"How is this possible!" Zu tasted the mixture of his tea and some milk and exclaimed.
"This flavor, it's not bitter enough for me, I don't like it." Secretary Lan responded.
Zhishi Wu smirked, he had realized that even basic things that were part of his previous world may not be existent in this new place. An miniscule trace of arrogance started to well up within him.
"it's a secret recipe passed through my family, since we were peasants we didn't really have any chance to introduce this to the market."
He started to make some tea for himself as he spoke.
"Secretary Lan not liking it doesn't affect us, she's a middle aged woman in her 30's and our customers will be much younger." Zhishi Wu pretended not to see her when he said this.
Secretary Lan furrowed her brows but didn't say anything.
"Of course this is just the start, we need to fix the name of the shop, change it to Lan's Café, additionally add a lot of color to the signboard, if we want to be noticed we have to be grab people's attention, also add a sign outside which advertises this new type of tea."
Zhishi Wu did have the idea of coffee run through his mind but he had no idea where to locate the ingredients so he left it out for now.
"Alright manager Wu, I'll get on that right away." just as Zu was about to leave he was stopped.
"One last thing, your new role will be the manager of this place, as for the servers and other staff hire attractive girls between twenty and thirty."
"But manager the customers will be devastated if they don't see me." Zu exclaimed as he struck a pose like he was a hero of some greek tragedy.
Zhishi Wu raised his eyes slightly and sighed "don't worry I'm sure they'll manage."
"Alright manager if this is what you want, I will obey." Zu lowered his head before continuing to implement the changes Zhishi Wu told him to.
"A month, that's way too much time, they wanted me to five times the current profit but I estimate it's going to be a lot more than that." Zhishi Wu thought to himself as he drank some tea and opened up a book he had loaned from the chamber of commerce's library.
The book's contents consisted mostly about the present affairs of the kingdom, it talked about the size of the kingdom as well as members of its royal family.
Initially it was pretty simple as it talked about the geographical differences between areas like slums, towns and actual cities, the distribution of the three mostly had to do with the median income in the area and the taxability of said place.
"So this city is simply called Tianchi City, how original." he thought to himself.
He continued to casually skim through it until something caught his attention.
"Impossible this….. This kingdom, how." Zhishi Wu's mouth was left wide open as he looked upon the section in the book that mentioned the size of the kingdom.
"460,000 Li in diameter, meaning it's 230,000 kilometers long." Zhishi Wu zoned out for a second, for the first time since he had appeared in this world he felt truly in awe.
"This doesn't make any sense, just this kingdom which is described as small within the book is actually many times greater than the diameter of the earth." this is unreal, it's nonsensical.
The nonsensical part wasn't the sheer scale but rather how he was being grounded to this plane without falling apart, the idea of gravity was completely thrown out the window, just when he thought he had started to understand this world it completely shattered his view.
"There's no point thinking about it too hard, I guess this just confirms that I am not within the same universe I was on earth, this must be why the laws of physics here are different." he had to figure out some way to rationalize what he had just read, so he did that and moved on for now.
The next section of the book noted the lineage of royalty apparently the founder of this kingdom was a rogue cultivator.
"I still need to understand what that term means, I wasn't able to find it anywhere in the library." Zhishi Wu felt frustrated at the idea that something as simple as a definition was currently out of his grasp.
The rouge cultivator had gathered a band of fellow rouge cultivators to establish this kingdom. The current king was named Moshi Tian, he had two sons and a daughter.
"Three candidates for succession?" he wondered if a succession war would take place.
The first son was named Shi Tian, the second was named Zumo Tian and the only daughter was named Bao Tian.
The kingdom's structure was pretty straight forward, there was a prime minister, and ministers of the court along with the royal family which acted as a governing body.
"I need to increase my standing as fast as possible, I don't want to end up as collateral damage in a war for succession." he thought to himself as he continued to skim through the pages.
….
In the capital of the Amman Kingdom within the royal garden.
"This is a stain on our reputation how could you!" Bilal exclaimed to a bearded figure standing across from him.
"This is merely business Bilal, have I not taught you how this works you have grown up well but still behave like a child." The man speaking was adorned in all sorts of golden accessories and wearing a silk thobe adorned with gemstones.
"I've never had a problem doing business, my problem lies with you undercutting my word. I have my own sense of integrity as a merchant." Bilal explained as he took stressful bites out of an apple.
"Their terms were too good to pass up, you know I've had my eyes on the farmlands of those Tianchi's and a solid 50,000 Li, I'd be a fool not to accept. In addition." the man stepped closer and grabbed the apple out of Bilal's hand.
"Since when has a father needed to explain anything to his children."
"Bu-" Bilal tried to respond but was cut off.
"Enough! This trade was also done to earn favor with the Blazing bones sect, Bai Wushi is not a easy man to please." the man raised his hand in front of his face signaling Bilal to stop speaking.
"I…. I understand." Bilal said dejectedly "If it is the will of the Sultan I shall accept it."
"If you want my advice I'd tell the chamber of commerce to vacate the kingdom and return to main branch, I fear that this succession will not be so simple."
"But won't warning them offend Bai Wushi?" Bilal asked with concern in his voice.
"There is a reason you are a prince and not king yet, between the two entities the chamber of commerce is far stronger although it can't interfere directly we also have no issues playing both sides as long as no one knows." the bearded man said as he left the garden.
…
In a private estate within the core of Tianchi City.
"Have you finished negotiations with the Ammanians?" A man who looked like a scholar spoke as another man knelt in front of him.
This man had a certain glow about him that was unreal, it was as if the man was something not human. the comparison would be like comparing a butterfly to a caterpillar.
"Indeed, all trade will be shut off within the next 7 days." The man who was kneeling on one knee spoke in a polite tone.
"Good, it was getting too expensive maintaining that rain suppressing formation." the man put down the cup of tea he was drinking and walked over to a window overlooking Tianchi City before speaking.
"This plan has been in the works for many years prime minister Chen, if anything goes wrong, by the law of the union of 10,000 swords I will not be able to interfere." the man radiated an almost tangible aura that weighed down on the kneeling prime minister.
"Sire, I assure you there will be no issues regarding my succession, once I solve the problem like a hero in front of the entire royal court none of the royal children will be able to interfere." the minister slowly stood up into a slouched position still not daring to meet the other man's eyes.
"Indeed those children are clueless, they don't even know that their own father has been dead for weeks, however it is not them I fear." The man sent forth some sort of energy from his fingertips which created a holographic figure of a hooded being.
"This was a spiritual imprint that was sent to me moments before one of my spies was killed, I suspect that this is the enforcer appointed by the mainland, I hope you understand even a peep of our sect's interference cannot be mentioned. At that point it will not be only my sect that will suffer annihilation, I'll make sure to drag this entire city with me." The man's eyes glowed a somewhat red color before returning to normal.
"Rest assured sire this will never be spoken, I had a slight request though, I've heard of the first prince's involvement with the Spiritual Sundering Sect. I was wondering if you had any knowledge of it." The prime minister spoke with a slight shiver within his arms.
"That bastard Hou Fantian, he won't interfere, at most he'll take the first prince under his wing, just try not to kill him, I do have an unsettling feeling though a potential wildcard may come into play, be sure to stay vigilant." following this the man vanished from the spot leaving behind an intense gush of wind.
The prime minister stood up and walked towards the window while holding the cup that the other man had been drinking from. "Bai Wushi, enjoy this display of servitude while you still can." he said in a hushed tone before crushing the cup of tea between his fingers.