Chapter 111: I’m Here
Fang Jie stayed in Gold-Sharing Duke’s residence for the entire afternoon. Wu Yidao fished up 13 meaty fish, so Fang Jie was even more unwilling to leave. When chatting with Wu Yidao, Fang Jie learned that one of Wu Yidao’s specialties was making a rich feast of fish.
Fang Jie wasn’t that hungry, but he stayed because he wanted to listen to Wu Yidao break down many things.
Now, Fang Jie finally realized that he had almost no knowledge about this great city named Chang’an.
He thought that he knew a lot, but he felt more ignorant the longer he lived in Chang’an.
Wu Yidao didn’t dislike this young man who wasn’t willing to leave even though the sky had darkened. On the contrary, he liked this greedy guy. In his own words, they had similar personalities.
“You want to eat a rich feast of fish?” Wu Yidao asked with a smile.
Fang Jie shook his head and said earnestly, “Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.”
Wu Yidao quickly waved his hands and said, “I’m not planning to give you a fish to begin with, so I’m not going to teach you how to fish. However, since we are going to eat, we will drink liquor. Since we are going to drink liquor, I can tell you many old and trivial stories. I’m bored anyway.”
“The more the better,” Fang Jie replied.
“You are greedy.” Wu Yidao pointed at Fang Jie and laughed, “I haven’t seen someone as greedy as you in a long time. However, I like greedy people. Since I started doing business, I learned one principle. Greed is one of the strongest motivational forces in the world, leading to continuous growth and progress. If people don’t have greed and desires, how could they be filled with energy and power?”
“Love, justice, protecting the weak… these are all good reasons,” Fang Jie replied with pride.
“BS,” Wu Yidao laughed and cursed.
Fang Jie sat down beside the lotus pond, picked up small pebble stones, and tossed them into the pond one by one, making many fish scatter due to fear. As a result, many ripples appeared on the peaceful surface of the lotus pond.”
Seeing this, Fang Jie suddenly recalled that there was also a small pond behind his home on Earth, and he loved skipping stones there after getting out of school.
However, his childhood in this world never had any simple and fulfilling moments like that.
Wu Yidao grabbed the bucket of fish and handed it to a servant, asking him to prepare the fish. Then, he walked to a reclining chair and sat down before looking at the setting sun and sighing, “When you threw a small stone into the lotus pond, the peace was disturbed. You are that small stone, and Chang’an is the lotus pond. You are insignificant in the big picture, but you could make the entire pond ripple. Now that I think more about it, a small character like you from a border city was able to make the influential figures in the government sway by the ripples. This is something rare to see.”
Fang Jie didn’t understand Wu Yidao’s meaning; he said, “I don’t think I have this ability.”
“You don’t?” Wu Yidao rolled his eyes and said, “Do you know how much has happened since you entered Chang’an? That imperial commissioner and officials from the Ministry of War and the Court of Judicial Review died because of you when you left Fangu, right?”
Wu Yidao continued, “Without that incident, would Li Yuanshan and Li Xiaozong do something so sinister? If they didn’t do that, they wouldn’t bribe officials in the Ministry of War and the Intelligence Department. Without you, would Chiliarch Gao Tianbao have died, and would Meng Wudi, the Intelligence Department Deputy, lose one of his arms? After Gao Tianbao died, his corpse was buried before the Ministry of Revenue so that people could step on him every day. If all of this didn’t happen, Hou Junci, the Deputy of the Ministry of War, wouldn’t have been executed alongside dozens of officials under His Majesty’s rage.”
“Later on, when you got to the Capital, Vulture of the Ministry of War wanted to kill you, so he tricked you into the training field, and you met Luo Wen. Because of you, Luo Wen obtained the no.1 spot in the Martial Arts Academy, but he also wants to kill you. Then, that incident happened where Vulture and Luo Wen’s henchmen tried to kill you in the same night. In the end, Vulture was executed, and Yu Donglai couldn’t save himself and had to resign.”
“Also because of you, Hou Wenji got to meet Luo Wen in secret. However, the incident in Guest-Prosper Dwell somehow made His Majesty go there in person; Hou Wenji couldn’t hide the secret anymore even if he wanted to! Perhaps you don’t know that after you left Guest-Prosper Dwell, the border soldiers all praised you. You seem to become the leader of all border soldiers who are here for the entrance exam.”
After listening to what Wu Yidao said, Fang Jie instantly asked a question, “How do you know so many things?”
Wu Yidao pointed at his eyes and mouth. “Since my position isn’t low, I can see far more things compared to ordinary people. Besides, I like strange and bizarre things, so I can always get many stories when I ask around.”
Then, he pointed at his head and added, “After processing the information that I obtained, I can estimate many things.”
“Why are you paying so much attention to me?” Fang Jie asked.
Wu Yidao thought for a moment and replied, “Because you made the Capital eventful. Besides, I’m not the only one.”
Fang Jie shook his head and said, “If possible, I would want to be like Li Fubo of Long-West Li Family. No one paid attention to him when he came to Chang’an; a ton of troubles could be avoided.”
“Even if you want to be low-key now, you couldn’t,” Wu Yidao said with a smile, “Many people want to slap you. Even if they swung their arms with full force and made your face swell, their frustration toward you wouldn’t be vented. They want to knock out all your teeth. If you want to be low-key now, you would be asking them to slap you.”
“Until now, I still don’t know what abilities I have that could shock others.”
“You have to pretend even if you are a wastrel,” Wu Yidao said after a moment of silence, “When you passed out in Guest-Prosper Dwell, His Majesty said something to the border soldiers. He said that he is the support for all border soldiers, and they don’t need to be afraid of anyone. There are hundreds of big families in Great Sui, but none of them is bigger than the Royal Family. Are you a border soldier?”
“Yeah.” Fang Jie nodded.
“Then, what are you afraid of? You should think about how you can make His Majesty look good, and it would be better if you can adjust the culture in the Martial Arts Academy. When the First Emperor of Great Sui created the Martial Arts Academy, it wasn’t something dominated by people from big families. Most of the people in the first group of students were veterans under the First Emperor’s command. Although no one especially talented came out of those people, the culture of the academy was great. As Great Sui became more and more stable, the culture inside the Martial Arts Academy became more and more worrying.”
“Fortunately…” Wu Yidao said with a smile, “His Majesty is planning to change this, so you guys are in a great time.”
…
When it got dark, the streets in Chang’an became less bustling. Although places like restaurants and pleasure quarters were still busy, the streets had become quiet. It seemed like Fang Jie was listening to old and trivial stories from Wu Yidao, but Wu Yidao was giving him hints on how to deal with the turbulence in Chang’an.
Wu Yidao didn’t offer Fang Jie any solutions; he only told him that there was no way back, and he was living in the best time to be a soldier.
Fang Jie didn’t know how many high-level secrets this richest merchant of Great Sui had access to, but he felt like this man’s status was higher than most of the officials in the government.
In fact, Fang Jie was correct.
Wu Yidao knew way more things compared to most of the officials in the government. For example, there was that huge military operation that the Emperor was planning.
In Smooth Spring Garden, the Emperor told the King of Xu State that he had already secretly transported the food from seven food storages north of Yangtze-River and weapons and armor from three palaces that could equip hundreds of thousands of soldiers to the northwest.
It was extremely tough to transport so much stuff in secret.
If this was done through the government, many people would know about it, let alone the fact that all the officials in the government were calculative and clever.
Who else could transport this volume of stuff for the Emperor?
Wu Yidao’s Worldwide Trading Company!
Although the Worldwide Trading Company was stretched when handling this, it was the best option that the Emperor had. When people could notice the unusual behavior of the Worldwide Trading Company, it would be too late, and most of the food and equipment would be transported to the northwest already! After all, no one would expect that the Emperor would let a merchant handle such a big deal.
The most crucial part of the operation was the transportation of soldiers.
Except for the navy of Great Sui, only the fleet of the Worldwide Trading Company could secretly move so many soldiers from different regions in Great Sui to the northwest.
Therefore, Wu Yidao’s status in Great Sui was even higher than Fang Jie had guessed.
It was hard to understand the secrets behind a merchant who was given the official title of a duke and did business everywhere. However, without the support of the Emperor, how could Wu Yidao’s business get this huge? If Wu Yidao didn’t help the Emperor do things in private, how could he monopolize so many industries?
Terrifying power could be displayed when merchants were also officials.
Inside his residence, Wu Yidao seemed to be generous with his time and was willing to chat with Fang Jie, an insignificant figure who wasn’t on his level.
Just like what Wu Yidao had said, he wouldn’t invest silver taels in Fang Jie, but he was willing to tell Fang Jie some principles and pieces of information. To Fang Jie, the latter was the most helpful.
Fang Jie was a bumpkin from a remote place; he needed too many things to be stable in a huge city like Chang’an. Like a person dying of starvation, he continued to eat and tried to stuff himself. Even if he couldn’t staff himself, he was going to consume as much as he could.
…
South 12th Street was an ordinary street. Like capillaries of a body, such streets were everywhere in Chang’an. People would walk on dozens of such streets if they wandered around for a while.
The most famous location in South 12th Street was Friend-Return Inn. It was heard that when the Emperor’s grandpa was in power, a candidate for the imperial exam, who was from the southern region of Great Sui, lived here for a while. This candidate studied in a room every day and only ate a bowl of porridge and some free pickled vegetables a day. Although he wasn’t so poor that he couldn’t afford the rent and would die of starvation, his life wasn’t good.
[TL Note: The imperial exam in ancient China was used to select officials for the government, and it mainly tests the candidates’ knowledge and understanding of society.]
However, he became the first person from a poor background who obtained no.1 position in the imperial exam in the history of Great Sui.
This candidate shocked everyone when he was named the no.1 in the imperial exam by the emperor at the time after the final exam in the Royal Palace.
Because of this, Friend-Return Inn became famous. Later on, the candidates for the imperial exam, both rich and poor, would all live here for a while to increase their luck.
That special candidate from the poor background was Hai Renli, but not many people knew this name. It was because he changed his name, and his new name was too recognizable – Huai Qiugong.
…
It was already dark, and the receptionist of Friend-Return Inn was getting sleepy. Since it wasn’t the time to close the door, and there were too few people, this receptionist was bored and napped.
Suddenly, he heard a noise and got startled. He rubbed his sleepy eyes and asked subconsciously, “Guest, are you here to stay the night?”
This person’s attire was strange, and he looked cold. He ignored this receptionist.
The receptionist looked over and was surprised as his mouth opened wide. If someone tried, they could probably fit an apple in his mouth.
The man in the building looked to be about 40 years old. He had a wide forehead, sword-like brows, angry eyes, and a tall nose. His facial features were distinct, and he was tall. The most eye-catching thing about him was his clothes; it was something that ordinary people didn’t dare to wear.
It was a red daoist robe, and complex golden embroideries could be seen on it. There were many lines, and it was hard to tell where they began and where they ended. The overall aggregation of the lines was so complex that people’s heads would hurt when looking at it.
“A red-robed daoist! My god!” The receptionist instantly woke up and almost shouted out.
“I’m here.” This red-robed daoist looked up at a room on the second floor and said calmly.
Fang Jie wasn’t that hungry, but he stayed because he wanted to listen to Wu Yidao break down many things.
Now, Fang Jie finally realized that he had almost no knowledge about this great city named Chang’an.
He thought that he knew a lot, but he felt more ignorant the longer he lived in Chang’an.
Wu Yidao didn’t dislike this young man who wasn’t willing to leave even though the sky had darkened. On the contrary, he liked this greedy guy. In his own words, they had similar personalities.
“You want to eat a rich feast of fish?” Wu Yidao asked with a smile.
Fang Jie shook his head and said earnestly, “Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.”
Wu Yidao quickly waved his hands and said, “I’m not planning to give you a fish to begin with, so I’m not going to teach you how to fish. However, since we are going to eat, we will drink liquor. Since we are going to drink liquor, I can tell you many old and trivial stories. I’m bored anyway.”
“The more the better,” Fang Jie replied.
“You are greedy.” Wu Yidao pointed at Fang Jie and laughed, “I haven’t seen someone as greedy as you in a long time. However, I like greedy people. Since I started doing business, I learned one principle. Greed is one of the strongest motivational forces in the world, leading to continuous growth and progress. If people don’t have greed and desires, how could they be filled with energy and power?”
“Love, justice, protecting the weak… these are all good reasons,” Fang Jie replied with pride.
“BS,” Wu Yidao laughed and cursed.
Fang Jie sat down beside the lotus pond, picked up small pebble stones, and tossed them into the pond one by one, making many fish scatter due to fear. As a result, many ripples appeared on the peaceful surface of the lotus pond.”
Seeing this, Fang Jie suddenly recalled that there was also a small pond behind his home on Earth, and he loved skipping stones there after getting out of school.
However, his childhood in this world never had any simple and fulfilling moments like that.
Wu Yidao grabbed the bucket of fish and handed it to a servant, asking him to prepare the fish. Then, he walked to a reclining chair and sat down before looking at the setting sun and sighing, “When you threw a small stone into the lotus pond, the peace was disturbed. You are that small stone, and Chang’an is the lotus pond. You are insignificant in the big picture, but you could make the entire pond ripple. Now that I think more about it, a small character like you from a border city was able to make the influential figures in the government sway by the ripples. This is something rare to see.”
Fang Jie didn’t understand Wu Yidao’s meaning; he said, “I don’t think I have this ability.”
“You don’t?” Wu Yidao rolled his eyes and said, “Do you know how much has happened since you entered Chang’an? That imperial commissioner and officials from the Ministry of War and the Court of Judicial Review died because of you when you left Fangu, right?”
Wu Yidao continued, “Without that incident, would Li Yuanshan and Li Xiaozong do something so sinister? If they didn’t do that, they wouldn’t bribe officials in the Ministry of War and the Intelligence Department. Without you, would Chiliarch Gao Tianbao have died, and would Meng Wudi, the Intelligence Department Deputy, lose one of his arms? After Gao Tianbao died, his corpse was buried before the Ministry of Revenue so that people could step on him every day. If all of this didn’t happen, Hou Junci, the Deputy of the Ministry of War, wouldn’t have been executed alongside dozens of officials under His Majesty’s rage.”
“Later on, when you got to the Capital, Vulture of the Ministry of War wanted to kill you, so he tricked you into the training field, and you met Luo Wen. Because of you, Luo Wen obtained the no.1 spot in the Martial Arts Academy, but he also wants to kill you. Then, that incident happened where Vulture and Luo Wen’s henchmen tried to kill you in the same night. In the end, Vulture was executed, and Yu Donglai couldn’t save himself and had to resign.”
“Also because of you, Hou Wenji got to meet Luo Wen in secret. However, the incident in Guest-Prosper Dwell somehow made His Majesty go there in person; Hou Wenji couldn’t hide the secret anymore even if he wanted to! Perhaps you don’t know that after you left Guest-Prosper Dwell, the border soldiers all praised you. You seem to become the leader of all border soldiers who are here for the entrance exam.”
After listening to what Wu Yidao said, Fang Jie instantly asked a question, “How do you know so many things?”
Wu Yidao pointed at his eyes and mouth. “Since my position isn’t low, I can see far more things compared to ordinary people. Besides, I like strange and bizarre things, so I can always get many stories when I ask around.”
Then, he pointed at his head and added, “After processing the information that I obtained, I can estimate many things.”
“Why are you paying so much attention to me?” Fang Jie asked.
Wu Yidao thought for a moment and replied, “Because you made the Capital eventful. Besides, I’m not the only one.”
Fang Jie shook his head and said, “If possible, I would want to be like Li Fubo of Long-West Li Family. No one paid attention to him when he came to Chang’an; a ton of troubles could be avoided.”
“Even if you want to be low-key now, you couldn’t,” Wu Yidao said with a smile, “Many people want to slap you. Even if they swung their arms with full force and made your face swell, their frustration toward you wouldn’t be vented. They want to knock out all your teeth. If you want to be low-key now, you would be asking them to slap you.”
“Until now, I still don’t know what abilities I have that could shock others.”
“You have to pretend even if you are a wastrel,” Wu Yidao said after a moment of silence, “When you passed out in Guest-Prosper Dwell, His Majesty said something to the border soldiers. He said that he is the support for all border soldiers, and they don’t need to be afraid of anyone. There are hundreds of big families in Great Sui, but none of them is bigger than the Royal Family. Are you a border soldier?”
“Yeah.” Fang Jie nodded.
“Then, what are you afraid of? You should think about how you can make His Majesty look good, and it would be better if you can adjust the culture in the Martial Arts Academy. When the First Emperor of Great Sui created the Martial Arts Academy, it wasn’t something dominated by people from big families. Most of the people in the first group of students were veterans under the First Emperor’s command. Although no one especially talented came out of those people, the culture of the academy was great. As Great Sui became more and more stable, the culture inside the Martial Arts Academy became more and more worrying.”
“Fortunately…” Wu Yidao said with a smile, “His Majesty is planning to change this, so you guys are in a great time.”
…
When it got dark, the streets in Chang’an became less bustling. Although places like restaurants and pleasure quarters were still busy, the streets had become quiet. It seemed like Fang Jie was listening to old and trivial stories from Wu Yidao, but Wu Yidao was giving him hints on how to deal with the turbulence in Chang’an.
Wu Yidao didn’t offer Fang Jie any solutions; he only told him that there was no way back, and he was living in the best time to be a soldier.
Fang Jie didn’t know how many high-level secrets this richest merchant of Great Sui had access to, but he felt like this man’s status was higher than most of the officials in the government.
In fact, Fang Jie was correct.
Wu Yidao knew way more things compared to most of the officials in the government. For example, there was that huge military operation that the Emperor was planning.
In Smooth Spring Garden, the Emperor told the King of Xu State that he had already secretly transported the food from seven food storages north of Yangtze-River and weapons and armor from three palaces that could equip hundreds of thousands of soldiers to the northwest.
It was extremely tough to transport so much stuff in secret.
If this was done through the government, many people would know about it, let alone the fact that all the officials in the government were calculative and clever.
Who else could transport this volume of stuff for the Emperor?
Wu Yidao’s Worldwide Trading Company!
Although the Worldwide Trading Company was stretched when handling this, it was the best option that the Emperor had. When people could notice the unusual behavior of the Worldwide Trading Company, it would be too late, and most of the food and equipment would be transported to the northwest already! After all, no one would expect that the Emperor would let a merchant handle such a big deal.
The most crucial part of the operation was the transportation of soldiers.
Except for the navy of Great Sui, only the fleet of the Worldwide Trading Company could secretly move so many soldiers from different regions in Great Sui to the northwest.
Therefore, Wu Yidao’s status in Great Sui was even higher than Fang Jie had guessed.
It was hard to understand the secrets behind a merchant who was given the official title of a duke and did business everywhere. However, without the support of the Emperor, how could Wu Yidao’s business get this huge? If Wu Yidao didn’t help the Emperor do things in private, how could he monopolize so many industries?
Terrifying power could be displayed when merchants were also officials.
Inside his residence, Wu Yidao seemed to be generous with his time and was willing to chat with Fang Jie, an insignificant figure who wasn’t on his level.
Just like what Wu Yidao had said, he wouldn’t invest silver taels in Fang Jie, but he was willing to tell Fang Jie some principles and pieces of information. To Fang Jie, the latter was the most helpful.
Fang Jie was a bumpkin from a remote place; he needed too many things to be stable in a huge city like Chang’an. Like a person dying of starvation, he continued to eat and tried to stuff himself. Even if he couldn’t staff himself, he was going to consume as much as he could.
…
South 12th Street was an ordinary street. Like capillaries of a body, such streets were everywhere in Chang’an. People would walk on dozens of such streets if they wandered around for a while.
The most famous location in South 12th Street was Friend-Return Inn. It was heard that when the Emperor’s grandpa was in power, a candidate for the imperial exam, who was from the southern region of Great Sui, lived here for a while. This candidate studied in a room every day and only ate a bowl of porridge and some free pickled vegetables a day. Although he wasn’t so poor that he couldn’t afford the rent and would die of starvation, his life wasn’t good.
[TL Note: The imperial exam in ancient China was used to select officials for the government, and it mainly tests the candidates’ knowledge and understanding of society.]
However, he became the first person from a poor background who obtained no.1 position in the imperial exam in the history of Great Sui.
This candidate shocked everyone when he was named the no.1 in the imperial exam by the emperor at the time after the final exam in the Royal Palace.
Because of this, Friend-Return Inn became famous. Later on, the candidates for the imperial exam, both rich and poor, would all live here for a while to increase their luck.
That special candidate from the poor background was Hai Renli, but not many people knew this name. It was because he changed his name, and his new name was too recognizable – Huai Qiugong.
…
It was already dark, and the receptionist of Friend-Return Inn was getting sleepy. Since it wasn’t the time to close the door, and there were too few people, this receptionist was bored and napped.
Suddenly, he heard a noise and got startled. He rubbed his sleepy eyes and asked subconsciously, “Guest, are you here to stay the night?”
This person’s attire was strange, and he looked cold. He ignored this receptionist.
The receptionist looked over and was surprised as his mouth opened wide. If someone tried, they could probably fit an apple in his mouth.
The man in the building looked to be about 40 years old. He had a wide forehead, sword-like brows, angry eyes, and a tall nose. His facial features were distinct, and he was tall. The most eye-catching thing about him was his clothes; it was something that ordinary people didn’t dare to wear.
It was a red daoist robe, and complex golden embroideries could be seen on it. There were many lines, and it was hard to tell where they began and where they ended. The overall aggregation of the lines was so complex that people’s heads would hurt when looking at it.
“A red-robed daoist! My god!” The receptionist instantly woke up and almost shouted out.
“I’m here.” This red-robed daoist looked up at a room on the second floor and said calmly.
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