Starting from 1618 of the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 34 Gray Business

The capital city, outside Chongwen Gate, Huangmuchang.

This is a vast reservoir area covering hundreds of acres, surrounded by high walls, with a watchtower every fifty steps. Yellow flags of the Imperial Household Department hang limply on top of the walls in the grayish-yellow sandstorm.

As the core hub of the Ming Dynasty's construction system, this place should have been a magnificent and imposing sight. However, when Lu Yan, holding Wang Tiqian's ivory waist token, led Zhao Changying through the mottled vermilion gate, what greeted them was not the fragrance of precious wood, but a strong smell of mold and burnt wood.

"Is this the Imperial Timber Yard?"

Zhao Changying frowned, stepping on a piece of soft, rotten wood, making a sickeningly loud splattering sound.

Looking around, the vast courtyard was overgrown with weeds. Countless priceless Phoebe zhennan, red pine, and fir logs lay piled up haphazardly like corpses in a mass grave. Some were soaked in blackened stagnant water and covered with moss; some were exposed to the scorching sun and had cracked and warped; and others were clearly charred black from fire.

Several guards in uniform were lazily leaning against a large piece of Phoebe zhennan wood, two meters in diameter, basking in the sun, peeling peanuts and casually tossing the shells into the gaps in the timber that should have been used to repair the palace halls.

"What a waste of resources."

Lu Yan narrowed his eyes slightly, his gaze lacking the scholar's heartache and indignation, but only the coldness of an engineer facing a "major safety hazard on site".

"Inventory management is chaotic, fire compartments are missing, and moisture-proof measures are nonexistent." Lu Yan took out his ever-present "Engineering Log" and made notes as he walked. "The fixed asset loss rate is estimated to be over 40%. This is a gold mine that is burning."

"Hey! What are you doing? Who let you in?"

A sharp voice interrupted Lu Yan's recording.

A middle-aged eunuch dressed in a light blue round-necked robe, with a large bunch of keys hanging from his waist, strode over menacingly, accompanied by several fierce-looking servants. He had a long face and puffy eyes, clearly showing signs of excessive indulgence in wine and women.

This man was Li Jinzhong, the eunuch in charge of the imperial timber depot (not Wei Zhongxian, but a minor eunuch with the same name).

"The Directorate of Palace Attendants is checking the accounts." Lu Yan closed the logbook, not taking out his waist token, but merely glancing at him indifferently.

"Inspecting the accounts?" Li Jinzhong scoffed, sizing up Lu Yan's plain clothes. "Where did this wildcat come from, daring to pretend to be a tiger? Eunuch Wang was just here the other day. What kind of creature did you spring from? Don't you even know whose territory this Imperial Timber Yard is!"

He waved his hand: "Guards! Throw him out! If he dares to resist, just say he's a thief trying to steal wood, and beat him to death!"

Several guards carrying fire and water sticks surrounded them.

"Changying." Lu Yan didn't even turn his head.

"collapse!"

A muffled thud.

Zhao Changying didn't even draw his sword; he simply took a step forward, and the murderous aura he had gleaned from the piles of corpses in Liaodong instantly erupted. He grabbed the collar of the foremost constable with one hand, lifted the man, who weighed over a hundred pounds, off the ground like a chick, and then casually tossed him aside.

"Bang!"

The servant slammed heavily onto a pile of rotten wood, kicking up a cloud of decaying dust, and passed out without uttering a sound.

The remaining guards were so frightened that they stopped abruptly, staring in terror at the towering man.

Lu Yan then slowly took out the ivory waist token from his sleeve and held it up in front of Li Jinzhong.

"Did you see it clearly?"

Li Jinzhong's pupils suddenly contracted.

That was the token of the Director of the Imperial Household Department; seeing the token was as if Wang Tiqian himself were present.

"So...so you're one of Eunuch Wang's men..." Li Jinzhong's face twitched a few times, then instantly replaced with a fawning smile. "Oh dear, sir, look at the mess this has made. I was so blind, so blind! If you had just shown your nameplate earlier, I wouldn't have dared to act so rashly!"

"Lead the way." Lu Yan put away his waist token, his voice indifferent. "To the scrap yard."

"A... a scrap yard?" Li Jinzhong paused, a flicker of panic crossing his eyes. "Sir, that place is filthy, full of rotten wood and firewood, nothing to see. How about I take you to the Jia-class warehouse to see the newly arrived nanmu wood?"

"I said, go to the scrap yard."

Lu Yan's tone left no room for argument. He had smelled a peculiar scent when he entered the room—the unique aroma of fine golden nanmu wood after it had been burned, mixed with the smell of cooking.

Li Jinzhong had no choice but to lead the way, even if it meant taking the lead himself.

After passing through several corridors, we arrived at a secluded courtyard in the northwest corner of the Imperial Timber Factory. A sign read "Waste Disposal Center," and several shirtless craftsmen were sawing wood, sweating profusely.

Lu Yan approached and took a closer look, his eyes narrowing slightly.

What those craftsmen were sawing wasn't waste material at all. It was clearly top-quality Phoebe zhennan wood with fine grain and golden color! They sawed these sacred trees, which often grew for hundreds of years, into small pieces half a foot long, and then put them into burlap sacks labeled "charcoal fuel".

"Is this your 'waste'?"

Lu Yan casually picked up a piece of "firewood," running his fingertip along its smooth surface. "Golden nanmu, submerged wood. On the market, an ounce of wood is worth an ounce of gold. You're selling this as firewood?"

"Sir, this...this is rotten core material, it can't be used..." Li Jinzhong was still trying to argue, but cold sweat was seeping from his forehead.

"Rotten?" Lu Yan sneered, slamming the piece of wood down at Li Jinzhong's feet. "This wood has straight grain, is very oily, and produces a metallic sound when struck. It's excellent material for roof beams! You could saw it down and sell it to furniture shops in the capital to make bracelets and ornaments; you'd make more than ten times the profit, right?"

Lu Yan turned around, looked at the mountain of "firewood" sacks, and his brain worked at lightning speed, instantly constructing the "gray business model" here.

"The so-called 'drifting' is not only on the road, but also in this warehouse."

Lu Yan's voice was like a scalpel, precisely dissecting the festering sore:

"When the good wood comes in, it's first exposed to rain and sun to artificially create 'losses.' Then it's reported as damaged and transferred to the scrap yard. In the scrap yard, the large pieces are sawn into smaller pieces and sold as 'scrap wood.' Of the money obtained, 30% goes to you, 30% is used to bribe the higher-ups, and the remaining 40% is used to cover the deficit in the books."

"Eunuch Li, you're quite adept at this 'asset loss' trick."

Li Jinzhong knelt on the ground with a thud, trembling all over: "Sir! Grandfather, spare my life! It's...it's unavoidable! The higher-ups are pressing for the payment, and the brothers below need to eat. This Imperial Timber Factory looks respectable, but it's actually a low-paying, cramped place. Without it, everyone would starve!"

As he kowtowed, he secretly observed Lu Yan's expression, trying to find a way to change things. He knew that this kind of thing was an open secret in the palace, and as long as it didn't reach the Emperor, everything was negotiable.

Lu Yan looked at Li Jinzhong kneeling on the ground and remained silent for a moment.

He wasn't the kind of incorruptible official who couldn't tolerate any wrongdoing. In engineering projects, too much purity is detrimental. For a machine to run, the presence of lubricant is necessary.

Get up.

Lu Yan pulled over a chair and sat down, even taking out a handkerchief to wipe the piece of nanmu wood he had thrown on the ground.

"Eunuch Li, your business is too sloppy."

"Huh?" Li Jinzhong was stunned and knelt on the ground, not daring to get up.

"Such fine material, sawing it into firewood and selling it is a terrible waste," Lu Yan said, pointing to the pile of sacks. "How much can furniture shops offer? At most, they'll charge you for the raw materials. What if you make it into finished products? What if you make it into 'imperial' scholar's objects and sell it to the salt merchants of Jiangnan?"

A shrewd glint flashed in Lu Yan's eyes:

"Besides, your accounts are too falsified. Reporting 30% losses every year—even a fool could see something fishy is going on. Eunuch Wang doesn't investigate you because no one else can take over this mess for him. But what if one day, His Majesty really does take it seriously..."

Li Jinzhong shuddered: "Sir, you...you can show me the way?"

"I'll take over this waste storage facility."

Lu Yan made a startling statement: "From today onwards, all the 'damaged' timber from the Imperial Timber Factory will no longer be sold individually to the public. It will all be packaged and sold to 'Lu's Company.' I will buy it at three times the market price."

"Three...three times?" Li Jinzhong wondered if he had misheard.

"Yes. But I have one condition."

Lu Yan stood up and looked down at the greedy and foolish eunuch:

"From now on, not a single piece of good timber is to be touched when it enters the warehouse. If you want to be greedy, you can only take the truly 'substandard' pieces. As for how to define 'substandard'..."

Lu Yan took out a pre-prepared "Imperial Timber Entry Quality Inspection Standards" from his pocket:

"Do it my way."

"The qualified products are of great use to me. The substandard products are yours to make a fortune. Let's turn this messy account into a clear 'profit sharing'. Eunuch Wang gets face; you get substance."

"This is called—corruption disguised as compliance."

Li Jinzhong held the document and looked at Lu Yan as if he were looking at a living Buddha, no, a living God of Wealth.

"Grandpa! You're like my own grandfather!" Li Jinzhong exclaimed excitedly, trying to hug Lu Yan's leg. "As long as it makes money, I'll do whatever you say, even if it means plugging up all the rat holes in this imperial timber factory!"

Lu Yan took a step back in disgust, avoiding his hand.

"Clean this place up. Tomorrow, Lu's accountant will come to take over the inventory data."

"Remember, I'm not here to cut off your source of income. I'm here to teach you how to make a living from this blood-stained rice bowl for a longer and more secure time."

When we left the Imperial Timber Factory, the sun was already setting in the west.

The sandstorm was still fierce, but Lu Yan's steps were much lighter.

He not only obtained firsthand inventory data, but more importantly, he found the "valve" to control this massive corruption system.

"Boss, are we really going to buy that rotten wood?" Zhao Changying asked, puzzled. "Three times the price? Wouldn't that be a loss?"

"deficit?"

Lu Yan glanced back at the huge warehouse, a cold smile playing on his lips.

"Changying, those so-called 'inferior products' are only inferior within the bureaucratic system of the Ming Dynasty. But in my hands, with the label of 'Made in the Imperial Household,' and transported to a place as wealthy as Jiangnan... they become 'works of art' more valuable than gold bricks."

"Moreover, controlling the waste is equivalent to controlling these people's Achilles' heel. From now on, we'll decide who owns the Imperial Timber Factory."