As soon as Zhen Niang finished speaking, another wave of excitement rippled through the crowd. Everyone wore expressions of disbelief. For any merchant encountering such a situation, they would typically try to hide it, yet Li Zhen Niang was doing the exact opposite. It was utterly unexpected. Immediately, the spectators’ interest in the drama intensified.
Even Shen Ziyan and his group were incredulous. However, the Li family’s approach demonstrated their sincerity, which improved Shen Ziyan’s expression considerably. Even the scholar gave a slight nod of approval.
At once, several ink masters from the Cheng and Tian families, along with ink appraisers from nearby Four Treasures pavilions, stepped forward to examine the problematic ink sticks.
Of course, it wasn’t that these people were interested in Zhen Niang’s reward money—they were above such concerns. It was simply their professional instinct as ink makers.
It was like how a mechanic in later generations, upon seeing a malfunctioning machine, would want to investigate the problem regardless of whether the machine belonged to them or not.
Old Master Li also invited Third Master Cheng to examine the problematic ink sticks.
“This goes without saying—it must be because of substandard materials used by your Li family during production,” a mocking voice rose from the crowd. “There were rumors about this before, but we didn’t believe them. Everyone said the Li family conducted business based on trust and righteousness, but it seems that reputation is undeserved.” It was Tian Er’s neither high nor low voice.
Seeing Zhen Niang’s gaze turned toward him, he lifted his chin provocatively. He thought it served the Li family right to encounter such trouble—it would be against heaven’s law if he didn’t take this opportunity to step on them.
“Your opinion doesn’t count. Let’s wait for the masters to examine it first,” Zhen Niang coldly glared at Tian Er.
“Why doesn’t my opinion count?” Tian Er, caught off guard by Zhen Niang’s retort, argued back.
“Do you understand ink? You should know that mold on ink can be caused by the ink’s quality itself, but more often by improper storage,” Zhen Niang’s single counter-question silenced Tian Er.
Having his face diminished by Zhen Niang in front of so many people, Tian Er wore a resentful expression. However, he had his calculations—that day, Manager Fang had personally seen that brat Sun Wenjie buying inferior medicinal materials. No matter how eloquently Li Zhen Niang spoke, she couldn’t escape this fact.
“Miss Li speaks correctly. Mold on ink can indeed be caused by improper storage, but with these ink sticks, the mold isn’t just on the surface. I just cut open a piece and found that the mold inside is more severe than outside, and it’s spreading from the inside out. This suggests the problem is more likely due to the ink’s quality rather than storage issues. I believe it’s related to the Li family using inferior materials in production,” a Tian family ink master stepped forward and explained.
Several ink appraisers and those knowledgeable about ink nodded in agreement. Old Master Li’s expression darkened, but he remained silent—at this moment, anything he said would be meaningless.
The Tian family ink master then turned to Third Master Cheng, who was also examining the ink, and asked, “Master Cheng, what’s your opinion?”
Master Cheng had spent his entire life working with ink, and he naturally understood the problem clearly. Although he had a good relationship with the Li family, he would certainly be impartial on such matters: “Hmm, this is possible, but it’s only speculation. After all, ink molding can be quite complex.”
“It’s not difficult to verify—we just need to check the Li family’s materials,” Tian Er spoke up again. Manager Fang had said that Sun Wenjie had bought quite a lot at the time. The medicinal herbs were just additives and weren’t used in large quantities, so there must be some left. Once they found the problematic herbs, let’s see how the Li family could defend themselves.
Hearing Tian Er’s words, Zhen Niang narrowed her eyes at him. She had a feeling that Tian Er seemed to know something.
“What’s wrong? Afraid? Lost your nerve?” Tian Er mocked.
“There’s nothing to be afraid of. Since that’s the case, the Li family will let everyone inspect our materials today.” With Tian Er pushing the matter to this point, they couldn’t back down now.
At this moment, thoughts were racing through Zhen Niang’s mind.
Actually, from the moment the Shen family appeared, Zhen Niang’s mind hadn’t stopped working. The matter of the Shen family’s batch of ink, regardless of who was ultimately responsible, was easy to resolve—it was just one batch of ink after all.
Korean ink wasn’t difficult to buy. If it truly was a problem with the Li family’s materials, then Li Ink Shop could compensate the Shen family with another batch of reconstituted ink, and the Shen family likely wouldn’t pursue the matter further.
The real difficulty lay in the aftermath. The current problem was that the matter had become too big, and combined with the previous rumors about the Li family using inferior materials, if they resolved it just like this, it wouldn’t restore the Li family’s reputation. Instead, it would seem to confirm that the Li family had indeed used inferior materials. If nothing else, this would be a fatal weakness for the Li family in the competition for tribute ink status.
So this was the most troublesome issue.
However, Tian Er’s words gave Zhen Niang another perspective.
She might as well take this opportunity to make public all the materials the Li family regularly used. Zhen Niang was very confident in their materials—the soot was produced by their own family, which couldn’t possibly have mold issues. The various types of glue used in ink making were from merchants she and Zheng Fuli had selected, all regular suppliers whose credibility was beyond question. Moreover, the glue was the most crucial step, and she inspected each batch before production, precisely to prevent quality issues.
Therefore, the soot and glue absolutely couldn’t be the problem. That only left the additives, and for the several expensive Chinese medicines like borneol and musk, these were personally purchased by Zhen Niang, and she would inspect them before use. Moreover, these two medicines were more likely to evaporate than develop mold.
That left only a few common Chinese herbs, like Cortex Fraxini and others. Zhen Niang remembered that before making the Shen family’s batch of ink, she had asked Zheng Fuli to check if they were short on materials, and Zheng Fuli had said they were low on several herbs, so Sun Wenjie was sent to buy them from the Gong family pharmacy.
At the time, because these herbs were cheap, and because Zhen Niang had long ago arranged with the neighboring Gong family pharmacy to buy all their herbs there, with Master Gong guaranteeing their quality, she hadn’t worried.
Therefore, if these herbs were indeed the problem, then it wouldn’t be the Li family’s fault—the Gong family pharmacy would have to answer to the Li family.
Thus, Zhen Niang had the confidence to let everyone inspect publicly. It was also a good opportunity to let everyone see what materials the Li family regularly used, letting facts speak for themselves and defeat the rumors.
This way, even if the Shen family’s batch of ink had material problems, it would only be seen as an accident, and the previous rumors would instead be exposed as false.
Regarding the rumors, Zhen Niang had been thinking about them for a long time. Trying to stop them was impossible—rumors were like that. But not stopping them would lead to the “three men make a tiger” effect, and eventually the Li family would suffer from the rumors. Now this crisis had actually become an opportunity.
Having made up her mind, Zhen Niang turned to Shen Ziyan and the scholar: “Master Shen, all of the Li family’s ink-making materials are in our warehouse. I’ll have people bring out all our production materials for everyone to inspect, one by one. Please, you and this gentleman follow along—not only to receive your explanation but also to serve as witnesses.”
Shen Ziyan and the scholar looked at each other and both nodded.
So, following Zhen Niang’s orders, Zheng Fuli led people, with Shen Ziyan and the scholar following, to bring out various materials from the Li family ink shop and place them at the entrance.
First was the soot. Originally, soot couldn’t develop mold, and the Shen family’s ink was reconstituted—the Li family might have added a little, but certainly not much. Therefore, the soot inspection was completely unnecessary.
However, Zhen Niang didn’t care about this now. Since she wanted everyone to see the Li family’s materials, it was better to be thorough.
When the Li family people brought out the soot, there were three ink shops on this official street, plus several Four Treasures shops, so there were quite a few people who understood ink. Although everyone knew soot couldn’t develop mold, since the Li family had brought it out, they were happy to look.
The quality of the Li family’s soot truly impressed everyone.
The old owner of Mei Record Ink Pavilion took some soot between his fingers and rubbed it in his palm. The soot was fine and smooth, showing that it was not only finely processed but also had excellent oil content. Looking at the occasional glint of soot-shine in his palm, it was no wonder Li ink was good—with such soot for production, as long as the technique wasn’t too poor, the ink quality couldn’t be bad.
“Excellent soot, excellent soot indeed…” the old owner of Mei praised. The surrounding spectators, many of whom were ink workers who understood a bit about soot, also gathered around to look and comment on the Li family’s soot, all exclaiming about its quality.
“Really? The Li family’s soot is that good?” Those who didn’t understand naturally asked.
“Of course! It’s all top-grade soot. The Li family’s soot-burning craftsmen have incredible skill,” people praised.
“The soot is fine,” several masters helping with the inspection confirmed.
Next came several types of glue—bone glue, deer antler glue, fish maw glue, and others. Each type of glue was clear.
“Tsk tsk, not a trace of impurity. The Li family spares no expense…” people in the crowd marveled.
Thus, the glue also had no problems.
Then came several additives—borneol, musk, and others. These needed no outside verification—Master Gong from next door was an expert, and these were all top-quality medicines without any quality issues.
This turn of events left people amazed at the quality of the Li family’s various materials, and they privately acknowledged that the Li family truly lived up to their reputation of conducting business with integrity.
Tian Er saw things weren’t going as expected and hurriedly said, “There’s more, there’s more, why aren’t you bringing everything out?”
Next came several common Chinese medicines. The masters all examined them and found no problems.
“The Li family must have hidden the inferior materials!” Tian Er called out from the crowd.
“That seems impossible. This incident happened so suddenly, with just this short time in between—the Li family probably doesn’t even know where the problem is. Didn’t you see Old Master Li examining the ink along with everyone else earlier? Besides, the Shen family has been following the entire time while getting the materials. Hide them? Did the Li family even have time?” someone in the crowd refuted.
“Or perhaps the inferior materials have all been used up?” someone else speculated.
“That’s hard to say, but looking at the materials the Li family uses, they don’t seem like the type to use inferior materials,” others commented.