The World of the Common Folk

Chen Chen wakes up one morning as a poor young man selling flatbreads on the streets of Lin'an. All he has is a wok, a load of dough, and a small silk shop on the verge of bankruptcy.

No System, no golden finger. He relies on a ledger, a silver tongue, and two feet willing to go the distance.

He finds his first way out by exposing the fake books at Shen's firm, secures his first boatload of grain by borrowing from the canal boatmen's guild, and blazes his first trade route through the storms of the South Seas. He takes on unscrupulous merchants, uncovers a major court case, puts down pirates, and opposes the maritime ban. He negotiates copper prices with the emperor in the Golden Throne Hall, and signs treaties with foreign states in the merchants' guildhall.

Ten years later,

Lin'an is home to his silk shops, charity schools, and weaving workshops;

his "Chen" banners fly in ports throughout the South Seas;

the Satsuma Domain in Japan has signed a copper pact with him;

and the imperial court has bestowed on him a gold plaque reading "Serve the State Through Trade," hailing him as "a merchant who gets things done."

But what he treasures most isn't any of that.

It's the crooked character for "accounts" that his eleven-year-old son writes on the paving stones beneath the old osmanthus tree in the back garden; the retired Hanlin Academician, his beard gone white, teaching the Book of Songs for free at the charity school he founded; the old sailor, after forty years at sea, handing his life's sea charts to Chen Chen's son.