Chapter 115: Hanzhong City

Disclaimer: 

1. This is an unofficial translation and no permission has been obtained from the author/ official publisher. It may be taken down if the author/official publisher requests. 

2. This is a fan work and the interpretation represents only the translator’s personal views without any input from the author. 

3. No permission has been granted to use, publish, upload and/or copy this translation to any other site except for Second Life Translations.

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Hanzhong Prefecture governed two districts, with 14 counties. Feng County, Nanzheng County were all under Hanzhong Prefecture’s jurisdiction. To get to Hanzhong city, they needed to travel southwest. From Feng County town, to Hanzhong City, it usually took six to eight hours via horse carriage.

During those hours of travel, the people in the carriage spent their journey talking about their business. They discussed how the business was doing, their potential expansion plans etc. Liu Sen leaned out the window to look at the scenery. Occasionally, he would add an opinion or two. 

From a  distance, they saw the city moat. Shi Cheng then started to explain to them some of the basic facts about Hanzhong city. The city was well defended. Although Hanzhong city was closer to the hinterland and wasn’t as robustly built as either Guyuan or Ningxia cities, it still had eight city gates and looked very majestic. 

When they got to the city gate, Liu Lin and Liu Xu’er had to crane their necks to see the structure. It really was a big city! When they referred to a city gate’s pavilion being eight zhang¹ 丈/ Zhang – Measure of length, it is equivalent to 10 chinese feet or 3.3m. tall, they were probably referring to this!

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“Rv kp pyke vbyv pkdnl ydnkldv vkxlp, Tydgbsdt nkvu byp rasewnle y zsv sq qyxswp rlsrzl. Mbl sdzu sdl R jdso sq kp Hbsw Zsw Eydt’p²  周幽王/ Hbsw Zsw Eydt – Ikdt Zsw sq Hbsw, vbl zypv jkdt sq Elpvlad Hbsw clzshle nsdnwckdl, Jyspk³ 褒姒/ Jyspk – Wyxswp clywvu kd Ubkdy. Fbl oyp yrryaldvzu qasx blal.” Fbk Ubldt pyke. 

Nkw Nkd zywtble, “Ebu esd’v usw alye xsal lekqukdt osaj.”

“Ebu kpd’v vbkp lekqukdt? R sdzu qswde swv ycswv vbkp kdnkeldvyzzu, R oypd’v alyekdt yduvbkdt….” Tl awccle bkp dspl yde zssjle yv Nkw Dw’la.&dcpr;

Nkw Dw’la’p ldvkal yvvldvksd oyp sd bla pwaaswdekdtp. Ohla pkdnl vbl nyaakytl pvyavle ldvlakdt vbl nkvu tyvlp, pbl bye clld ycpsacle kd bla pwaaswdekdtp. Rv oyp sdzu dso vbyv pbl alyzkple bso vbknj vbl nkvu tyvlp olal! Mblka zyatl bsapl nyaakytl oyp vkdu kd nsxryakpsd. Gaswde vblx olal xydu xsal bsapl nyaakytlp, yp olzz yp kddwxlayczl rlsrzl sd qssv. Mblu olal yzz nyzxzu oyzjkdt ycswv. 

Gqvla vblu bye ldvlale vbl nkvu rasrla, lhlauvbkdt clnyxl xwnb zkhlzkla. Wldt Msod oyp kdpktdkqknydv kd nsxryakpsd. Mbl pvallvp blal olal okel yde olzz zyke swv, vblal olal xydu rlsrzl cwpu nyzzkdt swv vs nwpvsxlap. Ohld qasx vbl vly plahkdt pbynjp dlya vbl nkvu tyvl, sdl nswze pll bso rasprlaswp vbl nkvu oyp.&dcpr;

“Mbkp rzynl… Gzvbswtb R’hl dlhla clld vs Kkydtdyd, R kxytkdl vbkp rzynl kp ds osapl vbyd vblal.” Nkw Dwla pyke.&dcpr;

Fbk Ubldt dseele, “Rq usw yal nsxryakdt vbl ldvkal altksd sq Tydgbsdt vs Kkydtdyd, vbkp yaly nyddsv nsxrlvl. Jwv kq usw yal sdzu nsxryakdt Tydgbsdt nkvu, vblal yal qlo rzynlp kd Kkydtdyd vbyv yal ckttla vbyd vbkp. Gqvla yzz, Tydgbsdt kp pvkzz yd kxrsavydv pvayvltkn vsod qsa&dcpr; vbl dsavbolpv…. Gzvbswtb Tydgbsdt nkvu kp vlnbdknyzzu kd vbl dsavbolpv, kv kp aktbv dlmv vs vbl pswvbolpvlad altksdp. Rv yzps byp vbl Ckdzkdt xswdvykd aydtl. Jypknyzzu, kvp tlstayrbknyz zsnyvksd kp hlau kxrsavydv.”

Nkw Dw’la dseele, “R blyae vbyv vblal’p yzps y oydtqw⁴ 王府/ Eydtqw – G rakdnl’p xydpksd. blal?”

“That’s right. Rui Wang’s ⁵ 王/ Wang – Prince fiefdom is Hanzhong, so his official residence is in the city. It’s beautiful and stretches across quite a few streets. The commercial trade here is very advanced. To the south of here is Guizhou, and Sichuan, while if you head east from here, you would get to the Central Plains. And if you wanted to go to the central plains, both the water and land routes are easily accessible.”

Liu Lin asked, “Shi Cheng, which street did your family used to stay? Do you have stores here now?”

Shi Cheng smiled and shook his head, “How could I remember where we used to stay? I was so young then….” Then he turned and gave Liu Xu’er a face, before turning back and saying, “We are still looking for stores, but haven’t found any that are suitable. My dad is picky – he wants a store on a good street with a nice store front. But in a place like this, where each inch of land is worth its weight in gold, everyone is eager whenever there is a good shop out for rent! Without insider information, we wouldn’t even know if it was up for grabs! How can we so easily get a good store? Our family has left for so long, and we don’t recognise many people here anymore. So we are still looking.”

Liu Xu’er nodded, “That’s right, it’s not easy.” Then she immediately thought of her own business. She had originally made two potential plans. If there was a good store, in a good location available for a fair price, she would open a store here. But if she could not, then she would continue to look for one, and consider supplying her goods to an existing store here.

Shi Cheng naturally was aware of her plans. He said, “We are still looking for a store. It’s really not easy. As for a small store like yours, naturally, it would be even harder to find something suitable. However, I feel that it’s best to persist in looking for a store to manage for yourselves. You can see from experience – In Feng town’s store, I was only earning, maybe 50% more than you were when you just had a single counter. That is because there were many people involved in the transferring of goods over to me. Since I can’t make that much money, then naturally the people supplying it would be earning even less. But if you follow your current model, you would naturally earn much more.”

Liu Xu’er nodded, “I know, and of course, we would prefer to do things that way as well. But looking around…. I really don’t know if we would be able to survive here.”

“What’s there to worry over!” Both Liu Lin and Shi Cheng chorused. The two of them looked at each other and laughed. Liu Lin said, “When we first opened the little store, didn’t we say that if we went under, we would just take it that we never earned any money! If we lose money, so be it. It’s the same logic here.”

Shi Cheng smiled and nodded. “That’s right”

Liu Xu’er said, “I suppose that’s true. Let’s have a look first and understand the situation first. What’s the market rate of the products we have as well as the market rental for stores…. That’s right Shi Cheng, what business is your family planning to start here?”

“We will definitely open a restaurant – that’s the bedrock of my father’s business. As for a jewelry store, we will wait and see.” Shi Cheng paused. He didn’t give them any more details. 

Liu Xu’er knew that in his youth, Shi Cheng’s father had angered an official when doing business, and was forced to close off all his businesses here and return home. This time, they would naturally be much more careful re-entering the business scene. 

Liu Lin asked curiously, “That’s right Shi Cheng, why does your family have two completely different businesses? If your dad started with the restaurant business, why did he start the jewelry business?”

Shi Cheng smiled and explained. “My dad actually started his business with tea. He first went to the southernmost region to purchase tea and transported it to Jiangnan. Then he bought tea from Jiangnan and transported it to Shandong. Basically, he travelled really long distances. This was when he was still quite young. After he got married, he opened a teahouse in Hanzhong city. The teahouse gradually grew into a restaurant, and that was how he made his fortune. As to the jewelry business, when the restaurant business was booming, he found himself with excess cash. At that time, he met with someone he had worked with in Jiangnan. His jewelry business was going under, and he was selling to return home. My dad bought his jewelry store and started to manage that.”

Liu Lin nodded his head. 

“Your father should be rather familiar with Hanzhong city then. Why did you ask you to come out and have a look around?” Liu Xu’er asked. “Please don’t just do this because of…. To help me…”

Shi Cheng quickly shook his head. “No, no, no. That’s not it at all. I should have come here long ago. Although it is because of you that I waited this long to visit, I really did need to come down… My father is familiar with this area, but don’t forget that it’s been 10 years since we’ve lived here. Last year, we did come over a few times. There’ve been new restaurants along the street, while older ones have closed. We should have come by more frequently, after all, the restaurant business is unlike others, where there can be a sudden, quick turnaround. There are a lot of restaurants that would suddenly boom overnight, perhaps because of a dish or two. So, we need to always keep tabs on them and know what they are doing… We need to have this information at our fingertips.”

Liu Xu’er nodded. 

Liu Sen had a sudden realisation and asked, “Shi Cheng ge, does this mean during this trip, you would need to go around the different restaurants having meals? Are we going to be able to enjoy the fruits of your labor?”

Liu Lin and Shi Cheng laughed heartily. Shi Cheng nodded and smiled, “That’s right, you can join me in eating!”

Liu Xu’er smiled and pointed at him, “In everything else, you respond so slowly, but when it comes to food, you are suddenly so sharp!”

“This is  what they refer to when they say great intelligence resembles stupidity.” Liu Sen smartly replied. 

Liu Lin and Shi Cheng laughed even harder as they got up the car. Liu Xu’er smiled and said, “Oh my, you really aren’t shy at all about praising yourself!”

Liu Sen giggled. 

They continued their lively chatter during their ride. The carriage arrived at the house of Shi Cheng’s father’s acquaintance. Their residence was rather large, and a servant came to open the gate. The servant boy with Shi Cheng passed Shi Qian’s letter over to them and the servant brought it in. After a while, he came back out and invited them in. 

The family had earlier already prepared a courtyard for them to stay, and several servants came to help them settle in, while Shi Cheng and Liu Lin went to greet the owner. This was a family that Shi Qian had come to know when he was doing business here. He had kept in contact with them the entire time. It’s just that this time, only children had come, which was why the owner hadn’t personally come to greet them. It was only when Shi Cheng went over to greet him that the owner brought his son along. They spoke for a while and exchanged pleasantries before the owner courteously let them know to make themselves at home here. 

Shi Cheng naturally didn’t want to be constrained by any restrictions, so he told them that they would probably be out every day and wouldn’t be able to come back often. The owner nodded his agreement. 

When they returned from the main house, everything was settled in their rooms. Liu Xu’er would stay by herself in the eastern wing, while the three of them would share the western wing. Their evening meal would be brought to them by a servant. 

The next day, everyone took to the streets. 

Because today they planned to look at the general situation, and because this place was different from Feng Town, everyone took out their nicer attire. They didn’t want to be looked down on because of their clothes and refused entry into shops. 

Liu Xu’er wore a lotus coloured top with white plum flowers embroidered around its edges and a honey coloured skirt. There was purple trim along the skirts border and she also carried a beautiful scent sachet on it. 

Liu Lin and Liu Sen wore solid coloured outfits, while Shi Cheng wore satin. With a few of Shi Cheng’s family’s servants following them, they looked like they were the sons of important families. 

The few of them exited the residence before following Shi Cheng along the street. Hanzhong city was enormous – if they wanted to explore all their streets, they wouldn’t be able to finish it in a day. They planned to only walk westward today. The streets there were densely packed, and it was the busiest area in town. They would first check the situation there. 

Shops lined the streets on both sides with quite a few waiters already standing at their entrances. With a smile pasted on their faces, they tirelessly greeted everyone. The more densely packed the shops, the more people stood on their doorsteps. It was clear that competition here was fierce. 

This street was mostly selling jewelry, so they didn’t head into any of the stores. When they turned the corner into another street, they saw a dazzling array of shops. The shops here had windchimes and belts. Liu Xu’er’s eyes lit up – this was the street they needed to check out!

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Translator’s Note: I cannot put in words how painful it was to translate this chapter. Wanted to puke when they were throwing out all the geographical/ descriptive terms… Fingers crossed I did everything justice and things make sense.

Hope that everyone is still enjoying the story! It’s been a while since I’ve written a little note, but I definitely have noticed all the likes/ comments/ ratings etc that you guys have been leaving. Really want to thank each of you for your encouragement! It really helps to keep me going 😊🥰