"No problem. I know how to give orders." Harper was overjoyed, but when Rufus received his summons to River City, he felt a shiver down his spine.

"Mister Rufus, are you all right?"

Rufus rubbed his hands and said, "The cold air has got to my bones nowadays. Make the stove burn hotter. Don't slow down. Prince Matthew has summoned me to River City urgently. Something momentous must have happened."

"Yes, Mister Rufus."

But to Rufus' amazement, he was called in urgently to see Matthew, not for military business, nor for a matter of life and death. It was just because his wife wanted to open a shop in River City that he was summoned in such a hurry.

The main point was, as soon as he arrived, he was informed that Matthew had taken a well-run tea house in the best location from him, and offered it to his wife like a

ngle you when you were six years old, and he was only eight at that time. I don't care about any of the small trouble they stirred up and wouldn't have taken action if I hadn't felt threatened by them," Harper said in a relaxed and unconcerned tone.

Rufus blanched. As the second son of the Xiao Clan's head, he had a high position in his mansion, but there was deep enmity between him and his family. That was why he stood by Matthew. Nonetheless, the Chu Clan was not a patch on the Xiao Clan.

"I know. The Xiao Clan is more complicated than the Chu Clan, but at least not everybody in your clan wants to kill you, right? What's more, you are on Matthew's side now. Those of your clan do not object to you for that?" Harper asked.

"Why would they object?"

"Because the Xiao Clan betrayed Matthew when his mother died."