Radiant Blade of the Wilderness

Chapter 265: The Joy of Earning Money

Shi Wuyan seldom came out of the kitchen, but Ge Heng at first glance knew the man was no simple figure.

He had an aura much like Ge Heng’s own.

It was like someone who had spent a long time deep underground and finally seen daylight again, or someone who had rolled in the mud for years and, having at last made it back to shore, cleaned himself up and changed into fresh clothes.

This aura was hard to put into words or tell apart. Only people with similar experiences could quickly ”smell” each other.

No physical anomalies, ordinary behavior...

Doesn’t look like a Supreme Master, but certainly not weak...

Ge Heng made a preliminary judgment.

A cheap wine shop like this fit his expectations: simple, but not entirely simple.

If everyone in the shop had hidden skills, he would suspect it was a military intelligence office set up in the Flame Capital by the Gan Kingdom, New Yu, or the Feng Kingdom. If there were nothing special at all, he wouldn’t believe the shopkeeper had any friendship with Senior Ling.

When the lunch crowd was nearly over and only two or three tables remained, Ge Heng left his hiding place and went in. He ordered one meat dish, one vegetable dish, and a large bowl of white rice without any alcohol.

He ate patiently, then went to the counter to pay. As he took out the silver, he slipped two unmarked booklets in front of the shopkeeper.

While the accounting lady counted copper coins and busied herself putting them away, Ge Heng lowered his voice and said to Twelfth Madam Luo, ”Senior Ling asked for these.”

Twelfth Madam Luo glanced at him and nodded lightly.

She flipped through the two booklets briefly and, with natural, flowing motions, put them away under the counter.

Ge Heng watched the shopkeeper’s expression and saw no surprise, bewilderment, curiosity, or worry, only a faint weariness.

For some reason, he felt she had a strange charm.

In the east and south of the city, he had seen several female shopkeepers like her, equally pretty, equally mature, equally sharp and spirited, but Twelfth Madam Luo was different from them, as if some indescribable grace lay hidden in her.

Then Twelfth Madam Luo asked in a low voice, ”Want to take on a commission? Gathering information for someone.”

Gathering information? One of Ge Heng’s wishes was to save up a sufficiently handsome sum of silver before the Ghost Yu Way caught him, but he had no connections in the Flame Capital and could only drift among workshops, earning with skill and strength. So after hearing Twelfth Madam Luo, he thought briefly and asked calmly, ”What information?”

”Go ask yourself. Take the roundabout way to the back courtyard.” Twelfth Madam Luo propped her cheek on one hand, gazing at the increasingly overcast weather outside the door, openly spacing out.

The roundabout way... Ge Heng roughly understood her meaning.

He left the Cheap Wine Shop, turned into the alley beside it, melted into the dim shadows under cover of the trees, and carefully slipped into the back courtyard from the side wall.

He then saw a young man in a dark red guard’s uniform with blue trim sitting behind the tea table in the main building, fiddling with a tea set, his face slightly pale but his spirits quite high.

Ge Heng also noticed that the man had double pupils. A black-sheathed longsword lay at his side. His brows and eyes were open, his features regular, his bearing reserved and his movements leisurely, like someone from a famous, orthodox sect.

”Are you the one who wants information?” After watching for a while, Ge Heng emerged from the dim shadows in a corner of the main building.

”Sit.” Ding Songyan pointed across from him, lifted the purple clay teapot, and poured Ge Heng a cup of hot tea.

Ge Heng did not drink.

Ding Songyan did not mind and asked with a smile, ”I hear you have some connection to the Ghost Yu Way?”

Senior Ling told him? Ge Heng was silent for a moment, then slowly nodded.

Ding Songyan toyed with his teacup and took a light sip.

”I am Ding Songyan of the Brightnight Sect.”

He gave his full name directly, to show he was upright and aboveboard.

He continued, ”I’m a friend of Young Master Brightstream Jiang Lanting. Some time ago he was attacked by a Ghost Yu Way assassin...”

Ding Songyan recounted that day, including how he and the others had seen the face of the ”bookkeeper,” He Jianyun, nailed to a wall, though he left out that he was the one who had stopped the assassin. At the end he said, ”In a situation like this, how long does the Ghost Yu Way usually wait before a second attempt?”

Ge Heng showed no emotional ripple and his expression remained indifferent, but he hesitated, unsure whether to charge for answering this.

He had never done this kind of business.

In the Ghost Yu Way, he had only trained and assassinated. Food, clothing, lodging, travel, and fun were all provided by the Ghost Yu Way. Though each successful assassination brought a silver reward, he had no use for money, so he had no deep impression of the exact sums.

After defecting, he had learned smithing, hauled cargo on docks, worked as a coachman, and done many jobs, just never earning silver by killing or selling information.

While Ge Heng hesitated, Ding Songyan asked kindly, ”How much silver does the answer to this question cost?”

I have skills and strength, work two jobs, and can only save a little over twenty taels a year. This question is quite easy... Ge Heng ventured, ”One tael of silver.”

Ding Songyan nearly burst out laughing.

That was dirt cheap pricing.

He even wanted to volunteer a little more.

”Fine.” Ding Songyan nodded lightly.

Ge Heng quietly let out a breath.

”The ’field watcher’ hasn’t been cleared out, and the ’clerks’ of the ’bookkeeper’ haven’t been found either. In as little as two or three days, or as many as five or six, the Ghost Yu Way can rebuild that line.

”After that they’ll need to gather information again, which takes roughly six or seven days.”

”So within ten days to half a month, the Ghost Yu Way could make a second assassination attempt?” Ding Songyan counted the days and found nearly eleven days had passed since Young Master Jiang’s ambush.

”Yes.” Ge Heng nodded steadily.

Ding Songyan took out a silver ingot and pushed it in front of him.

After Ge Heng accepted it, Ding Songyan asked thoughtfully, ”Can you help find out about the second assassination?”

Ge Heng was not at all surprised by this request.

And he truly had a way to find out.

He had dismembered He Jianyun not to provoke the Ghost Yu Way but to hide the other’s ghost, so that neither the Ghost Yu Way nor the authorities could find it and get something out of it.

Before killing He Jianyun, he had squeezed out of the ”bookkeeper” the identities and situations of several ”clerks.” He did not want the Ghost Yu Way to replace them or the authorities to clear them out. He meant to use his ”grasp” of these ”clerks” to smell out trouble early and avoid the Ghost Yu Way’s hunt for him.

To that end, he had laid a false trail, hiding the piece of corpse that carried He Jianyun’s ghost at Shilin Temple.

The monks there, walking, sitting, reciting scriptures, and practicing martial arts, unconsciously harmed ghosts, so in a day He Jianyun’s corpse piece, even buried in a remote spot, would surely have been ”delivered.”

Ge Heng had no yin eyes, but a corpse piece with a ghost in it naturally darkened its surroundings slightly, which did not escape his perception.

After a moment’s thought, Ge Heng said in a low voice, ”Ten taels of silver.

”If I find something useful, fifty more.”

He felt that, given he could only save a little over twenty taels a year, this price was already excessive.

Of course, he had not saved only a few dozen taels. The Ghost Yu Way trackers he had killed, including He Jianyun, had contributed quite a bit of money.

”How much?” Ding Songyan could not help asking.

Brother Ge, are you trying to undercut Master Xiaozhang and the others’ prices?

That isn’t even a bargain price, it’s a giveaway!

Master Xiaozhang and the others start at fifty taels...

Ge Heng froze, then asked tentatively, ”How about eight taels?”

”No need. For a first collaboration, sincerity matters most.” Ding Songyan truly couldn’t bear to take more advantage of Ge Heng.

He quickly handed over a five-tael silver ingot as a deposit.

It was his monthly stipend that he just received.

Ge Heng returned to the dim spot and slipped all the way to Pingnan Street before rejoining the crowd.

Touching the two silver ingots in his sleeve, he felt dazed for a moment.

So that’s six taels earned?

If I really can gather useful information, there’s fifty-five more, equal to two years of my hard-earned savings...

A few more commissions like this, and I could have several hundred taels a year, enough to buy plenty of property in Ruoyu’s hometown...

Ge Heng had never imagined money could come so plentifully and easily, and without killing.

His steps grew a little lighter unconsciously.

Though he had not yet weighed the two silver ingots, he believed a man as straightforward as Ding Songyan would not cheat him over such a small matter.

......

The back courtyard of the Cheap Wine Shop.

When Ge Heng left the Chaos Realm, Ding Songyan began unhurriedly drinking his tea.

Before long, Twelfth Madam Luo entered the main building, glanced at the tea table, and scolded with a laugh, ”Treating this place like your own home?”

Not only brewing and drinking tea on his own, but even entertaining guests with it!

Ding Songyan turned over a fresh teacup, scalded it with boiling water, poured Twelfth Madam most of a cup, and set it respectfully before her, saying with a smile, ”A guest feels at home here.”

Though she had only been teasing, Twelfth Madam Luo couldn’t help rolling her eyes at his shamelessness.

”Ge Heng doesn’t seem to have noticed how unfathomable you are, Twelfth Madam?” Ding Songyan changed the subject.

”Didn’t you miss it too, when you first met me?” Twelfth Madam Luo implied he was no better than Ge Heng.

Ding Songyan nodded in agreement.

”At the time I only thought the shopkeeper was quite fierce...”

Under Twelfth Madam’s glare, he said in an unchanged tone, ”But she seemed to have backing, not afraid of anyone’s revenge.”

”It’s right under the emperor’s feet, the capital of capitals after all,” Twelfth Madam Luo said, sarcasm not evident.

She glanced back toward the wine shop.

”Ge Heng paid quite a bit of attention to Chef Shi. He probably noticed something.”

Ding Songyan nodded and asked, somewhat curious, ”Speaking of which, how did you come to hire a cook like Chef Shi, Twelfth Madam?”

”I was wandering around Purple Cloud Mountain when I ran into him being chased by heretics. I stepped in to block them and killed those men,” Twelfth Madam Luo said flatly. ”He had nowhere to go for the time being. I only meant to hire one cook, but one more didn’t matter, so I took him in. His cooking is decent.”

”So he was picked up by you,” Ding Songyan said, laughing in dismay.

Wu Zheng was too, but Wu Zheng didn’t stay.

Twelfth Madam Luo lifted her cup and blew on it lightly twice.

”Have you thought through that question from the other day?”

Ding Songyan turned serious.

”Please provide me with your guidance, Twelfth Madam.

”I’d like to start with the simplest case: before there is any ’name,’ how does a person lead seven or eight people?

”He must either be strong in martial arts, outstanding in intellect, or good at making a living. Only then will those seven or eight people trust and follow him. That is his ’reality.’

”As more and more people follow him, reaching dozens or even a hundred, some may be stronger in martial arts than him, sharper in mind, or better at raising silver. How does he win them over, and how does he make sure his followers don’t switch to someone else?

”I won’t go into power politics. In short, on the one hand, he must bind his closest circle to him, using numbers to suppress the other small circles and keeping those small circles from linking up. That core of confidants becomes his ’reality.’

”On the other hand, he borrows the ’name’ of deities, the government, or orthodoxy to set himself apart from others, so that the disloyal fear the consequences of rebellion. In ancient times, if one claimed the favor of a heavenly god or mountain god and made regular sacrifices to them, a would-be rebel had to consider whether he could bear the deity’s wrath before acting. That is the ’name.’

”Thus, the weightiest matters of a state are ritual worship and warfare.”