Chapter 189

Chapter 189: A Blood-Stained Work

“Then the burning cotton in this painting… was that real too?” someone asked softly in the dead silence.

“How could it be? The Mo Bei cold disaster hit Ji Zhou Manor the hardest. The courtyard next to mine was just bought by a rich family who fled from Ji Zhou Manor. He said that when his family left, cotton in Ji Zhou Manor had already risen to two taels per jin.”

“That was when he left. Who knows what it costs now!”

“What? Two taels per jin?” The noble Scholar had read plenty of classics, but they knew little about market prices. Even so, they were shaken by two taels per jin.

Two taels-what did that mean? These days, one tael could buy thirty jin of ordinary hemp paper or bamboo paper, yet it could not even buy one jin of cotton!

“Sigh. Even here in the capital city, cotton isn’t cheap,” an old man outside said when he overheard them. “Two days ago I asked, and it had already climbed past seven hundred wen. In past years it was only two or three hundred wen per jin…”

“Is cotton really that expensive this year?”

“Then Ji Zhou Manor would be even less likely to burn cotton. Who would burn cotton that expensive? That’s like burning silver.”

“Burning silver? Who burned silver?” someone asked as he entered.

The noble Scholar looked at the newcomer with open disdain. His name was Zhai An Ming, an Escort from Shun De Escort Bureau. He barely knew a few characters, yet he loved running to a refined place like Gathering Sages Teahouse. He always tried to find some proper Young Lord for his Sister.

No one had met his Sister, but seeing how broad and rough he looked, they assumed she could not be much better. They only glanced at him and did not bother responding.

But Zhai An Ming seemed completely oblivious. He shoved his way forward and insisted on knowing what they were talking about.

A Scholar, annoyed beyond endurance, told him. The moment he heard, Zhai An Ming slapped his thigh, startling everyone.

“Who said cotton in Ji Zhou Manor is expensive? You don’t know this, but I just got back from escorting goods from Ji Zhou Manor!”

“Cotton in Ji Zhou Manor costs only this much!” He held up three fingers.

“Three taels and you think that’s cheap?” someone scoffed.

“Not three taels. Three hundred-something wen!” Zhai An Ming said.

The Scholar who had spoken earlier sneered at once. “Impossible. Elder Gentleman Lin lives next to my home. He said when he arrived, cotton in Ji Zhou Manor was already two taels. With the cold disaster so severe, how could the price fall?”

“Hey! He wasn’t wrong. That was before,” Zhai An Ming said. “The cotton price only rose for half a day before someone forced it down.”

“What? How?” someone demanded, not believing it.

“I think someone was selling cheap cotton on purpose!” Zhai An Ming scratched his head. “When we left, we saw lots of Ji Zhou Manor commoner rushing to buy it!”

“Impossible! What cotton merchant would be that kind, leaving silver on the table just to help commoner?”

“It’s true! If you don’t believe me, go ask our escort bureau. More than thirty of us ran that route!”

He sounded utterly certain, and the crowd wavered between doubt and belief.

“If someone really sold cheap cotton, it wouldn’t be just helping commoner,” Wang Huai Zhi said.

Among these noble Scholar, Wang Huai Zhi was well known. He came from Yuan Zhou Madam Wang. His Father held office at court, and Wang Huai Zhi’s own learning was solid. When he spoke, everyone looked to him.

“What do you mean?” someone asked.

Wang Huai Zhi said, “Think about it. If every other cotton merchant sells for two taels, and only one shop sells for three hundred wen, where will the commoner buy?”

“If they aren’t fools, they’ll buy the cheap one!”

“Then the other merchants won’t sell anything. Unless they also drop their prices, and that would cost them a fortune. The one selling cheap cotton would offend every other cotton merchant in Ji Zhou Manor to the bone.”

When Wang Huai Zhi finished, people looked at each other. It made too much sense.

Then they looked back at the painting.

Burning cotton… could it be because the one selling cheap cotton had angered the other merchants?!

More and more people packed in. The main hall of Gathering Sages Teahouse was jammed shoulder to shoulder. Among them were many Scholar from Ji Zhou Manor who had come to the capital city to study.

At last, a Ji Zhou Scholar could not hold back. “Actually… the people in this painting look familiar to me…”

No sooner had he spoken than another Ji Zhou Scholar said, “Yes! I thought it was just my imagination. So someone else saw it too?”

“I wanted to say it earlier. In the lower right corner, the one dressed richly and smiling at the fire looks like Old Madam Du of the Du Clan. Even the gate sign you can see at the edge looks like the Du Residence gate!”

“And those steps under the gate-they even laid thick carpets on them so people wouldn’t slip!”

“And standing with her… that looks like Prefect Yan!”

“What Du Clan?” someone asked quickly, lost.

“The Du Clan is a great family in Ji Zhou Manor,” a Ji Zhou Scholar explained. “Back then, the Imperial Ancestor bestowed a plaque upon them.”

As they listened, they kept staring at the painting. The rough, hurried brushwork now felt full of secrets and hidden meaning. The Scholar wanted to dig intention from every ink dot, even the ones that were no larger than a commoner in the distance.

“Strange!”

“In weather this cold, with snow and ice everywhere, how could there be such a huge fire?”

“So it wasn’t only burning cotton. Look beside it-that’s the Ci Ji Orphanage!”

“Cotton caught fire, and the Ci Ji Orphanage caught fire too. With flames that big, and so many people unable to put it out, maybe someone used fire oil.”

A Hired Shill shouted that from the crowd.

“Those people going to save the Ci Ji Orphanage don’t look like commoner. They look more like Hunter…”

“But the ones saving the cotton are all commoner…”

One painting, two emphasized scenes.

On one side, ragged commoner clutched snow, trying to put out the cotton fire. On the other side, countless Servant stood on thick carpets and smiled as they watched the flames.

And between them, women and children from the Ci Ji Orphanage were swallowed by fire.

The more they analyzed, the more the fire in the painting seemed ready to burn straight through the paper. In that moment, everyone seemed to hear the cries of infants from inside the picture.

Disgust. Shame. Fury.

These young noble Scholar were always easy to stir up. In that instant, they became a raging crowd, exactly as Sheng Zhi Wan had expected.

But it still was not enough.

Soon, someone finally thought of the stains on the painting. “I know! I know why there’s blood on it!”

A Scholar spoke with tears in his eyes.

“Why?” someone asked.

He raised his voice, choking on his words. “This painting was done by the Painting Immortal, but the brushwork is rough. Even the signature, the words Xian Yuan Zi, looks like it trembled. This painting… this painting might be the Painting Immortal’s blood-stained work!”

Blood?

Had the Painting Immortal Xian Yuan Zi spat blood?

Why?

Because of what she saw in the painting? Because of those devouring nobles and the authorities?!

In an instant, the hall erupted. The Scholar and nobles were righteous with anger. They might pity commoner suffering, they might feel ashamed, but if even the Painting Immortal had bled for the commoner, then they would burn with fury.