"This formation looks familiar. Could it be them?"
Yan Jing, watching the wooden carts race past, could not help but smile.
"You know them?"
Zhao Huai turned his head, his face full of doubt.
"Do you remember what I told you on the day you got married?" Yan Jing smiled faintly.
Zhao Huai thought back carefully and seriously, then shook his head. "I don't remember."
Yan Jing was not annoyed. He clearly knew that was just the kind of person Zhao Huai was.
So he repeated what he had said that day.
"A week ago, I received word from Yan City. A cunning wealthy merchant secretly transported a cartload of stolen goods. He went to many pawnshops, but none dared buy them. It was all very mysterious; no one knew what was inside."
"I told you then that if you closed this deal, you would not need to work for half a year."
Only then did Zhao Huai remember, and he could not help questioning him.
"How did you know that crooked merchant was transporting a cartload of stolen goods?"
Yan Jing laughed soundlessly. "Naturally, I heard it from my merchant friend. This caravan has traveled south all the way and barely found any buyers. This time, he may well be coming specifically to find you."
Zhao Huai chuckled. "No other pawnshop dares take it in, yet you are certain I can pull it off?"
The corner of Yan Jing's lips curled up, his expression half-smiling and half-not.
"You brat, did you think I didn't know? You pretend to be poor on the surface, and your pawnshop looks shabby, but you have a sharp eye. You have taken in plenty of good things and sold them all in the Black Market. You have been raking in money for years. Otherwise, where did all your wealth come from?"
Zhao Huai smiled but said nothing.
Because Yan Jing was telling the truth. There was a reason he had opened a pawnshop rather than a brothel, tavern, boxing hall, or some other business.
First of all, besides divining fortune and misfortune, his Golden Coin had another function: making money.
Once the goods were sold, there was no backing out; money and goods were exchanged cleanly.
After running a pawnshop for three years, Zhao Huai naturally had his own basic principles for doing business.
Good things, keep them.
Bad things, do not accept them.
Those had always been his rules.
All he needed to do was flip the Golden Coin, and he would know whether an item should be accepted or not.
What pawnshops feared most was taking in money-losing goods—items that could not be resold, leaving them to do nothing but business at a loss. That was how shops went under.
Then there was accepting things that should never be touched: taboo objects that could bring down the authorities' suppression, or invite some unknown force to wipe out the entire household.
Zhao Huai had heard of an incident in a neighboring prefecture. A massive First-Rank Pawnshop with more than ten branches had paid a high price for a bizarre magical artifact of exquisite shape. The very next day, every clerk in the entire shop was dead.
Only afterward did they discover that it was a Soul Weapon forged by a Demonic Path Cultivator, meant to reap lives without a sound. It was simply too tragic for words.
There were also countless accidents like buying grave robbers' goods and being held accountable by the imperial court, or selling an ancestral jade treasure only to be robbed by thieves immediately afterward.
But with the Golden Coin, Zhao Huai did not need to worry about such problems. He could buy things without concern; his shop would not collapse, and he could even make it bigger and stronger.
He dared say that his was the largest pawnshop in all of Jinzhou. If even he would not accept something, then no one would.
"Fine, then. If there's nothing else, I'll be leaving first."
Since Zhao Huai had already achieved his purpose, he did not linger at the clinic. Turning to bid Yan Jing farewell, he prepared to return to the pawnshop.
"Once you break through, don't forget to treat me to wine," Yan Jing called after his retreating back.
Zhao Huai did not turn around, only waved in understanding.
"Next time for sure."
At this moment, out on the street.
Before the tightly wrapped wooden carts stood an incomparably luxurious carriage adorned with pearls and jewels.
Inside sat a middle-aged man no more than forty, leaning against cushions embroidered with famed Sichuan brocade. His cheekbones were fleshy, his forehead protruding and gleaming, and his eyes glittered sharply. One look was enough to tell that he was an old fox, crafty to the bone.
He was the owner of this batch of wooden carts.
"Master Huang, do you truly intend to sell all these things before you will rest?"
A middle-aged man dressed as a guard, holding a sword in one hand, could not help asking.
"What? Is there something wrong with that?"
Master Huang lifted his eyes carelessly and spoke in an unhurried tone.
"But we agreed before that if we were selling these relics, we would sell them cleanly—either sell them all, or sell none of them. If you mix the genuine with the fake and sell them cart by cart like this, I'm afraid no one will be willing to pay."
The guard tried earnestly to persuade him.
"Do you know how to do business, or do I?"
Master Huang said blandly.
"Of course Master Huang does, but these things are mine, after all."
The guard gave an awkward laugh and tried to defend himself.
Master Huang sneered. "They are things I bought from your hands, including you yourself. If I had not saved you back then, you would have starved to death long ago."
"And look at you now. With your former identity as a soldier, could you have found such respectable work?"
The guard sighed helplessly. "But these are relics of the former dynasty. There are few people willing to take them in to begin with, and plenty of pawnshops have already turned us away along the road."
"That is not something you need to worry about. I have my own methods."
The corner of Master Huang's mouth lifted into an inexplicable smile, as though he were plotting something.
The guard looked at the bustling streets of tiled buildings flashing past outside the carriage window and could not help falling into a daze.
Time flew like an arrow; in the blink of an eye, three years had passed.
Who could have imagined that the ruined walls and broken remnants of the past had all been rebuilt, transformed into something so beautiful?
He had once been an ordinary soldier of the Great Yan Dynasty. He fought desperately on the battlefield, accumulated merit, won his superior's favor, and rose step by step until he became a martial officer of the Imperial Palace guard.
He had thought he could enjoy the rest of his life, but only a few years later, rumors spread that Great Yan was about to fall. Rebel armies sprang up like bamboo shoots after rain.
Great Yan's main forces suffered defeat after defeat. The rebels fought straight into the capital, and he was ordered to defend the city.
But just as he fought at the capital's gates, holding the line for a day and a night, someone suddenly shouted, "The Emperor has surrendered! Kneel and you will be spared!"
All his efforts were reduced to ashes.
That day, the army outside the city poured in without end. He ran madly toward the Imperial Palace.
His mind was filled with incomprehension, with only one sentence echoing within it.
We ministers were ready to fight to the death—why had Your Majesty surrendered first?! Everything had happened too quickly. By the time he reached the Imperial Palace, word came again that "the Emperor is dead."
His mind jolted, and his thoughts turned once more.
He had to live!
So he mingled among the rebel troops and entered the Imperial Palace to plunder it. He took away all manner of things, all so that he could live a happier life in those chaotic times.
Who would have thought that those things would instead become his burden? He could neither sell them nor bear to throw them away.
After escaping the capital, he had fallen into utter poverty and could only survive on others' charity.
Even many years later, when he looked back on those frenzied memories, he still felt an inexplicable bitterness.
"We're here, Master."
"This is Jinzhou's pawnshop, called Huai Pawnshop."
"Mm."
Master Huang answered softly, then slowly stepped out of the carriage.
Before you continue