Chapter Fifty-nine 

One year later

Eighteen-year-old Ying Zetian was on the way to the state of Yingan by orders of Tang Zhong to fully check on the reports of opium poppy growing in Yingan. Ying Zetian had a feeling that this will be her chance of revenge and she had launched a lot reading on her future. And the lot for her future further proved Ying Zetian's gut feeling.

Ying Zetian do not know what she is feeling right now, is she feeling happy or not happy that Tang Wudi is not with her. It was with the greatest effort that Ying Zetian had persuade Tang Wudi not to follow her on this trip as she has a gut feeling it will be better if Tang Wudi waited at Changan for her. Ying Zetian pull herself from remembering Tang Wudi sad puppy dog like expression when she left and return to the present.

Being a person from the modern world, Ying Zetian hated drugs and respected the people who try to stream the flow of drugs to normal people. After all, Ying Zetian could know how drugs will affect a society especially when history had shown that drugs will slow down the development of the society by more than a century. If the reports to Changan were true about opium poppy growing in Yingan, Ying Zetian knew that she need to think up of ways to steam the flow of opium into other parts of Tai Ping right at the origins.

It was already two months since Ying Zetian left Tang Wudi and Changan and she finally reached Yingan. Yingan is normally regards as a state that is out of central control due to its wildness and the official that was sent to this state could be a "emperor" on its own. But even with this temptation, it was rare that officials would like to be sent to this state.

As Yingan is next door to Qitan, where wars will happen as long as the Qitan people is hungry and there is lack of food in Qitan. And this type of war happens extremely frequently due to the structure of the Qitan country. Qitan was made up of multiple tribes who have leaders of their own and the leaders have full powers over their tribes. Qitan strongest tribe will be the one that beat all the other tribes into submission and Qitan's emperor will then be appointed from there. And the losing tribes may seek revenge from other cities that is under the protection of the winning tribes. Even when wars with other countries happen, the Qitan armies treated their own cities only slightly better than their enemies' cities. The Qitan armies only plunder their own cities while they kill, rape, and plunder their enemies cities.

Ying Zetian was in the city of Dongan, one of the cities of Yingan and was having a meal at one of the inns in the cities when she saw a fight happening outside of the inn. Ying Zetian signal for the inn busboy to come over as she was curious why everybody was calmly eating their meals without the slightest curiosity to the fight happening outside of the inn. Ying Zetian gives five taels to the busboy to let him sit down so she could know the ins and outs of Dongan.

The busboy happily bites on the tael that he received before putting it in his pocket as it was a fortune that he may not even be able to earn even working for ten years as a busboy in this inn. The busboy then finally said.

"Mister, you come to mantuo for information will be the best decision you ever make. The man outside is the son of the wealthiest man in Dongan, Lee Eng An. It is just a pity that Lee Eng An had become such a person. Previously, Lee Eng An has the highest hopes in Dongan to score a high-ranking position in the civil officials' exams in Changan. But Lee Eng An did not go for the civil officials' exams in Changan and become a hooligan instead. What a pity, Lee Eng An is such a gentle scholarly man in the past. It was rumored that his change was due to the strange society that come into Yingan more than a year ago. Actually, this strange society start was in Dongan and it quickly advanced to the whole state of Yingan in the year that it appeared. It was said that this society could help to beautify any woman, keep a man strong when you know we are doing that thing and cure other major illness. This strange society will every morning sell their medicine. And even how expansive it is, it will be sold out very easily every day."

Mantuo then said to Ying Zetian to come and find him if he needed other information and left the table that Ying Zetian was at as the innkeeper had called for him. Ying Zetian then mulled over what Mantuo had said, it seems Lee Eng An is already a heavy opium addict if not his behavior will not change so dramatically. It was already nighttime, so Ying Zetian left for her rooms to rest after giving orders to her dark guards. Ying Zetian orders was for her dark guards to purchase the miracle medicine early next morning. The last thought before Ying Zetian fall into dreamland is that it was lucky that she was not in the modern world, if not her mobile phone will be bombed by calls from Tang Wudi. But what Ying Zetian do not know is that Tang Wudi had send the cousin of the mobile phone to the inn that Ying Zetian was staying in. And a mail pigeon was cooing softly at the window perch waiting for its another master to wake up.