The Daxia Dynasty was founded sixty years ago, putting an end to nearly a century of chaos and warfare since the Great Jin, and truly achieving a grand unification.
The founding emperor, Xia Hong, rose from humble beginnings. Wielding a staff the length of his brow and leading a band of brothers, he fought his way across the realm and established awe-inspiring dominance in all directions. The claws that the tribes of the grasslands had stretched into the Central Plains were completely severed, and the Great Jin Khanate was forced to retreat ten thousand miles. Gazing south with a sigh, the Jin Khan declared that as long as Xia Hong lived, the Great Jin would not advance a single inch.
Yet fifty years had passed. Although Xia Hong had attained the mastery of Dark Force, his body had been depleted in his youth, and years of military campaigns in his prime had left him riddled with hidden injuries. Coupled with the day-and-night toil of ruling the nation, his days were numbered.
Though the grassland tribes had been continuously suppressed and weakened by Xia Hong, fifty years of recuperation had allowed them to amass forces that could no longer be ignored. In particular, the old Khan of Great Jin had long since passed away, and the new Khan was gradually standing firm. The seemingly prosperous and powerful Daxia was held together entirely by Xia Hong single-handedly suppressing various internal conflicts.
Literary debates and martial contests, the Struggle of the Nine Princes for the Succession! At any moment, the realm could be bitten by the wolves of the grasslands—not fatal, perhaps, but it would hurt deeply.
Inside the imperial palace, an old man with a full head of white hair and coarse cloth garments was tending to a vegetable garden alongside a middle-aged man dressed in a dark python robe embroidered with gold.
The middle-aged man was evidently no stranger to this work; he wielded his hoe with great skill, maintaining a leisurely pace just one step behind the old man.
After a long while.
"Finally done." The old man wiped the sweat from his brow with a large, calloused, and cracked hand, tossed his hoe aside among the furrows, and stretched his back, his joints popping all over. "I'm getting old, truly old."
He then turned back to look at the python-robed middle-aged man, who was meticulously finishing up the final details.
"Hah." Shortly after, the middle-aged man placed his hoe next to the old man's and stood respectfully to one side.
The old man stared at him, causing beads of cold sweat to seep from the middle-aged man's forehead.
"You're not bad, but some things in this world are unreasonable." The old man beckoned for the middle-aged man to follow.
He then turned and walked toward a nearby pavilion. "Just like back then, my Xia Hong's army wasn't the strongest, our provisions weren't the most abundant, and our geographic location wasn't the best. But didn't Li Ao, Guo Fu, and the others still end up defeated by my hands?"
The old man sat down on a stone stool. The middle-aged man hurriedly reached out to lift the teapot and pour tea, but the old man waved his hand, motioning for him to sit, and then poured a cup himself.
"Some things are destined by heaven." The old man handed the cup over, and the middle-aged man quickly stood up and bowed to receive it.
The old man handed it to him with a beaming smile. "It's just like this: when I give it to you, you take it. If I don't give it to you, you just watch!" With that, the old man suddenly withdrew his hand and drained the tea in one gulp, his gaze turning incomparably sharp.
The middle-aged man hastily acknowledged the command.
"Sigh." The old man let out a sigh, his expression softening. "Number Six, I bestowed upon you the title of Prince of Chu because you truly are capable. It's a pity that some things are up to fate. Be a good son, don't fight or contend, and I won't treat you unfairly. You are all my children."
As he spoke, the old man shoved the teacup into the hands of the Prince of Chu, picked up a memorial from the table, and said, "Over the years, quite a few clowns have emerged in the rivers and lakes. Go deal with them, and don't let me down."
With that, the old man patted the Prince of Chu on the shoulder, signaling that he could leave.
Outside the imperial palace, the Prince of Chu boarded his carriage, his expression shifting uncertainly between light and shadow.
Today, his imperial father had suddenly summoned him to the palace. He had hastily donned his court robes and hurried in to pay his respects to the Son of Heaven, and what was the result? Dressed in the garments of the Prince of Chu, he had spent the better part of the day doing farm work, only to be given a stern warning.
Closing his eyes, the Prince of Chu thought to himself, "Father, you refuse to trust me and yet you want to send me away. You said yourself that you were not the best in any aspect, yet you became the master of the world. You believe this is fate, but I firmly believe it is precisely what you fought fate to achieve."
The Prince of Chu opened his eyes, his gaze suddenly turning sharp as he stared at the memorial in his hand. "Heh, the rivers and lakes."
"Tsk tsk tsk, the rivers and lakes!" Fan Yi walked through Bailong Town in tattered clothes, an irrepressible smile plastered across his face.
"First I'll go change my clothes, then find an inn to take a bath. Normally, this is where the Jianghu plot is supposed to trigger!" Fan Yi muttered to himself as he walked, blissfully imagining the inn waiter looking at him with utter disdain.
Then he would casually toss out a gold bean or a silver leaf he had pilfered from Old Man Zhang to slap the fellow across the face.
Ah, the wonderful rivers and lakes!
To be honest, when Fan Yi stepped into this draper's shop, he was still quite excited. After all, thanks to Old Man Zhang, he had finally achieved the financial freedom he failed to attain in his past life.
And now, Big Brother Fan Yi was about to embark on his very first premeditated, high-level flex in this life. His grime-covered face radiated a happy smile.
The moment he stepped inside, an apprentice hurried over to greet him. Upon seeing a fourteen- or fifteen-year-old youth who looked like a beggar, yet carried a heavy bundle on his back and leaned on an iron sword half his own height...
Combined with an air distinct from that of ordinary beggars, the apprentice immediately deduced that this must be some young master of a good family who had fallen on hard times while traveling. Having seen his fair share of such people, a trace of sympathy inevitably crept into the apprentice's eyes as he hurriedly poured a cup of warm water and handed it over. "Is the young master looking to buy clothes?"
"Hmph, does he think I can't afford them? As expected, the venomous, snobbish remnants of feudal society! Look at that strange expression—is he despising me?" Fan Yi thought to himself.
Seeing that Fan Yi remained silent for a moment, the apprentice assumed he was overwhelmed with lingering emotional turmoil from having just narrowly escaped death. Could it be related to the children who had gone missing over the last couple of days? After all, that was the only major case in the vicinity of this town.
"No money?" The apprentice looked momentarily enlightened.
"Hahaha, ridiculous!" Fan Yi laughed inwardly, a chilling smile touching the corners of his mouth as he prepared to reach into the bundle behind him for some gold... Never mind, a silver leaf will do.
"Just as I thought." The apprentice looked at the shy smile on the youth's still-tender face and sighed inwardly. "Sigh, it doesn't matter if you have no money. Let me go get you a set of clothes I sewed myself using fabric scraps when I was practicing. I seem to remember having one your size... Now where did I put it?"
With that, the apprentice called out to a colleague to watch the front hall for a moment, told Fan Yi to wait a second, and turned to head toward the backyard in search of clothing.
"Uh, hey, hey, wait, no, I do have money." Fan Yi was startled for a moment before hurriedly calling out to the apprentice, pulling a handful of silver leaves straight out of his bundle.
...
"Sigh." Soaking in the wooden tub of the inn, Fan Yi let out a sigh. The apprentice had actually panicked when he saw him pull out a handful of silver leaves, hastily making him stuff them back into his bundle, before taking two silver leaves to help him exchange for some copper coins at the money shop.
After that, the apprentice even asked if he had been captured by local bandits and whether he needed to report it to the authorities, finally pointing him the way to the inn.
Fan Yi felt he had probably judged a gentleman with the heart of a petty person.
"Sigh, the rivers and lakes... this is the rivers and lakes too, filled with both kindness and malice." After all, Fan Yi possessed the soul of an adult, and he quickly adjusted his mindset. "Still, have a lot of children really been going missing around here lately?"