Chapter 753 — The Fire Lotus Hoard

CHAPTER 753

The Fire Lotus Hoard

“Red Flame Lotus,” Long Caili said, and tapped the crossed-out line in her book. “Three days ago it was seventy a flower. This morning there isn’t one for sale in Tianjing at any price.”

Shi Feng looked at the page. The figure had been written in three times, each time higher, and then crossed out for good.

“Who bought them?” Shi Feng asked.

“The Tang,” Long Caili said. “Every one. Two thousand nine hundred flowers, in two days, through eleven different buyers. They thought I wouldn’t notice because the names were different.”

The door slid open before he could answer. Two of the pavilion’s stewards came in together, bowing. One was fat and one was thin, and both of them were sweating.

“Your Highness, forgive us,” the fat steward said quickly. “The Gu army’s quartermaster has sent again. He wants to know if the Red Banner Pills will be ready on the day.”

“How many?” Shi Feng asked.

The fat steward glanced at the princess, and she nodded.

“Twelve hundred, Master Shi,” the fat steward said. “Deity Transformation grade, for the Gu officers on the western line. Due in twelve days. Every one of them needs a Red Flame Lotus. We have forty in the vault.”

“Forty,” the thin steward repeated miserably. “And if we miss the day, the Gu will buy from the Tang next season. Or from the Azure Sun.”

“The Azure Sun,” Long Caili said, “has been very quiet about this. Have you noticed? Not one Azure Sun herb house has complained about the price of lotus.”

The stewards looked at each other and said nothing.

Shi Feng understood her. The Red Banner order was the root of her standing with the Gu. The Great General’s house stood with the Fifth Prince, but her pavilions fed the Gu officers their pills, and so the lesser Gu lines sat close to her. If she failed the order, the Gu would have to look elsewhere. The Tang could profit from the flowers and weaken her alliance at the same time. Shi Feng understood why she hadn’t simply refused their price.

A runner tapped at the door frame.

“Your Highness. Steward Tang Wenbo of the Tang family asks to see you,” the runner said. “He says he’s come about flowers.”

Long Caili closed her book. Above the veil, her eyes went to the door.

“Of course he has,” Long Caili said. “Show him up.”

She didn’t ask Shi Feng to leave. He moved his cushion to the corner by the window, where he could listen without sitting between the princess and her visitor.

Tang Wenbo came in quietly, in a dark brown robe with a gold abacus bead hanging from his belt. He was a neat man of about fifty, and he bowed to the princess correctly and to Shi Feng exactly as correctly. He didn’t look surprised to see him there.

“Your Highness. Master Shi,” Tang Wenbo said. “This one won’t waste your time.”

“Please don’t,” Long Caili said.

“The Tang family has come into a quantity of Red Flame Lotus,” Tang Wenbo said, in the same polite, level voice he’d used across the stall in the West Market. “More than we need. We understand Your Highness’s pavilions have an order to fill. We’d be glad to sell you what you need.”

“At what price?” Long Caili asked.

“Three hundred and fifty a flower,” Tang Wenbo said. “Five times the old price. The market has moved, Your Highness. We only follow it.”

“You are the market,” Long Caili said.

“Your Highness is too kind,” Tang Wenbo said, and bowed.

The fat steward made a small choking noise and turned it into a cough.

Shi Feng did the sum in his head. Twelve hundred flowers at three hundred and fifty was four hundred and twenty thousand. The Red Banner order would pay less than that. The pavilion would lose money filling the order. Tang Wenbo knew it. His offer gave Long Caili a choice between paying the Tang and failing the Gu.

“And if I refuse?” Long Caili asked.

“Then this one will be very sorry,” Tang Wenbo said. “The Tang will keep the flowers. Perhaps someone else will need them in twelve days.”

He didn’t say who. He didn’t have to. In twelve days the Gu quartermaster would be standing in some other pavilion’s Buying Hall with an empty order.

“Have one cup of tea, Steward Tang,” Long Caili said. “Then I’ll give you my answer.”

“Your Highness is gracious,” Tang Wenbo said, settling down to wait.

She poured for him herself. Tang Wenbo drank it in small sips, like a man who had time.

“You’re quiet, Master Shi,” Tang Wenbo said, without turning his head. “At the stall, you read my offers aloud to the whole street. Haven’t you got anything to say about this one?”

“Not yet,” Shi Feng said. “It isn’t my pavilion.”

Tang Wenbo smiled faintly.

“The wise man adapts to the times,” Tang Wenbo said. He set his cup down, empty. “Your Highness?”

“I’ll consider it,” Long Caili said. “Come back in three days.”

“This one will count the days,” Tang Wenbo said.

He bowed and left as quietly as he’d come. The two stewards waited until his footsteps had gone down the stairs, and then both of them started talking at once.

“Three days! Your Highness, in three days the price will be—” the fat steward cried.

“We could buy forty from the south, maybe sixty—” the thin steward cut in.

“Enough,” Long Caili said.

They stopped.

She turned on her cushion and looked straight at the corner by the window.

“Well?” Long Caili asked. “You’re a 4 Mark. You’ve been sitting there doing sums. What does a 4 Mark think of five times the price?”

“He’s forcing you to pay for an ingredient you might not need,” Shi Feng said. “The Red Banner Pill doesn’t really need a lotus.”