When he wakes, he has become a destitute young man outside Hangzhou, owing eight hundred strings of cash.
Others see war, rising taxes, and soaring prices.
He sees information asymmetry, arbitrage opportunities, and supply-chain restructuring.
He has met Fan Zhongyan, spoken with Emperor Renzong of Song, fought bloodily alongside Di Qing, and been protected by Bao Zheng twelve times.
He has also spent twenty days and nights in prison, knelt before the Yanhe Hall with his life on the line, and stood silent for a long time amid the mountains of corpses at Dingchuan Fort.
But he has never forgotten why he lives: for the child who calls him “Father,” and for the two women who follow him wherever he goes.
