Chapter 339: Big Trouble

Seeing Chu Chuyan's grave expression, Zu An was startled. "What's wrong?"

"Come with me to the council hall first," Chu Chuyan said, pulling his hand and walking towards the manor. "I'll explain on the way."

"My father has been detained by Sang Hong in Sunview City," Chu Chuyan said on the way.

Zu An was surprised. "How is that possible? Father-in-law is a distinguished duke with profound cultivation. How dare Sang Hong detain him, and how could he possibly hold him?"

"He naturally has a plausible excuse," Chu Chuyan explained. "Ultimately, the problem stems from that previous batch of salt permits."

After her explanation, Zu An finally understood the whole story.

It turned out that when Wang Yuanlong was caught last time, he couldn't withstand Chen Xuan's methods and revealed the route and exact time for the Wang family's salt permit transportation.

And coincidentally, it was precisely during those two days that they were due to arrive in Brightmoon City.

So Chen Xuan decisively sent people to intercept that batch of salt permits.

The Wang family had already been severely weakened because their border settlement was plundered by foreign tribes, and this batch of salt permits was something they had only managed to scrape together.

In a short time, they had no way to acquire another batch of such permits.

As for the Chu family's salt business, which had a huge volume of shipments, it happened to need this batch of salt permits from the Wang family.

The Wang family head, left with no choice, personally visited Chu Zhongtian to ask for help. Chu Zhongtian, moved by compassion and considering the Chu family's actual situation, decided to divert several years' worth of salt permits from the Salt Transport Commissioner's office.

After the Wang and Chu families recovered, they would slowly replenish these permits, and everything would be done discreetly.

Unfortunately, things went against their wishes. A recent large shipment of salt from the Chu family was subjected to a surprise inspection by Sang Hong. It was discovered that their salt permits were incorrect, so Sang Hong made a big deal out of it and took the opportunity to detain Chu Zhongtian.

Zu An couldn't help but exclaim, "It seems Sang Hong was prepared long ago. This incident might have been a conspiracy set up by him."

Chu Chuyan sighed. "We were still too careless."

Zu An was somewhat confused. "By the way, I heard the Salt Transport Commissioner's office is full of your people. Why would Sang Hong find out?"

Chu Chuyan shook her head. "That's the strangest part. Most likely, Sang Hong turned some people in the Salt Transport Commissioner's office against us."

Zu An held her slightly cold hand. "Wife, I'll always be with you. I'll help the Chu family get through this difficult time."

"Thank you," Chu Chuyan forced a smile. At this point, she didn't believe he could do anything significant, but hearing his words, her heart, cold and turbulent, felt a glimmer of warmth.

"That Chen Xuan, even after death, he's still a nuisance," Zu An couldn't help but complain. The root of this problem was still Chen Xuan intercepting that batch of salt permits; otherwise, there wouldn't be so many complications.

Just then, the two of them arrived at the council hall.

"Sister-in-law, you must give us an explanation for this matter!" Before even entering, they heard Chu Yuepo's angry roar from inside.

Zu An was a bit surprised. Chu Yuepo of the Third Household had always been a smiling fat man, a typical wolf in sheep's clothing, and he had never seen him so furious.

"That's right, we were kept in the dark about this matter from beginning to end, and now we have to clean up this mess. Sister-in-law, you've really gone too far," Chu Tiesheng's sneering voice also came through.

After entering, they saw Chu Tiesheng and Chu Yuepo confronting Qin Wanru. Qin Wanru's face was ashen; however, she was indeed in the wrong, so she couldn't lash out.

Chu Chuyan quickly walked in. "Second Uncle, Third Uncle, the priority now is to solve the problem, not to assign blame."

"That sounds nice," Chu Tiesheng snorted. "You kept us in the dark beforehand, and now that there's trouble, you remember us?"

Chu Chuyan frowned slightly. She explained, "The main reason we kept it from everyone before was that it was a grave matter and required secrecy."

"Secrecy, secrecy, yet it still got leaked," Chu Yuepo said. "Since only you knew about it, who exactly leaked the secret?"

After speaking, he looked at Chu Chuyan and Qin Wanru. His implication was clear: one of them had leaked the secret.

Qin Wanru and Chu Chuyan's faces turned pale with anger. However, for a moment, they didn't know how to refute him.

Zu An then stepped forward, standing in front of them both. "How dare you two grown men come here to bully an orphaned daughter and her widowed mother?"

Qin Wanru: "???"

Chu Chuyan: "???"

Anger value from Qin Wanru: 666!

Anger value from Chu Chuyan: 233!

Zu An felt strange inside, thinking, 'I'm clearly speaking up for them, so why are they all getting angry?'

But he immediately realized his mistake. He chuckled awkwardly, "Not an orphaned daughter and widowed mother, a slip of the tongue, a slip of the tongue."

If Chu Zhongtian heard that, no matter how good-tempered he was, he would probably fly into a rage.

Only then did the expressions of the two women soften slightly.

At this, Chu Tiesheng snorted coldly. "What right does a live-in son-in-law like you have to speak here!"

Zu An didn't get angry. "I'm just speaking up for my wife. I can't stand to see you so aggressive. Besides, I'm considered a member of the main household. You're merely from a branch family. If you can speak, why can't I?"

"This is outrageous!" Chu Tiesheng immediately bristled, and even Chu Yuepo glared furiously. It was well known that being a branch family was a long-standing source of resentment for them.

Anger value from Chu Tiesheng: 886!

Anger value from Chu Yuepo: 668!

"Enough, enough," Qin Wanru finally spoke. "What's the point of all this bickering!"

Chu Tiesheng snorted. "It's not that we want to argue. It's that the main household keeps everything under your control on a daily basis. Third Brother and I nominally control salt and iron, respectively, but everyone knows we're just puppets."

Chu Yuepo also echoed, "That's right. If this matter had been discussed with us beforehand, such a huge mistake would never have occurred."

Zu An said, "Anyone can talk hindsight. Father-in-law took the risk precisely for the Chu family's overall good. The Chu family has been running at a deficit lately, so naturally, every little bit saved counts."

Although Chu Chuyan didn't say it, he could roughly guess the underlying reasons.

Qin Wanru's expression softened slightly. On normal days, she disliked seeing Zu An's sharp tongue, but now that he was speaking up for her, the very aspect she used to dislike now seemed endearing.

Having a man standing in front to shield her from the wind and rain brought a sense of security.

Qin Wanru couldn't help but think of Chu Zhongtian. She wondered when he would return safely.

"Save, save, save," Chu Tiesheng said, panting with anger, "and now not only did we not save anything, but we've completely implicated the Chu family! Sixteen million taels! Where is the Chu family going to get that much money now?!"

Anger value from Chu Tiesheng: 358!

"Sixteen million taels?" Zu An was startled. How could it be so much?

He had been thinking that he had a good amount of money in his pocket and could help his wife overcome the difficulties. But it turned out that the money he had wasn't even enough for a fraction of the amount.

"To prevent salt merchants from indiscriminately dumping salt, the imperial court set annual quotas for salt permits," Chu Chuyan explained. "If a merchant exceeded their quota, they had to pre-withdraw salt permits for the following few years. Besides 1.5 taels of silver for each permit, an additional 2.1 taels of advance payment silver was required." Chu Chuyan paused, her expression somewhat grim. "Furthermore, to prevent salt merchants from operating in the shadows, the imperial court explicitly stipulated that concealing the advance payment would result in multi-fold fines."

"More than half of that sixteen million taels is made up of fines," Chu Tiesheng interjected. "Such a huge sum of money, unless we dismantle and sell off the entire Chu family, how could we possibly come up with it!"