Pay‑to‑Win King of Martial Arts (Novel) - Chapter 18 - Market (1)
Chapter 18 – Market (1)
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Translated by Heavenly Cat
Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net
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The market.
The flower of commerce.
Though it varied from region to region, markets generally opened with the sound of a bell at noon, and closed with the sound of a bell again at sunset.
Once a market got underway, merchants shouted at the top of their lungs, while customers hurried around comparing prices and haggling.
Of course it grew noisy, and that very noise was part of the charm of a marketplace.
“It’s truly noisy.”
Cheong-su frowned.
The other martial artists of Wudang were the same.
After living on quiet Wudang Mountain, a bustling marketplace was enough to make their ears ache.
And to people who believed silence was more virtuous than noise, a marketplace was a filthy place.
But to me, the heat of all these people made me feel more alive.
The smells rising from makeshift teahouses, taverns, butcher stalls, cloth merchants, spice sellers, apothecaries, and more all blended together.
“Isn’t this liveliness wonderful?”
“Wonderful, my foot.”
“Look at how fiercely people are living here. Rather than playing at immortals, I think it suits me much better to be jostling among people.”
“No matter how you put it, now that you’ve learned the Azure Cloud Steps, you’re a main-sect disciple.”
Markets were usually divided into districts, and shops of the same trade gathered together in clusters called trades.
I had heard there were fifty trades gathered here, so it was a fairly large market.
“So where is this salt trade, exactly?”
“Usually the salt trade occupies the best location in the market. It should be in the center.”
“You know your stuff.”
“It’s common sense. Common sense. So you didn’t know even that.”
At Wudang, I kept quiet because I knew nothing of martial arts, but this was my ground.
Having sat quietly only to be needled in return, Cheong-su’s expression darkened.
I had better be careful.
If I pushed too far, I might get an acupoint-opening beating right in the middle of the market.
Cheong-su and Wudang’s martial artists followed after me as though spellbound.
No matter how confusing a market looked, there was always a path through it.
Of course, novices like the people of Wudang could easily lose their way and wander in circles inside a marketplace.
If that happened, they’d be trapped until the market closed.
A market was a monster with no mercy for beginners.
Though that was true of every trade, murim included.
“It already feels like the air tastes of salt. My eyes feel a little salty too.”
“What kind of expression is that supposed to be?”
“It means the salt trade is right in front of us.”
Just as I said, the moment we turned a corner, the salt trade appeared.
There were many salt merchants there, but it was easy to pick out the Shanxi merchants’ shop.
The quality of the clothes they wore was different, and so was the sheer scale of the piled salt.
The Shanxi merchants noticed us first.
A pot-bellied man in green cotton cloth walked over toward us.
“Oh, heroes of Wudang. I am Gang Jeon from Shanxi Prefecture.”
“I am Cheong-su, Hall Master of the Hall of Preserved Wholeness of Wudang. I came for another matter. The ones handling your escort are these first-generation disciples here.”
“I see.”
The five of the Myeong generation introduced themselves.
If they were first-generation disciples of the Myeong generation, then no one would dare lightly offend them.
Not just because of their martial strength, but because who in Hubei would dare touch the Wudang Sect?
The Shanxi merchants knew that, which was why they had hired Wudang as escorts.
“I see. So you’re the Hall Master of the Hall of Preserved Wholeness. I’ve often met you in writing. It is truly an honor for the Hall Master himself to come.”
Gang Jeon said that, but he was not especially attentive toward Cheong-su.
If anything, he seemed far more focused on the five of the Myeong generation.
Naturally so.
The ones actually protecting them were those five, not Cheong-su.
It was the practical mindset of a merchant.
Cheong-su must have felt that as well, because he pressed his lips inward and bit them lightly.
To be looked down on by merchants he had always thought base must have made his blood boil.
“If you don’t mind my asking, what brings the Hall Master here today?”
Gang Jeon’s words were only barely polite, and Cheong-su seemed humiliated by them.
I looked into Gang Jeon’s eyes.
They were cold.
They were the eyes one used to look at goods and customers.
‘So that’s how it is.’
Only then did I realize.
Gang Jeon’s slighting of Cheong-su was intentional.
Information from inside Wudang had already leaked to the Shanxi merchants.
Gang Jeon was asking while already knowing what Cheong-su had come to say.
“We’ve come to buy salt.”
Cheong-su said that.
Gang Jeon tilted his head in exaggerated fashion.
“But hadn’t the Wudang Sect said it would not be buying salt at this market?”
“We merely chose not to make an advance contract purchase because we intended to buy on-site. We never said we would not buy at all.”
“Is that so? The quantities available for advance contract purchase have already been settled, though. Why would you make such a losing choice?”
Gang Jeon had gone from indifferent to openly curt.
It was as though he were saying that since Wudang had rejected their proposal, it ought to accept this level of treatment.
“That’s hard to explain, as it concerns internal circumstances.”
“I see. If you buy on-site, you’ll have to pay a much higher price than with advance contract purchase.”
Standing before the Shanxi merchant, who was openly slighting us, I felt the need to step in.
Cheong-su’s reddened face looked like it might explode at any moment.
“We will buy it cheaply.”
“Pardon?”
For the first time, Gang Jeon’s gaze turned to me.
Until now, he had clearly taken me for some attendant standing beside Cheong-su and had not given me a second thought.
“Might this person also be a disciple of Wudang…?”
“Not a main-sect disciple.”
“Ah. I see.”
Gang Jeon’s eyes became bolder.
If I wasn’t a main-sect disciple, then there was no reason for him to bend.
“May I ask what you mean by that?”
The moment he realized I was a lay disciple, his speech dropped into a lower register.
It was a common little skirmish of nerves.
“Because I happen to know that the frontier supply system is about to be abolished.”
“What?”
Gang Jeon’s complexion suddenly turned ashen.
Cheong-su’s face twisted as well.
That was because I had not told Cheong-su until now that the frontier supply system was going to be abolished.
“Wait. What is that supposed to mean?”
Cheong-su cut in.
If the frontier supply system were abolished, then the Shanxi merchants would no longer be able to reap outrageous profits through salt.
And the price of salt south of North China would naturally stabilize.
Cheong-su knew that much, which was why his eyes flared.
“If that’s really true, then were you trying to extort outrageous profits from the Wudang Sect?”
I had expected him to react exactly like this.
In fights between merchants, the one who grew enraged was usually the one who lost.
Gang Jeon’s face, which had gone gray, quickly returned to composure.
He even looked tense now, knowing that if he made a mistake here, things could not be repaired.
“To be precise, such talk is circulating in Beijing, and it is confidential. I don’t know how that whelp learned of it, but so long as the frontier supply system is still in force, we cannot be said to be taking outrageous profits.”
“That’s correct. Right now, the Shanxi merchants are not taking outrageous profits. The frontier supply system has not yet been abolished. They’re simply selling at the regular price.”
When I took Gang Jeon’s side, Cheong-su swung his face around toward me.
His expression said that a member of Wudang should never take the side of a peddler over Wudang itself.
“If we spread word that the frontier supply system is about to be abolished, won’t that cause trouble for your side too?”
Cheong-su said that.
As expected, Cheong-su understood nothing of the merchants’ world.
I answered in Gang Jeon’s place.
“That is still a secret of Beijing. If we spread it publicly, the Imperial Palace would demand accountability.”
“Whose side are you on, exactly?”
Cheong-su’s anger exploded.
Gang Jeon added to my words.
“That boy is correct. The authorities are especially sensitive about anything involving salt. If such a fact were spread around, then not even the Wudang Sect could easily avoid censure from the Imperial Court.”
No matter how much there existed an unspoken rule that the government and murim do not interfere with one another, they still used the same land of the Central Plains.
Clashes were inevitable.
This was one of those cases.
Cheong-su, too, knew that provoking the Imperial Palace would only make things troublesome, so all he could do was tremble with clenched fists.
“In any case, I don’t understand what you mean by saying you’ll buy it cheaply. Even if the frontier supply system is abolished, we don’t know exactly when it will happen. Even knowing that fact won’t change our price.”
“I see. Understood.”
I lowered my head.
When I backed down so meekly, both Cheong-su and Gang Jeon looked dumbfounded.
The five of the Myeong generation went off to guard the Shanxi merchants’ salt trade, while we entered a small teahouse nearby.
Even before the tea was served, Cheong-su growled at me.
“Just what are you thinking?”
“I’m thinking of buying the salt cheaply.”
“Judging by the way you behaved, it didn’t look like that at all.”
“Not at all. Don’t look at the tree. Look at the forest.”
“You’re testing my Daoist heart. I don’t think I’ve ever wanted to beat someone this badly before.”
“The Shanxi merchant was certainly discourteous.”
“You. I’m talking about you!”
At the outburst, everyone in the teahouse turned to look at us.
People of Hubei could tell from our clothes alone that we were from Wudang.
“The Immortal of Wudang seems quite angry.”
“What in the world could have happened?”
Embarrassed, Cheong-su pulled his bamboo hat low.
Only now had he realized that causing a commotion here would only disgrace Wudang.
Only after taking a sip of tea did Cheong-su seem to calm down enough to lower his voice.
“Hoo. Fine. I understand in broad strokes. You didn’t tell me about the abolition of the frontier supply system, and now I still have no idea what you’re planning. At the very least, you should’ve shared your thinking with me.”
“The reason I didn’t tell you about the abolition of the frontier supply system was because there was a high chance you’d react aggressively. As you just did against the Shanxi merchant.”
“And was that wrong? If the price is going to collapse soon, then of course I ought to have gone at them like that.”
“Merchants are people too. If the price is the same, they’d rather sell to a polite customer than to one who makes a nuisance of himself.”
“A nuisance…”
My choice of word seemed to sting Cheong-su a little.
For a Daoist of Wudang, being called a nuisance was probably worse than being cursed at.
I paid it no mind and continued.
“Then shouldn’t the proper order have been to tell you first, so that you wouldn’t go in aggressively?”
“No. I told you then specifically so that you would go in aggressively. If you’d known in advance, you wouldn’t have gotten that worked up. And you wouldn’t have said something about leaking Beijing’s secrets either.”
“I’m starting to understand your words less and less.”
“It’s simple. Hall Master, you behaved like the nuisance customer, and I remained the one who could be reasoned with. The more of a nuisance you are, the more reasonable I appear by contrast.”
“So you used me?”
“Yes.”
In the next instant, my head slammed into the teahouse table.
Cheong-su had grabbed the back of my head and smashed it down.
Thankfully he controlled his strength, so the table didn’t splinter.
Still, the bang drew even more eyes toward us.
But Cheong-su no longer seemed to care about that much.
“I’ve never seen such a lunatic.”
“Please call it strategic movement. Isn’t it good for you too if we buy the salt cheaply?”
“…Hoo.”
“For now, why not calm yourself with a cup of tea. My head hurts.”
At my words, Cheong-su returned to his seat and took a sip of tea.
I rubbed my forehead with a hand.
It felt swollen enough that a lump had probably formed.
“Fine. I roughly understand. The point is that the more of a nuisance I act, the more you stand out. But even that alone won’t be enough to buy the salt cheaply.”
“Of course not. It was such an obvious thing to say that I almost didn’t answer.”
“You truly possess a style of speech that invites fists, you damned brat.”
“A merchant must know how to stir other people’s emotions. It helps especially if one has a talent for provoking anger. It clouds reason.”
“I’m telling you, you’re not a merchant. You’re a disciple of Wudang.”
Cheong-su let out a sigh.
“So then, what do we do from here?”
“We just wait. Since this market lasts for five days, there is nothing for us to do until at least the fourth day.”
“And what do we do until then?”
“Walk around the market. If it wouldn’t trouble you, please buy me an ice treat.”
“…”
Blue veins quivered in Cheong-su’s clenched fist.
It was the first day of the five-day market.