Chapter Ninety-Four: Something Is Amiss

By the time the sky had barely begun to brighten, the caravan was already on the road.

Fuchang was not far from Luoyang, and if one rode at a gallop on a swift horse, it would not take a full day to reach the city. But the convoy had many horses and wagons, and it was carrying goods as well, so it moved slowly. For that reason they had to set out early, and even then it would still take two days to arrive.

There were many travelers on the imperial road, coming and going, so the journey did not feel lonely. Along the roadside there were sometimes peddlers with their stalls, selling cakes, tea, and the like. The road itself was a packed earth way, laid over with a layer of coarse sand for drainage, fairly level and smooth.

A wagon’s wooden wheels had no elasticity at all, and the axle beams were connected directly to the body and the cargo box above. So every tiny rise and jolt beneath the wheels was transmitted straight upward.

Wei Renshi was not used to riding in a wagon, especially one without suspension. The constant shaking made him feel as though his insides had shifted out of place, and even his backside ached. In fact, it was not as good as an ass-cart; though much slower, its very slowness meant the ride did not seem so rough.

So he left the carriage and sat beside Old Stone, who was driving in front. Only then did he feel a little better.

“Master, why did you come out?” Dog Two asked, seeing Wei Renshi leave and no longer daring to sit alone in the back. He hurriedly asked the question.

“I’m getting some fresh air,” Wei Renshi said. “You stay seated.”

Only then did Dog Two sit back down again.

Along the way, Wei Renshi’s thoughts, carried by the wagon’s jolting, went drifting to the cart wheels.

How wonderful it would be if this wagon had some kind of suspension. How wonderful if the wheels had a bit of give!

Ah, how he missed that secondhand Ford hatchback of his.

After two days on the road with the caravan, they finally reached the outskirts of Luoyang in the evening.

Dingding Gate was bathed in the golden afterglow of the setting sun, still towering like a mountain.

Even though this was not the first time Wei Renshi had seen Luoyang, he was still struck by awe.

Since the Xia Dynasty, Luoyang had been one of the great cities of the Central Plains. It stood at the heart of the north-south and east-west arteries of travel and trade, with an extraordinarily important geographical position. Under the Sui, it was made the Eastern Capital, and in the Sui and Tang dynasties Luoyang reached the greatest extent of its scale, with Mang Mountain to the north, the mouth of Yique to the south, and the Luo River running through its midst.

The outer city formed a nearly rectangular plan, with eight gates, three each on the east and south, two on the north, and none on the west. In the northwest corner of the outer city lay the palace city, its walls built of rammed earth and faced with brick both inside and out.

Around the palace city, an imperial city was also erected along the east, south, and west sides. North of the palace city stood the Yaoyi and Yuanbi precincts. To the east of the imperial city was the Eastern City, and north of that lay Hanjia Granary City, used for storing grain. Within the outer city, a network of intersecting roads divided the space into numerous square and rectangular wards.

One main avenue, Dingding Gate Street, was one hundred and twenty-one meters wide, and the other streets connecting the city gates were forty to sixty meters across.

Each ward had its own enclosing wall, with gates on all four sides and a cross-shaped street within. In all, there were one hundred and nine wards and three markets.

Luoyang reached its greatest splendor in the Sui and Tang dynasties. Later, after being ravaged by war time and again, its walls crumbled and its ramparts broke apart. By the Ming dynasty, Luoyang’s scale had dwindled to less than one-twentieth of what it had been in the Sui and Tang, and yet it was still a great city. From that alone one could imagine how vast it had once been in its prime.

It was precisely because Luoyang was so enormous at that time that it could bear such prosperity, and why it could contain, at once, nine great taverns and one pavilion, along with ten large inns and eateries all existing side by side.

Once inside the city, they went straight to the South Market.

Within One Dream House, the noise and bustle were all-encompassing: the cries of drinking games, the calls of drinking contests, the singing of the courtesans, the waiters announcing dishes, and more. The place roared with voices, like a hall filled with music and song.

For some reason, as Wei Renshi looked upon this lively scene, his mind suddenly filled with the image of tax officials collecting grain levies. Old Zhao’s sobbing seemed to ring in his ears, and the old woman who had gone early to look at the ripening acorns seemed to appear again before him.

All things are but dreams and bubbles, shadows and dew.

Wei Renshi silently recited the thought to himself, then stepped inside.

He entered the back residence through a side door. The rear quarters had already been renovated. Several rooms in the front courtyard were left for the waiters to live in, while the rest had all been converted into storage for wine. At present, the back courtyard housed only Sun Peng and his wife, the head cook, and the singing girls that had been purchased. In time, Wang Xiaosui would also move in.

The wagons had come in through the side gate and were already unloading goods in the front courtyard.

Not long after Wei Renshi arrived in the back courtyard, Sun Peng came over from the tavern in front.

“I pay my respects, Master!” Sun Peng said with a bow.

Wei Renshi smiled. “Sit and talk. Did you write that letter yourself?”

Sun Peng nodded awkwardly. “I was thinking that now that I’m a shop manager, it won’t do to remain illiterate forever. My wife also said that in the future I’ll surely have to write to you often and tell you about things at One Dream House. There are some matters that can’t be made known to outsiders, and it would not be convenient to ask someone else to write them down. So I found a down-on-his-luck scholar in Luoyang recently, and I feed him every day in exchange for teaching me how to read and write.”

“That’s a very good thing,” Wei Renshi said with a nod and a smile. “You and your wife are thinking correctly. Keep at it. Now then, tell me about those nine taverns and one pavilion.”

Sun Peng’s expression turned solemn.

“Half a month ago, the manager of Drunken Cloud Tower came looking for me first. He said he wanted to apologize, and also to make my acquaintance, and asked me to join him for a meal. I thought that since I’d be establishing myself in Luoyang in the future, and since we were in the same business, there was no way we wouldn’t have dealings with one another. So I agreed.”

“Mm, good,” Wei Renshi said, nodding for him to continue.

“When I went, I found that it was not only the manager of Drunken Cloud Tower there, but the managers of the other nine houses as well,” Sun Peng went on. “I exchanged pleasantries with all of them and got acquainted. Later, they came to tell me that the tavern and eatery business in Luoyang had an association, and that any establishment with even a little scale in the city would join it so that everyone could look after one another.”

“Oh?” Wei Renshi was genuinely surprised. “There’s already something like that?”

“That’s when I found out such a thing actually existed,” Sun Peng said. “I also asked around and learned that other trades have similar kinds of guild alliances, though they’re mostly in name only and not of much use.”

“So the proprietors of those nine houses and one pavilion want to meet with me, and I’m guessing they intend to speak about this matter,” Wei Renshi said.

Sun Peng nodded again. “More than that, they want to recommend our One Dream House as the head of the guild.”

“What?” Wei Renshi frowned. “The head of the guild? Why?”

“They say that our white liquor is unmatched, and that just the liquor alone, together with those captivating stories, has already made One Dream House the leader of Luoyang’s tavern and eatery trade. Making us the guild head would be entirely deserved,” Sun Peng replied. “Of course, I did not dare to agree. So I hurriedly sent word to you.”

Seeing that business would certainly one day be outdone by One Dream House, they took the initiative to bow their heads, draw close, and willingly become underlings, asking only for a bowl of soup?

What a joke. How could that possibly be?

For those nine houses and one pavilion to have grown to such a scale, how could they be the kind of people who surrendered so easily?

There had to be something fishy about this.