In the afternoon, Third Master Cheng brought over the petition. When Zhenniang looked it over, she saw that the old ginger was indeed the spiciest – Third Master Cheng’s petition focused solely on the Tian family’s collusion with Daoist Yunsung to seize the tribute ink rights. Everything else was attributed to being deceived by Daoist Yunsung. After all, if even the late emperor had been deceived by Daoist Yunsung, how could the Ink Affairs Bureau officials be blamed? Thus, the Bureau’s decision to award the tribute ink rights to the Tian family couldn’t be considered wrong.
Indeed, this petition was skillfully written.
Subsequently, the Li family affixed their seal, and then Old Shopkeeper Li sent someone to fetch Luo Wenqian, who also added his seal. With that, the petition was complete. The next day, Third Master Cheng submitted it to the Ink Affairs Bureau.
The Ink Affairs Bureau wasn’t a regular judicial office, and moreover, this matter was from two years ago and had occurred in Huizhou. The Bureau would need to send people to Huizhou to investigate.
Therefore, what followed was a waiting period.
However, Zhenniang wasn’t worried about the outcome. After all, the case of Tian Benchang’s collusion with Yunsung had already been confirmed and decided by the Huizhou Prefecture Office. The Ink Affairs Bureau would only need to verify the evidence there, and Third Master Cheng’s petition would be proven entirely valid.
…
At the Tian Family Ink Shop:
“That old death-cheating thing Cheng San, why didn’t he die from anger back then? Now he’s still here causing trouble.” Ever since learning about the Cheng family’s lawsuit against the Tian family, Second Master Tian has been agitated. For years, he had been suppressed by his elder brother, appearing to others as someone who could only fail, never succeed.
Now that he had finally gained some respect and wanted to make achievements in the ink business, to show everyone that he, Second Master Tian, wasn’t useless – and of course, to get back at Tian Benchang for driving him out of Nanjing – he hadn’t expected that before he could even get started, they would be sued by the Cheng family. Although technically the lawsuit was against his elder brother, it targeted the Tian family as a whole. If the Cheng family won, their tribute ink rights would be immediately revoked, and he would have to deal with all the subsequent problems and aftermath. Who knew if this would affect next year’s tribute ink competition?
How could this not make him furious?
“Second Brother, calm yourself,” Tian Ronghua, who had been talking with Madam Lin on the side, turned to say.
Madam Lin was the mother of Second Master Tian and Tian Ronghua. She had come to Nanjing with her two sons this time, unable to bear seeing Chunzhi’s arrogant behavior as the sole favorite back in their Huizhou home. She couldn’t help but blame her son for this, but then again, without Chunzhi, her son wouldn’t have his current position. So regarding Chunzhi, she simply chose to avoid seeing her rather than let it vex her.
“What do you mean calm down? Stop copying our elder brother’s way of talking – that’s what I hate most. Anyway, if old man Cheng won’t let me live in peace, we won’t let him have peace either…” Second Master Tian stormed out angrily.
“Er’lang… what are you planning to do? Don’t be reckless!” Madam Lin called out anxiously. She knew this son of hers was not only dissolute but also brainless, and feared he would create more unsalvageable trouble.
But Second Master Tian paid her no attention, having already rushed off who knows where.
“You didn’t even try to stop your Second Brother,” Madam Lin complained to Tian Ronghua after Second Master Tian had disappeared from view.
Tian Ronghua twisted his mouth: “Mother, you know as well as I do – when has Second Brother ever listened to anyone? Who can stop him when he wants to do something? Besides, we’re bound to lose this lawsuit from the Cheng family anyway, so letting Second Brother make some trouble isn’t necessarily bad.”
“We’ll lose?” Madam Lin asked anxiously.
“Of course, unless we can overturn Elder Brother’s case,” Tian Ronghua said.
“That’s impossible – wouldn’t overturning it mean your Elder Brother would be cleared?” Madam Lin said.
“That’s why we can’t avoid losing this lawsuit,” Tian Ronghua said. However, how they lost would matter. Though his second brother’s underhanded methods might be crude and simple, they could still effectively disrupt things.
Hearing this, Madam Lin said no more. She couldn’t be bothered with these matters.
Over the next half month, the official street remained peaceful.
Due to the summer break, there wasn’t much work at the ink workshop, and with her father overseeing things, Zhenniang didn’t need to manage much. In her free time, she joined her grandfather in studying the Li family’s Four-Combined ink.
However, Old Shopkeeper Li spent most of this time at Master Qi Chun’s place, often not even returning at night. The two old friends were absorbed in working on the Li family’s Four-Combined ink. Zhenniang arranged for two apprentices to stay with her grandfather to both care for him and learn from him. She helped Zhengsheng and Susu with their inkstone shop.
The shop that Cousin Zhengsheng had rented was the former silk shop of Sister Ge Qiu. Due to the Ge family incident, everyone said the shop was unlucky and it had remained empty, with rent cheaper than other places. Cousin Zhengsheng had rented it without any reservations.
“He’s not free from superstition. Let me tell you – the night after we rented it, he secretly got up in the middle of the night, put on his old Taoist robe, and performed an exorcism ceremony waving his wooden sword around. We didn’t get any peace that whole night,” Zhao Susu privately told Zhenniang, making her laugh heartily.
“How’s business these days?” Zhenniang asked. A few days ago, her eldest brother had brought oil and helped transport Zhengsheng’s collection of inkstones from home. The shop had been open for two days now.
“Many lookers, few buyers,” Zhao Susu said somewhat helplessly. All new shops were like this, especially for non-essential items like inkstones.
“That’s just how inkstone shops are. They’re like antique shops – you might not make a sale for ages, but one sale can support you for three years,” Zhenniang said teasingly. Of course, she was exaggerating – unless they were exceptional pieces, inkstones were far less valuable than antiques.
“Well, we’ll just keep it running for now. When Zhengping’s brother returns, if he has any foreign goods, we can add those. Maybe business will pick up then,” Zhao Susu said.
“How about this – why don’t you sell some raw stones?” A sudden idea occurred to Zhenniang.
“Who would buy raw stones?” Zhao Susu asked, eyes wide.
“Who says no one would? Put together some unopened inkstone ore, regardless of whether they’ll produce inkstones or not, and sell them at a low price. There’s an element of gambling here – maybe the customer buys a useless stone, but maybe they’ll get an exceptional inkstone when they open it. This is called stone gambling, and it might create quite a sensation.” Zhenniang explained her idea, which was based on the stone gambling of her previous life.
This kind of business was attractive to people in any era.
Zhao Susu thought for a moment, then suddenly clapped her hands: “This idea might work! We used to do something similar when selling at the quarry – we’d sell irregular pieces at very low prices. If a good inkstone came out of it, the buyer would profit, and if not, the loss wouldn’t be too great. I just never thought of selling them this way individually. I’ll discuss it with Zhengsheng when I get back.” Zhao Susu left hurriedly.
The next day, after breakfast, Zhenniang walked to their shop front and saw a table displaying various-sized stones with a sign reading “Stone Gambling.”
A crowd had gathered around, curious: “What’s stone gambling?”
“Let me give you an example. Say this stone costs thirty wen. If you buy it, we have a stone mason who can help you split it open. If there’s no inkstone inside, or if the quality is poor, you lose your money. However, if the mason opens it and finds an exceptional inkstone inside, the value could be enormous – from several hundred to a thousand wen or even tens of taels of silver. Then you’ve struck it rich, see?” Li Zhengsheng brought out his old Taoist charm-selling manner, speaking so compellingly that people were entranced.
Immediately, someone bought two stones. One yielded an extremely poor quality inkstone, essentially worthless, while the other produced a decent inkstone worth five or six hundred wen – not bad at all. This caused immediate excitement, with crowds gathering to buy.
Seeing this situation, Zhenniang felt somewhat conflicted. After some thought, she called Cousin Zhengsheng over and whispered in his ear. Subsequently, a new sign appeared next to the pile of stones: “Light gambling brings joy, heavy gambling brings harm.” Then Li Zhengsheng announced: “These stones are all scraps and fragments. The real premium pieces are displayed in the shop. Please treat stone gambling as casual entertainment, not serious business.”
Some of the older merchants who had been frowning at this gambling activity now smiled approvingly when they saw Li Zhengsheng put up this sign and explain everything openly.
“Let me try one,” Luo Jiu came to join the fun, casually selecting a stone. As the mason carefully split it open, he froze in place.
This mason had worked with Li Zhengsheng for a long time. Not only was he skilled at stone carving, but he also had a good eye, and what he saw in this stone truly shocked him.
The inkstone was lustrous green, with a moist quality and absolutely no grain patterns. The feeling it gave him reminded him of a line from the “Tang Public Inkstone Record” – “Its color is pale green like the sky after an autumn rain, viewed at dusk, its surface pure and clean, without any patterns – truly what can be called the beauty of inkstones.”
“Master Liu, what’s wrong?” Li Zhengsheng asked, coming over to look, and also froze.
As ink makers were generally knowledgeable about inkstones, Luo Jiu looked at it, rubbed his nose, and looked at his hands, seeming amazed at his luck. Zhenniang sighed – this was what future generations would call the rare Mianqian Green. Some people’s luck was truly extraordinary.
Seeing their reactions, the onlookers grew more curious: “Well? How much is it worth?”
A nearby stationer stroked his beard and said: “Around a hundred and eighty taels, I’d say?” Even he wasn’t certain.
“Wow…” The crowd erupted in amazement.
“Pfft, it’s staged. Don’t you see they’re future brothers-in-law?” A clerk from the cloth shop said disdainfully.
The crowd suddenly realized – the Luo and Li families had recently arranged a marriage. This was keeping the profits in the family! They began teasing: “Listen, Shopkeeper Li, if you’re going to stage something, at least make it believable. Using future brothers-in-law makes it as flimsy as paper – one poke and it falls apart.”
“I wasn’t trying to stage anything, just giving everyone a direct example. Otherwise, why would I have explained everything earlier?” Unable to explain further, Li Zhengsheng just went along with everyone’s comments.
Zhenniang thought this response was perfect – if people truly believed it was just luck, they might go crazy buying stones, which wouldn’t be good for anyone, including her Cousin Zhengsheng.
“That’s true enough,” The crowd agreed with Li Zhengsheng’s explanation.
At this point, Luo Jiu quietly nudged Zhenniang’s elbow: “So about this…” He held out the Mianqian Green he had just acquired.
“You think the Li family can’t afford to compensate you?” Zhenniang raised an eyebrow – too much luck could make others envious.
“What’s mine will be yours anyway,” Luo Jiu said with a smile.
Zhenniang pretended not to hear, though her heart fluttered a bit.
Just then, there was a commotion at the entrance of the official street, followed by several officials escorting some people.
“It’s Official Liu from the Ink Affairs Bureau. I heard the Cheng family sued the Tian family, saying they used underhanded methods in the tribute ink competition back then,” someone well-informed said.
This was the real excitement – immediately, those gathered around the stone gambling dispersed, heading toward the Tian family shop. At this moment, Second Master Tian was respectfully holding the tribute ink plaque, standing at the entrance of the Tian Family Ink Shop, welcoming the Ink Affairs Bureau group.
From a distance, Zhenniang narrowed her eyes – it seemed the Tian family was fully confident.