Please control me, my divine being!

Chapter 100 Bai Qing'er

Sham Shui Po was a place where goods were sorted and merchant ships were diverted to Jiang'an.

Although Jiang'an City is large, there are many ships coming and going. With three rivers converging and roads leading in all directions, it is quite normal for some cargo ships to be unable to enter the port for ten days or half a month.

Therefore, various towns and villages of all kinds were built around Jiang'an City, named after neighborhoods, and gathered a large population.

Ports and wharves were built along the river within the district, allowing cargo ships to unload and depart without entering Jiang'an City or undergoing numerous inspections, greatly improving the efficiency of trade and commerce.

Merchant ships and cargo ships brought in people, and these towns named after neighborhoods became increasingly prosperous, full of life and vibrancy.

Li Qinghe and Jiang Chuling found an inn to stay in.

The two had been tossed about on the boat every day, vomiting until they were pale, but now they were finally able to get some solid ground and sleep comfortably all night.

As dawn broke, Li Qinghe opened the window on the second floor of the inn, and below, the place was already bustling with activity.

The shouts of laborers unloading cargo could be heard from the distant dock.

The streets were bustling with vendors hawking their wares, and carriages and horses moved like a river. This small town on the outskirts of Jiang'an was several times more prosperous and stable than Lianshan City.

And wealthy people dressed in brocade robes were also a common sight.

Jiang Chuling was fine, but Li Qinghe felt a bit like a country bumpkin in the city, with many novel things on the street that she had never seen before.

After having breakfast at the inn, the two stepped out the door and onto the long street.

"Sister Qinghe, come look at this hairpin, it's so beautiful!"

"They have sugar blowing art here, would you like to buy one?"

"This is a jade gambling den, where the stones are said to yield priceless jade. This should be the racecourse, where horse racing is done. And this is a arena for martial arts practitioners to showcase their skills and find employers."

As Jiang Chuling walked and talked, Li Qinghe was dazzled by the novelties on the street.

"That flower house up ahead is so pretty, it's covered in lanterns. What's it for?" Li Qinghe asked curiously, looking at the flower house by the river.

Jiang Chuling explained in a low voice, "That's a brothel, a place for men and women—"

Li Qinghe's face immediately turned red.

A girl of this age, if she came from a normal family, would have already been engaged and married.

Although she had never looked into these matters, she often heard her neighbors, older women, and grandmothers gossiping about men and women.

Poor families, having little entertainment after meals, love to gossip about each other's affairs, talking about this family's daughter and that family's mother-in-law and daughter-in-law.

This is the origin of the saying "good news doesn't travel far, but bad news travels fast."

"Let's stop shopping for now, we need to get down to business." Li Qinghe quickly changed the subject to cover up her embarrassment.

She has a lot to do today.

First, go to the brokerage firm to find Bai Qing'er and give her Bai Tieya's belongings.

Secondly, you need to obtain a dental license and then find a way to make a living; these should all be available at a dental brokerage.

After all, she was a legitimate broker with her own methods, so she wouldn't be unable to make a living; it was just a matter of how much she earned.

The third thing is to find a place to stay.

The inn is crowded with all sorts of people, and if she wants to continue her cultivation, she will definitely need various daily rituals, so she will need a quiet, secluded courtyard to live in.

The brokerage firm was located within the market.

Li Qinghe led Jiang Chuling through the gate and looked around at the surroundings.

The brokerage firms in Sham Shui Po are fundamentally different from those in Lian Shan City.

In Lianshan City, due to the plague and the yellow disaster, the people and residents were fleeing to other places, the local business and trade environment was destroyed, and the population was dwindling.

During times of war, brokerage firms are among the fastest to collapse.

Therefore, only that group of cultivators in Lianshan City were exchanging supplies and setting up stalls.

Sham Shui Po, on the other hand, is much more formal.

This is a government office through and through, backed by legitimate government officials, and it operates all kinds of businesses.

They offered a wide variety of businesses, from buying and selling land and lending money to weaving and selling silk. Each business had its own window or counter with dedicated staff to handle different transactions.

In terms of standardization alone, it far surpasses Lianshancheng.

For example, Sham Shui Po has many dyeing and weaving workshops that produce a lot of cloth. There is a special counter that specializes in this business. The boss behind the counter is dressed in a silk robe and claims to control the livelihoods of thousands of weavers in Sham Shui Po. He even claimed that he once sent cloth to the royal palace as tribute.

Li Qinghe continued walking in, stepping into a more spacious area.

She looked left and right and discovered that there was human trafficking here. Her expression changed immediately. However, Jiang Chuling whispered in her ear, "These are poor families selling their children, or people who have suffered natural disasters or man-made calamities and have no choice but to become slaves or servants. It is not kidnapping or forced occupation."

The official brokers also ran a human trafficking business.

However, they are more respectable than private dentists, focusing on the superficial glamour, but who dares to ask about the dirty deeds behind the scenes?

To be able to do business in this government office, one must have powerful backers.

After going around in circles, the broker would dabble in everything from legitimate businesses to shady and unethical ones.

Next to those human traffickers were loan sharks and pimps soliciting customers for brothels—it was all so blatant.

Li Qinghe discovered that although the official den was more formal and respectable, it was no better. It was still a place that preyed on people, just with a disguise over the naked cannibalism of the North.

However, this also makes it quite convenient to do business at a brokerage firm.

After getting to know her roughly, she directly called over a broker and asked him about Bai Qing'er.

"Tsk tsk, young lady, you can't address someone by their first name like that in our line of work, it's disrespectful. What brings you to the Fourth Manager?"

The shopkeeper sized up the two girls. Seeing their shabby clothes and travel-worn appearance, he guessed they were poor relatives from the countryside who had come to the city to seek refuge with powerful families.

But he showed no impatience; instead, he stood still and waited quietly.

Li Qinghe asked, "I'm looking for Bai Qing'er. Is she your fourth manager?"

"Yes, that's our fourth manager. Judging from your accent, you're not from the Jiang'an area, are you?" The waiter's gaze became increasingly strange.

Li Qinghe explained, "Bai Qing'er's father asked me to bring some of his belongings to her before he passed away."

Upon hearing this, the waiter's expression changed, and he led the two men to a side room: "Gentlemen, this is no joke. If you're here to tease me, not only will I be in trouble, but you'll be in deep trouble too."

"This is a matter of life and death, not a joke."

"Please wait a moment, I'll send someone to inform the fourth manager, he'll be back shortly."

The waiter brought two cups of tea and asked the two to wait in the quiet room. He went out for a while and then came back in, as if he was watching the two and worried that they were there to play tricks on him.

Taking advantage of this moment, Li Qinghe inquired about the ivory tokens.

These are different from temporary identification documents like tooth tags and road passes.

It is proof that one can stay in one place for a long time, which is equivalent to household registration.

In remote, impoverished areas of the North, where population movement is limited, such items are not particularly necessary. However, within Jiang'an City, many things become inconvenient without a token.

If you want to engage in trading, you will face numerous restrictions.

Jiang'an is densely populated and has a large flow of people. Only a dental certificate can confirm one's identity and household registration, which is also the first step in truly starting a career in this big city.

Moreover, with the Dragon King Festival approaching, even more people are flocking in, making the ivory tokens even more important.

"Getting a dental license is simple. Do you two have travel permits?"

The broker said in a relaxed tone, "Although our Sham Shui Po can't compare to Kong On City, it's still a large market town. A trading card is indeed a necessity. If you have a travel permit, we can get one for you right now."

Li Qinghe took out the travel permit from his sleeve.

However, the broker frowned after examining it: "I know Yuyang County, but I've never seen this seal before. As for Huangshui Town—"

He shook his head and didn't continue.

It's obvious the place is too small; they've never even heard of it.

This situation is extremely common, with many remote villages and towns that are almost completely isolated from the outside world.

The Wu Dynasty had a vast territory, and in those times when information transmission was extremely limited, anyone who could remember the towns and villages of a prefecture was considered knowledgeable.

However, as long as the travel permit is issued by the government, its stamp and seal are almost identical and have the same style.

Having worked in the brokerage business for many years, the clerk could immediately tell that the stamp on the travel permit was not the one commonly used by the government, and that it was a counterfeit among counterfeits.

If it weren't for their connection to the fourth manager, he would have already reported them to the authorities and expelled them.

Forging road permits is a serious crime.

This has always been the privilege of their official brokers; it's a monopolistic business.

Li Qinghe found it strange that there had been no problems using this road pass along the way, and that they had been able to travel freely on the boat without any hindrance.

It was Jiang Chuling who reacted next to her.

The travel permit was issued by Master Xi from Lushan and stamped with a red seal. Last night, Master An added his seal as well, serving as their identification document in Jiang'an City.

But both of them are cultivators from Lushan.

The travel permit issued was probably different from those issued to ordinary people, which is why this misunderstanding occurred.

Just as she was about to explain, a woman with a somewhat江湖 (jianghu, a term referring to the world of martial arts and chivalry) air stepped into the side room.

The other person was dressed in a casual, loose robe, with crisscrossing scars on his neck, and an eye patch covering his entire left eye on his oval face.

He had a wine gourd hanging from his waist. He was not old, about twenty-six or twenty-seven years old. Although he had just shed his youthful immaturity, he had a sense of vicissitude that did not match his age.

After entering the room.

She reeked of alcohol, hiccuped, and looked like she was living a life of drunken stupor.

The waiter was about to explain something to her, but she simply waved her hand and then looked at the two people standing in the room.

"Young lady, it's not polite to judge people with such vulgar methods."

Although Bai Qing'er's face was flushed from the alcohol, her eyes were still clear. She picked up the travel permit, looked at it, and then said, "The seal issued by Lushan is naturally incomprehensible to the servants who only serve ordinary people. The business you are going to do must not be an ordinary business."

She paused, then picked up the gourd and took a large gulp: "Don't worry about the ivory token; I'll take care of it for you. Alright, tell me, what did that old bastard Bai Tieya leave me?"