At the third quarter of the *mao* hour (around 6:45 AM), inside the Lu Mansion study, seven yellowed bank notes lay on the sandalwood desk, illuminated by the morning light. The vermilion seal of Yumantang on the notes looked like congealed blood, making Jiang Wan's fingertips tremble slightly. She picked up one of them, examining it closely against the light of the bronze clepsydra, and sure enough, along the edge of the back was an extremely fine wolf-head watermark—the mark of the Sky Wolf Stronghold.
"Mr. Zhou says these bank notes were all laundered through the West City gambling den," she said, slamming the notes onto the desk. "On the surface, it's a silk business, but in reality, every single tael of silver is tainted with the poison of opium."
Lu Jingyuan slammed the final account book heavily onto the desk. Withered yellow plum petals fluttered down from between the pages, their dark red spots resembling dried bloodstains. "They forcibly seized commoners' fields to grow poppies, and then used the rice shop as a front for distribution. Chairman Wang's 'Fengyu Rice Shop' just sold fifty catties of fragrant rice mixed with opium powder last month."
Chapter 271