The disgraced official I took care of was actually Zhu Houcong's childhood friend.

Chapter 448

Zhou Chu acted with great restraint. Lu Wei was about to get married, so Zhou Chu naturally wouldn't slap him in the face, otherwise it wouldn't look good on the wedding day.

"Second brother, second brother, I was wrong, I won't do it again!"

Lu Wei screamed and howled as he was beaten.

He dared not tell Lu Song and his wife about this, nor even his elder brother Lu Bing. He originally thought that if he told Zhou Chu, Zhou Chu would understand him, but he did not expect to be met with the most severe blow.

"What's wrong?"

Zhou Chu looked at Lu Wei and raised an eyebrow.

"I shouldn't have thought about breaking off the engagement; it would be too unfair to Yang Ran."

Lu Wei said sincerely.

"So you do understand, then you still say things like that, you deserve to be hit even more."

Zhou Chu was about to continue hitting Lu Wei when he said that.

Lu Wei, utterly spineless, knelt directly in front of Zhou Chu.

"Second brother, I was really wrong. I was bewitched. Please forgive me."

Lu Wei said with a face full of shame.

Zhou Chu was only putting on a show and didn't continue hitting Lu Wei. However, Zhou Chu knew very well that Lu Wei's current regret was only temporary and was caused by his beating. Once he entered the brothel again and came into contact with that so-called courtesan, a few sweet words from the courtesan would make him lose his bearings.

To put it bluntly, he hadn't had much contact with women before, and when he first came into contact with a courtesan, he couldn't resist her moves and gentle touches.

Lu Wei's feelings for the courtesan weren't exactly love, but rather a fleeting infatuation. He couldn't refuse her requests, and his infatuation with her had led to this impulse.

The solution to this problem is quite simple. At Lu Wei's age, he's at the stage where he's always looking for new experiences. As the saying goes, the best way to completely eradicate weeds from a field is not to just remove the weeds, but to plant wheat all over it.

"You're getting married in a few days. Before you get married, I'll take you to see the world, so you won't mistake some random bastard for a treasure."

Zhou Chu looked at Lu Wei and said.

Lu Wei was somewhat confused when he heard this.

"What worldly experience?"

"Just come with me."

As Zhou Chu spoke, he arrived at the stable and led out the black horse. Since returning to the capital, the black horse had been fed the finest feed, and its coat had become increasingly lustrous. Zhou Chu stroked the black horse's neck and then mounted the horse.

Seeing this, Lu Wei hurriedly led out another horse from the stable. This was a horse that Zhou Chu had given him before. Although it was not as good as the black horse, it was still a fine horse. Since Zhou Chu's residence always had eunuchs from the Imperial Horse Administration helping to raise horses, and since the Zhou residence and Lu residence were next to each other, Lu Wei simply left this horse in Zhou Chu's residence to be raised.

"Young Master Lu, please be careful."

Chen Tong, a eunuch from the Imperial Horse Administration, couldn't help but offer some advice.

Since Chen Tong started working with Zhou Chu to raise horses, he hasn't made any progress in his official position. But Chen Tong is working for Zhou Chu, who had no idea how much money he made before becoming the commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard. After becoming the commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, his business expanded to the point of radiating throughout the entire Ming Dynasty.

Not to mention that Zhou Chu always kept some money for himself after each of the numerous times his property was confiscated; this portion alone must have been enormous.

Zhou Chu himself doesn't even know how much money he has right now.

Zhou Chu could even imagine that if one day he were moved to the capital and his home was confiscated, history books would probably write about it extensively: "Zhou Chu, Commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, was investigated and punished; over 100 million taels of silver were confiscated from his home," and so on.

Zhou Chu was always well aware that he had a lot of wealth, and if the court or the emperor were short of money, they would easily be targeted.

Therefore, Zhou Chu's constant goal has been to make the court richer, and the emperor richer than himself, so that his own wealth would go unnoticed.

In reality, although Zhou Chu possessed immense wealth, he did not attract much attention. After all, Zhou Chu had only been engaged in business before becoming the commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, and although he earned a considerable amount of money at that time, it was still limited.

After becoming the commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, Zhou Chu's business went from overt to covert, with Chu Li managing most of it. Zhou Chu was very wealthy, but few people noticed.

This is the situation Zhou Chu wanted.

After Chen Tong and the other eunuchs in charge of raising horses followed Zhou Chu, Zhou Chu naturally did not treat them poorly. In addition to their salaries from the Imperial Horse Administration, Zhou Chu would give each of them a monthly allowance of one hundred taels of silver, which amounted to more than one thousand taels of silver per year.

This is just the most basic thing. Whenever Zhou Chu is in a good mood, he will casually reward them with some small trinkets. These are mostly things that Zhou Chu doesn't care about, but they are quite valuable.

In just over a year, Chen Tong and his fellow eunuchs each saved several thousand taels of silver. If they were in the Imperial Horse Stables, they wouldn't even dare to dream of it; they wouldn't know how many years they would have to work to accumulate so much money.

So they settled down and followed Zhou Chu to raise horses. Of course, they were also Jiajing's eyes and ears. Zhou Chu knew this, and Jiajing knew it too. Both sides tacitly agreed to this.

Zhou Chu rode his black horse and led Lu Wei straight to the Jiaofangsi (a government-run entertainment district).

"grown ups!"

As soon as Zhou Chu arrived at the entrance of the Jiaofangsi (a government-run entertainment venue), the guards hurriedly lowered their heads and bowed, not daring to look up at him.

Zhou Chu's flying fish robe is unique in the entire capital. Moreover, the current Jiaofangsi (Imperial Music Bureau) has shown Zhou Chu's portrait to everyone, for fear that someone might be foolish enough to offend this living Yama.

Zhou Chu dismounted, tossed the reins of his black horse to the servant, and then took out a five-tael silver ingot from his pocket and casually tossed it over.

"Take good care of it."

The servant took the silver, his face filled with fear.

"Sir, I dare not accept your money, but I will certainly take good care of your beloved horse."

The servant held up the silver with both hands, bowed, and raised it above his head.

Zhou Chu glanced at the servant, but didn't take the money or give him another look. He turned and went into the brothel.

Lu Wei hurriedly handed the reins to another servant, intending to follow suit and give the servant some money, but after feeling around, he realized he didn't have any on him, and felt a little embarrassed.

"Young master, please go inside quickly, Lord Zhou is about to leave."

The servant was a shrewd man; he immediately saw through Lu Wei's embarrassment and said...

Upon hearing this, Lu Wei hurriedly chased after him inside.

"You didn't bring any money with you?"

Zhou Chu glanced at Lu Wei, whose expression was slightly embarrassed, and asked.

"I was in a hurry to leave."

Lu Wei tried to justify himself.

Upon hearing this, Zhou Chu took out several silver notes from his pocket and handed them to Lu Wei.

"Remember, money gives a man courage, and power gives a man confidence. When you're out in the world, you have to have money to back you up."

Lu Wei took the silver notes and examined them carefully. He was surprised to find that the silver notes Zhou Chu had given him amounted to five or six thousand taels.

"That's too much."

This was the first time Lu Wei had ever received so much money, and he immediately felt a bit overwhelmed.

"Just take it. Let me know if you need more."

Zhou Chu smiled.