Chapter 210: Laying Golden Hen

He Lingchuan stared blankly at the note, a warmth suddenly spreading through his heart.

He didn't need Hu Min to explain; he understood immediately.

These items were gifts of gratitude from the families of soldiers under General Nanke. If He Lingchuan hadn't sacrificed himself in Ghostneedle Stone Forest to destroy the Lair Spider's nest and lure away the great demoness Zhu Erniang, even if General Nanke had escaped, an unknown number of his troops would have perished in Ghostneedle Stone Forest.

These lives were not mere numbers. Behind them were wives, children, and elderly parents; they represented the livelihoods of families and the joys of the world.

How many families had he saved from heartbreaking pain with this sacrifice? Human emotions could be so simple and unadorned; they just had to send something to express their gratitude.

"Surprised? Unexpected?" Hu Min had kept it a secret, wanting He Lingchuan to discover the surprise himself. "There's so much stuff; let me help you move it inside."

The two of them moved the items into the courtyard one by one, and half the small courtyard's space was gone.

As He Lingchuan moved things, he felt curious. "Why didn't the thief take these things? Instead, they stole the fish and firewood from my house?"

"How would I know?" Hu Min shrugged. "Perhaps taking things from your doorstep would have been too obvious. Your house has been quite busy lately."

Just then, a five or six-year-old child peeked around the doorway. Hu Min asked him, "Hey kid, what do you want?"

"I live over there," the boy said, pointing east.

"I know," He Lingchuan recognized him as the child of his eastern neighbor. The last time the Imperial Flow appeared, when He Lingchuan was on the roof removing tiles, he had seen the boy's father tie him to a table leg.

"You're He..." The child couldn't remember the rest of the name.

"Yes, I am."

"Wait a moment, don't close the door!"

The child ran off. He Lingchuan heard him open and close a door, accompanied by the patter of footsteps.

Then the boy reappeared at He Lingchuan's doorway, holding a bouquet of flowers.

"My dad told me to bring these to you when your door was open and to say thank you again."

It was a large bouquet. He Lingchuan only recognized amaryllis, red crabapples, and what looked like white daisies; he didn't know the others. In any case, they were a vibrant mix of colors, blooming magnificently, some still adorned with dewdrops.

Of course, in the outdoor cold wind, the dewdrops quickly froze into ice beads.

He Lingchuan quickly took them and brought them inside to prevent the fresh flowers from freezing. "Is your father also a patrol guard?"

He remembered that this boy's siblings were all still young and couldn't possibly have joined the army.

"No," the child shook his head vigorously. "But my parents said you saved a lot of people, and you're a good person."

He Lingchuan couldn't help but pat his head. "Okay, thank your parents for me."

Hu Min, however, said, "It's freezing cold. Where did your dad get so many fresh flowers?"

The child grinned, revealing a missing front tooth. "I don't know."

"Where does he work?"

"He often delivers things to the command center!"

He Lingchuan and Hu Min exchanged smiles. So that was it.

The city had dedicated greenhouses for growing flowers. Besides supplying wealthy households, Commander Zhong's official residence and manor also needed them. It was said that his wife loved flowers when she was alive, and new batches of fresh flowers were placed in the Zhong residence every few days.

From the pile of gifts, He Lingchuan pulled out a bag of nougat candy and handed it to the child. "This is for you. Take it home and eat it."

The boy thanked him and happily went home.

Hu Min patted He Lingchuan's shoulder. "Didn't expect that, did you? You're already a celebrity in this area; you can even eat for free."

He Lingchuan felt a strange mix of emotions. "I really didn't expect it."

Since his adventure in Dragon Coiling Ruins, He Lingchuan had experienced several life-or-death battles, big and small. He had saved the villagers of Immortal Spirit from the bandits of Woling Pass. He had saved his entire family and Ke Jihai from the demon puppeteer Dong Rui. Yet, no one had ever thanked him so directly and fervently before.

This feeling of being liked and thanked, it seemed... quite good.

"How did the news spread so fast?" He Lingchuan rubbed his nose. "The battle of Ghostneedle Stone Forest only ended a few days ago, didn't it?"

"After every important battle, the Department of Military Merit sends people throughout the city to publicize heroic deeds from the fighting. The day after General Nanke returned to Dragon Coiling City, both you and Sun Jiayuan were posthumously honored as heroes. If it weren't so cold now, people would probably be sending flowers to your doorstep. Later, when you were rescued and survived, it caused quite a stir in this area. It's just a shame you were unconscious then and couldn't come out to receive the admiration."

He Lingchuan understood.

Dragon Coiling City used this method of highlighting exemplary figures and setting up role models to widely mobilize everyone to participate in defending their homeland.

He truly hadn't expected that one day he would be regarded as a model and example.

This feeling was very subtle.

After all, only he knew that his bravery was built on the foundation of "immortality."

For anyone else here, death meant eternal sleep. Only for him was it merely waking from a dream.

If his life here were also singular, would he still have dared to jump into the spider's nest so unhesitatingly?

He Lingchuan himself didn't know.

He sighed and shook off his thoughts. "So, some people here thank me, while others steal my things?"

Hu Min threw his head back and laughed, then walked out first. "Is this your first day in Dragon Coiling City?"

An hour later, He Lingchuan and Hu Min stood at the Soaring Roc Office.

Clerk Liu had taken half a day off. Today, they were received by Clerk Xu, a thin, small man with an expressionless face.

"You're alive?" Clerk Xu, after hearing He Lingchuan state his name, searched through a ledger and finally said, "We'll add you back to the military register, and your merits will need to be recalculated."

"Everything else is fine, but first, give me that tin house." He Lingchuan hadn't even considered that his stronghold in the dream world would be robbed. "My original dilapidated house was just robbed."

"Only the families of fallen heroes receive a tin house as a pension," Clerk Xu said, raising an eyebrow at him. "Are you a hero?"

He Lingchuan was equally stubborn. "Whether I'm dead or alive, I burned the Lair Spider's nest. Why do my merits need to be recalculated?"

"What's given to the living is a commendation; what's given to the dead is a pension. Pensions are generous, understand?" Clerk Xu replied stiffly. "Since you're alive, you can't receive a pension. The tin house will be downgraded to a water house."

Hu Min interjected to smooth things over, "A water house isn't bad. I've been to the water houses in Miss Zeng's Alley; they're spacious and bright. The residents there are either merchants, soldiers, or officials of Dragon Coiling City. It's completely different from the area around your old wooden house."

Isn't choosing a house about choosing the location?

Isn't choosing a house about choosing amenities and neighbors?

Or is it about choosing a pile of wood and a few tiles?

Clerk Xu added, "I live in a water house myself."

He Lingchuan had no choice but to agree.

Because this time he was officially recorded as having performed a great solo deed, the rewards were more generous than all his previous ones combined. Just the monetary reward was five hundred taels of silver, plus ten acres of prime irrigated land and thirty acres of medium-grade land. Not to mention various other rewards, which He Lingchuan didn't even bother to listen to in detail.

His land holdings had instantly surged from two acres of medium-grade land to a total of forty acres? Had he completed the leap from poor peasant to landlord?

Going out to battle was indeed the fastest way to accumulate military merit.

Of course, it was also the most dangerous.

"I can't manage the fields myself; please help me rent them out." He remembered Hu Min saying that the Soaring Roc Office also handled such services.

Soldiers were usually either training or on patrol; how could they have time to guard fields? Their fields were rented out, and tenant farmers grew grain crops to earn money, thus having a means of livelihood.

Tenancy rent was a very important part of Dragon Coiling City's economy.

"Or," Clerk Xu suddenly pulled out a land deed, "you could choose to exchange all the rewards from this military merit for a shop on Wanglin Avenue, with a ten-year lease."

"A shop?" He Lingchuan had never heard that a shop could be acquired with military merit before.

Hu Min exclaimed from the side, "Exchange it, exchange it! Of course, we should exchange it!"

"Do you know how hard it is to get a shop in Dragon Coiling City? And on Wanglin Avenue, a place where money pours in daily!" Hu Min beat his chest. "Why do I never get such good fortune? Clerk Xu, can I exchange for a shop too?"

"There's only one shop, and it was reclaimed because its twenty-year lease expired. It's public property; you can operate it yourself or rent it out, but you cannot buy or sell it privately."

"All the merits you mentioned, do they include the water house too?" A water house was at least two grades higher than a wooden house.

"Of course. If you exchange it for a shop, you'll only leave the Soaring Roc Office with a single land deed," Clerk Xu said bluntly, his frankness irritating. "Decide quickly. If you don't want it, plenty of others do; the line would stretch from here all the way to Wanglin Avenue."

The military merit rewards He Lingchuan received this time—including the irrigated land and other miscellaneous items, plus five hundred taels of silver in prize money, and a water house that even the wealthy couldn't buy—were already enough for him to live a comfortable and respectable middle-class life in Dragon Coiling City. Should he exchange all this for a shop of unknown size and location, with a lease of only ten years?

Heh.

"Alright, I'll exchange it," He Lingchuan said, pushing everything forward, trusting Hu Min's judgment.

He could only watch wistfully as the water house deed, which had just been presented, was taken back.

His dream of upgrading to a larger, improved house had to be put on hold for now.

As Clerk Xu completed the final procedure, a faint smile appeared on his usually stern face. "Congratulations, you deserve this."

"Huh?" He Lingchuan wondered if Clerk Xu also had a nephew or something in General Nanke's troops.

He Lingchuan thought his next words would be, "Listen to me, thank you," but Clerk Xu was very concise.

"Done, next!"

So when He Lingchuan left the Soaring Roc Office, he only carried a shop deed that could easily be blown away by the wind.

"If this shop doesn't earn me back a thousand taels of silver, plus ten years of interest on that amount, I'm going to take your house and live in it!"

Hu Min completely ignored his threat. Hooking an arm around his neck, he said, "Quick, buy me a drink! No, wait, you've picked up a golden goose this time; you have to invite Chief Xiao and A Luo to drink with us too!"

"You don't even know the exact location; is the shop really that good?"

"Have you ever been to Wanglin Avenue?" Hu Min asked with a look of disdain. "Right, a poor wretch like you wouldn't have been qualified to go there. Wanglin Avenue sells only the finest goods and novelties from other places. High-ranking military commanders and their families frequent that area."