Inheriting A Divine Cultivation Clan At The Start, All My Juniors Are Empresses

Yuchi certainly understood Changsun Mei’s meaning, and he naturally knew the sorrow in Changsun Mei’s heart—a sorrow of isolation and helplessness, something he had definitely experienced himself. So he first looked at his elder brother: ”Brother, you can help handle this. Give the gold and silver to the Zhangsun Family, so that their people can come forward and repay the Commerce Association’s gold and silver.”

”At the same time, see if there’s a way to help them a bit during this process, at least to calm their former partners, preventing the kind of mutual trampling that happens when people try to flee.”

Wei Zhe stood up and nodded: ”Leave it to me. I can certainly handle such a small matter properly.”

Yuchi: ”Good.”

Watching Wei Zhe leave the Commerce Association, only Yuchi and Changsun Mei were left in the council hall now.

With a kindly smile on his face, Yuchi spoke again: ”I wonder if Miss Changsun is free tonight, and if she would be willing to have dinner with me as a simple woman? Perhaps I can help solve your problem from an individual’s perspective.”

Ah, there goes the saying, help if you can—there’s no need to kick someone when they’re down, so seeing if Changsun Mei needs help is just a matter of standing on a ’friend’s’ angle to see where you can assist. But to say that ’friend’ really carries much weight...

That might be wishful thinking.

Changsun Mei’s answer was affirmative. She immediately raised her face, her eyes red as she looked at Yuchi: ”Young Master Yuchi, please wait a moment, I will go change clothes and later invite you to the Lamp Flower Tower.”

”No need to go to the Lamp Flower Tower, it’s too expensive. Who would want to pretend to be grand in such a place if not for business?”

Yuchi laughed: ”How about this, you go back and prepare a bit, and I’ll send someone to fetch you later. Come to the Wei Family then; I’ll have the cook prepare some dishes. Among friends, do we need such grand places to show respect?”

The more unfamiliar the relationship, the more grand the occasion needed, for between two strangers, wanting to reach a cooperative relationship means there’s no choice but to ’spend money.’ It’s impossible for two very close friends to still go to such grand places for a meal, unless they have something to hide.

So judging how close two people’s relationship is can be seen from where they dine together. Childhood friends can enjoy a simple street stall. With a rift, a towering building is useless.

”Thank you! This young woman will await your arrival at home!”

Changsun Mei, with reddened eyes, bowed and left. After stepping out of the council hall, she couldn’t hold back her tears, wiped her eyes, her eyes bloodshot, she left the Commerce Association amidst the strange gazes of other members, first leaving by carriage.

She could naturally feel Yuchi’s goodwill.

Firstly, Yuchi wasn’t an individual who existed alone. Behind him was the Commerce Association, the Wei Family, and many, many involved families. He couldn’t act solely based on sentiment; otherwise, if Yuchi were to act impulsively and outright use the Commerce Association to help the Zhangsun Family, they would certainly recover instantly.

But what would the other families think? How would they interpret it? By then Yuchi might come across as having outsmarted everyone, and the Zhangsun Family could rise again, but it would trick those other families who had faith in the Commerce Association.

Thus, if Yuchi truly wanted to help, he would have to remove the title of Commerce Association President from his head; purely offering advice as a friend is acceptable. Utilizing the Commerce Association’s assistance? That would be short-sighted and harm many others.

Returning to the Zhangsun Family, looking at the desolate appearance of the household, Changsun Mei went to her bedroom alone.

In the bedroom.

The maid had already died in a previous conflict, silently washing her own skin. Although she knew it was impossible for there to be any deep exchange with Yuchi, perhaps this was a form of respect.

Inch by inch, she washed her skin clean, carefully cleansing fully, and changed into a pale golden dress, sitting quietly in front of the dressing mirror, arranged her makeup, using rouge to cover the dark circles on her fair face, with makeup more inclined towards concealing thus appearing.

Looking at herself in the mirror, with vacant eyes.

Changsun Mei didn’t know how all of this happened. Things supposedly just changed, and changed they did; she still didn’t know how her grandfather convinced her father—they simply wanted to take over the Zhangsun Family. It was incomprehensible, was it merely out of arrogance?

The current number of Zhangsun family members was only thirty percent of what it used to be. Initially, many clothing sales channels were gone. Without personal channels, even with connecting through the Commerce Association and other families, they were reluctant to share their channels.

After all, the Commerce Association is a witness and supervisor. Cooperation between two families is not one-sided but mutual. Taking the Zhangsun Family and the Wei Family as an example, if it were before, two families could cooperate. You provide me with a garment transport route, and I provide you with another, complementing each other.

But now you have no routes, and your family is like a salted fish. If you ask the Wei Family to selflessly contribute their routes again, what about others in my family? Are we here to do charity? Should we not support the many in our family?