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With Rong Xi's consent, he swiftly closed the shop for the day and led the three of them into the back room, serving tea to each in turn.

"Old Du, why not join us?" Rong Xi invited sincerely.

Shopkeeper Du answered and sat on his heels, unable to resist asking, "Young master, shouldn't you be at the ancestral residence in Linxi?"

"I came to the capital this time on important business." Rong Xi smiled and asked, "As I passed through the market just now, I saw that several Zhang Family Shops had replaced all their old hands with new ones. What is the reason for that?"

Qin Ke and Chen Chuangu were suddenly shaken. So Rong Dalang's stroll through the market had not been without purpose; he had come with a plan already formed.

The Zhang Clan were merchants. In the eyes of the people of the time, marrying into a family of Ministers was truly climbing high. Yet without the Zhang Clan's money and gifts smoothing the way back then, Rong Weijing's rise through the ranks would never have gone so smoothly.

Rong Xi's birth mother had been an only daughter, and the shops under the Zhang Clan's name had all been part of her dowry.

Under the Great Wei Code, a woman's dowry belonged to her alone, and her husband's family could not touch it without authorization. If she died and had children, the dowry would be inherited by those children; if she had none, it would return to her natal family.

Rong Xi was Rong Zhang's only son, and both his maternal grandparents had already passed away. Therefore, the several shops should all have been Rong Xi's private property, and no one else had the right to interfere with or lay a finger on them.

Hearing this,