Chapter 14
Joining a Company in Kyoto
The group arrived in the capital of Yasukuni the following day at noon.
The city wall soared into the clouds, its bricks engraved with dense array patterns. Xu Xian did not recognize these patterns, but the tortoise in his arms suddenly poked its head out of its shell, its beady eyes staring at the patterns on the city wall for a long time.
Hua Xi glanced down at the tortoise, and the tortoise retracted its head.
The city guards stopped the convoy. The captain in charge was a square-faced man in his early thirties. He walked up to Xu Xianma with his hand on the hilt of his sword and reached out for a travel permit.
Xu Xian handed over Mo Feichang's transfer order. The captain unfolded the document and raised an eyebrow slightly when his eyes fell on the line at the bottom that read "Signed personally by Mo Feichang, Chief Inspector of the General Inspectorate".
He immediately closed the document and handed it back to Xu Xian with both hands, stepped back to make way, and casually pulled a clueless recruit aside.
"Please, sir."
Xu Xian put the transfer order back into his pocket and squeezed the horse's belly.
As the convoy passed through the city gate, the sight before him made Xu Xian unconsciously rein in his horse.
There is only one main street at Tiemenguan, and it takes less than half an incense stick's time to walk from the north gate to the south gate.
The capital city is not like this. Zhuque Avenue, which is located after entering the city, is five times wider than the main street of Tiemenguan. The signs on both sides are densely packed from one end of the street to the other.
Xu Xian had worked at the Iron Gate Pass for many years, and the biggest spectacle he had ever seen was the border market every autumn, which was nothing more than a few hundred people setting up stalls outside the city gate.
The morning market on a street in Beijing is three times larger than that.
Hua Xi sat in front of him, tilting her head back and looking left and right. Suddenly, she pointed to a shop on the side of the street and asked, "Brother, what's that?"
Xu Xian followed her finger and looked over—it was a candy shop. A large copper pot was set up at the entrance, and syrup was boiling in the pot. An old master was using long chopsticks to pick up and turn strings of candied hawthorns in the pot. Hua Xi's eyes were already glued to it.
"Candied hawthorn".
"It's different from the one at Iron Gate Pass."
Hua Xi was very serious. "The candy coating at Iron Gate Pass is red, but the candy coating here is gold. I want to study the difference between them!"
"That's because the sugar coating here is thick."
Xu Xian smiled, stopped his horse by the roadside, took out a copper coin, bought a string of coins, and handed it to her.
Hua Xi took the candied hawthorn and took a bite, her eyes crinkling with joy.
Xu Xian ordered Zhou Cang's cavalry to escort Yunshang and the other two to the Di Kingdom's post station, while he turned his horse around to another street.
He did not have a residence in the capital, but he had a transfer order, becoming a junior officer in the General Inspectorate, a seventh-rank official.
This rank is nothing special in the capital, more common than turtles in the Yongding River, but for a minor official from a border town, it's a meteoric rise.
...
The Inspectorate General's office was located in a relatively quiet alley. The storefront was small, and the paint on the vermilion gate had faded. There were no stone lions or guards at the entrance, only a bamboo chair with an old gatekeeper dozing on it.
Zhao Bao stared at the storefront for several breaths, muttering to himself, "This is the Inspection Headquarters? It's even more dilapidated than the Iron Gate Pass's yamen."
Xu Xian didn't reply. He lifted Hua Xi off the horse and walked to the old gatekeeper to give his name.
The old doorman opened one eye and glanced at him.
"Lord Mo is waiting for you in the backyard."
He glanced at Hua Xi again.
"This young lady can wait in the front hall; there will be tea and snacks."
Upon hearing the words "snacks," Hua Xi loosened her grip on Xu Xian's sleeve.
Xu told her to wait obediently in the front hall and not to eat all of the Chief's snacks, and then he pushed open the wooden door to the backyard by himself.
The backyard was quieter than the front yard. An old locust tree occupied the center of the yard, its dense canopy covering most of it.
Under the tree was a bamboo table with a pot of wine, two cups, and a sheet of Xuan paper with ink still wet on it.
A middle-aged man in his forties sat at the table, wearing a gray cloth long gown and a sword hanging at his waist.
Xu Xian glanced down at the sheet of Xuan paper on the table. On it was a poem—the tones were all wrong, but the parallelism was barely acceptable.
What caught his attention even more was that next to the poem was a sheet of the same Xuan paper, on which was drawn a topographical map of the official road through the Green Wolf Forest, marking ambush positions and the formation of the guards...
"Can you write poetry?" Mo looked up at him.
Xu Xian turned his gaze away from the topographical map. "Reporting to you, sir, I'm not quite sure."
"Ha ha..."
Mo laughed with great relief, "Great, finally someone who can't write poetry has arrived."
He poured Xu Xian a glass of wine, pushed the manuscript of poetry on the table aside, and flipped over the topographic map as well.
"I've reviewed your case file."
Mo Feichang raised his wine glass. "You did a great job. You deserve immense credit for the mission, and most importantly, you rescued the Di envoy. You're a promising young man..."
Xu raised his glass and clinked it with his, saying, "This subordinate was merely doing his duty."
"My job doesn't include snapping a tree in half with one blow."
Mo Feichang took out a bronze plaque from his sleeve and pushed it in front of Xu Xian. The front of the plaque was engraved with the words "Chief Inspector," and the back was engraved with Xu Xian's name and the rank of "Small Flag Officer."
"The capital is not an iron gate. If a case here can't be solved in three days, it might not be solved for three years. You have the right to handle all cases involving martial artists independently. Your manpower is ten veteran Black Cavalry Guards. They will report to you at the martial arts arena tomorrow."
Xu Xian took the bronze plaque. It was slightly cool to the touch and twice as heavy as the waist plaque from the Iron Gate Pass.
He was about to thank her when he caught a glimpse of a head peeking in through the back gate. A strikingly beautiful girl, dressed in a light purple training uniform, had a longsword, taller than herself, leaning casually against the doorframe. Her only flaw was...
Nothing special!
"Master! Is this the new guy you were talking about?"
The girl came running over and circled Xu Xian once, her gaze sweeping from his goose-feather saber to his shoulder, then to the back of his head, finally stopping in front of him and looking up at him.
"Are you Xu Xian, the one who killed the three snow wolf demons in the Ice Valley?"
Xu Xian glanced at Mo Feichang, who smiled and said, "Shen Weiya, my apprentice."
Just then, Hua Xi slipped in from the doorway, lay on Xu Xian's lap, hugged the tortoise, and looked up at Shen Weiya. The tortoise also stretched its neck to examine this unfamiliar human.
Xu Xian patted the little girl's head. "How did you find me?"
Hua Xi chuckled, "I can smell your scent."
Xu Xian paused for a moment, then introduced himself to Mo Feichang, "I'll choose Fang Meimei."
Mo Feichang glanced at Hua Xi, then at the turtle in Hua Xi's hand, and suddenly paused, but said nothing, only nodding.
Xu Xian then answered Shen Weiya's question, "Actually, there were two heads; the third head was just injured."
Shen Weiya's eyes lit up. "Then you can be my little brother from now on!"
Xu Xian's lips twitched.
"What does your expression mean? Are you unwilling?"
Shen Weiya put her hands on her hips. "I'm a princess! And my swordsmanship is better than yours! Did you see the map of the Green Wolf Forest that Master drew on that piece of paper? You think Master drew it out of thin air? I squatted in a tree for half an hour..."
Princess?
Xu Xian was startled, wondering why the princess would become Mo Feichang's apprentice, when he heard Mo Feichang cough heavily.
Shen Weiya immediately covered her mouth, but it was too late.
Xu Xian turned his gaze to Mo Feichang, who held the poem manuscript even higher, almost obscuring his entire face.
Xu Xian didn't press Shen Weiya for why she went to watch the game, nor did he want to know why Mo Feichang cared about him.
...
The onboarding process took only the time it takes for an incense stick to burn.
The clerks at the Inspection Headquarters were far more professional than those at the Iron Gate Pass. They handled everything from document filing and waist tag engraving to salary registration and housing allocation in one go.
The clerk told him that the chief officer's monthly salary was twenty taels of silver, plus a separate dormitory courtyard.
Twenty taels.
When Xu Xian was working as a minor official outside the official system at Tiemenguan, his monthly salary was two taels of silver, and it was often delayed.
He tucked the badge into his pocket and breathed a sigh of relief.
Hua Xi has almost exhausted his family's wealth; now he can afford to support him.
The city wall soared into the clouds, its bricks engraved with dense array patterns. Xu Xian did not recognize these patterns, but the tortoise in his arms suddenly poked its head out of its shell, its beady eyes staring at the patterns on the city wall for a long time.
Hua Xi glanced down at the tortoise, and the tortoise retracted its head.
The city guards stopped the convoy. The captain in charge was a square-faced man in his early thirties. He walked up to Xu Xianma with his hand on the hilt of his sword and reached out for a travel permit.
Xu Xian handed over Mo Feichang's transfer order. The captain unfolded the document and raised an eyebrow slightly when his eyes fell on the line at the bottom that read "Signed personally by Mo Feichang, Chief Inspector of the General Inspectorate".
He immediately closed the document and handed it back to Xu Xian with both hands, stepped back to make way, and casually pulled a clueless recruit aside.
"Please, sir."
Xu Xian put the transfer order back into his pocket and squeezed the horse's belly.
As the convoy passed through the city gate, the sight before him made Xu Xian unconsciously rein in his horse.
There is only one main street at Tiemenguan, and it takes less than half an incense stick's time to walk from the north gate to the south gate.
The capital city is not like this. Zhuque Avenue, which is located after entering the city, is five times wider than the main street of Tiemenguan. The signs on both sides are densely packed from one end of the street to the other.
Xu Xian had worked at the Iron Gate Pass for many years, and the biggest spectacle he had ever seen was the border market every autumn, which was nothing more than a few hundred people setting up stalls outside the city gate.
The morning market on a street in Beijing is three times larger than that.
Hua Xi sat in front of him, tilting her head back and looking left and right. Suddenly, she pointed to a shop on the side of the street and asked, "Brother, what's that?"
Xu Xian followed her finger and looked over—it was a candy shop. A large copper pot was set up at the entrance, and syrup was boiling in the pot. An old master was using long chopsticks to pick up and turn strings of candied hawthorns in the pot. Hua Xi's eyes were already glued to it.
"Candied hawthorn".
"It's different from the one at Iron Gate Pass."
Hua Xi was very serious. "The candy coating at Iron Gate Pass is red, but the candy coating here is gold. I want to study the difference between them!"
"That's because the sugar coating here is thick."
Xu Xian smiled, stopped his horse by the roadside, took out a copper coin, bought a string of coins, and handed it to her.
Hua Xi took the candied hawthorn and took a bite, her eyes crinkling with joy.
Xu Xian ordered Zhou Cang's cavalry to escort Yunshang and the other two to the Di Kingdom's post station, while he turned his horse around to another street.
He did not have a residence in the capital, but he had a transfer order, becoming a junior officer in the General Inspectorate, a seventh-rank official.
This rank is nothing special in the capital, more common than turtles in the Yongding River, but for a minor official from a border town, it's a meteoric rise.
...
The Inspectorate General's office was located in a relatively quiet alley. The storefront was small, and the paint on the vermilion gate had faded. There were no stone lions or guards at the entrance, only a bamboo chair with an old gatekeeper dozing on it.
Zhao Bao stared at the storefront for several breaths, muttering to himself, "This is the Inspection Headquarters? It's even more dilapidated than the Iron Gate Pass's yamen."
Xu Xian didn't reply. He lifted Hua Xi off the horse and walked to the old gatekeeper to give his name.
The old doorman opened one eye and glanced at him.
"Lord Mo is waiting for you in the backyard."
He glanced at Hua Xi again.
"This young lady can wait in the front hall; there will be tea and snacks."
Upon hearing the words "snacks," Hua Xi loosened her grip on Xu Xian's sleeve.
Xu told her to wait obediently in the front hall and not to eat all of the Chief's snacks, and then he pushed open the wooden door to the backyard by himself.
The backyard was quieter than the front yard. An old locust tree occupied the center of the yard, its dense canopy covering most of it.
Under the tree was a bamboo table with a pot of wine, two cups, and a sheet of Xuan paper with ink still wet on it.
A middle-aged man in his forties sat at the table, wearing a gray cloth long gown and a sword hanging at his waist.
Xu Xian glanced down at the sheet of Xuan paper on the table. On it was a poem—the tones were all wrong, but the parallelism was barely acceptable.
What caught his attention even more was that next to the poem was a sheet of the same Xuan paper, on which was drawn a topographical map of the official road through the Green Wolf Forest, marking ambush positions and the formation of the guards...
"Can you write poetry?" Mo looked up at him.
Xu Xian turned his gaze away from the topographical map. "Reporting to you, sir, I'm not quite sure."
"Ha ha..."
Mo laughed with great relief, "Great, finally someone who can't write poetry has arrived."
He poured Xu Xian a glass of wine, pushed the manuscript of poetry on the table aside, and flipped over the topographic map as well.
"I've reviewed your case file."
Mo Feichang raised his wine glass. "You did a great job. You deserve immense credit for the mission, and most importantly, you rescued the Di envoy. You're a promising young man..."
Xu raised his glass and clinked it with his, saying, "This subordinate was merely doing his duty."
"My job doesn't include snapping a tree in half with one blow."
Mo Feichang took out a bronze plaque from his sleeve and pushed it in front of Xu Xian. The front of the plaque was engraved with the words "Chief Inspector," and the back was engraved with Xu Xian's name and the rank of "Small Flag Officer."
"The capital is not an iron gate. If a case here can't be solved in three days, it might not be solved for three years. You have the right to handle all cases involving martial artists independently. Your manpower is ten veteran Black Cavalry Guards. They will report to you at the martial arts arena tomorrow."
Xu Xian took the bronze plaque. It was slightly cool to the touch and twice as heavy as the waist plaque from the Iron Gate Pass.
He was about to thank her when he caught a glimpse of a head peeking in through the back gate. A strikingly beautiful girl, dressed in a light purple training uniform, had a longsword, taller than herself, leaning casually against the doorframe. Her only flaw was...
Nothing special!
"Master! Is this the new guy you were talking about?"
The girl came running over and circled Xu Xian once, her gaze sweeping from his goose-feather saber to his shoulder, then to the back of his head, finally stopping in front of him and looking up at him.
"Are you Xu Xian, the one who killed the three snow wolf demons in the Ice Valley?"
Xu Xian glanced at Mo Feichang, who smiled and said, "Shen Weiya, my apprentice."
Just then, Hua Xi slipped in from the doorway, lay on Xu Xian's lap, hugged the tortoise, and looked up at Shen Weiya. The tortoise also stretched its neck to examine this unfamiliar human.
Xu Xian patted the little girl's head. "How did you find me?"
Hua Xi chuckled, "I can smell your scent."
Xu Xian paused for a moment, then introduced himself to Mo Feichang, "I'll choose Fang Meimei."
Mo Feichang glanced at Hua Xi, then at the turtle in Hua Xi's hand, and suddenly paused, but said nothing, only nodding.
Xu Xian then answered Shen Weiya's question, "Actually, there were two heads; the third head was just injured."
Shen Weiya's eyes lit up. "Then you can be my little brother from now on!"
Xu Xian's lips twitched.
"What does your expression mean? Are you unwilling?"
Shen Weiya put her hands on her hips. "I'm a princess! And my swordsmanship is better than yours! Did you see the map of the Green Wolf Forest that Master drew on that piece of paper? You think Master drew it out of thin air? I squatted in a tree for half an hour..."
Princess?
Xu Xian was startled, wondering why the princess would become Mo Feichang's apprentice, when he heard Mo Feichang cough heavily.
Shen Weiya immediately covered her mouth, but it was too late.
Xu Xian turned his gaze to Mo Feichang, who held the poem manuscript even higher, almost obscuring his entire face.
Xu Xian didn't press Shen Weiya for why she went to watch the game, nor did he want to know why Mo Feichang cared about him.
...
The onboarding process took only the time it takes for an incense stick to burn.
The clerks at the Inspection Headquarters were far more professional than those at the Iron Gate Pass. They handled everything from document filing and waist tag engraving to salary registration and housing allocation in one go.
The clerk told him that the chief officer's monthly salary was twenty taels of silver, plus a separate dormitory courtyard.
Twenty taels.
When Xu Xian was working as a minor official outside the official system at Tiemenguan, his monthly salary was two taels of silver, and it was often delayed.
He tucked the badge into his pocket and breathed a sigh of relief.
Hua Xi has almost exhausted his family's wealth; now he can afford to support him.