“Is that so!” Madam Guo responded casually, picking up those diamonds to examine them carefully. “What old lady of advanced years doesn’t have a few heirloom treasures? There’s nothing special about me wearing them out. But I have three granddaughters, two grandsons, and two daughters-in-law… Well, although my youngest son isn’t married yet, what should be his can’t be passed over, wouldn’t you say, Silang!” As Madam Guo spoke, she raised her head, only to discover that Cheng Chi, who had been sitting beside her, was nowhere to be seen.
Her heart jumped anxiously. She craned her neck to look around and spotted Cheng Chi standing beside Zhou Shaojin.
Madam Guo smiled slightly, watching as Cheng Chi picked up a jeweled flower from the glass hairpins Zhou Shaojin had selected and examined it for a few moments, saying, “This bead is brilliantly green and clear. Someone who didn’t know better might think it was jade. You have good taste.”
Zhou Shaojin’s face flushed slightly as she said, “I just thought it looked nice.”
Cheng Chi smiled and nodded, then said to the assistant serving nearby, “Are all the better-quality glass hairpins in your shop here?”
The assistant thought Cheng Chi was dissatisfied with the quality and quickly said, “Though this glass is a Western item, the Imperial Palace can now produce it too. Many madams and ladies wear it just for novelty—they might wear it today and reward it to someone tomorrow. Our shop focuses mainly on styles. As for large pieces, we primarily stock precious treasures. Our shop acquired a piece of red coral a few days ago. Because its shape wasn’t suitable, it couldn’t be made into a decorative arrangement, so we invited a master craftsman from Yongfusheng to help carve it into two pairs of hairpins, four pairs of jeweled flowers, four pairs of earrings, one set of eighteen-bead prayer beads, and one set of one-hundred-eight-bead prayer beads. As payment, Yongfusheng took two pairs of jeweled flowers, two pairs of earrings, and that set of eighteen-bead prayer beads. Would you like to see them, honored customer? Those one-hundred-eight prayer beads are each the size of a soybean…”
Cheng Chi smiled and interrupted the assistant, saying, “By that logic, the eighteen-bead prayer beads Yongfusheng took must be at least the size of lotus seeds?”
The assistant smiled awkwardly and said, “Honored customer, you’re truly perceptive. I barely let slip a hint and you guessed exactly right. However, the one-hundred-eight-bead prayer beads we kept are all uniformly sized with no flaws whatsoever…”
Cheng Chi interrupted the assistant again, saying, “Then bring out all those red coral ornaments for me to see.”
The assistant quickly instructed the apprentice beside him to relay the message to the second manager in charge of the storeroom.
Before long, the apprentice entered carrying a black lacquer tray lined with white flannel. On it were placed two pairs of hairpins, two pairs of jeweled flowers, two pairs of earrings, and one set of one-hundred-eight prayer beads.
Zhou Shaojin’s gaze was immediately drawn to the one-hundred-eight-bead prayer beads.
Though the prayer beads weren’t large, their color was brilliant and lustrous, moist and lovely, making one want to touch them just by looking.
She couldn’t help wondering if the legendary lovesick beans looked just like this.
Seeing them, Cheng Chi said to Zhou Shaojin, “These prayer beads are beautiful. However, the old madam is advanced in years. Though these beads are fine, the individual beads are too small and not quite suitable for her. Miss Zhou, I think they would be just right for you… You should buy them. Such quality and such a price are rarely seen. Even buying them as a family heirloom would be no shame.”
Zhou Shaojin was a Buddhist and naturally liked prayer beads, especially ones carved from such rare red coral.
She smiled and said, “From Uncle Chi’s tone, buying such beads here is much cheaper than in Jinling?”
Were women naturally good at speaking?
Look at this approach—not directly asking how much the beads cost, which would seem petty; nor asking if the beads were very cheap, which would make the shop assistant think you were a sucker and quote a very high price. Instead, she compared the prices here with Jinling. This set a threshold, and if the assistant wanted to sell these beads, he could only price them lower than Jinling’s standard.
But before Cheng Chi could speak, the assistant had already said eagerly, “Whether it’s Jinling or Hangzhou, we supply most of their goods, so naturally it’s much cheaper than Jinling.”
Zhou Shaojin didn’t ask the price, just smiled at the assistant with an expression that said she was waiting for him to finish.
So the assistant said, “Beads of this quality would sell for at least two hundred taels of silver per strand in Jinling. In our shop, at most they’d sell for one hundred twenty taels…”
Good thing she had brought two hundred taels of silver.
Zhou Shaojin calculated in her mind.
One hundred twenty taels for the prayer beads, leaving eighty taels—enough to buy some glass hairpins to take back.
She smiled and asked, “I brought bank notes. Does your shop accept them?”
“We do!” The assistant, as if afraid the bank notes would fly away, said hurriedly, “We can also help customers exchange for gold.”
Zhou Shaojin was relieved, but then saw Cheng Chi sweep aside the glass hairpins on the tray beside him. The hairpins she had painstakingly selected for so long were all mixed together.
“Uncle Chi!” Zhou Shaojin said reproachfully.
Cheng Chi didn’t even look at her, saying to the assistant, “Ask your head manager for some blessing bags. Pack up all these glass hairpins—we’ll take them all.”
How could this work?
If she paid for them herself, she temporarily couldn’t afford it. If she let Uncle Chi pay for her… Madam Guo and Uncle Chi had already been very kind to her. She couldn’t push her luck further.
Zhou Shaojin jumped up.
But then Cheng Chi turned his wrist and pointed to the remaining coral ornaments, saying, “We’ll take all of these too.”
Zhou Shaojin was dumbstruck.
Cheng Chi smiled and said, “I know some of those glass hairpins aren’t to your liking. The ones of poorer quality you can use to reward rough-work matrons.”
That’s not what she meant…
Zhou Shaojin thought dejectedly.
Forget it. Uncle Chi had already said he’d buy everything. If she objected, wouldn’t she be embarrassing Uncle Chi?
She’d let Uncle Chi advance the silver for now. When she returned to the exchange, she could borrow some silver from Ji Ying and repay Uncle Chi everything together.
When Zhou Shaojin saw Qin Ziping pay over four hundred taels of silver for the pile of items before her, she felt even worse. For the rest of the time, she did everything listlessly.
Watching this, Cheng Chi couldn’t help but stroke his chin.
This time he’d really upset the girl. If she continued being unhappy like this, wouldn’t this trip to Fuyuan Street have been in vain?
He took them to shops selling Western goods.
The resplendent gold-foiled vessels, brilliantly colored carpets, dazzling arrays of bead strings, and interspersed among them, snuff boxes painted with blonde, blue-eyed, bare-shouldered beauties—all of it overwhelmed Zhou Shaojin and the others. They quickly forgot their displeasure at the jewelry shop. Even Madam Guo couldn’t resist picking up a Western doll to examine.
It seemed that women, regardless of age, all loved shopping!
Cheng Chi relaxed.
Two foreign women walked in.
Cheng Chi said quietly to Zhou Shaojin, who was concentrating on selecting bead strings, “Look! Foreign girls.”
Zhou Shaojin quickly turned around and saw two women wearing ornate saris, veiled, with brilliant green eyes like Persian cats, walking toward her.
She was startled and couldn’t help gripping Cheng Chi’s sleeve tightly, whispering, “Their eyes… they’re… they’re green!”
Seeing her face turn pale, Cheng Chi felt somewhat regretful.
Not everyone could accept how foreign people looked.
“Don’t be afraid,” he could only console her. “Look at the Western beauties on those snuff boxes—they have golden hair! People from barbarian lands typically look quite strange.”
The two women spoke in a strange language with the shop owner in low voices. Their strong perfume made Zhou Shaojin sneeze, but her heart gradually calmed.
Her upbringing of not staring at what shouldn’t be seen made her look away after just one glance, embarrassed to keep staring at the two women.
She said quietly to Cheng Chi, “I’ve seen snuff boxes painted with Western beauties before. But I always thought they were someone’s wild imagination… I never expected such people actually existed!”
“That’s not all!” Cheng Chi smiled. “When I was young, I once went with my father to visit one of his close friends. He kept a singing girl who was a Westerner with red hair and green eyes. Very frightening, yet my father’s friend was extremely fond of her and even praised her as a peerless beauty!”
Zhou Shaojin smiled with pursed lips. Only then did she realize she had been clutching Uncle Chi’s sleeve.
She quickly released her grip and pointed awkwardly at the bead strings, saying, “Uncle Chi, what are these made of? Some cost only a few coins, while others cost dozens of coins.”
She wanted to divert Cheng Chi’s attention, hoping he hadn’t noticed her clutching his sleeve.
Cheng Chi’s expression remained unchanged. He glanced at the bead strings a few times and said calmly, “Some are turquoise, and some are Miao silver. They’re all quite cheap. You might as well buy some to reward people.”
Buy more!
Zhou Shaojin grumbled inwardly.
If so, why did Uncle Chi have her buy things at the jewelry shop earlier!
Compared to the glass hairpins, these Western bead strings were more suitable for her to buy and reward to people.
But the glass hairpins had already been purchased… and these bead strings were so cheap…
Zhou Shaojin was caught in a dilemma!
Watching her frown one moment and bite her lip the next, Cheng Chi was nearly laughing himself silly inside.
But he decided not to trouble the young girl further. He pointed at the bead strings and gave Huai Shan a look, then said amiably, “Are you not quite satisfied with these bead strings? Let’s wait until we reach Hangzhou Prefecture then. They have many things there too, though imported goods are slightly more expensive than in Ningbo. I’ll take you to browse Baoshan Bridge then—there are many shops there, all smaller than these, but with very complete selections. From hairpins to shoes and socks, as long as you can think of it, there’s nothing you can’t buy. Didn’t you need to bring things for your sister and eldest aunt? That place would be most suitable.”
Zhou Shaojin didn’t know what to say anymore.
Fortunately, Cheng Chi changed the subject, saying, “I see you’re quite devout in Buddhism. When we get there, you can also visit Qiantang Gate. Behind Wangjiang Tower there’s a Zhaoqing Temple with incense like clouds. Because so many worshippers go from Qiantang Gate to Zhaoqing Temple, there’s even a saying about ‘incense baskets outside Qiantang Gate.'”
Zhou Shaojin’s eyes lit up upon hearing this.
What she most dreaded hearing about now was shopping!
“How many days will we stay in Hangzhou?” Zhou Shaojin asked Cheng Chi. “I’ve heard there’s a Lingyin Temple there that’s very efficacious. Will we go burn incense there?”
Cheng Chi smiled and said, “We’ll stay in Hangzhou until the twelfth of the eighth month before departing. Wherever you want to go, you can discuss it with the old madam, and I’ll send people to take you there.”
Zhou Shaojin noticed that Cheng Chi said “send” rather than “accompany.”