Pay‑to‑Win King of Martial Arts (Novel) - Chapter 19 - Market (2)

Chapter 19 – Market (2)

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Translated by Heavenly Cat

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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“It truly is a marketplace through and through.”

“Because it is a market.”

The market never ceased ringing with quarrels and raised voices of complaint.

That was normal.

After buying two ice treats and eating them, we wandered through the market.

Cheong-su did nothing.

Talking with the merchants and examining goods was entirely my role.

“The quality is good.”

I said that while smelling the medicinal ingredients.

At once, the herb merchant rubbed his hands together and hurried along beside me.

“Of course. Every medicinal ingredient we handle has been certified by the market superintendent himself as top quality.”

“I see. It’s alright if I look around elsewhere too, yes?”

“Ah, of course. But even if you do, nothing will be better than ours.”

I came out after speaking with the merchant in a practiced way.

I went into shops in almost every trade.

More precisely, I entered exactly two shops from each trade.

The shop in the best location, and the shop in the worst location.

“Are you truly just looking around?”

Cheong-su finally said that, as though he could not hold it in any longer.

Since I kept leaving him there like a sack of barley while talking only with the merchants, it seemed his temper had risen.

“If this is all you’re doing, then I’ll head back to the inn first and rest.”

“What are you talking about? I’m showing all this to you, Immortal.”

“Showing me what?”

“The market. A market is a living creature.”

I looked at Cheong-su with solemn eyes.

“So then, did you feel anything?”

“Feel what?”

“You didn’t feel anything at all?”

I put disappointment into my tone.

Cheong-su looked ready to give me an acupoint-opening beating on the spot, so I hurriedly added more.

“The quality of the goods was almost all middle grade at the lowest, and otherwise top grade. The actual quality of the goods matched those grades.”

“Isn’t that only natural?”

“It isn’t natural. You know that even for the same product, prices are set according to whether it is graded top, middle, or low, correct?”

“Do you take me for some ignorant fool who knows nothing? Doesn’t the market superintendent inspect them and assign those grades?”

The market superintendent was the official dispatched by the authorities to manage the market.

All goods in a market had to be inspected by him and assigned one of the three quality grades before they could be sold.

“That’s right. And because of that, the entire atmosphere of a market changes sharply depending on who the market superintendent is. In some markets, you’ll see goods being sold as top grade even though they are really low grade. When that happens, it means one of two things. Either the superintendent has no eye for goods, or he is a corrupt man who takes money and adjusts the grades.”

“What are you trying to say?”

“That is why I say the market is alive. A market is not simply the same no matter where you go. Today, we saw what kind of person the market superintendent is. We never met him directly, but from the fact that he does not sell grades for money, and from the fact that he clearly can judge goods, we can tell he is fair and capable. In short, he is competent.”

“So?”

“But there was one thing that felt out of place.”

“Out of place?”

“Yes. Usually, the market superintendent gives the best spots to the merchants selling the finest goods. That is how a market maximizes profitability.”

“That sounds right.”

“But this market wasn’t like that. Merchants occupying the best spots were selling goods of middling quality, while people in poor spots were sometimes selling fine goods.”

“Then doesn’t that mean he sold the spots for money?”

“If that were the case, it should have been the other way around. The people with finer goods would have had more money, so naturally the best spots should have gone to those with the better merchandise.”

“Then he deliberately did something that harmed the market? Even going against proper order?”

“Yes. Exactly.”

At my words, Cheong-su’s face became puzzled.

It seemed the puzzle I had given him was a difficult one.

Until just now I had said the market superintendent was fair and capable, and then I said he had arranged the stalls strangely, so of course he was confused.

“I’m starting to lose the thread of what you’re saying.”

“I’ll give you a clue. The shops occupying the best locations had one thing in common. They bore the mark of the Yichang Guild Hall.”

“So the market superintendent is from Yichang, and he is favoring the people of Yichang?”

“Correct.”

“Then that can hardly be called impartial.”

“The market superintendent is still a man. Everyone lets in this much private sentiment. The other merchants probably don’t even mind much. In their own hometowns, they’d all receive that same level of convenience anyway.”

Cheong-su still looked uncertain.

What I was teaching him now were the rules and living movement of a market.

“So what is the point you are trying to make?”

“Tomorrow we’re going to see the market superintendent. With a gift. Today I observed what sort of person he was in order to choose that gift.”

“A gift? You mean a bribe?”

“If you say it like that, it sounds low. Let’s call it a small token of sincerity instead.”

“As far as I know, that’s still a bribe.”

Martial artists could be stubbornly upright in the most unnecessary ways.

But this sort of flexibility was the oil that kept society moving smoothly.

“In my view, the market superintendent is someone who can recognize value, so we need to bring a precious object of high worth. And since he is someone with strong local pride, it should be something made by a craftsman of Yichang. Naturally, we should avoid items that can be obtained easily right here in Yichang. One reason I kept wandering around was to look for a suitable gift.”

“Complicated. Something made by a craftsman of Yichang…”

“Pottery, bows, swords, and the like all bear the maker’s name. It won’t be difficult to find one.”

“What I mean is, how do you know the maker is from Yichang?”

“There is a famous smith from Yichang. He works in Beijing now, but his goods are sold here as well. If we buy one of those and present it, I think the market superintendent will like it.”

“…You truly know the commercial world well. Even I, as Hall Master of the Hall of Preserved Wholeness, thought I knew more of it than most martial artists.”

Even if he handled money and finances, a martial artist still had the limits of a martial artist.

Merchant instinct only grew by breathing with the world and meeting people.

Cheong-su, who had spent his life on Wudang Mountain, naturally could not keep up with me.

“In any case, tomorrow will be busy, so you should sleep early. I’ll go in and rest as well.”

“Hmph. A martial artist can shed his fatigue with a single round of breathing and regulation, so there is no need to sleep.”

“Even so, that can’t be as good as actual sleep, can it?”

“Silence. If I say so, then that is how it is.”

Perhaps he felt his pride wounded because I had taught him too much.

Still, there was no way a martial artist’s knowledge of the commercial world could surpass mine.

The next day, we rose early and got moving again.

The market opened at noon, but we had to check routes by the hour and share our plan.

As soon as the market opened, I went to the weapons trade and bought a sword bearing the name Yi Wi-jong.

On items like pottery, bows, and swords, the maker’s name had to be inscribed.

“But the market superintendent isn’t even a martial artist. What’s he going to do with a sword?”

“Use it as decoration. Ivory isn’t expensive because it has some practical use, after all.”

With the sword in hand, we headed straight for the center of the market.

The market office where the superintendent stayed was there.

Naturally, there were a great many people at the market office.

If trouble arose in the market, that was the only place to go.

“Can we even meet him in a situation like this?”

“What’s so good about Wudang if not this? Please take the lead, Immortal.”

Hesitantly, Cheong-su entered the market office.

The atmosphere changed the moment we stepped inside.

People of Hubei could never fail to recognize the dress of Wudang’s Daoists.

“What brings a Daoist of Wudang to the market office?”

“Aren’t these the kind of places those people hate?”

Of course they were.

Cheong-su had only come because he was Hall Master of the Hall of Preserved Wholeness and handled money.

If it had been someone like Cheong-hwa, he wouldn’t even have entered, calling it an impure place.

“Ahem, ahem.”

“May I ask what brings the Daoist of Wudang here?”

When Cheong-su gave an awkward cough, one of the market office clerks asked cautiously.

If someone was a martial artist from one of the Nine Great Sects, then naturally he was not someone you could feel at ease around.

“I’d like to see the market superintendent.”

“Ah, yes. I will inform him.”

The clerk immediately slipped inside.

Cheong-su scratched his head awkwardly.

“Is it really alright to just come like this without an appointment?”

“For me, no. But for the Hall Master of the Hall of Preserved Wholeness of Wudang, yes.”

The same clerk came hurrying back toward us.

“He says you may come in.”

Naturally, the market superintendent would want acquaintances among powerful people.

And in Hubei, there was no connection more powerful than Wudang.

Even if he had other business, he would call us in.

People from Wudang’s main sect rarely entered a market office at all.

When we followed the clerk inside, we saw a middle-aged man with a neat and orderly appearance.

I didn’t wholly trust physiognomy, but he did look like someone who handled affairs cleanly.

“I am Jeon Ok-geun, market superintendent of Yichang.”

“I am Cheong-su, Hall Master of the Hall of Preserved Wholeness of Wudang.”

“Oh my. The Hall Master of the Hall of Preserved Wholeness himself. An honored guest has come.”

At once, a servant of the market superintendent prepared tea.

After tasting it, Cheong-su looked slightly surprised.

“That’s rather fine tea.”

“It’s Lu’an Melon Seed Tea from Anhui. I can only hope it has not sullied the mouth of such an honored guest.”

As expected of an official, the superintendent’s tongue was well oiled.

“So then, what brings you here?”

“From this point on, I will speak.”

When I said that, the market superintendent looked at me with surprise.

He had probably taken me for no more than an attendant.

“As you may have heard, the Shanxi merchants are trying to stab the people of Jiangnan in the back this time.”

“…Oh? And how did you learn that? It was delivered discreetly to me.”

Of course I knew.

I was the one who had arranged for that information to reach him.

Through the merchant companies connected to the lay disciples, word had already been passed to the market superintendent.

“I have also heard roughly what is happening. That the frontier supply system is to be abolished.”

“Yes. That is correct.”

As the Shanxi merchants had said, publicly revealing a secret of Beijing could invite censure.

If so, then all one had to do was reveal it privately rather than publicly.

And through a trustworthy channel.

“I’ve already spoken to the brokers.”

Of course he had.

Brokers were intermediaries who connected local merchants with outside merchants.

Even if both spoke the language of the Central Plains, regional differences could still make speech hard to understand, and customs or units of measure could differ slightly as well, so brokers handled those adjustments.

The Shanxi merchants were outside merchants, and there was no way for them to trade without going through the brokers.

If the brokers obstructed them in the middle, then even the Shanxi merchants would be unable to sell their salt.

Cheong-su looked at me with startled eyes.

He seemed to be asking when I had prepared all of this.

Still, he had his dignity, so he could not ask on the spot here.

“Yes. We came today to ask that you keep a careful watch over the brokers. The Shanxi merchants have plenty of money, after all, so is it not possible they may try to buy them off?”

“Heh heh. To think even someone from Wudang would come to make such a request. I had no idea Wudang was so interested in matters of commerce.”

The market superintendent laughed in obvious good humor.

Naturally so.

The lofty and refined Wudang of murim was taking notice of them, and that could only feel flattering.

“But do not worry. The brokers under our office are all natives of Yichang, and all of them are people with strong love for their hometown.”

“That is reassuring. This is our token of sincerity.”

I handed over the sword made by Master Yi Wi-jong.

The market superintendent’s eyes widened.

“Oh ho, this is…”

The superintendent looked over the sword, then let out a cry of admiration.

“It is by Master Yi Wi-jong! I know him personally as well. He made his success in Beijing, so this must have been expensive, and yet such a precious thing…”

“Not at all. Since you’ll be doing dirty work on our behalf, there ought to be at least this much sincerity.”

“Ha ha. They were never going to get away with anything to begin with, but I will crack down on them all the more thoroughly now.”

The market superintendent and I both smiled like genial old friends.

Cheong-su, standing there between us, wore a blank expression.

This was how merchants spoke.

At that moment, the door suddenly flew open.

The market superintendent’s eyes narrowed sharply.

“We have honored guests here. How could you be so rude…”

“My apologies. Trouble has broken out at the Shanxi merchants’ salt trade. It’s grown quite large, so I think you’ll have to go in person.”

The superintendent, Cheong-su, and I looked at one another.

Then, as though by prior agreement, we all stood up at the same time.