Chapter 66: Peerlessly Heroic
The Lin Clan had sold their main courtyard.
News of this quickly spread throughout Swallow River City’s main streets and small alleyways.
The Lin Clan wasn’t without a reputation in Swallow River City. They had three residences in this city alone. The one they had sold was near the outskirts of the city and was the largest one they owned. Apparently, the Lin Clan’s patriarch really liked it and would go over to live there from time to time.
Why had they suddenly sold it?
No one had heard of any news lately of the Lin Clan had suffering any kinds of losses?
Very quickly, some of the busybodies caught wind of rumors.
It wasn’t that the Lin Clan had suffered some losses — it was that the person who wanted to buy the residence had offered too much money. Even the Lin Clan couldn’t resist the temptation.
150,000 taels of pure gold!
150,000 tales of pure gold! This was not a small number. It was about twice the actual value of the residence. No wonder the Lin Clan was willing to part with it.
Apparently, when the new owner moved in, he had made quite a commotion. Unfortunately, no one was able to see what he looked like. All they knew was that he was a young man.
He hadn’t brought any women with him.
The city’s people began to discuss amongst themselves where this Young Master of a rich clan had suddenly popped out from.
All they could glean from the “Su Residence” sign hanging above the front door was that this person was surnamed Su.
Something like this normally would have only been talked about for a few days or so.
However, the owner of the Su Residence had then made another big move.
The “Fragrant Elegance Boudoir” had been sold.
The Fragrant Elegance Boudoir was Swallow River City’s number one brothel. Any high-ranking official or royalty could use their hard-earned money to pleasure themselves there.
A cash cow like that was sold?
People were so shocked that their jaws almost hit the floor.
Even so, that was exactly what happened. The claim that the Su Residence had immediately snagged the Fragrant Elegance Boudoir for themselves was quickly verified. In addition, though the ownership had changed hands, the people working there had remained the same. Everything was business as usual.
People couldn’t help but speculate what the Su Residence had used to entice the former owner of the Fragrant Elegance Boudoir.
“What did they use to entice me? Of course it was money! There must have been enough money involved!” Cao Dazheng said as he picked his teeth, his legs crossed.
The Fragrant Elegance Boudoir did in fact make a lot of money. But even if it maxed out its profits, they would still only be raking in around 3000 taels of pure gold a day — no more than a million a year. This was not including any personal or business expenses, which would decrease that amount to around 600,000 or so. They would then need to pay a bit more in protection fees. After all, for a place like the Fragrant Elegance Boudoir to not have any protection was impossible. Government officials wanted taxes, criminal gangs wanted benefits, and there were even some people who would enjoy themselves without paying. In the end, they only made around 300,000 to 400,000 taels of pure gold a year.
How much had the Su Clan’s people offered?
1.5 million!
That amount of money was more than enough for Cao Dazheng to open five more similarly-sized Fragrant Elegance Boudoirs.
And the Su Clan had only requested one thing — after buying the Fragrant Elegance Boudoir, the Cao Clan was not allowed to open another one for half a year.
In other words, as long as the Cao Clan didn’t open another brothel within half a year, they would be able to obtain the rest of the 750,000 Origin Stones, with which they could do whatever they wanted. If the Su Residence didn’t hand over the money, the Cao Clan could take back the Fragrant Elegance Boudoir from them. It was basically equivalent to renting out the Fragrant Elegance Boudoir for half a year. What could possibly be more worth it?
Cao Dazheng had no reason not to agree.
The day after the Fragrant Elegance Boudoir was sold, the Flying Smoke Boudoir was also sold.
This was Swallow River City’s number two brothel.
Next in line were the Red Incense House, the Glittering Jewels Garden, the Jade Feathered Palace — Swallow River City’s top five brothels all changed ownership, creating huge waves throughout the city.
Was the new Su Residence planning on unifying all the brothels in Swallow River City?
At this point in time, the price that these five brothels had been sold for also began to spread. When the business owners in Swallow River City heard of the selling prices, they cluckedtheir tongues in amazement.
If you had that much money, why not find a place of your own to start up your own business? Why would you buy someone else’s? And why would you offer such an extravagant price?
The Chief Steward of the Su Residence, Li Shu, replied that his Young Master always did things with efficiency in mind. If he was to open a shop of his own, he would need to find the right location, build up a reputation, find workers, and even then it would be gambling on whether or not it would work out. That was a waste of time and energy. If the Young Master wanted to claim a piece of territory for himself in Swallow River City, he wouldn’t need to do things in such a complicated manner. Slowly expanding his territory wasn’t the way he did things; his deep pockets were more than enough to accomplish this.
Everyone who heard this all sighed regretfully. Indeed, he was quite the wealthy young man.
He possessed money and no patience. That was the end of the story.
However, that person had achieved at least one of his goals, which was to spread his name all over Swallow River City.
Now that everyone knew that Prince Su had a lot of money, there were quite a few people who tried to seek an audience with him every day, with no shortage of people recommending their own unmarried daughters.
Unfortunately, Prince Su was not particularly interested in seeing guests. He usually lived a secluded life, and not many people successfully received an audience with him. Chief Steward Li Shu was usually responsible for taking care of any visitors. As such, he also became quite well-known throughout Swallow River City.
This kind of situation only grew once the Su Residence once again made a move and acquired the Eternal Happiness House.
The Eternal Happiness house wasn’t a brothel — it was a casino.
The number one casino in all of Swallow River City, which belonged to one of the four big Bloodline Nobility Clans in Swallow River City — the He Clan.
It was obvious that the Su Residence had offered an unimaginably high price that even the He Clan couldn’t resist if they were willing to sell the Eternal Happiness House.
But weren’t you only trying to unify all the brothels? When did you switch over to casinos?
A few of the smarter people sniffed out an opportunity to make a profit.
Some of the owners of the smaller casinos sought audiences with Su Chen and voluntarily brought up the matter of business transactions.
Soon, a bunch of casinos under the Su Residence’s name also appeared.
On the 21st day since the Su Residence’s appearance in Swallow River City, another wave of news began to spread like crazy.
The Su Residence bought the Sorrow-Forgetting Residence.
The Sorrow-Forgetting Residence wasn’t a casino.
It was a wine tavern.
The reason that the news had spread in such a fiery manner was because it implied that the buyer had incredibly deep pockets. The Prince Su, who was currently scattering money all over the place, also had his sights set on the wine industry.
Indeed, in the following ten days, the top wine taverns in Swallow River City — the Ten Flavors Residence, the Floating Fragrance Tower, the Food Demolisher, the Old Gentleman’s Pavilion, and the Sea and Clouds Pavilion all changed their surname to Su.
In just a month’s time, the Su Residence now owned five brothels, four casinos, and six wine taverns, and these were the best of the best within Swallow River City.
That wasn’t all. During this period of time, the Su Clan had also purchased four theatrical troupes, two theaters, and three public baths, again all the finest Swallow River City had to offer.
Some people estimated that, in this past half a month, the Su Residence could have spent up to 30 million taels of pure gold in purchasing all of these businesses. Even if they had only paid half that amount, that was still 15 million taels of pure gold!
This was madness!
There were many large clans that had 15 million taels of pure gold in the form of resources and properties, but very few had that much spending power as free cash. Anyone who could do this would definitely need to possess at least a Demonic Lord-level bloodline, and even then this series of acquisitions would require basically wiping out the clan’s entire store of money.
Was there a single Origin Qi Scholar possessed 15 million taels of pure gold?
Yes, Light Shaking Realm cultivators with at least three Lotus Platforms might have that much net worth, and Spirit Burning Realm cultivators would probably have that much in-hand that they could spend.
But even a Spirit Burning Realm cultivator wouldn’t burn more than 10 million Origin Stones over a bunch of shops.
There were quite a few rich people amongst the Origin Qi Scholars, but those who could misuse money like this were very few. Every one of them harbored thoughts of buying treasures or acquiring precious resources to improve their cultivation base.
No one could afford to throw away money quite like Su Chen could.
As a result, Prince Su’s background became a hot topic of discussion amongst everyone in the city.