A Walk Through the Ward (2)

"Is that Minister Zhang's carriage?"

Only after waiting quite some time for the whole procession to pass through did Zhang Xing, still slightly tipsy, approach Ward Chief Liu, his Brother Liu, to ask.

The normally quick-witted Brother Liu watched the procession disappear deep into the ward before seeming to come back to himself, shaking his head repeatedly. "Who else could it be but Minister Zhang? The Eastern Capital was only built twenty years ago. Most high officials and eminent families live in residences bestowed by His Majesty, all in Luoyang County across the Luo River... it's only the few like Minister Zhang, with vast family holdings but a somewhat later rise to power at court, who bought up property and residences in these wards and markets along the Luo River or Heaven Street... the Zhang family moved here twelve years ago."

"That's a good thing, too," Zhang Xing replied casually. "With the Minister of Justice living here, criminals probably wouldn't dare come knocking."

Brother Liu smiled at that, seemingly wanting to make a barbed remark, but clearly mindful of how many people might overhear, he forcibly swallowed it. Then his expression changed as he brought up a practical matter:

"Commandant Zhang, some friend of yours suddenly came looking for you this afternoon. When he found you weren't here, he said he'd return before the ward gates closed this evening."

Zhang Xing paused slightly, then promptly asked, "Was he about my age, with a Qi accent, but dressed as one of the Brocade-clad Patrol Cavalry?"

Brother Liu nodded at once.

Knowing who it was, Zhang Xing thanked him again and returned to his lodgings. After a quick wash, he went back to his books.

When there was roughly a little over an hour left before the ward gates closed, the man duly arrived. It was indeed Qin Bao, Qin Erlang.

Having arrived, Qin Bao said nothing, merely sitting glumly in the courtyard. Zhang Xing, though his host, paid him no attention either, simply keeping his head down over his book.

In the end, it was actually the young woman from Brother Liu's household who broke the silence. She came knocking to deliver an earthenware pot of sour hangover soup to Zhang Xing.

"Been treated unfairly?"

After thanking her profusely, Zhang Xing returned and set out two bowls, sharing the soup with Qin Bao. He took two sips himself before asking.

"It's not exactly unfair treatment," Qin Bao answered resentfully, holding his bowl. "Everyone in the capital is slippery as an eel. They never leave you anything you can use against them, so you can hardly tell anyone that someone's been bullying you..."

"But they still subtly shut you out and rub you the wrong way. Not only do they refuse to treat you as one of their own, they remind you every so often that you're a country bumpkin, making you uncomfortable?"

"Exactly." Qin Bao looked somewhat downcast.

"What's there to stew over? Put up with it, and it'll pass." Zhang Xing grew still more dismissive. "Who hasn't been through that? When I went to your village, didn't you all keep your guard up and shut me out? Wherever you go in this world, people shutting out outsiders is unavoidable."

Qin Bao started to speak, then stopped, merely lowering his head and draining his bowl of sour soup.

"Finding it a bit hard to stomach?" Zhang Xing glanced at him, still looking slightly tipsy.

"I can't stomach it. Especially this young white-sash fellow named Li. He spends all day making snide remarks, and that keeps everyone else from getting close to me either." Breathing heavily, Qin Bao asked, "Brother Zhang, I know you're a man of courage and resourcefulness. That's why I came specifically to ask you: is there anything I can do?"

"Plenty." Zhang Xing gave a rare smile. "If your family were as rich as Xu Dalang's in Caozhou, it would be easy. Today, treat them all to the sour plum wine that just came on the market. Tomorrow, take them around Gentlemanly Ward. The day after, go to the Southern Market and buy fresh tea as introductory gifts from the newcomer. Whoever needs money, give him money; whoever needs a horse, give him a horse... within a few days, you'd be universally hailed as Qin Erlang, the Timely Rain of the Eastern Territories."

Qin Bao patiently heard him out, then asked coldly, "And what if I have no money?"

"If you have no money, profound cultivation or fame will do. A distinguished family background works too. In any case, you need some capital. Whenever someone has trouble, use that capital to stand up for him..."

"My cultivation is about the same as yours. Of the Twelve Orthodox Meridians, you've opened four and I've opened five. How is that anything impressive? My family only has a few dozen mu of farmland, barely enough to live on. As for fame... what use is a reputation in a single village or town? It's nothing compared with you carrying a corpse for hundreds of li, Brother Zhang. Anyone who hears of that is won over."

"Then kill someone!" Zhang Xing spread his hands. "This Li fellow is the nastiest, right? Kill him in secret..."

"Do you think the Jing'an Directorate's three great Pacification Offices and twenty-eight Vermilion Sashes are just for show?"

"Then beat him up!"

"Stop joking..."

"I'm not entirely joking." Zhang Xing gulped down his second bowl of sour soup and answered seriously. "This sort of exclusion is commonplace. If you insist on speeding things up, there are only two ways: bestow favors or establish your authority... bestowing favors takes capital, and establishing authority takes ruthlessness. If you can do neither, you can only endure it for a while and gradually win people over with your ability and character, or wait until your cultivation and rank rise and you have capital of your own."

Qin Bao fell silent for a while, then suddenly asked, "What about you, Brother Zhang? When we came to the Eastern Capital, I was the beneficiary of your righteous deed. Yet once we arrived, I went straight into the Central Pacification Office's Brocade-clad Patrol Cavalry, while you ended up as a Street-Cleaning... a Street Patrol Commandant with no prospects... don't you resent it?"

Resent it, my ass!

Zhang Xing grumbled inwardly... leaving aside the annihilation of the entire army at the front and the court's deliberate cover-up, which made it unwise for someone like him to parade about too soon, his feigned amnesia alone was enough to arouse the suspicions of that meticulous little minx Bai Yousi. He didn't even have household registration in the Eastern Capital. Wasn't it perfectly reasonable for them to put him through an observation period?

Even the Street-Cleaning Tigers, who had degenerated into something like a gang, knew to give people a seven-day observation period, let alone the genuinely tightly organized Brocade-clad Patrol Cavalry!

These were mid-level civil servants right under the emperor's nose!

Back in his own era, never mind probation or observation periods-the competition would probably have escalated into a battle royale.

The saying that a programmer earning a million a year couldn't compare with a civil servant earning fifty thousand... in the world Zhang Xing came from, that was a joke told by armchair politics-and-history jokesters like him. But in this day and age, it was probably actually true.

Of course, though that was what he thought, none of it showed on Zhang Xing's face. His words were positively lofty. "Not at all. If you could keep borrowing books for me from the Marquis of Ji'an's residence or the Jing'an Directorate's Langya Pavilion, I'd actually prefer my present life. A basket of food, a gourd of water, a book, living in a humble alley-others could not bear its hardships, yet I would not let them diminish my joy... wouldn't that be splendid?"

Qin Bao paused, visibly respectful. But a moment later, after some hesitation, he continued, "Brother Zhang... tell me honestly. Have you truly never thought about avenging that companion's family?"

"I have." Zhang Xing raised his eyes to him, enunciating clearly, his words lucid, as though he had suddenly sobered up. "I really have! But at the very least, I know I shouldn't entertain the slightest thought of it before reaching the Grandmaster realm... and it isn't just Red Mountain I'm thinking about. I'm thinking about Fallen Dragon Shoal too. But the same principle applies: until I become a minister or am made a marquis, I won't go looking for an opening at court either... a man must strengthen himself. Only once he's strong is he qualified to think about certain things. Anything else you want to ask?"

Qin Bao shook his head.

"I do have a few things to ask you, though." Zhang Xing suddenly broke into a smile.

"Ask whatever you like, Brother Zhang." Qin Bao was composed as well.

"Your family has only a few dozen mu of land, yet they were willing to let you study martial arts and buy you a horse? You're a local hero from a village, but not only are you so well brought up, you didn't hesitate for a moment when an opportunity to come to the capital appeared... was it just because Inspector Bai is pretty?" Zhang Xing asked teasingly.

"I knew I couldn't hide it from your eyes, Brother Zhang." This time, Qin Bao's expression did not change, as though he really had expected it. "But I wasn't deliberately concealing it. It simply wasn't worth mentioning-or rather, mentioning it might get in the way... at Eastern Qi's height, my great-grandfather was governor of one of its hundred and twenty commanderies. My grandfather was also a records adjutant to one of Qi's ruling princes. We counted as an official family, more or less... but once the Great Wei Dynasty came, you should know how it was."

Zhang Xing did, of course. He had been reading constantly these past few days, and although many descriptions were plainly shrouded in mist, for someone who had experienced the information explosion, certain other things needed only the slightest hint to become clear.

Eastern Qi, for instance, had actually existed as far back as Great Wei's predecessor, Great Zhou. At one point, it had held the Eastern Territories and Hebei, with Huaidong attached, splendidly commanding forty or fifty percent of the balance of power under heaven. Great Zhou and Great Wei, along with the dynasty before them, were clearly internal successions within the same ruling group-merely a bunch of warlord clans rooted in Guanlong and controlling Bashu from afar taking turns among themselves... under such circumstances, the two countries had fought for several hundred years. As the chief military and political opponents of Great Wei, Great Zhou, and the rest, Eastern Qi's ruling class was naturally subjected to severe suppression after their state fell.

In fact, it was not only Eastern Qi's former territory. The southern Jiangdong region, where Great Liang had previously stood, and the Northern Wasteland, which for certain reasons had always submitted to the Central Plains without ever coming under effective rule, also had deep political rifts with the court.

And this not only explained why Qin Bao wanted to rise above the crowd, but also why Xu Dalang had mocked Qin Bao, and why Xiong Bonan and Xu Dalang, those two heroes of the Eastern Territories, had wanted to rescue Li Shu.

It even explained why Yang Shen and Li Shu's rebellion had caused such a tremendous impact, and why the great aristocrats at court were so sensitive about the rebellion that they had temporarily set aside even such a catastrophic defeat at the front.

After all, although the present Great Wei Dynasty had united seventy or eighty percent of the realm and enjoyed outstanding prestige, it had only passed through two generations. Its founding emperor, whose immense achievements had pressed down on the world until it could hardly breathe, had himself first governed as Supreme Pillar of the State, then taken control of the military, and finally, while the sovereign was young and the state unsettled, suddenly launched a coup and easily seized the country.

Of course, that was straying rather far.

Seeing Zhang Xing nod, Qin Bao instead lost his anger. "I'm not saying I have to gain great wealth and high rank. It's just that my father and elder brother died early, and my mother raised me alone. She's had certain things to say to me all these years. As her son, I ought to earn some distinction to take home, so she can finally let out that pent-up breath... originally, I even thought joining the army and risking my life in Dongyi would be fine. Now that chance has brought me here to the Eastern Capital, how can I still get angry over something so trivial?"

"So you've thought it through?" Zhang Xing wiped his mouth and asked.

"I have. All I can do now is strengthen myself as a man, just as you do, Brother Zhang! Work hard at martial arts, work hard at studying, put my heart into how I conduct myself and handle things. Sooner or later, I'll build up capital of my own and keep people from looking down on me." Qin Bao let out a long breath. "And of all those things, martial training and cultivation are what I'm most confident in. I'm going to cultivate seriously, not fool around with that Li fellow."

Zhang Xing nodded, drank the last of the soup in his bowl, and could hardly hurry him along fast enough. "Good, then. I won't charge you this time... I used to charge people who came to me privately with questions... head back early. And while you're at it, tell Inspector Bai I've finished these books. Please ask her to find me some histories or literary classics, or I'll be out of things to read again."

Qin Bao stared at him blankly, set down his bowl, wiped his mouth, and left.

Once Qin Erlang had gone, Zhang Xing put a few copper coins into the earthenware pot and returned it. Then he went back to the courtyard and finished the last half-volume of the previous dynasty's history. After going out to fill his stomach a little, he returned to the courtyard and began doing push-ups and other simple exercises, preparing to meditate and open his meridians before bed... just as he was dripping with sweat, Brother Liu suddenly knocked on the courtyard gate again.

"Commandant Zhang! Are you there, Commandant Zhang? Your usual street-patrol partner has suddenly come looking for you."

Zhang Xing found it odd, but answered at once. When he went outside, he did indeed find Xiao Zhao waiting for him.

"Brother Zhang." Xiao Zhao stood inside the ward gate with a hand on his saber, speaking without any reservations. "Come on, let's go to Water Street... the banner chief just sent word. He's worried you've only just returned and have nothing to establish yourself with, so he's giving you two months' customary dues to help you settle in."

Zhang Xing paused, then nodded.