Chapter 731 — The Ledger Reads

CHAPTER 731

The Ledger Reads

On the seventh evening, the household lit forty-eight lanterns at the West Market gate, one for every stall.

The candidates stood in the square below the steps in the same loose crowd as on the first day. Their robes were less clean now. Wei Hanlu had soot on one cuff. Yan Boqing had lost his fan somewhere. The Situ candidate from stall six looked very pleased with himself, and Qu Ming stood a little apart from everyone, with Yao Chen behind him and his hands folded in his red sleeves.

Behind the candidates, half the West Market had come to watch.

Ke Lianshu climbed the steps with the household ledger in both arms. He bowed to the candidates, then to the crowd, then opened it.

“Her Highness has read the ledgers of all forty-eight stalls,” Ke Lianshu said. “This humble steward will now read her order. From first to last.”

The square went quiet.

“A sale alone didn’t decide the ranking,” Ke Lianshu continued. “Her Highness wanted to know who would return after buying. A customer may try a stall once because it’s cheap, or because someone ordered him to. Coming back tells her more.”

A murmur ran through the candidates. The Situ candidate stopped smiling.

“First,” Ke Lianshu read. “Stall forty-one. Lantern Row. Three hundred and twelve buyers. Two hundred and four of them came back at least once.”

For a moment nobody said anything. Then the crowd behind the candidates started talking all at once.

“The drain stall!”

“First? He was at the very bottom of the hill!”

“Two hundred and four repeat buyers. In a price war!”

Shi Feng stood with his hands in his sleeves and his stomach still a little sore from the brine. Ji Yuanhe, beside him, was moving his lips. He was counting the lanterns.

Ke Lianshu read on. Stall six was fifth. It had taken more silver than anyone, but most of it from a single Situ buyer on the first day. Qu Ming’s stall was ninth. It had taken the second most silver, but nearly all its buyers wore Azure Sun red.

Qu Ming received ninth place without a word. Only when Ke Lianshu turned the page did he look across the square at Shi Feng. He held that look for a long breath.

“Twenty-fifth,” Ke Lianshu read at last, “to forty-eighth. With this humble steward’s apologies, these candidates will go home.”

He read the names. Wei Hanlu was thirty-first. Yan Boqing was thirty-third. Neither of them argued. Their stalls hadn’t sold much of anything in seven days.

Yan Boqing approached as the dismissed candidates left. His fan was gone, and he seemed unsure what to do with his hands. He stopped in front of Shi Feng, looking down at the paving.

“Brother Shi,” Yan Boqing said stiffly. “I said your stall smelled of canal.”

“It did,” Shi Feng said. “For about a day. After that it wasn’t so bad.”

“…It smelled of pills by the end,” Yan Boqing said. He bowed, quickly, and left before anyone else could see him do it. Wei Hanlu followed him without a word.

The square began to empty. The twenty-four who’d passed stayed behind to collect their next orders from the household clerks. The crowd drifted back into the market lanes, still arguing about the drain stall.

Madam Liu Su met him at the bottom of the steps with her red book and a heavy purse.

“Ten silver at thirty to one,” Liu Su said. Tap. “Three hundred silver. And ten silver back.” Tap. “Young Master Shi, half the market bet against you this week. I made a great deal of money on your account.”

“Then it was a good week for you,” Shi Feng said, accepting the purse. “I spent most of mine keeping the furnace supplied. At least the customers came back.”

Wei Hanlu came back with a jar under one arm and three cups hooked in his fingers. Yan Boqing walked beside him, carrying nothing, which for Yan Boqing was an apology of its own.

“Brothers of the row,” Wei Hanlu said, setting the cups on the step and filling them. “For the seven days of the market, and no longer. After tonight we’re men who lost again.” He held his cup out.

Shi Feng waited until both had drunk, and until Ji Yuanhe had smelled the jar and nodded. Then he took the third cup. Madam Liu Su wrote the toast into her red book as a wager: three cups, no collateral, term seven days.

“If either of you calls it a friendship after the seventh day,” Liu Su said, “I’ll want to know what it’s worth.”

Liu Su laughed and went off into the lanes.

The sound of hooves came up the street. A carriage drew up at the gate, violet, with a gold phoenix on its door and eight Shattering Void guards walking in step around it. The household clerks all bowed at once. The candidates who were left bowed a moment later.

The carriage didn’t stop. It slowed as it passed the steps, and the window curtain was drawn back a few inches.

Princess Long Caili sat inside, veiled in pale gauze, with a ledger open on her knees. She didn’t look at the other candidates. She looked at Shi Feng.

“Stall forty-one,” Long Caili said. “You undercharged.”

“The price brought them down to my stall, Your Highness,” Shi Feng said, bowing. “Once they tried the pills, they stopped buying from the Tang. Raising it would have made that harder.”

The princess looked at him for a moment. Above the veil, her eyes didn’t show anything at all. Then the curtain fell, and the carriage rolled on up the hill toward the Phoenix Tail Pavilion.

Ke Lianshu, who had been bowing the whole time, slowly straightened up. He was holding a fresh sheet of red paper.

“Master Shi,” Ke Lianshu said. “Her Highness’s third round. It’s posted tonight.”

“What is it this time?” Shi Feng asked. “Fish? Cloth?”

“The ring,” Ke Lianshu said. “One bout each. Drawn by lots. The loser goes home.”

Ji Yuanhe stopped counting the lanterns.

“Fighting,” Ji Yuanhe said.

“Fighting,” Shi Feng agreed. “Good. Give me the place and the time. I’ve had enough of minding that counter.”