Volume One: Days in the Shantytown - Even Immortals Rig the Game (Part Two)

"Besides, we're already in the final month. The magazine comes out once a week. If you want your sweetheart to win without it looking rigged, the votes will have to be spread evenly across all four weeks. That means I'll have to descend to the Lower Realm again and again. Do you know how much risk I'd be taking?"

Du Lengning raised his hands in surrender. "All right, all right, Old Luo. Stop calling her my sweetheart. There's no chance for us. I just want to help her, that's all. Tell me how much immortal jade you want."

Expressionless, Luo Qian held up five fingers. "For your sake, Young Master Du, I'm willing to take the risk. I won't even charge for my own labor. Just give me five million standard Immortal Jade."

"What!" Du Lengning shouted. "That's your price for my sake?" Luo Qian gave him a sympathetic look. "Young Master Du, you really have no idea what things cost in the Mortal Realm. One million three hundred thousand would buy a Lamborghini sports car..."

Du Lengning thought it over, then shook his head. "Forget it. I don't have that much money right now."

Three days later.

"Old Luo, just help me out. These past two days, I played through that game again as the character she portrayed. The more I played, the more I liked her..."

Luo Qian sighed. "Young Master Du, it's not that I don't want to help, but you can't expect me to lose money." Du Lengning thought for a moment. "I don't have that much on hand. I'll pay you two million standard Immortal Jade for now, and the rest in installments!" He had learned that new term from Luo Qian.

Luo Qian nodded. "No problem. One million standard Immortal Jade a month, paid off in three months. Deal?" Du Lengning gritted his teeth. "Deal!"

Luo Qian returned to his cave dwelling on Toad Mountain, chiseled a small piece from the Mirror Stone marker beside his entrance, tucked it into his robe, and descended to the Lower Realm.

In the Mortal Realm, Luo Qian sat in the VIP room of a well-known Jewelry Shop, wearing a fashionable Gucci jacket and sunglasses. An elderly man in reading glasses held a magnifying glass over the piece of Mirror Stone, examining it closely.

On one point, at least, Luo Qian had not deceived Du Lengning: he really did not have that much money. To raise one million three hundred thousand, he would have to part with something precious.

Mirror Stone lay everywhere in the Immortal Realm. If pig farming were allowed there, the pigsties would surely be built from it. But in the Mortal Realm, it was a treasure rarely seen!

The old man studied it for a long while, frowned in thought, picked it up for another look, then frowned again. He still could not make up his mind. Glancing at Luo Qian, he wondered where the young man had come from.

Designer clothes from head to toe, none of them cheap. He looked like a wastrel who had stolen a family treasure to sell. The old man decided to be cautious. He returned the stone to Luo Qian with both hands and smiled. "I'm terribly sorry, sir. My eyes are not what they used to be, and I truly can't tell what kind of gemstone this is. Could you give us some time to have a few experts examine it?" Luo Qian said, "Fine. I'll come back in three days." "Why don't we book you a room at the Garden Hotel while you wait?" Luo Qian shook his head. "I don't have time."

He had barely walked out with the Mirror Stone when the old man tapped on the wooden panel beside him. A capable-looking middle-aged man emerged from the next room. At a glance from the old man, he nodded and quietly followed Luo Qian.

The old man snatched up the telephone and dialed a number, his beard trembling with excitement. "Boss, there's no mistake. It's Jade Marrow, Jade Marrow! Long Hair House is finally going to have a piece of Jade Marrow... Yes, yes. I'll be right there."

The old man left the store and climbed into a black Buick waiting outside. It carried him out of the city and up to a villa on a hillside in the suburbs.

"Elder Xiao, are you sure of what you saw?" asked a plump, fair-skinned middle-aged man in a pale pink shirt. Elder Xiao nodded, still excited. "Absolutely. I've discreetly examined the two pieces of Jade Marrow at Deshengji and Ruifuxiang several times. I can't be mistaken."

The middle-aged man held a dark brown cigar between his fingers. He took several hard puffs, then nodded. "Elder Xiao, I trust your eyes. I'll have someone investigate that young man at once. We must get that Jade Marrow, but we'd better not invite trouble over it." "That was my thought too. That's why I didn't offer to buy it on the spot. I used a delaying tactic instead..."

"Knock, knock..." Someone rapped at the door. The middle-aged man snapped, "Didn't I say we weren't to be disturbed?" A subordinate in a black suit cracked the door open just enough to be heard. "Boss, Ganzi, the man Elder Xiao sent to follow him, is back."

Elder Xiao said at once, "Let him in."

Ganzi was the capable middle-aged man. Usually cautious and reliable, he had earned both the boss's and Elder Xiao's regard. This time, though, he appeared before them drenched in sweat. The moment he entered, he dropped to his knees with a thud. "Boss, Elder Xiao, I'm useless. I... I lost him..."

The boss and Elder Xiao exchanged startled looks. They knew what Ganzi could do. If even he had lost the man, his abilities were easy to imagine!

The boss, however, breathed a sigh of relief. "Then we have nothing to worry about. A man with skills like that won't be some spoiled young heir. We can make this deal with confidence..."

Three days later, Luo Qian arrived as promised with the Mirror Stone. Elder Xiao had indeed assembled several old experts, who put on a show of examining it together. Luo Qian watched them coldly from the side. Ever since he had noticed someone tailing him after he left the store last time, he had known what they were up to.

He had no intention of calling them out. They could think whatever they liked, as long as they were willing to pay.

"Well, sir?" Luo Qian asked with a smile. Elder Xiao nodded appreciatively. "A fine piece, a fine piece. We'll take it. How much were you hoping to get?"

Luo Qian smiled faintly and held up five fingers. "Five hundred thousand?" Elder Xiao ventured. Luo Qian casually brushed a hand over his clothes. "Sir, the clothes I'm wearing are worth seventy or eighty thousand. I'm no country bumpkin who's never seen real money. Don't try to fool me..." Elder Xiao flushed and laughed awkwardly. "Ha, just joking. How could a piece of jade this beautiful be worth only five hundred thousand? Here's my final offer: five million!"

"Sir," Luo Qian said, "I hear Long Hair House is a century-old establishment, but business doesn't seem to be thriving here. I wonder why?" Elder Xiao gave an offhand smile. "Business has its ups and downs."

"But I've heard your competitors, Deshengji and Ruifuxiang, each acquired a piece of jade marrow. They've been using them to promote themselves and squeeze Long Hair House. Is that true?"

Elder Xiao's expression changed. He had not expected the young man to be so shrewd. He nodded to Luo Qian. "Please wait a moment. This is too large a sum for me to decide on my own. I need to speak with the boss." He went into the back and made a call. When he returned, he said, "Thirty-five million. That's all the cash we can free up right now. As you said, business really hasn't been good lately."

Luo Qian's gaze fell on the hall outside the VIP reception room. At its center, amid a layout arranged in nine sections, stood an extravagant square cabinet of pure redwood. It had been carved into a seven-tier pagoda, with several precious jewels displayed on each tier. The higher the tier, the fewer the jewels. At the very top hung a jadeite pendant priced at sixteen million yuan.

Gold had a price; jade was priceless. That was especially true of costly jadeite. Prosperous times often sparked a craze for collecting, and this pendant was superb: a concentrated green like clear water, the size of a hen's egg. In a collector's eyes, sixteen million was hardly expensive. It was Long Hair House's crowning treasure.

Precious as it was, beside the jade marrow owned by the other two stores, it was a common woman standing next to a princess.

Luo Qian pointed at it. "Thirty-five million, plus that jadeite pendant." Elder Xiao looked troubled. "Sir, that..." Luo Qian cut him off impatiently. "You know exactly how important this stone is to Long Hair House. I won't budge from fifty million. Accepting goods to make up the difference is already my limit. If you don't want it, China is vast. There are plenty of merchants with the resources and ambition to challenge the three leading Jewelry Shops. They won't think fifty million is too much."

Elder Xiao was alarmed. The other two houses had squeezed Long Hair House mercilessly. If it could not even hold on to its position as one of the country's three leading Jewelry Shops, the signboard their ancestors had left them would truly be ruined.

"Wait here. I'll ask again." Elder Xiao hurried back inside. This time he was gone a long while. When he emerged and saw Luo Qian's impatient expression, he quickly said, "The boss has agreed. We can complete the paperwork right away!"

Luo Qian left his account details and the Mirror Stone, and took the jadeite pendant with him. Three days later, he descended to check his account. Sure enough, thirty-five million had been deposited.

The rest was simple. Luo Qian hired some people to buy the magazines directly from the distributor, fill in Number Thirty-Five on every ballot, and mail out several thousand ballots each day.

The verification codes on the ballots did not go to waste, either. They mailed the ballots and kept the codes, so twenty-five thousand magazines were enough for fifty thousand votes. He saved half the cost. And for the rest of the month, he barely needed to descend to the Lower Realm; people below would naturally take care of everything for him. Money makes the world go round—even money belonging to immortals is still money.

And for that entire month, he hardly had to descend at all. People below handled everything for him. Money could make even ghosts turn a millstone, and an immortal's money was still money.