Chapter 45: Strolling around West Lake Afternoon, West Lake, Leifeng Pagoda.

  From a young age, Ouyang Qiushui had always admired the courage of Xu Xian and Bai Suzhen, who disregarded everything to break through worldly conventions and went through countless hardships to be together. Therefore, Ouyang Qiushui's first stop on this trip was to visit and play at the Leifeng Pagoda.

  After lunch, the whole family went to visit the rebuilt Lei Feng Tower with great enthusiasm.

  After visiting Lei Feng Tower, Zhang Hang's parents excused themselves and left, leaving some private space for the young couple to get closer.

  "Out of the mountain, another mountain; outside the building, another building. When will West Lake's music and dance stop? The warm breeze intoxicates tourists, only taking Hangzhou as Bianzhou." Zhang Hanglang recited, turning to speak: "Many people take this poem as a microcosm of Southern Song, believing that Southern Song compromised and surrendered militarily, was dominated by treacherous officials politically, was economically weak and difficult to recover, and culturally indulged in luxury and ignorance, an imperial court that craved pleasure and did not strive for progress."

  "Isn't that so?" Ou Yang Qiushui looked surprised and asked with a slightly exaggerated expression: "What profound insight does Mr. Ben Niao have to share? I, a humble woman, am all ears!"

  "Hey little girl, do you need to react so bigly?"; Zhang Hang reached out and scratched her nose: "In evaluating the Southern Song Dynasty, one should not only consider the strength or weakness of the imperial power, nor the size of its military might. Rather, one should use the standard of living and happiness of the people at that time as a yardstick. Compared to the long feudal period before the Song Dynasty, the quality of life and creative vitality of the Southern Song people reached an unprecedented height."

  "Oh, is that so?" Ou Yang Qiushui's interest was piqued, and she pulled Zhang Hang down to sit on a chair by the lake, waving her right hand: "Tell this young lady all about it. If there's even half a false word, you'll be punished severely!"

  "Don't think that just because you have a pair of delicate hands like white jade, you can show them off!"

  Zhang Hang grabbed his right hand, which was waving in front of him, and continued to say:

  "At that time, Lin'an, the capital of Southern Song Dynasty, now known as Hangzhou, had a population of at least 1.5 million people registered in the census. The land within the city walls was scarce, with shops lining up one after another. There were clothing stores, cosmetics stores, teahouses, hotels..."

  "What? There were still costume shops back then?" Ou Yang Qiushui interrupted Zhang Hang's narrative.

  "Not bad! The Song Dynasty's rouge and powder were very famous, but at that time there was no such thing as a cosmetics store." Zhang Hang laughed: "I said it myself, just to make you understand."

  "Alright, let's continue!"

  At that time, the river traffic was relatively developed, and boats were the main means of transportation. The common people mainly traveled by boat; the service industry was also well-developed, with "one dragon" services for weddings, alumni reunions, etc. As for tourism, there's no need to mention it - there were over 2,000 tourist boats on West Lake alone, and many of them belonged to private bosses.

  Its creative vitality is reflected in ideological contention, cultural prosperity and scientific development.

  The best manifestation of the ideological contention is embodied in writers like Li Qingzhao and Xin Qiji, the best manifestation of cultural prosperity is embodied in painters like Xia Gui and Ma Yuan, and the best manifestation of scientific and technological development is embodied in the movable-type printing, compass, and gunpowder invented in the Northern Song Dynasty but applied in the Southern Song Dynasty. The above statement has evidence to rely on, every sentence I said is true, please madam discern!

  "Are you showing off your knowledge again?"; Ou Yang Qiushui's face turned red.

  "How dare you, how dare you! I don't dare!"; Zhang Hang looked wronged: "This isn't what you asked me to say, so why are you saying that I'm showing off now?!"

  "Never mind! Let's not pursue the question, let's continue strolling around West Lake!" Ou Yang Qiu Shui's traveling mood had been thoroughly stirred up, and he pulled Zhang Hang to run: "Hurry up, silly bird, let's go stroll around modern-day Lin'an!"

  They rushed straight to the Peacock Garden in Huajiang Youyuan.

  "Miss, you're really beautiful! This peacock is the proudest in our place, it's been here for many years and rarely spreads its tail in front of tourists. Today it has already spread its tail to you for 7 or 8 minutes, I suppose your beauty has provoked it, so it must compete with you." A staff member nearby sincerely praised.

  As expected, the proud peacock was staring at Ouyang Qiushui with hostility, spreading its tail feathers wide, completely ignoring the tourists' cameras clicking away beside it.

  "Is it? Haha, so interesting!" Ou Yang Qiushui let out a delicate laugh, like the sound of nature, attracting the attention of passersby.

  "Autumn water, wait for me here, don't go anywhere, I'll go buy a bottle of water for you." After finishing speaking, Zhang Hang quickly walked towards the small grocery store 20 meters ahead.

  Zhang Hang didn't notice that six people had been sizing up Ouyang Qiushui from three meters away. Seeing Zhang Hang leave, the young man standing in the middle gave a signal to the two burly men on either side of him and ordered: "Go, get that little brat, don't ruin Young Master's good deed!"

  Only two tall men bowed their heads respectfully and quickly followed Zhang Hang.

  "Beautiful lady, our young master wants to make friends with you. Would you do us the honor of joining him at the Shangri-La Hotel for a casual meal?" Another tall and sturdy man emerged, politely extending an invitation to Ouyang Qiushui.

  "Who is your young master? We don't seem to know each other, I don't see the need. Go back and tell your family's young master that his gift has been accepted." Ou Yang Qiushui responded.

  "This is our young master and also the heir of the Pearl Style Group." Da Han respectfully pointed to a young man in front of him.

  The young man, who was said to be the successor of the Pearl Group, was about twenty-six or seven years old, with a medium build and a handsome face, but with a pair of cunning eyes that made people feel that he was very sinister and not to be trifled with.

  Besides the big man who had approached him, there were two other people standing beside him. One of them stood upright and was clearly a military man at first glance. The other person was tall and had no other distinguishing features.

  "Sorry, I have friends and probably no time." As for this kind of person, Ouyang Qiushi didn't want to make friends with him, so he tactfully declined and looked up at Zhang Hang.

  At this time, Zhang Hang was holding a bottle of mineral water and walking back and forth with a smile on his face.

  Just now at the convenience store, the boss asked him what he wanted to buy. Zhang Hang's eyes were fixed on the Wahaha advertisement: "Loving you is equivalent to loving yourself!" He immediately wanted this one. It was so apt, exactly matching his current mood.

  Suddenly, a big man walked over from the crowd in front and touched his arm, causing the mineral water bottle in his hand to fall to the ground. Before he could bend down to pick it up, "crack" - another big man stepped on the mineral water bottle with his foot, crushing it.

  "Damn it! How unlucky can I be?" Zhang Hang stood there with a wry smile.

  "Sorry! Sorry! There were too many people, I didn't notice. We'll pay for it, we'll pay for it!" Two big men cooperated tacitly, one kept apologizing while the other went to the convenience store to buy another bottle of mineral water.

  "It was originally a group, and it really knows how to pick a time." Zhang Hang muttered a sentence and then remained noncommittal, waiting in the original place.

  Although I feel something is wrong, but can't quite put my finger on what it is.

  On the battlefield, Zhang Hang relied on his super strong sixth sense to capture the potentially fatal danger in advance, thus turning danger into safety. For those unintentional collisions among these people, he couldn't feel any danger.

  Although, Zhang Hang couldn't help but glance at Ouyang Qiushui. He saw that she was still waiting for him to return, and she seemed to be chatting with the tourists around her, both hands smiling, so there shouldn't be any problem.

  "It's okay, it's okay!" Seeing Ou Yang Qiu Shui was normal in his line of sight, Zhang Hang patiently waited.

  This scene happened to fall into Ouyang Qiushui's eyes, and the big man beside Zhang Hang was wearing the same clothes as the big man beside him.

  It really can't be seen that there are some means. Since you want to play with me, I'll accompany you, Ouyang Qiushui's mind is certain.

  "I'm really sorry, I have another friend, I'm afraid he..." Ou Yang Qiushui's face was filled with hesitation.

  This hesitant expression has thoroughly hung up the appetite of this young master in front of him.

  "If your friend doesn't mind, we can go together." The young master was overjoyed in his heart and once again invited Ouyang Qiushui with a gentle tone.

  Damn it, I didn't know being a humble and courteous gentleman would be so painful. Due to the crowded public place, otherwise I would have taken charge like before. But if I can win over this stunning beauty in front of me, it's worth it.

  His name is Kai Kawa Shuichi, the only son of Japanese Corporation President Kai Kawa Takeru, and the Pearl Group in mainland China was founded by Kai Kawa Takeru. There are four Japanese ninja family Bakufu masters around Kai Kawa Shuichi, and another Chinese named Sun Jin, who is responsible for protecting Kai Kawa Shuichi's safety.

  Four Japanese ninja masters, named Ryūichi, Ryūji, Ryūsuke and Ryūta, were unable to make further breakthroughs in their ninjutsu skills due to their strong worldly desires. The shogunate, having a good relationship with the corporation, sent these four masters to protect Kai Shōichi while also receiving a substantial reward, benefiting both parties.

  Sun Jing originally served in a special forces unit in China. He came from a humble family background and was sponsored by Jie Kuan to complete his junior high school education before enlisting in the military. During his time in the military, his parents were well taken care of by Jie Kuan, so after retiring from the military, he became Jie Kuan's personal bodyguard as a way of repaying him.

  In fact, the reason why Takayuki Kondo supported Sun Jian's family so strongly back then was entirely for his own gain of political and business capital in mainland China. It was also this good impression he left on the Chinese people that allowed his investments to sail through smoothly in mainland China, enabling his Pearl Group to expand rapidly.

  What Jie didn't expect was that his unintentional favor back then had now become a blessing, and Sun Jing had become the guardian angel of his son, Jie Xiu Yi, saving his life multiple times.

  At this time, Zhang Hang calmed down and carefully sized up the big man in front of him. Suddenly, he had a move in his heart: their clothes were the same as those of the big man next to Ouyang Qiushui. This would absolutely not be a coincidence, and the feeling that was not quite right earlier came from this.

  So that's how it is!