It had been a year since he transmigrated, and this was the first time Tang Shen had left Gusu. At first he was quite interested and kept standing on the bow of the boat to look at the scenery on both sides of the river. But after looking at it for a long time, he became tired of it, so he went into the cabin instead. In the evening, everyone arrived at Jinling City. Tang Shen did not go to Jinxiu Pavilion with the shopkeeper of Zhenbao Pavilion. He and Accountant Lin went to walk the streets of Jinling City.

You c an fi nd t he la te st cha pte rs at ( th e bl mu se . c o m )

The thousand-year-old ancient capital, ten li of Qinhuai. The willows flutter lightly in the spring breeze, and the children of Jinling are full of pride. (TN: li, ancient measure of length, approx. 500 m)

The two strolled around several bustling markets in Jinling and came to Jiangnan Academy.

Accountant Lin: “This is the place where the little boss will take the juren exam in the future. If you pass…” His voice paused, “Hey, what am I saying? I really said the wrong thing, I must slap myself. The little boss will naturally pass the exam. After you become a juren, you will come to this academy to study. It’s okay if you don’t come, but at least you must be enrolled and registered.”

Jiangnan Academy was a special place. Except during imperial examinations, only the juren students there could step inside for classes.

Tang Shen took a look outside and felt that this place was not much different from Ziyang Academy.

The two of them went to visit Fuzi Temple and Wuyi Lane.

Tang Shen said with emotion: “By the Red Sparrow Bridge the wild flowers are spreading, At the very ends of the Black Robe Lane the sun is setting. Swallows used to nestle before the Wang and Xie’s manors. Now they are now flying in and out of the houses of commoners. So this is Wuyi Lane!” (TN: wuyi=black robe, poem “The Black Robe Lane” by Liu Yuxi (772-842))

Accountant Lin was startled: “What did the little boss say?”

Tang Shen: “Nothing, I don’t know where I heard the poem, just recited it casually.”

Accountant Lin: “Where did the little boss hear this poem? It can’t be recited. ‘Swallows used to nestle before the Wang and Xie’s manors. Now they are now flying in and out of the houses of commoners’. Putting aside the Xie family, they are indeed no longer at their height. But the Wang clan of Langya is a large aristocratic family, an extremely influential and wealthy clan! If someone hears you cursing the Wang and Xie families to decline behind their backs, there will be big trouble!”

“…Hah?”

Accountant Lin: “Little boss, please don’t recite it anymore.”

Tang Shen nodded repeatedly: “Okay, okay, I won’t recite it anymore.”

So it seems that in this world, the Wang and Xie families haven’t gone bankrupt yet!

The two of them only wandered around for two hours, and soon the moon hung in the air and the day fell into the night. Tang Shen wanted to find a place to rest first, but Accountant Lin hesitated for a while and said, “This place is very close to the Qinhuai River.”

Tang Shen was confused: “Huh?”

“Little boss… came to Jinling specifically this time to see the unique beauty of Jinling, the singsong girls on the Qinhuai River?”

Tang Shen was stunned for a long time before he realized what the singsong girls meant.

Was he so lustful?

Tang Shen coughed and reminded: “Accountant Lin, I am only fourteen this year.”

“I remember that when I was fourteen, I was already engaged to my wife who passed away long ago.”

“…”

This conversation is unable to be held any longer!

Tang Shen certainly didn’t want to go to the Qinhuai River. In fact, he came to Jinling to inspect the market. The living conditions of the people in Jinling City, and what kind of merchants were there in Jinling City were all the things he wanted to observe. At the same time, he also planned to go to Jinxiu Pavilion the next day. Jinling City was indeed wealthy, but if you want to sell essential oil and scented soap well, you couldn’t do it only with money.

Tang Shen planned to go to Jinxiu Pavilion and help Shopkeeper Fang design the store display for essential oil and scented soap, just like he did in Gusu City.

But having already come here…

Tang Shen said: “Want to go and take a look?”

“Let’s go.” Accountant Lin said with a look on his face that practically broadcast “I just knew you wanted to go”.

Tang Shen: “…”

Was it too late to change his mind now?!

Du Mu once wrote a seven-character quatrain: Mist envelops the cold water, and moonlight shrouds the sand. Not far from a tavern I moor my boat in the Qinhuai at night. Singsong girls, not knowing the bitterness of a conquered kingdom, sing gaily A Song of Courtyard Flowers on the river’s other side. (TN: A Song of Courtyard Flowers, a musical piece composed by the last emperor of the Chen Dynasty of the Southern Dynasties in Chinese history. It was later regarded as a tune presaging the fallen state)

In the Song Dynasty, the country was peaceful and the people were at peace. Naturally, what the singsong girls sang now was not the song of the country’s subjugation, but the song of prosperous times. On the Qinhuai River at night, rows of painted boats swayed gently with the water waves, with lights and shadows and the sound of oars. Tang Shen did not board any of the boats. He walked along the river bank and looked at this prosperous scene from a distance.

The sound of singsong girls’ pipa and qin mixed with the sound of the Qinhuai River.

Tang Shen suddenly said: “Mist envelops the cold water, and moonlight shrouds the sand! Yes, this is Jinling!”

Accountant Lin was confused.

The next day, Tang Shen went to Jinxiu Pavilion. Shopkeeper Fang had known that he was coming and greeted him outside the door. Tang Shen roughly described the store display design he envisioned. Shopkeeper Fang froze on the spot and repeated: “Mist envelops the cold water… moonlight shrouds the sand?”

“Yes.”

“Is this written by Tang gongzi?”

“No, I heard this from others.”

“This is a poem to last the ages! Tang gongzi, don’t worry, as you said, I will find someone to prepare the water and white sand to re-decorate my Jinxiu Pavilion according to your advice. Mist envelops the cold water, and moonlight shrouds the sand. Just this sentence, I dare to say that the essential oil will be a big seller in our Jinling City.”

Half a month later, soap, scented soap and essential oil were put on the market together in Jinling City.

This time, Jinxiu Pavilion did not deliberately hide the soap and did not sell it first like Zhenbao Pavilion did. Because Jinling City was close to Gusu City, people in Jinling have known about soap for a while now and even bought soap from Gusu City. Jinxiu Pavilion sold the three items together. At the same time, the Zheng family also asked someone from the Wang family of Langya to write an inscription for them and hang it in Jinxiu Pavilion.

“Mist envelops the cold water, and moonlight shrouds the sand.”

Signed, Wang Zifeng.

When Shopkeeper Fang got this inscription, he was shocked and said: “Boss, how did you get Wang xianggong to inscribe it!”

The owner of Jinxiu Pavilion, the current head of the Zheng family, Zheng Hao, also felt strange: “Originally, I only wanted to ask the second young master Wang to write an inscription. Considering the relationship between my Zheng family and their Wang family, it shouldn’t be troublesome. Coincidentally, the eldest young master Wang went home to visit family, and this poem somehow came to his ears. He praised it and wrote the inscription personally, and before returning to Shengjing gave it to the second young master.”

Shopkeeper Fang said: “How wonderful, how wonderful! Boss, although we don’t have the “Golden Mist” inscribed by Liang daru himself, we do have Wang xianggong‘s calligraphy. In Jinling, it is much more useful than Liang daru‘s!”

Not only was it useful in Jinling City, Shopkeeper Fang thought to himself: Even if this inscription was displayed in Shengjing, it would be an extremely golden sign!

Of course Tang Shen didn’t know about these things. He was only responsible for the store display. Who would have thought that Shopkeeper Fang was indeed a shrewd businessman. He even used the marketing method of asking an influential individual to write an inscription, and the results were even better than his.

After returning to Gusu City, with only more than a month left before the academy examination, Tang Shen began to study hard.

Later generations often talk about ones’ name appearing on the gold list. Most people also know about the zhuangyuan, bangyan, and tanhua, but they don’t know much about the low-level examinations such as the juren and the xiucai, and they don’t know the complexity of the tongshi. If you pass the county exam, you were a tongsheng; if you passed the prefectural exam, you were a xiucai.

But this did not mean that every xiucai had the opportunity to become a juren. After all, there were only so many rooms in Jiangnan Academy, and if everyone took the examination, how could it fit everyone. If a xiucai wants to take the examination to become a juren, other than using some special methods, most xiucai must pass the academy examination to get the opportunity to participate in the provincial examination and become a juren.

Tang Shen still wrote two eight-legged essays and one test poem every day. If Liang Song was in Gusu City, he would send it to his teacher for review every day; if Liang Song was not here, he would keep it until Liang Song came back.

Soon it was the day before the academy examination. Because he had to get up early the next day to go to the examination hall, Tang Shen rested at you shi (5-7pm). But at xu shi (7-9pm), someone suddenly knocked on the door. Yao San was awakened and opened the door where a travel-worn man stood outside. He was wearing a smock, which hid his face, and asked in a low voice: “Is this Tang Shen’s residence?”

Yao San said warily: “Exactly, who are you?”

Tang Shen was woken up, put on his clothes and walked out of the house.

The visitor said: “My name is Xu Hui, and I am Liang daren‘s nephew. Go tell Tang Shen, and he will know.”

“Yu Zhi?”

Xu Hui raised his head and saw Tang Shen.

Tang Shen: “Come in first, we can talk about it in the room.”

Xu Hui entered the room with a serious expression and refused to speak. Tang Shen understood what he meant: “Brother Yao, you can go to the yard. This is Xu Yuzhi, sir’s nephew. Sir must want to tell me something.”

Yao San nodded and left the room.

Tang Shen asked: “Did something happened to Mr. Liang?”

Xu Hui shook his head: “No. Daren is still in Jinling City. I’m afraid he won’t be back for a few days.”

“Then?”

Xu Hui hesitated for a moment and said: “Daren has not come back yet, but there is something that I can’t wait for. Tang Shen, I’m afraid you don’t know that daren has gone to Jinling City several times in the past six months to save an old friend. That old friend of daren‘s has been imprisoned in the imperial prison for twenty-five years. Half a year ago, daren received news that for some unknown reason someone seemed to want to plot against that person.”

Tang Shen thought to himself, wasn’t this person Zhong Wei, Zhong daru?

On the surface, he pretended not to know: “Who wants to harm sir’s friend?”

“I don’t know either. But early this morning, A person returned to Gusu City from Shengjing to attend the funeral for one of his relatives. He will only stay for two days. I don’t have time to inform daren, and I’m afraid daren also have no way to deal with the matter.” After a pause, Xu Hui said: “Tang Shen, I can tell you that this person has some relationship with the current emperor. Everyone knows that the current emperor is obsessed with cultivating immortality and only favors the demonic daoist Li Xiaoren. The news I investigated is that one of Li Xiaoren’s lay disciples had returned to Gusu City. If one wants to inquire about Shengjing and try to figure out the emperor’s thoughts, he is the best way.”

Tang Shen frowned and said, “You want me to help you investigate?”

Xu Hui sighed: “I am also desperate. Daren is too noble and upright. Even though he is the governor of Gusu Prefecture, his power and connections in Gusu probably does not even compare to your Tang family, so I can only come to you for help. I hope you can ask Tang juren to give it a try.”

Tang Shen pondered for a moment: “Are you in a hurry?”

“That person will leave tomorrow evening!”

“Okay, come with me.”

Tang Shen changed clothes and went out with Xu Hui. Xu Hui thought he was going to take him to the Tang Manor. Unexpectedly, Tang Shen and Yao San made a big turn, but instead of going to the Tang Manor, they came to a big courtyard house.

Yao San knocked on the door, and a muscular middle-aged man came out. When he saw them, he said, “Little boss, Brother Yao.”

Tang Shen: “Brother Liu, if I remember correctly, you are in charge of the logistics business in Tongde Lane, right?”

Liu Haozi said: “Yes. Is there something you want me to do, little boss?”

Tang’s Logistics business had already gone on the right track. Three months ago, Tang Shen specially selected some smarter employees and promoted them to supervisors to manage the logistics business of a neighborhood division. This Liu Haozi was one of them.

Tang Shen: “If you are asked to find out information about a family, is it possible? That family lives in Tongde Lane.”

“Three days later, I can tell the little boss what color underwear that person is wearing that day!”

“What if it’s only one day?”

Liu Haozi was stunned: “I can only do my best.”

“Okay, then you will listen to this gentleman tomorrow and do what he says.” Tang Shen introduced Xu Hui to Liu Haozi.

Liu Haozi nodded repeatedly.

Xu Hui looked at Tang Shen gratefully and cupped his hands.

Tang Shen and Yao San left.

You c an fi nd t he la te st cha pte rs at ( th e bl mu se . c o m )

Yes, from the very beginning, when Tang Shen decided to start a logistics business, it was to place informants in Gusu City. In his previous life, he read a book about a legendary family, the Rothschilds. In the 19th century, the Rothschild family relied on its powerful information network to learn the outcome of the Battle of Waterloo at the first moment. They took advantage of the time difference to make a fortune and became the world’s richest family.

Information was the most powerful tool for making money.

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