The Overlord of Puluo

Greenwater City.

Early evening arrived, and the lamps around the city were lit.

Li Banfeng had been in Puluo for more than three months, but this was his first time visiting a city.

Ma Wu had said that the cities of Puluo might not be as impressive as those of the Outer Provinces, yet Greenwater City had light at night too.

Li Banfeng saw that light. The lighting of the lamps was a grand daily ritual in Greenwater City.

Since electricity could not be transmitted over the long distances needed to get to Puluo, gas lamps became the protagonists of the night in Greenwater City.

Patrol officers carried torches and step stools, lighting the street lamps along both sides of the road one by one.

Every shop sent out an employee to light the hanging lamp boxes that contained their signboards.

The gas lamps shone brightly, comparable in brightness to some electric lamps.

What surprised Li Banfeng even more was that the gas lamps could flicker.

On the gas pipes, there were steam-driven valves, which were dependent on the heat that the lamps produced. The valves opened and closed automatically according to set times to control the gas flow.

When the valve was fully open, the gas flow was strong, and the lamp box glowed brilliantly.

When the valve was only half open, the gas flow was weak, and the lamp box dimmed.

Some valves even contained special powders that made the lamp boxes cycle through different colors.

Ma Wu had been right. Greenwater City was a city, a metropolis.

Its buildings were not as tall as those in Yuezhou, nor were its streets as wide. Nevertheless, this was a real city. Li Banfeng could smell the unique scent of urban life.

The tallest building was called Peace Tower, a commercial building that the Lu Family owned. Inside, there were department stores, restaurants, and reportedly even a cinema.

The Paramount Club, yet another commercial building that the Lu Family owned, occupied the prime location. There, patrons could drink and dance endlessly and see countless women in cheongsams with high leg slits.

Ma Wu said the place with the brightest prospects was called Freewind Wharf. There were dance kings, song queens, and more than a hundred talents being polished to become tomorrow’s rising stars.

Freewind Wharf had once been part of Ma Wu’s family assets. Li Banfeng had promised him that he would visit someday, but now was not the time.

Li Banfeng only wanted to find the Wonderful Sound Gramophone Shop. Ma Wu had often hired them to make records, so he trusted that, like their records, their gramophones would be of good quality.

After several turns through the streets, Li Banfeng found the shop. Its storefront was small. When he pushed open the door, he saw that the interior was only five or six square meters. A counter over a meter long stood inside, and two hand-cranked gramophones sat on it.

Am I at the right place?

He stepped back to the doorway and checked the signboard again.

It’s the right place. The Wonderful Sound Gramophone Shop.

A man was sitting behind the counter. He wore a black top hat, a black bowtie, a white shirt, and a black tailcoat over it. There was no beard under his lower lip, but there were two curled mustaches spread out neatly above his upper lip.

At first, the man seemed to be dozing. However, when Li Banfeng retreated to the entrance to look at the shop’s signboard again, the movement startled the man awake.

The mustached man rose and smiled at him. ”Good day, sir. Welcome. I am Ling Miaosheng[1] of the Wonderful Sound Gramophone Shop. May I know which gramophone has caught your eye?”

Li Banfeng glanced at the two flimsy hand-cranked machines and shook his head. ”Certainly not these two.”

Ling Miaosheng froze, staring at him in surprise. ”Sir, you do not like either of these models?”

”That’s right!” Li Banfeng exclaimed. He saw nothing remarkable about them.

Ling Miaosheng’s expression turned solemn. ”Then it seems what you want is not simple. Please, tell me, what kind of gramophone are you looking for?”

What kind of gramophone?

In a tiny shop like this, what options could they possibly have?

Li Banfeng said, ”Show me your best gramophone.”

”Certainly, sir.”

Ling Miaosheng stepped out from behind the counter and waved his hand. A section of the wall suddenly lifted like a curtain.

The curtain was exactly the same color as the wall.

It didn’t just look the same as the wall; it merged seamlessly with the wall, without looking even the slightest bit out of place.

Behind the curtain was a wooden door.

Creak.

Ling Miaosheng pushed the door open and gestured for Li Banfeng to step inside. ”Please come this way, sir.”

Li Banfeng followed Ling Miaosheng through the door and entered a corridor. It was so dimly lit that even with his excellent eyesight, he could not see its end.

Turns out this shop isn’t small. But it has an unusual layout.

Ling Miaosheng led him to another door, pushed it open softly, and motioned for him to keep quiet.

Why the sudden caution?

Is someone sleeping in here?

Ling Miaosheng walked to the center of the room and quietly lit a candle.

The room was quite large, and in the faint candlelight, Li Banfeng could just barely make out the four walls.

At the center of the room sat an object the size of a bedside cabinet, covered by a cloth.

I guess this must be the shop’s most expensive gramophone.

Li Banfeng felt a little excited.

Ling Miaosheng grabbed a handful of golden kernels and placed them beneath the cloth.

Li Banfeng’s heart leapt.

Is that the fuel it uses? Could this be a steam-powered gramophone too?

Ling Miaosheng slowly lifted the cloth, revealing the answer to Li Banfeng’s questions.

This gramophone had a white body, a bright red head, and two shining eyes.

The ”fuel” Ling Miaosheng had sprinkled was actually corn.

The gramophone stretched out its head, ate the corn, and cleared its throat. ”Gugugu.”

Ling Miaosheng instructed, ”Sing ’Autumn Waters and My Beloved’.”

The gramophone lifted its neck and began to sing:

「Gugugu~

I gaze across autumn waters,

Yet, I see no trace of my beloved,

The night deepens, and the water clock runs dry.

Only the lonely cry of a wandering goose echoes in the air. 」

***

Li Banfeng looked at Ling Miaosheng and asked, ”Is this a... singing chicken?”

Ling Miaosheng nodded. ”This is the finest gramophone in my shop. It can sing more than thirty songs, and if its owner raises it with patience, it can learn many more.”

Li Banfeng had no idea why this rooster, with its fiery red comb and snow-white feathers, could sing, but it was clearly not what he wanted.

”Shopkeeper Ling, I want a gramophone that’s more normal. For example, a gramophone made in Amikan. Do you have one?”

Ling Miaosheng nodded. ”Yes, sir. This way, please.”

Li Banfeng followed him into another room. It was much more spacious, and more than a dozen gramophones filled the space, all made in Amikan.

Ling Miaosheng explained, ”Gramophones made in Amikan are not as durable as those from Geman or as refined as those from Ingris. However, their gramophones have a unique charm. It is hard to describe, but their work always feels especially bold.”

As he spoke, Ling Miaosheng lifted a covering to reveal the first gramophone.

”This is a windup gramophone, which uses a clockwork spring. One winding can play an entire song, and it has a clear sound. It is lightweight and takes little space.”

Ling Miaosheng played a song on it, and Li Banfeng shook his head.

Its sound quality was far inferior to his wife’s, and the gramophone was far too small. Its parts were unlikely to fit.

Ling Miaosheng revealed another gramophone. This one was enormous, nearly two meters long and wide. Its turntable resembled that of Li Banfeng’s wife a little, and there was a huge pull lever attached to its cabinet.

Ling Miaosheng pulled the lever, and a huffing sound rang out from the belly of the gramophone.

It turned out that the pull lever operated a bellows inside the gramophone.

With the blast of air, a small windmill inside the gramophone’s cabinet began to spin.

Ling Miaosheng explained, ”The windmill is connected to a regulator. No matter how strong the air movement is, it can rotate at a steady speed. You can pull the bellows while listening to music, though the drawback is that it is rather noisy. Or you can pull the bellows to wind up the spring first, then listen to music afterward. The spring can store up to two hours of power.”

Once he was done charging up the spring, Ling Miaosheng wiped his sweat and flipped a switch on the gramophone. Then it began to play a song.

To his surprise, the sound quality of this bellows gramophone was somewhat close to that of his wife.

After the song ended, Ling Miaosheng showed Li Banfeng a third gramophone.

This gramophone was also unusual. It ran on electricity; this was a record player.

In Puluo, electricity could not be transmitted over long distances, but it could be stored.

Ling Miaosheng brought out a battery the size of a tea caddy and placed it in the rear compartment of the gramophone’s cabinet. He flipped a switch, and the gramophone’s turntable began to turn.

”The record player has a steady rotation and is easy to use, but charging it is troublesome. During the day, you have to place it under the sun.”

Only then did Li Banfeng notice the photovoltaic panels on its surface.

Ling Miaosheng smiled. ”If it is sunny, a full day of charging gives you eight hours of music. If it is cloudy, that is hard to predict.”

If it has electricity, can it charge my phone?

Charge it for what? What use is a phone? To help a Spycraft cultivator hook onto him again?

Moreover, the structure and layout of this gramophone were far too different from his wife’s. Li Banfeng had little interest in it.

Ling Miaosheng revealed a fourth gramophone. This one had a sewing machine beneath it.

Ling Miaosheng threaded the needle, held the balance wheel, and stepped on the pedal.

Kadada kadada.

The sewing machine came alive. It stitched the clothes on its table while singing ”Roses Bloom Everywhere.”

「Roses, roses, blooming everywhere,

Youth, youth, rising everywhere,

The spring breeze cannot be stopped... 」

Once a cuff was complete, the sewing machine stopped, and the music ceased as well.

Ling Miaosheng turned back and said, ”The beauty of this gramophone is that it relieves the fatigue of sewing. Of course, if you do not want music while sewing, you can let the spring wind up and enjoy the music afterward.”

This gramophone was strange, yet its parts were very similar to those of Li Banfeng’s wife.

Ling Miaosheng revealed a fifth gramophone, the largest of them all. ”This is also a wind-powered gramophone, but unlike the bellows gramophone, this one is driven by an external windmill. This means you will need to hang a windmill outside your window. It is twenty-eight centimeters in diameter. As long as the windmill spins, you can listen to music. If you do not wish to listen, you can wind up the spring instead. When the spring is fully wound, it can play for up to twenty-two hours. As long as the wind outside does not stop, the music in your home will not stop either.”

Ling Miaosheng introduced more than a dozen gramophones in succession. Each one piqued Li Banfeng’s interest in some way, but none of them truly satisfied him.

Ling Miaosheng looked at Li Banfeng and fell silent for a moment. Then he said, ”Sir, you want to buy a steam gramophone, don’t you?”

Li Banfeng jolted. ”How did you know?”

Ling Miaosheng’s lips spread into a smile. ”I heard the sound of steam breathing inside your heart.”

1. Miaosheng translates to “wonderful sound”, which is the name of the shop. So the shop’s name can also be interpreted as being named after him. ☜