Over the next few days, Zhang Xing kept claiming illness and staying home, while dreaming up ways to donate all that silk. This drew frequent visits from the Daoist temples in the surrounding wards, seeking alms, but it did nothing to stop the money in his house from growing, or him from feeling increasingly uneasy.
It really did keep growing. Another three or four days passed, the court's various offices formally resumed work, and all the shops reopened. Naturally, the Bai Clan's people delivered everyone's profits from this trip to Jiangdong, which had been kept at the Bai Clan estate in Chenliu.
What the others received was generally gold, silk, and horses. They stashed the gold and silk at home, kept the two best horses for themselves, and sold the rest in the Northern Market for ready silver. It all looked clean enough.
But hadn't Zhang White Ribbon been greedy?
Taking advantage of his position, he had insisted on extorting a share fit for someone of high standing. He kept two horses tethered behind the rear veranda, adding to Qin Bao's workload, and handed the others over to Yan Qing in the Northern Market to sell. Leaving those aside, the real problem was that the paintings, calligraphy, and treasures were all famous throughout the realm. Now that they were in his hands, they were nothing but hot potatoes.
There was no helping it. Once a man's reputation grew too large for him to shelter beneath it, anything he acquired seemed liable to breed disaster.
Besides that, there was another job that should have fallen to him: delivering the gifts prepared on this trip to the various offices within the Directorate, to keep everyone from growing jealous. Now that, too, had become awkward.
In the end, they had no choice but