Ink Burns

Chapter 11 Memories of the Past

Without mentioning the exchange of paintings, Sun Wuye talked about the dividends, saying calmly: "Zhu Siming's paintings are difficult to copy, so I will give you eight taels for each painting. If there are unpublished paintings by Shen Huaizan or Zhou Bingshan, I will give you five taels for each painting."

The time to find the Cheng family and spend a lot of money to explore the way has passed.

He Shanyue didn't care whether it was eight taels or five taels.

Master Sun Wu turned around and took out a written contract: "No problem, just sign the contract first."

He Shanyue looked at the amount carefully one by one. It was not too long. He picked up the pen, signed his name and pressed his fingerprint.

The servant behind Master Sun Wu was kicking stones with his head down, bored.

After signing, He Shanyue picked up the contract and read it carefully again. Suddenly, he heard the sound of clothes rubbing against each other and a muffled "mumble" from behind him. Then a security guard dragged a skinny and pale boy over. Another security guard followed behind with a brazier and walked quickly past the bamboo enclosure.

In the brazier, the charcoal fire emits blue-green flames, with orange-red fire surrounding the inner flames.

He Shanyue's hand holding the deed paused slightly.

Uncle Sun Wu noticed it keenly, and followed He Shanyue's gaze. The next moment, he moved his hands in his sleeves again and again, making a "walk away" gesture.

The man who reached out to hold the brazier walked quickly.

He Shanyue lowered his eyes and handed the contract to Master Sun Wu: "Nothing else, except that the time limit may need some leniency. The Cheng family has many roads and winding roads. I dare not say a definite time."

Master Sun Wu nodded: "Of course."

He Shanyue said goodbye to Master Sun Wu. As soon as he stepped out of the bamboo forest, the servant beside Master Sun Wu muttered, "We have been bumping into each other for six or seven years. We eat, drink, defecate and urinate together. We are doing business together and signing contracts. It feels so strange."

Master Sun Wu continued to pound the malachite pigment: "Only by doing this can she feel at ease."

The first time I met He Shanyue was in a back street in Jinling Prefecture on a snowy day.

The jugglers set up their tents with grayish oilcloth, and the sounds of gongs and drums, cymbals and suonas blended together.

The shed was filled with eye-catching things, such as jar-men with heads as big as those of old men and legs and feet like those of babies, or small minnows with monkey-like brown hair all over their bodies. They were all circus wonders.

Ordinary people live a hard life and can only use more bizarre and cruel things as an antidote to happiness.

During this time, the circus owner pulled out a little girl of about eleven or twelve years old. Her cheeks and lips were painted red, and her face was smeared with powder, making her as white as a ghost.

There was a burning charcoal brazier next to the little girl.

The circus leader picked up a small, round piece of charcoal that was also red, and laughed at the top of his voice: "Show me how to swallow the sunset!"

The circus leader opened the little girl's mouth and quickly and fiercely stuffed the long iron rack into her mouth.

The crowd watching burst into laughter.

In the past, he would not accept these things. He had crawled out of all kinds of people, and these hardships were like the birds in the forest, the fish in the water, the grass on the ground and the rain from heaven to him. They were ordinary, common and boring.

But for the first time ever, that day, he stopped.

The red-hot round charcoal was stuffed into the little girl's mouth, and the bright red coloring was wiped off. It could be seen that the little girl's facial features and bones were very beautiful, and her whole face, tilted up, looked like an exquisite twelve-panel folding fan.

Such a beautiful girl now has her head held high, her mouth wide open, and her jaw pinched apart, like a set of misaligned building blocks.

She was in a state of disarray, broken, dead and exhausted, but her eyes were terrifyingly bright, like a beautiful carp swimming into a shallow puddle. Once her tail fin was given a chance to touch the bottom, she would definitely jump up and show everyone her glowing scales and scimitar-like back.

He was inexplicably held back by these eyes, and waited until this ridiculous "Swallowing the Sunset" was over. Then he came to the backstage and asked the person in charge: "How much is that Swallowing the Sunset?"

The boss seemed to have found a fool who knew the value of her: "She is so beautiful! She hasn't grown up yet. When she grows up, I will sell her to a brothel for at least this amount of money--"

The person in charge slapped his hands.

"Five taels?" He asked deliberately even though he knew it was impossible.

The person in charge spat on the ground: "Pfft! Fifty taels!"

He turned and left.

The boss called him over, "Hey, hey, hey! Ten taels! I'll give it to you! You can take it back for anything! Such a pretty girl, I'll take her virginity as soon as I buy her!" He came closer with a lewd look on his face, "In order to sell her at a good price, no one is allowed to touch her for a year! Including myself - if she's not a virgin, come here tomorrow and I'll give you a replacement."

He said expressionlessly: "Five taels, not a copper coin more."

The person in charge thought about it and said, as if selling off a long-stocked commodity: "Okay, okay! You are such a stubborn guy! I'll give it to you, I'll give it to you!"

After he brought the girl back to the antique shop, he understood why the circus boss was willing to reduce the price from fifty taels to five taels - the little girl had had a high fever for who knows how many days, and after wiping off the rouge and lip balm on her face, her whole face was abnormally flushed, and her legs and hands were shaking. Miss Wang Er gently pushed her from behind, and she floated away like cotton.

Beautiful carp that is dying.

What a pity for his five taels of silver.

At that time and on that day, his sudden kindness was only worth five taels of silver.

Not one more copper penny.

The antique shop needs to open, he, Er Niang, and Lao Lu need to eat, and the backlog of paintings need to be shown. He has no time to continue investing in the kindness of five taels of silver.

"Miss, leave it to her." He said to Miss Wang Er, "If she can survive, then survive. If she can't, just wrap up the unsaleable paintings and throw them at the door of Huang's Antiques across the street. It will annoy that old yellow dog, and she will repay my kindness."

Miss Wang Er wiped her eyelids upwards to stop the tears from falling down, and cursed: "Fuck you, you always cause trouble for me, fuck you."

The next morning, the girl's fever was gone.

The small backyard was filled with an unpleasant smell of medicine.

He saw that the silver bracelet that Wang Erniang had been wearing on her hand was gone, and he remained silent. His kindness at that time was only worth five taels of silver, not a penny more, but he could not stop others from being kind.

"When I have money, I'll give you a gold one." After a long silence, he spoke.

On the fourth day, the girl woke up, and when she woke up she heard the crisp sound of a porcelain bowl breaking.

"You son of a bitch! Are you afraid that I'll poison you to death?"

Miss Wang Er was furious: "Do you know how much a bowl costs? This is such a big fucking trouble! I don't want anyone to care about it anymore!"

Then, Miss Wang Er rushed out of the yard, put her hands on her hips, and spit at him and roared, "Old Five, you take care of what you picked up! I stayed up all night to watch over it, but the damn guy opened his eyes and overturned the medicine bowl! Even if the king of heaven comes, Lei Zhenzi comes, I won't take care of it!"

　There will be another update later.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)