Chapter 7

Mr. Wang, the shopkeeper, was in a very bad mood today, extremely bad.

Wu Jie only knew that he was a miser, but he didn't know that compared to his stinginess, he was even more notorious for his petty jealousy and grudges.

A few years ago, when Doctor Wu came to sell medicine, Mr. Wang had ruthlessly suppressed the price, and his sarcastic remarks made Doctor Wu suffer a lot. Not long after, the head constable, Du Yu, started to cause trouble for him—only then did he realize that the Wu family and the Du family were sworn brothers, and among the sworn brothers was a scholar named Lin Xiuzhi.

A mere pharmacy owner naturally couldn't compete with the county's head constable, and a scholar who had studied in the provincial capital was not someone he could provoke. Thus, the man who looked down on others had no choice but to apologize to Doctor Wu and compensate him with double the price of the medicine.

Wu Jie didn't take this to heart. In his view, haggling over prices in business was a matter of course, and even if the price was suppressed heavily, it could only be considered greedy, not a big deal.

But for the petty Mr. Wang, this was a deep-seated grudge that made him gnash his teeth and clench his fists!

If it were any other time, with the backing of the Du and Lin families, he could only grit his teeth and bear it, and he wouldn't dare to touch Wu Jie. But this time, Wu Jie came alone at night, bringing extremely valuable rare herbs, which made him unable to resist having other thoughts...

The room was dark, and Mr. Wang sat alone in the darkness, deep in thought. He was somewhat hesitant because he was considering a rather serious matter and couldn't make a decision lightly.

"The humiliation from the Wu family must be avenged! But... if the news leaks out, Du Yu won't be easy to deal with..."

Mr. Wang's expression kept changing, sometimes angry, sometimes nervous, sometimes fierce, sometimes worried. His hatred for the Wu family, his fear of Du Yu and Lin Xiuzhi, his anticipation of revenge, and his concern about the risks... He thought for a good half an hour before finally making up his mind.

"Never mind! Since this boy came alone, it must be heaven's will to destroy him! Otherwise, why didn't he go to Du Yu first, but came to me? This is definitely the will of heaven!"

Mr. Wang's face was full of malice as he picked up a lantern and went out, not returning until late at night.

He didn't take his assistants with him, so no one knew where he had been during this time, but the next morning he was in particularly high spirits, as if he had taken some great tonic, full of energy.

After treating Wu Jie to breakfast at his home, he led two assistants to accompany Wu Jie to the money house to withdraw money.

In the Eastern Chu Kingdom, there was a state-run money house, run by the government. It only handled two services: storage and exchange. Storage was for gold and silver, and exchange was for converting scattered gold and silver from the public into high-quality gold and silver ingots with official seals. Because the ingots had official seals, they were called patterned gold and patterned silver.

Patterned gold and silver were of high purity and fine craftsmanship, and were very popular. Large transactions in the public often used them, and wealthy families were particularly keen on collecting them. Wu Jie's family also had some patterned silver, but not much—possibly less than what he earned this time.

This world did not have the peculiar sixteen or eighteen tael system of ancient China; whether it was grain or gold and silver, a uniform decimal system was used. Eight hundred taels was eighty pounds, and a large silver ingot weighed one pound. Eighty ingots of silver were neatly arranged in four rows, making Wu Jie a bit stunned.

In both his past and present life, he had never seen so much silver.

"Dear nephew, would you like to go back with my cart?" Mr. Wang smiled kindly, "Eighty pounds is not heavy, but it's not light either. It's a twenty-mile journey from Wu Family Village to Anfeng County, and carrying it all the way back would be quite tiring. I happen to have a cart going to that area to buy charcoal, and I can take you along."

Wu Jie was about to refuse, but Mr. Wang persuaded him, "Eight hundred taels is not a small amount, and it's not safe to travel alone. More people mean more safety. I know your sworn brother, Constable Du, is highly skilled, but he is a public official and it's inconvenient for him to leave the county. It's better not to trouble him."

What he said made sense, but Wu Jie wasn't worried about safety.

With Wu Xiaojie's current abilities, ordinary bandits were no match for him. As for those experts who couldn't even beat him—how capable could they be to act for just eight hundred taels of silver? How desperate would those top experts have to be to rob for just eight hundred taels of silver!

But as the saying goes, it's hard to refuse kindness, and he had nothing urgent to do in the county, so it was fine to hitch a ride with the pharmacy's cart.

"Can you wait for me? I plan to buy something to take home..."

"Dear nephew! Not to be nosy, but why waste money? Your family is well-off, with no lack of food or clothing. What do you need to buy? Listen to your uncle's advice and take all the money home. Bringing money home is more practical than anything else!"

This was very much in line with Mr. Wang's usual style. Wu Jie guessed that the miser probably didn't want to waste time and was too lazy to argue over such a small matter, so he followed his advice and got on the cart with the wooden box containing eight hundred taels of patterned silver.

The cart was quite old but still sturdy. There were no other passengers, and the driver was also the person responsible for collecting goods, which allowed Mr. Wang to save on wages.

"Truly worthy of his reputation as a miser!" Wu Jie couldn't help but sigh when he learned this. "If this old man were born on Earth, he would definitely have a lot in common with Terry Gou!"

The cart pulled by a slow horse was extremely slow, even slower than a brisk walk, but the driver was clearly an experienced hand, and the ride was very smooth, making Wu Jie very comfortable. The slight bumps didn't make him uncomfortable; instead, they made him feel quite relaxed. The weather was also very nice, with warm sunlight, and he gradually felt a bit drowsy.

Sleeping during the day wasn't a good habit, so Wu Jie didn't lie down in the empty cart to sleep. Instead, he chatted with Jasmine in his mind.

Since he completed the alchemy, his whole body had been transformed, and his vital energy was so abundant that he could freely enter and exit the Heavenly Book world and talk with Jasmine, who was in the Heavenly Book world, without worrying about overexerting himself.

So when he had nothing to do, he would chat with Jasmine, much like friends chatting on the phone in his past life.

As a former pet of the Supreme Divine Lord, Jasmine had a high status in the sect and often chatted with disciples, so she knew many strange and interesting stories. Wu Jie often discussed these things with her in his free time, both to deepen his understanding of the world of cultivation and to try to understand the mindset of cultivators through Jasmine—though the latter was secondary, as he guessed that Jasmine's moral and value systems were probably quite unusual even in the world of cultivation...

Time always passed quickly when chatting, and before he knew it, it was noon. The assistant, Zhao Er, stopped the cart by the roadside to let the horse rest, and Wu Jie and he took the opportunity to have lunch.

"Brother Zhao, do you often travel this road? You seem very skilled at driving," Wu Jie asked casually after lunch.

"Indeed, I often do, because we often need to buy goods—though this time is strange. We still have plenty of charcoal in the store, so why the rush to buy more?" The short and stocky Zhao Er smiled naively. "This doesn't seem like the boss's usual style..."

Wu Jie was taken aback and felt a bit puzzled.

Mr. Wang's stinginess was well-known, and charcoal, which was not widely used and not expensive, didn't seem like something suitable for stockpiling. So why did he rush to buy more when there was still plenty in the warehouse?

"Could it be that he got news that charcoal is going to rise in price?" Before Zhao Er could answer, Wu Jie dismissed this idea himself. Charcoal was just made from bamboo, and bamboo was one of the easiest and most common woods to grow, so it couldn't possibly be in short supply.

"Who knows? Anyway, if the boss wants to buy, I'll buy," Zhao Er smiled naively, not caring.

Wu Jie only thought about it for a moment and then put it aside. After all, whether charcoal prices rose or not had nothing to do with him. Doctor Wu was a straightforward person, focusing on running the pharmacy and not involving himself in other businesses. Even if charcoal prices rose, they wouldn't benefit.

As for the possibility of not being able to buy charcoal if prices rose—there was a large bamboo forest outside Wu Family Village, and the pharmacy's charcoal was always made by themselves, so there was no need to worry about a shortage.

After resting for a while, the cart continued on its way. By the time it was around dusk, they reached the crossroads leading to Wu Family Village. From here, it was no longer on the way.

Wu Jie thanked Zhao Er, shouldered the box, and set off alone toward the town.

It was about ten miles from here to the town, and with his pace, he could just make it home in time for dinner.

But before he had walked two miles, he heard some noise from the woods by the roadside.

He looked over curiously and saw that there seemed to be quite a few people in the woods.

Could it be bandits? But this road had always been peaceful, hadn't it?

Wu Jie was puzzled when a loud shout came from the woods. Six or seven men, dressed in rags and wielding short sticks and long poles, led by a man with a knife, rushed out and blocked his path.

"This mountain is mine, this tree is mine, if you want to pass, leave your money!" The big man waved his hand, and a thin man with a hoarse voice waved his short stick and shouted fiercely, "If you don't, we'll kill you and leave you to rot!"

They really were bandits!

Wu Jie was stunned for several seconds, then burst out laughing.

"These past few days, I've been thinking about finding some bandits to test my skills, and I didn't expect them to come to me..." He put the heavy box on the ground, stretched his limbs casually, and beckoned to the bandits, "Come on! I want to see how you 'kill and leave to rot'!"

Before he finished speaking, he charged at the bandits like a tiger descending from the mountain.