Chapter 574: Gossip

After the beautiful woman left with the maids following her, Liu Xiu ignored the old man still standing in front of him and said cheerfully, “Brother Lin, how did you come here?”
Lin Dong understood that the old man was a guard assigned by Tianwei Pavilion to protect Liu Xiu, who would focus only on Liu Xiu’s safety and pay no attention to anything else. Yet the matter they needed to discuss today was related to Tianwei Pavilion’s cases, so no mistakes were allowed.
Therefore, with a swift movement, Lin Dong appeared behind the old man in an instant, swung his right palm, and with a thud, struck the old man’s neck. The old man collapsed weakly to the ground.
Liu Xiu was stunned and didn’t quite understand Lin Dong’s intentions.
Lin Dong smiled and said, “I got some news and came to let you know. I didn’t expect you to be living such a comfortable life. I hope I didn’t disturb you?”
Liu Xiu smiled awkwardly and explained, “She is the daughter of Jiang Feng, the Minister of War. Once things are settled, I’ll take her to pay a visit to Brother Lin and the old master.”
“You just need to invite us to the celebration,” Lin Dong said with a smile, shaking his head. With Tianwei Pavilion about to take action, it wasn’t appropriate for Liu Xiu to become too closely tied to Lin’s Inn.
“Brother Lin, how are things with Miss Yun?” Liu Xiu asked.
“I’m not as lucky as you. As someone running an inn, if you don’t show some strength, it’s tough!” Lin Dong joked self-deprecatingly before getting to the point. “This afternoon, I went to Renheng Restaurant, intending to gather some information about business. But I ran into an acquaintance.”
“A acquaintance?” Liu Xiu was puzzled. “Who?”
“Zi Han, the top performer at Wanxian Tower—the same Zi Han I told you about before, the one trained by Ling Chenyue,” Lin Dong explained.
“You mean she’s at Renheng Restaurant… and killed someone important?” Liu Xiu was shocked.
“Smart!” Lin Dong praised him, nodding. “The Prince of Pingshan!”
“The Prince of Pingshan?” Liu Xiu was stunned. Although he had guessed that Zi Han must have killed some high-ranking official or noble, he thought Lin Dong would come to inform him only if it was related to him. He never expected it to be the Prince of Pingshan.
Lin Dong nodded.
“Could it be that King Shengyu doesn’t want any accidents and plans to kill all his opponents by force?” Liu Xiu said in horror. “Or maybe the emperor has decided to pass the throne to the Prince of Pingshan, and she killed him after learning about it.”
“That’s your concern. Think carefully about why a prince would train such a fiercely loyal warrior and why he would target the Prince of Pingxi,” Lin Dong said calmly. “All I know is that Zi Han definitely has many people’s secrets in her hands.”
Liu Xiu nodded silently.

“What’s the situation in the court now?” Lin Dong asked.
“After joining forces with King Shengyu, I’ve already eliminated many competitors. Now, the only ones qualified to be rivals to King Shengyu are the crown prince, me, the Seventh Prince, the 25th Prince, and the King of Pingxi, who was assassinated. On the crown prince’s side, his biggest supporters are the Scholars’ Party, which tightly controls the Ministry of Personnel and has great influence across the country…”
Lin Dong nodded slowly. He now had a certain understanding of the court’s situation, which allowed him to determine the right moment for Emperor Qianwei to take action against Yang Shun.
After Liu Xiu finished explaining, Lin Dong said, “If nothing else, I’m leaving!”
Liu Xiu nodded and didn’t try to keep him. Firstly, it wasn’t appropriate, and secondly, his mind was occupied with the murder of the King of Pingshan.
Lin Dong unleashed his spiritual energy and vanished in a flash.
By the next day, news that a murder had occurred at Renheng Restaurant and the restaurant had been temporarily closed had spread throughout the capital. For most people in the city, it was just an insignificant piece of news, but for a few, it was a major event.
The other fourteen top restaurants were undoubtedly among them. They couldn’t understand why Renheng Restaurant had been closed just because of a murder.
At first, they suspected Lin’s Inn was behind it, using the King of Qingliu’s influence to shut down Renheng Restaurant. But according to the alliance’s agreement, each restaurant sought help from their own backers, hoping they could intervene and rescue Li Yiliang. Only then did they realize it was likely not Lin’s Inn doing this.
The reason was that these backers were evasive and perfunctory.
The owners of these top restaurants were shrewd and knew well how powerful their money could be. If it had been a simple murder, even with the King of Qingliu pulling strings, these people wouldn’t have reacted in such a manner.
The only explanation was that the murder at Renheng Restaurant involved too many high-profile figures. So much so that their backers didn’t want to get involved at all and had even received orders to remain silent.
Apart from Emperor Qianwei, no one else could make such people stay silent.
With news tightly controlled, and as they tried to figure out what exactly had happened, the owners of the top restaurants decided to continue offering stock giveaways. After all, if Renheng Restaurant fell, their strength would only be reduced by one-fifteenth, not enough to cause significant impact. If they stopped offering stock giveaways, Lin’s Inn’s Pipeline Flower Fragrance and Spiritual Stone Heaters would regain prominence.
The murder at Renheng Restaurant actually had a considerable impact on Lin’s Inn as well. After all, ordinary people didn’t know who had been killed, but the nobles were well aware.

Amidst such turmoil, who among these officials and nobles would have the mood to go to a restaurant? Without them, the impact of the stock giveaways by the fourteen top restaurants naturally diminished significantly. Lin Dong’s goal was to weaken the strength of these top restaurants, so he naturally hoped the more noise the stock giveaways caused, the better. Of course, just like those fourteen top restaurants, the plans still had to proceed despite the absence of the officials and nobles. Two days later, rumors about the unfairness of the stock giveaways began to spread throughout the capital. The stock giveaways offered by the fourteen top restaurants came under scrutiny, and the enthusiasm quickly cooled down. This time, no one doubted that Lin Ji Inn was behind it—there was no need to doubt, as it indeed was Lin Ji Inn’s doing. Although the officials and nobles were gone, the fourteen top restaurants were still very busy. After all, there were countless wealthy merchants in the capital. They might not know the ins and outs of Renheng Restaurant or rarely attend banquets for officials and nobles, but the stock giveaways still made them frequent visitors to those fourteen top restaurants. It could be said that aside from some impact on business, the incident of Renheng Restaurant being shut down had little effect on the plans of the other top restaurants. After all, if officials and nobles didn’t go to those fourteen top restaurants, they also wouldn’t go to Lin Ji Inn, so the plan to suppress Lin Ji Inn encountered no obstacles. Once rumors of unfair stock giveaways spread, their impact became significant. The fourteen top restaurants had spies outside Lin Ji Inn, so they were well aware of its business situation. Since the stock giveaways started, the business of those top restaurants grew increasingly busy, while Lin Ji Inn’s customers gradually decreased. After the rumors of unfairness emerged, although the situation didn’t reverse, the business of the fourteen top restaurants slowly declined, while Lin Ji Inn’s business began to soar. Summer was approaching soon, the time when Lin Ji Inn’s Spirit Stone Fans could truly shine. If not controlled, the plan to force Lin Ji Inn to close down would undoubtedly fail. The owners of the fourteen top restaurants gathered again to discuss how to deal with the rumors that had already spread. “Damn Ma Chun!” Wang Yuhan, the owner of Gui Lai Restaurant, took the lead in starting the discussion. This opening was unanimously agreed upon by everyone. They had no doubt that it was Ma Chun, the manager of Lin Ji Inn, who came up with these rumors—and this idea certainly warranted their anger toward him.

“The distribution of shares must not end. There’s no other way but to make the accounts and the quantity of share certificates public,” said Liu Dahua, the owner of the Chiba Restaurant, helplessly.
Everyone nodded in resignation. Their gathering, while claimed to be a discussion, was more like reaching a consensus where everyone was mentally prepared.
As Liu Dahua said, the distribution of shares absolutely could not stop, especially after experiencing its benefits—no one would give up just because of minor obstacles. Moreover, stopping it would give the Lin’s Inn a chance to catch its breath, which no one wanted either.
Since the distribution of shares couldn’t be halted, the only solution was to address the rumors about its unfairness.
On the way here, everyone had thought carefully about how to solve this. There was no other option but to make the total amount of share certificates and the accounts of the top restaurants public.
However, this would have serious consequences. First, it would leave the top restaurants completely transparent in front of Lin’s Inn, making it easier for Lin’s Inn to find ways to undermine them. Second, the top restaurants would no longer be able to generate huge profits by issuing more share certificates after defeating Lin’s Inn.
More importantly, once the accounts and the total amount of share certificates were made public, if Lin’s Inn found a way to turn the situation around, the top restaurants would suffer heavy losses.
After all, to attract customers through share distribution, the top restaurants would have to incur losses in the initial stage. Spending 100 taels of silver to get one share certificate, with monthly dividends that would need to be around 100 wen just to break even—spending 100 taels of silver for a share certificate that would take hundreds of years to recoup its cost meant the appeal would be greatly reduced, even if the money wasn’t wasted.
The top restaurants proposed an initial dividend of 5 taels of silver per share certificate, increasing the dividend by 50 times. This would create a greater impact and keep the power of share distribution at its peak.
Once Lin’s Inn closed down, they would try to make huge profits by frantically distributing share certificates to convert them into silver. Once they had enough, they would leave behind a mess and vanish. Of course, this carried significant risks, as many nobles also held large amounts of share certificates.
To continue operating, they would gradually reduce the dividends to roughly match their profits. This meant that the more share certificates they issued, the more cash they could extract. Eventually, it would become a profit-free business—spending just paper to get as much silver as desired.

Once enough profit has been made, or if the trick is discovered, the stock grants can be revoked. At most, it will only draw criticism, not to the point of seriously offending anyone.