Chapter 50: Jiujiang, How Could It Be This Little Bastard

The voice was entirely too familiar. Unable to help himself, Zhu Yuanzhang frowned and turned his head toward the source of the noise.

He wanted to see just which prodigal son had the audacity to squander wealth in such a fashion.

If he actually knew the fellow, he might have to quietly notify the young man's family so they could properly discipline him.

As it turned out...

"Jiujiang! How could it be this little rascal?"

The moment Zhu Yuanzhang turned around and recognized the culprit, he almost spat out a mouthful of old blood.

No wonder he had been wondering which young master in the capital could be so utterly arrogant—it turned out to be none other than his own maternal grandnephew.

The Jiujiang he referred to was none other than the Great Ming's familiar "First Generation God of War," the infamous Li Jinglong.

Jiujiang was Li Jinglong’s childhood nickname.

His father, Li Wenzhong, was the son of Zhu Yuanzhang’s second older sister, making Li Jinglong naturally Zhu Yuanzhang’s maternal grandnephew.

Yet there was truly nothing Zhu Yuanzhang could do about Li Jinglong. If he wanted to lodge a complaint, Li Wenzhong had already died back in the thirteenth year of the Hongwu era, and Li Jinglong had long since inherited the title of Duke of Caoguo, becoming the head of the Li family.

Since this fellow was squandering his own family's fortune, unless Zhu Yuanzhang exposed his own identity, there was literally no one in the entire Ming Dynasty who could keep him in line.

"Sigh! Whatever, they are all a bunch of heartaches," Zhu Yuanzhang muttered to himself, simply turning his head away to stop looking. Out of sight, out of mind.

Turning back to look at Fu Youde and Tang He, he asked, "Which floor do you want to go to?"

Fu Youde desperately wanted to say he wanted to go to the fourth floor, but the words stuck in his throat and he swallowed them back hard. With a cheeky grin, he said, "Master, you've been toiling over family affairs all these years, so your body must certainly be exhausted. Since they claim the massage on the third floor can relieve fatigue, why don't we head to the third floor instead?"

Tang He remained silent, but nodded in agreement.

Seeing this, Zhu Yuanzhang nodded and said, "Fine, then to the third floor we go! Today, I want to see what gives you people the audacity to charge an admission fee of one million liang just to go upstairs. If you can't produce the real goods, don't blame me for having people smash your sign."

"Hehe! Master, you're mistaken. We also have a ten-million-liang Supreme VIP tier!" Unfazed, the young woman hugged Zhu Yuanzhang’s arm and led him toward the elevator.

Once inside the elevator, another woman by Zhu Yuanzhang's side uttered a remark so casually that it almost made old Zhu's vision go dark, nearly causing him to stumble in disgrace.

As the elevator doors slowly closed, the corner of that woman's mouth curled up as she said, "Master, although our Cloud Palace will certainly leave you satisfied, your words just now were a bit over the top. This humble slave must still offer you a word of warning.

Afterward, you'd better refrain from talking about smashing signs. If our owner were to hear of it, I'm afraid it wouldn't go well for you."

What?

It wouldn't go well for him? In the entire Ming Dynasty, who dared to pose a threat to him, Zhu Yuanzhang?

Were they simply tired of living?

Watching the veins thumping on Zhu Yuanzhang's forehead, looking ready to erupt into a volcano of fury, Fu Youde cast aside all notions of hierarchy and hurriedly stepped in front of Zhu Yuanzhang. With a darkened expression, he demanded, "You certainly have a lot of nerve! Could it be that this 'Cloud Palace' of yours is run by some duke or prince?"

In the capital, only those two classes of people dared to utter such remarks.

Hearing this, Zhu Yuanzhang's anger subsided quite a bit. Once he found out whose property Cloud Palace was, dealing with them later would be as easy as taking candy from a baby, wouldn't it?

"Hehe~"

The two women burst into another fit of giggles, looking at Fu Youde with expressions one might reserve for an idiot. "Judging by his tone, this master should also be someone of status, but our Cloud Palace truly isn't afraid of the likes of you.

We aren't afraid to tell you either: our owner is neither a duke nor a prince. Our owner is His Highness the Crown Prince of the Eastern Palace.

If you dare seek revenge, just go ahead and try... Giggle!"

With that, they burst into another round of sweet laughter.

Though the laughter carried no particular meaning, to Fu Youde's ears it was dripping with mockery.

It was as clear as day saying: Aren't you full of yourself? Go on, take your revenge then! Our owner has no ordinary background; he's simply the one who will ascend the throne as the new emperor of the Ming Dynasty in just a few days.

Only Zhu Yuanzhang, upon hearing that Cloud Palace actually belonged to Zhu Yunzhen, felt his eyes light up instantly.

From the woman's brief introduction just moments ago, he had already sensed just how lucrative Cloud Palace would be in the future. Originally, he had been wondering when he should have Jiang Huan remind Zhu Yunzhen that if the national treasury fell short, funds could be drawn from here.

And yet... dammit, Cloud Palace had actually been created by his own precious grandson.

What a surprise, what a goddamned wonderful surprise!

With his precious grandson possessing this golden-egg-laying hen, would the Ming treasury ever have to worry about lacking funds again?

Never mind his precious grandson's ambition to swallow up the surrounding territories; even if he were to deploy troops and conquer the entire world, Zhu Yuanzhang felt it might not be entirely impossible.

Carrying these thoughts, Zhu Yuanzhang headed up to the third floor and was soon led into a private suite by the woman.

Inside the suite sat three strange-looking beds. They somewhat resembled reclining chairs, yet bore distinct differences.

Covering her mouth with a chuckle, the woman proclaimed, "Master! These are massage beds. You gentlemen simply need to lie down upon them and enjoy yourselves."

With that, she led Zhu Yuanzhang toward an adjacent room, pulled open a lattice screen, and pointed inside. "This is the washroom and the toilet. And this contraption here is called a flush toilet—there's a rope right beside it, and with just a gentle pull, all the filth is washed away."

"A toilet?" Zhu Yuanzhang looked at a space cleaner than his own Palace of Heavenly Purity, disbelief written all over his face.

Without further explanation, the woman led them toward the window and reached out to push open the closed panes.

Pointing outside, she said, "If you gentlemen wish to participate in the auction, you can open the window. From here, you can see the scene down below. Next to you are the bidding number plates for the auction; you merely need to raise your plate to make an offer."

Before Zhu Yuanzhang and his companions could fully digest the preceding information, they could only nod in a daze.

Then they heard the woman smile and say, "Master! Here, you may choose your own massage technicians. What do you think?"

"Bring a batch of them up!" Old Zhu was, after all, a man of worldly experience, and immediately waved his hand.

The gesture genuinely carried the air of a coal tycoon entering a high-end club, utterly extravagant.

Giggling, the woman swayed her hips and departed, returning shortly thereafter with a dozen or so women in tow.

Tang He and Fu Youde felt their eyes nearly pop out of their heads at the sight of these women.

Unlike the leading woman, these women were dressed with exquisite propriety. Thin, indescribable silk robes tightly outlined their graceful, curvaceous figures.

Two slits running up the hems of their robes all the way to their thighs vaguely and tantalizingly revealed their full, plump legs.

Especially what the women wore on their legs—a mysterious shade of black, seemingly crafted from exceptionally fine silk, possessing an elasticity that displayed the feminine softness of their legs to the absolute extreme.

On their feet were a pair of high heels the likes of which they had never seen before, which once again elevated their statures, making them look tall, striking, and breathtaking.