Chapter 135 – The Worldly Family

Late at night, Zhang Botao, who had delivered the ring that day, quietly appeared in the City Lord’s mansion’s side hall, dressed in a black cloak.

His feelings were almost exactly the same as Shadow Wing’s during the day, surrounded by pretty little goblins passing tea and water, it was just that this Xue Mu was also covered in the scent of women, and he didn’t know which goblin he had just rolled out of bed with and just got up.

If he knew that the goblin in his heart was Xue Qingqiu, he didn’t know what his mood would be.

But his thoughts were different from Shadow Wing’s, he was not at all repulsed by this kind of life, on the contrary he was very used to it. Their Zhang family is in the mind of the Sect and the vertical and horizontal road two bets, vertical and horizontal road of the treacherous merchants not to mention, just say the mind of the Sect, look at Pan Kouzhi that six swordsman row, know from the mind of the Sect and Mu Jian Li kind of sword road is two different things, itself with a few points of pompous air.

And this Zhang Botao himself is not the kind of fine martial arts. As a big local clan in Lingzhou, there are many talents in various directions in the clan, and Zhang Botao’s research direction is formation, in addition, he has another identity: he is a scholar.

This world’s scholar and Xue Mu’s world concept are also different, the imperial court is not the imperial examination system, but similar to the probationary system, by the local officials assessment and recommendation. The basis of recommendation is also disregarded poetry and literature, in addition to moral character, mainly based on the people’s livelihood talents, counseling agriculture and mulberry water conservancy relief and other aspects. As a heirloom family, obviously will be more focused on these aspects, and the attributes of the court directly match.

In other words, in addition to the layout of the rivers and lakes, these families are natural counterparts of Xue Mu’s position as a city lord, and this Zhang Botao is directly in Xue Mu’s hands to push into the civil service of the kind, so Xue Qingqiu once said that if Xue Mu is a qualified city lord, the first day he arrived in Lingzhou, he should meet these families.

Unfortunately, our irresponsible City Lord Xue has been in Lingzhou for so long, but it’s still the first time he’s met with the members of this family, and he hasn’t even asked a single word about his duties as City Lord, and he’s even thrown the stamps to his subordinates to play with themselves.

Zhang Botao removed the cloak, very elegantly thanked the young girl who served tea, and laughed at Xue Mu: “The city lord lives in deep seclusion, does not see foreign guests, but it turns out to be living this kind of fairy days, in exchange for a chapter, I’m afraid that I’m also too lazy to go out and meet people.”

Xue Mu pursed his tea and laughed, “Xue Mou is new here, how can I compare to the Zhang family’s 800 years of wealth.”

This sounds like flattery, but Zhang Botao has a bit of a prickly flavor, and cautiously replied, “The Zhang family still needs City Lord Xue to lead the family.”

Speaking of which, he is also a pain in the ass, the previous city lord does not say that he flattered them these families, but at least he was also very dependent on them. But in front of him this is really different, the city lord duties directly as a fart, the city lord power also does not care about, simply put himself as a jianghu people look at. And you in the jianghu point of view to see him it, that more finished, he is the Star Moon Sect big director, no matter which background you move out, people will not goad you …… previous treatment of all kinds of city masters of the way the whole disk to throw into the gutter, can not be set on this oddball city master, so that he even how to talk to Xue Mu have to go through the first in the head. .

He’s not so bad, because of a trade fair, accidentally hooked up with Xue Mu. The other few lineages were even more egg-crushing, and so far, they hadn’t even seen this City Lord once.

“I don’t dare to take the lead.” Xue Mu replied kindly, “Mister Xue is still very unfamiliar with Spirit State, and I need the help of these local snakes like Mr. Zhang to do so.”

Zhang Botao busily said, “If there’s anything City Lord Xue needs the Zhang family to do, feel free to command.”

“Just talking business with Duke Zhang.” Xue Mu smiled, “The fate of the first meeting between Mister Xue and Mister Zhang is still fresh in my mind, thanks to Mister Zhang’s ring, Mister Xue likes it very much.”

“It’s good that City Lord likes it.” Zhang Botao’s heart was slightly relieved and laughed, “Actually, that day’s test, everyone seemed to be uninterested in the storage ring, Zhang Mou was still slightly disappointed, since City Lord likes it, it’s also considered to be a fated search.”

Xue Mu curiously said, “Zhang Gongzi’s ring industry is not going to be done?”

Zhang Botao shook his head and said, “I won’t hide it from you, City Lord, my Zhang family has been dealing with all kinds of special jewelry for generations, such as the Clear Heart Pendant and the Daigo Jade Hairpin. If we were to promote this ring, it would only be expanding a small product, not something particularly important. Since the people aren’t interested, this business probably won’t work, there’s not much point in doing it, so if we don’t do it, we don’t do it.”

Xue Mu thought for a moment, “Because the world isn’t accustomed to wearing jewelry on their hands that affects fighting?”

“Yes, even if it’s clear that this ring doesn’t affect combat, but people haven’t formed the habit of wearing things on their hands, so naturally it can’t replace the Qiankun Bag, and the effort to promote it doesn’t see much gain.”

Xue Mu gently tapped the armrests of his chair and pondered on.

Zhang Botao tried, “Could it be that City Lord is interested?”

In his heart, he said, “If you are really interested, then we’ll do it even if it’s a losing business.

Xue Mu woke up and smiled, “I have a story, I wonder if Mr. Zhang wants to hear it?”

Zhang Botao laughed: “City Lord’s short story is famous all over the world, how could Botao not want to hear it?”

“This one is not that kind of story.” Xue Mu laughed self-deprecatingly and added, “The story goes that there were two shoe merchants who sailed to a new land that was also populated by humans, so the two shoe merchants inspected the business. As a result, they found out that the locals did not wear shoes, and the first shoe merchant thought that since this was the case, there was no market for shoes here, so he went back. The second shoe merchant spent a lot of time and did his best to make the locals discover the comfort of wearing shoes, and from then on, they were popularly dumped and became rich.”

Zhang Botao was silent for a long time and smiled bitterly, “It makes sense, but it’s hard. After all, wearing shoes does have a greater benefit than not wearing them, but wearing a ring doesn’t see any advantage over using a Qiankun bag, and the cost is still much higher.”

“The advantage is certainly there, less carrying a bag that can easily fall off isn’t an advantage? Although this advantage isn’t really a big one ……,” Xue Mu smiled faintly, “The point is that the formation of a trend sometimes doesn’t really need to have any advantages.”

Zhang Botao solemnly said, “Please ask City Lord for guidance.”

“If Mr. Zhang really intends to cooperate with Mister Xue, then tomorrow at the Yan Yang Returning Ceremony, Mr. Zhang will get the answer himself.” Xue Mu said indifferently, “Has Prince Zhang thought about it clearly?”

Xue Mu’s words clearly had another meaning, Zhang Botao’s heart flinched, “What does City Lord mean by this?”

Xue Mu’s voice was icy cold: “I will make special arrangements for the sake of my partners, otherwise there is no need to make extra trouble. What Mr. Zhang needs to determine is whether the Zhang Family is my Xue Mu’s partner or a splash in the midst of some undercurrents.”

Zhang Botao’s pupils shrunk slightly, and he didn’t say anything for a long time.

Xue Mu didn’t rush either, just leaned back in his chair and leisurely sipped his tea.

After a long time, Zhang Botao suddenly laughed and sighed, “To be honest …… the Zhang family has never cared about what the last name of Spirit State is, or even what the last name of Great Zhou is. If City Lord’s arrangement can indeed benefit the Zhang Family, what about those people, what does the Zhang Family care if they die?”

Xue Mu also laughed, this is very Vertical and Horizontal Dao, this is very Thoughtful Sect, this is very …… lineage.

The first time he heard the concept of lineage, Xue Mu matched it with the lineage in his own cognition, and the two worlds still had some commonalities to some extent.

Why is it not the Zhang family head who came to meet the city lord, but just a male gentleman? And Xue Mu actually wasn’t surprised and didn’t feel slighted in the slightest?

Because we all know that he Xue Mu is just one of the parties that these families are betting on.

Expanding on that, what Zhang Botao represents is not just the Zhang family, but the common mentality of many similar families in Spirit State, who will only stand on the side of the victor, valuing only their own family’s interests and legacy, and as for anything else, it’s never important.