A Turn of Fortune

Lu Qiying made another trip back to Jade City and found that everything had changed. All of a sudden, he was a big shot—bigger than he had been as a tavern keeper. It was the feeling he had dreamed of, and he was so excited that even the finger he'd lost seemed to be twitching.

The Dragon King had ordered him to buy up provisions at any cost. Lu Qiying had accepted the task with the resolve to burn his boats, because by every calculation, the Dragon King didn't have the funds. But a rumor brought a major turn of fortune to the whole plan.

Meng Yuzun had died of illness, and there had been many guesses about the cause of his death. But only a few days later, an even more sensational piece of news spread through Jade City at an incredible pace: the Meng Family had been robbed, and the savings accumulated over generations had vanished without a trace.

The Meng Family hadn't been reduced to destitution. Meng Mingshu still owned more real estate and shops in Jade City than anyone else. But overnight, he had gone from the richest man in the Western Regions to an ordinary wealthy landowner.

All of Jade City had gone mad. With no leads to go on, the residents latched on to every bit of street gossip and so-called inside information, analyzing it from morning till night and even searching for answers in their dreams: how had the money disappeared? Whose hands had it ended up in?

The Dragon King's name gradually surfaced amid the froth of rumors. If people had only been suspicious during the first few days, what followed was nearly irrefutable proof. The Meng Family's businesses and money houses throughout the Western Regions were robbed one after another. The