Aoyama

Chapter 512 Striving for Power
Qi Zhaoning is gone.

Chen Ji pondered carefully what Princess Li Yang had said: Qi Zhaoning is willful, and he cannot break off the engagement, but he can force Qi Zhaoning to break it off.

Although Qi Zhaoning is willful, she is not guilty of a capital offense. If I were to leave for overseas, she would become the laughingstock of the capital. If she were to take the initiative to annul the engagement, I could save her face.

It's nothing more than Chen Ji being ridiculed for a while, but Chen Ji doesn't care.

Thinking of this, Chen Ji turned to look at the shopkeeper Chen Dong, whose lips trembled slightly as he said dryly, "Boss."

Chen Ji smiled and said, "Don't be afraid, I won't kill you today."

Chen Dong hesitated for a moment: "Then when should we kill them..."

Chen Ji corrected him, "I have not indiscriminately killed innocent people. If you have done nothing wrong, there is no need to kill you. Let me ask you a few questions. Just answer them honestly. How much silver is left in the Baoxiang Bookstore's account?"

Chen Dong remained silent.

The shop assistant in the backyard rushed out and said, "Master, how would the manager know how much silver is left in the account? He doesn't care about business at all. There are still 217 taels of silver in the account. This is the silver from when he just sold the woodblocks of Bai Zhou Ji. If you had come a few days later, this silver would have been used to print some nonsense about San Yang San Ren's commentary on the classics."

Chen Ji looked up and surveyed the Baoxiang Bookstore, which had a shop in the front and a workshop in the back, seemingly unconcerned about whether the bookstore could continue operating: "What's your name?"

The waiter replied, "I am Chen Jia."

Chen Ji then asked, "What is the price of paper in the capital?"

The shopkeeper rattled off the list with ease: "The most common type is bamboo paper, which is used for books and official documents. Among them, the Yukou bamboo paper from Fuzhou is the best. It is soft, smooth, and has thick bamboo fibers. One hundred sheets can be bought for one hundred and twenty coins. The Jiajiang bamboo paper from Shuzhou is slightly inferior, but it is available in large quantities and is cheap. One hundred sheets can be bought for one hundred coins."

"Xuan paper became expensive. A single sheet of the large white deer Xuan paper used in the palace cost one tael of silver, while a single sheet used by ordinary officials and nobles cost one mace of silver."

Chen Ji nodded. The cheapest yellowed bamboo paper would suffice for what he needed to do: "Where's the ink?"

Chen Jia replied, "Ink sticks are more expensive. If they are handmade by a famous artist, they can sell for fifty taels of silver per stick. What we usually use is ink. A pound of ink in a bamboo tube costs thirty-five coins."

Chen Ji pondered for a moment: "Are there any printing houses in Liulichang that use movable type?"

Chen Jia paused for a moment: "Master, that thing doesn't work well. People used movable type printing before, but the wooden movable type broke down in less than a month, and the printed characters were often missing several characters..."

Chen Ji suddenly asked, "Has Liulichang been peaceful lately? Has anyone caused trouble?"

Chen Jia shook his head: "No, back when Heji was in charge of Liulichang, they only collected a monthly 'peace money' but didn't care if something happened. Their underlings often extorted money from the shopkeepers. Now that they have new people, I don't know whose side they are, they actually do some real work. Even when neighbors have disputes, they step in to mediate, and things are much more peaceful now."

Chen Ji smiled and said, "Alright, you guys get back to work."

He turned and went out the door. The shopkeeper and the waiter looked at each other in bewilderment. He's gone already?
Chen Dong stroked his beard: "Didn't you say he was a bloodthirsty killer, that he couldn't be happy if he didn't kill someone every day?"

Chen Jia hesitated: "That's what everyone's saying outside. They say he drinks a pound of wine every day, and he has to kill someone before drinking to liven things up..."

Shopkeeper Chen Dong pondered for a moment: "I don't think the boss is that kind of person. It's probably just some pretext that the common people are disgusted by his release back to Yuancheng."

……

……

Chen Ji walked through Liulichang and found a Meihua Ferry stick under the eaves to rest. He made the gesture of holding three and a half incense sticks with both hands.

The man with the stick, dressed in a clean black shirt, immediately perked up: "Where do you come from, sir?"

Chen Ji replied, "From Kunlun Mountain."

The stick-wielder asked again, "Did you see a white crane fly by?"

Chen Ji gave a thumbs-up and replied, "All I saw were five-colored clouds."

The man immediately clasped his hands in a fist and said, "So you are the master. Please give your orders."

Chen Ji instructed, "Go to Plum Blossom Ferry to find the Pao Ge and Er Dao, then go to the Zhang Mansion to find Miss Zhang Er. Tell them I'll be waiting for them at the Chen family's Ginkgo Garden on Fuyou Street."

He clasped his hands in a salute and ran off like the wind. On the way, he exchanged a gesture with another guard, and immediately a new guard took his place.

Chen Ji bought a steamer of buns and wrapped them in palm leaves.

When Chen Ji leisurely returned to Fuyou Street, Pao Ge, Er Dao, and Zhang Xia were already waiting at the side gate.

Today, Zhang Xia changed into a red arrow-patterned robe embroidered with sea waves, wrapped with a black leather belt, and her hair was neatly tied up on top of her head with a long red silk ribbon. Zhang Xia leaned against the stone lion with her arms crossed in front of her, her eyes closed as she silently recited scriptures.

The Pao Ge and Er Dao had changed into black cloth shirts and black patchwork shoes. The Pao Ge was holding a pipe and smoking silently.

Chen Ji said with a smile, "You guys got here so quickly?"

Zhang Xia opened his eyes but did not interrupt the Cloud-Covering Scripture. The brother replied with a smile, "You called us here specifically, so you must have something important to do. Tell us, we've been so bored lately that we've grown hair."

Chen Ji walked into the side door: "How's the salt permit business at Plum Blossom Ferry lately?"

The man from the old gang said casually, "It's going smoothly, even better than I expected. The eight major merchants haven't seen these new things before, so they haven't taken us seriously for a while. That scholar named Huang Que stopped thinking about the imperial examinations after failing, and instead became the second manager of the Chen family's salt shop, taking salt permits back to adulterate and sell smuggled salt all over the country. It's said that he's gathered quite a few men under his command, all bandits from the outlaws. Smuggling salt is much more profitable than being a mountain bandit." Chen Ji frowned and asked, "Can he control these people?"

The man sighed, "This kid's academic abilities are so-so, but he's a master at managing people. There's a saying that 'a kind heart doesn't make a good general, and righteousness doesn't make a good manager.' I never realized before that he's such a ruthless character. Any bandits who don't follow the rules have been eliminated by him. Now all the attention of the eight major merchants is on him, and we've been neglected. The trump card you prepared earlier is now useless."

Chen Ji said with a smile, "We should avoid using that kind of trump card if possible. Maybe it can save our lives in Renshou Palace later."

The man asked curiously, "What are we going to do this time?"

Chen Ji pushed open the door and entered the Ginkgo Garden. Xiao Man hurriedly went to the side room to heat up some hot towels for everyone to wipe their faces.

He sat on the stone bench, tapping his fingers on the table: "Brother, why don't you sit down and guess what I'm going to do?"

The man sat down and tapped his pipe with the sole of his shoe: "Go on."

Chen Ji said carefully, "I need to make brass movable type, mixed with 80% brass, 10% tin, and 10% lead."

The member of the secret society remained silent, not offering a hasty reply.

Xiaoman asked curiously, "Young Master, are you really planning to run Baoxiang Bookstore? But I heard that no one uses movable type printing anymore."

Chen Ji didn't answer her, but continued, "We still need to make ink. This will take time and experimentation. All I know is that we need to use boiling flaxseed oil as a base, add rosin to increase viscosity, and then add beeswax to improve rheology and gloss. If there's not enough flaxseed oil, walnut oil will also work, but flaxseed oil is the best."

The members of the secret society remained silent.

Zhang Xia silently observed Chen Ji and the Gelaohui. In the past, she was the most knowledgeable and insightful person, but with Chen Ji and the Gelaohui, she always felt that some of their words were ambiguous and unfamiliar, and she couldn't guess what Chen Ji was up to.

This feeling was surprisingly novel.

Chen Ji continued, “I remember there are two standards for hot ink. One is that if you drop hot ink into water and it doesn’t disperse, and you can pick it up with two fingers after it sinks to the bottom, then the viscosity is good enough. The other is to put a feather into the steam above the hot oil. When the feather doesn’t curl up, then the moisture has evaporated and the oil is fully cooked… But I haven’t done this myself, so you’ll have to try it slowly.”

The man took a deep breath: "Leave it to me. With Erdao here, there won't be any problems with this kind of technical work."

Chen Ji nodded: "Nowadays, books are printed using printing methods, but we need to use a pressing method. This is not difficult to solve. Nowadays, grain and oil shops all use oil pressing equipment, so we can modify it a bit... Do you guess what I'm going to do, Brother?"

The man from the guild looked up at him and said, "You're too bold."

Chen Ji smiled nonchalantly: "Since we're already here, we should do something different. Don't worry, I know what I'm doing. Let's not do anything too sensitive at first. Let's find the most famous people in the capital, the people that the common people are most interested in, and report on their gossip. Let's sell the newspapers first."

Xiaoman was completely baffled: "What exactly does the young master want to do?"

The man slowly said, "The newspaper."

Zhang Xia was the first to react: "The official gazette?"

The gangster chuckled: "The official gazette is for officials, while newspapers are for ordinary people. They're completely different. The official gazette is always handwritten. If you want to find a copy, you have to spend a lot of money to have the newspaper office copy it for you. It's very troublesome, and not everyone can see it."

The man continued, "Moreover, the official gazette is full of court reshuffles, disasters in various places, and auspicious omens. It doesn't mention any real major events. Who impeached whom, who brought down whom, who was at odds with whom, and who was jealous of whom—it doesn't write about any of these interesting things. It makes me want to sleep."

Zhang Xia listened intently, feeling that this item was of particular importance.

Chen Ji corrected, "We can't just have fluff; we also need to get down to business."

He turned to look at Zhang Xia: "Now that you are the Minister of Personnel, it shouldn't be difficult for you to publish some of the academic articles, right?"

Zhang Xia smiled and agreed, "Leave it to me."

Chen Ji pondered for a moment, then looked at the Gelaohui (a secret society): "You...can you write poetry?"

The man's eyes lit up: "I know a little bit about it."

Erdao muttered to himself, "My brother heard from Shen Ye the other day that if you write good poetry, even the most beautiful courtesan will offer herself to you. He's been racking his brains every night to recall and write poems."

Xiaoman was incredulous. She looked the man in the robe up and down and asked, "You, you, you can write poetry?"

The man chuckled and said, "Miss Xiaoman, you can't judge a book by its cover. Although I may look rugged, I can still write about ten poems."

Chen Ji interrupted, "Poems can also be published. In this Ning Dynasty, a good poem can spread far and wide, even to the ends of the earth, to Korea and Japan."

The gang members immediately agreed: "As long as you're not afraid of getting into trouble, let's get started. But how much will a newspaper cost?"

Chen Ji tapped his finger on the table: "Five coins."

Xiaoman's eyes widened. She didn't care what the newspaper was about, only whether she could make money: "Only five coins? This business is too small! A mutton bun costs five coins!"

The man smiled smugly: "Miss Xiaoman, you don't know this, but this business isn't about making money."

Xiaoman asked in confusion, "What's the reason for that?"

The member of the secret society calmly said, "Strive for power."

(End of this chapter)