Chapter 6: The Utter Chaos of Reason and Emotion

  Chapter 6 is quite poor and chaotic

  Kang De came out of Xi Chun Building, and the scorching sun at noon shone on him, who was spiritless. His chest seemed to be pressed by a huge stone, making him feel suffocated. Unconsciously, he walked into the bustling Bianliang Market, intending to hurry through this crowded place, but suddenly saw Zhao Xingde squeezing behind a large group of people in front, craning his neck to look inside.

  Kang De originally wouldn't have stopped to watch the commotion, but at this moment, he couldn't help feeling curious, and slowly walked forward, passing through the crowd to take a look inside. Suddenly, his anger rose from his heart. All he saw was a young woman lying on her back, tied up on a butcher's block, her chin slightly pointed, her cheeks crisscrossed with several bloody scars, barely making out her originally somewhat pretty face, her upper body stripped of clothing, revealing her delicate and slightly dark skin, a tattered Luo skirt draped over her waist. What made Kang De furious was that the woman's waist was clearly tied with an ironwood plaque from Xia Guo.

  "Come and take a look, this woman who doesn't follow the proper way, chop her up and sell her, you can have any piece of meat you want." A burly man with a ferocious face, bare-chested, stood behind the butcher's block, brandishing a sharp cleaver, shouting and gesturing with the knife tip on the woman's body.

  "That big fellow shouted in a loud and rough voice: 'Ears, nose, breasts, thighs, take your pick, come buy quickly! Any piece of meat is fine, don't be so stingy. It's just a bit more expensive than pork and cheaper than mutton, don't you want to buy some back to try?'"

  The crowd around was getting bigger and bigger, some looked at the tied-up beauty on the butcher's block with their heads down, some had a hint of regret in their eyes, some looked fearfully at the tattoo of a white-browed tiger on the big man's back, and some whispered to each other.

  "What kind of sin has this woman committed to be treated like this by Wang Er Ye?"

  She eloped with a scholar, but it turned out that the scholar had a wife and family at home and refused to live a good life. She was sold to a brothel and refused to entertain guests honestly.

  "Is Wang Er Ye really going to chop her up? Won't Zhang Li Zheng come and try to dissuade him?"

  "Scare her and tell her to behave herself. You mouse skin, are you still thinking of playing hero?"

  "It's all ruined now, what a beautiful mess! My wife called me out to buy soy sauce, and I stumbled upon a great show... Ah, my wife is here, it hurts... it hurts... it hurts..."

  Zhao Xingde saw the woman lying quietly on the butcher's block, biting her lips tightly, her eyes dull and losing their luster, as if she had also lost her shame. He couldn't bear it in his heart. At this time, he heard Wang Erye shouting loudly again: "This is just a cheap goods, no one buys it, then cut off one hand first." After finishing speaking, the knife fell, and amidst the crowd's cries of surprise, one knife chopped down. The crowd and Zhao Xingde cried out in surprise, almost thinking that the woman's hand was about to be chopped off, but saw a hand stretched out from the side, firmly holding the hand of the man holding the knife.

  "Brother Kang." Zhao Xingde was taken aback and only then did he clearly see Kang De's descendant glaring at Wang Er Ye.

  Kang De's descendant reached out to save someone, and Wang Er Ye exerted force to press down several times. However, the right hand that Kang De's descendant grabbed did not move at all, and was even pinched until it hurt slightly. Seeing that Kang De's descendant was dressed in luxury and exuded an air of wealth and nobility, with a strong foundation in martial arts, Wang Er Ye felt inferior but couldn't back down in front of everyone. With a stern expression, he shouted: "I'm handling my own servant, what does this have to do with you?"

  Kang De's eyes stared fixedly at Wang Er Ye's eyes, suppressing the fire in his heart, and said word by word: "This woman, I bought."

  Wang Er Ye was stared at by him and felt his heart racing, seeing Kang De Yu willing to buy people, he followed the donkey down the slope: "All?"

  "I want everything." Kantou said coldly, pulling out a bill from his pocket. The price of good mutton on the Bianliang Bridge was fifty cents per catty, and this woman was petite, weighing no more than 70 or 80 catties. Four strings of cash would be enough to buy her entire body. Wang Er took the bill and just as he was about to untie the woman from the meat counter, she sat up and pulled up the cloth skirt under her waist to cover her upper body. She looked at Kantou and said, "If you're buying me back to make me a concubine, then you've miscalculated." Her face was pale and haggard, her thin lips completely bloodless, but the words she spat out were firm and resolute.

  Kang Deyou took out a copper plate from his bosom and flashed it in front of her eyes, then put it away and said in a low voice: "Can you follow me now?" The copper plate was the same style as the one on the woman's waist, and a hint of surprise flashed in her eyes. She lowered her head and followed Kang Deyou out of the crowd without saying a word.

  Zhao Xingde was about to speak up and buy the woman, but Kang De's descendant beat him to it. He admired Kang De's descendant from the bottom of his heart and followed the two as they squeezed out of the crowd. All he heard was Kang De's descendant saying to the woman, "You should take care of your injuries first. Half a month later, there will be a merchant caravan going to Samarkand. You can follow them back home then." The woman, however, said gloomily, "I, Ah Xiu, disobeyed my parents' orders and eloped with someone. I'm ashamed for life and have no face to return home." She lifted her head, looking at Kang De's descendant with hopeful eyes, saying, "Thank you, sir, for saving me. If you don't mind, I'll be your servant for the rest of my life, without any complaints. In the next life, I'll repay your kindness by being a cow or a horse for you." Kang De's descendant turned his head and glanced at Zhao Xingde, who was following behind, but didn't say much. He first turned around to greet Zhao Xingde.

  Zhao Xingde stepped forward quickly and bowed his hands in praise, saying: "Brother Kang saw the injustice on the road and came to assist, truly a benevolent person." Kang Deyi smiled faintly and said: "Not hiding from Brother Zhao, I am a native of Xia State. Seeing this young lady, I was moved by my hometown feelings. According to the laws of Lu State in the Spring and Autumn period, if a Lu citizen became a servant or slave of another state, anyone who could ransom them would take their money from the treasury. Xia State followed this law, so I rescued Ah Xiu, it was just a matter of lifting my hand, there's no need to mention breaking open my purse."

  Zhao Xingde praised the good governance of Xia Guo, and then they parted ways. Kang De's descendant took Ah Xiu back to Fuhai Xing, wrote a note asking Liu Xunshi, the left army patrol gate, to severely punish Wang Er Ye, the rascal in the market. Then he asked Ah Xiu: "Where does that scholar who deceived you into coming to Bianliang live? I'll send someone to dig out his heart and see its color." Xia Guo River is located in a strategic location, surrounded by Diyi tribes, where civilians are accustomed to fighting, and the people are brave and vengeful. Ah Xiu knew that Kang De's descendant was not joking, so he immediately knelt down and begged for forgiveness, but refused to reveal the name of the Song Guo scholar. Kang De's descendant had no choice but to sigh and temporarily keep Ah Xiu by his side to do chores. He had many mundane tasks and gradually put this matter aside.

  In the Tai Xue, Zhao Xingde found Chen Dong and showed him over a dozen posters he had written. Chen Dong looked at them one by one, nodding his head in praise: "Not to mention others, but if we're talking about writing that's both humorous and angry, among the three thousand students of the Imperial Academy, Yuan Zhi is undoubtedly the best." Zhao Xingde smiled: "Unfortunately, posters aren't being tested this year." Chen Dong also shook his head with a smile. The two of them went to the streets and alleys of Bianliang, taking advantage of the absence of officials and local authorities to quickly post over thirty posters. Then, Chen Dong took Zhao Xingde to a small bookstore and received ten strings of cash. Earlier, Kang De's ransom for Ah Xiu had only been four strings, so when Zhao Xingde looked at the money in his hand, he couldn't help but feel that talent was indeed wealth. Suddenly, he heard Chen Dong say mysteriously: "There's another way to make money, and it just so happens to be today - are you willing to go with me, Yuan Zhi?"

  Zhao Xingde leaned in and Chen Dong explained in detail. It turned out that at this time, the custom was that when a wealthy family held a Buddhist ceremony or paid respects to Buddha with incense, the women would tie intricate knots with silk threads and personally hand them over to high-ranking monks in the temple. The monks had to untie all these knots within a limited time, as "knot" sounded like "disaster", symbolizing the elimination of disasters. The noblewomen and young ladies were idle and bored, so they found that tying and untying knots was actually a fun competitive game. As a result, various silk knots became increasingly complex and difficult to untie, to the point where the high-ranking monks in the Daxiangguo Temple had to secretly find someone to help them untie those knots that were already making them very angry. For experts at untying knots, not only would they be rewarded with valuable items such as gold coins or small silver ingots wrapped in silk knots, but they would also receive varying amounts of compensation based on the difficulty and time limit for untying the knots.

  "Just untie a knot, is it so difficult?" Zhao Xingde's face was filled with a skeptical expression.

  "The green bamboo snake's mouth, the yellow hornet's tail needle, both are non-toxic, but a woman's heart is the most poisonous." Chen Dong shook his head with emotion and said, "Yuan Zhí, you don't understand our Bianliang ladies at all. They want to make the knot impossible to untie, so before tying it, they soak the silk thread in well water, then tie it up and dry it in the sun to shrink the knot tight. Some even repeat this process three times or more, until the silk knot becomes as hard as a stone. This is just the most ordinary trick." His face showed the expression of someone who had experienced many hardships.

  "Is it really that exaggerated?" Zhao Xingde thought to himself, following Chen Dong to the Dasangguo Temple with a mixture of trust and doubt.

  This great Xiangguo Temple is the most prosperous place in Bianliang City, not only are there many pilgrims gathering here, but also many merchants and traders rely on the temple to buy and sell goods. Not only do they open shops along the Bian River Street in front of the temple, but this day happens to be April 8th, the Buddha's birthday, and all ten major Chan temples in Bianliang have bathing Buddha ceremonies, preparing fragrant medicine sugar water, called "bathing Buddha water", to offer to pilgrims who come to worship. Therefore, even before arriving at Xiangguo Temple, there are already many pilgrims coming to worship from afar. Various shops take the opportunity to do a big business, in addition to the shops, inside and outside the temple are filled with dense stalls selling all kinds of daily necessities, such as mats, screens, washing utensils, saddles, bows, swords, dried meat, etc., nothing is missing.

  Near the Buddhist temple, there are exquisite and elegant items such as honeyed fruits, Zhao Wenshu's pen, and Pan Ge's ink. The corridor in front of the temple is a self-produced and self-sold stall in the temple, specializing in selling collars, hairpins, pearl headwear, hats, special hairpins, and other clothing accessories made by the temple's nuns and maidservants. On the stalls behind the temple are books, antiques, paintings, local specialties, and expensive medicinal herbs. The most exaggerated thing is that next to Xiangguo Temple, there is a restaurant called Burnt Pig Institute, which claims to be the best in Bianjing for its burnt pork. This makes Zhao Xingde click his tongue in surprise, thinking that almost everyone is engaged in business, not just the military, but even monks cannot escape this trend.

  Chen Dong, while fending off vendors who kept trying to sell him various goods, said to Zhao Xingde: "In the past, shops in this city were only allowed to operate within the alleys and not face the main streets. Later on, as officials and nobles gradually became unable to make ends meet, they began to allow merchants to spend money to tear down the alley walls, resulting in shops and markets everywhere, even Buddhist temples couldn't avoid the trend."

  Zhao Xingde, however, detected a hint of resentment in his tone. Before the demolition of the city walls, the shops and houses in Bianliang City were not expensive, and only those with connections to high-ranking officials could afford to tear down walls and open new shops without being questioned by the authorities. These individuals made a fortune during the wall-demolition movement in Bianliang. By the time the shop-buying business was fully liberalized, the prices of commercial properties in Bianliang had skyrocketed to ten times their original value. Merchants like Chen Dong's father, who were not deeply rooted in Bianliang, could only grit their teeth and pay a hefty price to take over shops.

  Recently, the imperial court has been restricting house purchases in Bianjing under the pretext of soaring housing prices. This move has pushed up the price of houses in Bianjing to an astronomical level. Even the monks at Daxiangguo Temple could not resist the temptation of wealth and allowed some merchants who had a good relationship with the temple to open shops inside the temple. As a result, the amount of money extracted from these shops every year was astonishingly high, and by virtue of the temple's special status, they were also exempt from paying taxes. The abbot, Fang Zhi, savored the taste bit by bit and eventually utilized all the space inside and outside the temple that could be used for opening shops and stalls. The vast Daxiangguo Temple was almost transformed into the largest small commodity market in Bianjing.