Chapter 197: The Art of Doing Business

Pan Yun immediately felt that this lapis lazuli at three hundred wen per qian was no longer expensive. She took out a silver note worth ten taels and handed it to him, saying, "Give me change."

Shopkeeper Chen smiled and gave her the change. "Suddenly feel like you're even better off than the Emperor? At least you haven't been fleeced for as much."

Pan Yun saw how pleased he looked and couldn't help saying, "What are you so smug about? The tax silver from gold and silver mines goes to the national treasury—did you think it was the Emperor's personal money? That's money belonging to all the people under heaven, it's our money!"

The smile gradually faded from Shopkeeper Chen's face.

Pan Yun said, "Even if it goes into the Emperor's private coffers, it still concerns us directly. When that little Emperor runs out of money, do you think he'll short himself, or short us by taking money from the national treasury?"

Shopkeeper Chen had never considered any of this before, and it was the first time he'd heard such an argument from Pan Yun. For a moment he was so stunned he couldn't speak.

Pan Yun took the change and the box holding the lapis lazuli together and tucked them into her sleeve. Seeing that he looked quite unhappy, she consoled him, "How about you forget everything I just said, pretend you never heard it, and mock the Emperor once more—your mood might just improve."

Shopkeeper Chen said glumly, "Now that I know the money those people stole includes my share, how can I still gloat over their misfortune?"

Pan Yun wagged her head and said, "You see, when the knife falls on yourself it hurts too. Now you know how I felt facing this sudden price surge on lapis lazuli, right? Just as miserable as having your own money stolen. Shopkeeper Chen, since you feel my pain, how about giving me a discount—throw in another half a qian of lapis lazuli?"

Shopkeeper Chen waved her off. "Go, go, go. It's bad enough that invisible people steal my money, but you come to steal too. I'd love to sell to you at the original price, but my cost has gone up. If I sold at the original price, I'd still have to pour money in."

He said, "If I could give you a discount, I would have long ago. After all, you are a regular customer of our general store."

"I don't believe it at all. You're just saying nice things. I'm new here and inexperienced, but you're the seller—how could you not know that cultivation resources like lapis lazuli from Long Hushan would surge in price in September?"

Shopkeeper Chen said with a pained face, "Little Immortal Master, my shop only opened this year. I really don't have the experience."

He was so sincere, his expression so genuine and unfeigned, that Pan Yun grew uneasy for a moment. No way, no way? He really hadn't prepared?

Pan Yun's heart clenched, aching so badly she couldn't breathe. She pressed a hand to her chest and said in anguish, "You—you—you—how could you not have prepared in advance?"

A customer nearby who had overheard part of the conversation remarked, "Little Immortal Master, you're quite kind-hearted. Hearing that the shopkeeper earned less because he wasn't prepared, you feel even more pained than he does."

Another person burst out laughing and said cheerfully, "That's because the Little Immortal Master can't find an excuse to haggle anymore, so her heart aches!"

Only Shopkeeper Chen knew she was truly heartbroken—because the money this shop earned genuinely included her share too, hahahahaha……

Pan Yun clutched her aching chest and returned to Huishan.

The first thing she did upon returning to Huishan was write a letter to her senior nephew in Jingcheng, scolding him for not briefing Shopkeeper Chen properly.

"Since you've studied at the Academy, you should know what sells well at what time. You should have instructed Shopkeeper Chen long ago to stockpile and prepare. How could you leave everything for Shopkeeper Chen to figure out on his own?"

Pan Yun urged him, "Hurry and write back. Tell me, what else is something our students must have, yet will rise in price? I'll have Shopkeeper Chen prepare early, and Seeing Miao Zhen, Miao He, and I will also stock up in advance."

After finishing the letter, Pan Yun sent it off through the Academy's relay station.

It took no short time to get from here to Jingcheng. By the time Wang Cong received it, the ordination certificate had just come down from court, and he had already packed his things to return to the mountain.

He tore open the letter and glanced at it, and couldn't help laughing out loud.

Yin Qingjun beside him turned his head to look. "What are you laughing at, Senior Brother?"

Wang Cong handed him the letter and said, "Little Martial Aunt spent more money and is unhappy. She must want to stockpile and sell things herself. She's a student at the Academy now, so doing business with the students is much more convenient for her than for us."

Yin Qingjun shook his head. "Is everyone like you, thinking about making money with every little thing? I think she's sincerely asking on Shopkeeper Chen's behalf, and at most will stock up a little for herself and Seeing Miao Zhen and Miao He to use."

Wang Cong said, "Seeing Miao Zhen and Miao He might only stock up for their own use, but Little Martial Aunt is like me—she'll definitely stockpile some for buying and selling. Don't you believe it."

"Then write back and tell her what to stockpile next. See if she stocks up more?"

Wang Cong frowned and said, "But it's already the end of September now. In not too long the Academy will have exams and break for holidays. What else would there be to stockpile? If we absolutely have to name something……"

Wang Cong lifted his eyes and said, "That would be the pills used for cultivation."

The Academy was different from other official or private schools.

Those official and private schools taught the Four Books and Five Classics, with very few holidays and not many activities. Their breaks were only a few days longer than those of officials at court—they could truly be called the students with the fewest holidays across all dynasties.

But the Academy was not like that.

They cultivated the Dao. The techniques taught at the Academy were not profound—after all, the students who came here each had their own lineages. What they taught were foundational things, along with various arts, talismans, and ritual practices.

Therefore, they would leave the students a portion of time to study with their own sect masters, and to gain experience in the world.

For those who cultivated the Dao, gaining experience in the world was an indispensable course.

Confucian scholars' study tours could still be chosen, but Daoist experiential training could not. Every year, students of every grade had mandatory travel time.

First- and second-year students had no less than fifteen days of travel time; third- and fourth-year students had no less than twenty days.

Fifth-year students graduated every year after September, and before graduation they also had a roughly half-year experiential training requirement.

One could see how much Value greatly the Academy placed on students' travel, and how strict it was.

Therefore, the Academy usually held exams in early October, released for holiday by mid-October, and the following month was the time students chose for their travels.

They were given a full month of flexible time, during which they had to write a daily journal. First-year students had to handle three matters related to the mystic arts, regardless of size—even giving someone a fortune reading counted.

Second-year students had five, third-year students had seven, and fourth-year students had nine.

In Wang Cong's experience, Academy students' experiential training mostly consisted of hanging banners and giving fortune readings. Only fourth-year students would deliberately go to dangerous places to do dangerous things, to rack up credits.

"Pills sell the best. After all, from mid-October to the end of March the following year, they'll be cultivating with their sect elders or on their own, and if their resources can't keep up, they can only scrounge together what they can." Wang Cong said, "But not many students can afford to spend much, so the pills still have to be ordinary ones, cheap ones."

Although the price was cheap, due to changes in supply and demand, the price would still rise somewhat.

Wang Cong wrote a letter and had someone rush it to the Academy, hoping his little martial aunts could catch this pre-holiday shopping frenzy.

How could it be in time?

By the time he received the letter it was already late. The letter was sent back, and they had already finished their exams and were waiting for results.

But Pan Yun didn't need his reminder. After realizing that a series of cultivation resources like lapis lazuli had skyrocketed in September, she began deliberately paying attention to the new goods coming into the various shops down the mountain, and went to ask Zhou Wang.

"Senior Brother Zhou, what do students most want to buy in October?" "What they most want to buy?" Zhou Wang thought for a moment and said, "Pills, magical artifacts? Don't people always want to buy those?"

"If they want to buy them all the time, that means they can buy them anytime. Is there anything that everyone will definitely buy in October?"

"Spirit-Gathering Pills?" Zhou Wang said, "The holiday is coming soon, and some places don't have as abundant spiritual energy as Long Hushan. Plus, once the holiday starts, students have to travel first, so many students will prepare extra Spirit-Gathering Pills for themselves. Oh, and Fasting Pills too."

Pan Yun looked disgusted. "Fasting Pills taste so awful, and meals don't cost much money. Why would anyone eat Fasting Pills?"

"Because when you're traveling, there are always accidents. You might not be able to eat, or might not be allowed to eat, so everyone prepares some Fasting Pills."

Pan Yun looked thoughtful. "So next month, cultivation pills like Spirit-Gathering Pills and Fasting Pills will sell the best?"

Zhou Wang nodded.

Pan Yun understood at once, and went to Miao He to say, "Your chance to save up private savings has come!"

Danyuan and Bigu Pills are cheap and easy to refine; Miaohe can handle three batches a day alone.

Miao Zhen and Pan Yun work slowly; even one batch a day is good enough.

!. Read

But they weren't interested in pill refining; after two days of following along, they grew restless and gave all the herbs they'd bought to Miaohe—one slapped her butt and went back to tinkering with her washing machine, the other went to cultivate and stare at the stars.

As for the academy's requirement of a half-month cultivation trip, they weren't worried.

The three had already planned: "We'll head south from Long Hushan straight to Changzhou Prefecture, find Third Senior Brother and Fourth Senior Sister there, then follow them back to Mount Sanqing—this round trip will easily take half a month."

Miao Zhen and Miaohe had never traveled far, especially without elders along—Pan Yun didn't count—so both were excited yet anxious: "Should we write home to let them know? We need Master Senior Brother's approval."

Pan Yun, being a good girl, immediately agreed: "Alright, write a letter to Master Senior Brother to report."

Since sending a letter to Mount Sanqing from here was close, Wang Feiyin quickly replied, telling them to go as they pleased, but warned them to carry Master Pan's statue with them at all times, offer three sticks of incense morning and night, and not to miss a single offering.

Pan Yun's heart jolted; she asked: "How long has it been since I offered incense to Master?"

Miao Zhen said: "Little Auntie, don't worry—you just forgot morning incense; you've always done evening incense."

Pan Yun exhaled: "That's right, that's right—I suddenly remembered. No good, from tomorrow on, I'll do morning incense too."

Her last-minute desperation was obvious.

Miaohe went to refine pills and made a large sum before the holiday; Shopkeeper Chen, who had prepared in advance, also made a profit for the general store.

Pan Yun watched, thoroughly satisfied; she too had drawn talismans and sold them, earning a good sum—this time, she didn't use Master Xuanmiao's name, but sold them under her own seal, lowering the price to five taels per talisman.

But… who cared? She treated it as good deed work; she was making money anyway, and they were all poor students—they were happy to buy, and Pan Yun was happy to sell.

Even though she earned less than the twenty-tael talismans, her joy was no less.

After earning money, Pan Yun kept only about three hundred taels for herself and lent the rest out to Miao Zhen and Miaohe.

She was terrified they'd mismanage the money and lose it, so she planned to make them a sleeve-space.

The sleeve-space array wasn't hard for Pan Yun, but her cultivation level was insufficient.

Fortunately, her cultivation had improved significantly during this time; though she hadn't yet broken through to the First Marquis realm, she was infinitely close.

After the exam, she went to the Reflection Cliff to sit in meditation, compressing her Upper Dantian's yuan energy, practicing finer control over it—and after feeling confident she could carve a space array, she excitedly dragged Miao Zhen and Miaohe down the mountain to select jade.

Jade is one of the few substances capable of storing spiritual energy; other materials can too, but none are as common.

Jade, whether high-quality or low-grade, can stably store a certain amount of spiritual energy.

Thus, in the 26th century, humans favored jade for making space artifacts; besides pure jade, alloys were often mixed with jade to make the created space more stable and durable.

But this isn't the 26th century, when jade was scarce; here, if they were willing to spend, they could buy fine jade material for carving.

Of course, they weren't willing to spend much.

"Though I'm confident in myself, my current cultivation is still low, so we must leave enough room for the future—let's buy an ordinary piece of jade first. When I improve later, we'll buy better jade, and I'll carve it for you then."

Miao Zhen and Miaohe were still thrilled at the prospect of owning sleeve-space artifacts; whatever Pan Yun said, they agreed without hesitation, nodding vigorously: "We follow Little Auntie!"

Unfortunately, all jade beneath Long Hushan had been processed—jade plaques, carvings, pendants, rings—all bore engravings.

Pan Yun frowned after inspecting them, then directly asked the shopkeeper: "Shopkeeper, do you have any uncarved jade material?"

Shopkeeper: "You mean raw jade?"

"No no no—I want jade that's been extracted but not carved."

Shopkeeper: "We have some, but those are our shop's raw materials—we don't sell them."

Pan Yun gritted her teeth: "We're willing to pay extra."

The shopkeeper asked: "Little Daoist, what are you carving? Anything bought from our shop must be carved by our master."

Pan Yun: "I won't carve it myself—I just want two smooth, uncarved jade plaques. Don't worry, I won't ruin your reputation; I'll say they were carved by your shop."

The shopkeeper hesitated: "Well… it's not impossible. How much are you offering?"

"Jade quality varies, so prices vary—you must let us see the jade first."

The shopkeeper turned to his assistant: "Bring the finest tray of raw jade."

Pan Yun widened her eyes, wanting to stop him—she really didn't need the best, ordinary would do—but seeing the eager shopkeeper, she swallowed her words.

(End of Chapter)