Inside Fenghua Tower.

Zhou Tie, Qian Desheng, Zhao Lie and others all sat around in the reception room.

Xie Xian sat in the main seat, looking at the stack of documents in his hand, and looked up to ask.

“Are these all the member records? Is there anything missing?”

The servant nodded: “Shopkeeper, they’re all here, nothing’s wrong.”

Xie Xian nodded and said softly: “Mm, you may go.”

After the servant left, Xie Xian rubbed his temples, feeling somewhat irritated.

Along the way, he had already explained the general situation in Jianjiang to everyone.

After arriving in Jianjiang and resting for only one day, he immediately led everyone to rush to Fenghua Tower without stopping.

According to Master’s requirements, investigating salt administration was to be done secretly.

With no identity or influence, they could only look for an entry point through Fenghua Tower.

Before leaving Jianjiang, Fenghua Tower had already arranged for someone to manage it.

All members had to establish corresponding files.

There might be useful people among them, which is why they specially came to check.

However, the results were obviously disappointing. They hadn’t discovered much useful information.

Zhao Lie saw his furrowed brow and asked, “Sir, no gains?”

Xie Xian shook his head.

Zhou Tie glanced at the thick stack of documents and asked, “Old Xie, we’ve been gone for so long, yet there are so many new members. Fenghua Tower’s business is really good.”

“These are all wealthy people. Could there really not be a single salt merchant among them?”

Qian Desheng, who had been silent all along, spoke up, “Forgive my bluntness, I also looked around Fenghua Tower just now, and it’s indeed quite nice.”

“But… I’m afraid it wouldn’t catch the eye of salt merchants.”

“The financial power of salt merchants is beyond what ordinary people can imagine. When I accompanied His Majesty on an inspection, I visited salt merchant households.”

“Mansions covering over a thousand acres, beautiful women everywhere, carved beams and jade structures. Even His Majesty couldn’t help but exclaim in amazement!”

“Jianjiang is just a key transit location, not a main salt-producing area. Fenghua Tower’s reputation isn’t enough to attract salt merchants to travel so far to come here.”

“Even if we search, we can only find illegal salt dealers. Those people deal in capital crimes, so how could they leave traces for you to discover here?”

“Even if they like this place, they’d rather spend more silver than be willing to become members.”

Before Xie Xian could speak, Zhou Tie glared at him: “Old geezer! You talk too much! At your age, what can your brain still remember?”

“No matter how impressive salt merchants are, are they more impressive than our Taoyuan County?”

Hearing his sarcastic tone, Qian Desheng suddenly stood up, pointing at him with an orchid finger gesture, angrily saying: “Zhou Tie! Are you done yet? You’ve been contradicting this old servant all along the way?”

“Do you think you’re still the former palace eunuch in charge? Taking money without doing work! If it weren’t for this old man’s superior skills, we might have been finished! I’ll remember this for life!”

Qian Desheng wasn’t soft-spoken either: “You’re hard my ass! You can spend money to buy the top scholar position, how do you know the second place wasn’t bought with money too?”

“You’re really picking a fight with me, aren’t you!” Zhou Tie’s eyes widened as he rolled up his sleeves, ready to go at him.

Zhao Lie quickly stood up to pull him back.

Qian Desheng tilted his head back, closed his eyes, and shrilly shouted: “Try hitting me once!”

“Master will marry our princess in the future. This old servant will make sure you’re finished!”

“Bah! You still want to reach the heavens!?” Zhou Tie spoke tough, but his fist was already slowly lowering.

This wasn’t the first time Qian Desheng had bragged about this on the journey. He wasn’t sure what the situation was.

What if Master really did marry her? This old eunuch’s ability to stir up trouble was quite something!

Seeing him back down, Qian Desheng coldly smiled: “Heh, you little trash, you have no real power!”

“Damn it, you’re going to die today!!!”

“Enough!” Xie Xian slammed the table hard and angrily said: “We came out to handle business. What’s the point of dwelling on past grudges?”

“Keep arguing and I’ll report you all to the authorities!”

The two immediately fell silent.

Zhao Lie secretly gave Xie Xian a thumbs up, showing his admiration for the teacher’s wisdom.

“Manager Qian makes sense. We definitely can’t connect with legitimate salt merchants, so we can only look for illegal salt dealers,” Xie Xian said.

“Sir, but where do we find illegal salt dealers? What’s the relationship between illegal salt and official salt?” Zhao Lie asked.

Xie Xian smiled slightly: “I’ve also dealt in illegal salt in the county. These people exist in almost every city, just in different scales.”

“In a core location like Jianjiang City, there must be illegal salt dealers operating.”

“They’re nominally illegal salt dealers, but in reality the salt in their hands all flows out from official salt fields.”

“Otherwise, with Taoyuan County’s salt consumption level, which illegal salt dealer would dare privately produce so much salt?”

Zhao Lie said thoughtfully: “Even if we find them, what should we do next?”

“Well, so we first need to find a thread, then figure out how to become illegal salt dealers ourselves.”

“With this identity, the rest will be easier to handle.”

Zhao Lie suddenly understood: “I see, so what was the teacher looking for in those documents just now?”

Xie Xian picked up the documents: “The north and south are too far apart. Finding connections to illegal salt in the county probably wouldn’t be meaningful.”

“Even if the mastermind behind Liu Xun is related to salt administration, they couldn’t possibly have such a wide sphere of influence. Moreover, the north isn’t a main salt-producing area.”

“I’ve looked through all the Fenghua Tower members, and there isn’t much useful information.”

“So we need to stay here for a while, have our people pay more attention, and also carefully investigate outside!”

“We must find the illegal salt dealers!”