"What's with that look?"
Xu Xie watched his younger cousin, his hands itching to give him a smack.
He had become the head of the family while still young. His younger cousin had lost both parents as a child, and there was no suitable family in the clan to take him in, so the boy had been sent to Xu Xie. At first, it had been out of kinship, but after all these years, their relationship had long since become something else.
In name, they were cousins; in truth, they were more like father and son.
His cousin murmured, "Earlier, I said I wanted to serve Lord Wu so I could look out for you, Brother, but you turned me down..."
As people from Tianhai, they naturally gave priority to serving Wu Xian.
It had become an unspoken rule over the years.
The Xu Clan had invested a great deal in Wu Xian, giving him money when he needed it and grain when he needed that. Even Xu Xie, the head of the Xu Clan, had entered Wu Xian's service. It made perfect sense that his cousin would want to serve Wu Xian and help his older cousin.
But Xu Xie had flatly refused.
That had given his cousin other ideas.
Hedging their bets was standard practice for a family's survival and continuation, all the more so for the Xu Clan, which had risen from the merchant class.
Even after generations of hard work had carried the Xu Clan across the social divide, the habit of "speculating and profiteering" had sunk deep into their bones. And it wasn't just merchants. Which powerful family or illustrious house didn't do the same? Betting their entire fortune on one person, putting all their eggs in one basket—that was a business with enormous risks!