Southeast of the Yong Capital lay a place called Seven-Mile Flats, where the city's wealthiest merchants gathered. With the New Year approaching, this should have been the busiest season for commerce. Since ancient times, officials and merchants had belonged to the same family: officials looked down on merchants, merchants resented officials, yet mutual profit kept the two inextricably entangled. But the sudden upheaval in the Yong Capital's palace had left every merchant unable to make sense of the situation. Many were frightened, afraid that their past attempts to curry favor with the wrong people would be exposed and drag them into the storm.
Although Seven-Mile Flats had many wealthy merchants, the foremost among them was still Zan Buliu. The Prosperity Trading House under his control was the largest trading house in Great Yong and ranked among the top three in the Central Plains. His business reached both north and south of the great river, with branches throughout the Various Kingdoms. Zan Buliu was truly a man whose trade spanned the four seas and whose wealth flowed in from the three rivers. In private, he also maintained close contact with Hu Xiaotian. Hu Xiaotian had obtained many scarce supplies through him, while he had earned a considerable fortune through Hu Xiaotian.
Zan Buliu's principle when doing business in Great Yong had always been to remain neither too close nor too distant. He grew too close to no one, but offended no one lightly either. So long as a bodhisattva occupied a place in the temple, he would not neglect it. Even if he could not please every one of them, he would never casually offend any of them. This was his guiding principle in business, and he had spent no small amount of silver on it. At the same time, he