Ye Heng was woken by a ledger being slammed down.
Not onto the table.
The thick old ledger had landed with a solid thump beside his legs, over the quilt.
His eyes flew open. The words of thanks to the young master of Gold Pattern Workshop from last night still lingered in his dream, but his father Ye Zhengchuan's face was already before him.
"Where's the money?"
Ye Heng was wide awake in an instant.
Zhou Fu stood by the door, head lowered, a red cord pinched in his hand.
Ye Heng looked at him, and Zhou Fu quickly turned his face away. He had tried to talk him out of it last night and said everything he ought to have said. Now that people from both parties had come to collect their balances this morning, he could hardly conjure ten gold coins out of thin air for the young master.
Ye Zhengchuan opened the ledger and pointed to a line.
"This sum. You said you'd deliver it today."
Ye Heng didn't answer.
"Now they're here, asking me why there's only this much left. I'd like to ask too: who did you give the money to?"
"I borrowed ten gold first."
"Borrowed?"
Ye Zhengchuan gave a laugh, but there was no smile on his face.
"When did you ask me?"
Ye Heng's throat bobbed.
Last night, he had thought ten gold wasn't a sum he couldn't pay back. His father had so much stock on hand, and Shopkeeper Ge still owed the balance. Settling just one payment would have been enough to put it back.
But now that his father was standing beside the bed, every line he turned up in the ledger seemed to have someone waiting to be paid.
The goods on the shelves weren't money yet.
And someone saying they'd settle in a few days didn't mean they were willing to settle today.
Ye Zhengchuan put his phone down in front of him.
Someone eager for gossip had already taken a screenshot of the message about the Gold Pattern Workshop's young master sending a gift last night. Even craftsmen they knew had seen it.
"You certainly enjoyed spending it. One word of thanks from a young lady was worth ten gold to you?"
"It wasn't ten gold."
As soon as Ye Heng said it, he wished he could cover his own mouth.
Ye Zhengchuan stared at him.
"There's more?"
"My own eight gold, too..."
The room fell silent for a moment.
Even Zhou Fu breathed more quietly.
In the end, Ye Zhengchuan didn't raise the ledger again. Instead, he set it heavily on the table, then turned and sat down.
"I haven't managed to make the name your grandfather left us any greater over the years, but I haven't used the craftsmen's wages to gamble on a word of praise from anyone either. Look at you. You've learned faster than I did."
Those words were harder to hear than a scolding.
Ye Heng lowered his head and saw his phone peeking out beside the corner of the quilt.
Messages were still popping up.
Last night, he had been so busy counting how many times his name was read out that he hadn't even paid attention to the people visiting his profile. When he opened it now, he found he had gained over two hundred followers. Some asked whether he would be going again tonight, some asked what Gold Pattern Workshop sold, and others teased him, asking whether the young master was so rich that even the shop's door studs were made of gold.
Ye Heng stared at the last comment, then suddenly raised his head.
"Father, we don't have to give the goods to Shopkeeper Ge."
Ye Zhengchuan didn't even lift his eyelids.
"I can say that too. Find me someone willing to pay cash."
"We can sell them on the phone."
"Han Chi can sell because people are waiting to see what he makes. What do you have? That name from last night?"
The question stopped Ye Heng short.
After a moment, he actually nodded.
"That name from last night."
He handed over the phone and showed his father the comments one by one.
"They all want to come and laugh at me now. They want to know what Gold Pattern Workshop's young master looks like and where his money comes from. So let them look. First get them to stay, then show them the goods."
Ye Zhengchuan finally looked at the screen.
More than two hundred followers.
That wasn't much in a city, but on their narrow lane, which was always empty, it was enough to crowd the entrance.
"What are you going to sell?"
"Finished strap buckles, and that batch of copper clasps."
Ye Heng answered quickly this time.
It wasn't as though he had never managed the workshop. He simply didn't want to spend every day fawning over Shopkeeper Ge as his father arranged. He knew better than anyone which items were hard to sell and which were already finished.
"Don't take the big pieces. The display window can't hold those. They have to be finished small items. Strap buckles come in pairs and can be used on bracers or leg guards. Let people put the clasps on leather cases. Phones are selling well, so the clasps can sell along with them."
Ye Zhengchuan picked up a sample and hefted it in his palm.
"The price?"
"Four silver for a pair of wrist buckles, two silver for one clasp."
Ye Zhengchuan raised his head.
"Do you know how much Shopkeeper Ge sells them for?"
"I do. He puts them in a different box and sells them for seven or eight silver. He takes our goods and only offers a little over two silver a pair, and lately he's been trying to push the price down even further."
Ye Heng picked up another sample, snapped it shut with a click, and handed it to his father.
"If we sell them here for four silver, even after the platform takes its cut, it's still better than giving them to him. People can use them as soon as they buy them. They won't have to wait for him to change the box."
Ye Zhengchuan didn't agree immediately.
He first tried each of the samples, then opened the ledger and went over the labor and material costs again. Ye Heng waited beside him, without urging his father to decide quickly as he had before.
This time, he really was trying to find a way out in that old ledger.
After a long while, Ye Zhengchuan put the samples down.
"For the people who came to collect their balances this morning, I'll let them take what we can pay for now. We've agreed to make up the rest tonight. If you take the remaining money to send flowers again..."
"I won't."
Ye Heng cut him off too hastily, then hurriedly lowered his voice.
"No flowers today. We'll sell the goods first."
He turned to look at Zhou Fu.
"Bring out that clean tabletop. Let's go to the front."
Zhou Fu didn't move. He looked at Ye Zhengchuan first.
The old man kept a stern face, but finally nodded.
In Suotuo City, Lu Ye had just returned from Shrek when he saw a new application in the backend.
The young master of Gold Pattern Workshop.
The name from last night had appeared again today.
This time, though, it wasn't a gift. He wanted to open a display window and asked whether he could show people the finished goods and talk about them at the same time, like the Cloud Sound Workshop.
Lu Ye watched the short sample video the other party had sent.
The outer edges of the strap buckle were rounded smooth. Once fastened, its thin tongue held the strap snugly in place. Two leather straps of different thicknesses had deliberately been placed beside it, so customers wouldn't buy it only to discover their straps wouldn't fit through.
The item itself was nothing unusual.
But the way it was presented was already somewhat interesting.
Lu Ye checked the finished goods against the current trial-sale requirements, then asked the other party to state the specifications clearly before replying. He didn't work out how Ye Heng should attract people, asking only one question.
"When are you planning to start?"
"This afternoon."
"Can you make it in time?"
"Any later and there'll be nothing left in the pot at home."
Lu Ye's brow moved when he saw that.
The reply had come so quickly that it didn't quite seem like an offhand joke.
A little later, Ye Heng posted a new video.
There was no zither and no young lady.
He stood in front of a row of shelves, with traces of a sleepless night still visible beneath his eyes, but in his hand was a fistful of small, gleaming buckles.
"Those who asked what Gold Pattern Workshop sells last night, come take a look this afternoon. My father thinks I can't do anything except spend money. Come and be my witnesses."
He paused, then held one of the clasps closer.
"You won't be coming for nothing. At the start, I'll give away twenty of these, for phone cases. If you want to see whether all I can do is send flowers, come along too."
The video ended there.
After watching it, Lu Ye finally laughed aloud.
Last night, he had put his name before other people's eyes. Today, he was actually thinking of using that same name to call those people back.
This young master hadn't spent all his time regretting it, at least.
And beneath the video, a comment Lu Ye recognized soon appeared.
Stove Old Han: "If the clasp isn't sturdy, I'll say so in front of everyone."
Ye Heng replied just as quickly.
"Come on over. I'll bring out the thinnest leather strap for you to try it on."
After posting that, Ye Heng stood in front of the camera again, preparing to add the time the stream would start.
On the first take, he spoke too fast.
On the second, Zhou Fu sneezed in the background.
By the third take, Ye Zhengchuan had come over without anyone noticing. He reached out and turned the clasp Ye Heng was holding around.
"You're holding it backward. You can't see the catch from this side."
Ye Heng looked down, and sure enough, he was.
He had been so busy thinking he should stand straighter and speak louder that he had blocked the most important thing.
Zhou Fu stood to one side holding the tabletop. After holding it in for a long while, he asked, "Young master, should you give an opening, like that young lady did last night?"
Ye Heng glared at him.
"She played the zither to open. Should I open by fiddling with a buckle for everyone?"
But Ye Zhengchuan said, "Fiddling with it for them to see is better than standing there saying you're capable."
Ye Heng glanced at his father and didn't argue further. He picked up the old leather strap on the table, fitted the buckle once, then took it off and fitted it again.
By the third time, he finally had a feel for which steps to pause at and which side to show the camera.
His father stood beside him and watched, then leveled the wooden shim beneath the table leg for him.
Ye Heng's lips moved, but in the end he said only one thing.
"Father, don't leave this afternoon."
Ye Zhengchuan didn't look up.
"All my goods are here. Where else could I go?"