Chapter 2: The Poster
Soon, the shop owner sent over a link.
The shop owner was probably wondering why someone would go through the trouble of ordering delivery for just one color poster print. Did his local area not even have a print shop?
Chen Bai opened the link and glanced at the poster’s price. As expected, the unit of price had also changed into this world’s silver.
He tapped purchase, and a small bit of broken silver immediately disappeared from inside his sleeve.
A completely ordinary poster also appeared in Chen Bai’s hand. On it was a flower bed with bees flying among the blossoms.
“If we’re talking about realism, who can paint more realistically than a phone camera?”
He rolled up the poster and tucked it into his sleeve.
Chen Bai looked at the two rough-work old women guarding the courtyard entrance. Given his current situation, it would not be easy to walk out of this courtyard.
But it was not impossible.
Following the memories in his mind, he walked toward the low wall at the back of the courtyard.
In the corner of the wall stood a thick, crooked tree.
Chen Bai rolled up his sleeves and began climbing out.
In the past, probably no one had ever imagined that the dignified son of the Tingwei would climb a tree like some rough laborer.
Chen Bai jumped down from the low wall, inevitably pulling at the wounds on his back. The pain made him bare his teeth.
Fortunately, behind the courtyard was a quiet little alley. Usually, not many people passed by.
He walked out of the alley, darted onto a carriage, and said, “To Yunshang Jin.”
Yunshang Jin was a cloth shop, and it belonged to Prince Zheng.
One of the reasons Prince Zheng was disliked by the king was that his mother had been a merchant’s daughter. The Great Qian valued agriculture and suppressed commerce, and merchants had low status.
Valuing agriculture and suppressing commerce had always been the guiding ideology of agrarian eras. If a merchant hoarded rare goods to make money, they could be punished according to the law. The laws of Great Qian were famously strict.
For example, if Chen Bai now took out some worthless but rare-looking trinkets and tried to sell them for sky-high prices, whether he could get rich was uncertain, but he would definitely end up in prison.
That was simply the background of the times.
As for why he sought out Prince Zheng?
First, Prince Zheng had often caused trouble for Crown Prince Jiao. If Chen Bai handed him a knife, he believed that as long as Prince Zheng was not stupid, he would know how to use it.
Second, Prince Zheng had spent eight years as a hostage, preventing war between the two states for eight years. Even if he had no great achievements, he had still suffered hardship. As long as he did not commit any fundamental offense, even if he caused a bit of trouble, the officials would have to turn a blind eye.
Even the carriage driver froze for a moment. Just now, a young master had darted into his carriage so quickly that he had not even seen his face clearly.
But since there was business to be had, whether he had seen clearly or not did not matter.
The carriage traveled along the streets of Shangjing. The streets were paved with bluestone slabs, and the joints between the slabs were extremely smooth. One should never underestimate the skilled craftsmen of ancient times.
The streets were bustling with crowds. There were sellers of candied hawthorns, sellers of sugar figurines, and the cries of shop assistants from all kinds of stores blending together. Shangjing City looked rather lively and prosperous.
The clamor of people formed a stark contrast with the deathly silence of the Tingwei Office recently, where no one dared even breathe loudly.
The carriage traveled for a while. At that moment, a mysterious-looking peasant woman suddenly approached Chen Bai’s carriage.
She had probably seen that Chen Bai’s carriage was plain and simple. Otherwise, ordinary people would not dare approach the carriages of nobles and powerful families.
Through the carriage window, she held up a little booklet. “Young master, want a storybook? It’s a newly released edition. I guarantee you haven’t read it before. Good thing I brought a few extra, or they would have sold out already.”
Without waiting for Chen Bai to react, she began stuffing it into the carriage through the window. “Only two taels of silver.”
Chen Bai froze. Although paper was somewhat expensive, this price could not be considered cheap for a storybook.
He did not say anything. He flipped through the booklet and was just about to hand over some broken silver. After all, life was not easy.
But immediately after, Chen Bai was so shocked that his eyelids twitched. What had he seen?
In the storybook, two men were behaving in a way that utterly violated public morals, and even their positions did not repeat.
The key point was that beside the slender man in the booklet, a name was written: Chen Duanxiu.
Duanxiu, with the surname Chen. Add to that the most sensational matter currently spreading through Shangjing—how could people not imagine who this Chen Duanxiu was?
Chen Bai could not help trembling.
This storybook… this storybook actually…
Damn it, it was too eye-searing. Which immoral bastard had drawn this? They had drawn him like a woman. How could he possibly be as… as unbearable to look at as he was in this storybook? He was too embarrassed to even use any other words to describe it.
With a dark face, he looked outside the curtain, just about to ask clearly, when he saw several patrol clerks rushing toward the woman.
“Selling banned books. Arrest her. Confiscate all the books.”
The government would never allow books that corrupted public morals to circulate freely, but there were always people willing to take the risk. After all, these sold much better than ordinary storybooks, and the price was not low either.
The woman’s face turned pale.
At that moment, one of the clerks lifted Chen Bai’s carriage curtain. “Hand over the storybook. If you privately purchase it again in the future, you’ll be punished the same as the seller…”
Before he could finish speaking, the clerk looked as if he had seen a ghost. He raised a trembling finger and pointed at Chen Bai. “You… you…”
Chen Bai’s expression turned awful. Judging by the clerk’s expression, he must have recognized him.
He hurriedly said to the coachman, “Go, quickly.”
If this caused a scene, no matter how thick-skinned he was, he would not be able to withstand it. It was too damn humiliating. He felt mortified.
That clerk pointed at the departing carriage, his finger trembling so hard it simply would not stop.
This wretch had disgraced the crown prince’s name, and now he remained unrepentant, personally buying such books. He was simply… simply…
“Chen… Chen Zixiu, don’t run! Leave the banned book behind!” An enraged shout spread in all directions.
Chen Bai’s courtesy name was Zixiu.
Silence.
Then the entire street erupted.
“Chen Zixiu? That wretch from the Tingwei Office?”
“He, he, he… don’t tell me he bought the banned book that’s been circulating in the markets recently?”
“Isn’t that book hinting at those filthy matters of his? I heard it’s incredibly exciting.”
Chen Bai looked at the long dragon of people following behind the carriage and felt anger rise in him. It was not that he had wanted to buy it—the woman had forced it into his carriage. Besides, he was also a victim.
“From what that woman said, it’s selling pretty well?”
“What strange hobbies do Shangjing’s young masters and young ladies have?” Ordinary families probably could not bear to buy it.
If the coachman had not been experienced, they would probably have been hit by a carriage full of rotten eggs and wilted vegetables from the people chasing behind them.
The coachman was now regretting it so much his intestines were turning green. He had actually taken the wretch from the Tingwei Office as a passenger.
But he could not stop. Not only might he get caught up in the disaster, but even though Chen Bai was now hated by everyone, he was still the eldest young master of the Tingwei Office, one of the Nine Ministers. It was fine for everyone to join in the uproar, but he, a commoner, absolutely could not afford to offend him.
Curses kept coming from behind the carriage, merging together.
“Shameless dead cut-sleeve!”
“Chen Zixiu, you wretch! Do you even want your face anymore?”
“The shame of Shangjing!”
Chen Bai smiled bitterly. His situation was even harder than he had imagined.
With his reputation, it would not be strange at all if he were beaten by a mob while walking down the street.
Chen Bai frowned as he looked at the crowd behind them. The carriage was not slow, but it would be difficult to shake off the people chasing them.
After being chased by a growing crowd for several streets, they passed an alley. Chen Bai tossed a piece of broken silver to the coachman, the extra counting as compensation for the fright.
“Stop here.”
Then he quickly got off the carriage and darted into the alley.
When he looked back, that carriage had already been surrounded by crowds.
“If I’d been surrounded, that would have been awkward. Even more exaggerated rumors would definitely have spread.”
By the time Chen Bai emerged from the alley, he was already wearing a mask, attracting quite a few strange looks. But that was still better than being recognized.
A single mask blocked all worldly gazes.
Chen Bai even had the leisure to buy a skewer of candied hawthorns and chew on it as he walked.
Did the insults around him make him feel ashamed?
No. He knew perfectly well what the truth was. Crown Prince Jiao had set up a trap to humiliate him. The one who should feel ashamed was not him.
Those humiliating voices only made him feel indignant.
He was already not far from Yunshang Jin. Chen Bai strolled toward his destination while eating.
By the time Chen Bai arrived at Yunshang Jin, quite some time had passed.
The shopkeeper was also stunned when he saw Chen Bai enter wearing a mask, but he was, after all, someone who had traveled widely and seen much of the world.
He was just about to personally greet him when Chen Bai spoke. “I have something I need you to hand to Prince Zheng.”
Prince Zheng had only just returned to Great Qian and was temporarily living in the palace.
Given Prince Zheng’s age, it was already inappropriate for him to live in the palace. He would probably leave the palace and establish his own residence soon.
For now, Yunshang Jin was one of the ways to contact Qi Zheng inside the palace.
The shopkeeper smiled. “…We are only a cloth shop. I’m afraid we cannot…”
Chen Bai said nothing. He took out the rolled-up poster from his sleeve and opened one corner for the other party to see.
Even from just one corner, the realistic image stunned the shopkeeper.
The flowers in the picture, whether in shape or color, were exactly the same as real ones. They were vivid and lifelike, as though one could reach out and pluck them.
Chen Bai handed the rolled painting over. “Can this painting now be presented to Prince Zheng?”
Only then did the shopkeeper snap back to his senses. He reached out and took the painting. “Yes.”
Chen Bai thought to himself, he knew it. How could Yunshang Jin have no connection to Prince Zheng at all?
He turned and walked straight outside.
The shopkeeper hurriedly asked, “May I ask who you are, young master? And why you wish to give such a thing to Prince Zheng?”
If he did not ask clearly, it would be hard for him to report back.
Chen Bai waved as he walked away without saying anything, looking rather carefree and dashing.
As long as it could cause trouble for Crown Prince Jiao, what was giving a poster to Prince Zheng?
The shopkeeper opened the poster and glanced at it. Then his pupils instantly contracted. He hurriedly rolled it back up, gave a few instructions, and walked out.
When Qi Zheng received the poster from the palace attendant, he was also surprised for a while.
Then he looked toward the signature on the poster.
There were only two words written there: Mountain Lord.
Chen Bai had used drawing software to write those ancient-style characters on it. He was the photographer of this work, so of course he had the right to leave his name.
Qi Zheng frowned.
Mountain Lord? In Records of Strange Things and Oddities, it was recorded that spiritual stones in the mountains, having absorbed the essence of the sun and moon, could become spirits and monsters, known as Mountain Lords.
He could not help thinking of that strange stone slab of his.
Not long ago, he had seen a demon inside the stone slab. Although it had only been a fleeting glimpse, it had been so astonishing that he could not forget it even if he wanted to.
Now he saw the words “Mountain Lord.” Was the Mountain Lord not a stone demon? How could he not connect the two?
Qi Zheng asked the waiting palace attendant, “Did they find out clearly what kind of person delivered the painting?”
The attendant answered, “The shopkeeper of Yunshang Jin only said it was a strange person wearing a mask. Judging by the voice, he should not be very old.”
Qi Zheng thought, wearing a mask, so his face could not be seen?
Then he asked a question that completely confused the attendant. “Did they see any strange features on him? For example, cat ears?”
Attendant: “…”
How could a person grow cat ears? Why could he not understand what His Highness was saying?
