TRCT_20

Chapter 20: Trading on Another's Prestige — Truly Insufferable

The following morning, after arriving at the shop, Ji Qingzhou first put the fabric purchased the day before through a water pre-shrinking treatment.

Once Shi Xuanman and Fang Birong's measurements came through, he set about altering the Western-style skirt outfit Shi Xuanman had purchased, adjusting the dimensions to better fit her figure.

After spending the better part of the morning on it, he finished the alterations, pressed and steamed the garment, folded it, wrapped it in bamboo paper, wrote the name on it, and placed it on the finished goods rack.

By this point it was approaching two in the afternoon. There had still been no customers that day. After spending some time completing the pattern drafting for Miss Fang's qipao, he closed the shop early, slung his satchel over his shoulder, and headed out into the street to continue the unfinished task from the day before.

Before leaving in the morning, Ji Qingzhou had specifically asked the household servants which long-established silk houses there were in Shanghai, and where each one was located. He had then filtered out those that were too far away and settled on several near Nanjing Road as his targets.

His first stop was a silk house called Taiming Xiang.

It was said to be a Suzhou enterprise, with an owner who was a major figure in the Suzhou silk trade, running multiple silk and satin shops across Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shanghai, and Guangdong. In Shanghai alone he had three storefronts.

The one Ji Qingzhou visited was located at the intersection of Nanjing Road and Yunnan Road, a three-story building in traditional Chinese style, with a black plaque bearing gold characters hung above the entrance, inscribed with the phrase 'Embroidered Patterns and Literary Elegance'.

He had no idea what it meant, but it looked impressively grand.

Unfortunately his timing was poor. The shop's proprietor had just stepped out on business, and when he inquired with the assistant, the assistant explained that such decisions were not his to make and asked him to return another day.

The shop assistant's manner was friendly and courteous, so Ji Qingzhou naturally saw no point in pressing further. Since Taiming Xiang was not an option, he made his way to another shop not far away called "Xinshun'an".

Also a Suzhou enterprise, this shop was slightly smaller in scale than Taiming Xiang, but still occupied a three-story building with a gold-lettered signboard.

With his previous experience to draw on, Ji Qingzhou was considerably more fluent this time when presenting his designs to the proprietor, his manner easy and bright-eyed, projecting the image of an eager, hardworking newcomer to the trade who knew how to win over his elders.

The proprietor of this shop was also affable, showing no sign of dismissiveness toward Ji Qingzhou simply because he was not a paying customer.

After listening patiently to his purpose and looking through the six design sketches Ji Qingzhou had drawn the previous night, he said in a steady, measured tone:

"These patterns of yours are quite original. It is clear you have some skill behind them. However, this sort of business is not mine to decide. Would you like to come with me and meet our manager?"

Looks promising...

Ji Qingzhou quietly clenched his fist inwardly, reining in his excitement as he asked: "Where is your manager?"

"He is just upstairs. Follow me," The proprietor handed the sketches back to him as he spoke, then turned and headed toward the back of the shop.

Ji Qingzhou followed the lean, wiry proprietor up a creaking staircase to the third floor, where they came to a closed dark brownish-black wooden door.

The proprietor knocked, and from within came a low, slightly husky male voice: "Come in."

The proprietor pushed the door open and stepped inside first.

Ji Qingzhou followed and entered behind him, glancing around to take in the room. It was an office decorated in a blend of Chinese and Western styles.

Along the white wall to the right stood a large old-fashioned bookcase. In front of the glass-paned window to the left was a rectangular desk, behind which sat a man of around thirty dressed in a grey-blue striped suit.

Ji Qingzhou met the man's eyes beneath his silver-framed glasses, and immediately smiled and gave a nod of greeting.

"This gentleman has come to sell printed fabric designs," The proprietor gave the man a brief account of Ji Qingzhou's purpose, then turned to introduce him with a word: "This is our Manager Gu. You may speak with him directly."

With that, he made a brisk exit from the office.

"Manager Gu, how do you do. Here is my name card."

Ji Qingzhou greeted him first and placed a name card on the desk, wanting to make a good impression and ease the conversation that was to follow.

The man, his hair slicked back and sporting a thin mustache, picked up the card and looked it over carefully, then rose from his seat and extended a hand toward Ji Qingzhou: "Gu Bosheng."

He was a few centimeters shorter than Ji Qingzhou, on the lean side, and clearly not the sort who exercised often. But his face had sharp, well-defined features, and he had a pair of thick-browed, expressive eyes that were not unpleasant to look at.

Ji Qingzhou shook his hand, and as he drew his own back, he felt the other man's fingers graze lightly across the back of his hand in a way that was almost imperceptible.

He immediately looked into Gu Bosheng's eyes. The man had a faint smile at the corner of his mouth, his expression perfectly normal, nothing out of the ordinary.

"Are these your sample sketches?" Gu Bosheng asked, looking at the drawings in Ji Qingzhou's hand.

"They are. Please have a look," Ji Qingzhou handed over the six sheets.

Gu Bosheng took them and went through them one by one, finishing his review of all the designs in short order.

"Excellent draftsmanship," He straightened the sheets, returned them to Ji Qingzhou, and said with a measured delivery: "We would be happy to purchase all of your designs. I would even say we could work together on a long-term basis."

"Thank you for the kind words," For some reason Ji Qingzhou could not quite place, under the steady gaze of those keen eyes, he felt a faint unease stir within him.

The man's praise of his draftsmanship had carried no warmth in it, sounding more like a formulaic pleasantry, which made the second half of what he said all the stranger.

"Xinshun'an" was after all a large enterprise, and would certainly have its own pattern designers. Saying he wanted a long-term partnership after only glancing at a few sketches seemed rather too eager to be entirely natural.

Still, despite his misgivings, after trying so many places and finally seeing a glimmer of hope, he was not about to let a moment's doubt make him walk away from this opportunity. He kept his smile and pressed on with the discussion:

"If we are able to reach an agreement with your company, might I ask one thing, that you arrange to have one of these designs printed onto Hangzhou crepe as soon as possible, and provide me with a fabric sample."

Gu Bosheng gave a thoughtful nod, without responding directly.

He unhurriedly glanced at the clock on the wall, then smiled and said: "Before you arrived, Mr. Ji, I was just thinking of finding a teahouse to sit in and pass some time. Why don't I treat you? We can talk things over while we eat."

Ji Qingzhou was not particularly keen on the drawn-out business of sitting through a meal and making conversation, but he was well aware that people from Suzhou did indeed have a habit of conducting business in teahouses, so he agreed: "Of course."

.

The afternoon light filtering down through the branches was almost as dazzling as a summer's day as May drew near.

At the entrance of the silk house, Gu Bosheng flagged down two rickshaws and brought Ji Qingzhou to a teahouse on Nanjing Road.

It was a three-story Western-style building with glass windows on all four sides, through which one could dimly make out the crowded tables within, nearly every seat taken.

Following Gu Bosheng through the glass-paned entrance doors, Ji Qingzhou glanced up at the teahouse sign: a brownish wooden plaque with the two characters "Grand View" carved into it.

His eyebrow rose slightly, and a vague sense of familiarity washed over him.

But this faint, elusive feeling was quickly swept away by the strains of Suzhou ballad singing drifting out from within.

Stepping into the main hall of the teahouse, the first thing visible upon entry was a performance space, where a storyteller on stage sang a selection adapted from traditional literature with practiced ease and fluency.

The customers below drank their tea and chatted, swaying their heads and breaking into applause at the most engaging moments, thoroughly at ease.

This is quite a place, Ji Qingzhou thought with interest, tilting his head to look around at the corridors encircling the second floor.

He thought that once this busy stretch was behind him, he might find time to drag Jie Yu'an here to sit over tea and listen to some ballad singing. Being a Suzhou man himself, even if he was not particularly enthusiastic about it, he surely would not find it dull.

The main hall was loud with voices and laughter. Gu Bosheng led him straight around the performance space and up the stairs.

Reaching the second-floor corridor, Ji Qingzhou had assumed he would choose an open table to sit at, but Gu Bosheng turned to him with a smile and said "It is too noisy down below, let us go up to the third floor," and continued climbing.

If he disliked noisy environments, why choose a teahouse for a business discussion in the first place?

Ji Qingzhou could not help but grumble inwardly.

Just as he was mentally labeling Gu Bosheng as affected and pretentious, the suited man ahead reached out and pushed open a wooden door to the right of the staircase landing on the third floor.

As the door swung open, a heavy, stale air came surging out, accompanied by the sound of Western music spilling from a gramophone within.

It was broad daylight, yet the light inside was as dim as a midnight lounge.

Ji Qingzhou fixed his gaze on the suggestive silhouettes swaying behind the screen inside the door, raised an eyebrow, and looked at Gu Bosheng with a questioning expression.

"Please, Mr. Ji," Gu Bosheng made what appeared to be a gentlemanly gesture of invitation.

It was only then that Ji Qingzhou noticed several burly men standing on either side of the door, dressed in plain short jackets, looking every bit like bouncers hired by the teahouse.

Well, this just keeps getting more interesting...

Ji Qingzhou observed to himself, his gaze sweeping over to Gu Bosheng who was watching him sideways. A smile tugged at the corner of his mouth, and keeping his composure, he followed him inside.

"Good day, Manager Gu," The moment they entered, the men on both sides bowed in unison to greet Gu Bosheng.

Ji Qingzhou paid this no mind and stepped further in with a steady expression.

Rounding the screen, a spacious room hung all over with beaded curtains and gauze drapes came into view.

Though spacious, the light inside was exceptionally dim and murky.

Beyond those strings of beaded curtains and layers of gauze drapes, one could dimly make out a mix of Chinese-style couches and Western sofas with low tables, with the shapes of men and women among them, laughing and carrying on in a frenzied, hazy manner, suffused with a nauseating stench.

Glancing further toward the corner by the wall, several gaunt, dark figures lay stretched out on the couches, the oil lamps beside them casting a hazy orange glow on the ceiling, while strange, twisting coils of smoke drifted ghost-like along the walls.

A few seconds of looking around was all Ji Qingzhou needed to understand exactly what kind of place he had walked into.

At the same moment, the foul atmosphere of the room made him suddenly recall why the two characters "Grand View" above the entrance had struck him as familiar.

"Did Manager Gu not say we would talk over food? Why have you brought me to a place like this?" Ji Qingzhou continued walking forward without the slightest sign of alarm.

As he passed through a curtain, his gaze happened to fall on a young woman on a sofa nearby, and his pupils contracted involuntarily.

She was a frail, delicate girl who looked no more than sixteen or seventeen at most, her body covered by nothing but a red silk handkerchief held between her teeth, her face pale, her expression pained.

Gu Bosheng beckoned a server to bring drinks, and when he turned to look at Ji Qingzhou, he happened to catch the faintest, almost imperceptible tremor of those thick, long lashes, and was quite certain the young man was forcing himself to appear calm. This made the itch within him all the harder to bear.

What a delightful surprise, he thought, that in that dull and tedious silk house, such a remarkably striking figure had walked through the door.

Those luminous, expressive eyes, that long neck as white as snow, they had nearly drawn his very soul out of him, and he could not help but imagine what breathtaking beauty would radiate from that vivid, animated face when the young man was lost in pleasure.

Gu Bosheng prided himself on a particular talent: regardless of whether it was a man or a woman, without a single garment removed, he needed only a few glances to determine whether a person was capable of enchanting a man's soul.

The corners of his mouth could not help but curl upward. He reached up to adjust the glasses on the bridge of his nose and said, lowering his voice, one word at a time: "Is this not pleasant? There is wine, food, music, and beautiful company to enjoy."

With that, he took two glasses of clear liquid from the server's tray and held one out to Ji Qingzhou.

Ji Qingzhou glanced down at the fizzing champagne in the glass, then deliberately turned down the corners of his mouth in a show of distaste: "I am sorry. I am a patriot. I do not drink foreign liquor."

"A patriot..." Gu Bosheng let out a low chuckle and returned the glass to the tray: "Very well, then I will join you in supporting domestic goods. How about Shaoxing yellow wine? I have a twenty-year-aged vintage here."

"I would rather not. I am from Shaoxing myself. Drinking wine from my hometown stirs up homesickness and would affect our business discussion afterward."

"Foreign liquor will not do, yellow wine will not do either. Then a cup of tea, surely you cannot refuse that?"

Gu Bosheng seemed unbothered by whether his words were the truth or an excuse, and asked the server to pour two cups of tea.

Two minutes later the server returned with the tea. Ji Qingzhou took the cup from Gu Bosheng's hand, held it, and did not drink.

Gu Bosheng could tell what was on his mind. He took a leisurely sip from his own cup, set it on the server's tray, then leaned toward Ji Qingzhou and said in a soft voice:

"Mr. Ji need not be so guarded with me. Rest assured, when it comes to business, everything is open for discussion. Whatever I have promised you, I will deliver."

Ji Qingzhou was not normally one for fastidiousness, but the heavy perfume coming off the man struck him as unbearably cloying and disagreeable.

So he deliberately widened his stride to put some distance between them and turned to say plainly: "I am afraid the price you are looking for is not something I can offer."

Gu Bosheng's smile stiffened slightly, then he stopped where he stood, crooked a finger at him, and shifted his tone: "Come. Let me show you something."

With that he turned and passed through the beaded curtain hanging between the columns on the right, making his way around a screen beyond.

Having already come this far, Ji Qingzhou was not afraid of whatever trick he might try next. He set his teacup on the server's tray and followed, passing through the curtain and stepping around to the other side of the screen.

The next moment, as his view suddenly opened up, his breath caught, and he was stopped cold by the scene before him.

Behind the screen stood a row of enormous wooden cages, each as tall as a person.

In the cage directly in front of Ji Qingzhou, a young man knelt on the ground with an iron chain around his neck.

Against the lilting strains of the Western music, he gripped the bars of the wooden cage with both hands, his lips pressed tight, his body trembling, sweat falling from him in a steady rain.

Gu Bosheng stepped forward with a smile, tilted the young man's chin up with one finger, and presented him to Ji Qingzhou: "What do you think of this?"

At his words, the young man's dark, hazy eyes beneath their lashes turned to look at Ji Qingzhou.

Though he was looking at him, his eyes were vacant, numbed, utterly without light. Yet it was precisely this cold, expressionless detachment that made the tough, unyielding life force within him all the more palpable.

In the orange-yellow lamplight falling from above, the young man's upturned face held a complex mix of pride, fearlessness, and loneliness, with something beneath it all that seemed as though it might, without warning, be drawn under.

That gaze, with all its striking force, struck Ji Qingzhou in the chest, and he could not help but clench his jaw, his thoughts scattering for a few seconds.

Gu Bosheng noticed the tremor in Ji Qingzhou's expression and drew his hand back with a look of quiet satisfaction.

As he wiped the sweat from the young man's chin off his fingers with a handkerchief, he said: "A little dirty, but if you fancy him, I can give him to you to enjoy as you please."

As he drew his hand back, the young man lowered his head.

Ji Qingzhou looked away and said with practiced indifference: "Quite interesting, but as I said before, what you are looking for is not something I can offer."

"You might hear me out first," Gu Bosheng said, hands in his trouser pockets, rocking on the balls of his feet with an occasional light tap of his toes on the floor, his tone unhurried: "Mr. Ji, or may I call you Qingzhou? My feelings toward you are quite different from what I feel for these playthings.

"The moment you pushed open the door of the silk house today, I was deeply drawn to you. Those clear, bright eyes of yours are like the full moon on the fifteenth night, shining straight into my heart. Do you understand what I mean?"

"Ah, I see. So you want to court me," Ji Qingzhou said with a show of sudden understanding: "Unfortunately, I am already married."

"That is of no consequence," Gu Bosheng appeared to have taken his response as tacit agreement, and his manner was no longer restrained by the tentative probing of acquaintances.

He leaned forward, boldly drawing close to his ear with a smile: "No matter. Among us progressive types, which man does not have a bound-foot wife at home?"

During his years abroad, Ji Qingzhou had frequented plenty of bars, nightclubs, and private parties, and had witnessed scenes far more sordid and debauched than this. So while the filth of this establishment and Gu Bosheng's affected harassment disgusted him, he had still been able to tolerate it.

But upon hearing those words, he found he truly could not stand it for a single moment more.

The man's sanctimonious face, the cloying scent of perfumed oil that clung to his entire person, and that artificially seductive, sticky low voice, all of it filled him with profound revulsion.

And so, as Gu Bosheng drew close to his ear and was on the verge of pressing his lips to his cheek, Ji Qingzhou, having reached the end of his patience, drove his fist straight into the man's head.

With a loud crack, Gu Bosheng stumbled back into the wooden bars of the cage without any warning, and his crystal-lensed glasses flew off and shattered on the floor.

"My apologies. Whenever I feel nauseous, I cannot help wanting to hit someone," Ji Qingzhou shook out his hand and turned to make a run for the door without hesitation.

Gu Bosheng caught the cage to steady himself, spat, staggered briefly, then gave chase.

"Stop him!"

The man's furious shout rang out from behind, and before Ji Qingzhou had even reached the door, four or five bouncers had already moved to block his path.

Even the lackeys these days are insufferably brazen.

He turned back with weary irritation, and upon catching sight of the disheveled, sorry-looking man behind him, could not help but find it almost funny.

He thought for a moment, then asked: "Manager Gu, this place is actually Young Master Bao's territory, isn't it? What are you to him? One of his dogs?"

Gu Bosheng lowered the hand he had been pressing against his forehead, his gaze fixing on him with cold fury: "Where did you get that from?"

"My aunt told me. Just a couple of days ago she was invited to attend Old Master Bao's seventieth birthday banquet."

Ji Qingzhou put on an air of perfect innocence as he replied: "Oh, and I do not think I mentioned this. I came to Shanghai to start my business and am staying temporarily at my uncle's home. My uncle's surname is Jie. His name is Jie Jianshan, the Chairman Jie of the Jinfeng Group."

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