Chapter 208: Fire, Sugar Figures, Honey Crisps

Dong Shi is a bustling, lively place, with carriages like shuttles and pedestrians like weaving.

With New Year's Day approaching, the long street is full of people buying goods for the festivities.

Merchants set up stalls along the street; some sell spring couplets, some sell paper flowers, gold notes, lamps, and candles for worshipping the city god. Others hawk dried meat, dried sausages, wind chicken, and cured duck – a dazzling array.

Chen Ji, amidst the noisy market, suddenly feels a festive mood. This is his first New Year's Day in this world... or rather, it should be called Yuan Dan now.

Chen Ji walks ahead, with Xiao Man hopping and skipping along behind him.

He turns his head and asks puzzledly, "Why are you so happy?"

Xiao Man says with a smile, "After young master went to the medical hall, Wang Gui was angry at me for contradicting him, so he demoted me to a third-class maid. I can only rest one day every two months. And several times when I had a day off, Wang Gui ordered me to wash chamber pots, trim flowers and plants, and pick vegetables. I haven't been out of the mansion in a long time!"

Chen Ji is silent for a moment. "Xiao Man, why did you sell yourself to the Chen family?"

Xiao Man replies lightly, "My brother wanted to marry a wife, and our family had no money. When I was nine years old, my father and mother sold me to a tooth man."

Chen Ji asks casually, "Who bought you into the Chen mansion?"

Xiao Man says as a matter of course, "Auntie did. You don't remember, but I remember very clearly. That day was very cold. The tooth man put a straw in my hair and led me to stand at the entrance of the animal market in the capital. Auntie was just passing by and didn't plan to buy me because I was too young to work. But at that time, the tooth man was hitting and scolding me, and Auntie took pity on me, so she used two taels of silver to buy me back."

On the street, Chen Ji moves aside to avoid an old man carrying a stick of sugar hawthorns and asks curiously, "Why was that tooth man hitting you?"

Xiao Man says in a low voice, "At that time, a family wanted to buy me as a child bride. The tooth man said I had a bright face and asked for seven taels, but the other side didn't agree and left. The tooth man got angry, then hit and scolded me, saying I didn't say good and auspicious words to the other side."

Chen Ji says puzzledly, "Huh? Didn't he want seven taels? How did Auntie buy you for only two taels?"

Xiao Man smiles, showing two small tiger teeth. "Auntie is very shrewd and patient. She bargained for an hour and forced the price down to four taels. Then Auntie discovered that this tooth man didn't have an official permit, so she called people to arrest him and take him to prison. Those two taels weren't given to the tooth man, but to the official runners..."

In the Ning Dynasty, tooth rows had to have an 'official permit' to operate; otherwise, they would be imprisoned.

Ning law states: Buying and selling requires a tooth, loading must have a dock. Buying goods without a tooth means light scales and fake goods. All cities, villages, and various tooth rows and ship docks must select reliable households to fill positions. Officials issue sealed documents and booklets, recording the addresses, names, road permits, numbers, and goods amounts of merchants and ship households, and check them monthly.

Chen Ji is speechless for a moment. His birth mother, Lu Shi, bought a cheap maid and even sent the tooth man to prison. Xiao Man's shrewdness probably comes from Lu Shi.

He looks carefully at Xiao Man and says after a moment, "Wait here. I need to take care of something."

Xiao Man says "Oh" and asks, "Young master, can this be recorded?"

"No."

"Alright."

Chen Ji leaves with Wu Yun in his arms and ducks into a small alley. Xiao Man is left alone standing in her original spot, looking around curiously. Her gaze finally lands on the donkey meat fire bake next door.

She stares for a long time, wanting to buy one to taste, but after taking out her purse several times, she puts it back in her waistband, unwilling.

Xiao Man just stands on the bustling street, staring intently at it without avoiding anyone's gaze.

The fire bake shop assistant feels uneasy after being stared at for so long. "Little girl, you've been looking for a long time. Don't you want to buy one?"

Xiao Man looks at the fire bake blankly. "Then I've been looking for so long, can't you give me one?"

The assistant rolls his eyes and scolds in a low voice, "Crazy, silly."

At this time, under the eaves of the alley, Chen Ji looks silently at Xiao Man's back and says to Wu Yun, "Her language and logic are fine, she doesn't seem to be lying, but she appeared too suddenly."

Wu Yun meows. "You think she's a problem?"

Chen Ji thinks, "If I say she's a problem, she didn't secretly follow me when I moved alone, she just stood in the original spot and waited... Let's see again."

"What did you come out to do today?"

"Buy ginseng."

After saying that, he picks up Wu Yun and turns to walk into the shadow of the alley.

On the other side, Xiao Man is just looking around when a group of eight or nine-year-old children kicking a cuju pass by her.

The children have disheveled hair and dirty faces, and their clothes are messy. When they scramble for the cuju, they occasionally bump into pedestrians. One child bumps into Xiao Man while running and tries to leave without apologizing, but he sees Xiao Man suddenly reach out, grab his index and middle fingers, and bend them downwards.

The child yelps and immediately kneels down. He tries to struggle up, but Xiao Man holds his two fingers firmly, and he sweats all over from the pain.

He sees the fierce look in her eyes and takes out a blade he had hidden under his tongue with his other hand, aiming it at Xiao Man's wrist.

With a sound of "Pa," Xiao Man slaps the blade out of his hand and says fiercely, "You're so young and already learning bad things!"

The child is stunned for a few breaths and then immediately begs for mercy. "Pain, pain, pain, female Bodhisattva spare my life, female Bodhisattva spare my life!"

Xiao Man looks at the pedestrians on her left and right, seeing no sign of Chen Ji. Only then does she turn her head to look at the child. "You dare to steal from me, Xiao Man! You don't want to live! Give me your purse!"

The child takes out a light blue silk purse from his chest. "Here, here."

Xiao Man lets go of his hand and releases him, putting her hands on her waist and saying angrily, "Scram!"

Ding Chang Pawnshop.

Chen Ji steps over the threshold and past the high counter. The old shopkeeper, whose hair is all white, squints his eyes and looks out from a small hole, saying lazily, "What do you want to pawn... Oh, sir, how did you come!"

After saying that, the old shopkeeper jumps down from his chair and quickly opens the side door with his hands and feet, welcoming Chen Ji in.

He scolds his assistant angrily, "What are you still standing there for? Serve tea to the sir!"

Chen Ji waves his hand. "No need for tea, I still have matters to attend to. How was the ginseng I asked you to collect on my behalf? How many branches did you collect?"

"Please wait a moment, sir," the old shopkeeper bows and goes to the side room. With the assistant, he brings out two long red boxes made of acid branch wood. When opened, forty branches of ginseng are arranged inside, their whiskers bound with gold thread on red silk cloth.

The old shopkeeper explains, "Sir instructed earlier that after Bai Lu Ge was sealed, the court would definitely sell its property. This humble one found people to arrange it and acquired forty-two branches in one go!"

Chen Ji reaches out and lightly strokes each branch of ginseng from the air. "Is this all the stock from Bai Lu Ge?"

The old shopkeeper looks troubled. "It's not easy for this humble one to get this many. At the low price of fifteen taels of silver per branch, many medicine shops were vying for them."

Chen Ji says "Um" and points to two branches among them. "I don't want these two branches, but I want all the others."

The old shopkeeper is astonished. "Why don't you want them, sir?"

Chen Ji glances at him. "The quality is not good."

The old shopkeeper is puzzled. "You just reached out like that and determined the age is wrong? This humble one has been running a pawnshop for over forty years and has never made a mistake with ginseng. Whether this ginseng is cultivated or wild mountain ginseng, and whether it's old enough, this humble one can tell at a glance, absolutely no mistake. You said earlier you wanted this humble one to buy them, but now you won't admit to the transaction? Although this humble pawnshop is small, behind it is..."

Chen Ji reaches out and sweeps his hand over the old shopkeeper's face. "Sixty-one years old."

The old shopkeeper's eyes widen. "You really have this ability, you can even detect the age of this humble one."

Chen Ji smiles and says, "Not only do I know your age, I also know you have two sons working in the government office. One is a clerk, and the other is a constable. Your son, the constable, often patrols the East Market dock, likes to skim off the top and extort money. Do you want me to send people to arrest them and ask them some questions?"

The old shopkeeper is silent as a cicada.

Chen Ji takes out the string of Buddhist general treasure that Chen Wenzong gave him from his chest. "Forty branches of ginseng, fifteen taels each, for a total of six hundred taels. I have one thousand seven hundred taels of silver's worth of Buddhist general treasure here."

The old shopkeeper says, "Please wait a moment."

After saying that, he takes out a string of Buddhist general treasure from the storeroom in the backyard. "Sir, this general treasure is worth one thousand one hundred taels."

Chen Ji asks casually, "Is this Buddhist general treasure genuine, and is it really worth one thousand one hundred taels? You're not trying to fool me, are you?"

The old shopkeeper carefully glances at him. How could this sir not even know about this matter? Could it be that he just became an official?

The shopkeeper smiles apologetically and says, "Look at this general treasure. There are a total of eighteen beads. The front six beads represent which temple it's from, the middle six beads represent who it's given to, for easy tracing of the source, and the back six beads represent the amount."

The shopkeeper continues, "And this general treasure's anti-counterfeiting method is, firstly, the front six, middle six, and back six beads are carved by monks assigned by Tuolu Temple in Lu City, Yuanjue Temple in the capital, and Qixia Temple in Jinling, respectively. The pen strokes and knife edges cannot be imitated."

Speaking of this, the shopkeeper takes a glass magnifying glass and aims it at the Buddha beads. "Secondly, there is a secret mark. Look carefully, this general treasure actually has extremely small scriptures carved on it. More than a hundred words only occupy a small space the size of a grain. Ordinary people can't do it. Moreover, the scriptures corresponding to these hundred-plus words are only known to the Buddhist Gate... In short, with this general treasure in hand, it's very easy to distinguish genuine from fake; the feel is completely different."

Chen Ji understands. In ancient times, Jin merchants' tickets also used words written by special people for anti-counterfeiting of silver notes, which was not uncommon.

As for this micro-carving technology, it's just like the paper money he used: feel the bumps of the braille text, look at the watermark, then feel the material. Real money and fake money are very easy to distinguish; the feel is different.

He thinks for a moment, "If someone also mastered this micro-carving method, then wouldn't it..."

The shopkeeper panics. "Sir, be careful with your words. You absolutely cannot let the Buddhist Gate know this idea. Moreover, anyone in the Jianghu who can micro-carve has been arrested and sent to become monks. This skill has been lost in the folk!"

Chen Ji smiles, picking up the two wooden boxes and walking out. "Don't be afraid, just kidding."

By the time he meets Xiao Man again, his hands are empty.

Chen Ji buys two donkey meat fire bakes and hands them to Xiao Man. "Eat."

Xiao Man's eyes flash brightly. "Young master bought them for me?"

"Otherwise?"

Xiao Man takes the fire bake, her eyebrows and eyes smiling as she takes a big bite. With a full mouth, she asks, "Young master, can this be recorded?"

"Yes."

The night is deep and quiet.

Chen Ji is already asleep in bed, and Wu Yun is nowhere to be seen.

From outside Ming Quan Garden, Li Qiu's coughing sound is heard. Xiao Man, who is nestled on a small stool guarding the charcoal basin, immediately opens her eyes. She gets up, pulls open the door bolt, and squeezes out through the crack in the door.

Li Qiu pulls her aside. "I heard people in the mansion say that the third young master took you out of the mansion today."

Xiao Man says "Um."

Li Qiu asks again, "Did you record everything?"

Xiao Man takes out a folded piece of paper from her sleeve. "Here, it's all recorded."

Li Qiu's eyebrows are full of joy. She quickly unfolds the paper and mutters in a low voice, "Jianing 31st year, twelfth month, thirteenth day, young master took Xiao Man to Dong Shi."

"Young master bought Xiao Man a donkey meat fire bake."

"Young master bought Xiao Man sugar hawthorns."

"Young master bought Xiao Man a sugar figure."

"Young master bought Xiao Man honey three knives."

"Xiao Man still wanted to eat peach crisp, but young master didn't allow it."

Li Qiu: "..."

She lifts her head, her face expressionless, and says, "What did you record?"

Xiao Man happily lets out a burp. "Sister Li Qiu, didn't you say it should be detailed enough?"

Li Qiu frowns. "It's detailed enough, but you didn't record anything important. You're not trying to fool me, are you?"

Xiao Man says wrongly, "There were really only these few things today. I recorded every single one. If there are other things later, I will definitely record them all as well. Sister Li Qiu, please rest assured, I would fool anyone but you."

"Okay, at least you have some conscience," Li Qiu turns to leave. Xiao Man slowly stops smiling behind her and turns back into the room, closing the door tightly.

She glances at Chen Ji on the bed, then pinches several honey three knives from the table and stuffs her mouth full, before sitting back on the small stool and dozing off.

On the small path in the Chen mansion, Li Qiu walks quickly with her head down, looking left and right from time to time, afraid of being seen.

After passing through several hanging flower gates, Li Qiu comes to a wall corner and coughs a few times. Waiting for a cough sound to come from outside the wall, she throws the ball of paper in her hand out and hurriedly returns to Qun Fang Garden.