Five Years After My Death, the Mad Emperor Still Summons My Spirit

"Go and inquire with the people around Xie Ruijing. Find out where my dear second brother has been lately. Has he not been home these past few days? If you find his location, report to me immediately. Also, keep an eye on everyone around Manager Wang. If any of their people get news of Xie Ruijing, detain them for me!"

Xie Ruiyang fiddled with the string of obsidian beads in his hand. ’I refuse to believe it,’ he thought. ’How could I fail to drag Xie Ruijing down from that position with a golden opportunity like this?!’

That evening, everyone at Ming’s Restaurant sat down to eat together. After dinner, Ming Lingyi and Ming Chengyu gathered to assemble the Dragon Boat Festival gift boxes.

"Has there been any movement on your end?" Ming Lingyi was worried that the secret arrangements her brother and Zhang Sifan had made would be discovered by the Xie family, implicating them both.

Ming Chengyu replied, "Xie Ruijing is still out there living it up, so the news hasn’t leaked yet. But Huiya and I have decided to leak a little bit of it tomorrow..."

"Hm?"

"If it’s just two shops fighting, what’s so interesting about that? In this Capital City, there are always people who want to see Xie Ruijing taken down a peg even more than we do." Ming Chengyu picked up a wolf-hair brush and wrote the three large words "Ming’s Restaurant" on a square, yellowish piece of paper.

He had wanted to help with the handiwork, but Ming Lingyi had so little faith in his crafting skills that she assigned him the job of calligraphy instead.

Ming Lingyi had previously considered this plan herself, but she didn’t have the necessary connections. Finding out what was happening inside the Xie Mansion was no easy task.

She had planned to wait and watch, letting the Xie family members fight amongst themselves. But now, with her brother and Zhang Sifan involved, many more opportunities were arising.

"The members of the Xie family in Shangjing City are all descendants of the old Mr. Xie. Although the third branch came from a concubine, Xie Ruiyang is their only legitimate son, and they dote on him. Years ago, Xie Ruiyang wanted to challenge Xie Ruijing of the main branch and let the clan elders decide who would manage the family’s general affairs. But who would have known? The head of the main branch, who is also the current Xie Family Head, appeared noble and magnanimous on the surface but was privately fiercely protective of his own. He didn’t give Xie Ruijing power because he thought he was capable, but because he felt the family fortune was only safe in the hands of the main branch. Isn’t that just pure selfishness?" Ming Chengyu analyzed the current state of the Xie family for Ming Lingyi, piece by piece.

"The old master of the third branch probably never expected his own elder brother to pull a move like that," Ming Chengyu said. "He was completely unprepared, so of course his son was the one who lost out."

In large, prosperous clans like theirs, many have a rule that the most capable should rise, preventing it from becoming a one-man show.

"Xie Ruiyang isn’t the only one among the Xie brothers who is dissatisfied with Xie Ruijing. However, Xie Ruiyang is even more selfish than the current Family Head, not less. He’s enjoyed all the resources of the third branch since he was a child and has long grown accustomed to everyone revolving around him. Yet, in the greater Xie family, there are too many people who can put him in his place. Being outranked by Xie Ruijing, an illegitimate son, is probably the thing he resents the most. That’s why Brother Huiya and I are planning to start with Xie Ruiyang."

A man so petty and vindictive would never prioritize the bigger picture.

Both Ming Chengyu and Zhang Sifan believed that even if they leaked the news about Xie Ruijing to Xie Ruiyang, the latter would never spread it further out of consideration for the family’s business.

But in the end, Ming Chengyu and Zhang Sifan had underestimated the destructive power of this Mr. Jiu of the Xie family.

The fifth day of the fifth lunar month was the busiest time of year for farming families, but for most people in Shangjing City, it was a wonderful season for outings and travel.

Eating zongzi, racing dragon boats, hanging mugwort to repel poison and evil spirits, drinking realgar wine, and wearing sachets with five-colored silk threads were all "major events."

Ming Lingyi and the staff at the restaurant had prepared the zongzi long in advance. Today, the zongzi wouldn’t just be sold in the restaurant; she also planned to set up a small stall by the Qujiang River to sell some refreshing summer drinks.

There were sure to be many people watching the dragon boat races today, and from early in the morning, anyone could tell it was going to be a scorcher. After standing in the sun for a while, it would be impossible not to feel the heat.

At a time like this, a cup of a cool, thirst-quenching drink would be just perfect.

In addition to the drinks, Ming Lingyi brought out the "Dragon Boat Festival Gift Boxes" that the restaurant staff had been busy preparing recently.

The gift boxes were small baskets woven from bamboo strips, designed to be carried easily by hand.

But the most wonderful part was the zongzi nestled inside the baskets.

The actual flavor of the zongzi, of course, would only build a reputation after customers bought and tasted them.

Ming Lingyi had started thinking about the packaging for this year’s Dragon Boat Festival zongzi very early on and had put a great deal of thought into it.

Earlier, when they were wrapping the zongzi, Ming Chengyu had expressed his amazement—

"How did you get words on every single zongzi leaf?"

At first, he thought Ming Lingyi had written them on, but when he tried rubbing them, he found the words wouldn’t come off at all. He picked one up and looked at it more closely, which only surprised him more. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

The words looked as if they had originally grown on the leaves themselves. There was no trace of any external force; they looked completely natural, which was truly magical.

Ming Lingyi raised her eyebrows proudly. "If it can surprise you, Brother, then it will definitely surprise the people of Shangjing City!"

Ming Chengyu looked closely at the zongzi leaves the Wu Brothers had brought back, noticing that the words were all auspicious phrases with good omens, such as "Peace," "Fortune and Health," and "Ward Off Evil."

Just from this, he concluded that they couldn’t have grown like this naturally. Someone must have intervened.

Ming Lingyi watched her brother run his fingers over the leaves as if he were wrestling with a puzzle, motioning for her and the others not to say a word.

After a short while, Ming Chengyu’s head snapped up. "I’ve got it!"

Ming Lingyi: "Hm?"

"The writing is much lighter than the surrounding area, and the leaf is a little thinner there, too. When a zongzi leaf turns yellow or pale, it’s a sign that it’s starting to wither. But the whole leaf didn’t wither because the area is too small to matter. So, you must have covered these parts of the leaves early on with paper that had words written on it, or something similar. This kept these small sections in a state of near-withering, but not quite. By the time you picked them today, the covered spots naturally took the shape of whatever was blocking the sun—the shape of the words you had already written." Ming Chengyu looked to Ming Lingyi, as if seeking confirmation that he was right.

Ming Lingyi smiled and clapped. "That’s my brother, figuring it out so quickly."

Ming Chengyu shook his head. "No, you’re the amazing one. I would never have been able to think of a method like this."

His little sister was the one in their family with the most Spiritual Energy; she was full of ideas.

"Let’s go! Today, we’ll make a fortune at Qujiang!" A sudden, bold ambition surged through Ming Lingyi—the ambition to make money.