Chapter 389: Long Time No See

"The south wind blows in cool, the nightingale sings soft and low, the flowers beneath the moon have all drifted into dreams, only the tuberose breathes out its fragrance…"

Green Water City, Carefree Wharf.

Songstress Jiang Mengting was performing at the Round Dance Hall.

The Round Dance Hall was no grand ballroom; Carefree Wharf's Round Dance Hall could hold no more than thirty people — it was a place for gatherings.

Today's audience numbered only two: Li Qi and Ma Wu.

Ma Wu lowered his voice and asked, "Old Seven, do you think she's pretty?"

Li Banfeng glanced at the phonograph behind Jiang Mengting and nodded. "Pretty."

"Honestly now — haven't you noticed something different about her?"

Li Banfeng knew Jiang Mengting fairly well. From the day Carefree Wharf reopened, Jiang Mengting had left Hundred Happiness Hall and thrown in her lot with Ma Wu once more.

"She's very loyal to you."

Ma Wu nodded. "She is loyal to me, sure enough, but the two of us aren't what you're thinking."

Li Banfeng was startled. "Could it be that you're blood siblings?"

Ma Wu shook his head again and again, and once the song ended, he first sent Jiang Mengting out of the Round Dance Hall.

Only the two of them remained in the room. Ma Wu said to Li Banfeng, "Jiang Mengting is different from Xiao Xiufei and the others. A lot of Xiao Xiufei's achievements were fought for out of the marriage bed. Jiang Mengting's achievements today were entirely built up by me. If I told you she hasn't let a man sleep with her yet, would you believe it?"

That was hard to credit.

After a year and a half in Like Puluozhou, Li Banfeng knew very well what caliber the songstresses and film queens were made of — what made Jiang Mengting so special?

Ma Wu said, "Because I placed a heavy stake on her. I signed a contract with her — no matter how hard things got, without my word, she could not sell her own body.

She's not like the other songstresses. Plenty of rich men have her on their minds, thinking of her, yearning for her, yet they can't touch her. Even though she had a famous-singer private room at Hundred Happiness Hall, still no one could touch her.

Only this way could her own value skyrocket. Mention songstresses, and Jiang Mengting is always ranked first. With the standing she has today, I can earn even more money."

Li Banfeng laughed. "You really are a sharp businessman."

Ma Wu shook his head. "This isn't just about business — it takes her own ability too. Every year under my hand I can cultivate five or six red-hot names; three or five years on, there are twenty or thirty of them.

But one like her, who won't let anyone touch her — in three or five years there can only be this one. Only this way does she seem precious, like the single rose among a hundred flowers; only then does that rose have any value.

She can bear the weight of that value — looks, bearing, heart, she can bear it all.

She's a good woman. I want to find her a good home. Old Seven, would you take her in?

I know you can't marry a song girl as your wife, but even taking her as a concubine would do, even giving her no title at all — just keeping her by your side is enough."

Li Banfeng frowned. "Why do I have to take her in? Why don't you take her yourself?"

Ma Wu shook his head. "I can't take her. I could never treat a woman sincerely — between her and me there's only business.

Now our business is about to fold, and I won't be able to look after her any longer, so I want to find her a home.

In the future, when we brothers live a life of ease together, seeing her by your side, I'll feel a little less guilty toward her."

Li Banfeng frowned. "How can our business be folding? Just over that little matter with the Pass Commissioner?"

Ma Wu sighed. "Before, they wanted to take over the book-and-newspaper business at Black Stone Slope, and I refused — you certainly wouldn't have let me agree either.

Now the Pass Commissioner has raised freight charges by half. All our business outside Green Water Bay has had its freight raised by half. At this rate, every bit of our outside business is done for."

Li Banfeng took a sip of wine. "Half on freight — is it really that Yu Yaoming?"

Ma Wu took a fountain pen from his shirt pocket and said to Li Banfeng, "This is a fountain pen made at Black Stone Slope. Cost price six, sells for twelve at Black Stone Slope.

Medicine King Gully has no factory that can make fountain pens, so one pen sells for twenty-eight. You can't blame merchants for being greedy, because the freight on one pen is fifteen.

Shipping one pen from Black Stone Slope to Medicine King Gully costs twenty-one. The merchant still has to make a profit — add seven for profit, and it becomes twenty-eight."

Li Banfeng had never really looked into this. He knew freight in Like Puluozhou was expensive, but he hadn't expected it to be outrageously so.

"How heavy is this fountain pen? How could the freight possibly be fifteen? If it were grain being shipped, how high would the freight be per jin?"

Ma Wu gave a long sigh. "Old Seven, you truly don't know the hardships inside a business. The Pass Commissioner sets freight not by weight but by price — by the market price of goods in each place. He's openly and plainly taking our money.

Now he's raised our freight by half. The freight on this pen has already reached twenty-two and a half. Add the cost of six, and shipping this pen to Medicine King Gully has a cost that already exceeds the market price of twenty-eight. How on earth can our business go on?"

The outside business truly could not go on.

Simply cut the outside business loose and devote themselves wholeheartedly to the trade in Green Water City?

How many storms of blood and wind had Li Qi and Ma Wu been through to build the fortune they had today?

They counted as figures in Like Puluozhou, figures who could hold their heads up. If they cut loose all their outside business, they'd become ordinary merchants inside Green Water City, and all their past efforts would flow away like water.

It was a thorny problem, and Ma Wu could think of no solution. "I want to try to ease things with the Pass Commissioner, but their attitude is very hard-line. It surely isn't just over the book-and-newspaper business.

This is connected to what happened with the He family before. He Yuxiu offended the Pass Commissioner, and we backed He Yuxiu to the hilt. That score, the Pass Commissioner has tallied against us too."

Li Banfeng lit a cigarette and asked, "How is the He family's situation?"

"The Pass Commissioner has already doubled the He family's freight. The He family's business is finished — completely finished. How many of their outside factories have already gone under, no one knows.

If it weren't for He Yuxiu still having some prestige, the He family would be on the verge of falling apart. He Yuxiu's whereabouts are unknown now. If one day she falls into the Pass Commissioner's hands, there will be no He family among Like Puluozhou's great houses from then on."

"Can we do business outside under the Lu family's name?" On this point, Li Banfeng believed Lu Chunying would cooperate.

In fact, Ma Wu had already done so, but he didn't know how long it could hold. "The Pass Commissioner wants to take over Hundred Happiness Hall, and Lu Chunying refused. If this standoff drags on, the Lu family's freight is bound to go up too."

"In other words, the Lu family can't even save themselves."

Ma Wu nodded. "Now among the four great families, the only one riding high is the Chu family. The Pass Commissioner cut their freight by three tenths. Next they'll push their prices down and squeeze all our business out. The top great house in Like Puluozhou is going to become the Chu family."

Li Banfeng bit down on a cigarette, silently tracing the threads of the whole situation.

Seeing Li Banfeng say nothing, Ma Wu put forward a less-than-ideal idea: "Old Seven, let's go talk it over with Lu Chunying and sell Hundred Happiness Hall to the Pass Commissioner.

First ease the relationship between the Lu family and the Pass Commissioner, and then ours with the Pass Commissioner can ease too. We do a few rounds of smoothing things over, and maybe this storm can pass."

"Ease? Ease until when?" Li Banfeng shook his head. "Today we hand over Hundred Happiness Hall and we agree. Tomorrow he wants Carefree Wharf — do we keep handing things over?"

Ma Wu knew this was no lasting plan either. "But what better way is there?"

Li Banfeng asked first: "If we split the business up, divide it among a dozen or so different people, and let them run it separately, the Pass Commissioner won't be able to target us — that's the idea, right?"

Ma Wu nodded. "The idea is right, but where would we find so many reliable people? This isn't something that can be done in a day."

Someone has already managed it.

Besides Li Banfeng, no one has targeted that person's business, and he really pulled it off.

"Old Five, go find Shen Rongqing, invite her out, and chat with her about some business matters."

Ma Five waved his hand and said: "Old Seven, don't think I can get everything done from under the covers. Miss Shen doesn't even want to see me now."

Li Banfeng said: "Tell her that I want to see her, I want to catch up with her."

Ma Five was taken aback: "You know Shen Rongqing?"

"I don't."

Ma Five was stunned: "If you don't know her, how can you catch up?"

Li Banfeng said: "Just tell her that, she'll understand."

……

At the Ling Family Shadow Play Company, Shen Rongqing didn't understand: "You're saying Li Qi wants to catch up with me? I don't even know him."

Ma Five laughed: "Those were his exact words, I just delivered the message."

Shen Rongqing found the whole thing baffling. After Ma Five left, she told He Jiaqing about it.

……

He Jiaqing had just come out of the market and was walking down an alley. Seeing no one around, he balanced the tray of an electronic scale on his head.

After a bout of trembling, He Jiaqing felt refreshed. Just as he was about to return the tray, he felt the button on his chest vibrate.

"Jiaqing, Ma Five came to find me today and said Li Qi wants to catch up with me. I don't even know Li Qi. Should I meet him or not?"

He Jiaqing was silent for a moment, then said: "Meet him."

"What do I say when I meet him?"

"Just say, long time no see."

"Long time no see? I've never even met him…" Shen Rongqing was completely at a loss.

She couldn't make heads or tails of what those two meant.

Just as He Jiaqing was about to explain, a burly woman selling fish burst into the alley and shouted: "What are you doing with my scale tray? Are you so broke you have to steal this too, you bastard!"

……

At the Quanjian Teahouse, in a private room, Shen Rongqing looked at Li Qi across from her, took a deep breath, and said: "Long time no see."

The words were awkward, but they were He Jiaqing's instructions. Shen Rongqing had no idea how Li Qi would react.

Li Qi's reaction was perfectly natural: "Yeah, long time no see. How have you been lately?"

Shen Rongqing had no idea what was going on, nor what Li Qi's words meant, so she could only reply: "Pretty good."

Li Qi continued: "I've got a bit of trouble on my hands, I need your help with something."

……

He Jiaqing walked out of a foot massage parlor, carrying a foot-washing bucket in his hand.

Placing the foot-washing bucket over his head, He Jiaqing gripped the button: "Sister, you've met with him?"

"I have. Guan Fang used shipping fees to choke off their business. He wants to borrow our channels to get their business running again."

He Jiaqing thought for a moment and said: "That works too. Let them sell their goods at the source, and we flip them on the side. We won't lose out, and we can even pocket the price difference."

Shen Rongqing was stunned: "Jiaqing, are you going to agree to this?

This is too absurd. I don't know how he found out about our affairs, but if we do this, it's the same as showing the Xiongdi Alliance's trump card."

"He already knew some of those trump cards long ago," He Jiaqing laughed inside the foot-washing bucket. "Help him with this. Invite him out again, and tell him I hope he's doing well, but the He family's situation isn't great right now. I hope the He family does well too."

PS: "Doing well" was a phrase Li Banfeng and He Jiaqing said when they parted, and it was also the last thing they ever said to each other face to face.

(End of chapter)