Selling a Man for a Good Price

He had lost this round, and he accepted it!

"Back to the study!" Xu Weibei swept his sleeves and left.

Gao Lan kowtowed to Gu Wanning again. "Madam, I was wrong. Please be magnanimous and overlook my offense. Don't blame the marquis."

"Get up." Gu Wanning raised a hand to smooth her hair and smiled with all the bearing of Consort Hua. "As a servant, you have to wait on your master and take the blame for him, too. I can sympathize. I don't blame you. What else could you do?"

"No, I—the marquis didn't..."

"I know. The marquis had no petty intentions. You were the one audacious enough to target me on your own," Gu Wanning said with a faint smile.

Unable to explain himself, Gao Lan angrily raised a hand and slapped himself.

What was all this?

Then he got up and hurried after Xu Weibei.

Second Concubine was still kneeling on the ground, looking up at Gu Wanning with a smile.

Interesting. Truly interesting.

Gu Wanning raised an eyebrow, glanced at her, and walked inside.

Second Concubine picked up her bundle and rose, following close behind.

Chapter 10: Selling a Man for a Good Price

Gu Wanning placed the brocade box within easy reach on a small table, then sat down on the couch.

Er Ya stood behind her, watching Second Concubine warily, as if afraid she might pounce on Gu Wanning and hit her.

"Go on," Gu Wanning said, glancing out the window. "Get to the point."

The glaring white sunlight had left the flowers and plants in the courtyard drooping, and the cicadas were shrieking at the top of their lungs. It was already noon.

She was hungry and didn't want to beat around the bush.

"Madam," Second Concubine said meekly, her eyes lowered, "the pawnshop you visited belongs to the Jin family."

"The Jin family? The same Jin as yours?"

"Yes, it belongs to my family."

Gu Wanning: "..."

She suddenly wanted to ask Second Concubine just how much she had admired him to give up being a young lady and come here to slave away for the marquis and his wife.

If she had an enterprise that large at home, she would never have come to be someone's concubine.

Granted, agriculture was indeed valued over commerce here, and Xu Weibei was a marquis, but...

All right, Xu Weibei really was impressive.

Not because he was the Grand Princess's grandson—there were quite a few people from families like that in the capital—but because he was Xu Weibei.

Xu Weibei had made his name at a young age and earned an illustrious record in battle.

Take this latest war, for instance. He had disappeared for two months in the middle of it.

Everyone had thought he was dead, but he had gone straight for the Oirat stronghold.

It was roughly like planting the national flag in the enemy's capital.

He had crossed an enemy army of a hundred thousand with five hundred light cavalry. Who would believe it?

She wouldn't have dared dream anything so outrageous, anyway.

A lot of young girls probably dreamed of a hero.

As the chief minister's daughter, she was the principal wife, so it did seem that Second Concubine, a merchant's daughter, could only be a concubine.

"Because the box bore the Grand Princess's Residence's mark, the people at the pawnshop sent word to me the first time you went there... Then I took it upon myself to tell them that if you came again, they were to accept the item and send it here. They mustn't let it pass into anyone else's hands."

"A mark? I checked. There wasn't one."

"There is." Second Concubine set the bundle on the table beside her, opened it, and took out the box to show Gu Wanning. "It's on this copper lock. Look closely, Madam. This line of tiny characters says 'Grand Princess's Residence'..."

Gu Wanning widened her eyes and looked again and again before she finally saw the characters, their strokes as fine as strands of hair.

They were too small! She really couldn't be blamed for not seeing them.

Had all these people been through Laozi's Eight Trigrams Furnace and gained fiery eyes and golden pupils?

"Then thank you for helping me out today." Gu Wanning pointed to a seat below hers. "Sit."

Whatever she wanted, she should say it now, so Gu Wanning wouldn't have to keep thinking about it later.

It was best to repay a favor on the spot.

Second Concubine thanked her for the seat and perched lightly on an embroidered stool. "It's only right that I show you filial respect, Madam," she said softly.

"Really?" Gu Wanning smiled meaningfully. "If you put it that way, I won't stand on ceremony."

Second Concubine: "..."

No, please do stand on ceremony.

"Madam, my father raised me as a son from childhood. I learned some arithmetic and occasionally helped manage the accounts..."

"Hmm?"

If she was pledging allegiance and hoping to do it with her professional skills, Gu Wanning couldn't afford her.

She didn't have much silver that would need someone so skilled to manage it, did she?

Were the dozen or so taels she had left worthy of that?

"I venture to guess that there are some matters in the public accounts that may be difficult to explain to the marquis..."

Oh my, she really is a professional!

She had even guessed that.

"And then?" Gu Wanning asked without betraying a thing.

"I'm willing to help you resolve your troubles, Madam."

As she spoke, Second Concubine pulled a silver note from her sleeve, rose, and placed it with utmost respect on the small table before Gu Wanning.

Gu Wanning looked down. Eight hundred taels of silver!

Good heavens!

Still waters really did run deep.

With the eighty taels from the pawnshop, wasn't Second Concubine offering her eight hundred and eighty taels?

That silver note was a little hot to handle.

Gu Wanning didn't touch it. She glanced at her with a thoughtful look, waiting for her to speak.

"Madam, my only request is—"

Sure enough, Gu Wanning thought, a businesswoman gets straight to her terms.

"I hope the marquis will come and sit with me in my courtyard." Second Concubine's cheeks reddened slightly.

Gu Wanning said, "Just sit?"

If he's only going to sit and not sleep with her, I'd feel a little uneasy taking this silver.

Add a little more, and I could throw in a baby.

Add a whole lot more, and I could even consider making it a son.

Oh, right. Xu Weibei doesn't listen to me.

But if it's just a visit, perhaps I can think of something?

Sure enough, Second Concubine had chosen exactly the right level of request: one Gu Wanning could manage if she put in some effort. Second Concubine understood her more clearly than she understood herself.