Martial Arts: Starting from a Seemingly Real System

Qiao Rui and Liu Xinyue entered the Property Department to inquire about the purchase of a house. They were about to squeeze forward to ask, but at this moment they saw the wooden door leading to the inner room open, and two men in ancient costumes and short hair walked out. They walked and talked, one of them was a skinny middle-aged man, with a respectful demeanor. The other middle-aged man was slightly shorter, very fat, and smiled like Maitreya Buddha. He was Chen Yan's uncle, Lao Yu. Lao Yu sent the skinny old man to the counter, and was about to turn back when Liu Xinyue hurriedly called out, "Uncle Yu!"

"Hey, Liu Xinyue, Qiao Rui?" Old Yu looked in the direction of the voice and found the two of them. He asked with surprise. Then he opened the door of the counter that had just been closed and said, "You come in first, we'll go to the inner room to talk."

The two of them entered the waist gate, followed Lao Yu through the inner hall, and came to the inner room. It was unexpectedly large, with several rooms. It was probably an ancient office. Walking into one of the rooms, there was a desk, a few chairs, and a pile of bookshelves, all filled with files.

After the host and the guest sat down, Lao Yu asked the clerk to serve tea, and then asked, "Xiao Qiao, you two..."

"Puff...cough...cough...cough..."

As soon as Old Yu finished speaking, Liu Xinyue, who was drinking tea, choked. She coughed and said with a smile: "Uncle Yu, you should just call him Qiao Rui, Xiao Qiao...hahaha!" Glancing at Qiao Rui with a frown on his face, Liu Xinyue laughed heartily again.

"Uh... hehe... it does feel a bit weird!" Old Yu also reacted at this time, "Thinking back to the days when Gongjin was young, Xiao Qiao was just married..." It was indeed a bit inappropriate to call a young and rough man Xiao Qiao.

Qiao Rui ignored Liu Xinyue who was still grinning and asked Old Yu, "Uncle Yu, why are you working here?"

"I used to work in the Housing Management Department, and I started working in the Industry Department here!" said Lao Yu. Afraid that Qiao Rui and the others didn't understand, he explained, "Everyone came to this ancient time inexplicably, but our public servants have more career choices. If there are similar jobs here, they can choose to continue working. If not, they will automatically get a bag of silver, just like buying out their years of service and retiring early. For example, my skinny friend you saw at the beginning, he used to work for the State Grid, but there was no corresponding job here, so he got a sum of money and came to me early in the morning, hoping to buy some property to live comfortably in his old age."

"What if there are corresponding professions but people don't choose to work in them?" asked Qiao Rui.

"You can also get corresponding silver compensation. For example, there could be a female teacher here, but my wife did not choose to continue teaching, so she also got silver. Now she is at home tending to the flowers and plants!"

"My wife? Aunt Chen?" Liu Xinyue asked curiously. This title seems very ancient. Has Uncle Yu been assimilated into it?

"Yes, now that we have come to this ancient world, we must try our best to imitate the local customs when speaking and doing things, otherwise the superiors won't understand and will be quite unhappy!" Old Yu smiled bitterly, as if he had suffered a loss in this regard.

"How could Shangguan not understand? Logically speaking, isn't he your former leader?" Liu Xinyue asked again.

"No, my Shangguan is an ancient here." Old Yu shook his head and sighed, "Those few days in our area were known as the 'Bloody Three Days'. The number of ordinary people dropped by 60%, and even the number of public officials decreased a lot. Some of them had accidents, some learned martial arts and no longer worked for the government, and some had to change their careers because there were no corresponding professions. The rest could not hold full-time positions even if they came here. The court is mainly composed of people from this area."

"The number of casualties is 60%. Is that so cruel? Uncle Yu, how do you know so much?" Liu Xinyue asked in surprise.

"I also know the facts but not the reasons!" Lao Yu explained, "I slept well last night, and I woke up in ancient times this morning. As soon as I woke up, I automatically understood many things. I knew that I was working here, how the housing industry in ancient times was traded and rented, the structure of the court, and the local customs and practices here, as if I were an old official who had lived here for decades. This morning, Yan Zi, her aunt and I talked about it together, but they knew nothing like you, so I inferred that only those of us who could inherit the previous careers and choose to continue working for the government knew these things. Yan Er even laughed at me for this, saying that I was a novice guide in the game!"

"It's really like a guide for novices." Qiao Rui said with a smile: "With the guidance of people like you, we can quickly understand this place and integrate into it!"

"Then let the novice instructor give us some guidance!" Liu Xinyue joked.

“Well, I’ll tell you about this world!” Lao Yu didn’t care about Liu Xinyue’s joke. Qiao Rui and Liu Xinyue had saved Yan Zi’s life and helped his family through the food crisis. Besides, he really admired Qiao Rui, so he was happy to provide them with some help. Taking a sip of tea to moisten his throat, Lao Yu introduced: “The name of the current dynasty is ‘Xia’, also known as ‘Daxia’. The territory is roughly the same as our previous territory, with two capitals, 28 provinces, 660 cities and nearly 1,700 counties. The history and humanities are similar to ours but not exactly the same, a bit specious. Its social outlook is roughly equivalent to the Song Dynasty at that time, with a developed economy, wealthy people, a relaxed environment, and a rich cultural heritage. But the government administration is somewhat similar to the Ming Dynasty. There is a provincial government at the local level, also called a province, under which there are prefectures and counties, a total of three levels. Political institutions. In the court, the emperor is young today, and he took power in March, changing the era name to "Xingwu". Now it is the sixth month of the first year of Xingwu. However, the world has been peaceful for a long time, and the government and the people are greedy for peace and comfort. There are powerful officials in power at home, and there are border troubles outside. In addition, there are battles in the rivers and lakes, and the martial arts world is fighting for supremacy. Bandits are everywhere, and hundreds of thieves are reborn. It is the beginning of a chaotic world. "Old Yu sighed and continued: "In this situation, we don't know whether our arrival is good or bad? Maybe, those who are capable will rise with the wind; but more often, mediocre people will be overturned by the waves..." After speaking, Old Yu looked at Qiao Rui. Maybe in his heart, Qiao Rui is the kind of person who will rise with the wind.

Unable to resist Old Yu's eager gaze, Qiao Rui laughed and changed the subject, saying, "Uncle Yu, please introduce this city to us. We plan to buy a house and settle down there."

"What's so good about this city? It's just our old city. It would be better to analyze the general situation of the world!" Old Yu muttered.

"What, this is our old city?" Qiao Rui asked anxiously, his voice unconsciously rising by three points.

"What's wrong, Qiao Rui?" Liu Xinyue didn't know why Qiao Rui suddenly became so excited.

Qiao Rui ignored Liu Xinyue's questioning and just stared at Lao Yu in a daze.

Old Yu felt uneasy when Qiao Rui stared at him, so he started to explain, "Didn't I say at the beginning that the territory of the dynasty is roughly the same as our previous territory, and the cities are still the same cities. That's why you guys showed up in various corners of the city for no reason this morning, because that's where you stayed last night."

"Then is my house still there? Uncle Yu, please help me check if my house is still there? I want to buy it. If Xueyun comes back, she will be able to find her home!" Qiao Rui clenched his hands, his eyes full of anticipation.

When Liu Xinyue heard Qiao Rui say this, she felt mixed emotions for a moment, her face showed a complicated expression, and she was secretly sad.