of the Great Library.
On the path from the library building to the main gate, Lu Xuan walked quickly. Lu Xuan was 182 cm tall, and Liu Ziming was a head and a half shorter. To keep up, Liu Ziming had to almost jog, but he always stayed to Lu Xuan’s left rear, maintaining a distance of about a meter.
A two-wheeled official carriage was already parked in the courtyard. It had been dispatched by the General Office at his secretary’s request. The three guards, including the driver, were fully armed. Since the terrorist incident, the security level had been raised across the board. Any Elder leaving the Green Zone had to be accompanied by guards. For longer journeys, an official carriage had to be booked.
The three guards snapped to attention and saluted. Lu Xuan gave a slight nod.
Liu Ziming trotted to the carriage and opened the door. He bowed and said, “Sir, please get in.”
These official carriages had only recently become more common. Lu Xuan rarely rode in them. The carriage had obviously been cleaned, but Lu Xuan’s eyes immediately fell on the long and short hairs stuck to the top of the backrest. They were particularly glaring against the goose-yellow velvet. Lu Xuan suddenly felt a wave of dizziness. He could even smell the annoying scent of people like Ming Lang, Cheng Yongxin, and Mu Min.
He sat down heavily on the cushion. Liu Ziming closed the door and climbed into the back seat, squeezing in with the guards. He said to the driver, “To Zhang Family Manor!”
Zhang Family Manor was Lu Xuan’s “outer residence.” Legally speaking, it was his wife’s property. Yes, he had a wife. Like Xun Suji from the food factory, he had married the daughter of a local native.
Zhang Family Manor was originally the property of his father-in-law. His father-in-law was a clansman of the well-respected current member of the Consultative Council, Zhang Youfu, and was also a “landlord.” But this landlord’s life was quite miserable. Although he had three or four tenant farmers tilling his land, he still had to work in the fields himself during the busy season—otherwise, part of his land would have to lie fallow. He didn’t remarry after his wife died; he didn’t have the spare money for a bride price.
Marrying an Elder was a good deal in his eyes. First, he would have the Senate as his backer. Second, the Tiandi Hui had already made a name for itself. By marrying his daughter to an Elder, he would be one of the Senate’s “own people,” and the Tiandi Hui would naturally treat his family with special consideration.
Therefore, when Lu Xuan came to the Zhang family as an agricultural technology trainer and clearly showed a liking for his big-footed daughter, the marriage was easily arranged.
Though it was called Zhang Family Manor, it was actually just a siheyuan, a traditional courtyard house. It was located outside the third ring road of East Gate City, technically in the suburbs. Even the road in front was a dirt road. It was surrounded by fields and woods. With its new, dazzling brick walls and black-lacquered main gate, it had the air of a rural nouveau riche.
The courtyard faced south. The facade was in complete accordance with the architectural style of this time. The main gate had no plaque or sign, roughly similar to the residences of the local gentry, but the walls and houses were much taller. The biggest difference was that an extra side gate without a threshold had been added next to the main gate for carriages to enter and exit. The manor had three courtyards, one behind the other, making it a relatively large residence in the local area.
Since he married his native wife, the Zhang family had begun to prosper. Their low, three-room, thatched-roof stone house was rebuilt into a large, five-room, tiled-roof house. The courtyard, originally enclosed by reeds, was now surrounded by brick and stone walls.
Although Lu Xuan was a “soy sauce” Elder (a passive, unimportant one), he was not without power. The advantage of working in the Great Library was that people from all over came to him for help. The requests for information searches were lined up. Who got their request processed first was entirely in the hands of this director of general affairs. As long as there is power, there can be rent-seeking. This was a well-known truth in the old time. Lu Xuan did not use this to extort or demand, but to build good relationships, appearing helpful and enthusiastic. As a result, he had a good reputation in various departments. And his temporary work as a jack-of-all-trades gave him the opportunity to get to know many Elders. So as long as he asked, as long as it didn’t violate any major principles, he could easily get things done.
The way he found for the Zhang family to get rich was not farming or business, but contracting for construction projects. Of course, neither old Mr. Zhang nor his son knew how to lay bricks or raise beams, but they knew how to dig pits and carry earth. So, old Mr. Zhang took the lead, organized his relatives and the able-bodied men and women among his tenants into a construction team, specializing in earthwork for infrastructure projects.
Riding the wave of large-scale construction by the Lingao Construction Company over the years, the Zhang family’s construction team’s business grew larger and larger. The whole family treated him with even more respect. Lu Xuan also had the modern concepts of business management and accounting and would often give them advice. The family’s fortunes flourished. The house got better and bigger.
Unexpectedly, after less than three years of prosperity, a series of accidents occurred on the construction site. Old Mr. Zhang fell from the scaffolding at night and died. A few months later, the axle of an ox-cart carrying earth broke, and the cart overturned, crushing his brother-in-law and his wife to death on the spot.
Lu Xuan, the son-in-law, naturally became the owner of Zhang Family Manor. The people in the Zhang clan did not think this was “natural.” According to clan law, daughters and sons-in-law had no inheritance rights. But Lu Xuan was an Elder, and no one dared to discuss clan law with him. Although some people inevitably whispered behind his back that the deaths of the Zhang father and son were “suspicious,” no one could produce any evidence. After one of the most enthusiastic gossipers was sent to a labor camp for “slandering an Elder,” the rumors completely disappeared.
To avoid suspicion, he subcontracted the booming construction team to Zhang Youfu in his wife’s name, in exchange for twenty percent of the after-tax profits as a contracting fee. He also contracted all of the Zhang family’s original land to the Tiandi Hui on a full-package basis. Naturally, the family also underwent a “reformation.” Although it was still called “Zhang Family Manor,” it was actually “Lu Family Manor.”
The “contracting fees” paid by the construction team and the Tiandi Hui enabled him to continue renovating the manor. The manor was built intermittently for three or four years, and the third courtyard was only completed last year, reaching its current scale. The manor walls were six meters high. The second and third rows of main houses were built as two-story buildings. In the courtyard, apart from a few trellises and a few young trees, there were no other landscape features. Although it also had upturned eaves and green tiles and red bricks, it looked extremely ordinary compared to the other residences that were being built in East Gate City.
At this moment, the atmosphere in “Lu Family Manor” was particularly oppressive.
At Liu Ziming’s loud cry of “The master has returned!”, the servants, who were originally at their posts, immediately rushed out and stood in attendance in the courtyard.
Lu Xuan got out of the carriage, glanced at the courtyard, and let out a soft “humph” from his nose. The people around him immediately bowed a little lower.
The people in the manor all knew that this Elder Lu, who usually seemed very amiable, was actually a very difficult person to serve. Once he was angry, the consequences for the offender were extremely terrible. Even if Liu Ziming, who was following behind, hadn’t been winking frantically, they could tell from Elder Lu’s cold expression that he was in a bad mood today. No one wanted to be the one to set him off. They all held their breath and bowed their heads.