Chapter 666 — Wet Laundry

CHAPTER 666

Wet Laundry

“A Shattering Void-grade pill,” Madam Liu Su said softly. “From a Frost-Flame Root.”

The grey-market list lay open between them. She’d been smiling at it until Shi Feng told her what the herbs were for.

“Just practice,” Shi Feng said cheerfully. “I’m a provincial 3 Mark. Even I’m allowed to dream.”

“Then the supplements come to one million, seven hundred and forty thousand, young master,” Liu Su said, sliding one bead across her abacus.

“Yesterday they were one million, two hundred thousand,” Shi Feng said.

“Yesterday you were buying herbs,” Liu Su said gently. “Today you’re buying a Shattering Void-grade furnace. Forty-five parts in a hundred is the price of knowing why.”

Shi Feng was delighted. She’d heard one sentence and added half a million to the bill. She’d charge him for secrecy as readily as for herbs. Good to know before he asked her for anything else.

“First, the herbs haven’t changed since yesterday,” Shi Feng said, counting on his fingers. “Second, the root is mine, so the risk is mine. Third, if the pill fails, I’ve bought the most expensive rubbish in Tianjing, and you’ll have sold it to me. Fourth—”

“One million, seven hundred and forty thousand,” Liu Su said, not even blinking.

He made his disappointment obvious, then paid every stone.

A broker who beats you once feels generous for a month, Shi Feng thought.

The sealed hall on Alchemists’ Row cost another eight hundred and sixty thousand for the month. Its roof carried a dampening array, so no cloud ever rose high enough for the Sky-Watch to count.

The array’s key was cut in the Bell Tower and changed at every watch. For the quarter-hour the keepers took to change it, the meter read only its own keying, and the Sky-Watch’s glass was turned to its own bell. Liu Su had sold him that quarter-hour with the rent, written on the slip in her own hand: blind window, one in each watch.

The first three buds could be spent under the array; the fourth had to go into the fire in the blind quarter-hour, when a spike on the meter would be blamed on a keeper’s hands.

Ji Yuanhe sat on a stool by the wall with his hands folded, counting the bricks.

The Frost-Flame Root lay on the bench. Four buds were left, red on one side and blue on the other. Shi Feng cut the first one free and fed it to the fire.

A 6 Mark pill folded its clouds inside itself, and a very fine Shattering Void-grade pill could show a flicker of that small sky. He coaxed the first cloud downward instead of letting it rise.

The pill swelled. A crack ran around its middle, and it went grey.

“Waste,” Shi Feng said, and ate it while it was still hot.

It went down like embers and frost at once, and the Physique took the bud’s worth exactly. He cut the second bud and tried again, pressing the cloud down more gently this time.

It cracked in the same place.

“Two,” Ji Yuanhe said to the wall.

“Yes, two,” Shi Feng said, chewing.

The door opened, and one of Liu Su’s clerks bowed in the doorway with a small box.

“Madam sends her apologies, honoured guest,” Liu Su’s clerk said, keeping his eyes on the box. “The Quiet Soul Lotus has been bought out by a buyer who left no name. Here is your deposit of two hundred thousand, and the same again as the clause penalty.”

Ji Yuanhe’s counting dropped to a whisper.

Shi Feng opened his notebook and wrote three words on a clean page. Lotus. Nameless buyer. Then he thought about it and added a fourth. Debt.

Not yet, Shi Feng told himself. A buyer who pays a penalty to keep his name hidden has a name worth finding. I’ll find it later, when I can afford to collect.

“Old Ji, count for me,” Shi Feng said, turning back to the bench. “Any rhythm you like.”

“One,” Ji Yuanhe said. “Two.”

The third bud gave him a pill.

Three thin grey clouds rose over the lid. The pill sank into the dish. It was heavy and dull green, and one side sagged instead of staying round.

Shi Feng picked it up and laughed out loud.

“Look at it, Old Ji,” Shi Feng said. “A Shattering Void-grade pill. Common. Three clouds. It’s real, and nobody in this city would pay a copper for it.”

A pill of this grade with a 3 Mark’s name on the box was either a fake or a confession. He couldn’t sell it as Feng Shi, and he couldn’t sell it as anyone else. He sealed it in wax and dropped it into his belt pouch.

The fourth bud was the last, and the blind quarter-hour was open.

He stopped trying to fold anything. He gave the fire Ji’s count and let the clouds climb the way clouds wanted to. One, two, three. Four and five came quickly. The sixth rose slowly, white and full, and the pill under it rang once against the lid.

Six clouds. Major Success. The 5 Mark sitting asked for exactly six.

He reached for a seventh.

The fire was ready, and so were his hands. But a fold needed somewhere to land. At six, his fold came down on nothing. The cloud gathered, wavered and went out.

Six was his limit for now. Shi Feng stopped forcing the seventh cloud; he had no root left for another attempt.

[Money: 9.8M → 7.6M | Capability: 5 Mark-grade, Major Success (6 clouds), bare pass | Note: no beat past six.]

Liu Su arrived at dusk to collect the hall key. She looked at the empty root, the wax-sealed pouch and the six-cloud pill in its box, and her smile stayed exactly where it had been all day.

“Can you find me a fifth bud, Madam?” Shi Feng asked. “At any price you like. Even your knowing-why price.”

“A Shattering Void herb goes to a 5 Mark licence, young master, or to the highest bidder,” Liu Su said. “The highest bidder is wearing gold.”

She bowed and left. Shi Feng grinned at the box anyway.

Ji Yuanhe had stopped counting.

“Seven would have been nice,” Ji Yuanhe said, very small.