Mr. Hu could clearly sense his anger, but he seemed to ignore it. He smiled, picked up the wine pot and poured himself a glass of wine, then poured another glass for him. He asked softly, "What's wrong? Didn't your trip to the post station to meet the imperial envoy go smoothly?"
He always puts on airs in front of Mr. Xu.
Because he was sure of the special nature of Mr. Xu's identity, and he also knew that Mr. Xu was someone who could be manipulated.
Mr. Xu's expression was uncertain, and he didn't speak for a long time, but he couldn't sit still like Mr. Hu. He sat for a long time, until Mr. Hu started to pick up the food with chopsticks, and then he couldn't help but sneered: "Sir, you can eat so much! Do you think that if this matter is exposed and it is traced to me, you can stay out of it?!"
Mr. Xu had been holding back his anger for so long, and now he had the chance to speak out: "What did you tell me before? You said that the Imperial Commissioner had no intention of dividing the Maritime Customs affairs among the four families, and that he was even going to ban private ships from participating in the trade! But now the Imperial Commissioner clearly doesn't think so!"
He took a breath, and seeing that Mr. Hu still had no expression on his face, he couldn't help but say something harsh: "Every word you said before was to instigate me to deal with the imperial envoy, but now that things have failed, aren't you afraid?!"
Mr. Hu slowly put down his chopsticks, tilted his head to look at Mr. Hu, and then leaned back in his chair calmly, and asked lightly: "Don't you know that there is a price to pay for doing anything?"
He glanced at Mr. Xu coldly and snorted, "It's not even a matter of life or death yet, but you're already so impatient. No wonder this thing can't be done, and no wonder Mr. Xu scolded you in the street."
Mr. Xu was confused by Shen Chen's seemingly provocative and unreasonable words and lost his composure for a moment. But after hearing what Mr. Hu said, he came to his senses.
He sat down with his hands on his knees in a daze, muttering, "But now, Pingxi Hou has a lot of things in his hands."
He looked at Mr. Hu with a straight gaze: "I couldn't do it directly, so I took advantage of Mr. Chen's desire to take advantage and planted some boatmen on the boat... This matter will be traced back to me sooner or later."
Mr. Hu knew all this a long time ago. He slowly picked up the handkerchief beside him and wiped his mouth, then sighed, "You are too careless in doing things."
In fact, it doesn’t matter whether you are careful or not.
Because they were originally planning to give Shen Chen a warning.
Therefore, I didn't originally plan to be more restrained.
It was Shen Chen, the cunning and fickle fox, who threw out the bait of the Maritime Customs on the ship, which attracted the attention of several other parties and also led to private bargaining among them.
Then we caught so many clues.
But now that the truth has been exposed, those who have to pay the price must pay it.
Mr. Xu looked at Mr. Hu with red eyes: "Now Shen Chen has found Mr. Chen Er. He knew everything from the beginning. He is looking for Mr. Chen Er just to find me! Mr. Hu..."
Mr. Hu hummed, and seeing that Mr. Xu was very flustered, he said, "Relax, Shen Chen will not give up on this matter, he will definitely ask someone to give an explanation."
Mr. Hu said coldly: "Firstly, he encountered such a thing as soon as he arrived. If he doesn't find out the truth, he won't be able to gain a foothold and establish his authority. Secondly, it is also meant to kill one to warn the rest."
Mr. Hu became even more panicked: "Doesn't that mean they're going to use me as a sacrifice?!"
"How can you not take yourself seriously?" Mr. Hu looked at him in surprise. "What does this have to do with you? There are so many people under you, can you manage them all?"
He looked at Mr. Xu who seemed to understand a little bit, and reminded him softly: "What if this is really just an accident, and the person who caused this accident is already dead? How can we investigate this matter further?"
He wiped his mouth, looked at Mr. Xu who seemed to be alive again, and smiled softly: "Is there anything in this world that cannot be solved? We have to find a way. When he has established his authority, he will naturally not keep pursuing us. He is also a smart man. When the time comes, you can discuss it with your brother and apologize to the imperial envoy. Wouldn't the matter be resolved? Why think so pessimistically?!"
Mr. Xu swallowed his saliva. He didn't expect that Mr. Hu would actually give him some advice. He hurriedly agreed and without caring about anything else, he wanted to go out and tell people to do things.
Mr. Hu called him again, "Sir, I have something to say first. No matter how this matter turns out, I have given you some advice. If it doesn't work out, don't blame me. This is all I can do. If you really want to drag others into this... I'm afraid it will involve too much, don't you think?"
What he meant was that he had already given Mr. Xu a way to escape. If Shen Chen still insisted on pursuing him relentlessly and refused to give up, when Mr. Xu was really found out, he would not be able to betray Mr. Hu and anyone else, otherwise, Mr. Xu's own family would also suffer.
This is a threat.
Mr. Xu understood. He staggered for a moment before responding in a mosquito-like voice. After saying goodbye to Mr. Hu, he ran without stopping to find his subordinates and called the boatman who had been ordered to turn around that day to his own villa.
That afternoon, before Shen Chen's case was concluded, the boatman had already crashed into death in front of the posthouse.
He said that he didn't know what happened at the time, his mind was confused, and he was blinded by ghosts and gods, so he said to turn around, which caused so many ships to get into trouble and also alarmed the imperial envoy. Now the matter was about to be investigated to him, and he was afraid that his wife and children would be implicated, so he committed suicide out of fear of punishment.
No one would believe this if they told it to a three-year-old child, but when we get to this point, we can't investigate any further.
Because this boatman was the one on the first ship, and he was the first to spread the word that the sacrificial ship should be turned around. Once he died, it would be difficult to continue the case.
And after he stood up and admitted his guilt, the temple priest and others in the Mazu Temple immediately said that they didn't know what was going on. They had always held this event in good order and nothing like this had ever happened. They also didn't know why the boatman would do such a thing.
Cut off the relationship completely.
Master Chen Er, who had almost wet his pants and told the whole story, stopped peeing when he heard the news and swallowed back the name of Mr. Xu that was about to come out of his mouth.