Chapter 306: Business

After coming out, Pangzi cautiously warned me that today's matter, no matter what, must not be told to his father—that is, QingSongShu—and furthermore, I must not mention the name Qi Ye in front of his father.

Listening to Pangzi's tone, it seemed there was some shameful secret among them, and moreover, just now I heard Qi Ye call QingSongShu 'rotten bark', which made me realize their relationship… it's not just ordinary.

The more this was the case, the more I wanted to gossip, I kept pestering Pangzi to spill the beans on these two old-timers' past, what kind of affair they had. In the end, Pangzi got annoyed by my nagging and finally told me something.

"Qi Ye is my father's senior fellow disciple."

Although this news was surprising, it wasn't exactly explosive, and of course it didn't satisfy my curiosity, so I kept pestering Pangzi for answers: "Shouldn't the relationship between fellow disciples be good? Why do I see them as being unable to coexist under the same sky?"

"Hey, are you annoyed or not" Pangzi flicked his hand, hitting my shoulder.

In an instant, my face scrunched up like a bitter melon. It wasn't that Pangzi's strength was too great, but his hand happened to land on my displaced collarbone.

Someone said, when a person suffers an injury to a certain degree, at first they don't feel pain, only feeling it afterward. For example, a person in a car crash might be hit by a car yet still be able to stand up and walk a few steps, as if nothing happened. But afterward they might have a brain concussion, surgery not being surprising.

This is because when injured, consciousness and body experience a brief separation.

For example, me right now: initially I was overly excited and felt no pain. After coming out, my shoulder gradually felt sore. Especially after Pangzi slapped me hard, the pain surged up like a torrent, I slumped to the ground, my left hand completely immobile.

"Hey hey, are you okay? Don't scare me." Pangzi squatted down, nervously looking at me.

I told him my shoulder hurt, my collarbone was displaced.

Pangzi, without a word, rolled up his sleeves: "Come, let me massage you."

"Can you do it?"

"Sure, absolutely sure, twenty years of professional bone-setting, specializing in all kinds of… no, specializing in men's bone-setting and women's waist sprains. You have to believe me, your brother."

This time, I again chose to trust Pangzi, letting him give me a massage.

But, in no time, I immediately regretted it; my trust was met only with Pangzi's ruthless kneading.

"Damn, you fat bastard, let go of me, be gentle, be gentle, don't use so much force, it's killing me" my anguished wail echoed from the alley.

Pangzi grabbed my left hand, sweat pouring down his forehead: "Hang in there, you'll soon feel very comfortable."

No matter what I said, he wouldn't let go, but his technique was truly terrible, the pain was unbearable. So we started tugging at each other in the alley; in the end, I pulled him and he fell flat on top of me.

"Damn, I already said it, I'll twist harder and you'll soon feel comfortable." Pangzi straddled me, gripping my arm tightly.

Just then, an old lady leading a few-year-old little boy walked past the alley, covering her nose, unable to bear looking at us.

"I'm annoyed, in broad daylight two grown men are fooling around here and shouting so loudly, it's truly sinful." After saying that, the old lady covered the child's eyes with both hands and earnestly advised: "Xiao Bao, don't look; looking too much will give you pinkeye."

The old lady's words made my blood rush upward; if I had a basin, I would definitely vomit three liters of blood for her to see, no joke.

What's worse, I frantically struggled to shake off Pangzi, and somehow ended up grabbing the little boy's hand. The old lady was so frightened she almost knelt down.

"You two heroes, I beg you, if you're going to do something, do it yourselves; don't take a liking to my son, he's still young and doesn't understand. My whole family only has this one son; I and his father hope he will carry on the incense, I beg you."

Me: "..." Pangzi: "..." The two exchanged a glance, and in perfect unison performed a 90-degree jump, landing neatly in front of the old lady.

Pangzi gave a silly smile: "Well, old lady, you've misunderstood us."

The old lady seized the moment, grabbed the child, gave me and Pangzi an "I understand" look, and fled with the child. Leaving us behind, wanting to cry but unable to shed tears.

Old lady, how should I explain this to you? Actually I'm not into guys; I really only like women.

After the old lady walked away for a while, Pangzi gave me a resentful glance: "It's all your fault, you shouted so loudly."

Me: "..." Damn, is it me being loud or you being unreliable?

……………………

All the way, carrying resentment and gloom, Pangzi and I brought the herbal medicine back to Chan Yi Hall.

Although Li Xun lay on the stretcher, moaning as if near death, but it's estimated he won't kick the bucket just yet.

Pangzi and I brewed a dose of herbal medicine and gave it to him. At first, I was curious how this herbal medicine would release gas, but shortly after I fully understood.

Li Xun drank it for less than half an hour. Then, in Chan Yi Hall, he suddenly started farting loudly, making the hall devoid of any Zen, smelling like a cesspool.

Merely being able to fart means his meridians are clear; he's out of danger, and all that's left is to properly recuperate his body.

Although Li Xun had been punished by Qi Ye, Pangzi and I feared that once his wound healed he'd forget the pain and continue cheating people outside Chan Yi Hall, so we added embellishments and spun a lie.

Pangzi drew three talismans for him and lied, saying: "If you want your illness to be completely cured, you must do as I say."

After Li Xun took the herbal medicine, his condition had improved greatly; at this point he naturally believed Pangzi's words without doubt.

"Master Wang, you said, I will definitely follow your instructions!"

Pangzi instructed Li Xun: "Take these three talismans home, burn one each three days to drink, every evening at six you must face east and kowtow ninety-nine times, sincerely repenting. Moreover, starting now, return to the places you previously scammed people, find those you deceived, and return all the money you cheated from them; once the money is returned, your illness will naturally heal."

Actually, Li Xun's illness would heal just from taking the herbal medicine, but to steer him onto the right path, Pangzi drew three harmless disease-warding talismans for him, half-bluff half-truth to scare him into returning the money to those he'd swindled. Although it's a lie, it's well-intentioned. Moreover, doing so is only natural: everyone must take responsibility for their mistakes, and ill-gotten gains must be returned in full.

Li Xun left with the talismans and medicine; before departing, he earnestly promised us that he would definitely follow our instructions upon returning, without the slightest hesitation.

After Li Xun left, Pangzi and I then greeted the other person in the room, Yuan Qiu.

Pangzi plopped down beside Yuan Qiu, put his arm around her shoulder, and asked: "Well, Yuan Qiu, what brings you to see us this time? It's not just to catch up, is it?"

Yuan Qiu was nearly winded by Pangzi's hard slap, then took a deep breath, looked at me and Pangzi, and said sincerely: "I want to collaborate with Hai Sheng and Brother Weiqiang."

Pangzi and I glanced at him suspiciously and in unison asked: "Collaborate on what? We're not into business."

Yuan Qiu shook his head and said: "No, actually if you're willing, there's plenty of business we can collaborate on; without you, I couldn't pull this off alone."

"Well then, what kind of business? We won't do anything murderous, arson, or against our conscience." Pangzi also grew a bit curious about Yuan Qiu's words, and beforehand made clear his principles.

At this point, Yuan Qiu kept us in suspense, counter-questioning: "If I'm not mistaken, Hai Sheng and you, Brother Weiqiang, are Daoists, right?"

I rolled my eyes; this isn't nonsense, is it? We're not Daoists—who helped you last time with your niece's fetal spirit?

Yuan Qiu pointed at himself and then said: "Do you know what my family does for a living?"

Pangzi and I blinked in confusion and shook our heads.

Yuan Qiu said: "My family is in the pawnbroker and auction business; we deal in antiques, real estate, cars, you name it. From high society to lowly thugs, we've dealt with them all……"

"Speak plainly, get to the point" I waved my hand, cutting off his nonsense.

"I want to collaborate with you; if I later discover any ghostly or supernatural matters that require a Daoist to resolve, I'll refer them to you! But I want to take a ten percent cut as a 'water' fee, the rest goes to you—how about that!" Yuan Qiu held up two fingers, looking at us full of hope. His eyes brimmed with sincerity and anticipation. He finally gritted his teeth sincerely and said: "Hai Sheng, Brother Weiqiang, I genuinely want to collaborate with you."

Before I could speak, Pangzi slapped Yuan Qiu's shoulder and said: "Done."

Me: "..." Pangzi, couldn't you be more straightforward?

Although Yuan Qiu's advice sounded good, according to my personality I still think we should consider it more carefully.

I pulled Pangzi aside and rebuked him: "Pangzi, don't you need to think it over? You agreed so readily?"

Pangzi clasped his fists and spoke righteously: "Helping others eliminate disasters and solve problems is the duty of people like us; besides, my father taught me so many skills, I should make use of my strengths, otherwise I would not live up to his painstaking teachings."

"Speak plainly."

"I've been short on cash lately—I don't even have money to buy flowers for Jingjing Jie." Pangzi gave a silly smile and said bashfully.

Me:........

Finally, after discussion between the two of us, we felt Yuan Qiu's suggestion was not inappropriate. Although QingSongShu also took us to look at feng shui a few times and visited several places, frankly our experience is still pitifully lacking. How can flowers in a greenhouse withstand wind and rain? How can eaglets constantly protected by their mother learn to soar the skies? So Pangzi and I think this is not a bad opportunity for training.

But we two are not rash, nor do we simply believe whatever others say. Pangzi examined Yuan Qiu's eight-character comprehensive physiognomy and concluded that although Yuan Qiu is shrewd and has a head for business, he is not a crafty villain; only then did we agree to work with Yuan Qiu.

Before that, I also set three rules with Yuan Qiu: first, we won't do anything against our conscience; second, we won't do anything harmful to others; third, no matter how much money, we still have to see if we're willing to do it. If we're not willing, we can leave at any time.

Yuan Qiu readily agreed to our demands without the slightest hesitation.

"Good, then from now on we three are partners. If any business comes up later, I'll introduce it to you two right away."

Having said that, Yuan Qiu left, full of joy.

After Yuan Qiu left, Pangzi, somewhat puzzled, asked me: "Hey, frankly speaking, I don't quite understand Yuan Qiu's approach—he introduces business to us and only takes a ten percent commission; what's the difference between that and not making money?"

I smiled, pursed my lips, and shook my head: "It looks like he's not making money, but he's actually the real big winner; there are many tricks to this."

"Oh?" Pangzi looked at me doubtfully,

I smiled and said just two words: "Connections."

Immediately, Pangzi also suddenly understood.

Yes, exactly—connections. Someone said that in this world, money isn't the most valuable; wisdom is, and then connections. That saying is not without reason.

Nowadays, officials, nobles, wealthy merchants mostly invite feng shui masters to their homes to read feng shui, and many people encounter unsolvable problems and seek us Daoists. Although Yuan Qiu's family runs an auction pawnshop, they merely have business dealings with most people and are not close. He uses the connections in his hand to introduce business to us, and through our ties with those connections he can go a step further, building his own network.

Although we Daoists don't care about these things, for a businessman the importance of connections far outweighs money. That's why Yuan Qiu gave us a big apple to eat, and he did so willingly.

"If that's what you're saying, then we're letting people take advantage of us for nothing." Pangzi calculated on his fingers.

I shook my head: "No one is taking advantage of anyone. With Yuan Qiu around, haven't we also gained many training opportunities? Besides, you just looked at Yuan Qiu's eight characters—the heavenly stem is metal, born in winter, born at the chen hour, it's a flood dragon emerging from water fate, and in the eight characters the water-wood hurting palace sees wealth palace; the fate formula also says: 'Water wood seeing official official prosperous, hurting officer clever and unstoppable, great display of talent shaking the world.' Even if he doesn't enter the official ranks and top the tiger list, he's still a fine son of the family.' So even without us, his future achievements will certainly not be low."

"Moreover, his wealth, official, and seal are all strong, with the wealth star dissipating the hurting officer's energy, so his eight characters flow smoothly; he will certainly not be a great villain." Pangzi added.

I looked down on him: "Since you already know, why are you asking about bullshit?"

Pangzi poked his nostrils and jeered: "Actually I already knew what you said; I just watched you say it so happily, I couldn't bear to disturb you. Don't forget, when it comes to fortune-telling numbers, I, old man, am at least one level above you."

I rolled my eyes and let Pangzi continue his self-admiration.

However, what we didn't expect was that less than three hours after Yuan Qiu left—that is, in the afternoon—he called us, saying there was business at the door and asking us to follow him to handle it.

The speed was beyond our and Pangzi's expectations.

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