Star Trace Gate

Chapter 814: Re-entering the world and seeing life

There are still three days left before the final test at the Emperor's Tomb.

Chaolong City, Human Inn, late at night, the end of the hour of Hai.

Senior Jiang Yu habitually sat in the southwest corner of the first floor of the inn, with his side face facing the night breeze outside the wooden window. A pot of aged liquor was placed on the long table in front of him. From time to time, he flipped through ancient books with his right hand, reading and drinking at the same time.

Next to the wine pot, there were two dishes of side dishes that had been eaten up, but he borrowed books to eat with his wine, so he didn't look poor at all, but rather had a sense of comfort.

It was almost midnight and this human inn, which had been bustling all day, returned to silence. The upstairs and downstairs were empty. Apart from the table where Jiang Yu was sitting, the only other guests left were the distinguished guests in the Hongge elegant room upstairs.

According to convention, the Renjian Inn usually closes after the hour of Xu, but today the group of distinguished guests upstairs did not leave, so the inn owner had no choice but to stay with them.

Senior Jiang Yu and the group of people from the park team have lived in the Renjian Inn for almost a year, so naturally they have some understanding of the inn.

The owner of Renjian Inn was surnamed Hong, who was probably in his forties. He was very smooth in dealing with people and looked very wealthy, weighing at least 250 kilograms. In addition, the inn he ran was located in the most central and prosperous area of Chaolong City, with four floors and more than 20 guest rooms. From the perspective of outsiders, he was doing quite a lot of business and could be considered a wealthy man with considerable wealth.

Therefore, when the shop owners in the surrounding areas saw him, they would respectfully call him Boss Hong.

If it were usual, Manager Hong would have gone to bed by this time, but today the group of distinguished guests upstairs had not left, so he couldn't rest either.

However, it was better to wait alone than with a group of people. After the hour of Xu, all the customers in the store left, and he asked the waiters to go back to their dormitories to rest, leaving him alone to wait.

Shopkeeper Hong usually doesn't drink, but today he took the initiative to pour himself a pot of the cheapest inferior wine in the store, and stood at the counter, collecting the bill while drinking it.

He was only ten steps away from Senior Jiang Yu, but the two of them never said a word to each other. They just went about their own business and neither disturbed the other.

But this is not because Manager Hong is arrogant to regular customers, but because he found that Senior Jiang Yu is a quiet person. He often sits alone to drink and read books to relieve boredom, and rarely talks to others. He has been running the inn for more than ten years and has seen all kinds of strange guests. He also knows that the best way to receive such people is not to go over and disturb them.

In the southwest corner, Senior Jiang Yu was sometimes drinking, sometimes flipping through books, his face was rosy and glowing, and he seemed to be reading with great interest.

The book in his hand was bought at a street stall in Changjiefang Market, and it was called "Jiuli Interesting Stories". Just by hearing the name, you can tell that this is a miscellany of unofficial history, and the content is mainly some folk rumors. The writing style is satirical and interesting, and even records many absurd and ridiculous behaviors of ancient clans, ancient families, and dynasty masters, and also blackens many sixth-rank people in the midst of laughter, anger and scolding.

This kind of book is despised by true literati and is considered a "folk reading material" that is not up to standard and not worth studying.

In the middle of Jiuli Interesting Stories, there is a record about the ruler of the ancient Hezhou Dynasty. About two thousand years ago, there was an ancient dynasty in Hezhou, called Wei, which was very powerful and had the strength to challenge the world.

After three generations of Wei, a ruler named Cao Rui came to the throne. When he first came to the throne, he was a man of great military and political skills, but he was obsessed with building large-scale projects.

One day, he dreamed that he was entangled by nine dragons. No matter how he tried to drive them away, the nine dragons flew around him and showed a submissive attitude. The next day, Cao Rui, the king of the country, woke up and was overjoyed. He thought it was a good omen and a hint from heaven that he could conquer the world and unify the nine tribes like the emperor.

Cao Rui decided to recruit 300,000 civilians to build the Nine Dragon Hall, the highest peak in Wei. The ministers advised him against it, saying that Wei had accumulated power for three generations and was now strong. Now it should take a rest and recuperation approach, grow secretly, and make steady progress, instead of wasting money and manpower to recruit 300,000 civilians to build such a wonder of the world.

Cao Rui refused and became angry. The ministers made another appeal, saying that if the Nine Dragon Hall must be built, it could be smaller in scale and cost less money and grain.

Cao Rui said angrily: "I was born an emperor, and now I have the Nine Dragons. All the people and things in the world grow here, and they are to be driven and used by me! The Nine Dragon Palace is a blessing from heaven, and you can stop persuading me. In ten years, the palace will be completed, and my Wei Kingdom will be helped by heaven!!!"

With one word from the King of Wei, 300,000 common people packed their bags, left their hometown and headed for the highest peak.

In order to fulfill Cao Rui's promise to build the palace in ten years, the government added layers of demands, using whipping and other torture methods to force the laborers to work day and night. When one batch died, another batch would be recruited.

Three years later, the State of Wei had spent a huge amount of money and grain, and encountered the heaviest rainy season in more than a decade. It rained heavily for more than 60 days. The harsh environment in the mountains and the slave-like labor caused a large number of civilians to die in the piles of rocks in the green mountains.

A large number of civilians died suddenly, leading to the spread of the plague, which spread rapidly. The government had exhausted all its money and food, and was unable to contain the plague, resulting in the entire Wei area being shrouded in the plague. The civilians fled under the tyranny, and the world was in chaos.

Three neighboring countries and six ancient clans took advantage of this opportunity to attack and divided up the entire Wei territory within a year. The Wei ruler Cao Rui was also hanged in the half-finished Nine Dragon Hall.

This anecdote records that Cao Rui was the only ruler among the countless rulers of the Jiuli Continent who died on a dragon beam because of building a house or a palace.

This record seems very absurd, with exaggerated and extreme words, describing Cao Rui, the king, as a complete fool.

Ironically, the unfinished Nine Dragon Hall still exists on the highest peak of Hezhou, and the green mountain is full of traces of excavation. These are the traces left by the families of the common people when they came to look for their loved ones after the collapse of the Wei Kingdom.

This record described Cao Rui in a teasing or even insulting way, which was quite interesting. But after reading it, Senior Jiang Yu did not smile as if he was looking at a fool. He just calmly picked up the wine glass and took a sip.

"Tap tap...!"

At the beginning of midnight, the sound of chaotic footsteps suddenly came from upstairs of the inn.

A group of young men in elegant clothes, reeking of alcohol, walked down the stairs, talking and laughing, arm in arm.

Upon seeing this, Shopkeeper Hong immediately took out the Star Source that he had prepared long ago from the counter and headed towards the stairs with a smile on his face.

"Hey, Master Xu, please walk slower..."

He stretched out his hand, hunched over, and very carefully reached out to stop the young man walking in front.

This young man was called Xu Deliang, and he was the eldest son of the Xu family, a noble family in Chaolong City. For five generations, the Xu family either served under the Yang family in Chaolong City, or were selected into the Xianlan Sect for their extraordinary qualifications, becoming the most honorable "orthodox" cultivators in the five cities of Xianlan.

Xu Deliang's four uncles were all cultivators of the third rank or above in the Xianlan Sect. So, although he was not good at either literature or martial arts, he had the qualifications to live a life of drunkenness and dreams all day long.

During this period, the Emperor's Tomb was opened and the whole Jiuli was bustling with activity. Many gambling houses in the five cities of Xianlan also offered odds regarding the Blood Guides, such as betting on how far they could reach, how long they could stay in the Emperor's Tomb, and so on.

Xu Deliang also loves gambling, but with his family wealth, the stakes in those gambling houses could not satisfy his desire to "get rich quickly". Therefore, he recruited a large group of playboys and came to Renjian Inn to gamble every now and then.

Well, the final test of the Emperor's Tomb has arrived, so they gathered here today to bet on the final winner.

On the wooden stairs, Xu Deliang looked at Shopkeeper Hong drunkenly and said with a smile: "Fatty Hong, you should change your menu. Every day you cook the same big fish and meat, and the cooking methods are the same. People are tired of eating them."

"Yes, yes. I am preparing to recruit a group of new cooks..." Fatty Hong nodded repeatedly, and handed his bag of Star Source to Xu Deliang, smiling and saying, "Business is good this month. Here is the standard payment of 120,000 Star Sources."

"Haha, brothers, you see, there is a reason why Fatty Hong can run this inn to such a scale. This person is good at enduring like a turtle, and he pays the money very quickly." Xu Deliang pointed at Fatty Hong and said with a teasing look on his face.

Several drinking buddies laughed at the sound, and one of them said, "Of course. Fatty Hong not only pays the money quickly, hehe... he also pays the people quickly!"

Shopkeeper Hong blushed slightly as he listened to the teasing of the crowd. He just lowered his head and said, "Gentlemen, you are joking."

"brush!"

Xu Deliang pulled out a new storage bag from his sleeve and said, "There are still a few friends who haven't placed their bets yet. We'll come back tomorrow. Hehe...don't forget to leave the door open for me."

When Shopkeeper Hong heard this, his hands couldn't help but tremble, but he still said, "I understand, I understand!"

"gone!"

“Slow down…!”

A group of noblemen, sent off by Manager Hong, left the inn in a swaggering manner, riding away in various luxurious carriages.

Shopkeeper Hong said goodbye to everyone with an expressionless face, closed the door of the inn himself, and then carefully placed the storage bag on the counter.

Today, he also drank a lot, about seven or eight taels, but just now in front of Mr. Xu, he behaved very soberly.

After walking out of the counter, Shopkeeper Hong turned his head and suddenly saw Senior Jiang Yu still sitting in the southwest corner. Then he remembered that there was still a table of guests in the store who had not "left".

He glanced at the table in front of Senior Jiang Yu, then paused for a moment and walked into the kitchen.

After a while, he personally cut a plate of braised meat and grabbed a plate of broad beans before walking back.

Shopkeeper Hong came to the table, gently put down two dishes, and said with a smell of alcohol on his body: "The waiters in the store are all asleep. I will go upstairs to clean up the private room and then prepare to go to bed. You should finish this pot of wine and go to bed early. These two dishes are my gifts, so they are not included in the bill."

Senior Jiang Yu looked up when he heard this: "You opened the store to support your family, why don't you charge money?"

"You are a regular customer. It's just two small dishes. Why are you charging me?!" Shopkeeper Hong smiled and waved his hands.

“What I mean is, why don’t you take their money, but instead pay them out of their pockets?” Senior Jiang Yu reached out and closed the book.

Shopkeeper Hong originally wanted to leave and go upstairs to clean up the mess left by the young masters, but after hearing this question, he sat down for some unknown reason.

Under the dim light, the two looked at each other for a moment, then Shopkeeper Hong picked up Senior Jiang Yu's wine and poured himself a glass with a sigh.

Senior Jiang Yu had waited quietly in his ancestral land for five hundred years, so he didn't like to be alone in a deserted place. That was why, despite the noise in the inn, he chose a place where no one was paying attention, listening to the noise in his ears while borrowing books and drinking.

He felt that Manager Hong wanted to chat, and he liked reading and listening to stories, so he did not get up and leave.

Shopkeeper Hong picked up the wine glass and drank it all.

As the spicy liquor entered his stomach, he smacked his lips in a rather vulgar manner and sighed, "Thirty years old, it's a good wine! But I've been running an inn for nearly half my life, and I've sold countless jugs of this wine, but I've only drunk it three or five times."

Senior Jiang Yu asked softly, "Do you owe those people money?"

"Yes. Regardless of whether this inn makes a profit or a loss, I need to pay the Xu family a fee of 120,000 Star Sources every month." Manager Hong nodded with a flushed face.

"How long will it take?" Senior Jiang Yu asked while drinking, like a gossipy old man who was willing to chat.