Chapter 100: The First Step (Asking for monthly tickets! Asking for subscriptions!)

Zhao Jin shouted it out loud, and everyone shouted along with him, then they all burst out laughing together.

The weather was turning warm, and more and more children were playing over at the freight yard, but few of them were the same age as Zhao Jin and his friends. Ever since Zhao Jin and his group had stopped going there often, the freight yard martial contests had turned into pure childish horseplay — no prizes, no organization — and soon everyone drifted apart.

Seeing Zhao Jin and his whole group coming over, the children playing at the freight yard all got excited and automatically spread out to form a circle on their own, thinking there was going to be another contest today.

No one expected Zhao Jin to walk up onto the earthen platform and shout loudly: "Today I've come to hire some hands. Listen carefully and spread the word. If someone you bring gets hired by me, I'll give you a hundred wen to buy something tasty."

A hundred wen — to the children playing at this freight yard, that was a huge sum. The children went quiet at first, then immediately began gathering toward the earthen platform.

"I want to hire sturdy young fellows fifteen and older. They have to be able to endure hardship, have to dare to fight, and can't have any bad habits. When they come here, they'll have to sign a written contract. Once they come, I'll provide two meals a day, morning and evening, and pay a hundred wen a month in wages. If they get injured or sick, I'll cover the costs out of my own pocket."

Though the children below were innocent, they knew quite a bit about the world. Hearing talk of three meals and a hundred wen a month in wages, every one of them was stunned, their faces filled with disbelief.

"One more thing — the people who come must have the consent of their parents or elders, and those elders must also put their mark on the document. Without that, I won't take them. Tomorrow at noon, at the shop on the east side of the freight yard, someone will be out front doing the recruiting. Rest assured, my word is good. For every person you introduce, I'll give you a hundred wen. Hurry up and go — if you're too slow, the people you know will get dragged over here by someone else." Zhao Jin shouted loudly.

The children below looked at each other, then suddenly scattered outward, all of them running off brimming with excitement. Although what Zhao Jin had said was astonishing, every child who played here knew one thing: Big Brother Zhao never deceived anyone. His word was solid.

Watching the children scatter and run off in all directions, Zhao Jin turned to Liu Yong and said, "You head back to the God of Wealth Temple first. Keep a tight watch on Chen Ergou. Remember to find two clever and reliable people — whatever news there is, come tell me here."

Liu Yong nodded in agreement. He had only taken a few steps when he was called back. Zhao Jin gave him a serious warning: "Staying alive comes first. If you run into trouble, come find me. Don't go trying to tough it out on your own."

Liu Yong, moved, cupped his fists in salute, then quickly strode away.

At the freight yard, Zhao Jin told everyone to head home on their own and arranged that they would not go home for lunch the next day at noon. Everyone agreed. Shi Manqiang and Ji Xiang would go and let their families know. Wang Zhaojing and Chen Sheng had barely slept the night before and went back first to catch up on rest.

Only Dong Bingfeng and Sun Dalei stayed to accompany Zhao Jin back to the courtyard to practice martial arts. In truth, Zhao Jin was also fighting off waves of drowsiness, his eyelids battling each other, but he could not sleep. Many things from last night and today had flaws, but in the end, the objective had been smoothly achieved. Still, Zhao Jin was clear in his heart that trouble still lay ahead. Whether he could firmly grasp this tiny, insignificant scrap of territory was not yet certain.

Zhao Jin woodenly thrust out, one stab after another. Wood splinters flew from the hole at the "neck" position of the wooden target, growing deeper and deeper. Bitter training produced divine skill — Zhao Jin's relentless perseverance made his martial technique ever more precise.

The sun was slanting west, about one shichen before dark, when an unexpected visitor arrived at the courtyard — none other than Zhao Jin's father, Zhao Zhentang.

"Let your friends go back first. There are some family matters." Zhao Zhentang instructed, his expression indifferent.

Dong Bingfeng and Sun Dalei both politely greeted him, then went out the gate and headed home. Zhao Jin also tidied up a bit. Once those two had left, Zhao Zhentang closed the courtyard gate, turned around, and stared at Zhao Jin, not making a sound for a long while.

Zhao Jin instinctively prepared to retreat. That slap last time had truly hurt too much. He asked, puzzled, "Father, didn't you say there were family matters?"

"Nothing. Come inside and talk!" Zhao Zhentang said coldly, then walked into the house with his hands clasped behind his back. Zhao Jin hurriedly followed him in.

Once they were both inside, Zhao Zhentang stood still in the bedroom area without moving. Zhao Jin had earlier piled all the gold, silver, and such onto the kang bed, and immediately felt this was bad, thinking to himself that now he was going to be interrogated down to the last detail.

Unexpectedly, Zhao Zhentang instead looked around at the furnishings of the room. After Zhao Zhenxing died, He Cuihua had come here and tidied the place up once, and Zhao Jin himself had kept it well, so everything was still as it had been.

"Your second uncle had a stubborn streak from the time he was little, and to his death he never listened to me. You must never learn from him." Zhao Zhentang said in a deep voice, clearly stirred by the sight of this dwelling.

Zhao Jin nodded, knowing it was already too late to hide the gold and silver on the kang. Zhao Zhentang sat down directly on the edge of the kang, swept his hand across its surface, then turned to look at Zhao Jin and asked, "You killed Copper Head Cheng?"

As expected, it could not be concealed. Zhao Jin froze for a moment, then nodded and admitted it. Zhao Zhentang slowly shook his head and said in a bitter voice, "This morning when that monkey-head called out, I felt something was off, but I was sleeping too heavily. I woke again half a shichen later and only then realized you were already gone. I thought you'd gone to practice martial arts. When I saw the blood on your spear, I knew otherwise."

So his father had not actually followed him over, Zhao Jin thought to himself. Zhao Zhentang swept his hand across the kang again, messing up the gold, silver, and copper coins even more, then fixed his gaze on Zhao Jin and said, "What exactly are you after, to be so recklessly bold? Just for this silver and coin? Let me tell you — though our family isn't rich, we do have this much. Your mother and I have only you, a single sprout. If something really happened to you, what would the two of us do? Back then I promised your second uncle I'd listen to you more, let you make more of your own decisions. But with you like this, how can I set my mind at ease?"

Zhao Zhentang's words were somewhat disjointed, yet his concern for his son was written all over his face. Zhao Jin could only stand there with his head lowered and listen to the lecture. Zhao Zhentang looked around again, sighed, and said, "Your second uncle had a broader vision than me and saw things more accurately than I do. So tell me — what exactly do you want to do?"

"Father, I want to accomplish things. To accomplish things, you need people, you need silver, you need information. But relying on just us few youngsters, all of that would take years. And in a few years, everyone will have long since gone their separate ways and can never again band together with one heart. So I want to build an enterprise, to bind everyone together. That day I went to find Copper Head to ask about Xiaolan being abducted..."

At this point, Zhao Zhentang's expression shifted from helpless anger to something more serious. Zhao Jin knew that speaking the honest truth was having an effect, and continued: "... Copper Head not only refused to tell me, but afterward he planned to collude with those bandit monks from Cloud Mountain Temple and use us to curry favor. Father, you helped this Copper Head plenty, yet he was so utterly vicious and ungrateful. A man like that could not be left alive. And his territory was exactly what your son needed. Since that was the case, I simply killed him and seized it, to serve as the foundation for my first step."

Zhao Zhentang's brow furrowed. He stared at Zhao Jin and said, "Five years ago, just watching an execution nearly scared you to death. Now you talk about killing so casually. In just a few days, you've got nearly ten lives on your hands. Aren't you afraid of the law? This is a capital crime, you know."

"I am afraid. That's why your son acted so carefully. No one has any proof that your son did it. Even if someone heard something, they'd assume it was someone else. As for today's brawl at the God of Wealth Temple, it won't even make it to the yamen." Zhao Jin answered clearly.

Zhao Zhentang was stunned for a moment, then a smile appeared on his face. He shook his head and asked, "Do you think Copper Head could just have a piece of territory in Xuzhou City out of thin air? I helped him a few times, but your old man here was not his backer. Do you think that after killing someone, no one will come after you, and you can really hold onto that turf?"

"Father, that backer of his is surely just after money anyway. Would you trouble yourself to go speak with that backer? Whatever Copper Head gave him, your son will give him ten percent more."

Zhao Zhentang was stunned again. He shook his head and laughed, "You're certainly generous."

Then, with disdain, he said, "Clerk Li from the Punishment Office, with a dozen or so unofficial runners under him — that's Copper Head's backing. Nothing much to speak of."

After saying this, Zhao Zhentang slapped the edge of the kang, stood up, and said, "I don't know what all your second uncle taught you, but you're surprisingly clear on the ins and outs of this. Fine. If you want to do it, then do it. If you can't keep it going, come back and take over this executioner's post of mine. If there's anything you need me to step in for, speak up quickly. Your old man's face doesn't carry much weight — if you wait too late to use it, it won't do any good."

Hearing that his own father was actually so supportive, Zhao Jin smiled and bowed with clasped hands. When he raised his head, he said, "There really are a few things I need to trouble you with, Father..."

When he went back for dinner that evening, Mu Shulan was angry. She deliberately avoided sitting next to Zhao Jin and instead sat across from him. Zhao Jin could guess the reason for her anger — it was probably because he hadn't taken her to that courtyard these past two days.

Zhao Zhentang came back later than usual. When he sat down, he said to Zhao Jin, "Everything you mentioned has been arranged. Someone will go over to help tomorrow."

"You two, father and son, always muttering mysteriously," He Cuihua couldn't understand what they were talking about and couldn't help grumbling.

The night passed without incident. Early the next morning, Zhao Jin went out for his run. When he passed the Wang family's gate, Wang Zhaojing was already waiting there. The two advanced side by side.

"Brother Zhao, everything you do truly has its reasons. Ever since we started running, both my footwork and my sword strikes have become much steadier." Wang Zhaojing said with a smile, opening the conversation.

After running a couple of steps, Zhao Jin asked, "Given your family's connections and sources of information, they already know you've been doing these things, don't they? I consider you a friend, and I know you want to help. But your scholarly honors are what matter most. If those get delayed, it will delay your entire life."

No matter what his own opinion of the imperial examinations might be, for people of this era, studying to become an official was the best path forward. And Wang Zhaojing was one of those fortunate ones — diligent, brilliant, with a powerful background — who even had solid confidence in passing the most difficult provincial exam. A heaven-blessed prodigy like that, if he followed Zhao Jin into the streets and the rivers and lakes, into brawls and fights — at best, people would say he was disgracing his scholarly status; if he got injured, that would truly be a lifetime ruined.

Zhao Jin needed Wang Zhaojing's help, but he did not want his own selfishness to cost the other his bright future. So he had to make this clear beforehand.

Hearing this, Wang Zhaojing laughed a few times, his running stride even becoming a little unsteady. He said lightly, "When I returned yesterday afternoon, my father called me over and asked about some things. He asked whether I was willing myself. I said I was. My father had nothing more to say, only that he would test my essays regularly. If my studies regressed, I would be confined to the house immediately. Not to boast, but your younger brother's comprehension of the exam essays and classics is far higher than his martial skills — how could there possibly be any regression?"