TRCT_35

Chapter 35: Extorting Money

As the sun's shadow gradually shifted away from the lane, Ji Qingzhou, braving the scorching afternoon sun, holding a roll of fabric in one hand and carrying two heavy paper bags in the other, quickly turned the street corner and ran into the shop.

"It's only just past the start of summer, how is it already this hot."

Ji Qingzhou put the newly bought white taffeta fabric into the fabric box, then rolled up his sleeves, and waved to Zhu Renqing, saying: "A' Qing, come, try these sweets."

After returning from the Fang family's, he went along the way to buy fabric, and passing by a candy shop on the way, he saw freshly made rock sugar pine nuts and orange cake, so he went in and tried two small pieces.

The pine nut candy wasn't as good as the one brought from Suzhou last time, but it was still pretty good.

The orange cake, on the other hand, was that shop's specialty, rich orange fragrance, sweet and sour in perfect harmony, especially palatable, so he bought two jin of each.

Zhu Renqing was busy with the work Ji Qingzhou had given him, which was to iron flat the indigo-colored ramie cloth that had been washed and air-dried.

This was the main fabric for Ms. Yang's qipao.

Hearing his boss call him, he instinctively responded "Alright," then unhurriedly set the electric iron aside and pulled out its plug.

This kind of electrical appliance that needed to be plugged in was something Zhu Renqing had only encountered for the first time after coming here to work.

When his boss taught him how to use the electric iron, he had specially emphasized the dangers of this thing, whether it was the iron's high heat, or the consequences of improper use of the appliance, he kept it firmly in mind, not daring to be careless.

Setting down his work, Zhu Renqing turned to look toward the sewing machine table, and seeing those two large bags of sweets, couldn't help but widen his eyes: "This much..."

"Take some back for your mother to eat. Doesn't your mother have to drink medicine every day? It must be quite bitter. After drinking the medicine, it'll be just right to eat a piece of candy to take away the bitterness."

As Ji Qingzhou spoke, he took out the paper bag he'd asked the candy shop owner for from his bag, put some rock sugar pine nuts and orange cake into it, and handed it to Zhu Renqing, "I'll take the rest back, for my other half to eat."

Last time, after Dr. Zhang finished the acupuncture session for Jie Yu'an, he'd indicated that only one more session of acupuncture was needed, and this first course of treatment would be complete; next would be drinking medicine.

Two large bowls of Chinese medicine a day, for half a month, then the second course of treatment.

Ji Qingzhou had once caught pneumonia, and even after it was cured, he kept coughing; in order to recuperate, he drank Chinese medicine for nearly half a month.

That fishy-salty bitterness mixed with the smell of earth and herbs, even recalling it after all these years still felt dreadful, so passing by the candy shop today, he'd gone in and bought some sweets.

Zhu Renqing had already gotten used to Ji Qingzhou's occasional feeding of him.

At times like this, if he awkwardly refused to accept it, his boss would instead be displeased, disliking how he pushed it back and forth, wasting time.

So Zhu Renqing had now learned his lesson, when his boss gave him something, he would obediently accept it, then say his thanks; as for the kindness, he kept it in his heart, to work hard in the future as repayment.

He took the paper bag, and smelling that sweet-sour fragrance of the orange cake, was just about to take a piece to try the taste, when he heard the second half of Ji Qingzhou's sentence, and his heart suddenly felt a bit sour.

He kept his expression as usual and curved his lips, saying: "You're so good to your wife."

Ji Qingzhou frowned slightly as if feeling it was cloying, clicking his tongue: "So-so, I suppose. We can barely tolerate each other."

Zhu Renqing lowered his head, picked up a thumb-sized piece of orange cake and put it in his mouth; the soft, fine-textured orange cake melted in his mouth, turning into a rich, sweet-sour fruit fragrance.

After hesitating a moment, he still couldn't restrain his curiosity and asked: "You and your wife, how did you two meet?"

"Who would've guessed, you're quite the gossip, aren't you?"

Ji Qingzhou glanced at him, grabbed a few pieces of the rock sugar pine nuts, sat down in a chair and said while eating: "We're more or less obeying our parents' orders, forced to marry; for now we're just making do, and if it doesn't work out later, we'll divorce."

Hearing this, Zhu Renqing's sour mood suddenly improved somewhat; he thought to himself that it seemed his boss's feelings for his wife were only so-so, and who knew, one day it might be announced in the papers that they'd divorced.

Although this had nothing to do with him, a mere shop assistant.

It was shameful to say, but Zhu Renqing himself knew that having this kind of thought was very inappropriate; yet from the bottom of his heart, he hoped his boss was single, without any wife.

Holding onto these tangled thoughts, he tried a piece of each of the two sweets, then put the bags away properly, and turned around to prepare to continue working.

Just then, he suddenly heard footsteps coming from the doorway; he instinctively turned his head, and upon seeing the visitor, his pupils suddenly contracted.

"What are you here for?" Ji Qingzhou saw the uninvited guest before he did.

Just a moment ago still lazily leaning back in his chair eating candy, upon seeing that face which made him sick, he immediately raised his brows, his eyes turning cold and sharp.

He should have asked for his name card back then... he thought inwardly.

Gu Bosheng was still wearing that same gray-blue plaid suit, but he looked much more down-and-out than before.

His slicked-back hair carried a deliberately tousled disarray, his complexion sallow, dark circles under his eyes, his whole face looking like a picture of kidney deficiency.

Any time Ji Qingzhou had previously seen him in this state, he wouldn't have felt at ease following him up to the third floor of the teahouse.

Gu Bosheng had at first come straight toward Ji Qingzhou, but his gaze was soon drawn to Zhu Renqing standing off to the side.

He narrowed his eyes and sized up Zhu Renqing's clothes and hair for a few seconds, then said to Ji Qingzhou with a smile that wasn't quite a smile: "You actually really took him in. Can he even work?"

"Compared to certain people with the face of a man but the heart of a beast, he's more than good enough."

Ji Qingzhou said, his words laced with sarcasm, "What are you here for? Wounds healed up, and your skin's itching again?"

The corner of Gu Bosheng's mouth twitched; recalling the purpose of his visit, he had no choice but to hold his patience and force a smile, saying: "I came to say sorry to you. As for what happened last time, it was that I had eyes but failed to recognize a person of worth, and caused you a fright.

"Currently I've already been dismissed by Mr. Bao, and am no longer the manager of Xinshun'an. I can now be said to have no source of income whatsoever, and it's even difficult to support my family, this counts as having received my punishment; you should be satisfied by now too.

"Could I ask you to say a word to Mr. Jie, to ask them not to pursue this matter any further? I can give you compensation."

"Oh, so it turns out these days haven't been going too well for you, and you've come to beg me?" Ji Qingzhou mocked him in a seemingly lazy manner, though inwardly he felt considerable disgust.

It was only because he now had this backing that Gu Bosheng had hit a wall and was forced to come lower himself to apologize to him, but if he didn't have the Jie family as a reliable pillar of support, wouldn't things be miserable for him right now?

"Yes." Even though he was being mocked, Gu Bosheng could only grit his teeth and swallow this insult, "I beg you, sir, not to hold a petty person's faults against him, please let me off."

"The way you put it, when did I ever pursue your faults? The matter has already reached my aunt's ears, and she's always been the type to protect her own the most fiercely; it's useless for you to come beg me. Wouldn't it be better to spend more effort begging that young master Bao of yours instead?"

Ji Qingzhou said with a faint smile, "As for compensation, there's no need, I'd find your money too dirty to touch."

Hearing this, Gu Bosheng, associating something from his words, suddenly had his expression twist.

He stared at Ji Qingzhou for a few seconds, then shot a vicious glare at Zhu Renqing as well; thinking of how the other party had completely transformed himself in just a few short days, and comparing it to his own current plight, a fierce jealousy and resentment burned even more intensely in his heart.

Probably feeling that this visit's purpose was hopeless anyway, he curled his lips and sneered coldly at Ji Qingzhou:

"I'm dirty, sure, but this kid here isn't much better. You think he was forced? We never tied him up or pressed him into it, he was willing, all because he'd tasted the sweetness of it, taken large sums of cash that, for someone like him, was a lot of money. As long as there's money, plenty of people are willing to toss their dignity into that chained cage.

"You don't need to put on that look of despising me either, in this world, those who wag their tails and crawl often get further than those who hold their heads high and walk with their chests out..."

"What nonsense is this dog barking on about?" Ji Qingzhou impatiently cut him off, "Since you're so good at crawling, wouldn't it be better to hurry off and go wag your tail begging for mercy in front of your own master? What's the use of yapping away in front of me?"

"You—" The corner of Gu Bosheng's eye twitched, and under his sleeves his hands quietly clenched into fists, but in the end he didn't dare offend him further.

After sweeping another glance at the silent Zhu Renqing, he turned and walked toward the door.

"Wait." Just as he was about to walk out of the shop, Ji Qingzhou's voice called out and stopped his steps.

"Although I don't need your compensation, you still owe him his wages. Since you've already come all this way, you should settle the debt, shouldn't you?"

Hearing this, Zhu Renqing standing to the side felt his pupils tremble slightly, sweat beading on his forehead.

"Owed wages? When did I ever owe him anything?" Gu Bosheng turned back around, looking at Ji Qingzhou's utterly certain expression, and thought he meant to use this as a pretext to extort money from him on his subordinate's behalf.

"He punched me once, and now I'm supposed to give him money?"

"What, shouldn't he have beaten you up?" Ji Qingzhou raised his brows.

"Don't push people too far."

"I'm pushing people too far?" Ji Qingzhou asked back, as if in disbelief.

Seeing Gu Bosheng's face full of resentment, he sighed as if deliberately spoiling the mood: "Ah, my mood was pretty good just now, but after you came, even the food doesn't taste as good anymore, and I don't feel like working either. I'll have to go home and have a good complain to my aunt and uncle about it."

"......"

Gu Bosheng was so angry his beard practically stood on end.

For a moment, two voices echoed in his mind, one voice clamored that he should simply give up and let things fall apart, since he'd already offended him anyway, no point fearing offending him even more fatally.

But rationally, he also comforted himself: at least for now, Bao Ziqiong hadn't yet grown tired of him; as long as he humbled himself enough to beg him, coaxing Bao Ziqiong into a good mood, there was still a chance in the future to continue as his manager, he couldn't completely cut off that path back.

In the end, his craving for a future and for money won out.

Gu Bosheng silently took out ten silver dollars and placed them on the sewing machine table, then turned and strode out the shop door in large steps, his retreating figure carrying an air of flustered haste.

Ji Qingzhou glanced at those ten silver dollars, brows furrowing slightly.

He turned his head to look at Zhu Renqing standing beside him, and after thinking for a moment, asked: "Did he really owe you wages?"

Zhu Renqing had a feeling that what he'd been dreading had, sure enough, arrived after all.

His heart struggled for a few seconds, and finally he turned around, lowered his head, and said: "I'm sorry, sir. I didn't mean to deceive you on purpose, but at the time I'd already fallen more than a month behind on medicine money, and still owed rent, I truly needed money urgently, so... I'm sorry, sir. Please don't dismiss me. I will never hide anything from you again."

Once the words fell, the room suddenly went silent.

Ji Qingzhou sat up straight, resting his chin on his hand, gazing at his face, saying nothing for a long while.

After a long time, not until he saw the other's eyes had grown misty, did he tilt his chin up slightly toward him and say: "Take it. Don't be stubborn with money."

Zhu Renqing carefully stole a glance at his expression, his heart a tangle of mixed feelings, never having felt so guilty before.

He had already paid off his debt by now, and though life was tight, he could just barely get by; deep down he didn't actually want to accept this money, yet he didn't dare go against his words.

After hesitating for a while, in the end he still accepted the ten silver dollars, his heart uneasy.

"Don't let it happen again." As the other party hesitantly turned back to work, Ji Qingzhou said flatly.

"Yes, I will absolutely never deceive you again." Zhu Renqing earnestly promised once more.

Ji Qingzhou waved his hand, letting him go back to work, his mood hard to put into words.

Although he'd intuitively known that Zhu Renqing wasn't some pure and honest little white rabbit, upon learning that his sympathy had been taken advantage of, he still felt somewhat dispirited.

It couldn't really be called anger, either, everyone's only human, after all; given a choice, who wouldn't want a better life?

Besides, he hadn't really lost anything, the five dollars he'd advanced the other party was already included in his wages, and hiring Zhu Renqing in the first place had been mostly because of his fine appearance, not entirely out of sympathy.

At most, it was just some helplessness and gloominess.

People's hearts are complicated, indeed, and this in the Republic era, no less...

He was still too green. From now on, he'd need to keep his eyes even more sharply open when dealing with matters.

.

The next day was the last acupuncture session before Jie Yu'an finished his first course of treatment.

Counting it up, this was already the sixth time Ji Qingzhou had accompanied him to receive treatment, and he'd become thoroughly practiced with the whole process by now.

Without needing the Old Madam to keep watch, the moment Dr. Zhang opened his tool box, Ji Qingzhou would carry over a chair, sit down beside Jie Yu'an, and lift his left hand to hold it in his palm.

Jie Yu'an had clearly also grown used to this by now; at first he'd still put up a token resistance, but now the left hand resting on the chair's armrest was as limp as if paralyzed, showing no reaction no matter how Ji Qingzhou kneaded and pressed it.

"Your nails are getting a bit long, why don't I trim them for you while we're at it?" Ji Qingzhou asked, pinching his fingers out of sheer boredom.

Getting no response from Jie Yu'an, he simply took it that the other had agreed, and had A' You, who was waiting off to the side, go fetch a pair of scissors.

Using scissors to trim someone's nails was something Ji Qingzhou was doing for the first time, not to mention the pressure was rather significant, fearing that one careless slip might cut into the flesh.

Fortunately, Jie Yu'an was quite well-behaved, whether it was because he trusted him more by now, or because his energy was all focused on the acupuncture, leaving no attention to spare for anything else.

His fingers stayed perfectly still, not exerting the slightest bit of force, so as long as Ji Qingzhou was careful and meticulous with his hands, there was no problem.

The second hand of the mantel clock on the cabinet ticked along with a "tick-tock, tick-tock," while fine specks of dust drifted leisurely through the sunlight spilling in past the thin gauze curtains.

In the quiet room, every now and then the faint snip of scissors cutting nails could be heard, adding a touch of leisurely ease to the otherwise solemn atmosphere.

Having finished trimming the nails on the left hand, Ji Qingzhou shifted his chair over and began on the right hand.

Halfway through trimming, an image suddenly surfaced in his mind of those videos he'd watched before of people trimming cats' nails, and he couldn't help the corners of his mouth lifting, letting out a laugh.

Only then did Jie Yu'an's lips move slightly, asking: "What is it?"

Ji Qingzhou gave his palm a light squeeze, this broad yet thin palm naturally had nothing much in the way of a satisfying feel to it, and just shook his head, saying: "Nothing. Your paws are pretty big."

Jie Yu'an didn't understand what he meant, so he didn't reply.

Having whiled away over ten minutes trimming Jie Yu'an's nails, and then quietly waiting another half hour, the treatment finally came to an end.

Ji Qingzhou saw Dr. Zhang to the door, and out in the corridor, he asked about the treatment plan on Jie Yu'an's behalf: "When's the next treatment? How long will it need to continue?"

"Dr. Shen and I planned it out before, three courses in total, seven acupuncture sessions per course, with fifteen days of rest after each course ends, to give Young Master Jie the Second some time to adjust," Dr. Zhang answered briefly.

"After the three courses are finished, will his eyes be able to see again?"

"That, I dare not guarantee, it depends on how well he himself recovers. But you needn't worry too much either; once the meridians are cleared, whether it takes a few months at the shortest or a year or so at the longest, even if it's slower, his eyesight is certain to recover."

Ji Qingzhou nodded, and saw Dr. Zhang and his apprentice off to their car.

Back in the small sitting room, Jie Yu'an had already sat up straight, eyes closed, wiping away sweat with a handkerchief.

Ji Qingzhou sat down on the sofa, roughly repeated what Dr. Zhang had said, and then added half-jokingly: "So you see, your blindness is bound to be cured sooner or later. I'm certain to win this bet, better get that hundred dollars ready early!"

Hearing this, Jie Yu'an's heart was, roughly speaking, glad as well.

But on the surface he still betrayed nothing, replying flatly: "There's a hundred silver dollars right in the bedside drawer. If you want it, help yourself."

Ji Qingzhou raised his brows slightly: "Opening up your little private vault for me to draw from freely, just like that? No wonder they call you Brother Yuanbao, you really are generous with your money."

Had Jie Yu'an's eyes not been impaired, he would certainly have shot him a glare.

He said coolly: "Just now it was open. Now the vault's locked."

"No matter, keep it deposited for me then, and once your eyes are better, I'll unlock it and withdraw it."

Ji Qingzhou answered offhandedly, in truth not taking it to heart at all.

Either way, he'd already discussed it with Shen Nanqi beforehand, once Jie Yu'an recovered and he left the Jie family, the other party would give him a sum of compensation.

And given how generous Shen Nanqi was with him, this compensation was sure to be no small amount.

As for Jie Yu'an's hundred dollars, he wouldn't even think twice about it.

Once Jie Yu'an finished wiping his sweat, he raised his hand and passed the handkerchief to Huang Youshu, then took a new strip of black gauze from the other's hand, winding it round and round over his eyes.

Ji Qingzhou leaned back on the sofa, gazing aimlessly for a while at his calm, composed face, when he suddenly recalled that photograph stored on his phone.

In that yellowed photograph, Jie Yu'an's eyes had clearly regained their sight; though the image quality was blurry and indistinct, one could tell it was a tall, upright young man, full of vigor and spirit.

This meant that at least up until that photograph was taken, the other party had still been living safely and steadily in this world.

But as for whenever Qiu Wenxin ended up being sent by the newspaper office on official assignment to France for an exchange study visit, after that, he'd probably have to start worrying about that 'dying young' the tour guide had mentioned.

Exactly how the tour guide had phrased it at the time, Ji Qingzhou could no longer recall clearly, he'd only retained a rough impression.

Of Qiu Wenxin's two childhood friends, one had died in war, the other had died in a sudden calamity, and the wording in the description carried a sense of contrast, as if fate were mocking them.

Whenever Ji Qingzhou thought of this point, he couldn't help but feel a bit anxious.

At the very least, they'd been friends—whichever of the two it was, he wanted to help them avoid the fated calamity that existed in their original timeline.

As for Xie Yu'an, he'd originally come from a military officer background, so if he died on the battlefield, that could hardly be called much of a contrast.

So the one who'd died in war, without much surprise, would be Luo Mingxuan.

He had no idea exactly under what circumstances that kid had died, had he later enlisted in the army, or been caught up in the ripple effects of the war?

Whichever it was, avoiding the calamity would be somewhat difficult; at most, relying on his own knowledge of history, Ji Qingzhou could guide him as best he could, within his means, to help him steer clear of the war's reach.

As for what kind of sudden calamity Jie Yu'an's would be, that was hard to evaluate.

Qiu Wenxin's wording had really been far too vague; why couldn't he have written the cause of death more clearly?

Half-clear, half-unclear like this was truly unfriendly toward a muddled transmigrator like himself.

Ji Qingzhou made a mental note, thinking that next time he saw Qiu Wenxin, he could ask around in a roundabout way about the other's concept of 'sudden calamity'.

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