Pingxi County Martial Arts Museum is located on Wansong Mountain in Pingxi City. Those who can come here to study are naturally outstanding young people from all over the country, just like the numerous Internet cafes near colleges and universities in the previous life. As the saying goes, where there is demand, there is supply. Because the students who come to study at the Martial Arts Museum have to find a place to live outside the museum, be responsible for their own food and clothing, and have various other needs, so not far from the Martial Arts Museum, on the hillside on the other side of Wansong Mountain, a bustling market and neighborhood has actually formed.
The bustling market and neighborhood is called Sanyuan Street. The entire Sanyuan Street is more than one thousand meters long and forms a Z-shaped direction on the hillside of Wansong Mountain. On both sides of the road, under the buildings built along the hillside, there are all kinds of shops, weapon shops, pharmacies, blacksmith shops, tailor shops, restaurants, and food stalls. It is a dazzling array of things that makes people dazzled.
Also near Sanyuan Street, there are various hotels and houses for rent, specifically for students studying at the National Martial Arts Museum.
Yan Liqiang and Shi Dafeng found a broker, or an intermediary, and each of them found two adjacent courtyards in a place called Qingniu Lane near Sanyuan Street and rented them together.
The rent of the yard rented by the two people is six cents of silver per month. The yard has its own door and is clean and tidy. There is a two-story building, a courtyard of dozens of square meters, and a hidden basement for practicing martial arts. I heard from the broker that the person who lived in this yard before was a student of the National Martial Arts Museum with a wealthy family. He just left last month. The rent of six cents of silver is already expensive in Pingxi City. There are some cheap houses and hotels near Sanyuan Street, and the monthly rent is only a few dozen copper coins. Many students of the National Martial Arts Museum choose those cheap houses and hotels.
This courtyard is less than a mile away from the National Martial Arts Museum. Walking out of Qingniu Lane, you will find Sanyuan Street just outside. There are places to eat, drink and have fun, making life very convenient.
Shi Dafeng's family is wealthy and doesn't care about this little money. Although Yan Liqiang's family is not very rich, Yan Liqiang still chose this place so that he would not be disturbed when practicing the Yi Jin Xi Sui Jing. This little money, less than eight taels of silver a year, is something Yan Liqiang can afford. Although Yan Liqiang is frugal at ordinary times, he is never stingy when it comes to spending money.
Both he and Shi Dafeng paid one year's rent in advance, which made the broker who brought them here smile from ear to ear. If the rent was paid quickly, the broker would get more commission.
After deciding on a place to live, the two of them made an appointment to change the lock on the gate of the courtyard, and found a bedding shop on Sanyuan Street. They each bought a new set of bedding and some daily necessities. In the afternoon, they cleaned their respective courtyards together. By the evening, the two courtyards were finally habitable, and the two of them could be said to have settled down in Pingxi City.
After a day like this, Yan Liqiang really felt like he was reporting to university as a freshman.
The next day, Yan Liqiang got up early in the morning. He had just come out of the basement after practicing the Yi Jin Xi Sui Jing twice. It was just getting light outside. He was about to go to the alley to have breakfast when someone knocked on the door of his courtyard.
Yan Liqiang went over to open the door and found Shi Dafeng standing outside.
"Well, you look good. Are you exercising?" Shi Dafeng glanced at Yan Liqiang.
"Of course, morning time is so precious, how can we waste it? Didn't you get up early in the morning to practice your Tongbiquan? Even if you are in the basement, I can hear the movement from here!"
“Hahaha, there’s nothing I can do. My Tongbei Fist is very powerful. Every time I use it, there’s a lot of noise. It’s not as casual as your Tiger Roaring Chain Fist. One day in the future, when I can practice Tongbei Fist to the extreme of Yang and Yin, I’ll be able to stop the noise!” Shi Dafeng laughed. “Let’s go and have breakfast together. That beef pot bun shop outside seems good. After breakfast, how about we go to Pingxi City for a stroll today? I’ve only been to Pingxi City twice with my dad before, and we didn’t stay for long each time. I haven’t been to many places in Pingxi City, such as Chongsheng Temple, Yuzhu Spring, and Jiulong Bridge, which are lively places.”
Yan Liqiang was about to say that he would practice in the courtyard today and would not go shopping, but a thought flashed through his mind, and when he thought of those Shatu people who were clamoring to take revenge on him, he nodded, "Okay, let's go shopping!"
I have just arrived in Pingxi City, and it is necessary for me to familiarize myself with Pingxi City to avoid being completely in the dark. Today I might as well go and see what the Shatu people in Pingxi City are like so that I can be prepared. As the saying goes, knowing yourself and your enemy can lead you to victory in a hundred battles.
After agreeing to Shi Dafeng's request, Yan Liqiang turned back to the small building, put his money bag in his pocket, then locked the door of the courtyard and left Qingniu Lane with Shi Dafeng.
The bun shop is just a hundred meters away from the left turn of Qingniu Lane. Although it is early in the morning, the business in the bun shop is already booming. From a distance, you can smell the aroma of the steamed buns and beef pot pickled vegetable soup in the bun shop.
The two came to the bun shop, each ordered a basket of buns, and got a bowl of beef pot and pickled vegetable soup for themselves, and they enjoyed the meal very much.
To be honest, the buns from this roadside shop were not as delicious as those ordered by Yan Liqiang in a five-star hotel in his previous life. The flour for the buns here is flour, the meat filling is meat filling, everything is real, the flour is not whitened, and no swelling agent is added. The steamed buns are slightly yellow, with a natural wheat aroma, and the meat filling is pork, mushrooms and a little lotus root. The pork does not contain clenbuterol, and the mushrooms and lotus root are also truly pure and natural. The fillings are mixed with seasonings before being put into the buns, which are just not fat or greasy. When you bite into them, you will be filled with fragrance. In addition, the pickled vegetable soup cooked with beef bone sauce and some vegetables is eaten with the buns. After eating a bun and then drinking a sip of the soup, the taste is simply refreshing...
After eating the buns in the shop, Yan Liqiang and Shi Dafeng left Sanyuan Street and ran towards their first destination in Pingxi City.
The entire Pingxi City is less than 10,000 meters long from east to west and 7,000 to 8,000 meters wide from north to south. It took many years to build to its current size. Pingxi City has a short history of only more than 500 years, and the population settled in the city is less than 900,000. Compared with the majestic cities in other states and counties of the Han Empire that often have thousands of years of history, Pingxi City can only be regarded as a young boy.
But even such a small city is the most essential place in the entire Pingxi County. The prosperity and cultural richness of the city are far beyond the reach of those county towns.
Yan Liqiang wandered around the city for most of the day and felt that his horizons had been broadened.
…
By the evening, when it was time for dinner, Yan Liqiang and Shi Dafeng had already arrived near the Jiulong Bridge in Pingxi City. They chose a four-story restaurant at the Jiulong Bridge and had their meal at a window seat on the top floor.
Sitting by the window and looking out, across a bridge, not far away, is the gathering area of the Shatu people in Pingxi City.
The gathering area of the Shatu people is very large, occupying an area about the size of a town to the west of Pingxi City. From a distance, you can see the buildings in the Shatu gathering area that are very different in style from those in Pingxi City, as well as the Shatu people coming and going in that area.
The Shatu man at the city gate that day said that there were 100,000 Shatu people gathered in Pingxi City, which might be a bit exaggerated. But looking at the scale of the Shatu gathering area, there may still be 70,000 to 80,000 Shatu people.
Just now, Yan Liqiang originally wanted to call a carriage to take the two of them to the gathering area of the Shatu people for a stroll, but the coachman refused to go to the gathering area of the Shatu people no matter what. Even though Yan Liqiang doubled the price, the coachman still shook his head. In the end, the coachman only agreed to take them to the east side of Kowloon Bridge and refused to go any further.
Yan Liqiang is also a man of great skill and courage. He had just offended the Shatu people a few days ago, but in the blink of an eye, he dared to come to the Shatu gathering area to hang out and understand the situation of the Shatu people. Yan Liqiang believes that it may be true that the Shatu people want to retaliate against him, but it is impossible for the Shatu people to keep track of his whereabouts in Pingxi City in such a short time. Even in his previous life, it was not so easy to keep track of a person's whereabouts at all times without the help of some technical means, let alone at this moment.
After strolling around Pingxi City with Shi Dafeng for a day, Yan Liqiang did not feel that he was being followed or spied on, so he could safely observe the current situation of the Shatu people closely.
This restaurant is located in a busy area like Kowloon Bridge. It should have been busy at dinner time in the evening. However, Yan Liqiang found that the business of this restaurant and several other restaurants nearby was not very good. In the entire fourth floor, including his and Shi Dafeng's table, there were only three tables of people sitting out of the more than ten tables on the fourth floor.
"Waiter, why is the business in this restaurant so quiet..." When the waiter brought the dishes ordered by the two people, Yan Liqiang retracted his gaze from the gathering area of the Shatu people in the distance and asked the waiter a question.
"It's strange that business is good when it's so close to the gathering place of Shatu people!" The waiter sighed. "Before the Shatu people expanded to Jiulong Bridge, our restaurant's business was very good. Now, it's just like this. It's not dark yet, so there are still a few people. When it gets dark, I'm afraid there won't be anyone on the road outside!"
"Why is there no one on the road outside after dark?"
"Sir, have you just arrived in Pingxi City?"
"yes… "
"No wonder!" The waiter shook his head. "It's fine here during the day, but every night, there will be a lot of Shatu people pretending to be drunk, and they will go crazy on the street, smashing bottles, shouting, and harassing pedestrians and merchants on the road. As time goes on, when it gets dark, there will be fewer and fewer people on the east side of Jiulong Bridge, and our business will become more and more difficult. This is a trick used by those Shatu people. They just want to slowly ruin our business. No one dares to come, and then come to negotiate with us, wanting to rent or buy our restaurant at a low price. If you don't agree, they have all kinds of tricks to use, and they will get worse later. Everyone in Pingxi City doesn't know..."
"The government doesn't care?"
"They are protected by the Huai'en Order. They are not punished for minor offenses. The general criminals dare not arrest them. Moreover, as long as one Shatu is arrested, countless Shatu people will jump out to cause trouble, and the government dare not take action against them. When we have conflicts with the Shatu people, it is obvious that the Shatu people are unreasonable and we suffer losses. The government will only let us endure it and protect the Shatu people. Now the merchants on our street can only form a chamber of commerce to protect themselves and prevent the Shatu people from expanding their territory to the east of Kowloon Bridge..."
“Has it been like this all these years?”
"It's all because of this. Otherwise, the Shatu people wouldn't have been able to use all kinds of rogue and bully methods to seize such a large piece of land in our Pingxi City over the years..."
After hearing what the waiter said, Yan Liqiang's brows slowly furrowed...
(End of this chapter)