Chapter 9

Incident
Three days later.
Su Zi rushed into the study room just when Zi Ran finished going through the account books.
Su Zi is Mr Su's son. Being 22 years old, he's 6 years older than Zi Ran. Usually, men at this age are all married, but Su Zi is still single.
An Zi Ran did not ask why is he single, as this is someone else's problem, not his. Furthermore, he's not interested.
'What happened? Why are you so nervous?' Zi ran asked.
Su Zi glanced up, looking face to face with Zi Ran. Even though days had passed, Su Zi still can't get used to Zi Ran's changes, the change from the immature boy to this responsible man.
Su Zi shook away that thought and replied 'It’s the four managers, they're waiting for you at the corridor. They said something was happening, and that only you can decide what to do next.'
The four managers were the managers for An Family’s business’ shop. Usually, they will not visit the An Family's house if nothing is wrong, except for the once in a six months report that they have to do, but this time, all four of the managers came together, there must really be some big trouble or issues going on.
'Quick, let's go have a look.' Zi Ran said and rushed out of the room.
Hurriedly, Su Zi ran to catch up to Zi Ran.
When Zi Ran reached the corridor, he saw the four managers talking to each other nervously, every single one of them had that nervous looking expression on their face. As they realised the appearance of Zi Ran, they stopped talking.
The four managers already know Zi Ran's changes, it's not surprising as they work for the An Family, besides, Mr Su had already explained to them that Zi Ran is a changed man.
'Sir.' One of the managers, Feng Zhang greeted as he sees Zi Ran.
The other three then did the same, but it was a lot less sincere compared to how they use to greet An Chang Fu. One of the reasons is because he’s young, and they other one is because Zi Ran had never managed An Family’s business before, it is hard for the four managers to believe that their new boss is this inexperienced young boy.
Zi Ran sat on one of the seats, glanced at all of them, and asked 'What's happening? Give me a briefed explanation.'
The four managers were shocked, they did not expect this maturity and demanding voice from Zi Ran, it felt just like as if they were talking to An Chang Fu.
Feng Zhang had fear and complexity in his eyes, he felt like Zi Ran was a lot steadier than An Chang Fu. He then said 'Sir, this was what happened…'
An Family is known as the richest family in An Yuan Ju, but the way An Chang Fu got his wealth was not something to be proud of. When he was young, he used some land to start this family business, as An Family got more successful, he started using bad ways to take over most of An Yuan Ju's farmer’s land. He then rented it back to the farmer at a higher price with really high interest to earn money.
The farmers lived a poor life but none complained. Every year, most of the crops planted were given to An Family as rental fees, what's left weren't even enough to feed themselves. Therefore, some of the farmers had no choice but to 'borrow’ food from An Family.
For borrowing food, An Chang Fu did not charge them with high interest, but as time passes, the interest plus the food loaned adds up to an enormous amount of debt that farmers can't pay, therefore An Chang Fu confiscated some of their lands.
When An Chang Fu was alive, lots of people complained about how An Chang Fu used inhumane ways to earn money, but these complaints were covered up by An Chang Fu. Those days, An Chang Fu will always give the chief mayor some 'gift’ as a bribe so that the government won't do anything about it.
Now, as the leader of An Family is dead, lots of peasants who lived a bad life rebelled and started a riot.
These rebellions started on the day when An Chang Fu and his wife got buried. The four managers thought they could handle it as there were not as many rebellions at that time, but now, it got worse.
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