CHAPTER 462: 354. IMPERIAL MUSIC BUREAU

"Can we really not go back?" After discussing serious matters, Brother Pao still longed for a way to return home. He muttered, "In the past, when watching time travel dramas, the protagonist who traveled to the past never thought about going back home. At the time, it didn’t seem like a big deal. Now that I’ve time-traveled, it feels absurd... that’s home."

"All my cigars from the cigar room, Cohiba BHK brought back from Cuba, Trinidad humidors, Monte 80 years, and even the Range Rover Lifestyles I just purchased a year ago, all gone."

Brother Pao looked despondently at the bracketed eaves of the Plum Blossom Pavilion: "...So, we have no hope of going back at all?"

Chen Ji, seeing him so persistent, slowly spoke, "Actually, there is a way."

Brother Pao suddenly sat up straight: "Is that true?"

Chen Ji deliberated, "I only found out a few days ago. If an executive officer cultivates to the Divine Realm, by killing all the fellow path cultivators to achieve union, they can return to the Forty-nine Heavens."

"Wait a minute," Brother Pao hesitated, "I’m not an executive officer, and I don’t understand the nuances within the officer’s path, but I heard storytellers in teahouses say that the most powerful characters in stories are in the Divine Realm."

Chen Ji nodded, "Yes."

Brother Pao asked, "How many people in the Ning Dynasty have reached the Divine Realm?"

Chen Ji thought for a moment, "It is said there are two. I only know one is the Apostle Master of the Huangshan Dao Court, and I haven’t heard of the other."

Brother Pao looked up with melancholy for a while, then seriously said to Chen Ji, "I’ll work for you, but you have to help me and Er Dao seize two official paths. If it’s really impossible, it’s fine, but if you can go back one day, take me and Er Dao with you... If taking two people is too much, just send Er Dao back."

Chen Ji was momentarily stunned, "I might not be able to reach the Divine Realm either."

Brother Pao shook his head, "If you can’t do it, I won’t have any hope... Er Dao and I mixed in with the refugees from Henan Province while fleeing south, and before we reached Jinling, everyone was so starved that we ended up stealing a chicken from a squire’s house in Guangming County. The squire’s guards chased us out, caught seven refugees, and buried them alive outside the city. Chen Ji, I can stay here, it doesn’t matter, but Er Dao has to go back, he doesn’t belong here."

Chen Ji was silent for a while, "I’ll do my best."

"Forget it, let’s talk about something light... Can you trust that girl?" In the Plum Blossom Pavilion, Brother Pao looked into the distance, watching Zhang Xia, who was meditating and muttering, "The greatest lesson I learned by the time I turned forty is that every time I share a secret with someone I trust wholeheartedly, I always end up regretting it. Friends, brothers, lovers, none last long, and when you become estranged, the secrets you once shared become the things you regret the most."

Chen Ji looked at Zhang Xia’s profile silently.

Brother Pao leaned his arm on the railing, "Do you remember what Zhang Wuji’s mother said in The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber?"

Chen Ji asked back, "The prettier a woman is, the less trustworthy she is?"

Brother Pao laughed heartily, "When I was young, watching the Li Lianjie version of The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber, I only remembered how beautiful Qiu Shuzhen as Little Zhao and Zhang Min as Zhao Min were. Zhang Wuji’s mother’s advice, I didn’t take to heart at all. Growing up, I indeed suffered great losses at the hands of beautiful women. This girl, from the first time I saw her, I felt she wasn’t easy to deal with. If we let her in on this, she will sooner or later realize you and I don’t belong to this world."

Chen Ji pondered for a moment, "She can be trusted. Besides, what we are about to do cannot be accomplished without her."

Brother Pao nodded, "I’m just giving a friendly reminder, as long as you trust her... Miss!"

Zhang Xia opened her eyes and looked over.

Brother Pao beckoned and grinned, "Miss, let’s discuss what we need to do next."

Zhang Xia walked into the Plum Blossom Pavilion, Brother Pao laid out the plan, and Chen Ji supplemented.

Stock exchange...

Securitization of salt permits...

Short selling salt merchants across the world...

Zhang Xia committed every word of their conversation to memory, though even with her intelligence, she understood only bits and pieces of Chen Ji and Brother Pao’s dialogue.

...

...

When Chen Ji returned to the Chen Mansion, it was already between 9 and 11 PM.

He stood before the dark brown side door and knocked. After a dozen breaths, a servant came to open the door with a lantern.

Chen Ji always felt somewhat awkward; if he had to knock and wait to return to his own home every time, and the power to open the door was always in others’ hands, this place might never truly be called "home."

The Chen Mansion was magnificent.

But Chen Ji always felt he was only physically present here; his soul seemed to be flying elsewhere.

He clearly remembered that the seventh blue brick from the right in the third row of the back courtyard of the Taiping Medical Hall had a missing corner, and he also remembered what herbal names were labeled on each compartment of the vermilion drawers behind the counter.

But if someone asked him how many chairs were in the Silver Apricot Garden, or the name of the pavilion at the highest point of Little Yingtai, he wouldn’t be able to say.

The servant said with the lantern, "Young Master, I’ll guide you."

Chen Ji waved his hand, "No need, the moonlight is quite bright."

He walked alone into the Silver Apricot Garden, and as he passed the Winter Plum Courtyard, he could see light shining through the walls. Presumably, his brother Chen Wenzong was still burning the midnight oil, preparing for the imperial examination in a dozen days.

Originally, Chen Ji wanted to knock on the door, but then he dismissed the thought.

As he neared Silver Apricot Garden, he could hear Xiao Man laughing from afar. When he pushed the door open, Xiao Man exclaimed in surprise, "Young Master is back?"

On the other side, Chen Yu was seen sitting on a stone bench in the small courtyard, saying, "I went to check the granary today... huh, why are you back so late?"

Today, Chen Yu had washed away the dust, donned a cap with a tied hair, and wore a bright red robes with white cranes and auspicious clouds embroidered on it. Sitting beneath the apricot tree, he outshone the surroundings.