The Demon Lords
Chapter 62 - 47: Removing Stitches_1

Chapter 62: Chapter 47: Removing Stitches_1

After leaving the hall, Zheng Fan headed to the stamp office to register with the Registrar. Since he was already there, he might as well officially end his vacation. At the very least, he could receive a set of armor.

As for other things, Zheng Fan and his demon underlings didn’t harbor any extravagant hopes.

Fortunately, they had arrived in Yan State in this world, not Qian State or Jin State. Both Jin and Qian States were dominated by scholars. Especially in Qian State, the scholar-bureaucrat class’s control and vigilance over martial cultivators had almost reached a level of extreme paranoia.

This was because Emperor Taizu of Qian State had initially risen to power by bullying the orphans and widows of the previous dynasty, and Emperor Taizong, his imperial younger brother, also ascended to the throne with the support of the military. Consequently, there was a great fear of others following suit, leading to increased vigilance and suppression of martial personnel.

Only in Yan State, particularly on its northern border, could one still see such a multitude of garrisons and forts. One reason was that the imperial capital was distant, and the other was that the Yan State court’s control over local affairs was inherently weak.

Therefore, Zheng Fan saw the possibility and opportunity for gradual farming and troop training.

In the stamp office, Zheng Fan saw Registrar Chen again. He was the one who, along with a military field officer, had come to the inn to "count heads."

To be precise, back then, Registrar Chen, holding a ledger, went around pointing at people, and whoever he pointed at was highly likely to lose their head. King Yama’s Book of Life and Death was probably less effective than his ledger.

Now, Hutou City was filled with funerals, white banners and yellow paper fluttering everywhere. It could be said this scene was sketched out by Registrar Chen’s "imperial brush." This power of life and death—even the Emperor of Yan State would probably envy it greatly.

Of course, in reality, he couldn’t be solely blamed. Even if blame were to be assigned, he wouldn’t be at the top of the list.

First, blame lay with the eldest daughter of the Earl of North Border. For the sake of a quickly concluded war, she directly used civilian laborers as bait to lure the Shatuo cavalry into a slaughter.

Then, there was this damnable conscription. From the "Zheng Family," apart from A Ming lying in his coffin, Fanli who had run off earlier, and Blind Bei and the dwarf, everyone else who looked remotely like a normal person was dragged away.

This level of conscription density was almost unheard of in historical records, but it had long become commonplace for central policies to become distorted by the time they reached the local level.

Ultimately, it all boiled down to a systemic problem...

Registrar Chen, who was sitting behind his desk with a brush in his hand and seemingly writing something, didn’t remember Zheng Fan.

Oh, right. Registrar Chen wasn’t actually *the* Registrar. To be precise, he was a minor clerk under the real Registrar. It was just that small businesswomen like Siniang would definitely address him as "Registrar" upon meeting him.

It was the same principle as common folk calling any low-ranking puppet soldier "Chief."

The true Registrar’s surname was Liu. Zheng Fan wasn’t sure if he was from the Beifeng Liu clan. The man was so thin he looked like skin and bones. In the dim stamp office, his eyes seemed to emit a green glow, like a silent tiger, and the stamp office was his den.

However, being an amateur field officer like Zheng Fan had its advantages. To his astonishment, not a single person in the stamp office asked him for a bribe. This meant the silver Siniang had prepared for him when he left home went unused.

It wasn’t because they were incorruptible. Perhaps, in their eyes, it was already quite something that Zheng Fan hadn’t come begging them, teary-eyed, for military supplies and provisions. Thus, they couldn’t be bothered to try and squeeze any benefits out of him.

Registrar Liu stamped Zheng Fan’s documents and issued him a token. From this day forward, Zheng Fan was officially a public servant in Hutou City.

Moreover, he was directly assigned to a sinecure post where he would draw pay for doing absolutely nothing, as there was genuinely nothing to do. One could say he’d truly landed a cushy job in one fell swoop.

"Zheng Colonel," Registrar Liu began, "I hope you will dedicate yourself to your official duties, live up to His Majesty’s high expectations, not misappropriate the fruits of the people’s labor, not disappoint... ah... ACHOO..."

Registrar Liu let out a massive sneeze and, apparently losing interest in continuing the formalities, simply waved his hand, indicating that Zheng Fan could be off.

After exiting the stamp office, Zheng Fan went to the warehouse to collect his armor.

Zheng Fan wasn’t sure what rank of official the warehouse manager was, but the man was exceptionally cordial towards him, offering tea and water, and even specially prepared a hot, damp towel for Zheng Fan to wipe his face.

Zheng Fan was a bit taken aback by the favor at first. On his very first day as an amateur field officer, he was already getting a taste of "official prestige."

However, Zheng Fan soon figured it out. The current enthusiasm was due to the manager’s fear that he might ask for something later.

Zheng Fan didn’t take it to heart, as he hadn’t planned on extorting anything from Hutou City anyway. So, after receiving his armor, he bid farewell directly, leaving the manager standing there, perplexed for a long time, merely sighing that an idiot had come.

Originally, the manager had been thinking that if things got difficult, he’d just give Zheng Fan some damaged goods to send him on his way. Who would have thought the man wouldn’t even bring up the subject?

Carrying the armor, Zheng Fan heard a commotion from the main hall as he was leaving the county government office.

The matter of adopting orphans met with much resistance from the officers. If they were able-bodied adults, it wouldn’t matter, but they were all young children. Furthermore, adoption required signing a contract, and since they were all orphans, one wasn’t allowed, nor was it easy, to pass them on to others.

Zheng Fan was indifferent to this and couldn’t be bothered to join his fellow officers in their grievance session.

Upon exiting the county government office, Liang Cheng, who had been waiting outside, brought the horses over. The two men leisurely rode back home.

***

"So, this summons was for the county magistrate to solve the orphan problem, right?" Blind Bei asked Liang Cheng.

"Yes," Liang Cheng replied. "According to our lord, he’ll probably be assigned one or two. If we sign the contract, they’ll become our lord’s adopted children. In Yan State, adopted children can inherit a portion of the property. So, we’ll have one or two more young masters."

"Haha," Blind Bei sighed. At the same time, he silently took out a cigarette from his pocket, turned it over in his palm, and tapped it.

"You’ve made cigarettes?"

"It’s just a self-rolled cigarette; the filter isn’t ready yet. But I plan to let our lord have one first after his lesson, to satisfy his craving."

"Haha, you’re very thoughtful."

"It’s nothing. I want to smoke them myself. How about you, want one? Constantly inhaling the baleful aura from the unmarked common graves can’t be good for you. Have a smoke occasionally, let your lungs relax a bit."

"Is there such a principle?"

"Made it up, haha."

"How are the preparations for the soap and perfume coming along?"

"The first batch of goods is ready. We can start preparing to go to Tuman City soon to find a merchant house for distribution."

"Aren’t we going to handle the transport and sales ourselves?"

"The initial investment for that would be too large. We need to make some quick money first. That way, we can get the cavalry unit established sooner, and our lord won’t have to keep enduring the disrespect that comes with being an amateur field officer in the government office."

"Hmm, but I get the feeling our lord doesn’t really care about that."

"That’s because our lord has inner confidence. Anyone whose family assets were in the tens or hundreds of millions wouldn’t bother with office politics and petty rivalries if they went to work for a company."

"Seems like that’s indeed the case."

"Right, about this matter of adopting orphans, I think we can still give it more thought."

"It’s an assignment from above. Our lord should have the smallest quota. The county magistrate will likely allocate them based on each field officer’s influence and actual power."

"That’s not what I mean. It’s not that I don’t want them, but I feel it’s too few."

"Too few?"

"Yes, just one or two is meaningless."

"Then how many do you want?"

Blind Bei extended his hand towards Liang Cheng,

then slowly clenched it into a fist,

and said,

"I want them all."

"Are you crazy?" Liang Cheng was amused by Blind Bei but was merely teasing. He knew Blind Bei never made a losing deal; everything he did had a purpose.

"This is how I see it: we take in these orphans, clear out a residence, and set up an orphanage. Or, even better, use this as a bargaining chip to ask the county magistrate for another piece of land in the city to build an orphanage."

"And the benefits?" Liang Cheng asked.

"I say, how have you, this Zombie, also become so mercenary? This is about doing good deeds, accumulating merit. Must we always talk about returns and benefits?"

"It’s not that I, this Zombie, have become mercenary, but I don’t believe you’d accumulate merit purely for the sake of accumulating merit."

"You’ve impugned my character."

"My apologies."

"Hehe," Blind Bei chuckled, saying, "I just feel that, well, one should do some good deeds."

"Really, just for that?"

"Really."

"Why?"

A Ming’s voice suddenly interjected, "Probably the after-effects of the 404."

Hearing this, Blind Bei smiled but remained silent.

Liang Cheng hesitated for a moment, looked at Blind Bei, and asked, "Really?"

Blind Bei nodded, saying, "One has to follow one’s conscience sometimes. We can’t always be the villains. Occasionally, we need to feign a little benevolence."

"This is reality, not a comic book."

"It’s just a change of medium," Blind Bei replied.

"If that’s the only reason, it’s a bit far-fetched," Liang Cheng said, still unconvinced.

"Sigh, let me put it this way. Firstly, doing this can help us cultivate our next generation of personnel in a timely manner. Moreover, training ’rejects’ acquired halfway is far less effective than nurturing individuals from the very beginning according to our own vision. Secondly, since Hutou City will be our base of operations in the future, we need to cultivate a good image for our Zheng Family. Unlike the Earl of North Border, who needs to deliberately tarnish his own reputation, we must start winning people’s hearts from the outset. Didn’t Liu Bang also rise to power with the backing of his people from Pei County?"

"Explained that way, I can understand," Liang Cheng said, conceding to the proposal.

Although this proposal would cost a significant amount of money and might even affect the establishment of the cavalry team he planned to build.

Blind Bei put the cigarette between his lips, fumbled for a fire starter, and lit it, saying,

"Actually, A Ming is also right. Sometimes, a person really does need to do some good deeds. Otherwise, who knows, one day you might just be... gone."

Saying this,

Blind Bei took a drag from his cigarette, slowly exhaled smoke rings from his nostrils, then turned to A Ming and asked,

"Why are you out here?"

A Ming shrugged, saying, "I have some good news to share. Our lord’s aptitude is indeed excellent. Under Ding Hao’s guidance, he can already preliminarily guide the qi and blood in his body. According to Ding Hao, with a bit more practice—much like learning to drive, where you start slowly and then pick up speed as you become proficient—he’ll improve.

"But Ding Hao doesn’t want our lord to directly attempt the Half-step Ninth Rank. That would be too hasty. He says it’s like running; the rhythm for a marathon is different from that of a sprint.

"Rushing to the Half-step Ninth Rank would disrupt his established rhythm. Then, when he aims for the Ninth Rank, it would take even more time to readjust and re-familiarize himself. It’s better to progress slowly, gradually increasing the pace, and eventually, success will come naturally."

"Our lord has already memorized the meridian map on my body; it wasn’t difficult to memorize at all. Seeing that there was nothing more for me to do, I came out. Oh, right, where’s Siniang?"

"What do you want her for?" Blind Bei asked.

A Ming, looking rather dejected, placed a hand on his chest. He bent over slightly, bringing himself closer to Blind Bei, who was smoking.

With considerable resentment, he said, word by word,

"Find her... to remove... my stitches!"