Chapter 269

Chapter 269: Today I’ll Show You a Spectacle

After Tang Mo was injured, Yan Shi Mao, Xie Chang You, and others had come to visit. Now that they heard he had returned to duty, and that it was his first day as a newly appointed officer, they called on him again, both to offer congratulations and to discuss a matter.

Yan Shi Mao and the others wanted to form a cuju team and invited Tang Mo to join.

“I am interested in cuju,” Tang Mo said, “but mainly because everyone on this cuju team will be young lords from the capital’s great houses. The connections and benefits involved are immense. It will not require much money, since none of them are short of silver. It will cost time, though. I am already busy, and if I join the cuju team, I will have less time to come home for meals. What do you think?”

These days Tang Mo had gotten used to consulting Xin An on everything. Xin An asked whether he had to play personally, and when he confirmed, she agreed on the spot. She already rather liked watching cuju, and besides, it would benefit what she was about to do next.

“I have been discussing with Sister Xu the opening of a True Treasures Firm,” she said. “If you join the cuju team, you can use it to gather together those young lords of the city’s great houses, which will help us.”

“You plan to sell antiques?” asked Tang Mo, thinking the antiques trade difficult, with large capital outlay and slow sales.

“Not sell in that way,” Xin An replied. “It will be like a brokerage, taking on only the finest pieces. The point is to find buyers for treasures and to find sellers for people, taking a tenth of the transaction as commission. This is Sister Xu’s idea. She has a head shopkeeper who truly understands the trade. It makes money. Move a piece worth five thousand taels and you earn five hundred. What it needs is a wide network and a ringing name. We now have money and influence, so of course we should do a different class of business.”

“That being so,” said Tang Mo, “this cuju team has come at the right time.”

“Very much so,” Xin An said. “When your cuju team competes officially, will you not invite your families to watch? I can use the occasion to make more connections. It will be good for you and for me.”

She then thought of their half-dead teahouse and suggested shutting it down for remodeling into a high-end teahouse: “A teahouse is not convenient for talking business, especially important matters. The surroundings are too noisy. These last two days as Sister Xu and I discussed business, I felt keenly how hard it is to find a place that satisfies both privacy and atmosphere.”

“We were going to close it anyway,” he said. He had not had the heart to say that they had made only a few taels last month, and those few owed to personal connections. Especially when contrasted with the Herbal Cuisine House, where tables are impossible to book, the teahouse felt a bit humiliating. “Everyone even discussed handing the shop to you after closing. Do whatever business you like with it and give the group dividends when the time comes.”

“You trust me that much?” Xin An asked with a smile.

“Seeing that your Herbal Cuisine House and general store both make money, how could we not,” he replied with a deliberate sigh. “Second Brother Yan even said his family now shops at Wan Yuan Trading House, the stock is complete and the prices fair, and there are many novelties. Everyone has their specialty. You and Madam Liao both understand business and have an eye for it. They also said that when you and Madam Liao do business in the future, remember to bring them along.”

Xin An cautioned him: “Sister Xu and I have capital, and we have influence. We will not lightly let others buy in. Keep that in mind. Do not agree to everything.”

“I know,” said Tang Mo. “I would not dare make decisions for you so easily.”

He heaved another theatrical sigh and said he was useless at making money: “All I can do is sell my effort outside and strive for rank and title. Otherwise, if my lady despises me as a pauper, what then.”

“Good that you know it,” Xin An laughed. “Do not slack. I agree to the cuju team. If you need silver, just tell me how much.”

Only then did Tang Mo realize, belatedly: “When did my little private stash end up entirely in your hands?” In the past he had a modest secret hoard, but now he could not remember the last time he had seen those beloved banknotes and trinkets, or how they had all moved into Xin An’s keeping.

Xin An shot him a glance: “Why, do you want them back?” He hurried to say: “No.” Now best at reading his wife’s expression, he sidled up with a grin and kneaded her shoulders: “For my three melons and two dates of a family stash to rest with you is my honor.”

“Good that you know it,” she said.

Learning that his father-in-law had also sent twenty thousand taels, Tang Mo felt himself floating. Every bone in his body relaxed. [So this is what it feels like to have a wealthy father-in-law, ah, wonderfully comfortable.]

The weather grew ever colder. The wind howled. The few leaves left on the branches finally yielded to the gusts and drifted down, leaving bare twigs trembling in the wind.

Even before the hour of You had passed, the sky had already turned completely dark. Ping Qiu brought a message from Madam Wang: from today, there was no need to go to the front courtyard for meals. The residence would arrange three meals together, and anything extra they wanted to eat would be at their discretion. Five hundred taels were delivered to Chun Hua Courtyard and another five hundred to Qiu Shi Courtyard as a food stipend. “The residence will also make New Year clothes together. The masters each get two sets. Tomorrow the cloth shop will bring fabrics into the residence, and the jewelry shop will come as well. The lady asks Second Young Madam to choose tomorrow.”

“Understood,” they answered.

After seeing Ping Qiu off, Tang Mo came sidling up and rattled off what he wanted to eat: “I want something with heavy flavors. In weather this cold you need hot and hearty food. Let us get a hotpot from Herbal Cuisine House every other day, and then buy some ingredients to simmer in our own pot.” His tastes ran stronger, but Tang Gang preferred lighter fare. When they ate together, the cook always followed Tang Gang’s preferences. Tang Mo could fill his belly, but it was not satisfying.

“Eat,” Xin An agreed. She also felt they should eat well. With money and leisure, they should not wrong themselves, and the courtyard’s small kitchen made anything convenient.

Tang Mo added that there were plenty of restaurants with good dishes; if they craved something, they could send someone to buy it and reheat it: “When we eat by ourselves, we can eat whatever we want, however we want.” [Who understands the stifling feeling of never getting to decide what you eat?]

That night they said they would make do with a simple meal and buy good ingredients the next day. Simple still meant six dishes and one soup, which was, as they joked, “viciously excessive.”

Before half the hour of Xu had passed, Tang Mo had already washed himself clean. Itching with desire, he swore again and again that his injured arm could exert strength, and at last his wish came true.

In their previous lives the two had lived like those guarding a cold bed. In this life, after tasting a different flavor, they found it hard to stop. Husband and wife frolicked for more than an hour before settling down.

Whether it was too much sea cucumber or yearning harbored too long, in the middle of the night Tang Mo woke and pulled Xin An for another round. In the morning he dawdled and would not get up, with a thousand unwilling thoughts about going on duty. In the end, Xin An kicked him out of bed.

Before leaving, still reluctant, he bent to Xin An’s ear and said softly: “Get up early, today I will show you a spectacle.”