At the third quarter of the Hour of the Rabbit, the morning mist had yet to dissipate.
The heavy, iron-clad city gates of Taoyuan County let out a teeth-grating screech as they slowly swung open.
Normally at this hour, aside from a few farmers coming into the city to collect night soil, not even a stray dog would bother lingering by the gates.
But today, the moment the gates parted, a wave of heat hit them, thick with the stench of sweat and cheap face powder.
"Stop pushing! You're stepping on my shoes!"
"Who's the blind fool? Do you know who I am? I'm Boss Chen of Chen Ji, in the silk trade from Qinghe County!"
"Chen Ji, my ass! I'm the one who delivers grain to the prefectural city!"
Outside the gates, a long queue had already formed on the cement road stretching towards Ox Head Mountain.
These weren't ragged refugees begging for food, but merchants dressed in silk, pot-bellied and prosperous, along with many wealthy farmers from neighboring counties with their ox-carts and families in tow. Clutching their silver, they craned their necks like ducks waiting for a sluice gate to open.
On the city wall, the usual bunch of yamen runners with their caps askew, lounging and sunning themselves against the parapet, were nowhere to be seen.
In their place stood two rows of men in tight-fitting black uniforms, wide leather belts cinched at their waists. They leaned on identical staffs, and the red badges on their chests bearing the characters for "Garrison" glared blood-red in the morning light.
These men stood ramrod straight, not a hint of a smile on their faces, emanating a murderous aura like a pack of evil stars freshly crawled from a pile of corpses.
"Looking to start a rebellion?!"
A roar exploded.
Pockmarked Liu strode out from the gate tunnel, a wrist-thick watchman's club in his hand, the thick flesh on his face twitching.
"Form a line! Anyone who dares push forward another half-step will be thrown out immediately and forbidden from entering the city, forever!"
The clamoring crowd fell deathly silent, as if their throats had been squeezed shut.
A grain merchant from Qinghe County wiped the oily sweat from his forehead and stepped forward with an ingratiating smile. "Officer, sir, we're all here to do business. The gates are open, so why aren't we allowed in? The grain on my cart..."
"Doing business?" Pockmarked Liu sneered, pulling a wooden placard from his robe and hanging it on the wall.
On the placard was a single line of large characters: Those entering the city must pay a security deposit of five hundred wen, and require a guarantee from a local merchant.
The crowd erupted.
"Five hundred wen? This is robbery!"
"Exactly! We don't pay to enter the prefectural city. Is Taoyuan County paved with gold?"
"And a guarantee? We're new here. We don't know any local merchants!"
Pockmarked Liu wasted no words. He thumped his club on the ground, the blue flagstone emitting a dull thud.
"Think it's too expensive? Then don't come! Go to Qinghe County. They don't charge there. They don't even charge for shit there!"
He pointed a thumb behind him at the street, clean to the point of not a single stray weed, then gestured at the endless rows of glass lamp posts in the distance.
"This is Taoyuan County! Miss Xu has declared that our land here is precious. We've no room for riff-raff. If you can't afford it, piss off!"
The grain merchant was stunned.
He looked at the mirror-smooth road inside the gates, at the neat, uniform rows of shops in the distance, and recalled the legendary spectacle of the "City That Never Sleeps" from last night.
The business opportunities here were real gold and silver.
The roads here didn't jolt your bones; the lamps here lit up the whole night; the order here was said to be so strict not even a fly dared buzz out of turn.
This five hundred wen wasn't a toll. It was an admission ticket! A pass to the vault!
"I'll pay!"
The grain merchant yanked a lump of broken silver from his robe and slammed it onto the registration table with a force fiercer than a gambler's.
"Five hundred wen! Keep the change! For your brothers' tea! Now... who's a local merchant? I'll pay two taels for a guarantee!"
"I'll pay too! I'll pay double!"
"Don't push! I was here first! Here's my money!"
The crowd that had just been complaining about "robbery" now surged forward like madmen. Silver coins rained down on the registration table, everyone terrified that this golden gate would slam shut on them if they were a moment too late.
Watching this scene, Pockmarked Liu's mouth twitched.
Miss's tactic of "driving people away"... how come the more she drove, the more people came?
...
Inside the city, Main Street.
A fat man in a purple robe, having just finished the flatbread in his hand, casually tossed the lotus leaf wrapper to the ground and promptly spat a thick glob of phlegm.
Ptui—
Before the spit could even seep into the cracks between the flagstones, a large hand clamped down on his shoulder.
"Who dares?! How dare you touch me—"
The fat man turned to see a dark face wearing a red armband.
"Littering and spitting in public. Fine: five taels."
The dark-faced man was expressionless, a small notebook already open in his hand. "Pay up."
"Five taels? That's daylight robbery!" The fat man's eyes bulged. He pulled a ten-tael silver note from his robe and flung it over. "Do you know who I am? I know your County Magistrate's Assistant—"
"Ten taels."
The dark-faced man took the note, neither giving change nor bowing. He pulled a bright yellow vest from behind his belt and shoved it into the fat man's arms.
"According to Article Three of the Taoyuan County Urban Management Regulations, resisting enforcement doubles the penalty. Besides the fine, you must also stand guard for half a shichen."
"You want me to stand guard? Wear this?" The fat man laughed in anger, pointing at the onlookers gathering around. "I have plenty of money! I'll give a hundred taels! I'm not standing guard!"
The dark-faced man said nothing, just whistled.
Whoosh! Four "city patrolmen" with watchman's clubs surrounded them.
"Pay the money, you still stand guard." The dark-faced man pulled the vest over the fat man's head. "These are the Xu Family's rules. On this street, money isn't everything. Rules are."
The local commoners watching weren't scared off by this seemingly overbearing act. Instead, they stood with hands behind their backs, pointing and commenting, their faces wearing a peculiar sense of superiority.
"Look, a country bumpkin from out of town."
"Exactly, thinks his stinking money lets him run wild here? Doesn't know whose turf this is."
"Serves him right! Miss Xu spent a fortune paving this street. Can't let them ruin it!"
The fat man froze.
Seeing the mocking gazes all around, he suddenly realized something: Here, his money couldn't buy privilege. But if he followed the rules here, he could gain something even the prefectural city couldn't sell him—dignity and order.
Gritting his teeth, he put on the yellow vest and obediently took his place standing under the sun at the roadside.
...
The side hall of the county yamen now bore a sign: "Taoyuan Tax Settlement Center."
It was louder than a marketplace.
"Xu Family Security Fee, three taels!"
"Road Wear and Tear Compensation, two taels!"
"Nighttime Lighting Fee, five taels!"
Li Sheng stood on a raised platform, his voice hoarse from shouting.
Below, dozens of accountants' abacuses clacked so fast they seemed to spark, the pipa-papa sounds merging into a torrential downpour.
Xu Qinghuan sat in the armchair of the inner hall, a cup of tea in her hands, yet she couldn't bring herself to take a sip.
Listening to the commotion outside, she closed her eyes in despair.
"When will it stop..."
She came up with these various fees, like "air purification fees" and "excessive space occupancy fees due to your obesity," purely to disgust these merchants, to force them out, and to burst this bubble of false prosperity.
But what was the result?
Li Sheng rushed in clutching a thick stack of account books, his face as red as if he'd downed two pounds of strong liquor.
"Miss! It's exploded! It's exploded again!"
He spread the account books on the table, pointing at the numbers, his finger trembling.
"The 'Temporary City Entry Pass' alone brought in eight thousand taels in just three days! Add in the more than twenty other miscellaneous fines and fees, and the treasury silver... we've run out of space to store it!"
"And..." Li Sheng swallowed hard, "when the merchants paid, not only did they not complain, they kept asking if they could prepay for next year's!"
"Are they out of their minds?" Xu Qinghuan set her teacup down with a heavy thud.
"They said..." Li Sheng scratched his head, "paying this money means you're under the Xu family's protection. Before, when they did business in other places, they had to worry about hoodlums causing trouble and had to grease the palms of various yamen offices—that was a bottomless pit.
Now, even though the Xu family charges steeply, as long as you pay this one fee, no one dares to harass you anymore. When you do the math, you actually save a huge amount!"
[Ding!]
...
Two hours later.
Notices were plastered all over the city.
Xu Qinghuan sat in a private room of a teahouse, staring intently at the crowd below, clutching a handful of sunflower seeds in her hand. She was waiting to see these troublesome commoners angrily tear down the notices, waiting to hear the rising tide of curses.
However, what she saw was a completely different scene.
A group of out-of-town merchants crowded around a notice, with one literate man reading its contents aloud.
After he finished, there was a brief silence.
Xu Qinghuan's heart leaped into her throat: Curse! Start cursing!
Suddenly, a fat man with a Shanxi accent slapped his thigh. "Brilliant!"
"This isn't a cage! This is a suit of golden armor!"
The fat man, flushed and excited, shouted to those around him, "Think about it, everyone! If everyone has this badge, wouldn't thieves who sneak in be spotted at a glance? Then our goods, our money—wouldn't they be safe even if left out on the street?"
"Right!" another merchant exclaimed in sudden understanding. "With this badge, we become 'certified' people of Taoyuan County! When we go out to do business later, just slap this badge on the table—who would dare treat us like bandits anymore?"
"This Miss Xu, she's truly figured out what's on our minds!"
"This isn't restriction; it's giving us legitimacy!"
"Hurry! Go queue up! There must be a quota for these badges. If we're late, we might not get one!"
What should have been a scene of mass indignation instantly turned into a buying frenzy.
Thousands of people surged toward the county magistrate's office like a tidal wave, scrambling to get their fingerprints recorded, terrified that if they were too slow, they might miss out on becoming a member of this enormous "cage."
Some even offered ten taels of silver on the spot just to secure a lower serial number.
The sunflower seeds in Xu Qinghuan's hand fell with a plop into her teacup.
The deafening clamor from below converged into words of praise for her.
"Miss Xu is wise!"
"This is a protective talisman issued for us!"
Xu Qinghuan could only think:
Huh, so making money is this easy? At least the task is complete!
