"Lord Varys, can I understand this as a prank? Or do you have other purposes..."
Fortunately, the Spider paid great attention to his appearance. Before Jon's palm could reach over again, he chose to cooperate.
"No no no, I think you misunderstood my meaning."
While raising his hand to surrender, Varys did not forget to add.
"Although the kingdom's laws strictly prohibit smuggling, and the punishment is terrifying, it has never prohibited getting goods from cheap channels."
"What... wait, it works like that?!"
Hearing Varys's explanation, Jon almost jumped up.
Obviously, he did overlook this loophole.
Just as the Master of Whisperers stated, the Usurper seemed never to be soft on crimes.
But the careless Boar King obviously wouldn't scrutinize whether any of his ministers were getting goods from smugglers.
And as long as there were enough subcontractors set up, these originally illegal black activities would be bleached into gray, or even directly whitewashed.
Jon wasn't without similar guesses before. He had already thought of this from the moment Varys approached him and revealed Littlefinger's currency exchange.
As for the struggle between the Master of Whisperers and the Master of Coin, as well as the overt and covert discord, Jon was not interested and did not intend to participate.
But the transmigrator ultimately underestimated the intensity of the conflict between the ministers of the Small Council.
Obviously, when Varys instigated him to choose Tampa, he was already prepared to use him to check and balance Littlefinger, and even wanted to use his hand to get rid of the other party.
Regarding this, Jon, apart from a little displeasure, didn't hold much of a grudge.
After all, for now, the path he chose was destined to run parallel to Littlefinger's. And there could probably be only one winner who could climb up the ladder of chaos.
Once Petyr found out that he had become a strong competitor, he would probably arrange for the Tears of Lys or a Faceless Man assassination in minutes.
Moreover, given the things Littlefinger planned in the early stage, Jon was destined not to have any beneficial relationship with him.
Combining these, the only ending left between the two was a life-and-death struggle.
However, before the purest physical elimination, Jon did not intend to attack recklessly.
After all, with such a master of conspiracy in front, he only needed to keep a low profile, and then counter every move to laugh last.
Not only that, those unspeakable black tricks of Petyr were destined to attract a lot of firepower, which was a kind of luck for Jon.
But judging from the current situation, how to quietly cut off this tentacle of Petyr without being retaliated against crazily by the other party was also a considerable test for Jon's artistic means.
Therefore, after throwing aside these chaotic thoughts, the transmigrator had to adjust his strategy in time and start seeking a new starting point.
So after getting off the ship, Jon immediately chose to continue hiding, and prepared to hand over all overt matters to the Bull to handle.
Of course, before that, he had to listen to the news Gendry had inquired about.
Although the Baron didn't hold much hope for this, surprises often came in unexpected ways.
After that, the Bull gave a detailed report on the several tasks assigned by Jon one by one.
First of all, regarding the background of the woman named Anya, the Bull had completely found out. He bluntly stated that this intelligence was completely public. Without even much effort, he learned the most detailed, even intimate information from the mouths of some tavern maids.
Anya Taylor-Joy, in the eyes of all Tampa people, was simply the incarnation of the most intelligent and kind-hearted person, completely different from the shrewd and cunning merchant Jon saw and thought of.
And the reason why the people of Tampa had this conclusion was that Miss Anya, besides being extremely good at management, was also recognized as a filial girl with a kind heart.
This reputable girl depended on each other with her father, Baron Joy (Note: implied honorary/courtesy title or minor nobility given context), and could be counted as an aborigine in this small patch of land in Tampa.
Unlike other merchants or smuggling groups attracted to this small town by various factors, Miss Anya's father, Old Joy, was an old man with some legendary colors.
It is said that Old Joy was born in Essos but grew up in Westeros. He once served the Mad King and luckily left King's Landing to settle here.
However, these legends were still in the past tense.
Although Old Joy once claimed that their ancestors had a prominent status in Braavos, in Westeros, Old Joy's most prominent identity in the last Targaryen dynasty was limited to the Master of the Royal Gardens in the Red Keep.
So after saying a thousand words, the Joy family was not a noble family, at most a wealthy former court official.
However, as time passed and circumstances changed, with Old Joy resigning from his position in King's Landing, the original halo completely faded, and he could only return to the small town where they landed to start managing their lives.
After that, Miss Anya, who gradually grew up, replaced all of Old Joy's glory and managed the family business prosperously.
In the original words of the Tampa tavern owner, Old Joy once owned multiple shops and two merchant ships under his name.
Borrowing the distant relative relationship from Braavos, Miss Anya had already accumulated a considerable family fortune for herself and Old Joy when she was in her teens.
However, the good times didn't last long. As the Usurper gradually secured the Iron Throne, Old Joy, who once served the Mad King, was somewhat implicated.
Those King's Landing nobles who could originally provide protection also gradually began to cut ties with the Joy family for political reasons.
As for the businesses managed by Miss Anya, after losing protection and help, they gradually became unable to maintain or even turn over.
After that, the frustrated Old Joy began to completely devote his feelings to alchemy and pleasure, and frequented noble drinking parties and card tables.
The knowledge he had been exposed to in King's Landing was also transformed into bad habits by the old man, and he lost a huge industry in just a few years, leaving only a clothing store and the ancestral home struggling to support them.
However, even so, Old Joy still did not give up his many hobbies, holding an alchemy discussion gathering almost every week.
Of course, these were just things on the surface.
After spending a few Silver Stags, Gendry also learned from the mouths of many dock workers and sailors the second situation Jon required him to grasp.
That was about the background and origin of the smugglers in Tampa.
In the transmigrator's view, this might require huge investment in manpower, material resources, and money to completely grasp.
However, the fact once again exceeded Jon's imagination.
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