Official positions in the Song dynasty were the most complicated, with substantive offices, temporary appointments, academic posts, and so on. Some were real positions, while others were honorary.
Since most officials were civil officials, people often addressed them by their academic posts.
How to put it? It was like a modern-day doctorate: even if someone held another position, people generally still called him Doctor So-and-so.
Bao Zheng was called Attendant Bao because he had once served as an Attendant of the Tianzhang Pavilion.
As for Bao Longtu, that was a later title from the Ming and Qing dynasties. It wasn't quite accurate, but it counted as an honorific.
Bao Zheng hadn't been a Grand Academician of the Dragon Library. He'd been a Direct Academician, so he couldn't be called Longtu.
There was a great deal of intricacy to all this.
Bao Zheng had died this year, at the age of sixty-four—a ripe old age for that era.
Even so, when news of his death spread, the entire Capital City was shrouded in sorrow.
The most obvious sign was that the people wearing flowers in the streets had vanished.
The Great Song had a fashion of its own: wearing flowers.
When spring arrived, pedestrians throughout the streets and alleys, young and old, men and women alike, tucked flowers into their hair or hats.
In the 2011 version of Water Margin, Du Chun's Ximen Qing had a flower stuck in his hair, which was a fairly faithful portrayal.
Flowers bloomed in all their splendor, flaunted as their wearers paraded through the streets. At first glance, it was comical. At second glance, it was still comical.
Fortunately, it was merely a fashion, not a requirement, so Huang Shang naturally didn't wear one.
Now, however, the common people were plucking off their flowers of their own accord and sending them off with Bao Zheng.
Bao Zheng had once served as acting prefect of Kaifeng Prefecture. Note that he wasn't the Kaifeng Prefect seen in TV dramas.
The Kaifeng Prefect was the highest-ranking official in Kaifeng Prefecture, but the position wasn't permanently established. By regulation, only a prince could hold it.
When someone who wasn't a prince was put in charge of Kaifeng Prefecture, the highest position was acting prefect. "Acting" meant temporary, a substitute appointment.
Though it was only a temporary post, Bao Zheng had been strict with himself and impartial as iron. When he took office, the people of the Capital City rejoiced, living in peace and free from worry.
Now that he had died, they truly couldn't hold back their grief.
It wasn't just flowers that were being plucked off. Many neighborhoods and marketplaces had spontaneously closed for the day so people could go pay their respects.
Some people even sold their clothes to attend the memorial. The crying in the streets and alleys was louder than the clatter of carriages and horses.
Huang Shang was swept along with the crowd, and couldn't help but sigh.
A stern face, a blazing spirit, a reputation that endured for a thousand years, praise that never faded.
That was Bao Zheng.
Still, though sorrow showed plainly on his face, Bao Zheng's death stirred little in his heart.
After all, they'd never met. Bao Zheng was only a famous figure from history.
As for the charcoal-black Bao Zheng from the TV dramas of his childhood, that image was so far from reality he'd rather not ruin his childhood memories.
But Huang Shang had still come out at the first opportunity.
It wasn't just for show. A sudden inspiration had struck him: this was a chance to identify a Reincarnator.
Putting himself in the other person's shoes, if he were a Reincarnator who entered this world and heard that Bao Zheng had died of illness, would he go take a look?
Of course, there was one condition—
The Reincarnator's initial entry point had to be Eastern Capital Kaifeng Prefecture.
This world was Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils, a story focused on the martial world.
And Kaifeng Prefecture just happened to be the place where martial-world forces were weakest.
Fortunately, the story hadn't begun yet.
Huang Shang had noticed it back on the teleportation platform: every world in the Heavens Consciousness roughly had three entry periods.
Before the story, during the story, and after the story.
Three stages, with three batches of Reincarnators entering.
Without a doubt, entering before the story began was the most advantageous.
A Reincarnator's greatest advantage was knowing what was coming. They could seize many opportunities ahead of everyone else, and it was easier for them to plan and win over the story's characters they wanted to contract with.
During the story, they could also use the momentum to their advantage, turning a small effort into a great one and changing the story to reap benefits.
As for after the story ended, all they could do was pick over what was left.
Fortunately, the Main God Temple had rules, too. Many inheritances obtained by those who came before weren't allowed to be taken away outright; they had to be left for those who came after.
For instance, the Reincarnators entering now could obtain the Seventy-Two Supreme Arts from the Sutra Repository of Shaolin Temple, but they weren't allowed to burn them immediately.
Of course, if you ate a rare treasure, it was gone. You couldn't spit out the seed, plant it in the ground, and wait for next year's harvest.
As for which opportunities you could devour completely and which required you to leave a root behind, that depended on the classification.
Are you wet waste, dry waste, or recyclable waste?
Not even the worlds of the heavens could escape this one!
But back to the point: those who could enter before the story began were all star-ranked powerhouses.
Huang Shang's true self was still a weakling, so he could only wait until the story began to enter.
For a world like Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils, whose power ceiling wasn't very high, there were only two batches.
Huang Shang's original plan had been crystal clear.
Three steps.
First, infiltrate flawlessly.
Second, use the star-ranked Reincarnators who entered in the first batch to raise the strength of the story identity, Huang Shang.
Third, after his true self entered and the two Huang Shangs coexisted, the story identity would essentially become an incarnation, able to lead the Reincarnators instead.
The little account carrying the big account.
Plan complete.
Unfortunately, a plan was always just a plan. There were plenty of difficulties in making it happen.
The hardest part was still the second step.
How could he make use of those star-ranked Reincarnators?
Most of them had experienced at least three worlds of the heavens to gain the strength they had now.
They would be extremely difficult to deal with, and they'd have clear goals when they entered this world.
Fortunately, human nature was greedy. If someone happened to meet a legendary big shot, would they turn down such a pleasant surprise?
But the question was, how could they meet?
"I'd planned to let the Reincarnator find me. But my reputation isn't big enough yet, so I have to turn things around and find the Reincarnator myself!"
"If I miss this chance, the world is vast and searching will be like finding a needle in the sea. I'll really have to rely on luck!"
"You have to show up!"
Huang Shang prayed silently as he followed the crowd forward.
From East Cross Street to South Gate Street, then on to Great Cargo Street, he finally reached Kaifeng Prefecture. The journey had taken the whole afternoon.
Just as Huang Shang's eyes were growing sore from looking, a man standing outside Kaifeng Prefecture caught his attention.
He wore a blue cloth robe and a square headscarf. At first glance, he looked like an ordinary scholar.
But he was tall—at least 1.85 meters—and stood out from the crowd like a crane among chickens. What's more, his bearing didn't match his clothes. Something about him felt out of place.
Most important of all, his expression was strange.
The other people, mourning Bao Zheng's death, wept with such sincerity that they seemed to be crying for their own family.
He, on the other hand, seemed to be watching a play. The corner of his mouth even held a faint smile, almost unconsciously.
"Could it be him?"
Huang Shang's gaze sharpened. After committing the man's appearance to memory, he didn't dare look any longer and turned his eyes away.
But sometimes, once you'd formed a suspicion, you could start imagining things—like suspecting your neighbor of stealing an axe.
No matter how excellent Bao Zheng's reputation as an official had been, it was impossible for everyone to adore him. What if the man was just an ordinary person who hated Bao Zheng? Then Huang Shang would only be overthinking it.
So Huang Shang first headed out, putting some distance between himself and the man. Then he beckoned to the servant who had been following behind him and gave him a quiet instruction.
The servant wiped away his tears, nodded, and squeezed into the crowd.
Before long, a commotion broke out over there.
After hearing the servant's words, a burly, uncouth man suddenly pointed at the stranger and shouted, "Bao Gong has passed away! Aren't you sad? Why are you still smiling?"
The man froze, wiped the smile from his face, and replied casually, "I wasn't smiling, I wasn't. Of course I'm sad that Lord Bao has passed away."
"Hm?"
At those words, not just the man who'd challenged him but everyone nearby turned to look at him in unison.
The corners of Huang Shang's mouth lifted slightly.
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