Chapter 19: He Mai

Pang Yu's stand-taking had shaken heaven and earth — at least for these two days, Wang Dazhuang wouldn't dare strike a deadly blow, and he'd even landed an assignment. His heart soared with delight, and last night's exhaustion was swept clean away.

But as for how exactly to handle this He Mai assignment, he still had no real idea; he'd only picked up a bit from Gu Xiaowu's idle chatter last night, knowing there was some grease to be skimmed.

Right now Jiao Guozha was at home nursing his wounds. Inside the yamen, only He Xianya was a familiar face, so he planned to go find him at the Eight-Character Wall — only to discover He Xianya right across the Corridor. He had clearly also heard Pang Yu's speech just now; beyond his shock, He Xianya had also realized that Pang Yu's mind had indeed sharpened considerably, and the look in his eyes when he regarded Pang Yu was utterly different from before.

Pang Yu eagerly pulled He Xianya aside, and after a moment of earnest study, got clear on what "He Mai" meant — why buying things wasn't just called buying, but had to be given its own name: because when the yamen bought things, it didn't take the ordinary path, so buying had to be called "He Mai."

He Mai originally meant fair trade, but the Ming dynasty's taxation was peculiar. Zhu Yuanzhang ranked merchants last among scholars, farmers, artisans, and merchants — their status supposedly the lowest — yet only collected very light taxes from them. For example, for the market stalls in towns, the Men Tan Tax among the miscellaneous items submitted to the court was a fixed quota; for the entire Tongcheng County, it was a pitiful forty taels a year, practically the same as collecting nothing at all.

Local yamens dealt closely with the common people and knew exactly how much merchants earned. Locally, they couldn't rigidly enforce such a low Men Tan Tax, yet they had no court statute to rely on. Collect they must, so how to collect was something the yamen just had to decide off the top of its head. Apart from the cash silver collected, whenever the county yamen needed to procure something, they would often pay less, treating it as a disguised shop tax — this was called He Mai.

So when any office made purchases, getting half the silver was basically considered good, and even that half was not easy for the shopkeepers to obtain.

He Xianya normally followed Jiao Guozha around and had handled plenty of assignments already; he lacked Pang Yu's sense of novelty. Seeing Pang Yu so delighted, he couldn't help laughing: "Second Brother, and you say you ran a big business — just going out on a He Mai run, and you turn into this."

Pang Yu laughed heartily. "Without accumulating small steps, how can one reach a thousand li?"

He Xianya bowed slightly. "Then in a few days, spend some silver to buy a License Ticket from the Household Office and go to the countryside for Tax Grain Comparison — that earns far more than He Mai."

"How can the countryside compare to the city?"

He Xianya lowered his voice. "Second Brother, there's something you don't know. The countryside truly can't compare to the city, but we're just runners. In the city, the better shops are untouchable — did you think everyone's a lodger like Zhou Yongtian? Run into a gentry or Country Squire and you could lose your life to them. Country folk are honest, don't understand a thing — we can handle them however we like."

Having landed the assignment, Pang Yu wasn't inclined to think too far ahead for the moment. He just urged He Xianya to head out and get to work. As they were leaving, he noticed Zhou Yueru had come on her own and was already waiting at the Eight-Character Wall.

Pang Yu spotted Gu Xiaowu poking his head in and out at the main gate, and recalled that this fellow at least counted as part of the united front, and had looked after Pang Yu quite a bit last night. So he called Gu Xiaowu to come along too. Gu Xiaowu, knowing there was profit to be had, was about to follow in high spirits.

Then a roar came from inside the gate: "Gu Xiaowu, where do you think you're going? Go sweep the fallen leaves behind the building clean — leave a single one and you get ten strokes for each. Once you're done, get your ass to North Gorge Pass."

It was Wang Dazhuang's voice. Gu Xiaowu's face darkened; he lowered his head and went back in sullen silence.

"Brother Gu, can't help you." Pang Yu shrugged and set off on his first official errand.

…

Wearing the runner's Blue Battle Robe and striding down the street with a female secretary in tow, watching the people around him scramble to get out of the way — the smugness in Pang Yu's heart was hard to put into words. In his previous life he'd had money, but in his heart he'd sometimes envied officials. Now, minor as this runner post was, it still represented the authority of the government.

Two days ago when they'd dealt with Shopkeeper Zhou, He Xianya had been utterly ferocious. Now, handling an assignment together with Zhou Yueru, he showed not the slightest trace of discomfort, as if this was only right and proper.

He Xianya was the elite among the Auxiliaries. The moment He Mai for brushes and ink was mentioned, he immediately picked up: "Tongcheng has six brush, ink, and paper shops in total, large and small. But three are run by gentry households — the Ye Family, the Liu Family, the Fang Family — those three can't be touched. That leaves He's Paper Shop and Rishengji Brush and Ink Shop on South Street, plus Zhou's Shop on East Street…"

Pang Yu coughed. He Xianya lifted his eyes to look at Zhou Yueru, saw her face clouded with gloom, and immediately changed tack: "But what's our relationship with the Zhou Family? We went from blows to friendship — we're all one family now. We'll just go to South Street."

Pang Yu gave an "Ai" and said, "Now that's right. Miss Zhou is working as my Auxiliary — we're a community of shared interests. Not only must we not disturb Shopkeeper Zhou, but Zhou Yueru also gets a cut from this He Mai deal."

Zhou Yueru poked her head forward. "I really get a share of the silver?"

Pang Yu turned to look at her and jumped in alarm. "Careful, careful — your drool's about to come out. A young woman should have some reserve, mind your image. Drooling over a bit of silver — are you really that destitute?"

Zhou Yueru rolled her eyes at him. "And whose fault is that? We don't even have overnight rice left."

Pang Yu said without a shred of sympathy, "Then you'll go haggle later. The harder you haggle, the bigger your cut. Haggle too little, and you won't have money for rice."

Zhou Yueru kept biting her lip after hearing that, lost in who knows what thoughts.

As they talked, the three headed straight for He's Paper Shop and Rishengji Brush and Ink Shop on South Street. When they were nearly at He's Paper Shop, He Xianya told the other two to speed up.

Sure enough, the moment the shop assistant at He's Paper Shop saw their direction and sensed the runners were heading for his shop, he hurriedly went to grab the door planks to seal the entrance. Pang Yu wasn't about to let him escape so easily, but just as he was about to accelerate, a figure flashed past him — it was actually Zhou Yueru.

Zhou Yueru was like a maddened tigress, slamming straight into the door plank. With a miserable cry, the shop assistant was pinned under the plank and crashed to the ground; then Zhou Yueru fell onto the plank as well, crushing him until he begged for mercy again and again.

Zhou Yueru rolled once on the door plank, scrambled up, and with hair disheveled charged straight behind the counter and grabbed the Shopkeeper. "Shopkeeper, yamen buying… He Mai."

The Shopkeeper was badly frightened by this woman and had never seen a Female Aide before; this scene rather exceeded his imagination. He gaped, not knowing what to say.

Pang Yu and the other man only caught up at this point, witnessing exactly this spectacle. He Xianya panted and said quietly, "I tell you, Second Brother, having this woman as an Auxiliary is a waste of her talents. If you gave her ten taels of silver today, she might just kill this shop assistant."

Pang Yu agreed. "Don't be fooled by her crying and sniffling inside the yamen — if not for the yamen's authority, probably few could handle this woman. You didn't see the day she tried to hit me with a club."

The two entered the shop, produced the License Ticket, and said to the still-shaken Shopkeeper: "Five swords of Petition Paper, one catty and five taels of Zhong Mo!"

The Shopkeeper, looking utterly miserable, caught his breath. "Gentlemen, please wait a moment."

The Punishment Office had ordered seven swords of Petition Paper, the Yin-Yang Office three swords — ten swords in total. Petition Paper was rather expensive, market price three taels and five Mace. Zhong Mo, three catties, market price one tael and three Mace. Of course they didn't buy everything at one shop, but split it half and half. Once the yamen ticket was produced, He's Paper Shop had no choice but to obediently prepare the goods.

Once the goods were ready, He Xianya went up to inspect them carefully. Before He Xianya could even open his mouth, Zhou Yueru stepped up and picked out a heap of flaws. She picked up this He Mai business after a single lesson, relentlessly haggling down the price over rough edges and insect holes. The Shopkeeper had originally tried to slip in substandard goods, but Zhou Yueru saw through it — her own family ran a paper shop, she had paper, brushes, and ink at home, and she laid out every grade and quality with perfect clarity.

They then went to the other shop and applied the same method. In the final tally, at market price it should have been four taels and eight Mace, but the Punishment Office only gave two taels and four Mace of silver. Wang Dazhuang skimmed four Mace off the top as it passed through his hands, leaving just two taels.

Pang Yu and his group had to earn something too. In short, everything had to be settled at the lowest-grade price. He Xianya and Zhou Yueru directly haggled it down to one tael. The two shops naturally took a loss, and on top of that the shopkeepers had to give each of the three a five-fen silver "token of respect" — otherwise these runners wouldn't be satisfied and would directly label the goods as "Bu Zhong Cheng" quality, costing them even more silver, with no end of future troubles besides.

Pang Yu quit while he was ahead and didn't bully them excessively. As He Xianya put it, the city was nothing like the countryside — never mind the bad impression from so many watchful eyes, but the merchants' slickness and worldly experience were beyond anything country folk could match. If things went too far and some incident blew up, the runners would be the first to take the blame. So over the years, runners and merchants had always found a middle equilibrium.

It was Pang Yu's first time out on assignment. Although the three of them had only skimmed a little over one tael of silver in total, the job was done, and experience and lessons were accumulated. In view of Zhou Yueru's outstanding performance, Pang Yu gave her three Mace of silver on the spot. The woman's face glowed red; she carefully stowed it away in her coin pouch.

By the time they returned to the yamen, that morning's eloquent speech by Fool Pang flattering the County Vice-Magistrate had already spread through every office and squad as explosive news. Quite a few people took the initiative to greet Pang Yu, their eyes carrying a comradely warmth.

When delivering the paper and ink to the Punishment Office and the Yin-Yang Office, there were only three people in the Punishment Office. More than half its staff had been beaten yesterday, so there weren't many left to begin with. The Punishment Office had suffered heavy losses the day before, and the Clerk was utterly deserted by his followers. The atmosphere in the room was oppressive; two scribes lifted their heads to glance at Pang Yu, then buried them again, neither greeting him nor coming to hand over the goods. The Clerk had to rise and come over himself, even treading carefully when facing Pang Yu.

After delivering the Punishment Office's items, there were still three swords of Petition Paper to deliver to the Yin-Yang Official. The Yin-Yang Office's workroom was on the east side of the Main Hall, next to the Chief Clerk's office compound, with only three bays in total. Usually, only the Yin-Yang Official and a page boy were in the Duty Room; the dozen or so Yin-Yang Students under him were in the other two rooms.

Just as he reached the door, he saw a middle-aged man in a blue straight robe, with a handsome beard reaching his chest and a refined, scholarly air. Smiling, he greeted Pang Yu: "So it's the Runner Squad's Pang Xiaoyou."

Pang Yu hadn't expected him to be so courteous. The county's Yin-Yang Official, Medical Officer, and Instructor were all considered Miscellaneous Officials, but they mainly held technical posts and normally had little connection to the yamen — roughly belonging to a professional technical sequence, a specialist-staff establishment.

Because these few Miscellaneous Officials were relatively independent, the chief administrative officer generally didn't interfere much with them. But they were officials after all, and in front of the underlings in the yamen they still put on official airs. So Pang Yu understood: this smiling face from the Yin-Yang Official wasn't to curry favor with him, but merely out of interest in his performance today.

"Greetings, my lord."

The Yin-Yang Official beckoned to Pang Yu, motioning him to come over and sit. Pang Yu went over, first setting down the items, and only when he sat did he notice there was another person in the room. Looking closely, it was actually the County Vice-Magistrate's Advisor.

Just as Gu Xiaowu had said, this Advisor had stood behind and to the side of the County Vice-Magistrate throughout the Morning Session. Pang Yu had noticed that several times before making a decision, the County Vice-Magistrate had consulted with this man — clearly he was the County Vice-Magistrate's trusted confidant.

Pang Yu's backside had barely touched the chair when he saw this man and sprang up as if jolted by lightning. "This humble one, Pang Yu, greets you, sir."

Advisor Yu waved his hand. "No need for excessive courtesy. I, Yu, am neither official nor clerk — here with Lord Tan, I am also a guest. Let's all dispense with formalities."

The Yin-Yang Official was this Lord Tan. Smiling, he said to Pang Yu, "Brother Yu and I are both fond of the teachings of Zhuang Lao; when we have leisure, we sit together and explore them."

Advisor Yu laughed. "What Lord Tan excels in is far more than the teachings of Zhuang Lao. I, Yu, am here to seek instruction, not to explore."

"Brother Yu jests. What I have studied are merely miscellaneous arts — no matter how much one learns, it is of no use, and can never compare to the County Vice-Magistrate's proper path of the imperial examinations."

Having said this, the Yin-Yang Official turned back to Pang Yu. "I have seen Pang Xiaoyou a few times before. I, Tan, will speak frankly: at that time, Pang Xiaoyou's eyes were dull and his speech halting. But seeing you again today, Pang Xiaoyou's gaze is clear and his eyes are quick. That speech this morning — I, Tan, happened to be present and listened in as well — its reasoning was extremely lucid."

Seeing the Advisor at his side, Pang Yu seized the chance to keep taking his stand. "This humble one spoke out of righteous indignation. Because it was all the truth, my mind momentarily grew nimble, so naturally I spoke smoothly. Where I was rash, I hope you two gentlemen will not laugh at me."

The Yin-Yang Official shook his head, smiling. "Pang Xiaoyou's transformation is enough to make one marvel at the wondrous workings of heaven and earth in shaping living things."

Advisor Yu cut in at this point: "Regarding Pang Xiaoyou's matter, I too have heard of it. They say Pang Xiaoyou suffered an injury to the crown of his head some days ago, and I fear that has a bearing on it. The head is the chief of the six yang, the place where yang qi gathers. Pang Xiaoyou was previously heavy in yin and deficient in yang; when yang qi cannot travel to the head, the spirit in the eyes fails to focus. Then he encountered a karmic opportunity, and the yang qi of his whole body flowed through unimpeded. Naturally his eyes became as clear as new — hence the Pang Xiaoyou we see today."

The Yin-Yang Official said, "With such a wondrous encounter, it is not certain that Pang Xiaodi will not enjoy great fu bao in days to come."

Pang Yu listened in utter bewilderment, yet somehow it seemed to make a kind of sense. After thinking it over, he forced himself to continue: "It is indeed as you two gentlemen say — the yang qi gathered at my head and opened my aperture. That was a wondrous encounter, no mistake. But this humble one is now also filled with trepidation. The ancients said, 'Every benefit raised must breed a drawback.' All things have two sides. This humble one feels the same is true of people. One must especially not grow dizzy with success. Sometimes you've just gained an advantage, and before you can even enjoy it, calamity suddenly strikes — wouldn't you say that's infuriating? So this humble one dares not yet think of great fu bao; rather, I must cautiously deal with the ways of the world that follow such a wondrous encounter."

Pang Yu was naturally speaking of his previous life. When Sir Tan and Advisor Yu heard this, they both revealed looks of astonishment. The Yin-Yang Official said, "'Every benefit raised must breed a drawback' — Pang Xiaodi says the ancients spoke it. May I ask in which book you came across it?"

Pang Yu had been speaking entirely from his own experiences and thoughts. Hearing this, he said in alarm, "Was it not spoken by the ancients?"

Both men shook their heads at the same time. Advisor Yu said, "I have never heard nor seen it. This saying is concise yet comprehensive, a supreme principle of the world that also subtly accords with the doctrine of yin and yang. If such a saying existed, others might not know it, but we who are fond of Zhuang Lao would surely have been aware of it."

In truth, this was written by Ruan Kuisheng of the Qing Dynasty in Cha Yu Ke Hua — naturally Sir Tan and the other man had never heard it. Pang Yu did not know its source either, but he immediately guessed the general situation. His eyes swiveled and he said, "I fear you two gentlemen will laugh at me, but this humble one never reads books. Yet some principles seem as if they were simply born inside my brain. Just now, it slipped out of my mouth unbidden."

Clerk Tan the Yin-Yang Official sighed and said, "That would mean Pang Xiaoyou possesses some extraordinary talent. If he could study some of the learning of Zhuang Lao, his achievements would far surpass this old man's."

Pang Yu had no interest in any learning of Zhuang Lao, but he understood clearly that these two were both figures of some standing in the yamen. At these words, he slid down and knelt on the ground with a thump. "This humble one wishes to take Sir Tan and Mister Yu as his teachers, and will treat you two gentlemen with the rites due a master all his life."

Clerk Tan the Yin-Yang Official laughed heartily. "Pang Xiaoyou seizes the opportunity as a snake follows the staff — a man of true temperament. However, this official already has more than ten yin-yang students under him and truly lacks the strength to teach another. Brother Yu, why don't you take this disciple?"

Pang Yu knew that Sir Tan was helping him. Although Mister Yu held no official post, he was the County Vice-Magistrate's advisor, and his actual authority within the county yamen far exceeded that of the Yin-Yang Official. Seeing that Mister Yu had not replied, Pang Yu already knocked his head to the ground. "Pang Yu pays respects to his honored teacher."

Mister Yu was merely a down-and-out Xiucai. In the late Ming, because of an over-accumulation of Government Student, the path of the imperial examinations was truly like a thousand troops and ten thousand horses crossing a single-log bridge. Many Xiucai who felt the examinations held no hope for them took posts as clerks, or became litigation tricksters, and those with special skills became advisors — for instance, those versed in criminal law, or rations and pay, and so on — that is, the private secretaries of the later Qing Dynasty. The advisor relies on the official's authority; the official relies on the advisor's skill and wisdom. The advisor is like the official's personal secretary, a figure of considerable influence within the yamen.

In his three years here in Tongcheng, quite a few people had sought to use the advisor path to climb up to the County Vice-Magistrate, but this was the first time anyone had brazenly asked to take him as a master. For a man who had once cherished the ideal of the imperial examinations, being a teacher was a kind of honor — but it was not enough to move Advisor Yu.

Mister Yu immediately refused: "I myself failed the examinations. I can teach Pang Xiaodi nothing of substance, and I fear I would only hold him back. This matter is always somewhat awkward — let us speak of it no more. His Honor still has some mundane affairs waiting; I take my leave first."

With that, he cupped his hands toward the Yin-Yang Official, rose, and walked out the door, giving Pang Yu not the slightest chance to persist with his entreaties, leaving Pang Yu still kneeling awkwardly on the ground.

The Yin-Yang Official laughed twice, reached out and helped Pang Yu to his feet. "Pang Xiaodi need not take it to heart. Mister Yu's temperament is simply like that. In these three years in Tongcheng, he has rarely associated with others. It is both the proper conduct of an advisor and also out of fear of the lioness's roar from River East at home. Whatever his wife has not permitted, he dares not agree to a single thing. However, Mister Yu truly possesses talent and learning. When it comes to the practical affairs of the public gate in the Tongcheng County Yamen, it can be said that none surpass him. Since it did not succeed this time, Pang Xiaodi can wait for another karmic opportunity in the future. As the saying goes, 'Utmost sincerity can pierce metal and stone.'"

When he spoke the words "metal and stone," the Yin-Yang Official deliberately stressed his tone, narrowing his eyes at Pang Yu.