Borrowing Money and Pulling a Rickshaw

The weather in July always changed on a whim.

In a southern metropolis like Peace City.

It might be clear skies in the morning, only to turn from cloudy to sudden showers by afternoon.

A torrential downpour submerged the entire bustling city in a curtain of rain.

The sound of the rain was pattering and steady.

On the gloomy streets, pedestrians hurried along.

Jiang Jingnian stepped through puddle-pocked mud, pulling a brand-new rickshaw behind him. In the sultry heat, his sweat poured like rain, mixing with the fine droplets until he was soaked to the bone.

On the rickshaw, a brown oilcloth curtain blocked out most of the rain, yet a small amount still drifted inside. A young and pretty female student sat within, wearing an indanthrene qipao. She furrowed her delicate brows at the rain curtain outside, tucking her blue-satin embroidered book bag further back against her seat.

"Brother Jiang, can you go any faster?"

Su Wanzhi was a student at the East City Mission Girls' School, having gone home at noon to grab some reference materials needed for her afternoon classes.

She hadn't expected the weather to be uncooperative when returning to school in the afternoon, suddenly opening up into a heavy rain.

Hearing this, Jiang Jingnian turned his head, smiling deferentially. "Miss Su, I know a shortcut we can take, but the road isn't even. It's a dirt road, and there's a lot of standing water when it rains. If I pull you all the way through, the ride might not be very steady—it'll be a bit bumpy."

"It's fine, I'm in a hurry. The faster the better, and I can pay extra."

A look of anxiety showed on Su Wanzhi's face.

"You got it!"

Jiang Jingnian nodded.

Then, pulling the rickshaw, he stopped following the main road and cut through another alleyway instead.

There were certainly closer routes to the East City Mission Girls' School.

Yet that meant passing completely through the slum Stockade on the east side of the city. Unlike other districts, this Stockade belonged to the border zone between the concession and native territory, functioning as a lawless area where public order was always poor.

Let alone Su Wanzhi, even a sturdy young fellow like Jiang Jingnian dared not go there.

Still, walking the most direct route was out of the question.

Taking a shortcut that skirted slightly along the edge of the Stockade was still fine.

In a brief moment, Jiang Jingnian darted back and forth through the alleys, pulling the rickshaw toward the shortcut.

The further out they went, the more rugged the road became, until finally only a single dirt path ran straight through several entire neighborhoods.

He was physically strong and strode like flying even on the mud road.

Yet in the blink of an eye, the cuffs of his trousers were completely dyed by yellow mud.

It was also Su Wanzhi's first time coming down this rugged path. She gripped the armrests tightly to keep from being thrown out.

Enduring her discomfort, she glanced casually outside.

Among the weeds on both sides of the road, sparse and ragged makeshift awnings had been thrown together. The sides of the shelters lay open, cold wind howling inward, capable of blocking only a portion of the rain.

Beneath the awnings lay quite a few pitch-black figures, all covered by a tattered straw mat. In the rainstorm where streams of water poured down, they looked like clusters of charred tree trunks, utterly devoid of life.

"...Are the people lying in those awnings dead?"

Su Wanzhi blinked her delicate eyes, her gaze carrying a hint of nervous uncertainty.

"No."

"They're just out-of-town refugees who suffered from famines in their hometowns and fled here."

"They have no homes to return to and no work permits for Peace City, so they can only rely on the Stockade's relief to sustain their lives. Inside the Stockade, there aren't many places to shelter from the wind and rain, and some people have no choice but to lie in the roadside awnings."

Jiang Jingnian's short hair was thoroughly soaked through, his face a blur of rain and sweat as he kept his eyes fixed strictly on the road ahead, answering Miss Su's questions offhandedly.

Most of Peace City belonged to the Westerners' concessions.

And the concessions had rules and laws established by the foreigners.

Work permits were one of them.

Even a rickshaw puller or a dock porter had to possess a work permit. Furthermore, aside from the designated work listed on their permit, they were strictly prohibited from engaging in any other trades.

As for out-of-town refugees with no status or household registration.

Here, they couldn't work or labor at all. They either did illegal black-market labor or signed indentured servitude contracts to become domestic slaves for others.

As illegal laborers.

Getting caught by the foreigners' patrol squad meant certain death, and their employers would face heavy fines.

As for indentured servitude.

The lords and ladies of Peace City lacked no domestic slaves at all. People with eyes as high up as theirs—wouldn't they be picky?

How could they possibly take in these sallow, skin-and-bones out-of-town refugees who even gave off a foul odor?

"Oh!"

Hearing that they were all living people, the trace of fear in Su Wanzhi's eyes vanished, and she simply acknowledged him with a soft reply.

As for how long the displaced people from elsewhere could survive by relying on the Stockade's relief was not something she needed to consider.

That was not her concern.

About fifteen minutes passed.

Jiang Jingnian pulled the rickshaw at a brisk pace along the muddy road circling the Stockade's outskirts. After crossing the entire neighborhood, the road gradually became more passable.

After crossing another magnificent bridge connecting the two places, they arrived in the eastern part of the city.

Once they reached this area.

There were noticeably more foreign patrol officers. Even on a rainy day, their figures could be seen everywhere.

After entering the eastern city, Jiang Jingnian slowed down.

After all, the roads were filled with T-shaped old automobiles and trams. As a rickshaw puller, he naturally had to yield to and steer clear of those vehicles.

Under the rain shelters along the roadside, several women were taking shelter with their children. The children were sallow and emaciated, dressed in coarse cloth clothes covered with patches, with a stalk of straw tied around their heads.

Some of the younger women were dressed decently. They, too, wore a stalk of straw around their heads and anxiously peered outside.

Whenever they saw an old automobile passing by.

The people under the shelter would all crane their necks out, smiles plastered across their faces as they tried to attract attention.

But it was still raining. Who would roll down their car window and look over here?

So some of them settled for second best. They summoned their courage and called out to the people sitting in rickshaws.

"Miss! Gentlemen! Take a look at my child. They can endure hardship and work. They only eat two steamed buns a meal!"

Su Wanzhi heard the voice and opened the carriage curtain slightly, but after glancing at the children and women, she closed it again.

Her family had bought two more female servants last month.

They could not afford to support any more.

Jiang Jingnian said nothing. He merely pulled the rickshaw in silence, quickly leaving this street and arriving at the location of the church girls' school.

When they reached the vicinity of the girls' school gate.

Jiang Jingnian could go no farther inside. He came to a steady stop and lowered the rickshaw shafts. "Miss Su, we've arrived."

At this moment.

The rain had already eased considerably.

Summer showers were like this: they came quickly and went just as quickly.

Su Wanzhi nodded and glanced at the drizzle outside. She opened her oil-paper umbrella and stepped out of the rickshaw, then took several silver coins from her bag.

"Here, this is the fare."

Then she took the largest coin among them and handed it to Jiang Jingnian.

Looking at the fifty cents in his hand, Jiang Jingnian shook his head. "Miss Su, we agreed beforehand that the fare would only be three small foreign coins."

As a rickshaw puller in the foreign concession.

His income was somewhat higher than that of workers in the major cities of other provinces. Naturally, prices were also considerably higher.

This trip had covered nearly four kilometers, which came to only a little over thirty cents.

Yet she had actually given him fifty cents. That was almost half a silver dollar.

In Peace City's Ten-Li Foreign Quarter, half a silver dollar could buy fifteen jin of rice and was enough to pay two and a half days of his rickshaw rental fee.

"The road was slippery from the rain, and it was more difficult to travel than the route we originally agreed on. Brother Jiang, just accept it!"

Su Wanzhi shook her head and did not continue arguing with Jiang Jingnian. She turned around and walked toward the school gate with her umbrella raised.

Jiang Jingnian watched her retreating figure, wanting to speak but stopping himself. Then he wiped the water from his face with the towel over his shoulder, turned around, and pulled the rickshaw away.

Several other pretty girls arrived as well, wearing Yindanlin-style qipaos, carrying various small handbags, and holding oil-paper umbrellas as they chatted and laughed.

When they passed the laborer in a white short jacket, his sturdy arms exposed and his whole body muddy, they all frowned slightly and detoured around him.

One of the girls, whose hair was tied in two braids, blinked at Jiang Jingnian. After looking him up and down several times, she wore a disgusted expression. "How unlucky. You can even see this fellow near the school. And when I get home, I have to talk to Mother properly. He gets himself filthy every day, looking like some mud-legged peasant. How can he live in our house every day?"

This delicate-looking, graceful girl with braided hair.

Her name was Qu Lanlan. Counting their blood relation, she was Jiang Jingnian's younger female cousin—the daughter of his fifth uncle.

However, judging from the girl's surname, it was obvious that she had taken her mother's surname. Jiang Jingnian's fifth uncle had married into a family in Peace City, so among the younger generation, the two were not on the same family register in terms of clan law and were not members of the same ancestral branch.

In Qu Lanlan's eyes, Jiang Jingnian was merely a poor relative who had come from some remote place to sponge off them.

But in the girl's heart, this rural youth who could not recognize a single large character did not even qualify as a relative. He could only be called a beggar.

A "beggar" who freeloaded under their roof.

Jiang Jingnian ignored those somewhat sharp gazes. To avoid unnecessary trouble and conflict, after seeing Qu Lanlan, he neither met her eyes nor went forward to greet her.

Dragging the rickshaw, he soon disappeared from the area.

In a passing shower, pulling a rickshaw was tiring, but transport demand was higher than usual and earnings were much greater.

Setting out at six in the morning, after a whole day until near dusk, Jiang Jingnian earned over three silver dollars, nearly double his usual amount.

Holding the money, he did not hoard it, instead heading to a small sundry shop in the east of the city.

Though somewhat old, the goods here were arranged very neatly.

The shopkeeper was a middle-aged man with a handlebar mustache and a single queue hanging down his back; he sat in his chair lighting a smoke pipe, puffing away continuously, looking quite content.

"Shopkeeper Li, I'm here to repay the principal and interest for the first half of the month."

Jiang Jingnian arrived here and directly stacked four silver dollars, placing them on the counter.

This was the money he earned today, plus the few coins left from yesterday—his entire net worth, leaving not a single dime behind.

"You're here, kid Jiang. Your earning ability is quite good, eh? But while others pull carts for ten hours, you probably spend seventeen or eighteen hours a day doing it, right? Can your body take it? Don't drop dead one of these days before you've even finished paying back what you owe me."

Shopkeeper Li casually pinched the silver dollars, counted them over, and tucked them straight into his bosom.

He narrowed his slanted eyes, looking up and down at the young man before him whose white short jacket was stained completely yellow.

The other party was not old, only eighteen or nineteen, with a sturdy build and features that could be considered delicate and honest, save for an indescribable bitterness between his brows that marked him as a bone-fide mud-legged laborer from the side of the road.

Moreover, he could endure hardship even more than ordinary mud-legged laborers.

Bitter, brutal hardship.

Whether ordinary rickshaw pullers or coolies hauling cargo, at most they brought home twenty or so silver dollars a month, and that was assuming the rickshaw was their own rather than rented.

If they rented a cart from a transport agency, they also had to pay a fixed fee; after a month, having ten or so silver dollars left over meant business was pretty good.

Factor in food and drink.

When the month ended, they practically could not spare even a few coins.

Yet Jiang Jingnian was different; the shopkeeper saw it with his own eyes. The other party could pull a cart continuously for a dozen-odd hours, and ran much faster than ordinary pullers while knowing the road conditions better, like a living map. Shopkeeper Li had personally ridden in and experienced Jiang Jingnian's rickshaw.

When calculated up, his income for a month was fifty percent more than an ordinary rickshaw puller's, and when business was good, even more.

"Rest assured, Shopkeeper Li, not a single penny of the money I ought to repay you will be missing. Besides, my body is stronger than most people's and I can endure hardship a bit better, so I earn a bit more too."

Jiang Jingnian said with a heap of smiles, taking the opportunity to honestly bare his well-muscled arms, which made Shopkeeper Li nod repeatedly.

This rough fellow was honest, sincere, and physically strong; he was simply prime material for enduring hardship and working like an ox or a horse, provided he had a valid identity registration and work permit. Otherwise, if he were dragged to the miscellaneous labor market, he could fetch a good price.

Put another way, if the other party could not repay the debt, he was still worth a decent sum since he was, after all, an innocent man with a work permit.

"Shopkeeper, you say... that bronze ring I looked at last time, can I still buy it on credit?"

Jiang Jingnian looked at the shopkeeper smiling away and accompanied him with a smile of his own.

"...Hmph! You thick-browed, big-eyed little scoundrel, you haven't even paid off your last debt and now you want to owe me money again?"

Shopkeeper Li glanced sideways at this rough fellow. Although this guy looked honest, he also had some bad habits.

For some people, the bad habit was smoking opium.

For some, it was gambling in gambling dens.

Some frequented houses of pleasure.

For ordinary people, getting mixed up in any of these would sooner or later lead to financial ruin.

As for this guy, he actually liked collecting all sorts of eccentric curiosities, and even took out loans or bought them on credit. Merely liking to buy things probably did not count as a bad habit, but borrowing money to buy them definitely did.

He pondered for a moment, weighing the still-warm silver dollars in his bosom. After the other party repaid his money today, counting principal and interest, he still owed twenty-one silver dollars in loans.

Still, at this repayment capacity, he would be able to settle it in another two or three months. Extending credit for another twenty or thirty silver dollars was hardly troublesome.

The old man and the young one bargained back and forth in the shop for a long time.

Using his own "work permit" as collateral and writing out another IOU for twenty-two silver dollars, Jiang Jingnian secured the antique ring that the shopkeeper claimed was left behind by former dynastic aristocracy.

The antique was indeed an antique, but it did not belong to any former dynastic aristocracy.

As for the shopkeeper, to avoid missing a bargain himself, he had long since had every single item appraised by knowledgeable acquaintances.

This bronze ring was worth twelve or thirteen silver dollars at most. He listed it for sale at thirty-one silver dollars, bargained down with Jiang Jingnian to twenty-two, and with the upcoming interest added on, the total price came out to around twenty-six silver dollars.

Still pure profit.

Yet Jiang Jingnian also felt he had made a pure profit.

He bought it on a loan.

Could that not count as pure profit?

Besides, the money he owed was not limited to Shopkeeper Li's establishment alone.

Borrowing financial insights from his past life, he mortgaged his work permit everywhere, displayed his earning capacity, engaged in all sorts of advanced consumption, and robbed Peter to pay Paul.

Though a rickshaw puller's work permit coupled with his earning capacity could not actually borrow all that much money—at most managing a few dozen silver dollars like with Shopkeeper Li—he could not help the fact that there were so many such shops!

He had already taken out loans and turnovers across more than a dozen places. Furthermore, to avoid any sudden collapse, for the past month and a half he had borrowed money from shops and restaurants in different city districts and different industries. Even if it were discovered one day, it would not happen overnight.

His strategy centered entirely on time differences and information gaps.

After all, he currently repaid loans quickly, held good credit, and borrowed in small amounts; who had the leisure to deliberately spend great energy investigating everywhere?

[Name: Jiang Jingnian]
[Trait: Taotie]
[Technique: Tai Chi Nourishing Life Technique (Mastery)]
[Archetype: Ordinary Person (96%)]

Jiang Jingnian squatted in the corner of an alley eating a mutton flatbread with his rickshaw parked beside him. His expression held none of the usual honesty and bitter wretchedness, leaving only sheer indifference.

Staring at the panel before him, he pulled the antique ring engraved with a flower bud from his bosom.

[Flower-Carved Chrysanthemum Ring: One of the heirloom treasures of a prominent family in Chen State, harboring a trace of Metal Nature, can be devoured and fused into cultivation techniques]

A flash crossed his eyes, and within a perspective visible only to him, a trait column emerged beside the ring.

Then he gently grasped it.

Refining it in an instant.