Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Mr. Lang lived alone. He ran a tiny private school here, where seven or eight children from the neighborhood came to study every day.

I heard he charged very little in tuition, so his life was quite austere.

In my previous life, everyone had thought he was nothing more than an old scholar whose talents had gone unrecognized. Only later, when his name became known throughout the realm and he was appointed chief minister, did everyone realize he was a rare, hidden master.

I pleaded with Mr. Lang, begging him to accept me as his student.

I had thought Mr. Lang would reject me because I had poor aptitude and was a woman, but to my surprise, he agreed.

I knew how to read, and I could make my way through ordinary books, but that was all. Any deeper learning or principles were beyond me.

At first, Mr. Lang assumed I merely wanted to recognize a few more characters. He had not expected me to be so serious. Not only did I read closely and memorize thoroughly, I also dug into every subject and asked questions to the very end.

“Qingya, are you planning to take the imperial examinations?” Mr. Lang asked with a smile during dinner.

“I truly would like to,” I said, smiling back.

Mr. Lang burst into hearty laughter. Stroking his grizzled beard, he said, “Since we are born into this world, we really should not be bound by frameworks and rules. It is precisely because this world has so many of them that it has lost so much of its fun.”

With his approval, my thoughts became a little clearer.

I had already lived two lives, yet I was still trapped by Song Shixing. The intimidation and imprisonment that came from him were like an invisible cage around me.

I had to break through all of it and change the ending.

“Sir,” I said, putting down my brush and asking Mr. Lang solemnly, “what are salt permits? How does one trade in salt?”

Mr. Lang stopped eating. He sat down before my desk and carefully explained what salt permits were, and how the salt merchants of Great Zhou conducted their business.

“I understand, sir. Tomorrow morning, I will go to the Ministry of Revenue to buy salt permits.”

I remembered it clearly. Before the chaos of war began, the court had sold a batch of salt permits. That day, I had been buying medicine for Song Shixing at a pharmacy. The owner told me to wait, then took some money and went straight to the Ministry of Revenue.

At the time, I had not understood.

Now I did. The world was about to fall into chaos, and the court could no longer suppress it, so they sold a batch of salt permits to fill the state treasury, stockpile grain and fodder, and prepare to send troops at any time.

“You were not just asking out of curiosity?” Mr. Lang was greatly shocked. “You want to become a salt merchant?”

“Sir, an opportunity like this cannot be missed. I will buy the salt permits first, then think about the road ahead.”

Mr. Lang stared at me, dumbfounded.

Early the next morning, I exchanged the gold Song Shixing had given me for pieces of silver and waited outside the public office teahouse of the Ministry of Revenue.

I was the first to arrive. So when the minor clerk who opened the door saw me, he was very surprised. “Miss, what are you here for?”

“I am here to buy salt permits.”

“Are you mad? Salt permits are not scraps of cloth you can buy whenever you like.” The clerk waved me off. “Go on, go on.”

I stood there without moving. When the clerk could not drive me away, he stopped paying attention to me.

After the time it took to drink a cup of tea, the clerk came out holding a newly issued official notice and stared at me with his mouth agape.

“Who are you? How did you hear the news faster than I did?”

I only smiled without answering.

“How many permits are you buying?” the clerk muttered.

I counted the money in my hand and gave it to him. “Fifty.”

One permit covered two hundred jin of salt, priced at one tael and eight mace of silver, with three taels paid in tax.

“Little miss, you have courage.” The clerk looked over my shabby clothes, his expression odd, then counted out the salt permits for me.

When I brought the salt permits back for Mr. Lang to see, he did not know whether to laugh or cry.

“What do you plan to do next?”

I had no manpower, and it was impossible for me to travel alone to the salt fields a hundred li away, collect the salt, and bring it back to sell.

“Sir, that is easy!”

Three days later, the Ministry of Revenue stopped selling salt permits. I resold mine at eight taels apiece.

After war broke out, salt permits would become worthless paper, so I had to get rid of them quickly.

“I stewed a chicken for you, sir.” I watched him drink the soup, then asked him another question.

“It is spring now. I want to buy last season’s rice grain and cotton from the villagers, and reserve the autumn rice harvest in advance. Which government office do I need to report to?”

This time, Mr. Lang no longer looked as if he did not know whether to laugh or cry.

I hired my neighbors and went down to the countryside to purchase grain and charcoal.

Eighteen days later, the Prince of Qin raised troops in the northwest. When the news reached the capital, wealthy households and commoners alike began hoarding grain and charcoal. For a time, chaos erupted everywhere, and the city was in an uproar.

The goods I had stockpiled sold out in just two days.

This time, I also became acquainted with several wealthy merchants. I bought an iron mine and hired soldiers to guard it. Once the mine began producing iron, money flowed in like water.

“In only half a year, Qingya has become a wealthy merchant.” Mr. Lang looked at me with admiration. “You are smarter than I imagined, and you act with greater decisiveness. You are someone capable of accomplishing great things.”

I poured wine for him. “Decisiveness alone is not enough. I still need a good helmsman like you, sir.”

Mr. Lang poked my forehead.

In the blink of an eye, summer arrived. One evening, I went to find Mr. Lang. The moment I pushed open the door, I froze.

In the shabby courtyard, Song Shixing sat in the middle of it all, looking utterly out of place. When he saw me, he was not surprised in the slightest. With a faint smile, he said, “Long time no see.”

Half a year late, Song Shixing had still found Mr. Lang.

“After Miss Feng sent her parents away, she seems to have been exceptionally busy. In the past few days, you placed orders with twenty pharmacies in and around the capital for more trauma medicine than eight thousand people could ever use up. What do you plan to do with it?”

“Sell it, of course!” I set out dinner for Mr. Lang. “Do you want some? Since we know each other, I can give you a discount.”

He asked me to see him out.

At the gate, he asked with a faint smile, “How about setting the wedding date for the end of the year? The eighth day of the eleventh month is your birthday. Let us make it that day.”

My heart thudded several times.

“I am a commoner, ugly and untalented besides. If you wish to marry, my lord, you ought to marry a woman whose beauty and talent match your own, and whose family is equal to yours.”

This was different from my previous life.

I tried to guess what he was thinking.

“Do not belittle yourself.” Song Shixing suddenly bent down and said beside my ear, “A woman’s beauty and power mean nothing to me. I only like intelligent women. You are very good.”

He gave me an encouraging look, then mounted his horse and rode away.

I stood at the gate, unable to calm my heart for a long time.

That night, I went to find my parents, changed their residence again, and carefully instructed them not to go out.

Over the next few days, rebel armies rose one after another in the northwest, Jiangnan, and the southwest.

The timing was exactly the same as in my previous life.

But what was different was that this time, Mr. Lang did not follow Song Shixing to become his military adviser.

Instead, he left the capital with me.