Yao arrived at her residence, glanced at the time, and instead of immediately consuming the resources, she took out a separate communicator. Using the private network attached to it, she activated a VIP account, logged in, and after fiddling with it for a while, began to search for information.
South suburbs, urban planning, noble privileges, economic department reforms...
After searching these keywords and analyzing them for a long time, she still couldn't discern the purpose behind Xie An's desire for that piece of land. This old man certainly wouldn't seek something for nothing. While the profit of several million green coins was substantial, Yao believed that someone like Xie An, who was adept at using small pawns for large gains, must have seen an opportunity for profit once he realized her current predicament. It was an instinctual urge to seize the greatest benefit.
Given Yao's understanding of the recent educational reforms and the Blue family's lack of heirs (unlike Xie An's many illegitimate children), she surmised that Xie An should have taken advantage of the opportunity to acquire grain shops. Recently, grain prices had been suppressed by the economic department. Many merchants, who had hoped to profit, were reluctant to sell, preferring to hoard and wait for prices to rise. However, the Agricultural Law stipulated that if local merchants with grain-selling licenses deliberately hoarded goods, it was illegal. In this case, the best way for merchants to secure long-term benefits was to sell their shops, effectively transferring their grain-selling licenses.
After all, buying shops later wouldn't be difficult, and acquiring new grain-selling licenses was also possible. The only loss was that the shop's location might not be as prime as the current one. But when selling, they could still raise the price. Overall, they wouldn't lose much.
Xie An's family was particularly focused on agriculture, with numerous farms. Otherwise, they wouldn't have so casually granted a farm to Yao, the illegitimate child. Xie An had abundant grain resources. Since Yao had already offended other nobles, there was no turning back. Partnering with the Economic Department and selling grain would secure a future opportunity to acquire other commercial licenses.
This point could be seen from Xie An's attitude toward Zhou Linlang, as this old man was highly pragmatic.
Therefore, it was entirely feasible for Xie An to seize some shops from the Blue family. It would essentially be a division of high-quality shop resources, a much more profitable venture than pursuing the uncertain land in the South suburbs.
Yet, he did not.
Yao found this puzzling, thinking long and hard but unable to figure it out. She was about to give up when suddenly a thought struck her—Xie An's newfound confidence. Compared to other families, the most likely benefactor could be the even more powerful Blue-Blooded Fushi family.
What industries did the Fushi family have?
Yao checked and discovered that the Fushi family's industries in a neighboring city were indeed far more advanced than Xie An's green-blooded nobles.
"They even run an alchemy guild. Impressive. The profits from customer fees and alchemists using their platform must be astronomical."
"Alchemy requires large spaces. If it's a proper platform, it also needs commercial land, and it's all about foot traffic. Could the land in the South suburbs be converted into commercial use?"
Wasn't that agricultural land?
Suspicious, Yao checked the map of the South suburbs and even looked through local geological and biological analysis reports. Of course, she didn't understand much—she wasn't a diviner—but the world had specialists.
Yao spent three million copper coins on a platform to contact a professor from a university in Jingyang, asking him to review the data and provide a report.
The professor, who was accustomed to side jobs, found this task simple. Within ten minutes, the report was ready.
Yao read the notes: "Metallic elements fluctuate significantly. Not suitable for temperature-sensitive plants. The soil is loose, and minor tectonic movement is suspected."
Tectonic movement? Wasn't that just a natural occurrence? What profit could be derived from this?
Then, Yao suddenly recalled something about the X5 star. The thought seemed bold, but the Fushi family's potential benefit to the Xie family could align with this land, so she quickly scribbled the word "mine" on a piece of paper.
This was a high-value ore, after all. That's why the local environment was being affected.
Of course, it was just a guess. But what if it were true?
Yao pondered for a moment before hiring a reputable "manpower agency" from the underground labor market to review the Xie family's commercial procurement orders from the past six months.
"Mining requires land ownership, mining licenses, safety certificates, asset collateral, and so on. The most crucial thing is that mining licenses are often given to local enterprises first. If a local business can't meet the conditions for mining, only then can the license be transferred to an outsider... So, the Fushi family can't take priority over the Xie, Teng, or Lan families. Collaborating with the Xie family is optimal since they have the best platform for utilizing mining resources, and the Fushi family likely provided the mining exploration capabilities. Both sides could cooperate and reap the rewards."
Given Xie An's nature, he would never let the Fushi family take the lead in mining. Otherwise, his share would be minimal, and the Fushi family could easily control him. If he had planned this from the start, he must have bought mining equipment himself.
Yao set things in motion and awaited the results. Then, she began to digest the resources while tinkering with the meditation doll...
Meanwhile, the housekeeper was still arranging people to clean the area. He was a keen-eyed individual who specially instructed the servants, "Make sure everything is in order for the second young master. If there's anything lacking, be careful."
The servants, being sharp as well, immediately noticed the list for the gene pool. Apart from the legitimate first son and the most promising son, the one who everyone had written off—the good-for-nothing second young master—was also on the list.
What did this mean?
It meant that the other young masters would miss out on this round of benefits from the gene pool, and the second young master might surpass them in status later on.
Thus, they all agreed with a nod.
"Don't worry, housekeeper. We'll make sure everything is spotless."
Just as they spoke, a loud crash!
The small door to the practice room in one of the courtyards was blasted off its hinges... the broken door hit the housekeeper's leg with a thud.
Inside, black smoke billowed, and sparks flew.
Servant: "Uh, housekeeper, we might need to arrange some renovation workers, just in case."
The housekeeper sat down, lifted his foot, and sighed. His eyes reddened as he nodded, "Yes, it seems necessary."