SWDnovel Chapter 34 Risk Sharing
Chapter 34 Risk Sharing
The sedan chair swayed and wobbled away from the Wei residence and turned into Laifu Alley.
Yin'e leaned against the sedan chair wall, the curtain swaying slightly as they moved, the light filtering in flickering and casting dappled shadows on his face.
The sound of horses' hooves came from outside the sedan window. Following the sedan at a leisurely pace was Yin De.
"Tenth Master," Yin De's voice came from outside the sedan window, "If this servant dares to ask, are you really planning to repay that 300,000 taels on behalf of the Wei family?"
Yin'e opened his eyes, lifted a corner of the sedan curtain, and looked at Yin De's face, which was filled with worry.
"What do you think?" Yin'e asked in return.
Yin De hesitated for a moment, but still poured out his heart: "Tenth Master, it's not that I'm trying to discourage you."
Even your own 200,000 taels were paid off with the help of Ninth Master, and now you've taken on another 300,000 taels. This hole of 500,000 taels in total is so large that even if you dug up the foundation of Tenth Master's mansion, you still couldn't raise that amount.
"Aren't you...aren't you putting yourself in a very dangerous situation?"
Yin'e smiled. Although his uncle was loyal to him and highly skilled in martial arts, he was not as intelligent as him.
Yin'e told Yin De about his deductions and guesses.
"Tenth Master," he bowed slightly on his horse, his voice tinged with excitement, "you are truly... incredibly resourceful."
Yin'e waved his hand: "Alright, stop praising me. This matter isn't over yet. Whether it will succeed or not depends on how things unfold."
"So, shall we...?" Yin De asked tentatively, "return to the manor?"
"No," Yin'e said decisively, "Go to the Eighth Prince's residence."
Yin De was stunned for a moment, then he understood.
Today's performance was too grand; if we don't speak frankly with Master Ba, things will get messy later.
The sedan chair turned a corner and headed towards Tieshizi Hutong.
Yin'e knew that what he had done at the mourning hall today would soon spread throughout the capital.
But in the end, no one knows how this matter will turn out.
What will the ministers say?
Is it that "the Tenth Prince spoke out for justice," or that "the Eighth Prince's faction was behind it all"?
How much of this debt will be attributed to the tenth prince and how much to the Eighth Prince's faction depends entirely on how the Eighth Prince handles it.
So he had to go and tell Lao Ba the truth.
One reason is that as a junior, it's customary and a matter of principle to proactively report to the senior.
What Lao Ba cares about most is "control". If you do something big behind his back, he will feel that you don't respect him. He may not say it, but he will definitely remember it.
Rather than letting him hear it from someone else, it's better to say it yourself.
Another purpose was to link this matter with the Eighth Prince's faction.
When the tenth prince became famous, the Eighth Prince's faction also benefited.
If anything goes wrong, Lao Ba can cover for him.
This is called "sharing risks and sharing benefits".
Thinking of this, he stretched out his right hand from his sleeve, palm facing up, and with a thought.
That familiar white light shone from the palm of my hand.
He turned the pages of the book, picked up his pen, and wrote two names in the blank space.
Yinzhen (the fourth prince) and Yinxiang (the thirteenth prince).
Unsurprisingly, both of them had only single-digit favorability towards Yin'e, making them almost worthless for eavesdropping on.
He sighed inwardly and closed the book.
However, he no longer cares about the favor or opinions of the princelings towards him.
It's impossible for someone to be popular in every camp; that's called being a fence-sitter, and fence-sitters have never had a good ending.
Since he chose to side with the Eighth Prince's faction, it's fine if the Fourth Prince has a low opinion of him; he didn't plan to go there to make a living anyway.
The sedan chair stopped in front of the Eighth Prince's mansion.
Yin'e straightened his clothes, took a deep breath, and adjusted his expression to look like he had messed up.
His brows furrowed slightly, his lips turned down, and his eyes held a mixture of annoyance and grievance.
He got out of the sedan chair and strode towards the gate of the mansion.
The Eighth Prince, Yinzhi, was reading in his study when Yin'e burst in. He put down his book and frowned slightly.
"Tenth brother? What's wrong with you?"
Yin'e plopped down in the chair, picked up the teapot on the table, poured himself a cup of tea, drank it all in one gulp, and then slammed the teacup down on the table with a thud.
"Myna, I've gotten you into trouble again."
Yinzhi (the Eighth Prince) frowned even more deeply.
He didn't rush to ask further questions, but instead gestured for Yin'e to continue.
"Did you go to Wei Dongting's funeral today, Eighth Brother?" Yin'e asked.
"No," Yinzhi shook his head. "I sent the steward with some money, but the person didn't show up. What's wrong?"
"Fourth Brother has gone," Yin'e said, "taking Thirteenth Brother and that lackey Tian Wenjing with him."
At the funeral, the fourth brother berated Wei Dongting's son, saying that all of Wei Dongting's debts were squandered by this spendthrift, and he said some really nasty things.
Wei Shitong knelt on the ground, not daring to raise his head.
Yinzhi (the Eighth Prince) did not speak, but listened quietly.
Seeing that he didn't respond, Yin'e continued, "I can't stand it anymore. Lord Wei is dead, and Fourth Brother is still cursing his son in the mourning hall. Isn't that bullying him?"
The younger brother then stood up and said a few words in defense of the Wei family.
"What did you say?" Yinzhi (the Eighth Prince) asked indifferently, his tone revealing neither joy nor anger.
"My younger brother first asked Tian Wenjing why he was keeping a close eye on Lord Wei, and whether it was because of an old grudge between them from back in Jiangnan?"
As Yin'e spoke, he secretly observed Yin Si's expression.
"Then I asked my fourth brother why he applied one set of standards to others but another set to those of the Crown Prince's disciples?"
"When does he plan to chase after Huang Tiren and Xiao Guoxing's 500,000 taels?"
Yinzhi (the Eighth Prince) paused slightly in his tea-serving hand.
"You said all this in front of a room full of guests?"
"I did tell you," Yin'e nodded. "Eighth Brother, I know I shouldn't have acted so impulsively."
But in that situation, Fourth Brother was really bullying us too much. If the younger brother didn't stand up, Lord Wei would have died in vain, and the entire court would think that our Eighth Prince's faction lacked responsibility.
He paused, leaned forward, and lowered his voice, "Brother Ba, do you think what I'm doing is bringing honor to our Eighth Master Party?"
Yinzhi (the Eighth Prince) did not speak.
He picked up his teacup and took another sip, his eyes lowered, as if savoring the taste of the tea, or perhaps digesting what Yin'e had said.
The study was quiet for a moment, with only the continuous chirping of cicadas outside the window.
"And..." Yin'e continued.
"Anything else?" Yinzhi put down his teacup, staring at Yin'e. "It's only been a little over dawn, and you've already done so much?"
"Well... there's also... in his excitement, my younger brother... took on the debt of 300,000 taels of silver that Lord Wei owed to the national treasury..."