←still poor
The porter, carrying a bag of rice back to the inn, hadn’t even managed to deliver it to the kitchen before the innkeeper called out to him.
“How’s it outside?”
“I heard there’s a fight in the inner city…”
The innkeeper shuddered with fear and immediately went to close the door.
The porter quickly added the rest of his statement: “It’s the imperial guards clashing with the city patrol soldiers, the ones who locked down the market yesterday, that have started fighting. I’m not sure of the details. All I’ve heard is that it’s a fierce battle, with soldiers continuously rushing towards the inner city. The two doctors from the Good Medicine Hall on North Street were taken away by the soldiers, supposedly to treat the injured.”
The innkeeper didn’t breathe a sigh of relief upon hearing this; instead, he became even more anxious.
“What are we to do now, oh dear.”
Restlessly, a woman beside him advised, “The city gates are sealed; escaping is not an option. Worrying is futile. Maybe you should buy some more food while the rice shop is still open. In case of an emergency, we’ll at least last longer than others.”
“What do you know? If the capital descends into complete chaos, no matter how much wealth or food we have hidden at home, it will all be plundered. I fear even our lives will not be spared…”
The innkeeper cursed, followed by a heavy sigh.
Displeased with his cowardice, the woman turned away and left.
“Look at that, such a typical womanly perspective,” remarked the innkeeper.
The porter chuckled dryly, not agreeing with the innkeeper, thinking if they were afraid of having their food stolen, they shouldn’t buy any. But what would they do when they run out of food? There were still many guests in the inn who had not left. Even if they locked the main door, it wouldn’t hold up if chaos erupted inside.
As they were talking, suddenly a group of fierce-looking men arrived outside.
“Innkeeper, we’d like to stay.”
Pushed forward by the innkeeper, the porter answered with trepidation, “Dear guests, our inn is fully booked.”
“What, no room here either?!”
The leader of the men pushed his way through and grabbed the innkeeper.
With a slap of his palm as large as a fan on the counter, he sneered, “I somehow feel you still have vacancies. Or perhaps your firewood room and kitchen are fully occupied?”
“No, they are not. But those places are very cluttered and unfit for staying…”
“Who said we’d stay there? Get yourself and the porters to the firewood room, make room for us!”
The innkeeper turned pale, trembling as he tried to explain, “But the rooms we live in have no windows, and besides…”
Apart from furniture, they were hardly better than the firewood room.
The innkeeper of this inn was very stingy, harsh even on himself, let alone on the porters who had to live in shabby rooms next to the stable. Obviously, these rooms would not satisfy the men.
“Why don’t you move your guests to other rooms!”
“How could that be possible?” The innkeeper said, looking anxiously towards the door.
Immediately, he was thrown to the ground, grimacing in pain.
“There are soldiers outside, how can you…”
“They are not outside. This inn is so remote that even if you shouted, it would take a while for anyone to hear.” The thug looked at the innkeeper mockingly, “Besides, we are just staying here and paying; what could the authorities possibly say?”
He clenched his fist, menacingly looking at everyone in the inn.
Hearing the commotion, some guests from the second floor came out to see what was happening, but retreated in fear upon meeting the thugs’ gaze.
The lead thug gestured with his mouth, signaling his companions to grab someone and forcibly switch rooms.
The people behind him nodded in understanding and stomped up the stairs.
The layout of the inn was similar throughout, with only a few rooms in well-lit and ventilated positions, easily identified at a glance.
“Thump, thump, thump.”
The door rattled loudly from the banging, and just as one of the thugs was about to kick it in, the door suddenly opened.
Then, an invisible force pushed them, making them involuntarily step back. The people in front were pushed harder, while those behind were completely confused by the pressure from their companions.
The group stumbled back like a string of zongzi, half rolling down the stairs.
The thug who had been clutching the innkeeper’s collar changed his expression and drew a hidden dagger from his waist.
Upstairs, Lu Min carefully opened the door a crack, watching the scene at the neighboring room with a complex expression. He thought about the bad luck of these people; out of the four or five better rooms in the inn, why did they have to choose Master Meng’s?
At that moment, Mo Li walked out of the room.
Lu Min hesitated and asked in a low voice, “The commotion is too loud, won’t it attract the attention of the Taijing Prefecture officials?”
“You’re right, that’s why it’s me.”
Doctor Mo glanced at the Second Prince, then walked towards the stairs.
Lu Min: “…”
Suddenly, he thought that paying a hundred taels of silver for Master Meng to assassinate the emperor, oh no, to beat the emperor, seemed indeed a bit low. Master Meng must have agreed because it was a significant matter, not because of the money.
To Master Meng, street ruffians and thugs who couldn’t pay were unworthy of his attention. He wouldn’t take on a job unless it was big enough to cause a sensation.
The Second Prince’s misunderstanding of Meng Qi continued to grow, while Master Meng remained oblivious.
Meng Qi listened intently to the noises outside, wanting to step out, but the doctor wouldn’t allow it.
“It’s a minor issue.” Doctor Mo spoke lightly, his eyelashes slightly drooping, as if pondering something.
When Meng Qi was momentarily distracted, the doctor had already left.
Wait, they hadn’t agreed on the design of the water tank yet!
Meng Qi started to wonder, did the doctor seem a bit unhappy earlier? Disliked the water tank?
But in the capital, there were regulations against random excavation. Even digging wells required reporting to the officials, including the location and size of the well. Only after obtaining permission could one hire someone to dig the well, and finally, officials and yamen runners would inspect it. If the actual location differed from the reported one, one could be penalized.
This was the rule for ordinary people’s homes, as well as for the residences of the wealthy and officials.
Even for one’s own land and garden, official inspection was required.
On one hand, this was to prevent conspirators from digging tunnels, and on the other hand, it was for the safety of the capital itself. A thousand years ago, Taijing had once been flooded due to the nobility and wealthy families extensively building gardens outside the city, cutting off rivers and streams to create their own garden landscapes. When a sudden heavy rain came, the floodwaters couldn’t drain through the rivers, submerging half of Taijing.
Later, a wealthy family bought half an alley and extensively modified it, causing the entire street to sink.
Although Meng Qi could rely on his martial arts to dig a pond without needing craftsmen, finding a suitable location for a small pond—digging such a small pond was almost pointless.
Although in the Qi dynasty, a hundred taels of silver, and in the Chu dynasty, seventy taels of silver could buy a three-section courtyard house, that was the lowest price. Not only were the locations of these houses more secluded, but the areas were also narrower.
There was no shadow wall at the entrance, and the backyard could at most accommodate a few trees. Even if one were to dig a pond, the area of the pond wouldn’t be much larger than a water tank unless part of the house was demolished.
Or should the entire ground of the house be dug up to create a “pond” with a roof?
This was even more difficult than simply digging a pond.
Meng Qi leaned back in his chair, feeling a sense of helplessness he hadn’t experienced since his days as an official in the Chu dynasty.
As a dragon vein of Shangyun Mountain, encompassing nineteen peaks, he had as much land as he wanted. Yet, in the capital, he had to live modestly in a house bestowed by the emperor.
Now, he didn’t even have that house anymore.
Living deep in the dense forests is good, but the prosperity of the capital is also very appealing.
Ah, to own a thousand miles of land but not have a roof over one’s head, I guess only the dragon veins can do that!
Meng Qi started to recall where he had hidden money in the past. Besides the plaque in the imperial palace and the silver in the city gate tower, it seemed to be the former Imperial Teacher’s mansion and the Astronomical Observatory. As for the Ministry of Rites and the General’s mansions, etc., he still needed to check if these residences had been damaged and who owns them now.
Meng Qi quietly took out two silver ingots from his bosom.
This was what he accidentally found last night when he went to steal clothes, the house he recognized, where an old friend of his lived, and the things hidden there had not been discovered.
The two ingots together weighed about six taels of silver.
“Boom.”
A loud noise came from downstairs.
Meng Qi was startled, stuffed the silver ingots back, and walked to the window in three steps taken as two.
He saw dust flying, roof tiles from the houses by the street had fallen to the ground, and the common people were fleeing in terror.
A figure flashed, and Mo Li leaped to the window on the second floor.
Meng Qi quickly pushed open the window, just in time to welcome the person inside.
Just through this slit, a thick smell of gunpowder rushed in.
“What happened?”
“Those people were carrying gunpowder, probably something from the Thunderbolt Hall again,” Mo Li frowned and said.
Several streets away, the imperial guards and yamen runners who heard the noise were rushing over here.
At this moment, Lu Min was knocking on the door in a panic. Since Meng Qi hadn’t locked the door, he accidentally fell in.
Seeing the Second Prince, Mo Li couldn’t help feeling a bit embarrassed, because he had said he wouldn’t cause much commotion, but the opposite happened.
“Have we been discovered? Why would ordinary thugs carry gunpowder?”
“…Ordinary thugs wouldn’t, but it’s not certain with people from the martial world.” Mo Li, having experienced several such incidents, genuinely felt there was no conspiracy, perhaps just his own bad luck, the other party’s bad luck, and then meeting together.
“For such trivial matters, why use gunpowder?” Meng Qi couldn’t understand.
Mo Li was silent for a while before saying, “He threw a lot of hidden weapons, all of which were caught. Then, probably seeing red, he lost his mind and threw that dark wooden tube as well. I didn’t know what it was, afraid it might spray poisonous needles and accidentally hurt the common people, so I used my inner strength to deflect the hidden weapons and knock the tube aside. As a result, the tube broke upon impact, rolling out a dozen or so dark things.”
Those were the most famous Thunderbolt Eggs from the Thunderbolt Hall.
Mo Li didn’t recognize them at first, but after leaving Zhushan County, he had encountered them twice, immediately wrapping those deadly things with his inner strength and throwing them out of the inn, casting them into the air.
Fortunately, besides shattering tiles and causing them to fall, no one was injured.
“Do you know where they came from?” Meng Qi could only tell that these villains’ accents were not from the north.
“They didn’t announce their names,” Mo Li added, “They were all lying down underneath the inn after I hit their acupoints.”
“The imperial guards are here! What should we do?”
The Second Prince was already anxious enough to climb out the window.
←still poor
The porter, carrying a bag of rice back to the inn, hadn’t even managed to deliver it to the kitchen before the innkeeper called out to him.
“How’s it outside?”
“I heard there’s a fight in the inner city…”
The innkeeper shuddered with fear and immediately went to close the door.
The porter quickly added the rest of his statement: “It’s the imperial guards clashing with the city patrol soldiers, the ones who locked down the market yesterday, that have started fighting. I’m not sure of the details. All I’ve heard is that it’s a fierce battle, with soldiers continuously rushing towards the inner city. The two doctors from the Good Medicine Hall on North Street were taken away by the soldiers, supposedly to treat the injured.”
The innkeeper didn’t breathe a sigh of relief upon hearing this; instead, he became even more anxious.
“What are we to do now, oh dear.”
Restlessly, a woman beside him advised, “The city gates are sealed; escaping is not an option. Worrying is futile. Maybe you should buy some more food while the rice shop is still open. In case of an emergency, we’ll at least last longer than others.”
“What do you know? If the capital descends into complete chaos, no matter how much wealth or food we have hidden at home, it will all be plundered. I fear even our lives will not be spared…”
The innkeeper cursed, followed by a heavy sigh.
Displeased with his cowardice, the woman turned away and left.
“Look at that, such a typical womanly perspective,” remarked the innkeeper.
The porter chuckled dryly, not agreeing with the innkeeper, thinking if they were afraid of having their food stolen, they shouldn’t buy any. But what would they do when they run out of food? There were still many guests in the inn who had not left. Even if they locked the main door, it wouldn’t hold up if chaos erupted inside.
As they were talking, suddenly a group of fierce-looking men arrived outside.
“Innkeeper, we’d like to stay.”
Pushed forward by the innkeeper, the porter answered with trepidation, “Dear guests, our inn is fully booked.”
“What, no room here either?!”
The leader of the men pushed his way through and grabbed the innkeeper.
With a slap of his palm as large as a fan on the counter, he sneered, “I somehow feel you still have vacancies. Or perhaps your firewood room and kitchen are fully occupied?”
“No, they are not. But those places are very cluttered and unfit for staying…”
“Who said we’d stay there? Get yourself and the porters to the firewood room, make room for us!”
The innkeeper turned pale, trembling as he tried to explain, “But the rooms we live in have no windows, and besides…”
Apart from furniture, they were hardly better than the firewood room.
The innkeeper of this inn was very stingy, harsh even on himself, let alone on the porters who had to live in shabby rooms next to the stable. Obviously, these rooms would not satisfy the men.
“Why don’t you move your guests to other rooms!”
“How could that be possible?” The innkeeper said, looking anxiously towards the door.
Immediately, he was thrown to the ground, grimacing in pain.
“There are soldiers outside, how can you…”
“They are not outside. This inn is so remote that even if you shouted, it would take a while for anyone to hear.” The thug looked at the innkeeper mockingly, “Besides, we are just staying here and paying; what could the authorities possibly say?”
He clenched his fist, menacingly looking at everyone in the inn.
Hearing the commotion, some guests from the second floor came out to see what was happening, but retreated in fear upon meeting the thugs’ gaze.
The lead thug gestured with his mouth, signaling his companions to grab someone and forcibly switch rooms.
The people behind him nodded in understanding and stomped up the stairs.
The layout of the inn was similar throughout, with only a few rooms in well-lit and ventilated positions, easily identified at a glance.
“Thump, thump, thump.”
The door rattled loudly from the banging, and just as one of the thugs was about to kick it in, the door suddenly opened.
Then, an invisible force pushed them, making them involuntarily step back. The people in front were pushed harder, while those behind were completely confused by the pressure from their companions.
The group stumbled back like a string of zongzi, half rolling down the stairs.
The thug who had been clutching the innkeeper’s collar changed his expression and drew a hidden dagger from his waist.
Upstairs, Lu Min carefully opened the door a crack, watching the scene at the neighboring room with a complex expression. He thought about the bad luck of these people; out of the four or five better rooms in the inn, why did they have to choose Master Meng’s?
At that moment, Mo Li walked out of the room.
Lu Min hesitated and asked in a low voice, “The commotion is too loud, won’t it attract the attention of the Taijing Prefecture officials?”
“You’re right, that’s why it’s me.”
Doctor Mo glanced at the Second Prince, then walked towards the stairs.
Lu Min: “…”
Suddenly, he thought that paying a hundred taels of silver for Master Meng to assassinate the emperor, oh no, to beat the emperor, seemed indeed a bit low. Master Meng must have agreed because it was a significant matter, not because of the money.
To Master Meng, street ruffians and thugs who couldn’t pay were unworthy of his attention. He wouldn’t take on a job unless it was big enough to cause a sensation.
The Second Prince’s misunderstanding of Meng Qi continued to grow, while Master Meng remained oblivious.
Meng Qi listened intently to the noises outside, wanting to step out, but the doctor wouldn’t allow it.
“It’s a minor issue.” Doctor Mo spoke lightly, his eyelashes slightly drooping, as if pondering something.
When Meng Qi was momentarily distracted, the doctor had already left.
Wait, they hadn’t agreed on the design of the water tank yet!
Meng Qi started to wonder, did the doctor seem a bit unhappy earlier? Disliked the water tank?
But in the capital, there were regulations against random excavation. Even digging wells required reporting to the officials, including the location and size of the well. Only after obtaining permission could one hire someone to dig the well, and finally, officials and yamen runners would inspect it. If the actual location differed from the reported one, one could be penalized.
This was the rule for ordinary people’s homes, as well as for the residences of the wealthy and officials.
Even for one’s own land and garden, official inspection was required.
On one hand, this was to prevent conspirators from digging tunnels, and on the other hand, it was for the safety of the capital itself. A thousand years ago, Taijing had once been flooded due to the nobility and wealthy families extensively building gardens outside the city, cutting off rivers and streams to create their own garden landscapes. When a sudden heavy rain came, the floodwaters couldn’t drain through the rivers, submerging half of Taijing.
Later, a wealthy family bought half an alley and extensively modified it, causing the entire street to sink.
Although Meng Qi could rely on his martial arts to dig a pond without needing craftsmen, finding a suitable location for a small pond—digging such a small pond was almost pointless.
Although in the Qi dynasty, a hundred taels of silver, and in the Chu dynasty, seventy taels of silver could buy a three-section courtyard house, that was the lowest price. Not only were the locations of these houses more secluded, but the areas were also narrower.
There was no shadow wall at the entrance, and the backyard could at most accommodate a few trees. Even if one were to dig a pond, the area of the pond wouldn’t be much larger than a water tank unless part of the house was demolished.
Or should the entire ground of the house be dug up to create a “pond” with a roof?
This was even more difficult than simply digging a pond.
Meng Qi leaned back in his chair, feeling a sense of helplessness he hadn’t experienced since his days as an official in the Chu dynasty.
As a dragon vein of Shangyun Mountain, encompassing nineteen peaks, he had as much land as he wanted. Yet, in the capital, he had to live modestly in a house bestowed by the emperor.
Now, he didn’t even have that house anymore.
Living deep in the dense forests is good, but the prosperity of the capital is also very appealing.
Ah, to own a thousand miles of land but not have a roof over one’s head, I guess only the dragon veins can do that!
Meng Qi started to recall where he had hidden money in the past. Besides the plaque in the imperial palace and the silver in the city gate tower, it seemed to be the former Imperial Teacher’s mansion and the Astronomical Observatory. As for the Ministry of Rites and the General’s mansions, etc., he still needed to check if these residences had been damaged and who owns them now.
Meng Qi quietly took out two silver ingots from his bosom.
This was what he accidentally found last night when he went to steal clothes, the house he recognized, where an old friend of his lived, and the things hidden there had not been discovered.
The two ingots together weighed about six taels of silver.
“Boom.”
A loud noise came from downstairs.
Meng Qi was startled, stuffed the silver ingots back, and walked to the window in three steps taken as two.
He saw dust flying, roof tiles from the houses by the street had fallen to the ground, and the common people were fleeing in terror.
A figure flashed, and Mo Li leaped to the window on the second floor.
Meng Qi quickly pushed open the window, just in time to welcome the person inside.
Just through this slit, a thick smell of gunpowder rushed in.
“What happened?”
“Those people were carrying gunpowder, probably something from the Thunderbolt Hall again,” Mo Li frowned and said.
Several streets away, the imperial guards and yamen runners who heard the noise were rushing over here.
At this moment, Lu Min was knocking on the door in a panic. Since Meng Qi hadn’t locked the door, he accidentally fell in.
Seeing the Second Prince, Mo Li couldn’t help feeling a bit embarrassed, because he had said he wouldn’t cause much commotion, but the opposite happened.
“Have we been discovered? Why would ordinary thugs carry gunpowder?”
“…Ordinary thugs wouldn’t, but it’s not certain with people from the martial world.” Mo Li, having experienced several such incidents, genuinely felt there was no conspiracy, perhaps just his own bad luck, the other party’s bad luck, and then meeting together.
“For such trivial matters, why use gunpowder?” Meng Qi couldn’t understand.
Mo Li was silent for a while before saying, “He threw a lot of hidden weapons, all of which were caught. Then, probably seeing red, he lost his mind and threw that dark wooden tube as well. I didn’t know what it was, afraid it might spray poisonous needles and accidentally hurt the common people, so I used my inner strength to deflect the hidden weapons and knock the tube aside. As a result, the tube broke upon impact, rolling out a dozen or so dark things.”
Those were the most famous Thunderbolt Eggs from the Thunderbolt Hall.
Mo Li didn’t recognize them at first, but after leaving Zhushan County, he had encountered them twice, immediately wrapping those deadly things with his inner strength and throwing them out of the inn, casting them into the air.
Fortunately, besides shattering tiles and causing them to fall, no one was injured.
“Do you know where they came from?” Meng Qi could only tell that these villains’ accents were not from the north.
“They didn’t announce their names,” Mo Li added, “They were all lying down underneath the inn after I hit their acupoints.”
“The imperial guards are here! What should we do?”
The Second Prince was already anxious enough to climb out the window.
