Today was the twentieth day of the fourth month. Shao Shuyi had not officially started work yet, but having nothing else to do, coming early to look around and learn as much as possible was never a bad idea. Zheng Fan's warning not to get himself killed still rang fresh in his ears; he truly could not afford to be careless.
Since he had begun in the fourth month, the Zheng family credited him with half a month's wages. On the first day of the next month, he could collect two dou of nonglutinous rice, one and a half liang of granulated salt, a jar of pickled vegetables, and ten guan of Zhongtong chao—a very handsome compensation.
Regarding the discrepancies in the ledgers, Shao Shuyi decided to keep his arrow nocked without releasing it for the time being. He could not be certain whether poking his nose into other people's business would bring instant death, or whether minding his own business would get him killed by Zheng Song instead. It truly felt like being blocked at both ends.
He also tried looking at it from their perspective. The higher-ups in this celadon shop and the Zheng family's other commercial hostels in Liujiagang were almost all Quzhou natives—fellow townsmen of the father and son Zheng Yonghe and Zheng Guozhen. Reasonably speaking, employing them ought to put one's mind entirely at ease. Yet Zheng Song had specifically brought him here to the Old Locust Tree to take up the post of accountant in this celadon shop, which inevitably prompted deeper speculation.
Was Zheng Song carrying out Zheng Guozhen's will?
Did Zheng Guozhen lack the deep affection for his Quzhou townsmen that his father possessed?
Did Zheng Guozhen and Zheng Song intend to use him, an outsider, to keep an eye on these Quzhou men and make them rein themselves in? Or was it to blow the lid right off?
Keeping them in check versus blowing the lid off were two entirely different matters—to him, it was the difference between life and death.
In short, he turned many thoughts over in his head, but lacking sufficient information, he could hardly arrive at an accurate judgment. Under such circumstances, not acting rashly and avoiding immediately escalating tensions was the optimal choice.
After skimming through the account books, Shao Shuyi carried his box and followed Wu Youcai behind the counter in the front courtyard. Finding a seat, he opened the box and began grinding ink.
Wu Youcai was polite enough, readily sharing whatever was asked of him, yet the undertone of ingratiation and subtle probing in his words was all too obvious. For instance, today—
"Xiaohu has the reputation of a child prodigy and is skilled in letters and arithmetic, so you are naturally no ordinary lad." Wu Youcai lightly stroked his beard, his face creasing into folds with a wide smile as he said, "Still, an accountant's position is no small matter. You must never let foreign merchants and seafarers look down on you, so you need a few presentable sets of clothes. I noticed you've been wearing the same garments these past two days; do you lack spare ones to change into? As it happens, my good-for-nothing son recently had two sets of clothes tailored, but they turned out a bit too loose. You have a sturdy build, Xiaohu, so they would suit you far better. If you don't mind, tomorrow I will—"
"No, no, that won't do," Shao Shuyi waved his hands repeatedly. "Once I draw my monthly pay, I will have a set made for myself."
"My son can't wear them anyway, so why be so polite, Xiaohu? There's no harm in it. Just consider them lent to you, and you can pay me back once you're well-off," Wu Youcai urged hastily.
"Let's not," Shao Shuyi smiled. "I don't go out anyway, and I have another old set of clothes. That's plenty."
Left with no alternative, Wu Youcai could only chuckle awkwardly. "Very well, then."
A silence fell over the room.
Shao Shuyi focused his gaze on the street outside the door, while Wu Youcai stared blankly, lost in thought.
A moment later, perhaps finding the atmosphere too stifling or simply unable to contain himself, Wu Youcai stole a glance at Shao Shuyi and asked, "I thought you wouldn't be coming today. What were you busy with just now?"
"Reading the ledgers," Shao Shuyi replied straightforwardly, making no attempt to conceal it.
Wu Youcai's heart gave a jolt, but he kept a smile on his face. "I'm getting old, nothing like you sharp young men. In the past, when I served as acting accountant, I could never make proper sense of it all. If there are any mistakes or omissions, please bear with me, Xiaohu. If there's anything you truly can't make head or tail of, just come straight to me, and I'll be sure to give you a satisfying explanation."
Shao Shuyi remained noncommittal, merely nodding slightly.
Wu Youcai felt a little more at ease.
Thereafter, the two tacitly avoided the subject of the accounts, turning instead to chat about local sights and customs in Liujiagang, which went quite harmoniously for a time.
******
Nothing of note happened throughout the morning.
After finishing lunch, Shao Shuyi returned to his room, resting his head on his arms as he stared blankly at the greenery in the courtyard.
He had already pieced together several things.
Within this celadon shop, there was undoubtedly a clique led by Shopkeeper Wang Sheng. Bound by common hometown roots and blood ties, they colluded from top to bottom, shielding one another and embezzling no small amount of profit—though to be fair, they remained relatively restrained on the whole. Corrupt as they were, they had not lost their minds to greed.
Shao Shuyi guessed that they pursued illicit gains primarily through three methods:
First, reporting abnormal breakage and wear on the stored celadon; second, exploiting the muddled accounts to embezzle public funds; and third, pocketing kickbacks from maritime merchants and brokers by selling goods at relatively lower prices.
Of course, these were all conjectures.
Yet as a veteran of the workplace, Shao Shuyi knew all too well where the loopholes lay. Gathering evidence would not be difficult; the only question was how to proceed and whether he could bear the ensuing fallout.
Today's two meals had been quite decent, with meat, fish, poultry, and eggs. On top of that, Wu Youcai had come offering two sets of clothes that anyone with half a brain knew wouldn't be cheap. This was clearly an attempt to win him over.
Shao Shuyi was even certain that if he raised a few more demands, so long as they were not excessive, Wang Sheng would agree to them—any problem that money could solve wasn't a problem at all.
After pondering for a while, he sighed softly, stood up, walked into the courtyard, picked up an axe, and began splitting logs.
The axe and the firewood were things he had specifically asked for, and Wu Youcai had arranged them.
Though the latter had not understood why, he had made no fuss over such a request, and had perhaps even mocked Shao Shuyi in private for behaving like a shishu unable to sit idle despite having become an accountant, dirtying his hands with menial labor.
Shao Shuyi did not care in the slightest, swinging the axe with full force, stroke after stroke.
Now that he was eating well and sleeping soundly, he felt it was time to start preparing certain things—such as building up his physical strength. To others, of course, he claimed that as a newcomer living and eating in the shop, he felt uncomfortable doing nothing, so he was helping split firewood and doing what chores he could.
As he swung the heavy axe, his mind grew surprisingly clear.
As the art of war said: first make yourself invincible, then await the moment when the enemy is vulnerable. Following this line of thought, what he should do now was verify the evidence of Wang Sheng and the others' misdeeds, but not necessarily hand it over immediately. He could quietly hold onto it as leverage, waiting until the situation became clear before deciding his next move—what Zheng Song wanted from him was already fairly plain.
That fellow Wang Sheng had run the celadon shop for years and enjoyed the deep trust of Old Master Zheng Yonghe. In his earlier days, he might have been somewhat cautious, but over the past couple of years he had grown exceedingly reckless and left behind numerous flaws. Perhaps he even knew those flaws were there but could not be bothered to fix them—that was arrogance.
Aside from these matters, Shao Shuyi felt he also needed to amass money gradually.
He did not crave wealth himself, but there was no shortage of people who did.
In a world like this, using wealth to purchase favors, prestige, and influence was a winning proposition no matter how one looked at it.
He was still young and could not accomplish great things yet, but that was no reason not to prepare for a rainy day.
Crack! As the final block of wood splintered apart, Shao Shuyi wiped his sweat, straightened his back, and stared ahead.
Footsteps approached from a distance.
Moments later, Shitou, a shishu of the shop, hurried over, presenting a gift box. He said respectfully, "A friend of the shopkeeper sent some Fangfeng Tongsheng Powder from Dadu, and he instructed me to bring a box to the accountant. Also—"
"Also what?" Shao Shuyi asked softly, holding the axe.
"An Erke'un named Wang Huadu asks to see the accountant. He's waiting at the door right now," Shitou added.
"Wang Huadu?" Shao Shuyi pondered for a moment. "Invite him in."
******
In the end, Shao Shuyi did not accept that box of Fangfeng Tongsheng Powder and had Shitou take it back.
This medicine was popular in the north and frequently seen in the large cities of Jiangnan, a staple kept on hand by wealthy and influential households. There was no need for him to accept such an expensive gift, not to mention his doubts about what the powder actually did: Was it harmful to the body? Was it addictive?
In a delicate situation like the present, taking unfamiliar medicine indiscriminately was practically courting death, wasn't it?
Before long, Shitou and Wang Huadu walked in, one after the other.
After bowing, Shitou quietly took his leave.
Wang Huadu looked at the chopped wood covering the ground and sighed. "Xiaohu, aren't you having it a bit too rough? Even the accountant has to help split firewood?"
Amused, Shao Shuyi said, "I brought this upon myself to hone my skill. If I can split wood, I can naturally split men too."
Wang Huadu looked as if he had heard something inconceivable and blurted out, "Xiaohu, killing people is nothing like chopping wood. If you practice haphazardly like this and wander onto the wrong path, being unable to correct your habits later will be the least of your worries—injuring yourself would be the real loss."
Shao Shuyi's interest was piqued. In the modern world, unless someone practiced martial arts specifically out of personal interest, who would know such things?
So he asked curiously, "Baijianu told me that your family has been postal courier households for two generations. Do you know martial arts too?"
Wang Huadu replied helplessly, "The earliest postal courier households were almost all transferred from military households. Besides, there are plenty of people among the boat households who know martial arts. Don't tell me you didn't know?"
Shao Shuyi was struck speechless. On second thought, it made total sense. The original boat households were actually pacified pirates; it was just that none of the Shao family's immediate neighbors knew the craft of killing, which had led him to unconsciously overlook this fact.
Pondering further, decades ago the boat households could still carry weapons and arms while transporting grain. At some point, that had been forbidden, leading many boat households to let their combat skills fall by the wayside until they gradually became no different from ordinary able-bodied men. Yet if one were to say that a handful of families still preserved and passed down those skills, that was entirely plausible.
"What brings you to see me?" With a plan forming in his mind, Shao Shuyi asked.
"My remaining grain won't last more than a few days," Wang Huadu said somewhat sheepishly. "I plan to head to Shanghai to seek help from relatives, so I came especially to say goodbye."
"Must you leave?" Shao Shuyi invited Wang Huadu into his quarters and asked.
Wang Huadu looked around, envious. "This place is really nice."
Shao Shuyi smiled. "An accountant, after all, can hardly be crammed into a communal bunk with the ordinary shishu."
Wang Huadu nodded. "Xiaohu, you really are different now; you've broken free of the sea of suffering. When Baijianu gets back, his jaw will probably hit the floor."
"Now that I've found some good fortune, I naturally won't forget an old brother." Shao Shuyi patted his shoulder and asked, "How about you don't leave at all, and just stay at my house? If you're worried about making a living, I can draw some grain and money on the first of next month. Helping you out a bit will be no trouble at all. What do you say?"
Wang Huadu was somewhat astonished.
Truth be told, he had not been particularly close to Shao Shuyi before, hardly qualifying as an "old brother." Strictly speaking, he had known Kong Tie since childhood and was much closer to him.
"That... wouldn't be very appropriate, would it?" Wang Huadu hesitated.
"What's inappropriate about it?" Shao Shuyi chuckled. "Besides, I need your help with something."
Hearing this, Wang Huadu felt slightly more at ease and asked, "What is it?"
"Precisely what we were just discussing," Shao Shuyi said, lowering his voice. "Help me find someone skilled in martial arts. I want to learn some skills to defend myself."
Wang Huadu was taken aback, stammering, "Learning martial arts isn't something done overnight."
"Don't I know that?" Shao Shuyi said nonchalantly. "Patience is the one thing I have in plenty."
Chapter 15