The King of Black Fog

Li Changzhou returned to his room where a servant girl named Xiaoling prepared water for him to wash up.

He glanced around and noticed that the room's plumbing actually supplied both hot and cold water, a luxury even greater than in his own childhood days—when he used to "boil" himself in a pot for a bath without the use of running water, let alone a choice between hot and cold.

"Young Master, I heard you encountered an assassin today?" Xiaoling couldn't hold back her curiosity and asked.

"Just some petty thieves," Li Changzhou replied as he rolled up his sleeves, preparing to wash his face.

"Petty thieves? What's the difference between them and assassins?"

"Petty thieves are like you, and assassins are like my older brother, understand?" Li Changzhou said as he dipped his hands into the basin to wash his face.

Xiaoling tilted her head, thought for a moment, then shook it: "Don't understand."

Li Changzhou took the towel she handed him and asked while wiping his face, "How old are you?"

"Thirteen."

"How old were you when you started at the Commander Mansion?"

"Eleven, then I did a good job, and by twelve, I began to serve the second concubine, and at thirteen, I served you, Young Master!" Xiaoling said proudly, stroking her braids.

Li Changzhou slowed his face-wiping motions, and after finishing, he carefully wiped his hands.

After Xiaoling left, Li Changzhou went back to his bedroom.

His quarters consisted of three rooms: a living room, a study, and a bedroom, with the living room between the study and the bedroom.

He closed his eyes and visualized the "Thunder Book" for a while, and as the clock neared 12 o'clock, he couldn't sit still any longer and voluntarily used the "Twins" "Bond Summon."

As if opening his eyes, the space in front of him cracked open.

His eyes widened, the dim light barely revealing a glimpse of snowy whiteness, fluttering like a delicate flower in the wind.

"Brother! What are you doing? I'm dressing!" Across from him, Li Qianxia's startled voice came through.

She crouched down, turning her back to the "eyes" and curled up.

Li Changzhou turned away: "Didn't we agree to summon me whenever possible? It's almost 12 o'clock now."

"Enough," came the swift sound of dressing from behind him, "Xiaoyue gave me the identity of a shoe factory worker, and I just got off work!"

She continued to complain: "I was about to call you after taking a bath, but you peeped, now you have to take me to dinner, or I'll tell Qing Lan."

"Do I have to take you to dinner just because I saw your shoulder? When you usually show your legs, arms, belly, and wear spaghetti straps, I see those too, what does that make us?"

"Take me to dinner for a lifetime … okay then."

Li Changzhou turned around, and the "eyes" had turned into a "door," with Li Qianxia jumping through from the other side.

Right after she arrived, her spirited eyes swiftly scanned Li Changzhou's bedroom.

"Not a bad life here!" She clapped heavily on Li Changzhou's shoulder, her teeth gritted.

"I'll give you some money when you leave," Li Changzhou spoke sensibly.

"Money? Are you looking down on me? I'm not leaving!" Li Qianxia threw herself onto the bed, "This quilt, this pillow, and even the scent! It's better than my modern life!"

Li Changzhou laughed, explaining, "It's dangerous being near me, let's operate separately for now."

"Danger?" Li Qianxia looked up.

Li Changzhou explained what had happened that day.

"Even soap operas wouldn't dare be this dramatic," Li Qianxia commented. Since her older brother believed he could handle those men, she didn't insist.

She then recounted her own experiences.

"I've learned a skill, too. I can now make shoe soles."

As she spoke, she used her left hand as a sole and her right hand to sew, threading the needle down and up, occasionally grabbing other tools to poke the "sole" and even biting it with her teeth.

"It's really hard work." After completing a "sole," she sighed deeply, her right hand massaging her left shoulder.

After talking about her job, she brought up her living situation.

A large yard, shared by several families, divided by low partitions, each unit barely fitting a bed, cramping a whole family together.

Husbands and wives, children, spending their whole lives there, eating there, sleeping there, children born there, growing up there—it was a kind of mortal hell, akin to a battlefield.

Li Qianxia lived with a group of female workers from out of town, seemingly from the same village.

Li Changzhou thought of Xiaoling, who had been serving others since she was eleven. At this age in the modern world, she would have been the one being looked after, but Xiaoling felt no hardship because others had it even harder.

"Right," Li Qianxia remembered something, "did you find Qing Lan?"

"Not yet," Li Changzhou came back to his senses, "but the news of my assassination attempt will be published tomorrow; she will know where I am."

Li Qianxia nodded, then added, "In a bit, give me some money. I'll go buy a theater ticket for the evening of the 28th, just in case."

"Okay."

The siblings talked a bit longer, and Li Changzhou handed Li Qianxia 1000 silver coins.

"1000... guess how much I earn in a day?"

"One silver coin?" Li Changzhou raised a finger, guessing as low as possible.

"Ha!" Li Qianxia scoffed, "Dream on, it's twenty cents! That's because your incredibly adorable, super capable sister is quick with her hands! Guess again, how much is my monthly rent?"

"How much?"

"Three silver coins!" Li Qianxia raised two fingers on her right hand to make a 'V' sign and her middle finger on her left hand.

"Can you afford that?" Li Changzhou pushed her left hand back down.

"That's why it's shared! Ten people share the cost, and it's only thirty cents a month!"

Li Changzhou nodded.

"All you can do is nod?" Li Qianxia spread her hands, "Give me more."

"What do you need all that money for? It's not like you can take it with you out of here." Li Changzhou handed her another thousand, this time not in cash, but through a check from the Song City Commercial Bank.

"There's a sister named Xu getting married, she doesn't even have a new dress, just patches up old clothes herself, I'll buy her a set of clothes, and for a few others, I'm also planning to secretly give them a bit."

Li Changzhou didn't say that this was futile, knowing what happened in the past wasn't actually in the past. These sisters had long since died.

In history, that marrying woman was destined to wear her "new dress" made of patched clothes.

"Be careful," he only said, "don't give too much, and don't make it too obvious."

"Got it, I'm leaving now, ah, why can't the honey pot world be used in the instance!"

Li Qianxia stealthily returned to Qianshu Lane on Xinnan Road (the place she lived).

The Xu sisters recently were always the first to rise, keen on finishing their work at the factory early so they could come back and sew new clothes until they were the last to sleep.

Li Qianxia secretly dropped a hundred silver coins at the spot where people brushed their teeth with well water, thought about it, then put away most of them, leaving only 30.

So much money could not possibly belong to anyone in the yard—those who lived here would have no food if they did not work for three days and they had no savings at all, let alone 30 silver coins.

To ensure the Xu sisters picked up the money, on April 27, Li Qianxia was the first to wake up, using her perception to watch everything closely.

The Xu sisters were still "the first" to wake up, yawning as they went out to wash up with their eyes still closed.

After a while, Li Qianxia heard a shout of surprise followed by heavy breathing.

A bit later, the Xu sisters quietly returned. They gently lifted the mat at the head of the bed and hid the silver coins one by one at the very bottom.

Li Qianxia and the Xu sisters both sighed in relief and smiled.

That day at work, the Xu sisters alternated between worry and laughter, constantly distracted, even pricking their fingers with the shoemaking awl.

"What's wrong?" another sister asked.

"Nothing..." the Xu sisters immediately panicked.

"Can't wait to sleep with a man, right?" Li Qianxia teased her.

"Sleep with a man?"

"She's got spring fever!"

The sisters burst into laughter, the Xu sisters sighed in relief, but their faces quickly turned crimson. A group of young women from 1928, while making shoe pads for a few coins, quietly discussed what it felt like to sleep with a man and entrusted her to "give them a lesson" after she got married!

In the afternoon, Li Qianxia excused herself to go to the restroom and headed to the street to buy a newspaper from a newsboy.

She didn't rush to read it, found a rickshaw, and instructed the driver to head to the pear garden before she unfolded the newspaper.

[Li Er Master and fiancee attacked at meeting!]

[Commander and Young Master leave city to suppress bandits, Li Er Master appointed "City Lord"!]

The newspaper had a photo of Li Changzhou wearing a suit, holding a civilized cane, looking handsome and graceful, entirely concealing the vulgarity of a man who stashed pornographic books.

"Tsk!" Li Qianxia clicked her tongue in disdain, then took a closer look before moving her gaze away from the photo, satisfied as if she had finished admiring a beautiful portrait of herself.

The newspaper was in traditional Chinese characters, which she couldn't write but that didn't hinder her reading, only the layout—vertical—was troublesome.

The difficulty created by different reading habits was much greater than that posed by traditional characters.

Turning the newspaper over, another big headline appeared.

[Chun Emperor takes the stage! Pear garden performance!]

The photo was of a stunning beauty, on the left in a cheongsam, and on the right in an actor's costume.

Chun Emperor?

The Chun Emperor played by Mu Rong from Gusu?!

Am I going to meet the person herself?!

Li Qianxia got excited remembering how she had listened to Mu Rong's performance as Chun Emperor in Pear Garden for a while, talking with her brother while mimicking the delicate gestures and voice of the performers.

Even if the photo was in black and white, the actor's look was no worse than Mu Rong's.

With an excited heart, she finally arrived at the pear garden, only to find out she had made a wasted trip; tickets were fully sold out, even the seats added temporarily in the aisles!

"Damn!" Li Qianxia swore in an anime-style.

Her eyes, as lively as a deer's, prowled around for a target, to see if she could launch a personal revolution of "robbing the rich to help the poor" against some bureaucratic capitalist's wealth.

She was never polite to the rich, and it was just a ticket after all; missing one play wouldn't hurt anyone!

Her eyes were still scouting when suddenly she spotted a car driving by. In 1928, having a car at home was like having a private jet a hundred years later.

That's it!

The car stopped, the door opened, and a person stepped out.

"Eh?"

The person before her, dressed simply but with the ethereal charm of an immortal, had skin like fresh snow, and looked just like the Gu She Fairy—or rather, she was indeed the Gu She Fairy herself.

"Qing Lan!" Li Qianxia ran over excitedly.

Yang Qinglan put a finger to her cherry lips, signaling her not to speak out loud on the street.

She pulled Li Qianxia into the pear garden and found a secluded corner, "This area is busy year-round with many rickshaws stopping; among these drivers, there could likely be players, be careful."

"Got it," Li Qianxia responded, then asked the question she had been holding back, "Qing Lan, how come you can come and go in the pear garden? Are you going to perform on stage? I saw you in a car!"

"The car belongs to the opera troupe; I went out on an errand, my role is an apprentice."

"Apprentice?"

"Just a handyman."

"Handyman..." Li Qianxia's lush, tender lips puckered into a pout, as if tightening a pocket to prevent her laughter from escaping.

'Yang Qinglan, Gu She Fairy, a handyman... I shall tell my brother tonight! Hahaha!' Li Qianxia thought but kept her composure.

Yang Qinglan slightly glared at her, completely guessing her thoughts.

"By the way!" Li Qianxia hurriedly changed the subject, "Qing Lan, do you know my brother? He has become Li Er Master! Money rolling in! He reeks of copper! And he's become a bureaucrat!"

Yang Qinglan took out a newspaper from her bag, the neatly folded surface displaying Li Changzhou's photo.

"I just went to buy the newspaper for Chun Emperor." After a short pause, she said, "Tell him to come to the pear garden tomorrow, I need to see him."

"Qing Lan, you don't need to worry, my brother hasn't done anything to you except for sneaking glances at me changing clothes, I swear!"

"You come too, I'll arrange a seat for you."

"Ah—" Li Qianxia's face fell, "I was just joking, he only caught a glimpse of my shoulder. I wear off-the-shoulder tops all the time."

"Don't you want to see Chun Emperor perform?"

"I'm coming!" Li Qianxia answered promptly as if a soldier responding to an officer.

Yang Qinglan couldn't help but crack a slight smile, her gaze sweeping around softly said, "I really do have matters to discuss with you, I'm not looking for trouble with your brother."

She put the newspaper back in her bag, casually remarking, "Tell him this today—'do not commit small evils.'

"No touching any women, right? I promise to deliver the message!"

Although Li Qianxia grasped the essence, Yang Qinglan still felt the need to correct her, "Don't generalize, just relay the exact words."