In Bianjing, in just the western section of the outer city alone, there were six training grounds of various sizes. This undoubtedly further compressed the living space for Bianjing’s residents and was one of the minor reasons for soaring housing prices. But there was nothing to be done – that was the cost of increasing Imperial Guard numbers both inside and outside the capital?
Among these, a training ground located by the river had recently been filled with flying dust and thundering hoofbeats day after day.
On the open area by the riverside, skilled cavalryn were spurring their horses over extrely complex obstacles, and soon three to five n had failed the challenge.
On the training field, dozens more were practicing grappling and wrestling with each other.
At this mont, a carriage slowly entered the training ground, and a young police officer stepped down from it.
There was only one police officer who could ride in a carriage – that was Zhang Fei.
“Zhang San?”
Tao Zi, who had been dozing at the gate, imdiately walked over upon seeing Zhang Fei.
Zhang Fei looked around for a mont and asked, “Tao Zi, where are the young masters?”
Cao Dongdong and Ma Xiaoyi had been imrsed in training grounds since childhood and were very familiar with everything here. Truth be told, aside from their height, both n’s archery and horsemanship already t very high standards.
Therefore, Zhang Fei had entrusted them with the task of training the police officers.
“Uh, the young masters, they…”
Tao Zi imdiately began to stutter.
Zhang Fei smiled and said, “Alright, their slacking off is all within my expectations.”
Tao Zi hurriedly said, “The young masters aren’t actually slacking off, it’s just that recently many young gentlen have been coming to find them about license plates, so…”
Zhang Fei asked, “Where are they?”
“Over by the stables.”
“Fine. I’ll go take a look myself.”
Zhang Fei quietly made his way to the stables, hiding behind a corner wall and peering around. He saw more than ten richly dressed dandies admiring Cao Dongdong’s carriage.
More precisely, they were admiring the license plate.
“Look at our license plate – eight, eight, eight, eight. Look at our craftsmanship, look at our red lacquer – how imposing it is! This plate alone cost us a full eight hundred strings.”
Cao Dongdong spoke with complete conviction.
Zhang Fei nearly burst out laughing. This kid was a natural-born salesman who could lie without batting an eye.
The actual price was one hundred strings.
“That expensive?”
“Our premium numbers are also ranked by quality. My four eights are top-tier premium numbers – ordinary premium numbers aren’t this expensive.”
“I have to say, it does look different from others’.”
“Regular cargo carts use blue lacquer, private carriages use green lacquer. But only our premium numbers use red lacquer – you can tell the difference at a glance,” Ma Xiaoyi imdiately added.
“So red lacquer indicates high status?”
Cao Dongdong shook his head. “Not exactly. Imperial family license plates are all gold lacquer.”
“Dongdong, do you know His Majesty’s license plate number?”
“Heaven series, zero-zero-zero-one. And only imperial family plates use special symbols.”
“I see.”
“You’re all Cao Dongdong’s brothers. With our status, why would we compete for those ordinary numbers? We definitely need premium numbers!”
“That makes sense. If you get a red plate and we get green plates, we’d be too embarrassed to go out with you in the future.”
“Alright, we’ll wait for these premium numbers to co out.”
Half an hour later.
Cao Dongdong and Ma Xiaoyi walked arm-in-arm toward the main hall.
“Hehe, Little Ma, Brother San’s devious idea really is good. When we sell these premium numbers, we should easily make tens of thousands of strings.”
Cao Dongdong chuckled.
Ma Xiaoyi’s eyes glead. “Brother, if we only sell a few plates each day, we might be able to make even more.”
“Right, right, right! That’s what we’ll do. Haha!”
“Brother San?”
Ma Xiaoyi suddenly saw Zhang Fei sitting in the main hall and imdiately ran over excitedly, smiling broadly. “Brother San, do you know what we were just doing?”
Zhang Fei smiled. “Selling license plates.”
Cao Dongdong, who had just entered behind him, said, “How did you know?”
“I saw everything just now.”
Zhang Fei smiled and said, “I never expected you two to have such talent for business.”
Cao Dongdong snorted. “Do you even need to ask? This young master simply doesn’t like studying, otherwise I could easily pass the graduate-scholar examination.”
Oh! Getting cocky now. Zhang Fei chuckled. “Nowadays graduate-scholars are as common as dogs. What’s so special about that?”
Cao Dongdong’s eyes lit up. “I love hearing you say that! Exactly right – graduate-scholars are as common as dogs. What’s so special about them?”
Ma Xiaoyi suddenly asked, “By the way, Brother San, why did you co here?”
Zhang Fei smiled. “I ca to find you two because I want to invite you to do sothing fun.”
Cao Dongdong waved his hand dismissively. “Forget it. I just went to Moon Attainnt Inn yesterday, and I really don’t want to go today. Sigh, lately I just want to eat sothing light.”
Upon hearing this, Zhang Fei almost kicked him.
Ma Xiaoyi also seed uninterested. “Brother San, you don’t know – these past few days people have been inviting us to dinner every day. We’re already tired of it all, which is why we brought those brothers here today to discuss the license plate business.”
Ever since that lawsuit, the two of them had imdiately beco the darlings of the dandy circle, with people inviting them to dinner every day. It was truly nights of music and revelry, with countless affairs to handle.
But after the passion faded, there was inevitably so emptiness.
It seed that throughout history and across the world, it was all the sa – the drought-stricken died of thirst while the flood-stricken drowned. Zhang Fei looked enviously at these two young n, but said instead, “Shallow! Who said the fun thing was going to Moon Attainnt Inn?”
Cao Dongdong asked curiously, “Then what are we going to do?”
Zhang Fei whispered, “Of course we’re going to do sothing exciting, like extortion and blackmail.”
Ma Xiaoyi said, “Brother San, that’s illegal!”
Zhang Fei replied, “I’m a pen-in-cap. I can make illegal things legal, and still squeeze money out of the other party.”
Cao Dongdong imdiately beca interested. “Who do you plan to extort?”
Zhang Fei hesitated for a mont, then said, “I’m currently planning to extort the Gu family. Last ti it was that Gu Shaoqing who set up. I still rember that grudge – I just don’t know if there’ll be an opportunity.”
With a swoosh, Cao Dongdong and Ma Xiaoyi imdiately flashed to Zhang Fei’s side, each grabbing an arm and looking at Zhang Fei expectantly.
“How do we do it?”
They had all been present at the ti, so they rembered that debt too.
South of Xiang-guo Temple’s gate was a very famous comrcial street called Embroidery Lane. As the na suggested, the entire street was filled with shops selling embroidery.
Many won would use the pretext of burning incense to co here and shop.
Of course, with so many won around, it also attracted many young scholars and young masters to co here and have fun.
Across from Embroidery Lane was a restaurant called Vegetarian Moon Inn, which specialized in serving vegetarian als to wealthy young n.
At this mont, three young n stood by the window of a private room on the second floor.
They were Cao Dongdong, Ma Xiaoyi, and Zhang Fei.
“Brother San, that shop called ‘Spring Breeze Ten Li’ at the street corner across from us is the Gu family’s silk shop.”
Ma Xiaoyi pointed across the street. “Since that’s the Imperial Street, when it was strictly regulated before, carriages weren’t allowed to travel on it. So people coming out of Xiang-guo Temple’s south gate usually walk this way. That corner used to be quite spacious – it was originally a large open area. But later the Gu family built a shed extending outward, then built a house, then another shed and another house. They’ve already encroached on more than ten ters of land. Look, there’s still a shed set up outside now, and they’ll probably build more houses in the future.”
Cao Dongdong looked at Zhang Fei and asked, “Will this place work? If not, the Gu family also has a wine shop on Horse Market Street that has encroached on quite a bit of street space.”
Zhang Fei stared at that corner, pondering for a long while, then said, “This place will do. With so much embroidery and silk stored under that shed, I’ll destroy it all and make him pay compensation. Damn it, I want Gu Shaoqing to know that what he threw back then wasn’t dung, but gold.”
Cao Dongdong asked excitedly, “So how do you plan to do it?”
Zhang Fei frowned. “The only problem now is that there are shop assistants guarding under the shed. It wouldn’t be good if we hit soone.”
Ma Xiaoyi’s eyes darted around. “That’s easy to handle. As long as several custors go in at the sa ti, the shop assistants inside will be too busy, and the ones outside will have to go in to help. With so many people here, who would dare to steal?”
Zhang Fei gave Ma Xiaoyi an approving look. “You’re still the clever one, kid.”
Three days later.
Zhang Fei, Ma Xiaoyi, and Cao Dongdong visited Embroidery Lane again, but this ti they quietly arrived in an unlicensed carriage, stopping under a large willow tree beside Xiang-guo Temple.
Three pairs of shifty eyes stared at the distant shop.
It was currently mid-morning, with people coming and going, making the street sowhat crowded.
Before long, they saw a rchant carrying a cloth bag enter Spring Breeze Ten Li.
“It’s starting! It’s starting!”
Ma Xiaoyi exclaid excitedly from inside the carriage.
Imdiately after, four or five more custors successively went to Spring Breeze Ten Li.
Sure enough, the shop assistant under the shed also went inside the store.
The coachman who had been feeding his horse under the tree imdiately jumped onto the carriage.
Right then, a freight wagon was approaching from the opposite direction, and the driver could be seen wearing a police officer’s uniform.
At the sa ti, urgent bell sounds rang out from around the corner. Though the carriage couldn’t be seen, pedestrians were already beginning to move aside.
Zhang Fei excitedly clenched his fists and chanted, “Ho run, ho run, ho run!”
Cao Dongdong asked, “What’s a ho run?”
Zhang Fei replied, “It ans hitting everything, not leaving him a single piece of embroidery.”
Imdiately, all three chanted together, “Ho run, ho run, ho run!”
Accompanied by their chanting, the atmosphere inside the carriage beca tense.
In the blink of an eye, the two carriages quickly t at the corner, both moving at considerable speed. Just as they seed about to collide, the freight wagon on the right suddenly made a sharp right turn, heading straight for the shed of Spring Breeze Ten Li.
The pedestrians on the street didn’t even have ti to cry out before they saw the wagon’s wheels get caught in a small drainage ditch under the shed, causing it to imdiately tip over under the shed.
A pitiful neighing sound was heard, followed by a trendous crash.
The exquisite embroidered silk under the shed was completely ruined by the green paint that spilled from the overturned wagon.
“Bull’s-eye!”
The three n in the carriage shouted in unison.
Zhang Fei excitedly slapped Cao Dongdong’s shoulder. “That guy’s technique is impressive! What a beautiful crash!”
Cao Dongdong chuckled, “Of course! This is the most skilled driver from our police headquarters, and he even trained specifically for two days. There was no way he could ss up.”
“Oh no! My embroidery! My embroidery!”
The shopkeeper who ca out was so frightened by the scene that he gestured wildly, crying out frantically.
Another “Oh no!” was heard as a uniford police officer stood up from a pile of embroidery. “Oh no! My back! My paint! My wagon!”
Instead of weeping together, the shopkeeper rushed forward and grabbed the patrol officer by the collar. “How do you drive a carriage, you fool?”
The police officer cried out, “This isn’t my fault! That other guy was driving badly and almost hit . I couldn’t avoid it in ti, so I crashed over here.”
“I don’t care!”
The shopkeeper’s face contorted with rage. “Either way, you destroyed my embroidery. You compensate for my embroidery! You compensate for my embroidery!”
Just as the two were entangled in their dispute, a carriage slowly passed by. The curtain slightly parted, revealing three pairs of excited eyes watching everything unfold.
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