The Elixir is for You, The Poison is for Me

#429 - No, we are not familiar with each other.

Lu Jing's gaze towards Zhu Jie gradually turned unkind, as he thought, "Is this old fox feeling the pinch of his own silver, planning to fob me off with some palace maid or something?"

If that's the case, Lu Jing wouldn't mind settling some old scores with him.

This guy had previously colluded with Taiping Bank to set a trap for him, and later sent the Jingzi Guard and Tianlong Sect to try and capture him.

Fortunately, Lu Jing didn't suffer any losses in the battle on the river, and even made a fortune. Plus, he didn't want to get involved in any imperial secrets, so he couldn't be bothered to settle accounts with Zhu Jie.

But now it seemed that his previous decision was open to question.

On the other side, Zhu Jie felt a little flustered by Lu Jing's stare, wondering where he had offended the other party. Most people would only be a little impatient when asked about marriage, but the face of the Qi Immortal Master in front of him had turned dark.

Considering his age, Zhu Jie could only guess that Lu Jing was already married, but his wife was no longer alive, so his face turned so ugly when the question was raised.

Thinking of this, Zhu Jie couldn't help but hesitate, but now that things had come to this, he could only bite the bullet and continue, "Immortal Master Qi may not know, but not long ago, I made a promise that if anyone could save me from danger, then I... I would marry my daughter to him."

Lu Jing's face turned even uglier when he heard this, thinking that he had guessed correctly.

Having completed nine years of compulsory education, Lu Jing knew all about these emperors' tricks. Zhu Jie probably regarded him as the kind of ignorant Xiongnu barbarian.

Just find a palace maid in the palace, pretend she's your daughter, and then package her as a princess to marry him. This was a traditional skill of these emperors.

However, Lu Jing was not one of those foreign bumpkins who admired Celestial culture and would be content with a wife who had the title of princess.

Besides, did Lu Jing lack a wife now? What he lacked was silver, okay!

Lu Jing didn't speak when he heard this, but only sneered at Zhu Jie. After a moment, he said, "You want to marry off your daughter? Sure, if you have the ability, marry the Princess of Fuan Palace to me."

This was, of course, just a fit of pique. As everyone knew, the Princess of Fuan Palace was Zhu Jie's most beloved daughter, with a noble status. She was already of marriageable age, and there were many people who came to propose marriage, including noble families and local magnates, but in the end, none of them had caught Zhu Jie's eye.

Obviously, Zhu Jie had high requirements for his future son-in-law.

And Lu Jing didn't have any thoughts about Fuan. He said this only to remind Zhu Jie not to play petty tricks and honestly hand over the money.

He didn't want much, just enough to get by with 100,000 or 150,000 taels of silver, or even 80,000 or 90,000 taels, which wasn't completely off the table.

As a result, after he finished speaking, Zhu Jie was stunned again, and then said, "How did Immortal Master know that the daughter I want to marry is Fuan?"

???

Lu Jing felt that there was definitely something wrong with Zhu Jie's mouth and his ears, or that there was something wrong with Zhu Jie's brain. This guy had previously selected a bunch of talented young men for his daughter, examining everything from appearance to family background to literary talent and martial arts, and hadn't chosen anyone after four years.

But tonight, he had only met him once, and knew nothing about him except for a fake name, and he was going to marry his most beloved daughter to him. This didn't make sense at all.

So Lu Jing was silent for a moment, and then reminded Zhu Jie, "Wouldn't this... be a little hasty?"

"Not hasty, not hasty," Zhu Jie shook his head. "To be honest, I, as a father, have been worrying about this daughter's marriage all these years, but until I met Immortal Master Qi, I have never been able to find a suitable person to entrust her to."

"Hey, you're talking like you know me very well," Lu Jing advised. "You don't understand me, how do you know I won't bully your daughter after marriage?"

"Others are one thing, but how could I doubt the morals and cultivation of someone from the Imperial Observatory?"

"But there's quite a difference in our ages, almost twenty years. To be honest, I'm already in my early forties this year."

"What does that age matter? I'm almost fifty, and I just took four concubines last month."

"My family background is also not good. My ancestors for three generations were farmers."

"Heroes don't ask about their origins," Zhu Jie said. "It is precisely because Immortal Master Qi started from humble beginnings that you have been able to get to where you are today, which further proves your extraordinary nature."

"… … … …"

Lu Jing was also at a loss for words, so he simply stopped beating around the bush and said directly, "Your Majesty, you should still give me a reward of silver. I just need silver now, and I don't want much. If you give me 150,000 taels, you and I will owe each other nothing from now on."

A look of embarrassment appeared on Zhu Jie's face, "Immortal Master Qi is short of money? But I don't have much silver on hand either. I'm ashamed to say it, but it's all because I, as the emperor, haven't done a good job, which has led to the current unfavorable state of the country, with wars breaking out everywhere. There are strong enemies invading from the outside, and constant natural disasters from the inside, which have almost emptied the national treasury. The 200,000 taels of silver allocated to the Imperial Observatory this time were still taken out of my own private treasury with gritted teeth.

"And there is probably a shortfall of about 50,000 taels, which will have to be made up later. As for more silver, I can't get it out for the time being."

Lu Jing was dubious. He knew that the imperial court's finances were tight. Even though he hadn't cared much about politics before, he had heard that the imperial court had increased the commercial tax five times in just half a year.

In fact, the commercial environment of the Chen Dynasty had always been very relaxed. If it wasn't really short of money, the imperial court wouldn't have been so crazy about collecting commercial taxes. In addition, there were rumors that the price of salt licenses would also be doubled, and those salt merchants had been complaining these days.

"That's not the case," Zhu Jie explained. "Now is an extraordinary period. The country is indeed short of money. The pomp and circumstance of Fuan's marriage can be solved, but the dowry can only be simplified. But it doesn't matter. If you really want to make money, it's actually very simple. Just send out more invitations then, and invite those civil and military officials, imperial relatives, and even wealthy merchants. Their congratulatory gifts will definitely be enough for you two to make a fortune."

The reason why Zhu Jie was so vigorously promoting his daughter was, of course, because after tonight's events, Zhu Jie had also understood that the power of cultivators was the strongest in this world, far from being comparable to secular wealth and power.

Unfortunately, the Imperial Observatory was always bound by the rules and would only remain neutral, and would not choose to help him.

But it didn't matter. Since he couldn't get the Imperial Observatory, he might as well take a step back and teach the powerful cultivators in the Imperial Observatory. Zhu Jie didn't believe that if the Chen Dynasty and his daughter were in danger one day, his son-in-law would continue to stand idly by.

As for whether the two were really suitable, and the Princess of Fuan Palace's own opinion, Zhu Jie had never cared about from beginning to end. Born in an imperial family, some things were always inevitable.