“I don’t care!” Liang Fourth Son shouted, craning his neck and hollering at the top of his voice. “This lousy sword is five hundred guan? I don’t want it! Whoever wants it can take it!”
Shen Guanting was not angered in the slightest. He remained perfectly composed and nodded slowly, his tone even bordering on considerate. “Very well. Our Jizhen Pavilion is open for business, and we believe in willing transactions, fair and honest. We have never engaged in the business of forcing people to buy.”
He paused, picked up the teapot, and leisurely poured himself a cup, as though making idle conversation. “I have often heard that certain families are fond of putting on a grand show, buying valuable goods to decorate their homes and flaunt their wealth. But when it comes time to settle the bill, they claim they knew nothing about the purchase and that someone below them acted on their own initiative. Then they casually push out some manager or servant to take the blame and consider the matter settled. Such conduct is hardly unusual.”
The moment Liang Fourth Son heard that, what little confidence he had in demanding a return drained away. His throat caught, and he could not utter a word. All he felt was the gaze of everyone in the room pinning him in place.
Shen Guanting pushed the teacup toward him. “Brother Liang, please calm yourself. If you insist on returning the sword, naturally, you may do so. However, the rules of our Jizhen Pavilion require that goods be returned in the same condition in which they left the counter. The Haojian Sword was delivered to you together with its scabbard and case, so please return it exactly as it was, complete and intact.”
Liang Fourth Son stared at the tea before him. He wished he could overturn the cup and splash away both the tea and Shen Guanting’s calm, infuriating smile.
Everyone present was clever enough to understand the implication behind those pointed remarks. The anger clogging Liang Fourth Son’s chest made his entire body tremble.
“Shen Guanting, you… you…”
After holding it in for a long while, he still could not come up with anything to say.
“Just you wait!” he finally shouted with all his strength. He glared viciously at Shen Guanting, snatched up the sword on the table—an object that now offended him no matter how he looked at it—and stormed out of Jizhen Pavilion.
The commotion at Jizhen Pavilion spread through every street and alley of the city within half a day.
After all, it involved two famous young masters of Huzhou, who had long been enemies. There was a precious sword, a refusal to pay, and even an old account from several years ago involving an ancient sword sold by Jizhen Pavilion. The whole affair was more dramatic than any story told by a teahouse storyteller.
“Fourth Young Master Liang took the sword Young Master Shen brought back from the capital at Qingxi Garden. He made a fine show of it at the time, but when Jizhen Pavilion came knocking with the bill, he actually refused to acknowledge it!”
“Refused to acknowledge it? Last time, when he sent people to bully Young Master Shen’s junior brother’s family pastry shop, didn’t he push some manager out to take the blame and wash his own hands of the matter? He’s probably trying the same trick again.”
“Tsk, tsk. Why does he keep targeting Young Master Shen?”
“You don’t understand. It’s what they say: enemies are bound to meet. Young Master Shen is simply being envied for his talent.”
“With conduct like that… Could it be that the business of the Liang family grain shops is run the same way? Do they change the agreed price whenever they please and drag their feet when it’s time to pay?”
“Who can say…”
When those words reached Master Liang’s desk, Liang Fourth Son received a thorough scolding.
“Are you trying to ruin the grain shops’ reputation? How many times have I warned you not to provoke Shen Guanting? You never listen! When have you ever gained the upper hand against him?”
Liang Fourth Son was unable to defend himself and felt so aggrieved he could have spat blood.
Master Liang pressed his head down and forced him to swallow this bitter pill. This time, Liang Fourth Son had to admit his mistake himself. Master Liang had already lost face on behalf of his foolish son once. If they continued making a fuss, the reputation of Fourth Young Master Liang and the Liang family grain shops for “buying things and refusing to pay” would become firmly established. The resulting losses would be far greater than five hundred guan.
The next day, Liang Fourth Son brought two servants along with him. They carried a wooden chest and made their way ostentatiously through the streets straight to Jizhen Pavilion.
When the chest was opened in full view of the public, it revealed neatly stacked ingots of silver—five hundred liang in all. In dealings between large shops, especially over such a substantial sum, people generally used paper “convenience notes,” which were easier to carry and could be redeemed in other places. It was rare to transport such an amount in actual silver.
But this time, Liang Fourth Son insisted on doing exactly that. He wanted the entire city to see that Fourth Young Master Liang paid for what he bought and was no deadbeat.
Though his heart was bleeding, he forced a smile onto his face. Facing Shen Guanting and the crowd of onlookers who had gathered to watch, he called out loudly, “Young Master Shen, yesterday I was too hasty, and there were many misunderstandings in what I said. As for this Haojian Sword—it may use ordinary materials, and its workmanship may be somewhat plain. But as the saying goes, a thousand pieces of gold cannot buy what pleases the heart. This sword suits my taste perfectly, so I’ll buy it for five hundred guan. What I said yesterday was merely a momentary jest and should not be taken seriously.”
Almost through gritted teeth, he ordered his servants to carry the heavy chest into Jizhen Pavilion.
The smile on Shen Guanting’s face was as warm as a spring breeze. He personally took up his brush and crossed the item off the bill. “Fourth Young Master Liang is indeed refreshingly straightforward. Thank you for your patronage, and welcome to visit us again.”
His gaze swept over Liang Fourth Son’s strained smile, and he sincerely added, “For this sword to find such a bold and forthright master as Fourth Young Master Liang is truly a case of a pearl finding its rightful owner and a precious sword returning to its scabbard. I, Shen, am delighted to witness it. Don’t you agree, Fourth Young Master Liang?”
The smile on Liang Fourth Son’s face finally collapsed. Unable to restrain himself, he forced out, “Shen Guanting, don’t push your luck after getting what you wanted!”
Shen Guanting acted as though he had not heard him. He replied frankly, “Opening our doors to customers, enjoying smooth business, and leaving both host and guest pleased—these are surely among life’s greatest joys. And seeing a sword we painstakingly sought out finally find a master who truly appreciates it makes that joy twice as great. Fourth Young Master Liang, wouldn’t you agree?”
Liang Fourth Son opened his mouth, ready to curse him, but one of the servants behind him hurriedly grabbed him. The money had already left his hands today. He absolutely could not throw away the last scraps of his dignity as well.
Liang Fourth Son violently shook off the servant and strode away. His steps were quick and heavy. If he heard one more word from Shen Guanting, he truly might lose control and fight him to the death right there in front of everyone.
Facing the crowd, Shen Guanting smiled mildly. “Brother Liang is truly a man of bold spirit—upright, forthright, and robust. Admirable.”
At the late meal hour, in a private room at Pillow River Tower.
Shen Guanting arrived at Pillow River Tower with a five-hundred-guan convenience note in his possession.
The private room faced the street and stood beside the railing. From there, one could see that the streets were still crowded with pedestrians: children returning home after school, vendors packing up their stalls, and the bustle of the city gradually slowing.
Among those indistinct, moving figures, he spotted at once the person wearing a blue-gray cross-collared short jacket. Its color was plain and its style simple, making it utterly inconspicuous amid the crowd. Yet Young Master Shen, who had long been accustomed to extravagance and had handled countless rare treasures, easily picked her out.
She was accompanied on either side by two small figures. They were Tigerhead and Lin Jing.
“Fourth Young Master Liang really paid the money back!”
“I heard he had a huge chest carried to Jizhen Pavilion!”
“A-Yi must have gotten the money back!”
Lin Wu found their excited chatter rather amusing. At the same time, she could not help but marvel at the spectacle. Fourth Young Master Liang’s repayment of the debt had been made known to everyone in the city, with tremendous fanfare.
The commotion Shen Guanting had made over collecting the debt had indeed been rather enormous.
When he pushed open the door to the private room, he found that Shen Guanting was already seated inside. Before him sat a pot of freshly boiled water, still sending up wisps of steam.
Hearing the sound, he lifted his eyes and rose to greet them.
“I should have come in person to return this to A Wu, but there are always certain inconveniences, so I had no choice but to trouble A Wu with coming here instead. I’m sorry to have kept you waiting all these days.”
Lin Wu shook her head. “Guanting, you’re too serious. There was no delay.”
From the incident at Qingxi Garden to the Liang family bringing the silver to their door today, barely five days had passed. The efficiency with which the debt had been collected and converted into cash was astonishing. No wonder he was called Young Master Shen—the way he handled debt disputes was truly impressive.
Tigerhead had long since been unable to hold himself back. He craned his neck to look around, then circled Shen Guanting, asking eagerly, “Brother, Brother! Where’s the money? The money Fourth Young Master Liang repaid? I heard he carried over a huge, heavy chest. Let me see it!”
Shen Guanting took a neatly folded piece of mulberry paper from inside his robe and placed it on the table, sliding it toward Lin Wu.
“I’m afraid I’ll disappoint everyone. There’s only this one piece of paper—far less dazzling and imposing than Fourth Young Master Liang’s chest of silver ingots.”
He tapped the edge of the paper note with his fingertip and looked at Lin Wu with a smile. “I, Shen, am rather thin-skinned. I can’t compare with Fourth Young Master Liang’s straightforwardness. If I had been like him and carried five hundred strings of cash through the streets to Double-Wood Bakery, I’m afraid that within half a day, everyone in Huzhou City would know that I, Shen Guanting, owed Shopkeeper Lin a huge sum of money and had only just sold everything I owned to repay it. I simply couldn’t afford to lose that much face.”
Tigerhead tilted his head, thought about it, and blurted out, “Brother, that sounds like a wedding procession carrying betrothal gifts! Passing through the main street with so many boxes!”
He and Second Sister loved watching such spectacles. Whenever someone was getting engaged, there would be one procession after another carrying the betrothal gifts, and everyone liked counting how many boxes there were.
For once, Shen Guanting was left speechless. He glanced at Tigerhead.
Lin Jing asked in confusion, “What are betrothal gifts?”
“Betrothal gifts are…” Tigerhead began, only to discover that his mind had gone blank. When it came down to explaining it, he did not actually know what betrothal gifts were either.
Lin Wu gave an exasperated little cough. The conversation had strayed rather far from the subject.
“If you had really carried it all the way to the bakery like that, the bakery would have become a fat sheep in the eyes of every thief in the city, and we’d never have peace again. This is much better.”
Her gaze fell on the banknote. The words “five hundred strings” stood out clearly. The paper was thin, yet it seemed to carry considerable weight. The several people running the bakery had worked from dawn to dusk, managing the business with painstaking care, and in two full years, their net profits had not even reached five hundred strings.
Yet the man before her had exchanged a few words and brought back five hundred strings just like that. It truly was profitable to deal in rare treasures. But…
She raised her eyes to Shen Guanting, her tone earnest. “Guanting, this isn’t right. That sword was brought back from the capital, and it came with such an expensive scabbard and case. The cost must have been considerable. How can you give all of it to me? Even counting everything the bakery lost during those few days, the total would not exceed five strings. Five hundred strings is simply too much.”
Shen Guanting picked up the pot and refilled their cups. “The sword, together with its scabbard and case, cost no more than twenty strings. As for the capital…”
He set down the teapot. “I, Shen, didn’t spend a single coin on it. It was one of several gifts forcibly pressed upon me by a Hu merchant I know in the capital, in thanks for my helping him arrange a business deal. I had never thought much of it and left it in the storeroom all this time. Before returning to Huzhou, I was packing my things when I saw it. Suddenly, I felt that its character suited Brother Liang rather well, so I brought it along on a whim. I thought it might prove useful.”
“A Wu suffered this undeserved misfortune and was burdened with so many troubles because of it. In truth, I also owe you an apology. Since the sword cost me nothing, using it to exchange for this sum from Fourth Young Master Liang makes it seem as though I’ve profited from the transaction and settled an old account at the same time.”
Before Lin Wu could respond, Tigerhead began grumbling from the side.
“It’s only one piece of paper! It doesn’t even look as thick as the New Year’s money Brother gives me. Fourth Young Master Liang is so stingy!”
Tigerhead and Lin Jing crowded around the table, their large eyes fixed curiously on the mulberry-paper note. Lin Jing even reached out and touched its edge with his little finger. The note looked so insubstantial that the two children simply could not connect the weightless scrap of paper with the enormous sum of “five hundred strings.”
Lin Jing pursed his little lips and continued counting on his fingers, trying to calculate how much five hundred strings actually was.
Lin Wu picked up the banknote and placed it in Lin Jing’s small, outstretched palm. The paper was so light that it had almost no weight at all.
“This piece of paper could buy the courtyard we live in now, and there would still be plenty left over.”
“Wow!”
Lin Jing’s hand trembled slightly. He stared at the note in his palm in disbelief. This thin piece of paper was actually worth as much as the courtyard they lived in every day.
Five hundred strings might indeed not be a large sum to Shen Guanting. At the Treasured Curios Pavilion, antiques and rare treasures worth more than a thousand strings were not uncommon. Within the imperial palace, this amount might not even be more than an ordinary day’s expenses for some noble personage.
But to Lin Wu, this was unquestionably the greatest fortune she had possessed since arriving in this place—practically a windfall from heaven. She had worked diligently, beginning with a roadside stall selling pancakes and expanding the business step by step, struggling for so long, only to earn less than what Young Master Shen had made by… extorting—by selling a sword.
Earlier, she had secretly wondered whether Shen Guanting had come to provide targeted assistance to the poor. Now it seemed that she had guessed correctly.
Shen Guanting noticed that she had remained silent for quite some time and smiled. “Could it be that A Wu feels five hundred strings is too little? Five hundred strings is an amount that makes Fourth Young Master Liang wince, but which he can still bear. If I had demanded a thousand, he would certainly have tried to wriggle out of it. The sum is a little small, but it’s safer. Come to think of it, I failed to consider the matter properly. Fourth Young Master Liang repaid the compensation he owed you, but what I owe A Wu cannot simply be written off like this.”
As he spoke, he reached for the money pouch fastened at his waist.
The small jade ring hanging from his waist swayed gently with the movement.
The jade ring was not large, only slightly wider than a copper coin. It was blue-white, with a warm, lustrous texture and no decoration at all. It even looked somewhat plain. Set against Shen Guanting’s finely tailored clothing, it was hardly eye-catching.
Lin Wu’s attention was drawn to the jade ring as it swung lightly to and fro.
Why did this jade ring look so familiar?
