Chapter 172: No Worries About Safety

“Enough, enough, keep drinking.”
Elder Ding shook the wine jar in his hands, producing a clattering sound.
“What if we drink later?” Lin Dong, recovering from his daze, asked, “Elder, are you interested in coming with me to Autumn Wind City?”
“Come with you to Autumn Wind City?” Elder Ding scratched his head, hesitant. Life in Xilan City was quite comfortable.
Lin Dong nodded. Yun Cangqiong had already left the inn, so there was nothing left to do in Xilan City. Now, Autumn Wind City was the main goal for the inn’s development, and Elder Ding, as their trump card, naturally had to go as well just in case.
“I guarantee there’ll be wine, and no one will disturb us, right?” Elder Ding asked.
Wine could definitely be ensured, but as for disturbances… Lin Dong said helplessly, “What about some hammering sounds? Do those count as disturbances?”
“If the noise isn’t too loud…” Elder Ding hesitated for a moment before leisurely saying, “You’re the owner; you decide.”
Lin Dong couldn’t help but snap his fingers, grab the wine jar, and say, “Let’s go! To Autumn Wind City!”
“Now?” Elder Ding looked up at the sky. Under the vast starry sky, it certainly didn’t seem like a good time to travel.
“Of course, now. Once we get to Autumn Wind City, I’ll keep you company and drink with you day and night,” Lin Dong said firmly, nodding repeatedly.
Elder Ding stretched and stood up. Soft words could persuade him—after all, with his old arms and legs, he had no choice but to go.
Lin Dong stretched his right arm toward the room. “Please!”
“I’ll wait outside. If you need to pack anything, hurry up,” Elder Ding said lazily, shaking his head.
“Come in and see, then you’ll know,” Lin Dong said firmly, moving all the wine jars from the stone table to the counter, then clearing out all the jars from Elder Ding’s room.
With no choice, Elder Ding followed.
“Huh? Why did you put a door in your room?”
Upon entering the room, seeing the door on the wall, Elder Ding was surprised.
Lin Dong remained silent, opened the door, gestured inside, and stepped in quickly.
“A secret room? This leads to…” Elder Ding was confused. Judging by the direction, how could it lead to his own room? But looking inside, it was clearly a stone chamber.
Lin Dong went straight to the wooden ladder, climbed a few steps, opened the wooden panel above, pressed a mechanism, and the wall slowly swung open.
Elder Ding followed into the storage room, completely bewildered.
After closing the secret passage again, Lin Dong opened the door to the storage room and said leisurely, “We’ve arrived in Autumn Wind City!”
Elder Ding glanced outside and exclaimed in shock, “Is this Autumn Wind City?”
Lin Dong asked, “Elder, you should know what a teleportation array is, right?”

“A teleportation array?” Old Ding was completely stunned. How could it be that he had gone through a teleportation array without even realizing it?
“A spiritual array similar to a teleportation array.”
Lin Dong handed a jar of fine wine to Old Ding. A few days ago, he would definitely have been hesitant to reveal this to Old Ding. But since the Braised Wind Spirit Grass was already known about, the transportation gate seemed unimportant by comparison. If Old Ding had malicious intentions, he would have already targeted the Braised Wind Spirit Grass.
Old Ding smacked his lips. It was better not to ask about such secrets. He uncorked the jar and started drinking.
“Let’s go! First, let’s drink in my room. I’ll arrange a place for you to stay tomorrow.” Lin Dong called out and led Old Ding back to his room.
The two drank in the room until noon the next day. Seeing that there were only a few jars of wine left in the mobile counter, Lin Dong took them all out and left the room alone.
After more than ten days, a simple blacksmith shop had been built on the far left side of the courtyard. Inside the shop, the furnace was burning brightly, and several blacksmiths were busy hammering iron rods as thin as matchsticks. They were so focused that none of them noticed Lin Dong’s presence.
“Shopkeeper Lin!”
A soft call came from behind. Lin Dong turned around and saw Xu Chunfen standing there with an empty bamboo basket.
“Where are you planning to go, madam?” Lin Dong asked with a smile.
Xu Chunfen smiled. “Qiaoxiao is asking for candied haws. I’m going to buy some for her.”
“You can just ask a servant to do that.”
Xu Chunfen shook her head. “I wanted to go out anyway. It’s no trouble to do this myself.”
Lin Dong didn’t insist and asked, “How’s progress?”
“We’ve already tried using a larger one and are slowly working on making it smaller.”
Lin Dong nodded and chatted with Xu Chunfen as they walked. They stopped when they reached the main hall. He saw Ma Chun sitting at the counter and was about to call out to him when a green-clad figure passed by Xu Chunfen at the door.
“Triangle Eye? How did you get here?”
Almost simultaneously, Lin Dong and Ma Chun noticed the newcomer.
Triangle Eye grinned and said, “Shopkeeper, Lishui City and Lanfeng City have been taken. Everyone is temporarily staying in Lanfeng City. I rushed back first to report to you.”
“So fast?”

Lin Dong was surprised. Aside from Zhang Ye staying behind in Xilan City, Wang Liuzhi and the other three had all set out on the same day to raid the other nine counties. Wang Liuzhi was in charge of three counties, while the three from the Thin Bamboo Group were each in charge of two. According to Lin Dong’s estimate, they would need at least another month to return. Moreover, Liu Hao, who was supposed to handle the two counties closest to Qiufeng City, should be the first to return, but unexpectedly, it was Triangular Eye who completed the task first.

Triangular Eye smiled sheepishly and said, “I was lucky. The county magistrates in those two counties didn’t make things difficult, and the scoundrels were easy to deal with—just a scare and they gave up.”

Lin Dong said nonchalamously, “Anyway, you’re the first to finish the task… You get three days off. Go to Ma Chun and get 1,800 taels of silver. Go wherever you want and enjoy yourself.”

“Thank you, boss!” Triangular Eye was overjoyed. 1,800 taels of silver meant he could live lavishly in Qiufeng City.

“By the way, go back to the kitchen to eat first. Come to the courtyard later—I have something to ask you,” Lin Dong instructed.

“Okay, I’m off then,” Triangular Eye nodded and rushed through the back door in two strides.

“Boss, when did you arrive?” Ma Chun stepped forward.

“I just got here not long ago,” Lin Dong replied. “Elder Ding also came with me. Arrange a room for him first, then pick some smart workers to take care of his daily needs. Also, send someone to Lin’s Liquor Shop to bring some thyme that’s been aged for ten years.”

“Sure, I’ll arrange it right away,” Ma Chun nodded firmly.

“Wait, are there any major news in Qiufeng City recently?” Lin Dong asked.

Ma Chun shook his head. “The Guest Arrival Restaurant and the Wind-Facing Tower are still causing trouble, but it’s less intense than before. I guess both know that if they keep it up, no one will be able to do business. As for the Maple Forest Restaurant, they’re gradually lowering prices and have introduced a new signature dish claimed to boost energy and blood. The owner of the Flower Blossom Restaurant in the south of the city lost a lot of silver in the casino recently. With this new dish, it’s likely to become the first major restaurant to collapse under the pressure from the Maple Forest Restaurant.”

Lin Dong pondered for a moment before asking, “How’s business with the guesthouses and the lobby?”

“The guesthouses are about the same—over sixty rooms per day. As for the lobby…” Ma Chun paused before continuing, “The first floor is very busy. There are a bit more large groups on the second floor now—over a hundred tables per day, but there’s no increase in the past couple of days. The private rooms on the third floor remain the same—one or two tables a day.”

“Hmm, go get to work!”

Lin Dong waved his hand. After hesitating for a moment, he decided to postpone changing the main shop to Autumn Wind City Inn for now. The occupancy rate and the number of regular customers were already sufficient, but most of the business came from Ki Lai Restaurant and Ying Feng Tower, with Feng Lin Restaurant also putting pressure on them. It would be wiser to make the change once the VIP card was introduced and it was confirmed that the number of customers would remain stable.

Returning to the backyard, he sat down by the stone table not long before Triangular Eyes came out quickly from the kitchen, wiping his mouth.

“Owner, do you need to ask me something?”

“Sit!” Lin Dong pointed to the stone bench across from him. After Triangular Eyes sat down, he spoke, “Since you’ve been a thief for over a decade, based on your experience, if you wanted to steal from someone, who would you avoid targeting?”

“Of course, beggars and poor people—stealing from them is pointless,” Triangular Eyes replied without hesitation. “Next would be the wealthy who have connections with the officials. Skilled thieves usually first figure out which wealthy people in the city have such connections. If they accidentally steal from someone like that, it’s fine if there’s little money, but if there’s a lot, it’s likely to attract the attention of the authorities.”

Lin Dong’s expression brightened. He had already thought about the security aspects of the VIP card, and the most important thing was to control the thieves in the city. If he could control all the scoundrels, it wouldn’t be hard to handle a few thieves as well. But the problem was that this matter was somewhat shady and not suitable for public promotion, so it couldn’t reassure the wealthy customers.

Hearing Triangular Eyes’ words, he understood what needed to be promoted. Although controlling thieves was shady, with Li Jiancheng’s help, he could link the VIP card to the officials. By heavily promoting the inn’s determination to recover stolen VIP cards from wealthy customers, he could build their confidence in the card’s security.

After some thought, Lin Dong took out a VIP card and handed it to Triangular Eyes, saying, “Besides linking it to the officials, what do you think could prevent thieves from targeting this card?”

Taking the card, Triangular Eyes examined it carefully before saying, “This card is too small and light. If it’s placed in a sleeve, even if a skilled thief takes it, you won’t notice. It has to be kept in a money bag. With the weight of the money bag, unless you’re in a busy market and distracted by something else, you’ll definitely notice if the bag is cut open.”

“It can’t be in a money bag,” Lin Dong shook his head. It would be very inconvenient to take out and put in silver coins when shopping regularly.

“Then we might as well make a hole in it and string it around the neck with a rope.”

Lin Dong still shook his head. It would be inconvenient to take it out and put it in in the cold weather, and it wouldn’t look good either.

“Otherwise, string them together with ox sinew and hang them around the waist like jade pendants?” The triangular-eyed man explained, “Ox sinew is hard to cut, and it’s not very convenient for tying money bags, but since this card doesn’t need to be untied often, we don’t have to worry about the hassle.”
Lin Dong slapped his palm in approval—this was a good idea, and ox sinew wasn’t even necessary. While ox sinew was tough enough, it was a bit thick. Using extremely fine sinew from spiritual beasts as a rope, hung around the waist in the shape of a VIP card, would be just as good as wearing a jade pendant.
“Alright, I already have a plan for this. Let’s go ask Ma Chun for some money!”
Lin Dong stood up, confident now. By building a relationship with the butler and adding the gimmick of using sinew from spiritual beasts as a rope, it would be enough to ensure that the wealthy families had absolute confidence in the safety of their VIP cards.
All that remained was to figure out how to promote them.