Something Happened

Three days later, on a bright and sunny afternoon.

An Ziran had just finished going through a pile of muddled accounts when Su Zi hurried into the study.

Su Zi was the steward's son, six years older than An Ziran and already twenty-two this year. He had a rather straightforward temperament. At his age, most men would already have married and had children, yet he remained unmarried to this day.

An Ziran had never asked why. It was someone else's family business, not something he should pry into, and he was not particularly interested anyway. Still, he could roughly guess the reason.

"What happened? Why are you so flustered?"

Su Zi stared at the calm-faced youth and froze for a moment. Though several days had passed, he still had not adjusted to the eldest young master's drastic change in personality. If not for how fat he was, Su Zi might have thought that the one standing before him was actually a graceful, refined, and handsome young man.

Casting that bizarre thought to the back of his mind, Su Zi remembered why he had rushed over and hastily explained, "The An Family's four stewards are waiting for you in the main hall. They said something serious has happened and that you had to be informed. Only you can make the decision."

A trace of puzzlement appeared on An Ziran's face. He knew Steward Feng and the others, and precisely because he knew them, he was puzzled.

The four stewards were the principal managers of the An Family's major shops. They normally would not come to the An Family residence unless it was time for their routine report every half month. Yet all four had come today, so this was certainly no ordinary matter.

"Come. Let's take a look." An Ziran's face darkened. With that, he took the lead out of the study.

Su Zi hurried after him.

By the time An Ziran reached the main hall, the four stewards were inside, talking over one another about the matter. Every one of them wore a worried expression. When they saw him enter, they immediately stopped talking and rose to their feet, their gazes carrying a faint, barely perceptible scrutiny and doubt.

They had naturally heard about the An Family's eldest young master changing, since they worked under the An Family. Steward Su had also made it abundantly clear to them that the An Family's eldest young master was no longer the An Ziran of old.

At first, however, they had not fully believed it. Only now, seeing him walk in with such calm composure, unlike before when he had been overbearing and swaggered as he walked, all but having I'm a dandy written across his face, did they finally begin to believe Steward Su's words. Still, whether he could shoulder the An Family would require time to prove.

"Young Master." Steward Feng, the head of the four, was the first to step forward.

The other three spoke in turn as well, though their expressions lacked the respect and solemnity they had shown An Changfu. An Ziran's youth was one reason, but more importantly, he truly had never been involved with the An Family's businesses before. Though An Ziran was now their young master, he was ultimately still a greenhorn. They could not possibly submit to being managed by a greenhorn all at once.

An Ziran took in their expressions, but said nothing. He had anticipated this situation on his way here. Besides, they had concealed their feelings fairly well, so there was no need for him to take issue with it. So long as they possessed genuine ability, tolerance was the bare minimum.

An Ziran took the seat of honor and swept his calm gaze across their faces. "What is it? Speak."

The stewards immediately looked at one another, each seeing shock in the others' eyes. Their young master's bearing carried quite the air of his father; for an instant, they felt as though they were facing An Changfu.

A complicated look flashed through Steward Feng's eyes. He instead felt that the young master was steadier than the master of the house. With that thought, he made up his mind. "Young Master, this is what happened..."

Although the An Family was the wealthiest landlord family in Anyuan County, An Changfu's methods of amassing wealth while he was alive had not been aboveboard. In his younger years, he had made his fortune with several plots of land. After the An Family gradually grew, he used underhanded means to swallow up vast amounts of the farmers' land in Anyuan County, claiming it as his own. He then rented that land back to the farmers and collected exorbitant rent.

The farmers suffered beyond endurance. After handing over the An Family's land rent from their yearly harvest, what remained was not even enough to eat. Thus, some farmers had no choice but to borrow grain from the An Family.

In this regard, An Changfu had not charged them exorbitant interest. But as time went on, with interest added to the grain they had borrowed, many farmers owed the An Family enormous debts they could never repay, leaving them no choice but to farm the An Family's land for generations.

While An Changfu was alive, many farmers had protested against the An Family's heartlessness in growing rich, but An Changfu had suppressed them all. Back then, he often sent gifts to the county magistrate and relied on the authorities to keep matters from escalating. Yet that was only because An Changfu had still been alive. Now that An Changfu was dead and the An Family had no adult capable of taking charge, those farmers who had once been exploited so severely began to resist under the incitement of interested parties.

The tide of resistance began only after An Changfu and his wife were buried. Since there were not many people involved, the matter had not grown serious, and Steward Feng and the others had thought they could resolve it. But they had not expected the situation to suddenly worsen over the past few days.