West-worshipping dogs

The Listening to the Waves Pavilion occupied the finest spot on the second floor of the Zither Strings House.

True to its name, it offered a sweeping view of the magnificent first-floor hall while shutting out the clamor below, leaving only the strains of strings and flutes to reach the ear. It was not merely an excellent place to watch a performance, but an even better place to discuss business.

Thick Western wool carpets covered the private room's floor. Several evocative landscape paintings hung on the walls, while a gramophone whirred and warbled in the corner, spilling out Western music laced with electrical crackle.

Huang Silang led everyone to their seats, arranging them with considerable care.

Lu Jin, the third young master of the Dragon Gate Escort Agency, naturally took the seat of honor directly facing the stage. As both elder and host, Huang Silang sat beside him.

Li Xiang and Qin Zhong were assigned seats off to the side. They had been admitted into the circle, but a gulf in status still plainly separated them from the others.

As for Huang Shendu, the young master who could summon wind and rain in Blackwater Ancient Town, he did not even qualify for a seat here. He could only stand to one side with his hands lowered, like an obedient shop assistant.

"Little Five, what are you still standing there like a fool for?"

Huang Silang glanced at his nephew, who stood awkwardly by the door. His brow creased slightly, his tone carrying the frustration of a man disappointed that iron would not become steel.

"Can't you see Young Master Lu and your two martial uncles are seated? Have you no sense at all? Hurry up and pour the tea!"

"Yes, Fourth Uncle."

The bitterness in Huang Shendu's heart was like having swallowed a handful of coptis.

He was the distinguished young master of the Yellow Dog Gang, a man others waited on in Blackwater Ancient Town. Yet here in Linjiang County, he had first been forced to acknowledge Li Xiang as his martial uncle, and now he had to serve him tea?

It was like having the skin of his face peeled off, thrown onto the ground, and stomped on twice for good measure.

But he dared not disobey.

Here in Linjiang County, before his fourth uncle, he was merely a child who had yet to grow up. He did not even count as a lackey.

With circumstances stronger than he was, Huang Shendu could only steel himself and pick up the exquisite purple clay teapot on the table. He poured a cup for Lu Jin first, then another for Huang Silang.

Finally, he approached Li Xiang and Qin Zhong.

"Martial... Martial Uncle Li, please have some tea."

Clenching his back teeth, his wrist trembling slightly, Huang Shendu set the cup down heavily in front of Li Xiang, splashing a few drops of tea.

Li Xiang sat comfortably on the leather sofa, watching Huang Shendu, whose face was livid and whose veins bulged on the backs of his hands, yet who still had to bow and pour him tea.

Li Xiang extended a long, slender finger and lightly tapped the tabletop twice.

This was the proper acknowledgment when an elder received tea from a junior.

Huang Shendu nearly smashed the teapot in fury. He took a deep breath, turned to pour Qin Zhong a cup, then retreated behind Huang Silang in stifled humiliation to serve as a human backdrop.

Huang Silang lifted his teacup and gently blew away the foam. His seasoned, urbane smile returned as he gestured toward the Western-dressed young man in the seat of honor and addressed Li Xiang and Qin Zhong.

"Junior Brother Li, Junior Brother Qin, allow me to make an introduction."

"This is Lu Jin, Young Master Lu."

Huang Silang's tone carried deliberate admiration. "Young Master Lu is the third son of the head of our Linjiang County's Dragon Gate Escort Agency, and a dragon among men who has truly seen the wider world.

"He has just returned from studying in Great Britain, a learned talent educated overseas. Not only is he proficient in Western languages, he has also studied Western machinery and alchemy extensively. He is a rare overseas-educated talent for our Great Xin Dynasty."

Li Xiang and Qin Zhong nodded slightly.

His surname was Lu. Sure enough, he belonged to the Dragon Gate Escort Agency.

In this era, having studied abroad and acquired that gilding meant being advanced, being civilized, being a cut above everyone else.

After introducing Lu Jin, Huang Silang turned back, preparing to introduce Li Xiang and Qin Zhong to him.

"Young Master Lu, these two are..."

"No need."

Lu Jin suddenly spoke, cutting Huang Silang off.

His voice had a peculiar cadence, deliberately imitating the stiffness of Westerners speaking Chinese. He tapped his ivory-inlaid Walking Stick against the floor twice, producing two hollow knocks.

"There's no need for introductions."

Lu Jin did not even raise his eyelids. His gaze remained on the exquisite Western pocket watch in his hand, as though the ticking second hand deserved more attention than the living people before him.

"They aren't my kind of people. Not every stray cat or dog can force its way into my circle."

There was an innate arrogance in Lu Jin's voice. It was no act, but a sense of superiority that came from deep within his bones.

"They've had their tea and seen me now. They may not understand certain rules, but surely you do?"

Lu Jin's standards were too lofty, and his judgment too cutting.

In his eyes, Qin Zhong and Li Xiang were merely remnants of a bygone age, mud-legged peasants from the lowest ranks. They did not even deserve to have him learn their names.

Qin Zhong had an explosive temper, and his fists clenched instantly at those words. Had Li Xiang not lightly kicked him under the table, he would likely have slammed the table and sprung to his feet.

Li Xiang remained calm, a faint smile on his lips. He even lifted his teacup, gently blew away the foam, and took a sip.

A flicker of surprise passed through Huang Silang's eyes.

Li Xiang's ability to maintain his composure was better than he had expected. By contrast, Qin Zhong, whose destiny Hong Tianbao had called higher than the heavens, was far more hot-blooded.

"Of course, Young Master Lu."

The smile on Huang Silang's face did not falter in the slightest. Instead, it grew even brighter.

He turned around and climbed right up the ladder Lu Jin had offered him. "Junior Brother Li, Junior Brother Qin, don't take it to heart."

"People come in different grades, just as pork belly comes in layers."

"Some people are destined to become dragons, soaring into the heavens and standing unrivaled, riding the tides of their age."

"Others are destined to spend their lives wallowing in the mud. Naturally, they belong to different worlds."

"Fourth Uncle is absolutely right!"

Huang Shendu, who had been nursing his humiliation behind them, finally found a chance to interject.

He stepped forward with a fawning smile plastered across his face. His eyes were full of worship as he looked at Lu Jin, like a lapdog that had spotted a bone.

"Young Master Lu is an eagle soaring through the heavens, the future hope of our Great Xin Dynasty."

"Being able to sit in the same room and drink tea with Young Master Lu is a blessing earned over several lifetimes. How could we possibly ask him to remember our names?"

"I've never been abroad, but even I know the West is paradise. Young Master Lu, your bearing is the very embodiment of civilization."

At this, Lu Jin finally turned and gave Huang Shendu a proper look.

He lightly tapped his Walking Stick against the floor, the corners of his mouth lifting faintly. "Enough. Stop flattering me. I don't go in for the Great Xin Dynasty's ways."

"Young Master Lu, this isn't flattery!"

Looking deeply wronged, Huang Shendu pointed at the heavens and swore, "Every word comes from the bottom of my heart. My yearning for the West is like a mighty river, surging on without end."

"You have no idea how often I dream of visiting Great Britain. I hear even the air there is sweet, and all the roads are level."

A fanatical gleam shone in his eyes, as though Great Britain were his true spiritual homeland.

"If I ever get the chance, I'll settle in Great Britain. Even sweeping its streets would be better than living in this wretched place."

"..."

Huang Silang frowned at his nephew's naked declarations, a trace of displeasure flashing through his eyes. With Lu Jin present, however, he said nothing and merely raised his teacup to conceal his reaction.

"You have excellent judgment."

Lu Jin finally looked Huang Shendu squarely in the eye, his gaze carrying the approval and condescension of someone looking at a well-behaved pet dog.

"Indeed, compared with the West, the Great Xin Dynasty is far too backward. Not just in its tools, but in its thinking, in its soul."

Lu Jin stood and walked to the window. Looking down at the scene below, prosperous on the surface but rotten underneath, he spread his arms as though embracing some invisible truth.

"They have more advanced Profession systems and rigorous scientific logic, instead of relying on supposedly ancestral secret formulas and some vague, intangible aptitude for enlightenment, as we do here."

"Even with ten times as long to catch up, the Great Xin Dynasty might never glimpse the tail of Western civilization."

"..."

The private room fell deathly silent.

Huang Silang lowered his head and drank his tea, offering neither agreement nor disagreement.

Huang Shendu wore a look of adoration, as though he had heard words of supreme wisdom.

Qin Zhong's chest heaved with anger, his clenched fists cracking. To a martial artist, a man who had bowed before the Martial Ancestor, those words were nothing short of digging up his ancestral graves.

Li Xiang lowered his eyes, concealing the cold glint within them.

So he was a West-worshipping dog.

He silently branded both Lu Jin and Huang Shendu with that label.

Those who acknowledged their backwardness and learned the foreigners' strengths to counter them were heroes, men of valor.

But those who had knelt so long that their knees had taken root, who thought even their foreign masters' farts smelled sweet, were slaves and running dogs.

There was no shortage of such people in these troubled times.

The foreign powers' mighty warships and powerful cannons had frightened them out of their wits, while their strange and dazzling mechanical creations had blinded them. Thus, they completely rejected their own culture and foundations, denying the Profession system they had inherited over tens of thousands of years.

Lu Jin seemed to have warmed to his subject. Ignoring the reactions of the two "inferiors" in the corner, he turned to look at Huang Silang and Huang Shendu.

"Have you ever seen the Artificial Sun?" Lu Jin's voice rose.

"The enormous Steam Core roars, and the sound of meshing gears is like celestial music. It is the union of pure reason and power."

He waved his Walking Stick like a missionary.

"Only when you have seen the true blue sky will you know how vast the world is, and realize that you are merely a frog gazing at the heavens from the bottom of a well."

"Flesh is weak!"

"Only steel is eternal! Only machinery is immortal!"

"Join the glorious Mechanical Ascension and cast off this burdensome sack of flesh! That is the only correct path for human evolution!"