The Villain's Counterattack Chapter 21

Chapter 21

Xu Kaicheng guessed that the situation at Liexi Pass was special. After all, in the original novel, the Marquis of Jing'an, Xu Gandang, had already firmly controlled Liexi Pass for more than a decade, and even until the story ended, there had been no major battles at Liexi Pass.

Returning to his room, he sat at his desk. Naturally, there would not be any useful materials to look up on the desk. It took Xu Kaicheng a great deal of effort to pull from his memory the map of the Rong Dynasty's vast territory that he had once seen in Juxian Academy.

Compared with a twenty-first-century map of China, the Rong Dynasty's territory actually only occupied the area of the chicken's head and half of its body—roughly one-third of twenty-first-century China's land area.

Yet this one-third still included the extreme cold region of Liexi Pass in the far northeast, the far south where the Miaojiang region, which nominally submitted, was rampant with venomous insects, and the southeastern coastal areas where bandits had already emerged.

The original novel did not explain the Rong Dynasty's situation in detail. After all, this was only the background of a romance novel. But now that he was living in this place for real, he had no choice but to study those background materials in exhaustive detail.

Only by grasping enough could he have more chances of winning.

If the northeast was used as a reference, then the situation at Liexi Pass was indeed not good. Out of twelve months a year, it felt like six were winter. This era had no heating, and the textile and planting industries were not developed enough for everyone to have all-cotton clothing.

It was already the fifth lunar month now. In the capital, it was already late spring and early summer, but at Liexi Pass, winter had probably just ended and it was only now time to sow.

In Xu Kaixuan's character setup, there was not a single item about caring for the people's livelihood. As the legitimate eldest grandson of the Marquis of Jing'an household, the future heir, and the future Marquis, Xu Kaixuan had never lacked money, nor had he ever lacked food or clothing. Under such circumstances, it was only natural that he would not notice those livelihood issues.

Xu Kaicheng's lips curved slightly, and a hint of joy appeared in his eyes. He had opened another breakthrough point. If things were really as he guessed, then even if one tael of silver purchased one point of Affection Points, it could still speed up his rate of earning Affection Points.

With motivation and with silver that had gone through proper channels, Xu Kaicheng was determined to quicken his pace.

He secretly contacted Zhao Guangming again and directly increased the purchase quantity of the raw materials for the skin cream by tenfold. In just a few days, Zhao Guangming had already opened up sales channels. 

Moreover, the skin cream made from Xu Kaicheng's formula was indeed much better than products of the same price on the market.

And this time, Xu Kaicheng went all in. He formally signed an agreement with Zhao Guangming, giving him thirty percent of the profits. He also made it clear that all thirty percent of the income was to be donated to the soldiers at Liexi Pass. The only problem was that his identity was sensitive, so he couldn't write that directly into the contract and had to ask Zhao Guangming to pass it along on his behalf.

In the back courtyard of the tavern, Zhao Guangming once again sat together with Xiong Hong. The agreement signed with Xu Kaicheng, as well as the five hundred taels of silver notes Xu Kaicheng had given, were all placed on the stone table. 

Xiong Hong's eyes were red, while Zhao Guangming's expression was calm, though his eyes were deep and unfathomable.

"The Black Flag Guards definitely won't last long. Judging by the Marquis's attitude, the Black Flag Guards are going to be handed to Xu Kaixuan. Fortunately, this time we brought two hundred brothers with us, and it didn't go through proper channels." Xiong Hong didn't seem to know whether he was trying to convince anyone. Looking at the silver notes and contract on the table, he murmured.

Zhao Guangming, however, did not want to waste any more time on this matter. Gently, he delivered a fatal blow. "There aren't many days left before spring plowing."

Xiong Hong's face twisted with pain, the veins on his arms bulging from the strain. The soldiers and officers at Liexi Pass still had military pay, so nothing would happen in the short term.

But last winter, the grain and fodder for Wuyou Valley had not been provided in full. Now it was almost time for spring plowing, yet the Marquis seemed to have forgotten Wuyou Valley's existence and had not mentioned it at all.

The little bit of seed saved from last year had already been eaten during the winter when people were starving to death. When spring plowing came, what would the people of Wuyou Valley use to plant?

If the grain could not be planted in time, then the harvest could not be guaranteed. If the harvest could not be guaranteed, and the Marquis had this kind of attitude, then it was easy to imagine how many people would die again this winter.

Slowly, Xiong Hong calmed down. The anger and resentment and entanglement seemed to disperse. Only when he raised his head to look at Zhao Guangming did his eyes hold the same deep darkness as Zhao Guangming's.

"Liexi Pass, Wuyou Valley—what kind of leader do they really need? It's time to make a decision."

When Xu Kaicheng saw Zhao Guangming for the third time in a single day, he was somewhat surprised. In the morning, he had openly come under the Marquis's orders to deliver silver notes. At noon, he had secretly gone to find him to discuss increasing raw material purchases and signing a contract. He had not expected that just after nightfall, Zhao Guangming would actually sneak over again.

"Huh?" 

"Ah?" 

"Sure?" 

"I have no problem with that."

Xu Kaicheng did not know whether it was because he had to play dumb in front of Zhao Guangming or because his brain was not working well when he was about to sleep, but under Zhao Guangming's guidance, he ended up giving away the skin cream formula.

Zhao Guangming took the thing and left, as brisk as a swindler.

Xu Kaicheng had already taken off his outer robe, then ran to the window and stood there for a long while. When he came back to his senses and crawled into the blanket, he sighed in disbelief. Was this the power of the cheat configured for the male lead?

Zhao Guangming was going to set up a workshop outside the household. He had already found a location, hired people, and arranged a source for the raw materials. He was only waiting for Xu Kaicheng to hand over the formula, and then they could ramp up production and start work that very night.

Even the sales channels, after opening the door in the capital, had opened routes to several nearby county towns.

Xu Kaicheng and his mother secretly making a little in the marquis household might still be concealed, but if they wanted to make big money, the marquis household was very unsuitable. Wei Cai'e had been tied up with matters during this period and had no time to pay attention to the mother and son. Once she had free time, things here could not remain quiet either.

Zhao Guangming's move had helped him greatly.

As for whether he was afraid Zhao Guangming would embezzle the formula, Xu Kaicheng really did not care. In just these few short days, the formula had already helped him earn fifty taels of silver. At the lowest benefit, he had already recouped his costs.

If a small formula could test whether Zhao Guangming would submit to Xu Kaixuan's male lead halo, then it was even more worth it.

After all, there were not many people he could use, and Zhao Guangming was already the most satisfactory "assistant" at this stage. Testing him now was better than having a bigger mess later.

Lying in bed, he opened the panel by the dim moonlight. Affection Points had already risen back to three digits. It was not enough for a point of Luck, and there was no need to exchange for anything else for the time being.

Before the plot point of marriage had passed, Xu Kaicheng really did feel a bit constrained. After all, his little money god, Song Yao, was still trapped in the Song family's inner courtyard. If he wanted to get him out smoothly, the easiest method was to let the plot proceed smoothly and let him marry in as a substitute bride.

As for the plot after he married in, he should think of a way to help him avoid it.

But there was still a small precondition—Song Yao's own wishes.

If Song Yao really fell in love with Xu Kaixuan at first sight, voluntarily became his wife, and was willing to fulfill the legal rights and interests of husband and wife, then no matter how many plans he made, it would all be for nothing.

Thinking of this, Xu Kaicheng rubbed his chest uncomfortably. If that fool Song Yao really fell in love with Xu Kaixuan at first sight, then his little money god would probably disappear too.

Thinking about the silver and Affection Points he would lose every day from then on, Xu Kaicheng felt so pained that he grew irritated all over.

Tsk, if he could beat him, he really wanted to throw a sack over Xu Kaixuan's head.

Irritated, he pulled the blanket over his head and wrapped himself up completely. There was not even a mosquito net, and the mosquitoes buzzing around his ears were truly annoying him to death.