Chapter 43: Life Never Gives You A Chance To Breathe
E Ji wanted a house the size of one hundred mu of land, which would require a lot of money. Yun Ce discovered that this family was hiding a lot of money on them, and he wanted it very much.
It was just that he couldn’t use robbery, at least not before this group of people offended him. Robbery and rape were very vile behaviors, beyond Yun Ce’s moral view. A person clearly had many ways to achieve the goals that robbery and rape could achieve, yet chose the stupidest one.
So it made sense that even thieves looked down on robbers and rapists.
E Ji failed to sell seats, so she immediately started selling food. Although there wasn’t much food on the sheep cart, she still sold it. She believed that in a little while, her man would definitely get her more food.
She kept enough grain for the four little girls to eat, as well as that half jar of minced meat, and sold the rest, including a pottery jar for cooking porridge.
This transaction was very successful. E Ji got a large bag of money, with cash worth a thousand per piece making up more than half. Once she had the money, E Ji ignored that family.
She needed to discuss properly with An Ji and the others how much her small courtyard could be expanded with the money just earned.
Liang Kun clicked his tongue and said, “Half a horse, a bag of wheat, a bag of millet, half a bag of beans, and a pottery jar, sold for one hundred thousand cash—this business is something Liang has never seen in his life, much faster than robbery.”
Yun Ce laughed and said, “What I have, others don’t; others need what I have in abundance. Plus, it’s an exclusive business deal, so the profit is naturally higher. This is the way of merchants. Why resort to robbery?”
Feng An shook his head and said, “When thirsty, one does not drink from the water of Piracy Spring; when hot, one does not rest in the shade of evil trees. Brother Liu strongly restrains his urge to rob and follows the way of merchants—he is truly a gentleman.”
1 Liang Kun glanced at Feng An and said, “Since when have the standards for a gentleman become so low?”
1 Feng An laughed and said, “In peaceful days like those in Anping, it’s relatively easy for a gentleman to uphold his integrity. In chaotic times, having a gentleman like Brother Liu is a blessing for us scholars.”
1 After explaining to Liang Kun, Feng An said to Yun Ce, “No wonder Zhang Gong Yaliang’s recommendation letter for Brother Liu contains praise beyond the ordinary.”
1 “You have a recommendation letter?” Liang Kun’s voice carried a hint of crowing.
1 Yun Ce took the recommendation letter from his bosom and handed it to Liang Kun, saying, “Take a look. My character is still well guaranteed in Zhang Gong Yaliang’s eyes.”
1 “He was killed by a pig demon. I heard not only was he not left whole, but he was also crushed into meat paste by a horse carriage.” Liang Kun had run a bit slower and knew a little about it.
1 Yun Ce and Feng An exchanged a glance, each carefully stowed their now out-of-print recommendation letter, let out a long sigh, and continued on their way.
1 E Ji ran up to Yun Ce, rubbing her head against his chest like a drill, with only one purpose: she had no more goods to exchange for money and needed Yun Ce to go find some.
1 The women of the Great Han had pretty good height. When Yun Ce first saw E Ji, their heights were about the same, both over one meter seventy. In this time, Yun Ce had grown ten centimeters taller, but E Ji hadn’t grown any, though when holding her in his arms, there was a bit more fleshiness.
1 Seeing that this girl was almost going crazy with her desire to do business, Yun Ce had no choice but to go to the grass by the roadside and see if he could find some snakes or the like.
2 Yun Ce’s method for finding snakes was simple: he dripped more than one drop of multi-foot snake venom on the ground. The originally quiet grass immediately rustled, and in the blink of an eye, snakes and insects crawled out from the grass in panicked flight, no longer minding the large birds circling in the sky.
2 Watching the large bird circle down, Yun Ce quietly waited with his long-handled bow. When the large bird folded its wings and flickered past to catch the snakes and insects, Yun Ce released the bowstring. Arrows whistled out one after another. The claws of the four large birds hadn’t even grabbed the snakes and insects before their bodies were pierced by the arrows.
2 The large birds had strong vitality. Even after being shot, they still flapped and struggled on the ground, their wings spanning fully two meters when spread.
2 When one of the birds stopped flapping, Yun Ce went over, grabbed its neck, and weighed it. He found that this kind of bird weighed a full twenty jin. After removing the feathers and internal organs, it should yield seven or eight jin of meat.
2 There weren’t many such birds in the sky. The others, seeing their fate, wailed and flew off into the distance at high altitude. Yun Ce scanned the four directions with his bow and arrow in hand, and in a moment, the sky was empty of living things.
2 Those snakes, to resist the large birds, had very consciously formed snake formations on the ancient road. Yun Ce broke off a forked tree branch and naturally beat these snakes to death, carrying them in his hand.
2 E Ji saw that there were goods again and happily danced with joy. The other girls, including the four little ones, couldn’t help but cheer together.
2 Speaking of which, women’s excitement points were right here. They liked seeing men return fully loaded, especially men who returned fully loaded for them.
2 Feng An and Liang Kun knew this very well and understood the reason, but they couldn’t do it themselves, so they could only help Yun Ce out and process the game.
2 Yun Ce was highly skilled at processing game. After removing the thighs and wings from a bird, only the chest with its two pieces of muscle remained; everything else was skin and bone.
3 The large bird’s wings were very big. Yun Ce divided them into wing tips, wing middles, and wing roots, neatly stacked in a basket, very merchandise-like.
3 E Ji had a special fondness for the legs of the four large birds because, after plucking such a bird, the most attractive part was that pair of plump thighs. From the skinny calves with prominent bones, past the joints, they suddenly bulged into thighs that very much attracted the eyes of meat-eaters.
3 As for those snakes with colorful exteriors, the terrifying parts were just the heads and skins. After removing the heads, peeling off the snake skins, and carefully removing the poison sacs, strips of snow-white dried meat strips were sprinkled with salt by Yun Ce and neatly arranged on a wooden board.
3 At dinnertime that evening, E Ji wouldn’t let anyone eat the good stuff. She took out four huge bird bone frames, put them in four pottery jars to boil, and gave each person a grain for fodder cake as dinner.
3 Tomorrow was an important time for doing business. E Ji led the women to sleep early. Only Yun Ce, Feng An, and Liang Kun sat by the campfire, driving away the doggies that kept coming to harass while chatting.
3 Feng An was a young man of profound knowledge. Although his family wasn’t very wealthy, just a poor scholar family in Pingyuan City, three generations had never stopped studying. His grandfather and father hadn’t achieved scholarly success, nor had they become bailiffs in the yamen. Instead, they carefully ran an ink shop.
3 After his grandfather and father died, he lived with his old mother. Last year, his old mother passed away. Feng An sold the family’s ink shop, scraped together some money, got a recommendation letter from Zhang Gong Yaliang, and prepared to try his luck in Chuyun Prefectural City, hoping to secure an official position in one go to comfort his long-departed ancestors.
3 Yun Ce listened carefully to Feng An’s past because it was very enlightening to him. After all, Liu Chang’an’s past should be of this type, and only people of this type had the cleanest foundations and were most easily appreciated by great figures.
3 Taking advantage of the flickering firelight, Yun Ce looked at Feng An’s appearance again and couldn’t help saying to him, “You have a high chance of marrying a noble family’s daughter in the future.”
3 Liang Kun said from the side, “A true man standing between heaven and earth should wield a horizontal knife and leap onto a horse, rely on the talent in his chest and the spear in his hand to win a splendid future for himself. Relying on women—what kind of skill is that?”
4 Feng An covered his mouth and chuckled twice, saying, “A gentleman adapts to circumstances: he does not fall in the wind, remains safe in the rain, and dies with the frost when it comes—that is also a realm.”
4 “If a noble family’s daughter pleases me, I will naturally seek her.”
4 Liang Kun’s family wasn’t much better off than Feng An’s, just that there were many people in the household. During this escape from disaster, although he had gotten out, he had been abandoned by his family because of a high fever. It seemed his relationship with his family wasn’t good, also related to his temperament of looking askance at everything.
4 His talent was still very good, and his views on certain matters were even sharper than Feng An’s, but just a bit sharper. With such a personality, Yun Ce seemed to already see his miserable future.
4 The three took turns keeping watch, and before they knew it, the sky brightened. Today’s weather wasn’t great; in the morning, the sun couldn’t be seen, and the dark clouds were drifting very high. It looked like no rain would fall—such weather was best for traveling.
4 E Ji had her gaze fixed ahead from early in the morning, thinking they’d encounter business objects after walking a bit. In the end, many of her business objects were dead, gnawed into bones by doggies.
4 With the business objects dead, naturally business couldn’t be done. But E Ji still got rich because the doggies didn’t know the importance of money. After devouring all the blood and flesh of E Ji’s customers, they left all the money for her.
4 After asking Yun Ce and Liang Kun to help her dig pits and bury those corpses, the money left by those people naturally became E Ji’s own.
4 While burying the third wave of remains, Liang Kun cried hard with his head down. Yun Ce and Feng An exchanged a glance and dug the pit exceptionally deep.
4 Once the remains were buried, Liang Kun gave a bitter laugh and said, “I thought they would live longer than me.”
5 Yun Ce shook his head and said, “Once people die, hatred and kindness lose their origin of attachment. Laugh once, cry once, and it’s over.”
5 Liang Kun gritted his teeth and said, “If not getting over it, then what?”
5 Feng An said, “Another day and a half, and we’ll see Sheyang City.”
5 Liang Kun threw away the short stick in his hand and said hatefully, “What then, even if we reach Sheyang City?”
5 Feng An laughed and said, “We have recommendation letters, worth ten thousand cash. After Zhang Gong Yaliang’s death, they are called his final works—his recommendation letters are even more valuable now.”
5 Liang Kun took out his recommendation letter from his bosom and casually tossed it into the fire. Yun Ce was quick and fished it out, handing it back to Liang Kun, saying, “Sometimes, rules are rules—things recognized by everyone. Without this, you might not even enter Sheyang City.”
5 Without entering Sheyang City, you can’t ride the public carriage or participate in Yun Prefecture’s Grand Competition. Even if you have a belly full of talent, then what?
5 They say that only after blowing away all the yellow sand does one see gold. This recommendation letter is the wind that blows away the yellow sand on you.
5 Liang Kun was silent for a long time, sighed deeply, and finally tucked the recommendation letter back into his bosom. He pulled over a thicker piece of firewood as a pillow and lay down to sleep.
5 At night, Yun Ce heard Liang Kun’s extremely suppressed crying.
