Chapter Eight This is Heaven

  Sitting on the felt, Yang Meng's heart was moved. These two beautiful women, one big and one small, he didn't want to let go of them. It's not easy to be reborn once, and he also got a tiger-like body. If he doesn't do something, it would be unforgivable to himself!

  "Where have you all been?"

  In his heart, he was secretly plotting, but on the surface, he had a different story to tell. Yang Meng's mind was racing with excitement as he schemed against others!

  "Third Master! This is my sister Qinglian."

  Ma Qinghu's untimely appearance ruined Yang Meng's good mood. The one Ma Qinghu was pointing at was the little beauty, although he was a killjoy, but also pointed out a clear path for Yang Meng.

  "You siblings follow me from now on!"

  Yang Meng's words were met with a hurried nod from Ma Qinghu, who was also worried about his own and his sister Qinglian's livelihood, having no steady income after leaving the Yang family in Kunming.

  "Miss, do you have somewhere to go? If not, why don't you come back to Kunming with me?"

  Yang Meng threw out an olive branch, and that certain someone also nodded in silent agreement. It was a perfect ending, Yang Meng almost laughed out loud.

  "As for you, if you're willing to follow me, that's fine! But you have to show your true abilities. If not, I can also give you some money and goods, and you can decide where to go and what to do yourself."

  Yang Meng said this to Cen Liu Ying, the small book official of Yiliang. He was not very old but had many crooked thoughts. Yang Meng had seen such things before and knew that people like him were only seeking wealth and fame.

  "The students are willing to follow San Ye!"

  Cen Yu Ying had already thought it through on the way, originally he should have returned to his hometown in Guangxi this year to take the imperial examination. Even if he passed, it would take ten or twenty years to make a name for himself. The Yang family of Kunming was a big tree, and if he relied on his own abilities, he might be able to make a name for himself in a few years.

  Think back to the ancestors of their own family, as a declining Tusi's descendant, Cen Yu Ying made a choice. The officialdom of Yiliang is a microcosm of the entire officialdom. With the shortcut of the Yang family and her own solid foundation, getting on the golden list would be an insignificant matter at that time. What's most important is her future path, with the power of the Yang family paving the way for her, being a top scholar or a high-ranking official would not bring such good fortune.

  Ma Qinghu's interruption made Yang Meng's hot blood calm down, and he naturally wanted to hurry on the road. Although it was still a bit cool at night, the injury on the back of his head had not recovered, and after being tossed around for an afternoon, he also felt somewhat tired.

  The sedan chair was too swaying, Yang Meng had someone find a flatbed cart for carrying goods and sat on it. The starry sky, together with the cool night air, was quite enjoyable!

  Ding Baojun saw that Yang Jia San Ye had no major problems, and he also began to urge the cavalry to speed up their advance. His eldest brother at home must still be thinking of Old Three, and hurrying back to Kunming would allow his elder brother to take a good rest.

  Yang Meng, sitting on the cart, also made time to get familiar with his own body. This was absolutely a tiger's physique! He had just tried it out, and the beans used to feed the horses on the cart were grabbed by him in one handful. With a bit of force applied, most of the beans shattered. These beans were all dry, and could be crushed by a single grasp, more than half of them. This body was indeed top-notch!

  Just as Yang Meng was feeling happy, a familiar smell was carried to his nostrils by the wind. This smell was all too familiar to him, and he had been surrounded by it when he was in the plantation in the Golden Triangle.

  As soon as this smell came, Yang Meng's face, which was immersed in the night color, also became somewhat cold and stern.

  "Halt!"

  He stopped the cart, and Yang Meng looked in the direction of the smell, but the dark night obscured everything, except for a vague mountain shadow, nothing could be seen clearly.

  "Ma Qinghu, take a few people to the nearby fields and see what they are planting. Bring some back for me."

  That stuff is very harmful, Yunnan is also a good place for planting, listening to what these people say, just after the Chinese New Year, it's not even the flowering season yet, with such a fragrance, the planted area must be quite large.

  Ma Qinghu and the others were also quick-handed, in a short while, the seedlings of rice, beans, and several stalks of Yang Meng's most familiar things were placed on the board car.

  "Where did this thing come from?"

  This object is exactly what Ma Qinghu brought back, seeing San Ye get angry, Ma Qinghu trembled with fear and couldn't speak, he could only slowly point his hand towards the dark night.

  "Take me over there and have a look."

  Yang Meng was about to get up, but was pressed down on the board car by Ding Baojun. That thing Ding Baojun also saw it, as a half-sitting tiger, Old Ding couldn't not recognize that thing.

  "Third Master, no need to look anymore, on that side of the mountain, thousands of mu of fields are all planted with this stuff."

  The Yang family also has a farm in Yiliang, and Ding Baojun is also familiar with the situation in Yiliang. What he fears most now is not others, but that his own Third Master will take an interest in this thing, which is a harmful object that one should not easily come into contact with.

  "A thousand acres of mountain fields!"

  A thousand acres of land can produce a lot of things, Yang Meng has a rough idea in his mind. This thing is planted with thousands of acres, what's the use, Yang Meng doesn't need to guess to know.

  "How can this thing have such a large area?"

  Since Lao Ding was clear, Yang Meng simply sat in the car and asked him questions.

  "This stuff is harmful, it's been around since the Ming dynasty, but not as much! In recent years, the imperial court and the barbarians fought in the southeast, and this thing started to become a good thing, more and more, even Kunming has opium dens. One catty of this stuff can be exchanged for one picul of grain, how can it not be planted more? Yiliang here produces a lot of grain, but plants less, other places plant even more."

  Lao Ding said that, Yang Meng fell into silence. He finally knew what he had come for. The so-called Yi people were the Eight-Nation Alliance! Yang Meng still had an impression of this, planting on a large scale, thousands of acres of land, how big was Yunnan? This thing is likely to spread throughout China.

  As for how the Qing people played this game, Yang Meng wasn't very clear about it. One thing was certain: they definitely wouldn't do it like he did back then, relying on their own skills to deeply process and re-export it, making a huge profit from this exclusive business.

  The main thing is to take revenge on the Eight-Nation Alliance, these bastards, they sent this to harm people, since they came themselves, let them taste a better product. There's an old Chinese saying, isn't it called sharing good fortune together?

  A good family, a beautiful woman, and a lucrative business - this is heaven!

  Hahaha...

  Although the loud and crazy laughter pulled his back brain aching, Yang Meng was thrilled! This time it wasn't in vain, previously Yang Meng who didn't believe in ghosts and gods also started to have some reverence for them. It seems that this talk of hell and heaven isn't just empty words after all, he has arrived at heaven himself!

  "Third Master! Third Master!!......"

  Yang Meng suddenly burst out laughing wildly, scaring Ding Baojun half to death. This was just fine a moment ago, how did he suddenly go mad?

  "Uh... nothing, suddenly enlightened, this is delightful."

  Suppressing his excitement, Yang Meng explained a bit and then began to urge the cavalry to set off. Since the Eight-Nation Alliance dared to use this thing to harm people, they must be very careful themselves. Now that he was going to resume his old business, getting a good inhalation formula had become the key to success or failure.

  "Third Master, opium is not to be trifled with. Once you get hooked on that stuff, it's hard to shake off. You mustn't mess with this, our family's old master hates it the most."

  Ding Baojun is not a fool either, Yang Meng only started going crazy after seeing the opium poppy, this explanation of "opening one's eyes" obviously can't deceive anyone, and he's afraid that even his own Third Master might get hooked on this stuff.

  The Yang family's business is large and prosperous, and even if they were to indulge in opium, their business would not be affected. However, Ding Baozhen has seen many strong and capable men ruined by opium, and even the strongest of men can become weak and helpless once they start smoking it.

  "Are you kidding me? Over my dead body!"

  In his past life, Yang Meng had been deeply mired in the toxic sea and had had enough. Although his newly acquired tiger body was sturdy and solid, once he started playing with it, three to five years would pass just like that.

  "That's good! That's good! Let's hurry along the road! The old man at home is probably already impatiently waiting."

  Ding Baojun, although he yielded to Yang Meng on the surface, was also secretly worried. He thought that from now on, he must keep a close eye on his own master and never allow him to get involved with opium, no matter what.

  Ding Baojun was calculating in his heart, Yang Meng was the same, he had tried all kinds of goods back then, and how to match them, he was very clear in his heart, matching a chronic method was the best.

  It's best if this formula can also reduce the discomfort of first-time inhalation, and this thing still needs to be covered up, don't let people know the formula. One by one, the formulas for inhalation flashed through Yang Meng's mind, but none of them seemed very realistic, white powder would definitely not work.

  "Uncle Ting, do foreigners use snuff?"

  Yang Meng suddenly remembered snuff, but he had heard of it and never seen it, so Old Ding became the best consultant.

  "Snuff! I don't know if it's useful or not, but this thing seems to be a foreigner's toy. The best quality is from the foreigners' place, but we also have some here. There's a pretty good shop in Sichuan that makes this stuff."

  Snuff, Ding Baojun doesn't play with that either, he knows a little, these things are what he heard from his brothers in the horse racing gang.

  "Oh... does our home have this thing?"

  What exactly is snuff, Yang Meng also had to take a look to know, since it's an imported good, the Eight-Nation Alliance will definitely accept it, as long as he can produce heliotropin and mix it in, what's there to worry about not being able to sell it back?

  "No! Our family prohibits smoking and drinking, none of those things are allowed!"

  Lao Ding's words made Yang Meng somewhat puzzled. Could it be that he was still a minority, prohibiting smoking and drinking? The Han people didn't have such rules, did they?

  "But if Third Master wants some, we can have our horse team brothers bring some back. Our family has a horse team that runs to Sichuan, it's just a matter of saying the word."

  Snuff is just snuff! As long as it's not opium, the Yang family can make this Third Master happy. Ding Baojun saw that Yang Meng was interested in snuff and also let out a sigh of relief. This master is an unscrupulous person, his own elder brother has a soft spot for him, as long as he doesn't touch opium, he can play however he wants.

  "Oh... our family still has a horse team, where did they all run off to?"

  This is good news, Ma Bang Yang Meng knew that at the beginning of his own smuggling red wood, jade and gold, many were from the mountains, let Ma Bang carry to the country.

  "Sichuan has one, Tibet has one, Annan has one, and there's another one that your big brother ran himself, which is Guangdong. Our family got rich because of this."

  Yang's family became rich, and Ding Baoren was a witness to it. When he talked about these things, his mouth opened wide.

  "Great! Really great! It's too good!"

  Yang Meng's heart was also delighted, and Guangdong should be Guangzhou! That is a big commercial port, specializing in doing business with foreigners, the Thirteen Hongs, all of which Yang Meng had known about before.

  This is great, the raw materials are available, and the channels are also available. What's missing is just one's own product. As long as a good formula can be worked out, one can spend the rest of their life indulging in luxury and pleasure. This world is truly better than heaven itself.