Chapter 38: The Prosperity Everyone Envies

This was already the countless time Jin Jun had faced recruitment offers from high-ranking officials and nobles. Their stewards had even taken turns showing up at his doorstep, lining up outside the main entrance of the Fanlou Restaurant.

The Jin Jun of today had shed the commoner’s aura he once possessed; every gesture now exuded an air of wealth and influence. His once piercing, razor-sharp eyes had grown quite worldly, and even his features had shifted, appearing far more shrewd. His head, too, had grown round and plump. With his hands tucked into his wide sleeves, he wore a mask of constant, amiable smiles for everyone he encountered.

"Oh, Steward Xu, I truly apologize. I, Jin, have a master behind the scenes. If my master does not consent, how could I rashly agree to your request?"

"Oh?" The steward was momentarily taken aback, but the implications quickly dawned on him. Indeed, without a powerful backer, how could one possibly thrive in the cutthroat environment of the capital? It explained why the man showed no fear even before the most powerful dignitaries.

"May I ask who your master is? Does he hold a status as noble as my own master's?" The man before him was the head steward of the Prince Consort’s manor.

"Naturally, he cannot compare to the nobility of Her Highness the Princess. In our Great Qian, the Princess, as a descendant of the Holy Emperor, is indeed peerless in status. However, my master is quite well-acquainted with your Princess. Even if Her Highness were to come in person, I fear she would find it difficult to lower herself to borrow men from my master, would she not?"

He remained neither servile nor overbearing, offering the steward a deliberately vague answer. Though Steward Xu was left confused, he couldn't help but feel a shiver of dread. If what the man said was true, the owner of Fanlou was a top-tier figure among the capital’s elite—the kind of person a mere steward could never afford to offend. Even representing the Princess’s manor, he dared not act presumptuously. He bowed to Jin Jun and retreated.

Seeing that even the chief steward of the Princess’s manor had been rebuffed, the other stewards waiting in line grew anxious. Shortly after Steward Xu left, Jin Jun simply had a sign posted in front of Fanlou. It stated that the restaurant's cooking methods required dishes to be served and consumed immediately; transporting them to the mansions of dignitaries would inevitably ruin their flavor. In no time, the news that the proprietor of Fanlou had refused the solicitations of the capital’s elite spread throughout the city.

When night fell and the lights of Fanlou were extinguished, Jin Jun suddenly appeared in a massive, secret underground chamber. When he had built the restaurant, he had specifically excavated the earth to create a space large enough to conceal an army. Now, however, it served as the foundation for an intelligence network.

The space was filled with wooden gears and iron chains, components of a massive mechanical system for transmitting intelligence. One simply had to place reports into the machine according to their urgency, pull a cable, and the information would be relayed from underground. The line ran from Fanlou to a nondescript tenement courtyard not far away. While the courtyard appeared unremarkable on the surface, it held hidden depths, and the sound of machinery could be heard emanating from the ground almost daily.

"Oh? This report is from Jiangnan Province. It seems there has been a mutiny among the commandery troops. Send this to the City Lord at once!"

Following Jin Jun’s order, the intelligence was swiftly dispatched. The residents of the courtyard were all hand-picked by Lin Qian; loyalty was the primary criterion for selection. Through Lin Qian’s swift and decisive methods, he had screened a large group of survivors who had once suffered during the Beiwu Kingdom’s border raids.

Although the Great Qian dynasty was currently plagued by corruption and unruly factions, its national strength remained passable. With Chunping City in urgent need of updates regarding the capital and major national events, Jin Jun’s intelligence began flowing back to the city like an assembly line.

"Also, this message from the palace: the Emperor has heard that the City Lord has joined forces with the Thirteenth Princess and has become the true commander of the thirty thousand White Pole Soldiers in Chunping City."

"Send this back to Chunping City with an eight-hundred-li express dispatch. Move quickly!"

Sensing that something was amiss, Jin Jun acted ahead of time to ensure this palace secret reached Lin Qian’s ears. As it turned out, the investiture ceremony for Sun Feng was to take place within the next few days.

The old Prince, Sun Ye, had successfully stepped into the background. Though he had relinquished his princely title, he remained a formidable general and a powerful regional governor in all but name.

"Boom, boom, boom!"

Shortly after the news reached Chunping City, a rare display of opulence in the capital began to unfold. At dawn, Sun Feng rode a tall, majestic horse through the city streets, showing off his status. His display drew sighs of awe from the surrounding crowds. As a prince of a different surname, he was expected by tradition and logic to visit the ancestral temple of the Great Qian imperial family, as he was considered an important member of the royal house. Sun Ye, the Conqueror of the West, had done the same when he was first ennobled.

Sun Feng sat lazily on his horse, his eyes greedily scanning the crowd for any beauties. Though he was betrothed to Ye Qingyan, he held no true affection for her; he only desired the bloodline and power of the Western Conqueror’s manor.

"Young Prince, an imperial decree!"

Sun Feng hurriedly dismounted to receive the order. The elderly eunuch, the Superintendent of the Imperial Household, had been handled carefully by Sun Feng. The decree’s intent was clear: it congratulated Sun Feng on inheriting the Western Conqueror’s manor while simultaneously warning others that from this day forward, he was the true Western Conqueror.

Sun Feng immediately ordered a large camphor-wood chest to be carried to the eunuch’s carriage. In his mind, he was already envisioning a life where he could "sleep on the lap of a beauty and wake up to wield the power of the world." Once he was married, he would possess the full strength of both the Western Conqueror’s and the Northern Suppressor’s manors. It did not matter if Ye Qingyan did not like him.

Even though Sun Feng had spent years drifting among the common folk and his personality had changed drastically, the old Prince Sun Ye had still chosen him as his successor. The reason was simple: Sun Feng was his own flesh and blood. Standing at the doorway, Sun Ye watched from afar as his son rode his horse with a high spirit, looking exactly as he himself had in his youth.