Chapter 595: Financial Crisis

Outside Yundu City, by the roadside tea stall, a jujube-red horse stood obediently by the road and grazed on the grass.

The tea sold here was a local blend made from handmade black tea grown in the nearby mountains, brewed together with plums and green tangerines. A bit of salt and sugar was added, though if you didn’t taste it carefully, you could barely tell whether it was salty or sweet.

The salt seemed to serve only to accentuate the fruity tartness of the plums and tangerines in the tea, just like how some regions sprinkle salt on fruit. The sugar, on the other hand, softened the sharp sourness, giving the tea a more mellow flavor.

It cost only three wen for a large bowl.

The Daoist already had a bowl in front of him.

“Huff...” He picked it up and took a sip.

The tea leaves hadn’t been processed with much finesse, so the tea was not particularly clear in color. But since it was served in a coarse bowl with a dark brown interior, clarity didn’t matter, even the clearest tea would look muddy in it.

Nonetheless, the fragrance was remarkably strong. The fruity and honeyed aromas inherent to the tea blended perfectly with the scent of plums and tangerines. A touch of sweetness from the sugar made the taste match the smell almost exactly. Even someone like Song You, who was used to drinking pure, unflavored tea, found it surprisingly pleasant.

Lady Calico sat across from him, dressed in a robe of three colors. She wasn’t drinking tea; instead, she stared at him seriously, her feet swinging restlessly under the table.

Around them, the clamor of the road continued unabated, punctuated by the jingling of bells.

Caravans headed toward Yundu City ahead, while others came from it. Some paused briefly at the tea stall, stopping for a bowl of tea or to pack some to go. Others simply passed by the Daoist, their attention caught either by the jujube-red horse or the strikingly pretty little girl with him, casting curious glances their way.

Under Yunzou’s blazing sun, most merchants who spent the year traveling were deeply tanned. Their skin was dark with a reddish glow and glistened in the sunlight, while their eyes squinted against the harsh light.

People gathered here from all directions, and as Song You sat among them, he felt a surprising sense of bustling prosperity.

“Huff...”

The sky above was a vast stretch of blue, with only a few fluffy, thick white clouds drifting high overhead and at the horizon like tufts of cotton. The sunlight was so bright it was almost blinding, illuminating every hill, stream, road, tree, and blade of grass until they all gleamed.

On the yellow dirt road, alongside the dusty travelers, the short southwestern horses and their massive loads kicked up dust as they moved. The jingling of their bells echoed clearly.

Sitting at the roadside, bowl in hand, the Daoist suddenly had a faint premonition that this scene and this very moment would become an everlasting memory, because it truly felt like a slice cut straight from history.

“...”

As he turned his head to watch the passersby, his eyes met face after face. All the while, he broke pieces off a stuffed pastry and washed them down with tea.

The filling inside the pastry was made of flower petals and brown sugar, blended into an intoxicating hue, with some intact petals still visible. It didn’t taste quite as good as it looked, but paired with the fruity, sweet-and-sour tea, it became a rare treat for someone like the Daoist, who had been traveling in the dust and wind for days.

The chaotic mix of surrounding voices drifted into his ears.

“Has the Five-Chi Path been peaceful this year?”

“This year? Hard to say. But on this trip, I’ve heard quite a bit about immortals appearing and driving out evil spirits. A lot of the demons and monsters that used to prey on travelers have been eliminated, and even some of the more rampant bandits and horse thieves have been wiped out. I reckon the next trip might be a lot safer.”

“Is that true?”

“That’s what we’ve heard along the way. You’ll know once you make the journey yourself.”

“If it’s true, that would be wonderful.” A voice came from behind Song You. “Last time I was on the road near Black Commandery, someone cried out from hunger halfway through. I thought it was just a refugee or beggar, so I kindly offered him a pastry. But then he asked if I could cut off my flesh and feet to feed him instead. Scared me half to death.”

“And then?”

“We had numbers on our side, acted cautiously, and we were protected by talismans from a Daoist temple, so naturally we didn’t fall into its trap. Still, things like that really leave a chill in your heart.”

“Isn’t that the truth? And with all those little demons and spirits lurking along the roads, who’s to say that over time, one of them won’t grow powerful?”

“Sigh...”

“I must say, you’ve got a kind heart, traveler.”

“Sigh, it’s because my wife just gave birth recently. Raising a child is no easy task. I just wanted to do a bit of good and accumulate some blessings for my son. I don’t expect him to be anything special, just to grow up safely is enough.”

“...”

Song You quietly ate his pastry and sipped his tea without saying a word.

The little girl across from him had clearly overheard too. She glanced briefly at the two men sitting at the table behind the Daoist, then quickly looked away again, eyes locking seriously back onto the Daoist.

The final piece of pastry went into his mouth, followed by the last sip of tea.

“Sir, the bill.”

“Right away!” A short, thin, dark-skinned man walked over. “One bowl of tea, three wen. Brown sugar pastries, five wen each. Sir, you had two. That makes thirteen wen total.”

“I’ll take four more to go.”

“That’ll be thirty-three wen, then.”

“...”

The Daoist glanced at the little girl across from him. Immediately, Lady Calico dropped her solemn stare, lowered her head, and reached into her pouch for the money.

She pulled out two small strings of coins, each threaded on a fine, clean red cord, just the right size for her little hands to hold. She set one string down on the table and then untied the other, carefully counting out thirteen wen and placing them beside the first.

“Your little girl is really clever and well-behaved,” the stallkeeper said with a grin as he watched. “So young, and already handling money and doing the math!”

Just as he reached out to take the coins, the girl untied the second full string too, tipped the coins out by holding up the red cord, then stuffed the now-empty cord neatly back into her pouch. Only then did she offer the handful of loose coins to the stallkeeper.

“Uh...” The stallkeeper took them, momentarily stunned. “Thank you, sir...”

“It’s we who should thank you.” The Daoist smiled at him, picked up the bamboo staff by his side, and walked away from the little roadside tea stall.

Behind him, he could faintly hear the stallkeeper muttering under his breath.

“...”

The Daoist shook his head with a smile, then looked down and said to the child beside him, “See that? Lady Calico, you’re stingy as can be at such a young age. Even others wouldn’t believe it and would think I taught you to be like this.”

The little girl glanced back at the tea stall, then turned her head to look at him. Her small face remained stern, and she said nothing.

The Daoist didn’t press further. He simply lifted his gaze to the road ahead and, leaning on his staff, stepped onto the yellow dirt path. He walked among the caravans and pack animals, listening to the jingling of bells in the sunlight.

The sun was so bright it hurt his eyes, and with good weather came naturally pleasant scenery.

This was already the end of the Five-Chi Path, and Yundu City was drawing closer and closer.

Only after they left the vicinity of the tea stall did the voice of the child beside him sound, “We have not much money left!”

“How much is “not much?””

𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

“There’s a little over two taels of silver. One large string of copper coins, three medium strings, four small strings, and eight loose coins.”

“I see...”

In Great Yan, copper coins were typically strung together in two sizes. The large string, in theory, consisted of a thousand coins and was called a

diao

or a

guan

, though it often fell short of a thousand. For convenience, people also strung coins in sets of a hundred, called small strings.

Smaller strings still were often just pocket money for quick errands or given as allowance to children or juniors.

Children had small hands, little strength, and little understanding of money. They couldn’t carry large strings and had no use for a lot of money. But their minds were clever and delicate, and if they could have a coin string just like the adults, even if it held fewer coins, they’d be overjoyed.

So Lady Calico had strung together twenty-coin strings, which was just right for her to carry, use, and look cute doing so.

Thus, in her system, coins were divided into large, medium, and small strings.

That meant they had just over two taels of silver and 1,388 wen in total, which indeed was the least amount of money Song You had had since coming down from the mountain.

But thinking about it, it was understandable. Their last significant income had come just before they left Changjing for the final time. Since then, they’d traveled through Yuezhou, which was nearly desolate, followed by regions suffering severe drought, or foreign western lands where the language barrier was almost complete.

After leaving the Western Regions, Xingzhou had vast stretches of wilderness as well. Though Lady Calico sometimes caught fish or rodents to sell, the money earned was little and barely enough to cover the daily food expenses, sometimes not even that. And whenever they entered more prosperous areas, the costs for food, lodging, and supplies surged.

They’d just traveled from Yidu. Along the way, Lady Calico and Yan An had vanquished countless demons, but mostly in the mountains and by the roadside. With demons and evil spirits now rampant, local governments had no funds to offer bounties. The common folk weren’t as well-off as those from Peach Blossom Village outside Yidu either, and most lived frugally themselves. How could the Daoist go around asking them for money?

Besides, most of the demon hunting had been done along the way as a matter of course. Lady Calico and Yan An rarely even left their names, let alone asked for payment.

Without large sources of income and with constant spending, their funds were bound to dry up after a few years.

Song You had even withdrawn a bit over three taels from the Daoist temple before leaving...

But back then, Song You hadn’t cared; and now, he cared even less. He simply continued forward with his bamboo staff, saying lightly, “Looks like we’ll have to start spending a bit more carefully.”

“We should’ve been spending carefully a long time ago!” the little girl beside him said, brows furrowed tight in worry over their financial crisis. “If we don’t go into the city, don’t spend money on food and water, and sleep in the mountains, then we won’t have to spend anything. I can catch rabbits and fish for you to eat, and we can drink from the river”

“How would that be okay?”

“It is okay!”

“Lady Calico, no need to worry...”

“...” Lady Calico turned to glance at the city drawing closer and closer. How could she not be worried? “Back there in the mountains, there were so many treasures. I told you to take some, but you didn’t. If you’d brought just one thing back and we sold it in Yidu, it would’ve been enough to last you a long time in the city!”

“Lady Calico, you still can’t let it go, huh.”

“Then use it! Use that golden awl and have it fetch us a piece of silver.”

“And where should it fetch it from?”

“Hmm...” That stumped Lady Calico.

Stealing from others was something rats did. As the Cat God, she naturally wouldn’t do such things.

But this didn’t trouble her for long.

“Then fetch it from the grave of someone dead.”

“That’s still stealing.”

“Then fetch it from someone who dropped it in the river.”

“No need for that...”

“Oh, right! I still have a piece of gold!”

“That gold coin is bound to you by fate. There’s only one, so it’s better to keep it, even just as a keepsake.”

“Then what do we do?”

“For those who cultivate, the world may be vast, but it will never let me starve or freeze to death. In fact, there are places we can pass through without spending a single coin that some merchants, even with purses full of silver and goods worth a fortune, still can’t get through. They die of thirst on the road. Didn’t you already see that clearly in the Western Regions? So why worry so much?”

The Daoist couldn’t help but chuckle. “Besides, with the world growing more chaotic by the day, demons and dark spirits appearing all over, with your skills, even if we can’t make a fortune in the city, surely earning a hot meal won’t be hard?”

As he spoke, they had already reached the city gates. He presented his ordination certificate and entered the city.