The Big Landlord

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Without Ge Qian An around, Shao Fei\'s personality came out.

An Zi Ran heard about him from Fu Wu Tian. Shao Fei was promoted from a civilian soldier. He spent a total of five years in the army. For the first two years he stayed in a fire leader army*, which did not have any prospects. Later he was discovered and then promoted to Fu Wu Tian\'s side.

[*T/N: 火头军 literal translation. The second character can also be translated as "head."]

He had a big personality, and he couldn\'t hide his moods. These people were usually stubborn, and easy to understand.

Shao Fei just turned nineteen this year. Because he went directly from the countryside into the army, in the past five years, he has only been to the capital once, so his curiosity about Jun Zi City was stronger than An Zi Ran.

"Shao Fei." An Zi Ran suddenly stopped him.

Translations by Vanilla Muse.

Shao Fei immediately turned back.

An Zi Ran asked, "About Miss Zhong Yue, how much do you know?"

Shao Fei wasn\'t surprised. He counted on his fingers for a bit. "Zhong Yue has been by wang ye\'s side for ten years longer than me. Sometimes she\'s cold. She doesn\'t like to talk. Our personalities don\'t really get along, so I don\'t know much about her, but…"

"But what?"

"I heard that wang ye saved her life. I think it was when she was five years old. A group of bandits rushed into the village where Zhong Yue lived. They not only stole the villagers\' food for the winter, but also killed the villagers there. They were very cruel. Wang ye happened to pass by and saved her. I recall that she seems to be the only one from her village that is still alive. From then on, Zhong Yue has been by the wang ye\'s side. Furthermore, she only listens to wang ye\'s orders, as if to repay him for saving her life."

An Zi Ran looked calmly at the street ahead and did not answer.

Shao Fei seemed to have come to a topic of interest and he said with enthusiasm, "The day when wang fei and wang ye got married, Zhong Yue was also there, but it seems like she left later on, so wang fei didn\'t get to see her."

"That\'s it?"

Shao Fei rubbed his head and nodded.

On the way, An Zi Ran asked about the other people. Shao Fei answered his questions one by one, unless it was something that he did not know.

An Zi Ran knew that for Fu Wu Tian to get to where he was, he must have quite a few high-ranking military officers that he trusted. Asides from the few loyal veterans that Fu Xiao left him; the ages of the other people were all similar to Fu Wu Tian. An Zi Ran thought that he had seen all of them on the day of the marriage, but unexpectedly there were still a few more staying at the border.

The two walked as they talked, and they soon arrived outside the engraving workshop. The engraving workshop was a place where they printed text. In the twenty-first century, it was called a printing factory (or a print shop). But according to his original timeline, the word \'factory\' was something closer to modern times. The ancients did not have such things as factory yet, because in order for there to be a factory there would inevitably have to be machines.

An Zi Ran did not use his identity as wang fei to meet the boss of the engraving workshop. The other party was also unaware that he was the wang fei of the Imperial Fu Palace. He only took him for the son of some noble.

The owner of the engraving workshop was a middle-aged man named Li Zhen. He had a grizzly beard and a gentle smile. He heard that An Zi Ran wanted to print some things so he asked a few pertinent questions. When An Zi Ran showed him the things in the box, the smile changed a little.

"What is this?" Li Zhen picked up the square piece of paper that was cut in the box and looked at An Zi Ran strangely.

An Zi Ran told him his request.

Li Zhen\'s eyes widened. He had never seen such a strange thing. Not only did he have to make such a small one, but it also had various patterns on it. Although he did not understand it, it was still business. Businessmen would not push away such a good thing, especially since the other party was very generous.

Li Zhen mulled it over and then agreed.

Asides from a few pieces that were more troublesome, the others were very simple.

"Boss Li, according to the speed of your workshop, when do you think this will be done?" After negotiating the requirements and conditions, An Zi Ran asked for a concrete completion date. His hope was to have it as fast as possible.

Li Zhen stroked his beard as he considered. "To be frank, gong zi, the things you want done will need at least five days at the fastest."

An Zi Ran nodded. Five days was not very long. The renovations for the gambling house wouldn\'t be done so quickly either. He stood up. "Then I will have to trouble Boss Li with this."

Li Zhen quickly stood up and smiled. "An gong zi is too polite."

Then he personally saw him out.

An Zi Ran didn\'t specifically tell Boss Li not to let things leak out. This kind of thing, the more you specified, the more mindful of it the other party would become. He believed that as long as he didn\'t tell others how to use those things, even if Boss Li had the intention to leak it out, he still wouldn\'t be able to do much. The other party should be confused right now, and have no idea what he wanted to make those things for.

Shao Fei saw that wang fei wasn\'t speaking. He seemed to be thinking about something. So he didn\'t talk to him either, but after a while he couldn\'t help it anymore. "Wang fei, after those things are complete, can they really be used to play?"

He had never seen such strange patterns.

"Five days later, after I get those things in my hands I will teach you guys how to play. Don\'t look at it as just a few dozen sheets of paper. You can play more games with it than with dices." After An Zi Ran finished speaking, he thought of a question. "Do you know where they sell cattle bone or ivory?"

Shao Fei revealed a mocking smile. "This, I also do not know. We can return to the prince\'s palace and ask Qian An. He knows more."

Although he often ran around outside, dragging other people out with him to sightsee whenever he was free, there were still a lot of places that he has not been yet. It was even more impossible for him to pay attention to any shops selling cattle bones or ivory.

Thus, the two of them returned directly to the prince\'s palace.