After the Immortal Disappeared

Chapter 161: Chapter 162: Promotion, Raise, and a House, All in One Go

Hee Lingchuan chuckled. "Still trying to keep me in suspense?"

"I’m not trying to keep you in suspense, it’s just that he’s hard to describe. Sigh," Hu Min lamented. "I’m not well-read. The words fail me."

Since that was the case, Hee Lingchuan didn’t press the matter. It was just as Hu Min had said. ’If I keep entering the Panlong Dream Realm, I’ll eventually see the Red General. There’s no need to be impatient.’

His drinking buddy laughed again. "More than half of the new recruits ask that same question. Some people even enlist just because of the Red General’s fame."

"So where did the Red General come from?" Hee Lingchuan asked, snatching the last piece of pork crackling. "Are you going to tell me you don’t know again?"

"I’m afraid only Lord Zhong knows the answer to that riddle."

The two chatted joyfully and laughed without restraint. The entire tavern was just as boisterous, anyway.

’It was only here in this Dream Realm,’ Hee Lingchuan realized, ’that I could shed my defenses. It feels like I’m back in my student days—shooting the breeze, drinking ice-cold soda, and eating skewers. We could talk about anything. It’s such a relief to let go of all my burdens.’

He hadn’t felt so comfortable and at ease in a long, long time—

not since he’d become Hee Lingchuan.

After they had eaten and drunk their fill, Hu Min got up, burping, to pay the bill. Then, he dragged Hee Lingchuan outside.

Since his leg made it hard to walk, he found a donkey cart to take them to the Merit Department.

On the way, Hu Min explained to Hee Lingchuan, "The Merit Department is responsible for recording and dispensing merits, making it one of Panlong City’s most important institutions. It’s divided into two bureaus: the Military Merits Bureau and the Civil Affairs Bureau. Since we’re here to claim military merits, we’re going to the Military Merits Bureau."

Hee Lingchuan felt like a country bumpkin in the big city. "I get earning military merits from fighting, but how do civilians earn merit? Is it for contributing to battlefield logistics?"

"Not quite. Anything related to combat falls under the Military Merits Bureau. Even a commoner who discovers a spy can claim military merit. The ’Civil Affairs’ merit is for things like performing labor service, contributing extra grain, or expanding trade outside the city. They can also accumulate merit to exchange for things that money can’t buy, or that are ridiculously expensive, like houses, Cultivation Techniques, Pills and materials, or even servant quotas."

Hee Lingchuan was stunned. "You need to use merit for servant quotas too?"

"Of course. In Panlong City, if you want someone to serve you, it’s not as simple as them agreeing and you paying." Hu Min chuckled. "The amount of merit needed to exchange for a fourth-class residence can also buy you the quota for one servant."

"It’s—it’s that difficult?" Hee Lingchuan thought of Liu Baobao back in Black Water City. He was merely a merchant’s son, yet his household had three concubines and twelve servants.

The luxuries the wealthy enjoyed so easily in the outside world were as difficult as ascending to heaven here.

"What does ’expanding trade outside the city’ mean?"

"Leaving Panlong City to deliver messages or do business elsewhere," Hu Min explained. He then asked, "Did you see any merchant caravans before you entered the city?"

"I did, quite a few of them." Hee Lingchuan looked at the sides of the road again. The shops were lined up one after another, and the commerce was far more prosperous than in Black Water City.

Foreign trade was like water, nourishing the city. Without it, Panlong City probably couldn’t be so prosperous.

He even saw theaters, the Red Hall, and gambling dens...

Everything was orderly yet full of life. It was hard to imagine this was a city constantly shrouded by the shadow of war.

’Shouldn’t a place touched by war be desolate, its people displaced?’

"The Panlong Wasteland is in a state of constant war, so expanding trade is no easy feat. That’s why it’s worthy of reward," Hu Min said gravely. "The Baling Kingdom has tried to blockade our trade routes several times, hoping to starve Panlong City out. Those battles were exceptionally brutal."

He continued to explain, "We didn’t handle these things well in the past. Our motherland didn’t even know that the Panlong Wasteland had become an exclave, isolated out here in the west. Lord Zhong learned from that bitter experience and was determined that we would never be isolated again."

At this point, Hu Min suddenly gave him a knowing look. "Ever since they made servant quotas exchangeable only with merit, the number of newborns in Panlong City has skyrocketed. Everyone’s just staying home and having kids for fun, and the higher-ups are grinning from ear to ear about it! I wonder if that was an unexpected bonus."

In war, the most important factor is people. For a city like Panlong City, engaged in year-round conflict, finding ways to increase the population was a top priority.

Hee Lingchuan was taken aback. "Huh? What’s the connection?"

"Of course there is," Hu Min chuckled slyly. "Think about it. If you can’t hire help, but you have a ton of chores at home that you can’t finish on your own, what’s the most cost-effective solution?"

Hee Lingchuan said uncertainly, "Have kids?"

"Exactly! Have a few, raise them until they’re seven or eight, and you’ve got extra hands, right? And they’re free! No need to pay wages, just feed them. They’re more useful and obedient than livestock. Once they’re a bit older, they can go out and work for you, and you get to keep the money. Isn’t that great?"

"..." Hee Lingchuan rolled his eyes. "If it makes so much sense, how many have you had?"

"I... haven’t had any yet." Hu Min’s face flushed slightly. "What’s the rush?"

"A man who lives with his head on the line isn’t in a rush?" Hee Lingchuan gave him a sidelong glance. "Don’t tell me you don’t even have a girlfriend?"

"Haven’t found the right one, haven’t found the right one." Hu Min hastily pointed ahead. "Hey, we’re here! Let’s get off!"

The Merit Department was the largest building complex on the street. It stood by a lake, with green walls, gray tiles, and flying eaves. Its facade was three bays wide, and many people were coming and going. Walking through the six-paneled, black-lacquered main gate, they entered a large hall. Beyond it, a path split to the left and right, leading to the Military Merits Bureau and the Civil Affairs Bureau respectively.

Hu Min, of course, led him toward the Military Merits Bureau.

The further in they went, the more specialized the buildings became. Hee Lingchuan learned that the Military Merits Bureau was further divided into various sub-bureaus. For example, the Military Supervision Bureau was responsible for supervising the army from the rear, executing deserters, and recording military merits both during and after battle to serve as the basis for rewards and punishments.

The Pengcheng Bureau, where Hee Lingchuan was headed, was the place where military rewards were dispensed.

It was a room of about twenty square meters. Three men sat behind three desks, and the cabinets along the walls reached the ceiling, all filled with various documents and ledgers.

Hu Min walked to the desk closest to the window and said with a smile, "Registrar Liu, I’ve brought a brother here to claim his merit."

Registrar Liu put down his pen. "Name?"

Hu Min rattled it off. "Hee Lingchuan. On the third day of last month, he fought in the rearguard at Riqing River Valley, helping the civilians of Wei City retreat to Panlong City, under the command of Captain Xiao Maoliang."

Only today did Hee Lingchuan learn that Commander Xiao’s official rank was Captain.

Registrar Liu was clearly proficient. He went to a cabinet in the back, rummaged through it, and quickly pulled out a register. He opened it and had a look. "Hmm, Hee Lingchuan. Not a local?"

"A Tusu person. I fled here with the others," Hee Lingchuan said without batting an eye.

"The evaluation says you were brave in battle and quick-witted. Your unit was small, yet you eliminated many enemies. The mission was critical, civilian losses were low, and the report was personally signed by the Red General, so your merit is great. Hmm, calculated as group merit, you are awarded one wooden house, thirty taels of silver, one suit of light chainmail, five pounds of cheese, five taels of Chewing Tobacco, and two mu of medium-grade paddy field in the Qingniu District."

Registrar Liu recited these items fluently. "If you don’t need the house or armor, you can exchange them for other supplies."

Hee Lingchuan beamed. "I’ll take them all! No need to exchange. Thank you!"

Hu Min accompanied him out of the Merit Department, and they got back on the same donkey cart, heading toward Hee Lingchuan’s new house.

Hee Lingchuan’s rewards were all portable. The house and land came as two deeds, and he immediately put on the new light armor. The thirty taels of silver were a Timely Rain; otherwise, he’d be penniless and unable to get by in Panlong City, and he wasn’t thick-skinned enough to keep freeloading off Hu Min.

The so-called "wooden house" didn’t just refer to its building material. The civilian residences in Panlong City were divided into nine grades, from highest to lowest: Silver, Copper, Iron, Tin, Lead, Water, Fire, Wood, and Earth.

’Who the hell came up with these ridiculous names?’ he wanted to complain.

Still, for Hee Lingchuan to have skipped the lowest "Earth House" tier and obtained a "Wood House" with just a single military merit was already quite good for an outsider.

’But I risked my life last time and only got this much for it. It’s clear that earning military merit in Panlong City is not easy. It also shows that the fighting in the Panlong Wasteland is intense and frequent. One or two merits aren’t enough to guarantee a comfortable life. If soldiers wanted a better life for themselves and their families, they had to fight bravely.’

The Qingniu District was quite remote, and the donkey cart moved slowly. Hu Min yawned endlessly and even dozed off twice. But Hee Lingchuan didn’t dare close his eyes, afraid that if he drifted off, he would be ejected from the Dream Realm. Who knew how long it would be before he could enter again.

「More than a double-hour later, they finally arrived.」

The moment Hee Lingchuan stepped off the donkey cart and stood before the wooden house, he felt for a dazed moment that he had returned to his home in another world.

A crowded residential district, uneven roads, uniformly low-slung houses. Your wall was right up against my yard, and the two houses across the way even shared a dividing wall. The sounds of a couple getting busy at night, or the neighbors beating their child—it was all a live broadcast, every detail heard with perfect clarity.

The house assigned to Hee Lingchuan had a reasonably sturdy wooden door, but the lock was a bit finicky; sometimes it opened, sometimes it didn’t.

The two of them went inside and found a very simple layout. There were just two rooms—a large one for sleeping and a small one for cooking, plus a tiny courtyard—

—or rather, it was more of a lightwell than a courtyard. It was a quadrilateral space with corners encroached upon by the neighbors on either side, no more than five square meters in area. You couldn’t even fit an extra water bucket in it. It was surrounded on all sides by other people’s homes.

"This is a ’Wood House’?" To his surprise, Hee Lingchuan felt a wave of nostalgia. Before he became Hee Lingchuan, he had also lived in a small rental apartment in a big city, one that wasn’t much bigger than this. "What must an ’Earth House’ look like, then?"

Hu Min pointed to the water vat in the yard. "An ’Earth House’ is just a single room, and it definitely doesn’t have a courtyard."

’Alright,’ Hee Lingchuan corrected himself, ’the Earth House is the one that sounds more like the place I lived in my past life.’

Hu Min then offered him some advice, "The cheese and Chewing Tobacco are hot commodities at the market. If you don’t need them, you can sell them for money. As for the paddy field, if you don’t want to farm it yourself, you can rent it out to someone else. The profit is a sixty-forty split—you get forty percent, but Panlong City takes a ten percent tax, which you have to pay. If the farmland you own exceeds thirty mu, the tax rate rises to twenty percent. If you want to lower it back to ten percent, you can use military merit to offset it."

’Use military merit... to offset it again?’ Hee Lingchuan gave a bitter smile. "Who comes up with all these complicated schemes?"

"Commander Zhong," Hu Min said with a light cough. "Merit is a good thing. The more you use it, the more you realize how scarce it is. You’ll find out soon enough."