Ye Tang, who spent generously, was not someone easily fooled. Ted had truly carefully selected these nine people to work for her.
But now Ted understood. Ye Tang was not just hard to fool; she was extremely shrewd—this gold coin spinning before his eyes had only one purpose: to make him sell out the leverage he held! Which was equivalent to making him betray the nine people he had selected!
“Ted, please don’t misunderstand. I don’t want to take your place or seize the right to control these people from your hands. It’s just that you know, my judgment standards might not align with yours. I need to judge from my own perspective whether these people are truly usable for me.”
With one finger, she pressed down on the spinning gold coin and pushed it toward Ted. Ye Tang smiled and asked, “Is that okay? Ted.”
How could anyone say “no” to that?
In reason, Ye Tang’s justification was perfectly sound. In benefit, what she offered was more than enough. In sentiment, she had given Ted full face.
“—Ferry is a con man; not a single word from his mouth is true. He owes money to the gambling house, his wife ran off, and his only son was sold into the Mixed Pleasure House. Ferry is trying to find a way to redeem his son.”
“Bray is a reliable good man, just with terrible luck. His mother died last month, and the funeral expenses drained all his savings. This month, his wife was diagnosed with a serious illness; he desperately needs money. Jerry no longer wants to work as a thug; he wants to go somewhere no one knows him and live a peaceful life…”
“Jason is a slick one; he’s done a few successful deals. This little child got cocky for just a few days before someone set him up in a gambling house and he lost all his savings. Don’t worry, he won’t dare run. I know where his mother and wife and kids live. If Jason dares to flee, I can make his mother and wife and kids pay his debts for him…”
The nine people Ted found for Ye Tang were indeed all short on money, and each had leverage. Ye Tang rested her chin on her hand as she listened, then quickly smiled and said, “Eliminate Jason and Ferry.”
Ted was somewhat stunned. Among these nine, some had tempers worse than Ferry’s, and some were no better at dealing with people than Jason. He didn’t understand what exactly Ye Tang disliked about Ferry and Jason.
“Madam…?”
“I don’t trust the character of gambling addicts. Nor do I want to gamble on how much humanity they have left.”
Ye Tang’s tone was very calm; her voice sounded not like she was discussing people, but evaluating merchandise.
“Even though Ferry has only this one son, what if he sees his son dressed better than him, eating better than him, earning more than him… Do you think he’ll still want to save money to redeem him? Moreover, can you guarantee Ferry won’t gamble again, won’t rack up massive debts again, won’t make his son shoulder them and then vanish into thin air?”
“Jason is both a gambling addict and a slickster. When such a person truly discards all conscience, do you think he’ll care about his mother’s or wife’s life or death? I don’t have a habit of implicating the innocent. I don’t want to trouble Jason’s mother, nor his wife and kids.”
“After all, a mother gives birth to her son, raises him, and then has to clean up his messes for the rest of her life… That’s just too pitiful. Jason’s wife was originally just a stranger to him. She risked her life to bear his child for him, yet not only doesn’t get his care, but has to pay his debts too—what kind of logic is that?”
With that, Ye Tang reaffirmed, “Cross these two names off the list.”
This time, Ted did not object.
“…Yes, Madam.”
Once the personnel list was finalized, Ye Tang finally explained her plan to Ted.
What Ye Tang planned to do was simple; in a word, it was the express delivery business.
The arrival of winter halted sea transport. Material exchanges between Osnabrock and Tartafu could only proceed overland.
Geographically, two-thirds of Tartafu’s vast territory lay within the Arctic Circle. This portion of land, where crops struggled to grow, was known as the “eternal permafrost.”
Osnabrock was merely a medium-sized nation, but thanks to its favorable location and stable climate, its grain production was exceptionally high. Tartafu imported massive amounts of grain from Osnabrock every year, which in turn allowed Osnabrock to develop its industry and commerce.
The problem was that Osnabrock and Tartafu did not share a border. Several large and small countries lay between their territories. Once winter set in and passage over the Robro Sea became impossible, merchants from Osnabrock and Tartafu could only wait idly for spring.
This presented Ye Tang with an opportunity.
Ye Tang had initially considered forming her own caravan to do business no one else could. But she quickly realized why no one managed to sell Osnabrock’s grain to Tartafu in winter.
It wasn’t the distance or the cold. It was the countries between Osnabrock and Tartafu, which frequently fractured and remained in constant turmoil. Even if one bribed one faction to pass through one or more countries, the return trip might encounter a regime that had undergone a complete purge.
Merchants could risk their lives for money and buy lives with money. But this land route between Osnabrock and Tartafu wasn’t about money or lives—it was where neither money, lives, nor goods made it through.
Moreover, before even addressing that issue, Ye Tang had another problem she must face: Hans.
Hans was not a broad-minded man. If he learned his wife wanted to form a caravan and compete with him, his peers wouldn’t even need to act; he would surely use every means first to suppress her.
Hans would not grant his wife the right to compete with him on the same stage. Put nicely, his pride wouldn’t allow it; put bluntly, he couldn’t tolerate his wife having equal status.
Thus, Ye Tang changed her approach.
No need to source goods, no need to sell them, no worry about goods piling up unsold. No competition with merchants… She would enter a business that wouldn’t alarm Hans or the merchants, and could even make money from the merchants themselves.
Winter was cold and roads slippery; merchants unwilling to travel? Then she would run errands for them, delivering goods to merchants’ shops without the merchants or their caravans needing to leave home.
Furthermore, caravan operating costs were no small expense for merchants. What if merchants discovered they could outsource delivery, paying only half a caravan’s costs but delivering goods to specified locations at twice the speed?
Ye Tang could already envision the merchants’ eager response.
Hans had used the Krista family—original Anna Rochel’s home—to endorse his credit. Ye Tang could use Hans’s merchant reputation and his caravans to endorse her own credit.
Merchants hearing “Mrs. Hedelin” would think: The monk might run, but the temple stays. Even if goods were lost, compensation could come from Hans. If not, they could simply raid Hans’s warehouses or caravans.
This would dispel merchants’ doubts. Flocking to her would be only a matter of time.
“Ted, didn’t you say Jerry wants to live somewhere no one knows him? Station Jerry and others like him who want to leave this city in other cities.”
Ye Tang pulled out a small map she had hand-drawn from a larger one and pointed out the routes marked with red lines for Ted to see.
“For now, with insufficient manpower, send two or three people per route to Capital Vitril to Kuks Port, Tarafa Port, and Bastia—these three routes. The specific list… Ted, you draft it. You know better than I where these people are suited to go.”
After handing the map to Ted, Ye Tang picked up her teacup again.
Ted was still a bit dazed—he hadn’t thought of having one pair handle delivery from the capital to the ports, then port residents move goods to port warehouses. This way, those delivering to ports and those distributing to warehouses could stagger rest times, greatly shortening delivery schedules.
But… Would things really go as smoothly as the madam envisioned?
Ted’s doubts vanished like smoke once he pocketed that gold coin.
In any case, he wasn’t the one making the actual deliveries; he was just hired by the madam to scout employees. All he could do for her was select good candidates and wish her success.
Ian walked under the tree and whispered in Ye Tang’s ear, “Madam, the master is back.”
Hans had returned, so what about Cinderella?
“Then—”
Ian nodded without speaking.
Ye Tang understood.
Ted was perceptive; seeing Ian whisper to Ye Tang, he immediately realized she had other guests. He picked up his coat, put it on, tipped his hat brim, and said, “Madam, I’ll take my leave for today.”
“Alright, see you next time, Ted.”
Ye Tang waved her hand, and Ian led Ted out the back door.
After draining the remaining tea in her cup, Ye Tang rose and headed to the front door.
—
Rela tugged at Hans’s clothes, hiding behind him. Over this past week, she had cried many times, her eyes swollen like peaches, barely able to open.
Perhaps seeing her so heartbroken and pitiful, Hans’s initially tough attitude softened considerably. He personally guaranteed to Rela that he absolutely would not let the stepmother or her two daughters bully Rela. Only then did Rela relent and agree to let Hans take her home.
Rela did not know that Hans actually found his little daughter tugging at his clothes quite annoying.
—Couldn’t she hold off crying until they entered Hedelin House, until they reached that little tree Anna Rochel had planted in the courtyard?
He wasn’t a witch’s magic tree; what use was crying at him?
Fortunately, he discovered his little daughter responded to softness, not hardness. As long as he went along with her wishes, he could coax her.
“You’re Cinderella, huh.”
The lead wicked stepmother was not as ugly as Rela had imagined. Her two stepsisters were even more beautiful, making Rela’s heart race with panic.
Suppressing the inexplicable unease in her heart, Rela boldly thought: If the wicked stepmother were truly ugly beyond words, Cinderella’s father wouldn’t have married her. It was only natural the stepmother wasn’t as hideous as the old hag in storybooks.
The wicked sisters being beautiful was no issue either… The original Cinderella tale said the wicked sisters were beautiful in appearance but rotten inside, right? These two women were destined to fail! So what if they were pretty? The prince wouldn’t even glance at them! They couldn’t compare to Cinderella all dressed up!
Wicked female supporting characters were ultimately just stepping stones for the female lead—she was the sole protagonist of this fairy tale—