Having returned to 47th street and pushed open the door of the Old Brush House, Ning Que took out the dull l.u.s.trous ebony tablet from his breast pocket, and very casually threw it like a piece of firewood on top of the bed.

Sang Sang was sitting on the bed, s.h.i.+vering with her two cold feet wrapped in blankets while concentrating on mending his old jacket. Glancing at the tablet on top of the blanket, she curiously picked it up. Holding it to a ray of light spilling from an open tile in the roof and squinting her eyes; looking at it for a long time carefully, she asked, “Master, what is this?”

“A tablet of a Great Imperial Guard of the Interior….Secret Imperial Guard. The type that can’t see light.” Ning Que sat down beside the table, lifting a kettle and pouring out several big mouthfuls. Thinking that today he didn’t even have a sip of water when entering the Palace, unavoidably he felt a bit gloomy.

Knowing that Ning Que had the status of an official, with the decision last night of hanging on the thickest thigh in the world, Sang Sang squinted her two willow leaf eyes and happily laughed, but her focus on things she cared about was always rather direct.

“What’s the monthly salary?”

Ning Que stared blankly, putting down the kettle in his hands recalling the previous conversation, and with hesitation he said, “No matter what it should be forty or fifty silvers right?”

Sang Sang scrunched up her brow, her dark little face was full of discontent. “I hadn’t imagined it would be so much.”

Ning Que shook his head smiling and with an air of lecturing said, “Now we have a net worth of two thousand silvers. From now on we speak with a little more gravity.”

Sang Sang heard these words, and the discontent in her face instantly disappeared without a trace, and smiling jubilantly she clasped her little hands together and said, “Master previously when you left, the other side quietly sent the silver over.”

Ning Que was a bit puzzled. Walking straight beside the little maid at an angle, he curiously asked, “Where did you put it?”

Sang Sang discreetly glanced outside. After putting down the needlework in her hands, and using her two little hands to grasp two corners of the blankets around her feet  she then, a bit nervously, pulled open a slit. With a slight nod of her chin she indicated for him to look inside.

Ning Que’s brow slightly twitched. With a bit of disbelief he looked inside of the blankets, and could only see that beside Sang Sang’s thin legs, there was actually a bag of tightly packed silver. Even though it was covered with thick blankets, with just the extremely dim light, the dazzling s.h.i.+ne of silver could be seen.

With his mouth slightly agape, and forcefully suppressing the excitement in his heart, strongly feigning calm he lectured, “I had already said…..ahem ahem…..we’ll carry more weight, with exactly these two thousand silvers. Seeing you so excited and nervous…….I felt something was wrong. What were you doing nestled on the bed in the middle of the day? So it turns out you were worried about this – could it be that you don’t feel the silver is poking painfully?”

Sang Sang raised her little face and looked at him, and very firmly and seriously shook her head, indicating that this type of thing called silver doesn’t hurt people one bit.

Ning Que coughed twice again, and rubbing his little maid’s head affectionately he said, “Two thousand two hundred silvers can still be covered up by one bed and one blanket. In the future when your master earns millions, at that time what would you do?”    ……    ……

Spring weather in ChangAn was very beautiful. From time to time a rush of spring rain would fall, filling all the streets and alleys, and sprouting the green leaves and tender blossoms. Whether you stood at the doorway or were at a pavilion, you could see sights of the color of life. In East City at 47th Street it seemed as if the colors of life were becoming denser and denser, all coming alive; flourishment gradually appearing.

After the Spring Wind Pavilion Incident, ministers of departments were demoted. The purged Department of Transportation was purged from top to bottom into emptiness, disrupting a good many months of matters of land appropriation that naturally nothing came out of. On the other side of the wall, the enclosed purged Department of Transportation’s storeroom was in a deathly stillness like a great mausoleum. Even though the Fish Dragon Gang was forced into the public view, they still didn’t forget to take advantage of taming the Night Scene. This time no one dared to touch this street of Chao XiaoShu’s, and didn’t even dare to glance at it.

It was fundamentally a good location, a wonderful spot for a peddler, and quiet amidst the bustle. Nowadays without pressure from the government and the discouragement from dark forces, those tightly locked shop doors naturally once again opened. Whether they were new bosses taking over, or an old boss who saw an opportunity and quickly bought it back to rent out, they all rolled up their sleeves, using these warm spring days to prepare for a flurry of big endeavors.

The business industry was an industry of people, and aesthetic was exactly what would ama.s.s a rich atmosphere of the flow of people. In days of the past, 47th street only had one shop open, half-dead with bones showing in declining health. Naturally no one had a reason to come by, and business was very poor. Nowadays, all of the shops on the street were open. Under the spring trees, liveliness was soaring, and naturally the flow of people would come gathering.

Compared to the shop next door, the business of the Old Brush House still wasn’t considered extremely good, but compared to the period of stark autumn of new businesses, it was better by an unknowable amount. Everyday Sang Sang was extremely busy, with more and more smiles on her little face, and she insisted that her master not hire more helpers.

As for Ning Que, from his bones he still had a bit of a scholarly youth’s sourness. Seeing the liveliness before him, and thinking of the former starkness, he viewed the customers buying calligraphy with more displeasure. Today with more than two thousand two hundred silvers at hand, how could he still take the income of the Old Brush House seriously? Thus he simply raised the prices higher and higher by a large margin. In his view, since now they weren’t short of money, if you all come visit to buy for cheap, then naturally you must pay a bit more silver, such that it can be worthwhile for myself. Only then could I spit out the angry resentment from days past.

However, the situation developed beyond what he imagined – the price of calligraphy rose and rose, finally rising to five times when they first opened. But who would’ve thought that there would be more and more customers coming to buy calligraphy? Even though the Old Brush House’s reputation was still a late-comer success in ChangAn City, but within a small vicinity of East City, it was already considered a brand.

“So it should be played like this?”

Ning Que was holding a small tea pot and leaning on the doorway and sizing up the guests in the shop, while pleasantly sipping two sips of tea – and listening to the sounds of an argument in a newly opened nearby fake antique shop, thinking that life was truly d.a.m.n good.

What the bosses of the street shops didn’t know was that for 47th Street to come to life again, was due to the connection of that young boss of the Old Brush House and them being able to earn plates and bowls full of money. They didn’t know that if it wasn’t for Ning Que helping Chao XiaoShu that rainy spring night of killing in all directions, this street would still be as deathly still as before. Today in their eyes, the young boss of the Old Brush House was just merely useless garbage that couldn’t earn money and could only enslave a maid.

Business was good, and more silver was earned. The people naturally easily became happy, but it could also easily give birth to some new problems. Thinking while well-fed and warm, and that today business happened to be good for four or five days, that fake antique shop boss had the intention to take a concubine. Today this deed caused an intense argument, precisely starting a big fight over this matter between this boss and his main wife.

“Relying on your looks, you actually have the gall to want a concubine?”

“Why am I not good enough?”

“Mom says you’re not good enough, then you’re not good enough. If you want to force me, then I’ll sue you in ChangAn court!”

“Empress Mother wouldn’t even care about this matter! Why would ChangAn’s government care! Ning Que that kid can even have a little maid, and you want to kick me out of bed everyday. What’s wrong with dad wanting some warm feet!”

“You want me to give you warm feet? There aren’t any even at the Vermilion Bird Gate! Unless that kid Ning Que becomes the Emperor!”

“He’s not even named Li! Where would he be the Emperor of!”

“Moon Kingdom (Yue Lun Kingdom), South Jin (Nan Jin), Great River (Da He), as long as the world has it, he can become the Emperor of whereever country he wants!”

Ning Que held onto a teapot pleasantly sipping tea, listening in a corner with great interest, while secretly praising that the people of my Tang Dynasty are brave, as open minded as this; in an argument they actually dared to mention the matter of the Imperial Throne. Suddenly his expression became stiff, only now did he understand that this argument actually mentioned him, and he couldn’t help but to feel a bit annoyed.

Just in this moment, the customers of the shop scattered and left. Sang Sang was amidst tidying the furnis.h.i.+ngs atop the table, and he angrily charged inside and shouted, “There isn’t a single day that goes by, that that couple actually used me in their argument, and even absurdly dared to talk about politics of their own Court. Are they treating me, an Imperial Guard as dead? Tomorrow I’ll enter the Palace and report them, and get their whole family executed!”

These words weren’t false, he had a Secret Imperial Guard tablet, and it was originally for the duty of investigating the sentiments of the people of the Empire on behalf of the Court; and in a neighborhood within the city there was someone talking about the Imperial Throne, of course he could report to the higher-ups – just that even though the Tang Dynasty’s laws were harsh, the theories of governance for the people were extremely relaxed. These words of a small argument between husband and wife were in the heat of anger. Without even mentioning the Imperial Guards, even if the case was handed before His Majesty the Emperor, it’ll probably only cause those n.o.bles to laugh.

Sang Sang on the contrary thought of her own worries these past few days, and knitting her thin eyebrows she asked, “Master, when we were little you told me a story that being a spy would always lead to a miserable death. Now you’re a Secret Imperial Guard. Wouldn’t that be troublesome?”

Ning Que put down the teapot, and shook his head saying, “Even though that’s a tablet that can’t see the light, but by itself it’s just an insignificant little role. Who would suspect my ident.i.ty? Further, if after today there really are troubles, then couldn’t I just escape?”

After a short pause, he looked at Sang Sang and softly explained, “I accepted this ident.i.ty also for another reason. In the future if I really have to go investigate those matters, and kill those people – having a great Secret Imperial Guard ident.i.ty will always be a little more convenient.”

Sang Sang was originally a little maid too lazy to think about things. Hearing his explanation she felt it was logical and thought no more of it, and said, “The umbrella cover, the blade sheath and the overcoat are done. Master, when are you going to kill that second person?”

“How’s the blade? Does it need to be resharpened?” Ning Que asked.

Sang Sang seriously replied, “Even if it was to kill a pig, there will definitely be a problem killing more than ten. Of course it needs sharpening.”

This dialogue between the pair of master and servant always skipped along swiftly –  between them they would absolutely have no obstacles of communication, with especially calm and normal expressions on their faces. If some outsider heard, they absolutely wouldn’t think that they were talking about the damage of that man-slaying blade on that rainy spring night, and the b.l.o.o.d.y affair of going to kill people yet again.

Just in this moment, at that end of 47th Street, there was a burst of loud talking voices, and there was a crowd flooding from that direction over. Ning Que curiously walked to the shop door, and glanced over at that side, and the expression on his face slightly changed.

He could only see a group of blue s.h.i.+rt, blue pants, and blue booted men in an enveloping protective formation, and that calm and casual middle-aged man in a whole outfit of blue clothing, cupping his hands and talking to the bosses of the shops. His face wrought with a gentle smile; from time to time cupping his hands, talking and smiling, for the most part saying I’m going through, bosses please relax and go about your business, if there are problems use subordinates as much as possible to handle it.

After the middle-aged man’s explanation, the five or six silent men standing behind him cupped their hands in propriety.

That blue-robed middle-aged man went in front of every shop and stayed for a bit, saying a few words, and seemed extremely patient – the group of underlings behind him followed his slow stroll, gradually moving along the street to this end.

On this side of the street there was a shop selling calligraphy called the Old Brush House.    ……    ……