368 Trading
"With the condition of the water and all, there is no way you would be able to return back there anytime soon," Yan heard about the condition of the water and frowned. If they could only make the trade every several months, it would be rather troublesome.
"It has been like this for years. There is basically no way we could build a big bridge over the river with the massive current."
The architecture in this place was not that advanced yet. The water has a strong current, which would prevent them from making the bridge over the water. In addition, the distance between each riverbank was simply too far, and they would need to make more advance bridge compare with the one available.
"If you could make a plan to make the bridge, it might be possible. But for now, let's stick with the plan of exchanging goods every several months," Xiao Meng interjected.
Yan nodded his head. This little princess was basically the one doing the decision along with him all these times. Tang Xuan only served as the negotiator and proposed the idea while the decision was taken by the two of them. Initially, he thought this little princess only tagging along, but it seemed she was also someone similar to him.
"I will set up the market here and shall we add more things from the current list?" Yan asked.
Xiao Meng shook her head, "My brothers are all busy contending for the throne and they would not pay much attention to the economic state. You might suffer a lot of losses if you were to increase them even more. It would be better to wait for things to stabilize first before adding more things."
"That's reasonable."
With the emperor and princess going back and forth more, Tang Xuan's role gradually disappeared. He could only smile wryly at the sight of these two talking about the plan. He felt that he was no longer needed because whenever the princess took over, she would occupy every role there was.
Ming Hui watched them talking with disinterest. He had a lot of work waiting for him even without adding this matter into their hand. He sighed at the thought that he would need to work overtime today.
While Yan was still busy talking with the princess about the trade, Tang Xuan accompanied her on the side. He didn't do much, only noting important things and all.
"Is he your people?" Ming Hui pointed to the silent man on the side. Ever since Tang Xuan came here, he was only standing on the side and almost didn't do anything. Based on his clothes, it seemed that he was a servant or some sort.
Tang Xuan nodded his head, "He's Steward Du from Gu Yue Kingdom."
Gu Yue was the name of the kingdom where Tang Xuan and Princess Xiao Meng came from. They rarely knew anything about the place as they didn't have much contact with each other until this last few decades. Even then, the contact was limited only to the Yuan Kingdom on the Southwest part of Long Kingdom.
"I thought you like to work alone?" Ming Hui arched his eyebrow.
"Offered hands are better than none," Tang Xuan answered calmly and picked out a different paper. "Perhaps you will be interested in these kinds of things?"
Ming Hui took the paper and read the content slowly. It was one of the papers used to note down their trade, and the items written in the paper were many kinds of girl stuff. Because Ming Hui had lived as a woman for years, he instantly knew what those things were and what their use was.
"I never knew we trade this too," this country could produce the same one too.
"The one Gu Yue Country produced is of better quality compared with the one you made here. Don't you think you would be interested in them?"
Ming Hui shrugged. He doesn't have any interest in wearing makeup anymore. Several years of wearing them were enough. He could buy them for Fan Lanying since the girl certainly didn't have many of them, but he doubt that girl would want to wear the makeup with her usual activities of training and so on.
Tang Xuan didn't force Ming Hui and picked a different paper for him, "What about this one?"
"Did you take me as a customer?" Ming Hui laughed bitterly.
"There is no way a merchant would pass off change like this, Prince Ming Hui," Tang Xuan answered calmly, "You're rich and I think you can help me by buying them."
Ming Hui shook his head, "even if I don't need them?"
"You can buy them for the future."
"No thank you, I'm not that rich to buy your things and our funds are used to maintain a better place for our people here," the fund they have already decreased a lot because of the war. He himself didn't have much money anymore aside from the one he got from opening his hospital.
"I see. It's too bad," Tang Xuan retrieved the paper back and focused his attention back to the two merchants in front of him. The two of them were still busy discussing how the trade can benefit the two of them. As talented merchants, the two of them would not accept being on the losing end of this trade.
Ming Hui watched the two of them with curiosity, "Does the princesses in your country are excellent merchants?"
"Not all of them, Princess Xiao Meng is an exception," Tang Xuan answered.
Seeing how Tang Xuan can maintain a refined bearing, Ming Hui remembered about Jun Min again. Both of them looked exceptionally harmless. If not for him seeing Tang Xuan fighting with Soujin just a few minutes before, he would never think that this person was someone so capable even though he already heard many things about the other party. It was the same with Jun Hua, if not because he had seen how Jun Hua fought in the past, he would never believe that Jun Hua and Jun Min was the same person.
Before the meeting ended, Lin Hong came to the room politely. He was one of the officials in the palace who worked under Ming Hui for the time being.
"Your Highness, this is the report for today's court," Ling Hong handed a stack of paper to Ming Hui.
Ming Hui stared at the paper helplessly. Because Yan didn't stay in the court today, they needed to discuss the matter themselves. Some of the important ones needed the emperor's personal permission and the number of these kinds of paper was not small.
"Help me group them into several stacks," Ming Hui beckoned Lin Hong to help him.
Lin Hong nodded his head and started working. From the corner of his eyes, he could see that the emperor and the princess were still busy talking about trading and all. He was not a merchant, but he knew that the trades they were talking about were of large scale.
"Ignore them and focus on the paper," Ming Hui said.
Lin Hong nodded his head. He wondered whether the emperor finally took a fancy to a noble girl or if she was just a merchant in front of his eyes.
Ming Hui shook his head as if reading what Ling Hong thought, "Don't think about it. He won't be happy with you interfering in his life."
Lin Hong nodded his head. He knew that there would be no one who would be happy with other people interfering with his life. He too shouldn't do that, especially since the other person is the emperor of Long Kingdom.
"Besides, his reaction with every pretty girl is mostly the same."
"…" At that point, Lin Hong didn't want to think about the matter anymore. There was simply nothing he could say about this emperor's conduct and he won't be able to bear the punishment should he say something wrong.
In the end, inside that big room, the people were separated into several groups. Yan and Xiao Meng were talking about trade, Tang Xuan wrote down the discussion, and Ming Hui with Lin Hong were busy separating the task. On the side, steward Du just stood quietly as if he was a statue watching the movement of the people inside the room without moving even an inch.
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