Chapter 111: The First Pitfall
The next day, after breakfast, Li Xiaonan paced around the courtyard, swinging her arms and kicking her legs, waiting for A Wu to return from his patrol.
Although A Wu never said anything when he returned from his patrol, Li Xiaonan insisted on waiting for him to return and hear his report before arranging other matters.
Li Xiaonan was in a good mood.
Today she had arranged for Wan Jing to pick her up and take her to the villa to read.
She planned to read for the whole day and have lunch at Wan Jing’s place.
A Wu returned a little more than an hour earlier than usual. He dismounted outside the courtyard gate, didn’t tie his horse, and holding the reins, poked his head in from outside the gate and waved at Li Xiaonan.
Li Xiaonan hurried out.
“There’s business! And it seems like big business!” A Wu pulled Li Xiaonan down the steps, speaking in a low voice.
“Really! Where’s the cloth?” Li Xiaonan craned her neck to look at the horse. There was only a saddle on its back, no cloth.
Every time A Wu went on patrol, he carried small silver ingots and several strings of copper coins, so that if anyone had fine cloth to sell, he could immediately buy it at the quoted price.
“It’s from the Sun family’s grocery store in Guo Xiang Town. They said it’s big business, and it really is quite large, they said there are dozens of bolts of fine cloth. It’s just… something feels off, I can’t quite put my finger on it. It’s best if you go take a look. I told Shopkeeper Sun that the business is too big, and I need to invite the owner.” A Wu said in a low voice.
“Then let’s go quickly and take a look.” Li Xiaonan agreed, took two steps up the stairs, called out to Mei Jie, then went to the tea house’s corner gate to pick up Wang Yuting. The three of them mounted their horses and headed straight for Guo Xiang.
A Wu usually patrolled the town the day after a market day. Compared to market days, Guo Xiang Town was a bit deserted.
The three of them dismounted at the town entrance, walked halfway down the bluestone road, and arrived at the Sun family’s grocery store.
“Here they come!” Shopkeeper Sun, who was sitting at the shop entrance, saw A Wu and immediately stood up, poking his head inside and shouting.
A middle-aged woman, looking haggard and around forty years old, came out of the shop. She was tense and looked nervously at the three people hurrying towards them.
“Didn’t Shopkeeper Yao say he was bringing the owner to take a look?” Shopkeeper Sun looked at Li Xiaonan and Wang Yuting, who were following A Wu, and poked his head to look behind the three.
“The owner is busy with a big business. This is the owner’s sister, and she can make decisions.” A Wu introduced Li Xiaonan.
“So it’s the young owner. Truly remarkable.” Shopkeeper Sun gave a perfunctory dry laugh.
Could such a little girl make decisions? Was Shopkeeper Yao seeing something wrong and just brought someone over to try and fool him?
Alas, he had done his best.
“You’re the one who wants to buy fine cloth? I have fine cloth!” The middle-aged woman, tense all over, stared at Li Xiaonan and said.
“It’s me. Where’s the fine cloth? Let me see.” Li Xiaonan smiled.
“It’s all here.” The middle-aged woman took two steps forward and lifted an old camphor wood box, half as tall as a person, placed at the shop entrance.
Li Xiaonan, met by the musty camphor wood scent, stared at the tightly packed fine cloth stacked in the box.
The fine cloth had already turned a deep yellow. Li Xiaonan didn’t dare to reach out and touch it, fearing that if she touched it even lightly, it would crumble.
“How many years has this fine cloth been stored?” Li Xiaonan asked, pointing at the fine cloth.
“You didn’t say if it was new or old cloth!” The middle-aged woman, tense all over, immediately retorted. Seeing Li Xiaonan frown, she immediately pointed at Shopkeeper Sun and said, “I asked, I asked very clearly, you didn’t say!”
“May I take a look?” Li Xiaonan asked, pointing at the fine cloth in the box.
“Mm.” The middle-aged woman pursed her lips tightly and hummed from her nose.
Li Xiaonan carefully lifted a bolt of fine cloth, carefully pulled out a section, saw the words “Hangcheng Weaving Bureau” on the edge of the cloth, put down the fine cloth, and looked at the woman, saying, “This is from the Hangcheng Weaving Bureau, not something you wove yourself.”
“You didn’t say!” The woman retorted very quickly.
Li Xiaonan looked at Shopkeeper Sun.
Shopkeeper Sun gave a dry laugh, “You just said you were buying fine cloth, right? You didn’t say anything else, right? If you don’t believe me, ask Shopkeeper Yao, right? You didn’t say.”
“This is your dowry, isn’t it? Did something happen at home?” Li Xiaonan asked, looking at the woman.
The woman pursed her lips tightly and remained silent.
“Do you know her? Is this fine cloth really hers? Is there any issue with its origin?” Li Xiaonan asked Shopkeeper Sun.
“We’re old neighbors. It’s hers, it’s definitely hers. You can rest assured.” Shopkeeper Sun nodded with a dry laugh.
“Buy it. At the price agreed with Shopkeeper Sun. Help me count it.” Li Xiaonan said to A Wu after a moment of silence.
The woman stared intently at A Wu, then at her and Shopkeeper Sun moving the fine cloth out of the box, counting it. She watched Shopkeeper Sun take out the scale, weigh the silver, and then watched A Wu count out the copper coins. She took the silver and copper coins from Shopkeeper Sun, let out a sigh of relief, tears streaming down her face. She choked out a thank you to Shopkeeper Sun, clutched the silver and copper coins tightly, lowered her head, brushed past Li Xiaonan, and ran off.
A Wu paid Shopkeeper Sun the intermediary fee again and picked up the fine cloth, tying it bolt by bolt onto the horse’s back.
Li Xiaonan said to Shopkeeper Sun, “Our business ends here. We won’t trouble you again in the future.”
“Shopkeeper Yao!” Shopkeeper Sun turned and called out to A Wu.
“This is our young owner, she makes the decisions.” A Wu replied without looking back, while tying up the boxes.
“Young owner, this is not how business is done. You really didn’t say, did you?” Shopkeeper Sun looked at Li Xiaonan.
“We really didn’t say, and we bought it all anyway, didn’t we? But this business, you know it clearly, your old neighbor knows it clearly, I know it clearly, and my Shopkeeper Yao knows it clearly. Is this how business is done?” Li Xiaonan said to Shopkeeper Sun, her face cold.
Shopkeeper Sun avoided Li Xiaonan’s gaze, took a step back, and muttered, “Women, really. They clearly didn’t say.”
Li Xiaonan looked at him for a moment, then turned around. Seeing A Wu finish tying up the fine cloth, Wang Yuting moved aside for Li Xiaonan, cast a sidelong glance at Shopkeeper Sun, and spat on the ground.
Shopkeeper Sun put his hands in his sleeves and mumbled, “You guys didn’t say, right.”
After leaving the town, Wang Yuting poked his head to look at where the fine cloth was tied with ropes. He poked and prodded, and the fine cloth split open with a seam.
“You should have refused it then!” Wang Yuting poked another bolt, and seeing the fine cloth tear open easily, he became furious.
“How could we do that! We really didn’t make ourselves clear. A person must stand by their word!” A Wu glared at Wang Yuting.
“It’s not your money, is it?” Wang Yuting retorted rudely.
“It’s not… forget I said anything.” A Wu immediately backed down.
“A Wu is right. Business is like this. A promise is a promise, and credit comes first. You have to admit your mistakes. Consider it like buying a thousand-li horse for a hundred pieces of gold.” Li Xiaonan said dejectedly.
A total of twenty-one bolts of fine cloth, plus the intermediary fee for Shopkeeper Sun, half of her twenty-five taels of silver capital was gone this trip!
Now she only had enough capital for one loom.
