"But why is she here? And why is she called Zhang Xinci? In my memories, she was clearly a Gu Master, yet everyone else says she has no cultivation aptitude and is just an ordinary person?"
Fang Yuan was filled with doubt.
"Could she not be Shang Xinci, merely someone who looks like her? But the resemblance is far too great! No, wait..."
Thoughts churned in Fang Yuan's mind, and he suddenly dug up even older information from the depths of his memory.
"This Shang Xinci had a difficult upbringing. She was the illegitimate child the Shang family patriarch had during his younger years of wandering. From childhood, she had no father and suffered endless bullying. After her mother died, her life grew even harder. Pressured by her clansmen, she had no choice but to join a merchant caravan and travel abroad to trade. Upon arriving at Shang City, her bloodline was sensed by the Shang family patriarch. Overjoyed, he publicly acknowledged her as his daughter. Feeling deeply indebted to her, he covered for her mistakes from then on, no matter how many she made."
At this thought, a sharp gleam lit up in Fang Yuan's eyes.
"So that's how it is. I understand now!"
Combining the present reality before him with the worn-out clues from his memories, Fang Yuan deduced the truth.
Years ago, when the Shang family patriarch was still the young master, he had left behind a bloodline in the Zhang family — Shang Xinci.
The Shang and Zhang families had been at odds since ancient times.
After Shang Xinci was born, her mother, for various reasons, never revealed the Shang family patriarch's identity. As a result, Shang Xinci was born as an illegitimate child bearing the shame, and she kept her mother's surname all along.
This was why she was still called Zhang Xinci in the present.
After her mother's death, pressured by her clansmen, she had no choice but to leave and trade with a caravan. Never did she expect that upon arriving at Shang City, her bloodline would be detected. Her father had become the Shang family patriarch — a man of immense power and authority. He publicly acknowledged her, turning her fate completely upside down.
"So the caravan I'm in right now is the very first trade convoy she ever joined!"
Realizing this, Fang Yuan's heart stirred with excitement.
After all, Shang Xinci was absolutely a stock with enormous potential. She was the future patriarch of the Shang family. If anyone were told this, no one in the world would believe it.
Of course, the future could be changed.
Even following the trajectory of his previous life, by the time she became patriarch, the world had undergone massive upheaval. The once-mighty Shang family had fallen into ruin.
For Fang Yuan, waiting until she became the Shang family patriarch — ha — that investment period was far too long, with no returns.
Her value was not realized when she became patriarch, but rather when she was acknowledged by the Shang family patriarch and became one of the Shang family young masters.
And as a young master, she would inevitably be put in charge of a portion of the family business. This was the Shang family's tradition for cultivating their heirs.
This was precisely what Fang Yuan needed.
He needed a channel to launder his goods.
A stable, reliable, safe channel for selling off stolen goods.
In his grand plan of rebirth, this was absolutely indispensable.
The inheritance caches he would open from now on would only increase. Many of the items would be useless to him — only through trade could he unlock their enormous value.
For example, those bone spear Gu and bone spear spiral Gu currently stored in Bai Ningbing's Empty Orifice.
Of these Gu, one of each was more than enough for both him and Bai Ningbing — at most, he'd keep one spare. If the rest weren't sold, they would simply rot in his hands, and he'd even have to waste large amounts of milk to keep them alive.
In the past, Fang Yuan had planned to use Jia Jinsheng as a temporary laundering channel, and ideally get connected to Jia Fu to develop that pipeline.
But fate had other plans. To keep the secret of Hua Jiu Xing Zhe's hidden legacy, he'd had no choice but to kill Jia Jinsheng.
"This is a gift delivered right to my doorstep!" Fang Yuan sighed inwardly, gazing at Shang Xinci in the distance, his eyes gleaming brightly.
The Shang family had deep and powerful backing — at least before that storm of revolution swept through the Southern Border, they had been one of the dominant powers. Selling stolen goods to them, even the original owners wouldn't dare cause trouble.
But precisely because their influence was so great, Fang Yuan worried they might cheat him and take his goods by force.
They might be on the Righteous Path, but the Shang family's hearts were black as coal — that was perfectly normal.
But Shang Xinci would never do that.
She had been tested and proven over a hundred years of history and turbulent upheaval. Her kindness, gentleness, benevolence, and integrity were legendary in Fang Yuan's previous life, her good name praised throughout the Southern Border.
And most importantly, she had no foundation of her own.
Unlike other young masters, once she arrived at Shang City, she was completely alone. In the future, the many mistakes she made were not because she was unintelligent, but because the other young masters had been secretly sabotaging her to compete for the patriarch's seat.
Fang Yuan needed her channel, and if she wanted to live a better life in the future, she would likewise need Fang Yuan as an outside ally.
The most crucial thing was — she was easy to manipulate and influence! Her youth and her temperament were both "levers" in Fang Yuan's eyes.
"Heh heh heh." Bai Ningbing suddenly laughed from beside him. "Don't tell me you've taken a fancy to her?"
"What?" Fang Yuan's train of thought paused briefly.
"Stop pretending. We're both men — I can tell just by the way you're looking at her. Having said that, the little lady isn't bad to look at. But if you want to get your hands on her, good luck. Unless I help you find an opportunity to quietly carry her off. In exchange, you'd have to give me that Yang Gu first." Bai Ningbing's voice was filled with temptation.
But Fang Yuan's very next reply sent her into a thundering rage: "You consider yourself a man?"
"You—!"