"Husband, are you all right?"
Seeing Wang return, Xiao Mei hurried over and threw herself into his arms to offer comfort.
"You may leave."
Wang waited until the maidservants attending them had gone out before telling Xiao Mei what had happened. "I am now an Advisory Military Officer of the Prince of Jin's Residence."
"It is only an honorary post. Yang Guang would never truly let you serve as an adviser," Xiao Mei said knowingly.
"That is exactly right." Wang nodded with a smile. "But it does not matter. We can use the Prince's Residence to do business. We will proceed as we discussed before. In another eight or ten years, we will have built up our power."
"Husband, you must beware of Yuwen Huaji. That man has a crooked heart—cunning and dangerous."
"There is no need to fear him. Under Yang Guang's nose, at most he can wag his tongue before Yang Guang and slander us. He may also secretly try to obstruct our business, but it will all be done in the shadows. We are not afraid of him openly, so why fear him in secret? If he dares make trouble for us, chop off the hand he reaches with and stomp on the foot he uses."
Holding Xiao Mei in his arms, Wang said, "Madam, there is something you must understand. Once you follow me, you will be irreconcilable enemies with those great clans and wealthy households, strangers walking separate roads. The great households will never regard a mere foot soldier or mud-legged peasant like me as a person. They will only see me as a dog. If we relied on their support to accomplish great things, I would be nothing more than another Yang Jian. You were the one who told me that.
"Our strength should