Chapter 52: A Major Discovery in the Palace

  Ma Chao's words about the big business of cooperation made Gongsun Zan almost vomit blood. Good guy, this kid really is astonishingly outspoken, almost didn't let himself pass.

  Taigong's face turned serious as he asked Ma Chao, "Young friend, this is not the time for joking around. You'd better stop pretending to be mysterious!" However, after seeing Ma Chao's serious expression, it didn't seem like he was joking either.

  Taigong Wang still held a glimmer of hope for Ma Chao's words, thinking that he might be getting old and perhaps had misheard, but his ears had always been good.

  Then he asked again: "Little friend, what you said is true, storing grain?"

  Ma Chao nodded slightly, "Not bad, kid. What I'm saying is exactly about accumulating grain and fodder. This is the big business we want to cooperate on!"

  After hearing Ma Chao's words, the last glimmer of hope in Miao Taigong's heart was also shattered, which was extremely disappointing. He thought that Ma Chao, who looked quite reliable, would have a pretty reliable business to discuss, but it turned out to be just a grain storage deal, and the two had been chatting for half a day just for this.

  It's not easy to say anything about Ma Chao, first of all he is a guest from afar who came specifically to visit me today. Although he didn't bring any gifts, I don't really care about that kind of thing either. He did everything properly and there's nothing to criticize. And he doesn't look down on me just because I'm a merchant, instead he wants to cooperate with me in business. Although this deal doesn't seem very reliable, after all it's his good intention.

  The second is that Ma Chao has a very good impression of himself, and it seems that he will be able to do great things in the future. Such people can interact with each other, of course, it's good to get along well, even if they can't get along, they can't afford to offend him.

  Taigong Wang was indeed a man who became more astute with age. If it were an ordinary young person, they might have been driven away by their own temper. Who would have had the patience to think things through? But he has lived for so many years, and his temper is much smaller than when he was young. More importantly, the older one gets in Jianghu, the smaller one's courage becomes.

  As the head of a family, he has to consider the whole family. His own family is in his hands, even if it can't prosper, it must not decline. If that's the case, he would be the sinner of the whole family. For this reason, although Ma Tai Gong was dissatisfied with Ma Chao, he didn't show any abnormality at all.

  He listened to Ma Chao's confirmation that it was a grain storage, and he smiled bitterly at Ma Chao: "Alas, young friend, you may not know if you don't do business. Hoarding grains can be profitable, but even if I, the old man, invest all my family's money as capital, I can only make a small profit in the end. My family relies on commerce to support ourselves, and we naturally operate grain businesses from time to time, but it is not our main business. To be honest, the money earned from doing grain business is still less than that of several other businesses."

  Mao Taigong didn't say much, just a little less. Because he thought that young people like Ma Chao should generally be more concerned about their reputation, so in his words and tone, he still took care of Ma Chao's face. Ma Chao also understood this clearly in his heart. He thought to himself, "This old fox is indeed not to be underestimated." The Mao family being able to occupy a place in the whole of Xuzhou is not without reason. As long as this old man is in charge, the Mao family will at least not decline.

  But I've never heard of this old man before, could it be that... yes, it's possible. This old man might have passed away a long time ago, but from the current situation, he should still be alive for another ten or eight years without any problem. Could it be true that "heaven has unpredictable winds and clouds, people have unexpected fortunes and misfortunes"? If so, no matter what business is like, I must find an opportunity to ask this old man about his illness.

  That's exactly what Ma Chao thought. Although he didn't have any superb medical skills, he had the medical books left by Nan Hua, and Ma Chao believed that he could still diagnose and prescribe medicine without any problems.

  He slightly shook his head, "What Taigong said is not wrong, and naturally this young one also understands."

  Zhang Fei heard this and gave Ma Chao a white eye, meaning you know it yourself, why bother with this unreliable business.

  "The words are not wrong, but I don't know if Old Master Ta has thought about it or not. What you said is just a general situation, and in general situations, the grain business may indeed have no huge profits, but..." Ma Chao's words were left unspoken, he just smiled at Zou Taigong.

  Ma Chao gazed at him, and thought of what he had said about the general situation where grain and fodder were not very profitable. So in an unusual situation, it was clear that Cao Cao, who had been a merchant for decades, immediately understood Ma Chao's meaning, and he too gazed at Ma Chao.

  The latter nodded and said, "What Taigong thinks is right, it's a natural disaster and man-made calamity!"

  Old Man Tai Gong nodded in agreement after hearing this, but he also said: "What the young friend says is not entirely correct. A natural disaster, as long as it's a year of severe drought, storing up grain and fodder will necessarily bring in a huge profit. But now that these two years have been blessed with favorable winds and timely rains, what kind of natural disaster is there? As for man-made disasters, nowadays the world is at peace, let alone talk about war!"

  Ma Chao's meaning he naturally all understand, but he can not see what kind of disaster will happen in the world. In fact, it's not just him, how many people in the world can really determine these things? But no matter how many, there must be one Ma Chao, others may not know, but he himself is the clearest.

  It has been three years since the Guanghe era, and in the fifth and sixth years of the Guanghe era, there were two consecutive years of severe drought. The fifth and sixth years of the Guanghe era correspond to 182 AD and 183 AD respectively. By the time of the Zhongping era, which is 184 AD, the world will be in great chaos, and this marks the beginning of the Three Kingdoms period in history.

  Ma Chao was well aware of these things, but he had no way to tell the truth to Tao Qian. "Tao Qian should know that 'heaven has unpredictable winds and clouds', since ancient times, heaven's will is difficult to predict, and heaven's power cannot be blocked. As for human disasters, human hearts are also difficult to predict. Today may still be peaceful, but tomorrow may be chaotic, and the people may not survive!" Ma Chao's words were not entirely wrong, but it was obvious that he could not persuade Tao Qian with just these few sentences.

  Indeed, Old Man Taigong said: "Young friend's words are not unreasonable, and the old man also thinks they're right. 'Heaven has unpredictable winds and clouds' is true, but those unpredictable winds and clouds may come tomorrow, or maybe they won't. Human hearts are hard to fathom, that's for sure, but even if today is peaceful, tomorrow the world might be in chaos, yet I believe that tomorrow will still be peaceful! If I were to put my family's fate on something so unpredictable, wouldn't that be like gambling? When I was young, maybe I would have gone along with you, young friend, but now I'm really old!" After finishing speaking, he let out a sigh, who knows whether it was because of his feelings about getting older or for some other reason.

  Actually, Old Man Mò has another unspoken sentence: what I've invested is not just capital, but the future of the entire Mò family. Young friend, you don't know how hard it is to run a household until you're in charge; being the master of this house is really not easy at all.

  Ma Chao was quite understanding of Zhen Ji's attitude, after all, if he hadn't known about it beforehand and someone else had come to tell him, he wouldn't have agreed either. At this point, there really wasn't a good way for Ma Chao to persuade Zhen Ji. You could ask Ma Chao to ride his horse and wield his spear, or get off his horse and use his sword, or even devise a plan or lead troops into battle, but if you wanted him to be an envoy, he was indeed not qualified.

  There's no good way to do this, so let's just put it on hold for now. Ma Chao didn't insist on cooperating with Mi Tai Gong anymore, and the two of them chatted about some other meaningless things. Until they talked until noon, Ma Chao bid farewell, and Mi Tai Gong didn't try to retain him. He could see that Ma Chao didn't want to stay here any longer, and he felt that there would be opportunities to meet with Ma Chao in the future, so he wasn't anxious about it for now.

  Ma Chao felt a bit down because his intentions for today were not achieved. This can be considered the first failure, which is not a big blow, but it also affected his mood.

  Ma Chao carelessly picked up his own bundle when he was about to leave. Normally, Ma Chao would not do this, usually he would first check the bundle, confirm that everything is packed well before picking it up and walking away. However, today he didn't pay attention to this because of his mood and forgot about it.

  His bundle was quite large, although it hadn't been opened before, but when he spoke to Zou Taigong, it was casually thrown onto the case by him, causing the bundle to loosen a bit. When he picked it up unintentionally, an object fell out of the bundle.

  Something fell on the case and made a loud noise, which was absolutely loud, especially in such a quiet house where even the sound of a needle falling to the ground could be heard.

  Inside the house, Zou Taigong and Ma Chao both focused their attention on the fallen object at this time. "How did this thing fall out!" The one who said this was not Ma Chao, but Cui An.

  He and Ma Chao came together, mainly as a bodyguard, but the more important purpose was only clear to himself. Firstly, it's not fun being alone, so it's better to follow the master. Secondly, going with the master to visit someone usually ends up with good food and drink. Yes, Cui An had a lot of money in his package, eating out wasn't a problem at all, but he also understood that if he was with his master, he wouldn't have to spend any money, and the feeling of getting something for free was great.

  However, today he didn't get a chance to eat or drink. Earlier, his master and the old man were discussing something that he himself didn't quite understand, and his master wouldn't let him speak up, so Cui An almost fell asleep. Just as they were about to leave, he finally managed to squeeze in a sentence - the thing that had fallen out was something he recognized, it was none other than the black sword that Ma Chao had obtained at Youzhou's Right North Ping Wu Zhong City.

  At first, Ma Chao kindly saved the old man who sold swords. Although the old man eventually passed away, he gave the sword to Ma Chao before his death. Ma Chao didn't take that sword seriously, it was just an old man's legacy and a gift from the elder, so he always carried the sword in his bundle on his back along the way.

  But in his heart, there was more regret, regret that he couldn't save the old man. Every time he saw the sword, Ma Chao couldn't help but think of the old man. The scene at Wu Zhong City always floated before his eyes, and the sword also spurred him on to keep striving for his ideals.

  Ma Chao glared at Cui An, because Cui An's words were really out of place. Originally making such a loud noise was already very rude, and it should have been an apology, but unexpectedly Cui An came up with this sentence, so he naturally glared at him.

  However, Ma Teng didn't seem to mind. At this time, he was staring at the sword in a daze. Just as Ma Chao was about to speak, Ma Teng suddenly spoke up, "Young friend, I don't know what this is..."

  Zhang Taigong's voice was trembling, and he seemed to be very excited. Ma Chao didn't understand why he was like this, but when Zhang Taigong asked him a question, he still replied truthfully: "This thing was given by an old man, it is a sword."

  Taigong arrived in front of the sword, stretched out his right hand towards it, and looked at Ma Chao with an extremely expectant gaze. "This... this young friend, I wonder if old Taigong can take a look at this sword?"

  Ma Chao was perplexed and thought to himself, "What's wrong with this old man? He seems a bit incoherent." However, he still replied, "Please, sir!"

  Ma Chao then saw a very interesting scene, where Tao Qian held the black sword like a child who had obtained his favorite toy, and also carefully observed it as if he had discovered some kind of rare treasure. He nodded from time to time, shook his head from time to time, and sighed from time to time.

  It's actually strange that Ma Chao didn't fully investigate this old man's information. If you say that the old man's greatest hobby is not making money, but collecting things. Yes, that's it, this old man loves collecting antiques and other rare treasures, and his understanding of such things can be said to be among the best in the world.

  But Ma Chao didn't know that he was being tricked. Why was this old man so interested in the black sword?