Chapter 17 – An Zi Ran Makes A Move

“Young master, there’s signs of (suspicious) activity on Second Master’s* side.”

[*T/N: An Chang De]

Just as An Zi Ran entered the study, he heard Steward Su speaking slowly in a lowered voice. With his eyes he indicated for him to close the door. Steward Su immediately obeyed and then returned to An Zi Ran’s side.

After the incident with the stolen rice, An Zi Ran sent people to spy on An Chang De’s every movement. Everything that he did during the day was written down and then presented to An Zi Ran* on his desk. This was called preventive measures. An Chang De and his wife were the type of people that made one want to take precautions!

[*T/N: I substituted pronouns from the original text for names to make things more understandable.]

Sure enough, his decision was not wrong.

After a month, An Chang De and his wife were starting to make small movements.

This time, the person that came on stage was Wu Zhi’s older sister, Wu Yun, and her pillow talk. Yong Zhou’s Prefectural Magistrate Jiang* was not a good official. He was a greedy person, who held a sinecure, and used his authority to commit bad deeds. He was a complete villain and also easily swayed. To put it plainly, in his attempts to kiss up to those in power, he was often instigated by Wu Yun to do this and that.

[*T/N: Yong Zhou is the prefecture that Wu Yun lives in.]

Wu Yun disclosed the situation of the An family to Magistrate Jiang. As the landowner of An Yuan County, An Zi Ran lost a lot of money in the past two months, but An Chang Fu had already accumulated a certain wealth before his death. He returned the loans and reduced the price of rice, but the An family is still the largest landowner in An Yuan County.

When An Chang Fu died, the An Zi Ran that was left behind was still young. He lacked drive. Although some time ago he settled the case of people stealing rice from his shops, most people won’t view him in a new light simply because of this matter. In the eyes of An Chang De, his wife, and a lot of other people, he was still a sixteen-year-old child.

Wu Yun’s understanding of the An family all came from her little sister, Wu Zhi. So during pillow talks, she kept instigating Jiang Zhong Ting* to take advantage of the An family. Jiang Zhong Ting, as a moneygrubber that was lacking in strength, at this moment his heart wavered in greed.

[*T/N: Full name of Prefectural Magistrate Jiang.]

The status of businessmen in the Da Ya Dynasty* was low.

[*T/N: 大亚王朝 da ya wang chao. Literally “Great Asian Dynasty.” It’s the name of the empire/country. Often shortened to 大亚 da ya]

But now is the era of feudalism. The landlord is the essential point of many counties. Even for a small landlord, the family must have accumulated a lot of money, not to mention the An family was a big landlord.

With almost no consideration, Jiang Zhong Ting agreed with his concubine, Wu Yun’s proposal. And so, joining hands with County Magistrate Zhang of An Yuan County, they planned to take over the An family in the near future.

The Da Ya Dynasty was stricter towards businessmen. Once a businessman breaks the law, it would be almost impossible to turn one’s fortune back around.

After discussion, they decided to strike from this aspect, wanting to make it impossible for the An family to recover their fortunes. Furthermore, in order to lawfully take over the An family assets, the best way was to make him* commit a crime.

[*T/N: I’m guessing they mean An Zi Ran.]

Reading (the report) up to here, An Zi Ran could not contain the flash of surprise in his eyes.

He was not surprised by the behavior of An Chang De and his wife. He has already seen through them. Even if they did something, he was not surprised at all. He was surprised by the details of this information. This person even knew that they (An Chang De and his wife) were secretly conspiring with the Prefectural Magistrate of Yong Zhou. This person was definitely talented.

“Young Master?” Seeing that his master was quiet, Steward Su felt a little worried.

He always thought that no matter how outrageous the Second Master was he should still have a little conscience. To think that in order to seize the assets of the An family, he would even cooperate with outsiders to frame his own nephew. And he dared to call himself a scholar with benevolence and morality? What shit!

His poor young master. The lord and madam died two months ago. Not only was there no one to support him, even his relatives were planning to take advantage of the An family. He’s so pitiful.

An Zi Ran closed the report and said calmly, “Continue to have people spy on them and see what they are preparing to do.”

“That’s it? Young Master, shouldn’t we make some preparations first?” Steward Su couldn’t help but frown. When it came time to react, he was afraid that they would be too late. Once thrown into prison, it would be difficult to come out again.

“Prepare? How? If the government wants to target us, no matter how much we prepare, they will still find reasons. We can only wait and play it by the ear. Otherwise, we must find a supporter for the An family, one that even the Prefecture Magistrate of Yong Zhou will fear. But that is easier said than done!” This was An Zi Ran’s calm analysis.

After all, An Yuan County is but a small county. Even if An Chang Fu had a lot of contacts when he was alive, their position was certainly not much higher than a county magistrate. If they knew that the Prefectural Magistrate of Yong Zhou wanted to target the An family, a lot of them would distance themselves from the An family. Forget helping, it would already be good enough if they did not throw stones into the well*.

[*T/N: Lit. “To throw stones at somebody who fell down a well.” Idiom for kicking a person who is down.]

“So we can only be sitting ducks?” Steward Su sighed.

“Of course not,” An Zi Ran said. “What they want is our property. So before they make a move, I plan to transfer a portion of our assets. Where there’s life there’s hope.”

“But…”

Steward Su wanted to say more, but An Zi Ran stopped him.

“Steward, this is the best method for the An family. Common people cannot fight against government officials. You should understand this truth better than I. Also, I don’t intend to sit still. If An Chang De is going to be heartless, then he can’t blame me for being unjust!”

Steward Su was tongue-tied as he looked at this youth who held a steady gaze in his eyes. The average person would have been anxiously turning in circles, but he did not show the slightest panic. From the beginning, he presented an unwavering stature. Compared to the master when he was alive, the young master was even more remarkable.

He suddenly realized that his young master is really grown up!