Chapter 315: The Old Man Wang Jian

"Haha!"

"Young Master—"

"Young Master, we succeeded, we succeeded!"

From the back of the village, several joyful voices suddenly traveled from afar, drawing closer.

"Young Master!"

"Huh!"

However, when Su Pei and the others ran to the front of the village and saw a group of fully armed Imperial Guard, their voices stopped abruptly; their original smiles vanished instantly, replaced by fear on their faces.

They thought these people had come to arrest their Young Master.

"Xiao Pei, come quickly and pay your respects to the old general; do not be rude."

"Greetings, General."

Hearing this, Su Pei and the others realized these Imperial Guard were not here to arrest the Young Master, so they each let out a sigh of relief and hurriedly bowed in salute.

"It is nothing! It is normal for young people to be lively; I actually envy it."

The old man waved his hand. "Little one, what did you say succeeded?"

He had come today both because of a request from someone else and out of his own interest, so he asked with a bit of curiosity.

"Ah!"

Su Pei hesitated upon hearing this and glanced at Su Fan.

"Why not take it out and show the old general?"

Su Fan naturally knew what the other party was hesitating about, so he said calmly.

He was not surprised that the paper was a success; after all, he was already familiar with the papermaking process.

And now, this mysterious old man clearly had an extraordinary status and was very likely a high-ranking general in the army; if so, he had just happened to catch the opportunity he originally wanted to establish a connection with the high officials of the Great Qin Empire.

Hearing Su Fan speak, Su Yuan hurriedly took out the stack of paper he had been hiding behind his back.

The paper was yellowish and not like the flat, crystal-clear paper of later generations; it was similar to rough paper, so it seemed there had been some failures during the process.

"What is this?"

The old man was curious.

"This is white paper, which this young one ordered people to craft."

"White paper? What is it for?"

"It is used for writing. This young one is a successor of the School of Fiction and has written a few novels and storybooks. I want to spread these throughout the world and promote the reputation of my School of Fiction, but relying solely on storytelling, I do not know how many years it would take."

"And if one were to publish using bamboo slips, it would be even more difficult."

"So, I thought that if there were a kind of material similar to silk for writing, it would not only be faster to write, but one could write more, and it would be more convenient to carry and spread."

"This is the white paper you speak of? It can be written upon? Let me try it."

The old man's eyes lit up suddenly upon hearing this. Although he was a general, he understood that if it were truly as this youth said, then for the Great Qin Empire's government, the appearance of white paper would at the very least make official documents much easier to transmit.

It would accelerate communication between the central government and local authorities.

"Xiao Pei, go bring the brush and ink."

Su Fan did not hesitate when he heard this and gave the order.

Before long, Su Pei brought the brush and ink over.

In this era, the writing brush already existed, but few people used it; after all, when writing with a brush on bamboo slips, ink was a problem, as it was easily wiped away.

If one encountered rain or sweat, the characters on the bamboo slips would be washed away, making it inferior to carving characters into bamboo.

The yellowish white paper, while not comparable to the white paper of later generations, was about the same as the white paper of the Han and Tang periods.

It could also absorb ink, so Su Fan quickly wrote a few Qin seal script characters.

"Good, good, good!"

Looking at the Qin seal script appearing on the white paper, the old man showed a satisfied smile on his face.

"Young man, you are very good. Are you willing to hand over this papermaking technique to the government?"

The old man looked at Su Fan with bright, piercing eyes.

He was also testing him in his heart. Was this papermaking process precious? It was naturally extremely precious. Once this white paper came out, it would inevitably replace bamboo slips in the future.

After all, it was too convenient; whether for writing or carrying, it was extremely convenient, as anyone could see.

Then, in the future, even if white paper were very cheap, when it involved the whole world, it would still be a terrifying figure, and even he felt a little tempted.

"Handing it over to the government is naturally fine."

"Originally, this young one was worrying about how to hand this technique over to the government, as I do not know anyone in the Lesser Treasury and have no connections."

Su Fan smiled and said after hearing this.

"You are truly willing to hand it over? I did not force you."

"And do you know what this technique represents? This technique, not to mention making you as wealthy as a nation, could at least make you the wealthiest in the world."

The old man said with a chuckle; he did not believe the other party could not see the value of this papermaking technique.

"General, please do not tease me. This papermaking technique is indeed of extraordinary value, but for a young one like me, it is also a key to a death sentence."

"I understand the principle that an innocent man is guilty of his own treasure. If I had the strength of the General, then I might consider keeping it for myself."

"However, I still have self-awareness. I believe the Empire will not treat me unfairly if I hand this technique over to the Empire."

"Good lad!"

The old man laughed heartily upon hearing this, seeming quite pleased.

"This young one was raised by my master since childhood and practiced Qi in Donghai for several years, but now I have reached a bottleneck. Entering the world this time, one reason is that I accidentally obtained the Inheritance of the School of Fiction and decided to make a name for the School of Fiction; the second is that I hope to use the Great Qin Empire to improve my cultivation."

"Therefore, let this papermaking technique serve as my capital for advancement. I wonder what the General thinks of this?"

Su Fan looked at the old man solemnly.

"Good lad, you actually calculated your way onto this old man."

Upon hearing this, the old man instantly understood the other's intentions, yet he was not angry; instead, he said with a somewhat cunning smile, "Do you know who this old man is?"

"This lad is seeing the old general for the first time, so naturally I do not know. However, the general is as vigorous as a dragon and fierce as a tiger, and those beside you are all the cream of the army, the elite of the Empire, so this lad dares to guess that the general must have been a great general in the Empire's military."

"So this lad invited the general, hehe! I also wanted to borrow a bit of the general's prestige, so that if I can enter the officialdom in the future, it will be easier to navigate."

Su Fan also followed up with a cunning smile.

"Haha! You lad are quite hypocritical. Aren't you afraid that this old man has great enemies at court who might implicate you, causing you to be kicked out before you even enter the Empire?"

"Haha! I believe that if the general truly had great enemies, I fear you would not care about a small fry like this lad."

Su Fan felt more and more that the identity of the old man before him was not simple.

"Ahem!"

"This old man is Wang Jian."

Wang Jian stopped teasing him; interacting with this lad gave him a rare sense of comfort, and it had been a long time since he had laughed so heartily.

The moment he first saw him, Wang Jian felt that this lad was very much to his liking.

"So it is the Marquis of Wucheng, the Great General himself. Please forgive this lad for my poor eyesight."

Upon hearing this, Su Fan's Divine Soul also trembled; he had not expected to encounter such a person here.

The pillar of the Great Qin; there have been many generals in history, but generals who destroyed nations are few and far between, and Wang Jian is the cream of the crop among generals who destroyed nations, having destroyed many states in his lifetime.

More importantly, for such a person to remain safe and sound in his later years is truly remarkable.

After all, generals whose merits overshadow their masters rarely get to enjoy their later years in peace.