Merits and faults do not cancel out

"Widow Sun!" Song Zhao clenched his teeth as he looked at Sun Qin and could not help asking, "Is this your idea, or Lord Fox Immortal's..."

"That's enough! Village Chief Song, you've said quite enough!"

Seeing that Song Zhao was trying to drag Yin Yunze into the matter again, Sun Qin had no desire to keep arguing. She cut him off. "If you don't want the grain, you can leave now! But those ten taels of gold were your offering to Lord Yi Yun. You aren't planning to ask for them back, are you?!"

With that, Sun Qin had made herself perfectly clear.

Either he took the five thousand jin of rice home, or he got lost empty-handed.

"Fine! Very fine! Absolutely wonderful!" Song Zhao was so furious that he laughed. Looking at Sun Qin, he snarled, "Widow Sun! I underestimated you before! I never imagined a husband-cursing bitch like you could be so black-hearted!"

Judging others by his own standards, Song Zhao believed that Sun Qin had taken advantage of the lack of communication between the two sides to pocket some of his gold.

Sun Qin was perfectly willing to carry the blame for this.

After all, she knew very well that her greatest value lay in taking the stains Yin Yunze did not want on himself.

But willing as she was to take the blame, being cursed so viciously still left her chest heaving with anger.

Song Zhao's tirade brought both old scores and new grievances flooding back to her.

That day, Song Zhao had joined forces with Spirit Medium Wang to lead people in seizing Zhao Wan, and there was also the blow from his walking stick that remained fresh in Sun Qin's memory even now.

"Thank you for the compliment!" Sun Qin ground out. Beneath her mask, the corners of her mouth curled into a chilling smile. "I'm honored by your praise, Village Chief Song! Since you've been so complimentary, I should return the favor. From now on, when you come here, ten taels of gold will only get you four thousand jin of rice!"

"You!"

Song Zhao's expression changed at once, and his earlier fury vanished. Every bit lost was bright, gleaming silver!

In his panic, Song Zhao could only demand, "What you're saying—is this Lord Fox Immortal's..."

"No, this is my decision!" Sun Qin glanced at Song Zhao, then swept her gaze over the people behind him. She called out, "From now on, anyone who comes here with Village Chief Song to exchange for grain will only get four thousand jin of rice for ten taels of gold!"

Watching Sun Qin and Song Zhao tear off all pretense of civility, the other villagers, who usually loved to stir up a commotion, fell as silent as cicadas in winter, terrified of getting caught in the crossfire.

After all, one wrong move could affect how much grain they could exchange for in the future!

To everyone's surprise, as Sun Qin spoke, a layer of the rice piled on the ground vanished.

A careful count showed that exactly twenty sacks were gone, no more and no less—a thousand jin!

Seeing this, anyone who was not a complete fool could tell that Lord Fox Immortal was backing Sun Qin up through his actions.

As a reward for her willingly taking the blame for him, Yin Yunze did not mind helping Sun Qin vent her anger.

After all, Sun Qin was one of his own now. If Yin Yunze did not help her, who would?

Sun Qin's eyes lit up at the sight.

"You..."

Song Zhao, by contrast, could scarcely remain standing.

Trembling all over, he had to lean on the walking stick he had previously used as a mere decoration to keep from falling.

Seeing this, Sun Qin felt that she had finally vented her pent-up anger. After some thought, however, she hesitantly spoke up to strengthen her advantage. "Oh, right, everyone. When you go back, you can tell the households that have nothing left to put in their pots. If they're truly in difficulty, I can plead with Lord Fox Immortal to let them have grain on credit!"

The sturdy men's eyes lit up when they heard Sun Qin say this.

Song Zhao's face, on the other hand, grew even more ashen.

The same principle applied: control the grain, and you controlled everyone.

Now that Sun Qin was the one in control of the grain, she naturally had the others in her grasp as well.

With a few simple words, she had destroyed the prestige Song Zhao had built up over decades in a single stroke.

No matter how capable you are, Village Chief Song, can you lend every one of our households a few hundred jin of grain?!

Yet the victory Sun Qin had achieved would have been difficult even for Yin Yunze to accomplish had he stepped in himself.

After all, Yin Yunze was a fox immortal, and the belief that those who were not of one's own kind must harbor different intentions was deeply rooted in many people's hearts.

No matter how much goodwill Yin Yunze showed, he was not human. Since he was not human, it was difficult for everyone to accept him completely.

If he ever used something like this to hold people in his grasp, most would probably say nothing, but it would still be a thorn in their hearts to one degree or another.

Sun Qin, on the other hand, was human and a member of the village, so she had no such concern.

When Sun Qin wielded this weapon, most people saw only the benefits they could gain by following her.

"Move!"

Hunched over, Song Zhao no longer had the confidence to argue with Sun Qin. He staggered as he directed the men to start carrying the grain. If they did not leave quickly, who knew how much more grain Sun Qin would dock them?

What enraged Song Zhao even more, however, was that the men all glanced at Sun Qin and only began moving after making sure she had not objected.

Truth be told, when Yin Yunze saw Song Zhao's figure, looking every bit his age at the end, he could not help feeling a little sorry for him.

Still, pity aside, Yin Yunze did not regret it.

After all, had not the influence Song Zhao lost passed into his own hands through Sun Qin?

"Lord Yi Yun!" After Song Zhao and his group left, Sun Qin moved her fox mask aside and returned to the fox immortal temple. With a thud, she dropped to her knees. "Please forgive me for making promises at random just now! I'll find a way to handle it. I absolutely won't let it affect your reputation!"

In the instructions Yin Yunze had just given her, he had not granted her the authority to offer grain on credit. Sun Qin had made it up on the spot purely to increase her own authority.

However, Sun Qin had left herself plenty of room. She had only said she could help plead for grain on credit, and she had added a condition.

If someone really asked for help, Sun Qin could simply refuse!

Having seen her reduce the grain allowance by twenty percent with a single sentence, the others would not dare say anything if Sun Qin refused to help them get grain on credit.

Even so, while she could explain it that way, it did not change the fact that Sun Qin had overstepped by acting on her own authority.

Such overstepping could obviously give offense very easily.

If she encountered someone suspicious, would he believe she had really only told a lie because one thing led to another?

Or would he think she felt entitled by her accomplishments and wanted to use this as a pretext to angle for power?

"Lord Yi Yun, please forgive Mother!"

Though Zhao Wan did not know what had happened, she hurriedly knelt and pleaded for her mother when she saw Sun Qin admitting fault.

"You acted on your own authority. You do deserve punishment."

Even if Sun Qin had not meant to, a mistake was still a mistake. Since she had brought it up herself, Yin Yunze naturally would not turn a blind eye.

If he did not point it out when he should, and waited until she grew arrogant from his favor and caused a disaster, it would be too late for regrets.

Without rules, nothing could be set in order. Some rules had to be established precisely so that both sides could work together better.

Of course, as far as Yin Yunze was concerned, this was not really a major issue.

After all, Sun Qin could say people could have grain on credit, but whether they actually received it was still up to Yin Yunze.

Yin Yunze's advantage over Sun Qin was that if he did not give her something, she could not seize it even if she wanted to.

At the end of the day, Sun Qin had merely borrowed his name.

So after pointing it out, Yin Yunze did not intend to make a real issue of it. He soon continued, "However, considering this is your first mistake, and that you performed well in carrying out my instructions, you have also earned merit."

For a moment, Sun Qin felt as though her emotions were on a roller coaster. At last, she heard Yin Yunze say, "Faults deserve punishment, and merits deserve rewards. Sun Qin, I'll give you an opportunity to choose for yourself. Do you want your merits and faults to cancel each other out? Or should merits be merits and faults be faults?"

"Please decide, Lord Yi Yun. I won't have the slightest complaint!"

Faced with this choice, Sun Qin made the smart choice, as she always did.

Sometimes, what was placed before you was not really a choice, but a way to gauge your attitude.

And the best attitude was to have no attitude of your own and leave everything to the leader's attitude.

"Good. In that case, I'll decide." Looking at Sun Qin, Yin Yunze said softly, "As punishment for acting on your own authority, you are not allowed to eat dinner tonight... and as a reward for carrying out my orders, I grant you a credit allowance of five thousand jin of grain."

Hearing Yin Yunze's punishment, which he had raised high only to set down gently, and the reward that could be considered a share of his authority, Sun Qin could not help breathing a sigh of relief. She had indeed made the right choice.

If she had truly feared punishment and chosen to have her merits and faults cancel each other out, her loss would have been enormous!

Five thousand jin of grain on credit meant, in other words, that Yin Yunze had given Sun Qin five thousand jin of grain, and she only had to make up its equivalent value in gold afterward.

And this was the sort of thing offered by the likes of x-bei and x-baitiao, which had caused so many modern people such harm that they had developed the bad habit of spending ahead of their means.

At the current market price, those five thousand jin of rice were worth nearly two hundred taels of silver—a substantial fortune without a doubt.

Of course, to Yin Yunze, five thousand jin of grain cost only a little over ten thousand yuan.

The two taels of gold Sun Qin had given him earlier were already worth more than that.

What was more, strictly speaking, Yin Yunze was lending it, not giving it away.

In the end, it would still be converted into gold and return to Yin Yunze's hands.

That meant that, aside from a longer wait to collect payment, Yin Yunze had not sacrificed the slightest bit of his own interest, yet Sun Qin still had to be profoundly grateful to him.

"Thank you, Lord Yi Yun!"

And sure enough, Sun Qin thanked Yin Yunze with heartfelt gratitude.