novelraw Chapter 87: The Fox Who Sells Fox Fur
Chapter 87: The Fox Who Sells Fox Fur
Small children generally have little self-control.
Hu Caiyi was still nodding when her hand was already reaching out. She touched the tip of Miss Tang Xiaoxue's horn with careful curiosity and broke into a wide, silly grin.
"Heheh, what did you transform from?"
"What?"
Miss Tang Xiaoxue had finally woken up properly by this point, "I didn't transform from anything. I was born looking like this."
"Wow! That's amazing!"
Drawn together by their shared age, gender, non-human nature, and mutual level of academic seriousness, by the time the two of them walked out of the examination hall they had already become close friends with nothing held back between them.
Li Qiuchen followed behind with a blank expression, quietly lamenting to himself that he felt like a father watching a pig root up his cabbage patch, while at the same time genuinely trying to study these two small people and learn how to better play the role of a true peer.
"The questions were so hard. I couldn't understand at least half of them."
"It was alright, I thought it was pretty simple.""You were asleep the whole time, I saw you!"
"Was I really asleep the whole time? But I could have sworn I remembered... could I have written my answers in a dream?"
"Hahahahaha!"
"Hehehehe..."
Li Qiuchen drew a slow, deep breath and told himself not to stoop to the level of children.
Children were just like this. He absolutely must not become too brooding and serious himself in future.
Hu Caiyi was a half-demon.
Her mother was a Chu person.
Her father ran the largest fur trading establishment in the county seat.
The white fox fur cape on Miss Tang Xiaoxue's shoulders was something Li Qiuchen had purchased from their family's shop just two days prior.
So it really was someone's second aunt after all.
Li Qiuchen still didn't know why he had felt compelled to buy a white fox fur cape specifically. He had simply been working through the shopping list Zhang Shaoyao had given him.
It did look beautiful on. That much was undeniable but who on earth could have predicted that a fox spirit would be out there selling fur goods?
Weren't you all supposed to be living in the wild burial grounds outside the city? How had they ended up operating openly inside the city walls?
Li Qiuchen didn't dare let the matter sit. He went home and reported the whole thing to Boss Tang. Boss Tang was quiet for a long while, then brought his daughter along with a generous gift, and rode over to pay a visit to the Hu family.
As they say, one more friend means one more road open to you, and one more enemy means one more wall blocking your way. Anyone making their way through the jianghu will inevitably end up creating friction with others for all kinds of reasons. Wise people understand the value of turning hostility into harmony. As for those reckless hotbloods who love to lick blood off blades and pick fights at every turn, the vast majority don't last two years.
Master Hu, judging by outward appearances, was a handsome and refined middle-aged man with an easy and pleasant manner. Upon learning the reason for Boss Tang's visit, he laughed out loud and had a feast laid out on the spot to receive the Tang father and daughter.
"Brother Tang is overthinking this. As far as I know, over in the Border Wilds there are ancient clans that sell off the bones and remains of their own ancestors. Everyone is just trying to get by. There's no room for so many taboos. And besides... the fox furs sold in the shop aren't actually fox fur. They're rabbit fur."
With that one sentence, Master Hu untangled the knot in both Boss Tang's and Li Qiuchen's hearts but a few questions still lingered.
"How did Brother Hu come to think of entering this line of business?"
Master Hu laughed and said, "Many people have asked me that question. To be frank, they're all watching from the other shore without understanding the inside workings of the trade. Does Brother Tang honestly think that in a place as large as Yun County, the hunters from the surrounding villages and towns would stop going up the mountains to catch foxes just because one or two fox demons with some years of cultivation gave them a scare?"
Of course they wouldn't. Who even knew who you were?
And if you made too big a commotion, someone capable would naturally come along to deal with you.
"Hunters go up the mountain and take whatever prey fortune brings them. No one goes specifically to hunt foxes, so the problem doesn't lie with them. The reason fox fur fetches a high price isn't because the quality is so much better than other furs. It's partly merchants driving up demand, and partly the nobility choosing to chase after it as a status symbol."
Once he got started on his business philosophy, Master Hu was unstoppable.
"I've built two farms outside the city. One raises sable, the other raises snow hares. Sable fur is far superior to fox fur in quality, which lets it compete in the high-end market. Snow hare fur can pass for white fox fur and goes through the lower-end channels. Outsiders can't tell the difference anyway. Once snow hare fur becomes widespread, wealthy buyers won't bother distinguishing between fox and hare. They'll abandon both equally."
"So my fur business not only avoids harming my own kind, it actually creates more living space for them. My kind ought to be grateful to me. Why would they blame me?"
Li Qiuchen stood to one side listening and was completely dumbfounded.
What the hell, was that really a valid way to look at it?
What would you even call this? Saving foxes by a roundabout path?
So in the end... he was the only fool here, having been taken for a naive mark?
Once that awkwardness was resolved, both parties enjoyed themselves thoroughly.
Both fathers were delighted that their daughters had found a companion on the very first day of school.
Master Hu gave Miss Tang Xiaoxue a cashmere shawl. Boss Tang gave Hu Caiyi a gold longevity lock.
Both parties agreed that after spring arrived, they would find an occasion to go out together for an outing.
Of course, things said over a banquet table are polite pleasantries, much like "I'll treat next time," without any particular binding weight.
Li Qiuchen, as a study companion, naturally came away with nothing at all for his trouble but being able to resolve the hidden complications around him was worth more to him than any gift.
Three days later, the county school posted its results.
There had been four examination halls during the test, designated First, Second, Third, and Fourth, and now there were four corresponding notice boards posted in kind.
The inner hall of the county school would only accept students from the First and Second lists. Anyone with eyes could see that those who made the First List were without question the genuinely accomplished ones. As for students on the Second List, things were a bit harder to say.
Academic performance alone was certainly not sufficient for some of them, but other factors would have played a role.
Such as, for instance, a certain donation of three thousand taels of silver.
First on the First List: Chen Nansheng.
This person had exceptional talent and had been admitted to the inner hall as a special case, with tuition waived entirely. Sitting the children's examination this year was nothing more than a formality for him.
Second place: Liu Huai'an, a name Li Qiuchen didn't recognize.
Third place: Li Qiuchen.
When Li Qiuchen saw his own name, the only thing going through his head was a massive question mark.
What the hell? He had throttled his score and still ended up in the top three?
Was this right?
Could it be a different person with the same name?
He quickly scanned the other lists and found no one with the same name.
So everyone ranked below him was that much weaker?
Hu Caiyi discovered she had placed fourth on the Second List and was overjoyed.
She had expected to be near the very bottom, not imagining there would still be more than thirty people behind her.
Placing near the top of the Second List wasn't actually that shameful. It meant you were a poor student who still had room to be salvaged.
She spent a long while searching the Second List for Miss Tang Xiaoxue's name and couldn't find it. She turned to look at the other boards, and there it was.
Sixty-fourth on the First List: Tang Xiaoxue.
Hu Caiyi was stunned.
She had watched with her own eyes as Miss Tang Xiaoxue slept through the entire examination.
Could the legends of the jianghu be wrong? Was the First List not actually that impressive after all?
How could you possibly have scored sixty-fourth? Whatever happened to being academic failures together?
Miss Tang Xiaoxue herself had no concept of what the rankings meant. She gave the board a brief glance and turned to Li Qiuchen, "Does this mean I passed?"
"Congratulations, young miss. Not only did you pass, you did very well."
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