The Delicate Darling with Her Rough Man

Seeing that An Mingjiang hadn’t spoken and his expression remained placid, Old Nine continued.

”It was one thing when that Lu Yuanbin seized three-quarters of the black market, but now he’s pushing me so hard I can’t even hold on to my last quarter.”

”Mr. An, if you don’t step in this time, what little market I have left will be stolen away.”

Old Nine had been beaten up today, and he easily figured that the excuses those women used to cause him trouble must have been fed to them by Lu Yuanbin.

’Of course I can’t just let this go. Besides, I’d long been unable to stand Lu Yuanbin making a fortune from facial soap. Before I got into the business myself, I hadn’t thought much of it, but now that I’m selling it, I realize just how profitable it is. The facial soap business is more profitable than selling rice, flour, meat, and eggs all put together. That being the case, I might as well take down Lu Yuanbin and seize his supply channels. With the facial soap trade in my hands, I wouldn’t care about any other business. The only problem is that Lu Yuanbin has more men than I do now. Getting rid of Lu Yuanbin will require An Mingjiang’s help.’

”Mr. An, look at the injuries on my face! This is all because of that brat Lu Yuanbin’s dirty tricks. He’s going too far!”

Hearing this, An Mingjiang finally showed some concern for Mr. Jiu’s injuries, then said consolingly, ”Old Nine, try my tea. This is some Da Hong Pao I was gifted. It’s quite good.”

Old Nine didn’t dare to refuse and picked up his teacup to drink.

An Mingjiang spoke again.

”As for this Lu Yuanbin you mentioned, if he’s really as outrageous as you say, I’ll naturally help you get even. But first, I need to investigate his background.”

’For Lu Yuanbin to have grown so quickly and forcibly taken over Old Nine’s territory, there must be someone backing him. When I investigated before, I vaguely discovered that Lu Yuanbin had some connection with a certain figure in the County Town. I had only just arrived here at the time, so I didn’t pursue the investigation further. After all, that was someone I couldn’t afford to provoke. If Lu Yuanbin really was his man, then Old Nine would have no choice but to cede the entire black market, even if Lu Yuanbin wanted it all. But my subsequent investigation revealed that Lu Yuanbin didn’t seem to know that person, and the two had never associated. If the person had merely helped him out on a whim back then, things would be much simpler. However, this still needed to be confirmed.’

When Old Nine heard this, a smile immediately appeared on his face. ”Mr. An, to be honest, this Lu Yuanbin has a very profitable business. He’s even partnered with the black markets in several surrounding county towns. If we could snatch this business, we would definitely make a lot of money.”

’Even though the times were tough, and money couldn’t solve every problem, it could solve most of them. Otherwise, why would workers try so hard to earn money? Everyone was desperately trying to find a factory with good benefits and high wages, even willing to spend a fortune to do so. This just proved that for some things, only money worked.’

An Mingjiang’s interest was piqued. ”What business?”

’Of course, he needed money too. The black market was where you could buy things without ration tickets, and all of that required cash. Although he had status and position, having no money was a critical weakness. Old Nine had money, and he had power. That was why the two of them had hit it off.’

Old Nine didn’t hide anything. ”It’s the facial soap business. Mr. An, you’ve probably heard of it.”

An Mingjiang was a little surprised.

He actually did know about the facial soap business, simply because his wife and daughter at home had been clamoring to buy some. After they bought it, they kept saying how wonderful it was.

His wife and daughter heaped endless praise on the facial soap, and even he had to admit that their skin had improved a lot recently.