Late Ming sea owl

Chapter 279: Master Wen Si, who sees through things
"Master Wen Si? How did he know I was coming to Taicang?" Lin Hai's pupils shrank slightly.

"This... I don't know either." Ruan Mei said, "Liu Mazi and I arrived the day before yesterday. As soon as we checked into this inn, Mr. Wen Si came to our door and said he was waiting for the general manager to come."

"So he is here on the fifth day of the Lunar New Year? Did he tell me what he wanted to see me about?" Lin Hai was even more surprised. The distance from Shanyin County to Taicang Prefecture is not short. It is very likely that Fourth Master Wen set off after the first day of the Lunar New Year, which shows how seriously he took this matter.

"He said he wanted to reconcile with the CEO and continue doing business with him in the future."

"Oh? That's what he said?"

Lin Hai was a little surprised to hear this. Strictly speaking, he and the Zhoushan Wu family had not completely torn their relations. After conquering Lihai, he even went to the Wu Mansion in Shaoxing City.

Master Wen was behind the scenes, and Master Ren was the one who received Lin Hai. Although Master Ren had a spitting fire in his eyes during the meeting, he did not directly point out who had robbed the silk goods. On the contrary, he expressed his willingness to continue doing business with Lin Hai.

Lin Hai agreed immediately at that time, but he never met anyone from the Wu family again. The next year, he bought a batch of goods from the Xie family, then kidnapped the eunuchs of the Suzhou and Hangzhou weaving factory, resigned from his official position and went to Dongfan.

Now that Fourth Master Wen was talking about reconciliation, the subtext was that he acknowledged that the previous relationship between the two parties had already broken down. This pragmatic attitude made Lin Hai feel that it would be okay to meet him.

"Okay, I have nothing to do these two days anyway. You go and tell Mr. Wen Si that I will visit him tomorrow." Lin Hai didn't want to be impolite. After all, the latter was a man in his forties, and it was not appropriate to ask him to come and see him directly.

Unexpectedly, Wu Mengwen came over that afternoon with a generous gift. The seventh day of the first lunar month is a day of conflict with the Tai Sui, and generally speaking, it is not suitable to visit or receive guests. It seems that this person does not care too much about these things.

Lin Hai had only met Wu Mengwen once before. At that time, he went to pay homage to Wu Youfu, the old man of the Wu family. That was at the end of the fifth year of Tianqi, more than two years ago.

The two parties were not very familiar with each other. After they met, they exchanged a few pleasantries and looked at each other. Lin Hai welcomed Wu Mengwen into the house, ordered Ruan Mei to serve tea, and the two parties sat down as host and guest.

"Master Wen, you are well-informed. How did you know that Lin would come to Taicang?"

"I learned this from my brother. My brother and Mr. Yushan are close friends. I also heard from Mr. Yushan that Lin Yourong was going to Taicang to visit Zhang Tianru..."

Tianru is Zhang Pu's courtesy name, and Mr. Yushan refers to Qian Qianyi. Wu Mengwen's words intentionally or unintentionally pointed out the relationship between his brother Wu Mengming and Qian Qianyi.

"So that's how it is. Fourth Master Wen is thoughtful." Lin Hai replied indifferently. It seems that the Donglin gentry are still very concerned about him, Lin. He sent a note to Zhang Pu, and Qian Qianyi knew about it immediately.

Wu Mengwen added: "Ever since I learned that Lin Yourong was recruited, I have been wanting to come and apologize. I just happened to hear that you were coming to Taicang, so I waited for you here."

Lin Hai was surprised and asked, "Apologize? Where did Fourth Master Wen get this from?"

"My brother Mengren offended Lin Yourong before, which caused the business between our two families to be interrupted. Therefore, I came here specially to apologize to Lin Yourong..." Wu Mengwen said, "Let Lin Yourong know that my fifth brother has been expelled from the clan for joining the eunuch party. Now I am in charge of the Han family's maritime business. I also ask Lin Yourong to look at my face and continue to cooperate with the Han family regardless of the suspicion."

These words were spoken in a very humble manner, and indirectly admitted that the Wu family had harmed Lin Hai before. This attitude made Lin Hai quite satisfied.

"Master Wen, since you have said so much, let's be frank... There is no need to apologize. After all, although your family has plotted against Lin many times, in the end, you didn't get any advantage..."

Lin Hai then changed the subject: "However, you always put all the responsibility on your younger brother, Master Ren Wu. To be honest, I am half-believing and half-doubting this..."

Wu Mengwen opened his mouth to explain, but he felt that any words would be powerless, so he simply said: "If Lin Yourong doesn't believe me, I can swear an oath."

Lin Hai glanced at Wu Mengwen, and laughed dumbly: "Since Fourth Master Wen came to visit on the seventh day of the first lunar month, he must not believe these things. Lin doesn't believe them either, so let's talk it out and talk business..."

"First of all, our two families are at odds with each other because your family was the first to plot against me, and you used underhanded tricks over and over again. You always said that it was all your brother's doing, but I can't verify this. Although you, Fourth Master Wen, are now in charge, I still have to worry about being plotted against again, so I can't help but feel hesitant about doing business with your family again..."

"Secondly, Mr. Lin also has other sources of goods in Zhejiang and Fujian. I think Mr. Wen Si also knows this. As far as Mr. Lin knows, your family has no reliable way to sell goods overseas. Otherwise, you would not have gone to so much trouble to find my brother, and you would not have condescended to reconcile with Mr. Lin today..."

"I wonder if you, Mr. Wen, would agree with the two points I mentioned?" Lin Hai said at last. "If you don't agree, I don't think there's any need for us to continue discussing this."

"I don't think there is anything wrong with the second point Lin Yourong mentioned. Regarding this point, I will naturally show my sincerity..." It was the first time that Wu Mengwen discussed business with Lin Hai face to face, and he quickly figured out his style. In a nutshell, he just wanted to talk about business and didn't want to talk about other things.

However, he did not continue to talk about the so-called "sincerity" at this point, but changed the subject and said: "But I don't think your first point is sincere."

Lin Hai asked, "Why did Fourth Master Wen say that?"

"Because even if you suspected that I would plot against you in the future, you were not worried. Otherwise, you would not have met me today..."

Wu Mengwen looked at Lin Hai with a sharp gaze, his eyes flashing: "Lin Yourong, now everyone says that you are a righteous man against Wei, and some people say that you have a grudge against Li Shi. But in my opinion, the world has been fooled by you. You knew that the late emperor was seriously ill, and you predicted that the eunuch party would be liquidated after the current emperor ascended the throne, so you destroyed the ancestral temple and kidnapped the Suzhou and Hangzhou textile factory, right?"

"Mr. Wen, you are joking. I am not a god, so how can I predict the future?" Lin Hai denied it without changing his expression, but he was already shocked beyond words in his heart.

Since Mr. Wen Si was meeting guests on a day that offended Tai Sui and he swore an oath without thinking, it was obvious that he did not believe in evil and it was impossible for him to think that Lin Hai had the ability to predict the future.

But it was this person who made a judgment that was completely in line with the facts after only meeting Lin Hai once. He could really be said to have seen through everything.

(End of this chapter)