CHAPTER 243: CHAPTER 175: GIVE IT YOUR BEST TRY!

After Ah Man left Harano’s house, she searched for quite a while at the wine shops and stalls in New Wanjin, but still didn’t find her old man. Instead, lured by the aroma, she swallowed several mouthfuls of saliva, hesitated a moment, decided to stop looking for now, pulled out the "support money" she’d swindled from Ah Qing, and shamelessly spent some of it on behalf of her old man, sipping two bowls of wine to moisten her throat.

Of course, she didn’t dare to drink too much. Now that she was somebody—an important figure in Wanjin, a family elder of the Nozawa family—she couldn’t brazenly brawl drunk in broad daylight at the bustling market. So she just enjoyed herself a bit, then unwillingly went on her way to look for him; she finally found her old man by the fields of Dannan Village.

Dannan Village was the brand new settlement Wanjin had established after gaining the Minoh immigrants. Everything was in its infancy, full of energy and vitality. Izumi Hichiji wore a straw hat and was squatting by a newly tilled field, examining the soil.

Ah Qian and Ah Yu were relaxing idly in the shade of a tree not far away. When they noticed Ah Man riding her tall horse slowly ambling over, they both stood up and stared at her. In particular, Ah Qian’s eyes shone with jealousy and defiance, itching to dash over and flying-kick Ah Man right off her horse, but she didn’t dare—she could only glare furiously instead.

Ah Man ignored these two brats, dismounted near Izumi Hichiji, and grumbled, "Why aren’t you having fun in town? What are you doing out here? I spent ages looking for you!"

Izumi Hichiji didn’t bother answering her. He only patted the dirt from his hands and sighed, "The soil here is better than Koka’s. If we cultivate it for a couple of years, the harvest will definitely be good."

"This year’s harvest’ll be good," said Ah Man, knowing Harano had come up with a weird new fertilizer, successfully tested and sure to boost yields tremendously. Not that farming had much to do with her. She cut straight to the point: "He wants me to ask you—are you still willing to do something? The paying kind."

"A job, huh?" Izumi Hichiji showed no surprise, turned and asked, "What does he need me to do?"

Ah Man looked at him in confusion, blurting out, "So you’re saying yes?"

Izumi Hichiji glanced down at the dirt and sighed, "This really is a fine place..."

He’d been roaming around New Wanjin for a while now, and as he learned more, he discovered that this place truly had a different kind of vitality. The common folk here had a good life, managed to keep their basic dignity; as long as they worked hard, they could at least eat their fill—maybe even save something. As long as they followed the rules, the weak wouldn’t be abandoned, and wouldn’t be trampled at will by the strong...

There wasn’t really a strict social hierarchy here either. The local lord didn’t have any household retainers—or rather, didn’t have any proper ones—which meant New Wanjin had no Samurai, not to mention nobility or temple families, so the boundaries of class had been nearly erased. Very few people enjoyed special privileges; nearly everyone was equal.

This was just like the Zong Village he’d dreamed of—maybe even better. After all, even he couldn’t be sure he could achieve those things.

To him, New Wanjin was close to a celestial kingdom. Even after pondering for days, he still couldn’t figure out why Harano was secretly changing customs and trying his best to sever New Wanjin from tradition, but it didn’t really matter—if Harano wanted to be the emperor, and if he could make the world like this, then why not let him?

Izumi Hichiji had already decided to move his people to New Wanjin. When the time came, he’d set up a small self-governing settlement near Dannan Village, pay annual tribute and supply some conscripts as required—he’d already picked out the land, trying to copy Dannan’s layout and waterworks. He’d been quietly studying and drawing up plans these days.

As for the fact that Wanjin sometimes went off to war and peace was hard to come by—that wasn’t much of a problem. There’s no place in the whole country where they aren’t fighting these days! Koka and Iga are even more of a mess, so New Wanjin is already not bad.

Ah Man had no idea what he was thinking, looked down at the ground and hesitated a bit before saying, "You don’t have to do this, you know. He really just asked in passing, it’s not like he can’t make do without you. If you don’t want to do it, with my and Ah Qing’s influence, he’ll still give you a piece of wasteland..."

Halfway through, she thought about it and changed her tune: "Actually, even without me and Ah Qing pulling strings, if you bring him three or five hundred people, he’d throw the gates wide open for you or even pay you big money. He’s been worried New Wanjin’s population isn’t enough—nowadays, if he leaves New Wanjin and sees anyone with two legs, his eyes go green and he starts drooling. So... you really don’t have to go against your will just for a piece of land."

Izumi Hichiji was speechless for a moment, feeling like this granddaughter of his had absolutely no intention of saving his pride. Not needed? But if he could raise Ah Man, his mental resilience was naturally top-notch. He didn’t take it to heart and just asked directly: "So, what does Lord Nozawa actually want me to do? Does he want me to go back to Minoh?"

He believed there was no such thing as a free lunch; since he was going to move his people here, it only made sense to show his value. Doing another favor wasn’t a problem, as long as it was worth it.

"I said it’s not that he can’t do without you!" hurried Ah Man, waving a hand. "You’re basically half-useless now; going back to Minoh wouldn’t help. He just wants you to be a... uh, consultant. The type where you offer suggestions if anything crops up—doesn’t matter if they’re useful or not. The rest of the time, just do what you want. It’s basically a retirement gig."

"Consultant?" Izumi Hichiji had thought Harano was plotting something against Saito Yoshitada and was prepared to risk it all again—turned out it was just this? Just talking?

He went silent for a bit, feeling slightly underestimated, but still didn’t refuse. Trust wasn’t built overnight anyway. He gave a slight nod.

Take it slow. Now that he understood New Wanjin, he felt an old excitement stirring—for once, there were no Samurai, no oppressors, and he wouldn’t have to become anyone’s household retainer or turn into an oppressor himself. He genuinely wanted to do something for a better future.

Ah Qian and Ah Yu had watched on the side for ages, itching with envy.

They’d been rambling around New Wanjin these days, and realized that Ah Man was highly regarded among the locals, very imposing—mainly because she was also in charge of the Military Police, who doubled as police. She often led her squad personally to rough up anyone caught peeing, pooping, or spitting in public, and would also give thieves and drunks a solid kick in the rear and drag them off to do forced labor. Basically, everyone was scared of her; anyone who saw her would politely greet her as "Lady Ah Man."

Not to mention, Ah Man had the highest salary in New Wanjin and could dip into Ah Qing’s salary as well—effectively drawing two big paychecks. As long as she didn’t go wild on booze or gambling, just shopping a bit, she was rolling in cash. She rode a fancy horse every day, cycled through different styles of armor, her sword hilt was studded with gold and silver, the golden horns of her helmet reached for the heavens—she was flashy to a whole new level.

The two of them were super envious. Seeing their old man being recruited, Ah Yu secretly tugged on Ah Qian, who promptly stepped forward and asked, "What about us? What can we do? How much will we get paid?"

Ah Man sized them up and down, curled her lip and said, "You two are useless for now. Just keep training! Not a single penny!"

Rage flashed in Ah Qian’s eyes. She immediately retorted, "We’re almost done training! More useful than you! If you don’t believe me, we can test it right now!" With a sly grin, she goaded, "You’re just scared, aren’t you?"

She’d wanted to beat up this old beast Ah Man for ages. Now Ah Qing wasn’t here, so Ah Man was left alone—a perfect chance!

Ah Man had never thought much of her. She shot her a glance and snapped disdainfully, "You really think I can’t scream and get twenty people over here to beat the crap out of you? Want to try it?"

Ah Qian immediately looked around—and sure enough, there were a few people waiting nearby, probably Ah Man’s subordinates. Her courage shrank. But Ah Man, seeing her like that, remembered something else and turned to Izumi Hichiji: "By the way, uh... Old man, now that I’ve made something of myself, shouldn’t you hand over the title of Life-saving Style Master to me?"

"No way!" Ah Qian panicked, then hurriedly said, "Old man—uh, Grandpa isn’t dead yet. Why should you take over? Even if Grandpa died, you can’t just take over because you say so!"

"It was always supposed to be me. I’m the real heir—you two were just trash I won in a gambling bet! If it weren’t for me, you’d both be dead already!" Ah Man retorted. Then she turned to Izumi Hichiji and asked, "Old man, what do you say? If our Life-saving Style wants to put down roots in New Wanjin, it should be me calling the shots. Only I can take Life-saving Style to new heights!"

Izumi Hichiji was taken aback, glanced at the serious-faced Ah Man, then looked around at the vibrant, newly thriving New Wanjin, and after a long pause, nodded slowly with no objections.

......

Early next morning, Harano met Izumi Hichiji, Ah Qian, and Ah Yu at the office. He warmly welcomed Izumi Hichiji’s willingness to lend his expertise, shook his hand for ages, offered him the highest respect, and again emphasized his support for Izumi Hichiji in founding a Zong Village within New Wanjin. He promised to largely refrain from interfering in the village’s self-management and development—the overall arrangement would be a bit like that between the US federal government and the states in later times: minor issues would be handled by the village, bigger ones would need his say-so.

This counted as an experiment for him, and Harano was quite pleased to see a whole village’s population land for free. Swallowing nearly two thousand Minoh immigrants had only temporarily eased his manpower shortage, and with development around Dannan Village ramping up, he still needed people.

That’s how Izumi Hichiji took on his new role. Afterward, they chatted idly. Harano said that, if Izumi Hichiji had time and energy, he could offer advice to New Wanjin’s external intelligence agency, maybe give their trainees the occasional class. Then he invited Izumi Hichiji to visit Meng Ziqi, hoping his experience might suggest if Meng Ziqi could still be rescued.

This had occurred to him last night when he couldn’t sleep. Although Ah Man was well traveled, in terms of age and experience, she couldn’t compare to an old hand like Izumi Hichiji—maybe he’d seen some doctor who could cure "vegetative" patients.

Izumi Hichiji hadn’t expected his first task as this strange "consultant" would be a medical case. He took it seriously—after examining and asking about Meng Ziqi’s condition several times, he felt Meng Ziqi should’ve died long ago. Finally, after pondering a long while, he said, "I’ve never heard of someone surviving so long in a coma..."

Harano looked disappointed and sighed, "So there’s really nothing we can do?"

Izumi Hichiji thought again, then shook his head and sighed, "I do know a monk with pretty good medical skills, but I’ve never heard of him curing something like this. We could give it a try, but I can’t promise anything."

After a pause, he shook his head again. "Even if we try, there’s very little hope."

Harano gazed at Meng Ziqi for a while, nodded slightly. Indeed, brain damage was a real headache—hard to handle. At this point, all he could do was try everything possible.

Having some hope is still better than no hope at all.