Chapter 889: 812 one card Chapter 889: 812 one card “Do you think we’re all the sa… not really good people?” Sitting in the living room, Martin glanced at Pan Qi, who still had no idea what had happened.
Pan Qi shook her head; she no longer knew who exactly was sitting beside her. Initially, she just wanted to save her father, but the other party rely had a brief chat with Marquis Conrad, and all the problems that troubled her were resolved.
“Our way of doing things isn’t much different from theirs; we’re just stronger and kill without restraint, which allows us to show off in front of them,” Martin said as he fiddled with the ring on his hand, speaking to himself.
“Because we’re alike, they understand how we operate and are familiar with our thods… and so do we. That’s why we know when to pay and when to pull out a gun; hence, I get along… quite well with them,” he said and pulled out a cigarette case, then glanced at Pan Qi and sowhat awkwardly stuffed it back into his pocket.
…
Pan Yiping thought about many things in his cell; he thought about abandoning the goods and also about borrowing more money to grease so palms.
In any case, he felt that he had to take his daughter and two servants back to the Dahua Empire first. To leave this damned, unreasonable place.
...
But he didn’t have many ideas; the servants couldn’t handle his goods, which almost always required his personal involvent for safety reasons.
This was almost a vicious cycle; he couldn’t do anything now, just wait patiently here for a chance, an opportunity to leave.
What made him despair was that he might not be getting out anyti soon: ever since he had been locked up, no one had inquired about him.
The prison guards also didn’t care about the well-being of a prisoner locked up by Lord Conrad; there were too many wrongfully accused prisoners here — if they had to inquire about each one, wouldn’t they be dead tired?
Moreover, their influence was minimal, and they couldn’t possibly inquire about soone Lord Conrad wanted dead. So, aside from giving Pan Yiping so leftovers, they hadn’t even spoken a word to him.
Fortunately, the other prisoners in the cell just stole Pan Yiping’s food and didn’t make his life difficult in other ways, otherwise this story would have had a different ending.
Conrad also felt incredibly lucky: if sothing had happened to the person Martin wanted, and if there were no accidents with himself, then he would be the one in trouble.
The official sent by the Laines Empire to investigate the death of Marquis Musa, who had shot himself in the back seven tis on the road, unanimously deed it a suicide. After hastily dealing with Musa’s corpse, they brought a jar of ashes to his wife.
Conrad did not wish to die in such an unclear, unexplained way, so seeing Pan Yiping sitting untouched and sane in the corner of the cell nearly made him cry out in joy.
When he saw Marquis Conrad again, Pan Yiping didn’t dare to say much. He had realized that in the Laines Empire, there was no place for a Dahua person to reason.
Thus, the mont he stepped out of the cell, he made up his mind, “Lord, I don’t want the goods anymore…”
For him now, staying alive was the most important thing. He still had a wonderful daughter and a warm ho.
“Where is that coming from! Where is that!” Conrad, who actually ca to the cell to personally retrieve soone, seed even more humble, quickly waving his hands with a smile, “Misunderstanding! It’s all a misunderstanding!”
Conrad’s attitude left Pan Yiping confused; he didn’t think he had any power that could cause such a significant change in deanor.
But before he could figure out the key point, he heard Conrad chuckling and explaining, “You have a great daughter… so pretty, so adorable…”
Hearing Conrad’s words, a chill ran down Pan Yiping’s spine as he turned to Conrad, tense and furious, and snapped, “You! What have you done to my daughter!”
Conrad suddenly realized his deanor had been… way too creepy! He hadn’t ant that, he honestly wanted to curry favor, but subconsciously, he had used the expression reserved for lusting after soone else’s girl.
“Don’t misunderstand! Don’t misunderstand!” He certainly didn’t want Martin to misunderstand anything, for aggravating that butcher — or rather, those untouchable big shots he dared not even think about — would leave him no ti to even cry.
It was no joke; dealing with Martin was already tough, and dealing with Harry, standing behind him, was even tougher. Not to ntion behind Harry stood a ruthless man nad Tang Mo, ruthless enough that even Leines I wouldn’t dare to provoke.
Especially, Tang Mo’s na had a special significance for Brunnis; if Tang Mo were to return to Brunnis, a simple call to arms from him would shake the earth, unstoppable by anyone…
“Your daughter is lovely…” Conrad had barely started explaining when he realized that it was indeed easy to be misunderstood when discussing soone else’s daughter, so he hurriedly changed the subject, “Why didn’t you ntion that you knew Mr. Martin earlier? If you had, there wouldn’t have been so many misunderstandings.”
“Martin? Mister?” Pan Yiping, having heard that his daughter was alright, finally put his mind at ease. However, upon hearing a na he had never encountered before, he beca even more confused.
Conrad chuckled without much concern and continued to explain, “It’s alright! It’s alright! It’s all just a misunderstanding! We’re all on the sa side! Just a misunderstanding! Let’s go back and discuss! We can discuss everything back there! Mr. Martin knows you too! It’s all the sa! Heh heh!”
For Conrad, the favor was ant for Martin; as for Pan Yiping’s side, he was indifferent.
A businessman from the distant Dahua, in his eyes, was no more than an ant. When communications were not well-developed, not many businessn from Dahua could be seen here throughout the year.
Almost passively, Pan Yiping was pushed into a rather luxurious tax officer’s private car and then they drove all the way back to the tax building.
The first thing Pan Yiping saw as he opened the door and entered the room was his daughter, Pan Qi. Upon seeing her father, she imdiately got up and threw herself into his embrace, “Father!”
“Dad’s fine! I’m fine!” Feeling the distress his daughter had endured, Pan Yiping’s eyes suddenly reddened. He comforted his daughter while looking toward the middle-aged man standing there.
“Mr. Pan, have you not been hard?” Martin looked towards Conrad standing behind Pan Yiping.
Conrad quickly waved his hands, “No, no, no! Everything’s fine! I handled everything, you can trust !”
All the way here, he had already negotiated with Pan Yiping—they would not collect any taxes, and he personally found a buyer who would purchase the goods at the highest market price, as compensation for the fright Pan Yiping had experienced.
Pan Yiping dared not refuse, it was an unexpected pleasant surprise: He obtained tax exemption and also sold his goods at a good price without almost any cost.
However, he was also aware that this was not Conrad giving him face, but rather giving face to Martin.
And the man standing before him was probably that very Martin he did not recognize, but who recognized him.
“Are you, are you Mr. Martin?” Pan Yiping asked, looking at Martin.
“I am Martin.” Having answered Pan Yiping’s question, Martin did not intend to continue networking. He walked up to Conrad, glanced at Pan Yiping and his daughter, “If they encounter any difficulties, give them a hand, they are friends.”
“Rest assured! A friend of Mr. Martin is a friend of mine,” said the tax officer from Laines Empire at Brunnis Port, slapping his chest resoundingly.
“Much appreciated!” Martin patted Conrad on the shoulder, “I have a dinner with the City Lord tonight, this trip back is on official business, so I won’t disturb your work.”
He paused for a few seconds after finishing his sentence, then continued with sothing that Conrad was very pleased to hear, “You know, the Great Tang Empire is always generous to friends. There are clothes, jewelry, bags, watches at the port… take whatever you like.”
You see, sotis playing low and small is not unacceptable, it all depends on how much the other side is willing to give. Conrad could stroll around the port and probably his son, lover, and wife would think he is a good man, a good father for the next year.
Listening to such blatant bribery and corruption, Pan Yiping felt his brain was almost not keeping up.
It was his first ti witnessing such an uncalculated bribery. Clearly, this was not just to facilitate a business deal, but seed more like a long-term penetration and corruption.
Now he understood just how imnse the influence of the Great Tang Empire was, even on the East Coast, the Dragon Banner of Great Tang was still sacrosanct and inviolate.
“How did you co to know… such a man?” Honestly speaking, there was a mont when Pan Yiping even felt that “old cow eating young grass” might not be unacceptable—if his daughter followed such a man, it might not necessarily be a bad thing.
He pondered a lot in that instant, but the answer his daughter gave him veered completely from his expectation, “Do you rember Li Fan?”
“Ah? Him?” Pan Yiping was sowhat surprised.
“Yes, he gave a card and told … if I ever encountered trouble, I should just…” Pan Qi carefully narrated the story.
While they were talking, they were already on the street; Pan Yiping looked across the street at the unlit sign of the Silver Fox Tavern, sowhat unable to believe everything his daughter had told him.
It turned out that solving all the troubles was just a matter of a card…
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