Dragon King with Seven Stars

Ch1:Death of a Multi-Millionaire

Chapter 1 - The Death of a Multi-Millionaire

Part 1

April 15. Clear Skies. [1]

The day started like every other day. When Sun Jicheng got out of bed, his clothing was already prepared by Liu Jin'niang, a former Imperial maid responsible for dressing the Emperor, and the sixteen young women she oversaw. [2, 3] In the hall outside his bedroom, he drank some Oolong tea from the Wuyi Mountains in Fujian, and then got into his special carriage and began his inspection tour of the 79 businesses he owned in Jinan city. [4, 5]

He was not the type of person who conformed to the normal patterns of everyday life. For example, he would often stay out drinking with clients all night. And yet, he would never let this interfere with his daily inspection. In fact, the route upon which he traveled would never change.

Starting businesses wasn't easy, and maintaining them successfully was even harder. Anyone who wanted to achieve such success must pay a price.

Sun Jicheng understood that.

He loved his businesses in much the same way that a beautiful woman loves her good looks.

He would often tell his friends, "Wealth might not make you happy, but it's a lot better than being poor."

Sun Jicheng was about six feet tall. Stalwart and dashing, he knew how to enjoy himself, much unlike the other wealthy and powerful merchants who were his peers.

All the years of delicious food and drink had caused his belly to slowly protrude, but thanks to carefully tailored clothing, he looked much younger than his actual age. He could still race horses, drink liquor, and satisfy the most difficult to satisfy woman.

He would never forget to remind others about this, and they would never forget this fact.

Of course, a person like this had no death wish.

So every day when he left home, various experts from famous bodyguard agencies would accompany him. One of them was Qiu Budao, also called "As Stable as Mount Tai," who in past years had successfully accomplished 91 bodyguard missions with no losses.

Sun Jicheng's carriage was specially manufactured, impervious to blades and arrows. The horses came from the stables of the "General Who Attacks the West," every one exceedingly fine, with unmatchable stamina and speed, capable of running over 400 miles in one day without stopping. [6, 7]

His enormous mansion was similarly protected. Day and night, multiple shifts of guards watched over everything, each one a top-notch expert.

To send someone like Sun Jicheng to the grave could not be considered a simple matter.

No one would try to do such a thing. No one would dare take the risk.

Who could ever imagine that he would die!

Part 2

Barring unforeseen circumstances, Sun Jicheng would usually eat lunch at at the Great Three Yuan restaurant.

Perhaps because he worried about his growing belly, or because of constant drinking, he would usually eat or drink nothing else during the day other than his Oolong tea. So of course he was very picky about his lunch.

There were many reasons why he chose to eat at Great Three Yuan.

It was one of the 79 businesses he owned.

Its head chef was a celebrity, specially hired from South China [8]. His "Marinated Shark's Fin" and "Grilled Shark's Fin" both were secret family recipes, handed down through the generations, and as luck would have it, Sun Jicheng's favorite dish was Shark's Fin.