A group hurried toward the scene of the crime. Seeing Old Hu's anxious expression, Liang Yue quietly asked Chen Ju, "The dead man was just a merchant. Why is Old Hu even more nervous than when Zhen Changzhi died?"
Chen Ju said, "Zhang Xingkai has a formidable background. He might really be more important than a sixth-rank official."
Along the way, Chen Ju introduced Zhang Xingkai's circumstances to Liang Yue.
The man too had come from a scholarly family and was descended from officials.
He had been a scholar in his early years, but later his family was convicted of a crime, and he was exiled to Yue Province for military service. After earning merit there and receiving a pardon, he simply stayed behind to do business locally, in construction.
Not long after Dinggou King Jiang Zhenye led his army to destroy the Nanxiang Kingdom, the Yin Dynasty's territory in southeastern Yue Province expanded greatly. The Imperial Court restructured the prefectural system there, rebuilt cities, and relocated a great many people.
Zhang Xingkai had seized many Imperial Court construction projects amid that wave. Over the decade or so of city-building, he had made a fortune overflowing from every bowl and basin, vaulting in one leap to become chairman of the Yue Province Merchant Association. Only recently had he transferred to Dragon Abyss City to expand his business.
When he returned to Dragon Abyss City this time, he was already no longer the man he had been. From the family member of a convicted official sent into exile, he had become a tycoon with a fortune wrapped around his waist.
It was said that the Yue Province Merchant Association intended to develop Dragon Abyss City's real estate and had purchased many properties in the southern part of the city.
Sadly, before