"Did you think the wine was too expensive, Madam?"
Wu Xian waved for the messenger to leave.
The principal wife clicked her tongue. "Forty-six taels a jar, and you still don't think it's expensive?"
She had managed the household accounts for years and kept track of every penny coming in and going out. She knew the price and quality of everything. Even the finest wine in the household's cellar cost no more than twenty-odd taels a jar!
More expensive wine was either very old, extremely rare, or tribute wine offered to the Sovereign.
You couldn't buy that sort of wine for a hundred taels a jar!
Wu Xian smiled. "It's not expensive. Not one bit."
"What kind of wine is it?"
The principal wife grew more curious.
"Of course, it's the kind of fine wine that no scholar or martial artist in the world can resist." Wu Xian took the cloth she offered, dried his feet, changed into a new pair of socks, and sat beside her. In the casual tone of someone chatting at home, he said, "I thought that once Wen Zhu had it in his hands, he wouldn't stop until he'd sold it for eighty or a hundred taels. I never expected him to wrap things up at just forty-six. That was a surprise."
The principal wife couldn't make sense of Wu Xian's attitude.
Wasn't selling a jar of wine for an exorbitant price exactly the sort of thing Wu Xian abhorred? Why did he sound disappointed?
She asked, "Isn't this a good thing?"
Wu Xian leaned languidly against the armrest. "How could it be a good thing? Wen Zhu sold a jar, and now he has to pay hefty market and liquor taxes. The less he sells it for, the less tax he pays. The value