The Big Landlord - Chapter 95.2

Since they came back from the suburbs, An Zi Ran became even busier. Before he had to pay attention to Tian Long Gambling House, but now he also had to concern himself with the engraving shop. The most important thing was that after he came back from the slaughter farm, he would hide in the room every day concocting some weird stuff. If it weren’t for Fu Wu Tian forcing him to the dining table, then he would most likely take his dinners in the room too.

“Wang fei, making money is important, but your health is even more important.”

Fu Wu Tian said to him with narrowed eyes.

Although he had no expression on his face, An Ziran knew that he was angry. The tiger’s beard… He didn’t want to pull on it, lest he should give him an excuse, so he obeyed.

Fu Wu Tian was disappointed.

An Zi Ran pretended not to see his expression.

The small farm in the suburbs has already been found, and it was naturally the credit of the ‘omnipotent assistant’ Ge Qian An.

Every year, people would start farms or slaughter fields in the suburbs, so the rise of their small farm did not attract much attention. The only person who knew the truth was Owner Niu, but he had his relationship with Fu Yi to consider, so he would not tell others.

A large number of cattle bones were transported to the small farm. The transporters were all soldiers under Fu Wu Tian. These soldiers were different from ordinary soldiers. They were all Fu Wu Tian’s trusted subordinates. Even if the military power were back in the emperor’s hands, they would only obey Fu Wu Tian.

After knowing this, An Zi Ran started having ideas about them*.

[*T/N: 打主意 – the connotation is that AZR is probably planning to implement them into his future plans or to use them as a labor force for his plans.]

The step of degreasing the bovine bones was not only important, but also confidential. He didn’t trust in normal run-of-the-mill workers. He could probably suppress them from spreading his secrets with the force of his status, but that would only increase the chances of violence.

There was Head Steward Fu to help with overseeing Tian Long Gambling House. An Zi Ran was very reassured, so he put all of his attention onto the matter of carving bovine bones. Everyday he headed to the outskirts with Fu Wu Tian. Today was the same. Early in the morning, the two of them rode off in a horse carriage.

“Wang ye, wang fei!”

There were two soldiers conversing. When they saw the two of them approach, they immediately saluted them with a serious face. They were not deliberately putting on a serious act. They also had these expressions when they were chatting just now.

Like leader like soldiers!

This saying was really true.

The two of them entered the farm and passed through a line of guards to the place where the bovine bones were being cooked. Upon entering, they saw a few cauldrons in the middle with steam wafting from them. The cauldrons were more than a meter high with a big stove underneath. A couple of soldiers were adding firewood to the stove.

This was the first step in removing the fat from the beef bones.

Previously, he had used this method in the Imperial Fu Palace.

There were two methods for removing the fat from the bones. The first method had only two steps, namely degreasing and then bleaching white. Although the operation was simple and the time required was short, the results were so-so.

The other method was more troublesome. The tools and herbs they needed to use were many and the cycle was long. It was unsuitable for their current situation, so they could only use the first method.

The caustic soda produced by An Zi Ran was sent yesterday. Because the amount needed was quite substantial, he had to spend several days on it. After that, he had Fu Wu Tian specifically select a few patient and detail-orientated soldiers that were suitable for the job and taught them the method of producing caustic soda.

Ten days later, the first batch of bovine bones was transported to the carving workshop in Jun Zi City.

The carving workshop was An Zi Ran’s newly opened shop and the craftsmen were already in place. On this day, no one could have thought that this workshop would become a popular pioneer in Da Ya in the future.

……

A month passed in the blink of an eye.

The renovations for Tian Long Gambling House had entered the final stage and it could be opened in a few days. News was already spreading throughout the capital. Many people were taking note of this new casino, but most of them were waiting to watch a good show*.

[*T/N: Implying that they’re waiting to see the two gambling houses – Tian Long and Bao Hua – clash.]

Of the ten great casinos in the capital, only nine were left. It was equivalent to dividing the customer base into ten parts. So if there were one less gambling house then naturally the other gambling houses would be celebrating. When Bao Hua Gambling House shot down Feng Hua Gambling House, not a single casino stepped out to help. After the appearance of Tian Long Gambling House, the other nine gambling houses were plotting to suppress it from the shadows.

Translations are by www [dot] vmnovels [dot] com, if you’re reading this anywhere else, then it was stolen.

Later, they found that they could not stop the opening of Tian Long Gambling House, so they deliberately spread unfavorable rumors about the new gambling house. The strange thing was that the people behind the scenes of Tian Long Gambling House still did not come forward, and the rumors were flying all over the place. So now the nine big casinos were waiting for Tian Long Gambling House to go down in history as the first casino to crash and burn on its opening day.

No matter how the outside world was churning, inside the Imperial Fu Palace was unaffected.

The lao wang ye who was grounded for three years was noisy again. He recently fell in love with the mahjong cards that An Zi Ran made. Every day, Fu Wu Tian, who did not have any governmental affairs to attend to, was dragged in to play. An Zi Ran was also implicated. Even if they did not have four people, they still continued to play*.

[*T/N: Traditionally, mahjong requires four players, but sometimes people play with less players.]

Lao wang ye was determined to turn three years into three days, but reversely, three years became a double digit number, and if things continued to develop like this, the number would only go higher, not lower.

Ah, the pitiful lao wang ye. Everyone in the Imperial Fu Palace shed tears of Schadenfreude for him. Only the lao wang ye himself did not realize that from start to finish, he was at the bottom of the pit with zero possibility of climbing out to see the sun.

Thus, the old grandfather straightforwardly threw away the broken pot!

“One game, thirteen years, do you dare to bet?” The lao wang ye stood on the steps and said this to An Zi Ran and Fu Wu Tian, who had just entered through the front doors. Right behind them was the returning Head Steward Fu who got caught up in this. Fu Yi touched his chin and smiled profoundly.

An Zi Ran and Fu Wu Tian faced each other. What had finally provoked the old man?