66: Good news? No, it's bad news.

The morning at Fuan Inn began with a loud sneeze from the adjacent room.

Su Ming sat cross-legged on the bed, slowly exhaling a turbid breath, concluding a night of practicing the Breath Concealment Art.

Their breakfast was laid out on the table: two hard wheat cakes that could pass for pebbles, and a small dish of pickled vegetables.

"My dog eats better than us."

Zhao Rui slumped weakly on the table, poking at a wheat cake with his chopsticks, his face a picture of utter despair.

Ever since Su Ming set a daily spending limit of fifty copper coins, his quality of life had plummeted from the clouds into the mud.

"Eat sparingly. This dish of pickled vegetables needs to last three days." Su Ming broke off a piece of a wheat cake and chewed it expressionlessly.

"Three days?" Zhao Rui's wail changed pitch. "Su Ming, are you trying to starve me to death so you can monopolize the forty taels of silver my father gave me?"

Su Ming didn't even lift an eyelid, engrossed in the gazetteer of qingzhou county that Xu Qing had given him.

"Disciple, ignore him." Lin Yu's voice, tinged with a just-woken laziness, echoed in Su Ming's mind. "Hothouse flowers like him need to be battered by the hailstones of reality to understand human suffering."

(Laughing inwardly: "But seriously, that wheat cake looks really hard. Back in my day, when I ate instant noodles, at least I had a sausage.")

Just then, the impatient shout of the Waiter from downstairs echoed: "To the end of the second floor, you have a letter!" On the second day of their stay here, Su Ming had gone to Old Man Qian to ask him to send a message home to report their safety.

A letter?

Su Ming's heart stirred.

He quickly went downstairs. A man in a short jacket, covered in dust, was handing a letter to the Waiter. The man was from Su Family Village and occasionally drove a cart to town to sell mountain goods.

"Su Shan's child? Your second brother asked me to bring this." The man grinned, revealing a mouthful of yellow teeth, when he saw Su Ming.

Su Ming took the letter and handed over a few copper coins: "Thank you for your trouble, Uncle. Have a hot cup of tea."

Back in the room, Zhao Rui immediately crowded over, curiously craning his neck.

The envelope was made of the coarsest straw paper, and the handwriting was crooked, yet familiar.

Su Ming tore open the letter and quickly scanned it.

The letter was from his second brother, Su Yang.

The content was simple, yet it made Su Ming's heart skip a beat.

The letter said that a big merchant from the south, surnamed Chen, had arrived in the village. After seeing their improved new paper, the merchant immediately decided to buy all the Workshop's existing stock, paying with actual, jingling silver!

The village erupted in excitement, and everyone received a large sum of money. Village Head immediately decided to expand the Workshop and bring in more people to work.

At the end of the letter, Su Yang wrote with a mixture of excitement and unease: "Third Brother, our family is rich now! Father and Mother told me to tell you not to be frugal in town; buy whatever you want to eat! It's just... the news about our village's papermaking seems to have spread. Even the county magistrate's aide has sent people to inquire..."

"What does it say?" Zhao Rui couldn't help but ask.

Su Ming silently folded the letter and put it into his In my arms.

"Nothing, just a message from home reporting safety."

"Hmph, stingy." Zhao Rui pouted.

Su Ming didn't answer him, just quietly looked out the window.

The letter in his chest brought no warmth; instead, it felt like a scorching hot iron.

"Master..."

"I see it." Lin Yu's voice was unusually grave. "Trouble is coming, Disciple. Big trouble."

"A tree that stands out in the forest will be destroyed by the wind. Possessing a treasure makes one a target; this has been true since ancient times."

"That Village Head is still too naive. He thinks this is a good thing? This is putting the entire Su Family Village on a spit! A remote mountain village suddenly producing cheap paper comparable to Xuan paper—to those important figures, this isn't a technological Breakthrough; it's a juicy piece of fatty meat!"

(Inwardly: "Oh no, oh no, 'Stay Low and Develop' Route A has failed, forced to enter 'Survive in the Tiger's Mouth' Route B. I hate Plan B! The risk factor is too high, too many variables!")

Su Ming took a deep breath, suppressing the turmoil in his heart.

He stood up, picked up his satchel: "Let's go out."

"Where to? To Fulai Restaurant?" Zhao Rui immediately perked up.

"To Xu Qing's place."

..."Brother Xu."

Xu Qing looked up, saw it was Su Ming, and his lips twitched.

"There's a lead on that matter." Su Ming lowered his voice. "My second brother sent a letter; the new paper has been successfully trial-produced. The next batch of goods should be delivered to town soon."

Xu Qing's hand, holding the brush, tightened abruptly, and his eyes burst forth with a look of pleasant surprise: "Really?!"

"Yes." Su Ming nodded. "When the time comes, I'll bring it to you first."

"Su Ming, thank you!" Xu Qing said solemnly; he knew the weight of those words. This wasn't just paper; it was the foundation of his and his father's livelihood.

Zhao Rui, yawning impatiently beside them, had no interest in their mysterious conversation.

After leaving the book stall, Zhao Rui finally couldn't hold back. He tugged at Su Ming's sleeve, practically begging: "Su Ming, I'm begging you, let's just go eat one meal, just one, okay? I'm starving! I know a tea house called 'Tianxiang Lou,' their crab roe buns are absolutely divine!"

Su Ming looked at his pathetic expression, then remembered the hot letter in his pocket.

Perhaps, going to the busiest place in town might yield some different information.

"Just this once."

"Alright!"

Tianxiang Lou was Qingshi Town's most upscale tea house, with carved beams and painted pillars, frequented by wealthy and influential guests.

Su Ming and Zhao Rui, dressed in their somewhat worn student robes, looked out of place standing at the entrance.

The young Waiter eyed them askance. If not for the fine cotton fabric of Zhao Rui's clothes, which still looked somewhat valuable, he probably would have chased them away already.

The two were led to a small table in a corner of the main hall.

Zhao Rui excitedly ordered a basket of crab roe buns and a pot of good Longjing tea, then looked around like Granny Liu entering the Grand View Garden.

Su Ming, however, remained calm, his ears subtly perked up, quietly operating his "Listening" technique.

The surrounding clamor was filtered out, and some deliberately lowered voices clearly entered his ears.

"Have you heard? Zhou Family's Second Master recently got connected with the County Commandant."

"Which Zhou Family?"

"Which else? It's Zhou Yulin's family. His second uncle, Zhou Kang, is not an easy person to deal with."

Su Ming's heart sank slightly.

Just then, a voice from the neighboring table, tinged with a hint of flippancy and arrogance, spoke neither too loudly nor too softly, but just enough for half the hall to hear.

"What kind of rubbish paper is worth all this fuss? Isn't it just something those country bumpkins cobbled together? Can it compare to our family's 'Jade Plate Xuan' shipped from the prefecture?"

The speaker was a young Young Master dressed in a sapphire-blue brocade silk gown, with a fair complexion but a hint of harshness in his eyes. He was surrounded by several well-dressed followers who echoed his sentiments.

"Young Master Wei is right! Those bumpkins, it's good enough if they can recognize a few characters, let alone make paper?"