Nightfall

Ning Que was shocked as he stared at the deed in his hands. The man in turquoise robes had secretly left him a casino and felt a strange warmth spread down his chest. He asked, “Where is he now?”

“He wrote in his last letter that he was going to see the sunrise at Tai mountain.” Mr. Qi said.

As the warmth and shock receded, Ning Que thought about the sarcastic words Mr. Qi had said. He thought about how he had cheated to win and his ill-gotten gains from his own casino and began to feel his cheeks heating up. As a young man, he could not bear the embarrassment and in order to dispel the awkwardness, he said irritably, “Nobody from the Fish-dragon Gang told me about this”.

Mr. Qi raised an eyebrow and stared at him peevishly, saying, “Big brother took us to Lin 47th street to meet you especially before he left. He said then that you can look for me no matter what happens. It’s been months and have you looked for me? How can I look for you when you are holding that position now?”

It was only then when Ning Que remembered his other identity. Xu Chongshan had never contacted him after throwing that wooden pass at him. He had long forgotten that he was a secret guard of the empire.

While he was hemming and hawing to veil his shame, Mr. Qi thought of something which made his eyebrows rise even more violently. He said, “You… are a cultivator? I know you are good at killing people, but when did you suddenly attain cultivator status and enter the real state?”

“It just happened in the last two days. I’ve just entered the Initial Awareness stage and am still far away from the real state.” Ning Que did not know about the symbolled gold plate within the dice cup in Star-Picking Casino and answered honestly. “I wanted to use the opportunity whilst it is still unknown and earn a bit of gold. While I can’t do that now, please still keep it a secret.”

Mr Qi’s voice sharpened in annoyance. “You’ve won over ten thousand taels of silver from Star Picing. How are we going to keep this a secret? Chang’an might be big, but there aren’t many people bringing around a little handmaid with a tanned face. Anyone can find out if they put some effort in it.”

Ning Que smiled and said gently, “You’re now one of the big bosses in Chang’an. It would just take a word from you to make things good again. Would Star-Picking Casino defy your orders and continue their search for me?”

Mr. Qi was unable to say no to his flattery. He scrunched his brows tightly and thought for a moment before saying, “It is not difficult to hide it, but what’s the point of hiding the identity of a cultivator? Are you hoping that this thing will blow up and end up in court so that you may gain some fame? If this is what you intend to do, I’d advise you to drop it. Chang’an is not the countryside, there are hundreds, maybe even thousands of cultivators here. You cannot stand out. Why not come clean to the lecturers at the Academy and gain something more practical instead?”

Ning Que thought about the rumors that the Academy might open up the Second floor next year. He also thought about Xia Hou general who was opening the frontiers far away at the moment. After a moment of silence, he replied, “That’s because I know that I’m too ordinary, why let it be known and create trouble for myself? It would not be too late to let it be known when I am more secure and steady on this path.”

“You are not of the Fish-dragon Gang. Do what you wish. But since we have met, there are still some other things that we have to settle.”

Mr. Qi extended a slender finger and pointed at the deed before him. “This is a copy of the transfer agreement that you need to sign. Once you have done so, the gambling den would be yours and I no longer have to waste my energy minding it for you,” he said.

Ning Que thought that this wouldn’t do. In order for a casino to run successfully, you need someone with certain backing to run it. He was still studying in the Academy, and he could not imagine Sangsang minding ten over tables in dealer robes. His eyes gleamed. He smiled beseechingly at the man and said, “Big brother, won’t you spare some efforts and continue minding it? I really do not have the ability nor the time to do so.”

…

…

After an intense discussion, Mr. Qi eventually lost to Ning Que’s flattery and shamelessness and agreed to his terms. The casino would belong to Ning Que but the Fish-dragon Gang would manage it. Ning Que did not need to do anything but to receive his dividends every month according to what was stated in their agreement.

After the discussion, Ning que did not order supper nor called for a few girls to play with but instead brought Sangsang away from the west city’s newest casino. He walked away hurriedly as if he was running for his life. It was only when they had reached the Lin 47th street did he realise that he had not remembered what his casino was called.

Sangsang retrieved the thick wad of notes from the belt around her waist and laid it within the box flatly. Her eyes wandered around the sparse bedroom and landed on the roof beam and rat hole, thinking of where the safest place to put the money would be. In the end, she adhered to their old ways and lifted the baseboard of the bed and stuck the box beneath.

She turned around to see Ning Que staring blankly in his seat. There was a very complicated and wondrous emotion on his face. He looked as if he had been hit silly by gold raining from the heavens but at the same time, looked as if the gold hitting his head had hurt him so badly that he wanted to cry.

“Young Master, you’re a little odd today.” Sangsang looked at him curiously and asked, “You looked really pitiful when we left the casino. It looked like you owed them hundreds of taels.”

“Can I not look pitiful? I’ve embarrassed myself thoroughly today. I have never done anything so stupid in my entire life.” Ning Que answered angrily. Thinking of the wad of notes lying beneath his bed, the look of irritation on his face was replaced with one of joy. “However, if I can earn this much cash all the time, I wouldn’t mind being stupid for the rest of my life, ” he continued.

After saying this, he wiped the smile off his face before indicating for Sangsang to sit on the stool in front of him with his hand. He said in a very serious manner, “I think we need to have a family meeting”.

Family meetings were the hardest things he’d ever experienced in his past life. His subconscious must have been so traumatised, he continued having family meetings in this life even though there were just the two of them. He had them often no matter whether they were living in the Min Mountain or in the City of Wei.

Sangsang knew that the young master was going to speak nonsense endlessly. Handling it like a pro, she retrieved her needlework bag and changed into a comfortable pair of slippers before sitting down on the stool before him, ready to listen to his lecture respectfully.

“Every dormitory in the Academy has wise sayings from famous people hanging at the windows. While I think that the calligraphy is only average, the sayings are pretty good.”

Sangsang was concentrated on weaving shoe soles. She did not raise her head when she heard that but only sniffed lightly, indicating that her young master should continue. Ning Que shook his head at her. She had always been like that when they held family meetings despite him telling her off several times. He could do nothing but to ignore her and continue his speech, hoping that his only audience wouldn’t run off.

“There was a saying that goes like that- One’s environment changes his temperament. One’s upbringing changes his constitution. What does this mean? It tells us that when you have two thousand tales of silver, you cannot be as miserly as when you have twenty tales of silver. You can’t eat leftovers… ”

Upon hearing this, Sangsang raised her head and looked at him with a face of dissatisfaction and a mournful expression.

“Alright, thrift is a virtue. But you have to think about it. We are not lacking in money now and have over ten thousand tales of silver. The casino will send us our dividends every month. We cannot live like when we were poor anymore, and we shouldn’t try as hard and do everything we can to earn money.”

Ning Que sighed with regret, “In other words, scholars have to do scholarly things. Cultivators have to do what cultivators do. They have to live with self-restraint and sophistication and not think about counting on his skills to earn money. It doesn’t look well in the eyes of people. I have decided, I shall not win money through cheating at the casino. I’m afraid the instructors at the Academy might die of anger if they found out about it. I’ve also decided that I will take down all my writings from the shop tomorrow. As for the business, let’s collect writings from poor scholars and sell them for marginal profits.”

Sangsang drew the needle from the sole with a tug. She bit the string and it broke with a little ping. She looked at Ning Que with a face full of question. “You’re not even going to sell a single one? Young Master, don’t you think it’s a little like having sudden wealth syndrome?”

Ning Que was startled by her words and coughed lightly, saying, “Your description isn’t that apt. It’s not called sudden wealth syndrome. It’s more like, feeling at ease with a comfortable nest egg… We cannot display any sudden wealth syndrome, nor is the comfortable nest egg that comfortable. I guess we should still hang my calligraphy for sale but mark up the prices so that they won’t sell for under one thousand pieces of gold.”

Sangsang thought that her young master’s most expensive piece had only sold for twenty tales of silver and that was the only expensive piece he had sold. They had cooked up a feast to celebrate scamming an idiot then and now he’s saying that he won’t sell his calligraphy for under a thousand pieces of gold. There might be a lot of stupid wealthy people in Chang’an, but were there as many idiots for them to scam?

Ning Que saw the strong doubt in the handmaid’s dark eyes and smiled. He said, “Remember, we are now filthy rich. We don’t need that kind of income. This is like spending a thousand pieces of gold to buy a horse carcass. It’s just to get our name out there.”

…

…

Sangsang followed his instructions and took down most of his calligraphy works in the Old Brush Pen Shop before buying a large pile of writings from the Scent Workshop. When there are customers who would like to purchase Ning Que’s writings, she would dutifully say that the owner’s writings are extremely precious and they would only sell for one thousand pieces of gold.

However, what happened after that did not exactly go according to Ning Que’s imagination. The reputation of the Old Brush Pen Shop did not go up, but business got even worse. They received nothing other than sarcastic comments such as, “Did the boss go nuts from being poor?”.

Now that the two are stinking rich, they did indeed develop the Sudden Wealth Syndrom. Even Sangsang wasn’t as obsessed with the shop’s income. Ning Que busied himself with studying in the Academy in hopes that he would ascend the second floor to learn more about the different magics.