Chapter 121
Chapter 121
[After the Transmigrated Man Broke Off His Engagement to the Princess – 4]
Official Zheng sat in the seat of honor and pulled his lips into a smile that never reached his eyes. “First you produced salt. Then you smelted iron. You even secretly modified an iron-smelting furnace and developed that thing for building city walls and roads. Young Master Jiang, what exactly are you trying to do?”
Jiang Yingchen: “…”
Jiang Yingchen finally understood the problem.
Salt and iron were state monopolies.
Secretly producing salt on a large scale was the modern equivalent of refining vast quantities of narcotics at home.
Improving an iron-smelting furnace was the modern equivalent of building a private arms factory to manufacture weapons of mass destruction.
Combine those two activities with the creation of cement, and it suggested the possible establishment of a separatist regime.
Jiang Yingchen: “…”
The realization came far too late.
Tears flowed without him noticing.
If his transmigration story were written as a novel, the first chapter would be titled “Transmigration.” The second would be “Mocked to Death by a Damned System.” The third would be “Transmigration Again.” The fourth would be “Executed for Breaking the Law”…
Jiang Yingchen discovered sorrowfully that he had accomplished nothing in the modern world and remained equally incapable of creating the slightest stir in ancient times.
He looked at Official Zheng and rubbed his hands together like a fly. “Official Zheng, how should I explain this? Before you came, I genuinely didn’t know salt and iron were state monopolies. No, that isn’t entirely true. I knew a little, but it didn’t occur to me in the moment…”
Official Zheng: “…”
Official Zheng looked at him with a complicated expression.
Jiang Yingchen gazed back with perfect sincerity, clinging to his last thread of hope.
Then Official Zheng sneered and instructed the men beside him, “He stands at death’s door and still dares spout nonsense. Why have you not seized him?!”
Jiang Yingchen: “…”
Jiang Yingchen was filled with despair and sorrow, but the runners from the Office of the Governor of Jingzhao did not care. They pounced like starving wolves, pinned him down, wrenched his arms behind his back, and dragged him out.
Shoved forward and stumbling, Jiang Yingchen still struggled to turn his head and explain. “Official Zheng, you have to believe me!”
Official Zheng said nothing.
A runner’s fist answered in his place.
Jiang Yingchen’s head rang, followed by a burst of agony. He staggered several steps and would have fallen if the runners had not been holding him.
Pain and fear struck together. Jiang Yingchen burst into tears and pleaded without pause. Official Zheng remained unmoved. Once Jiang Yingchen reached the jail, he even set aside their past grievances and begged the damned System for help. “Everything before was my fault. Big Brother, please don’t hold it against me. If there is any way to get me out of this, I’ll do anything! Big Brother, please! I’m begging you!”
Liu Che rolled his eyes and said mockingly, “No saving you. Wait for death. Goodbye!”
With that, he left Jiang Yingchen’s consciousness directly.
Jiang Yingchen: “…”
Salt and iron were state monopolies, and anyone who interfered with them died. Jiang Yingchen had also secretly modified an iron-smelting furnace inside his residence, an even greater taboo.
The Jiang Family had long since declined and did not have a single person at court who could plead for him. More importantly, the facts of the case were perfectly clear. Even if someone wished to beg for mercy, they would not know what to say.
Jiang Yingchen spent three agonizing, hopeless days waiting in the jail. Instead of a ray of hope, he received news of his doom: multiple offenses had been combined, and he was sentenced to immediate beheading.
When the jailer delivered the news, Jiang Yingchen’s heart and liver trembled violently. A warm stream ran down his leg. He had been frightened into wetting himself.
The jailer had seen such things many times and was not especially surprised. Shaking his head, he turned and left. Three days later, he brought Jiang Yingchen wine and food.
“Your younger sister sent it. Your final meal. Eat.”
The dishes were lavish, with chicken, duck, fish, and meat of every kind. Even the wine was worth a fortune.
But how could Jiang Yingchen eat?
Forget chicken, duck, fish, and meat. At such a moment, he could not have swallowed the rarest mountain delicacies or even dragon liver and phoenix marrow!
His hands trembled throughout his final meal. He ate a few bites at random to fill his stomach, then was escorted out for execution.
His legs shook like sieves. The moment he saw Official Zheng, he dropped to his knees and begged, “Official Zheng, I know many other things! I can help you improve the iron-smelting furnace. I can draw topographical maps. I can also…”
Official Zheng had lost several rounds of cards to his colleagues that morning and was already in a foul mood. He did not even twitch an eyebrow. “Shut him up. He’s irritating me to death. Why haven’t you gagged him?”
The runners immediately found a dirty rag and stuffed it tightly into Jiang Yingchen’s mouth.
The executioner approached carrying a gleaming saber. Jiang Yingchen’s legs trembled violently beyond his control. The sunlight was dazzlingly bright, and through his haze, he seemed to hear someone reading his sentence.
Jiang Yingchen heard nothing and could think of nothing. Only the edge of his vision remained fixed on the executioner’s saber, his emotions rising and falling with it.
At the command, Jiang Yingchen’s heart convulsed. In the next instant, the blade’s crushing weight and searing pain struck together. His eyes bulged, his fists clenched, and a muffled scream tore from his gagged throat!
…
Jiang Yingchen was no decent person, but the technical improvements he brought were well worth studying and promoting.
A trusted attendant compiled everything Jiang Yingchen had worked on and presented it to the throne. Ying Zheng read each document and was greatly pleased. He immediately decreed, “Have the Ministry of Works and Ministry of Revenue prepare the matter together. Conduct trials first. Once the results have been verified, promote the methods throughout the realm!”
Salt and sugar both offered enormous profits. If their output could truly be increased by a significant margin, it would naturally benefit Great Qin. As for cement, its importance to major construction projects and roads was self-evident.
Liu Che had warned that without steel reinforcement inside it, cement would be difficult to use for large buildings. Even so, for paving roads and strengthening dikes alone, it was an extraordinarily powerful tool.
The improvements to the iron-smelting furnace were even more important. They could directly advance the dynasty’s productive capacity!
After the Ministries of Revenue and Works reviewed the written materials, specialists questioned every Jiang servant who had participated. Once the records were compiled, the two ministries plunged into production research with tremendous enthusiasm.
Ying Zheng, however, perceived a benefit even greater than these new inventions.
Jiang Yingchen was not particularly clever. His ambitions exceeded his abilities. He produced one useful idea after another only because he enjoyed the advantage of coming from a later age. If Ying Zheng made proper use of him, would that not be equivalent to drawing upon the conveniences of the future through Jiang Yingchen?
That was the enterprise truly worth pursuing.
…
Jiang Yingchen’s eyes flew open, and he found himself back in his modern home yet again. When he touched his forehead, his palm came away drenched in cold sweat. His lingering fear was so intense that his back was soaked through.
What did this mean?
Had it been another nightmare?!
Trembling, Jiang Yingchen raised a hand to feel the back of his neck. Only after confirming that his head remained attached to his body did he release a shaken breath.
After his previous experience, he did not waste time speaking. He opened his computer and began searching with flying fingers.
State monopolies on salt and iron…
Governments in earlier times monopolized salt and iron to restrict the growth of commerce and industry and increase state revenue. Such policies supposedly appeared as early as the Spring and Autumn period, while Emperor Wu of Han formally nationalized the right to sell salt and iron?!
Jiang Yingchen stared at the long explanations on the screen, filled with regret and remorse.
He had a university degree, at any rate. Of course he had heard of the salt and iron monopolies. But after reading so many transmigration novels, he instinctively viewed salt and iron as immensely profitable industries that could make him rich. He had never felt that ancient laws were close enough to affect him personally. He never imagined he would pay for that mistake with his life!
The memory of the blade slicing through his neck still made his legs tremble. Suddenly coming to his senses, Jiang Yingchen wasted no time. He immediately began searching online for instructions on making tofu, river-snail rice noodles, roujiamo, hot pepper soup, hot dry noodles, and other foods.
All I want is to make money. What is wrong with that?!
If I can’t touch salt or iron, surely I can make food?
Could that possibly be illegal too?!
Jiang Yingchen refused to believe it!
He had researched most of the dishes when a suffocating wave of heart palpitations surged over him. Jiang Yingchen suddenly clutched his chest. His face turned deathly pale, and he collapsed before the computer desk.
When he opened his eyes again, he had almost grown numb to Jiang Weier’s crying. He asked what day it was and discovered that time had not stopped. A full month had passed since his execution for illegally interfering with the salt and iron monopolies.
So he was not repeatedly respawning at a fixed point in time. He was being reborn along a timeline that never stopped advancing?
Jiang Yingchen found it strange, but did not dwell on it.
For him, the exact point at which he was reborn did not matter. What mattered was using the insight and knowledge of a later age to distinguish himself.
Salt and iron were deadly, so Jiang Yingchen would stay far away from them. He did not dare touch the smelting furnace again. Even the unregulated sugar business now seemed too dangerous. He decided to make ordinary snacks, enrich ancient cuisine, and amass some money along the way. Once he had accumulated a sufficient foundation, he could extend his reach into other industries.
He could enter real estate or manufacture civilian goods. Then he could plagiarize a few poems and build a reputation as a great talent. His name would certainly resound through the scholarly world, and no one would dare provoke him again.
He was a modern man who had received higher education and seen all kinds of methods. Surely he could outplay these ancient people?
Once he had money and fame, power would naturally follow. Then he could cast off that cursed engagement and indulge in beautiful wives, lovely concubines, pools of wine, and forests of meat to his heart’s content!
The more Jiang Yingchen imagined, the more perfect his plan seemed. He could not help laughing aloud as he sat on the bed. Then someone yawned inside his mind and drawled lazily, “Yo. Back again, little brother?”
Jiang Yingchen: “…”
Jiang Yingchen almost wanted to drop to his knees before him. “Why is it you again?!”
Liu Che chuckled. “If you can come back, why can’t I?”
Jiang Yingchen recalled the executioner’s stroke not long ago and still trembled with fear. Then he remembered how the damned System had watched him leap into a fire pit without saying a word and fled before he died. His fury soared. Jumping to his feet, he cursed, “No, I truly don’t understand! How can there be a System as despicable as you? Why aren’t you dead yet? You should have died eight hundred years ago!!!”
Liu Che treated the words like passing gas and replied without concern, “If trash like you can be reborn several times, why shouldn’t I live forever?”
As he spoke, he noticed the plans on the desk. “Oh, no more salt and iron? You’re making snacks now?”
Jiang Yingchen: “…”
Liu Che asked, “You aren’t going to keep improving the iron-smelting furnace?”
Jiang Yingchen: “…”
Liu Che asked, “Is that because you’ve run out of ideas?”
Jiang Yingchen: “…”
Fuck your mother! Do you hear me, damned System?!
Fuck your mother!!!
Jiang Yingchen said nothing. His face dark, he silently examined the pages of plans over and over. After confirming that nothing was wrong, he finally summoned servants and ordered them to produce the snacks from the later age according to his instructions.
The foods had all been tested by the palates of countless people in later generations, so their flavors were naturally excellent. The preparation steps were also detailed. Before long, every dish was successfully reproduced.
The Jiang Family owned many shops, including a restaurant. Jiang Yingchen introduced the snacks there one at a time, releasing a new dish every three days. The Jiang restaurant quickly made a name for itself and became an essential destination for the city’s gourmands when they gathered for meals and banquets. Its revenue climbed rapidly.
Jiang Yingchen achieved his dream of earning a fortune every day. Naturally, he became smug and proud, flaunting his success before the damned System at every opportunity.
To his surprise, the damned thing merely sneered and poured cold water over him. “You’ve nearly exhausted all the recipes you brought, haven’t you? Can you produce anything else? So much time has passed. Do you think the other restaurants haven’t figured out your little tricks?”
“If I were one of your competitors, I wouldn’t even bother challenging you over restaurants and dishes.” Liu Che cracked sunflower seeds, his voice cold and mocking. “If they can’t defeat your craft, they’ll eliminate you physically!”
Jiang Yingchen scoffed and accused the System of worrying over nothing. The very next day, however, someone came to cause trouble. The man claimed that food from the Jiang restaurant had given him terrible stomach pain and nearly killed him. He loudly demanded compensation from Jiang Yingchen.
Jiang Yingchen knew the man was a scoundrel trying to extort money. How could he agree?
He had not expected someone powerful to be supporting the scoundrel. The matter was brought directly before the Governor of Jingzhao.
The other side had plainly prepared its connections in advance. The Governor neither beat nor berated Jiang Yingchen and used no torture. He politely invited him to drink several cups of tea, then explained that since the man’s stomach pain had followed a meal at the Jiang restaurant, the establishment would have to close for rectification. It would not be long-only half a month.
But there was nothing especially profound about Jiang Yingchen’s dishes. Their ease of preparation also made them easy to copy, and the imitations would not taste markedly different.
This age had neither copyright nor patents. If the Jiang restaurant closed for half a month, who would still come there to eat afterward?
It was clearly going to fail.
Inside his mind, Liu Che cheerfully cracked sunflower seeds. The constant snaps made Jiang Yingchen’s head ache. He rubbed his forehead, his face dark, and said nothing.
The manager urged him to settle the matter quietly. The restaurant had already earned more than enough during this period, and the Jiang Family was no longer what it had once been. There was wisdom in the old saying that commoners should not fight officials.
Jiang Yingchen slapped him across the face. “You bolster their courage and destroy our own! Say another damned thing like that, and I’ll throw you out immediately!”
The manager covered his face and did not dare speak. The workers were furious but kept silent.
Jiang Yingchen’s anger did not abate. He said bitterly, “Those shameless villains first plagiarized my dishes, then attacked me from the shadows. If I don’t teach them a lesson, how am I supposed to face anyone in the future?!”
He was about to disgrace every transmigrator in existence!
Everyone else lowered their heads and remained silent. Only Liu Che clicked his tongue, cracked another seed, and said, “Little brother, have some confidence. You lost all that face a long time ago!”
Jiang Yingchen: “…”