Chapter 699 — News by the Sentence

CHAPTER 699

News by the Sentence

“Sentence one,” Xiong Qiyun said. “The Tang family will make you an offer, and it’ll come with a gold abacus bead.”

“It came at breakfast,” Shi Feng said. “On a velvet cushion. I sent it back on the same cushion.”

The news broker sat on his overturned basket at the corner of Tower Street, with his abacus on his knees and his pockmarked face turned up to the thin winter sun. He didn’t look surprised. Xiong Qiyun never looked surprised.

“Sentence two,” Xiong Qiyun said. “The Gu want a camp alchemist for the southern legions. Rank of colonel, pay of a general.”

“Their letter came with the bead,” Shi Feng said. “I said I don’t like tents.”

“Sentence three,” Xiong Qiyun said. “Two of the eight sects want your name on their roll before the spring. One of them is Cangming. The other one wears violet.”

Shi Feng lifted his left hand. It was bound in a cloth sling, and the fingers were only now starting to tingle back to life.

“I met the one in violet,” Shi Feng said. “He left a chain.”

Xiong Qiyun clicked one bead along his abacus. Then he clicked it back.

“So far you haven’t bought anything,” Xiong Qiyun said.

“So far you haven’t told me anything I didn’t already know,” Shi Feng said cheerfully. “I came to hear who’s coming next. My gate has been very busy.”

“Sentence four, then,” Xiong Qiyun said, and for the first time his voice dropped. “Why the city is full.”

The inns on Tower Street had displayed No Rooms boards for three days. Young men in sect colours and family silk crowded every crossing. Shi Feng had noticed them, but until now he hadn’t known why so many arrived together.

“Princess Long Caili is recruiting,” Xiong Qiyun said. “At her Phoenix Tail Pavilion, on the Vermilion Avenue. Second of the Twin Stars. First on the Hundred Famed Tianxing. She runs more pavilions than any house in the capital except the Sky Pavilion itself, and now she wants men.” He glanced along the street. “Walls have ears, so I’ll say it once. Men who’ll matter when her brothers start counting chairs.”

Xiong Qiyun left the throne unnamed. Shi Feng understood why he’d lowered his voice. Recruiting talented men was ordinary business; discussing which royal child would need them was dangerous in a street this crowded.

“Every family heir and sect genius under thirty has come to try,” Xiong Qiyun said. “Fighters, alchemists, array masters, accountants. The Tang heir is here. So is a Situ grandson. So is half of Thunder Abyss.”

Shi Feng thought about that for a moment, and shrugged.

“Contests are for men who want to be chosen,” Shi Feng said. “I’d rather be paid. Is that all?”

“That’s four,” Xiong Qiyun said. “Nine hundred.”

“For four things I already knew and one I don’t care about?” Shi Feng asked, amused.

Xiong Qiyun considered this. Then he held up one thin finger.

“A fifth sentence, free,” Xiong Qiyun said. “Good customers get one a season.”

“I used this season’s at the dyers’ ward,” Shi Feng said.

“Then this one’s free in spirit,” Xiong Qiyun said, “and nine hundred in fact.”

Shi Feng laughed at the broker’s persistence. He’d tried to dismiss four useless reports, and Xiong Qiyun had found a way to keep the price intact. The fifth piece had better matter more than the first four.

“Fine,” Shi Feng said. “Let me hear what nine hundred buys.”

Xiong Qiyun waited until a pair of Cangming disciples had walked past. Then he said it very plainly.

“The Phoenix Tail Pavilion’s sale desk has listed one Quiet Soul Lotus,” Xiong Qiyun said. “Three hundred years old. It goes on sale on the first of the month, in the Buying Hall. One buyer, one sale.”

Shi Feng stopped laughing.

Shi Feng remembered losing the lotus in summer. The medicine he’d made since then helped Ji Yuanhe, but only this herb could finish repairing the soul. Two cities’ herb houses had found him none.

He counted nine hundred into Xiong Qiyun’s hand. He didn’t haggle.

“The first,” Shi Feng said. “That’s eleven days.”

“Ten and a half,” Xiong Qiyun said. “And you won’t be the only buyer. Half the alchemists in the capital will hear about it by tomorrow.”

“Then I’ll get there before the other half,” Shi Feng said.

Xiong Qiyun pocketed the money without counting it and went back to watching the street, as if Shi Feng had already left.

By evening, his left hand could hold a spoon again.

Ji Yuanhe sat across the kitchen table from him with the account book open, adding the day’s orders. There were twelve new ones. He wrote each figure, checked it, and checked it again. He didn’t count anything aloud.

“Master Ji,” Shi Feng said. “In ten days I’m going to buy a lotus.”

Ji Yuanhe looked up.

“The kind from the summer?” Ji Yuanhe asked quietly.

“Better,” Shi Feng said. “Older.”

Ji Yuanhe studied him, then returned to the account book. His brush moved faster. Shi Feng was pleased to have given him something definite to hope for, rather than another promise to keep looking.

Shi Feng smiled. He meant to be standing at that sale desk when the doors opened.

The gate rattled.

Niu Tiezhu came in with the empty bun basket under his arm and his cheeks red from the cold. He put the basket on the table and didn’t leave.

“Big Brother Shi,” Niu Tiezhu said. “He came back.”

“Who came back?” Shi Feng asked.

“The man in grey,” Niu Tiezhu said. “Grandma says to tell you. He stood at our stall at dusk, and he counted the buns again. All the trays. Then he looked at your wall for a long time.” The boy frowned. “He still didn’t buy any.”

Ji Yuanhe’s brush stopped on the page.

Shi Feng took a bun from the basket and broke it in half. He put one half in front of the boy.

“Thank your grandma for me,” Shi Feng said. “And tomorrow, sell him one. Charge him double.”

Niu Tiezhu laughed and ran off.

Shi Feng waited until the gate had shut behind him. Then he looked at the back wall of the courtyard, where Ji Yuanhe’s window faced the alley.

He didn’t go to bed that night.