At dusk, Yan Chi, the Great Shopkeeper of Tongtian Trading House, strolled slowly down the main street with his hands clasped behind his back. Along the way, shopkeepers and clerks from businesses large and small, as well as patrolling guards, all stopped to greet him with cupped hands.
Long accustomed to such scenes, Yan Chi handled every greeting with effortless ease.
Truthfully, this had gone on for more than a hundred years. Yet every two or three days, Yan Chi still had to come out for a stroll. It had become a habit.
The respectful postures of others, their greetings forced out with smiles no matter how unwilling they might be, gave him immense pleasure.
The hardships of his early years had made him especially fond of such scenes. Only at times like this would his confidence swell to its utmost limit.
He wanted to enjoy this respect forever!
Although he currently enjoyed respect from all directions three hundred and sixty days a year, there were still five or six days each year when, before several owners of Tongtian Trading House and the owners of other major firms, he had to squeeze out a humble smile and act like a grandson.
His dream was that one day, he could enjoy this respect all three hundred and sixty-five days of the year, rather than having to play the grandson for four or five days each year.
And now, the Small World behind Ye Zhen that he had deduced had become a possibility for him to realize that dream ahead of time.
Amid the greetings all along the way, the pleasure and supreme confidence made Great Shopkeeper Yan's mind clearer than ever.
Everything that had happened today flashed through his mind one by one.
"There should be no flaws. But judging from