Taichang Ming Dynasty

Chapter 749 A Bright Man

"Hmm, that makes sense." Gao Yingqiu nodded. "Anything else?"

“Others.” He Xiaokui raised his head blankly and glanced at Gao Yingqiu. “What do you mean by deputy boss?”

"It's about his hometown, address, status, academic achievements, and so on. Have you heard them mention it?" After saying that, Gao Yingqiu found it a little funny himself.

“This…” He Xiaokui shook his head as expected. “I don’t know. I’m stupid and never thought of asking about these things.”

"Well," Gao Yingqiu hesitated for a moment, "never mind, they've already seen you. I'll find someone else."

"Find someone else?" He Xiaokui asked nervously. "...What for?"

"It's nothing, go about your business." Gao Yingqiu clearly wasn't going to explain anything to He Xiaokui. After saying this, he turned and walked towards the backyard.

He Xiaokui kept his head down, but the corner of his eye kept following Gao Yingqiu's disappearing figure behind the curtain. The blue cloth curtain swayed a few times before finally coming to a stop, but he remained frozen in place, as if nailed to the spot.

The intense inner struggle almost tore him apart. The silver notes in his arms seemed to become burning hot again, tempting him to stay one moment and warning him of endless trouble the next.

Suddenly, as if propelled by something, his eyes sharpened, and as if he had made up his mind, he abruptly strode towards the stairwell. But after only two steps, the brass bell hanging at the door rang out crisply—a guest had arrived.

He Xiaokui abruptly stopped, his body stiffening. He glanced back at a middle-aged man in a worn-out cloth shirt entering through the door, then looked at the nearby stairs. Just as he gritted his teeth, preparing to ignore the customer and continue upstairs, the head manager, Yu Tinghua, sternly reprimanded him from behind the counter: "Hey! What are you doing? A customer's here, hurry up and greet him!"

He Xiaokui gripped the stair railing, turned his head, and said to Yu Tinghua in a dry voice with a blank, stubborn look on his face, "I'm going upstairs to find the boss."

Yu Tinghua quickly glanced at the guest who had just entered and immediately judged that he was just an ordinary customer and there was no need to disturb the owner. He waved his hand impatiently: "Why go upstairs now? Attend to the guest first. Don't dawdle!"

He Xiaokui hesitated for a moment, but ultimately turned to greet the guest. The guest was quite amiable, and upon seeing this, smiled and waved to He Xiaokui, saying, "Young man, just go about your business, don't worry about me."

After saying this, the customer went straight to the counter where Yu Tinghua was, and took out a neatly folded pawn ticket from his pocket. Then, he untied a heavy old money bag from his waist and poured a small pile of loose silver coins onto the counter with a clatter. "Manager, I've come to redeem my pawned item."

Seeing this, Yu Tinghua didn't bother with He Xiaokui anymore. He immediately put on a professional smile and took the pawn ticket: "Alright, please wait a moment, sir."

He Xiaokui stared at the counter, paused for a moment, and finally creaked up the wooden stairs and headed to the third floor.

Yu Tinghua glanced at the entrance, his smiling face now showing a few more slight wrinkles. "Sir, this is loose silver. If you use this to redeem your pawned item, you'll have to pay a 10% surcharge."

"No!" the customer immediately protested. "You gave me loose change back then too."

Yu Tinghua glanced at the pawn ticket; the amount recorded was one tael and eight mace of silver, indicating that the bank had indeed issued loose silver. "Sir, this is different. The loose silver we give you is cut from official ingots, pure silver. But your loose silver, firstly, we don't know where it came from, and secondly, the purity is different." Yu Tinghua, with his sharp eyes, quickly picked out two pieces of particularly poor quality and set them aside. "We're not using your loose silver directly; it will be taken to the palace to be melted down into official ingots before it's used."

"You... this..." The customer tried to object, but Yu Tinghua interrupted him first: "Sir, this isn't my first day in this business. In all my years, I've never seen a single establishment that doesn't charge a 10% 'fire loss' fee. And look here, it's clearly written." Yu Tinghua flipped over the pawn ticket and pointed to a line of text on the back. "For redemption with loose silver, a 10% 'fire loss' fee is charged. We certainly told you that when you first came."

The guest thought for a moment and said, "In other words, if I can repay the official silver or silver notes, I won't have to pay the fire tax?"

"Yes." Yu Tinghua nodded and pushed the pawn ticket and the customer's money out of the gate together. "Your pawn ticket is still half a month away from maturity. You might as well pay back the money with official silver or banknotes at that time."

"Never mind." The customer pushed the money through the window again. "So be it. My business is small, and it's hard for me to receive that much cash at once. Now that I've recovered, I'll pay it back if I can."

"Alright." Yu Tinghua took the silver, took out a small scale, turned around and called out, "Number seventy-four, redeem your pawned item!"

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The boss's duty room was located at the end of the third-floor corridor. To get there, one had to pass through a semi-open duty room. This duty room was converted from a small private room, with the only table facing the corridor. The person behind the table could see passersby as soon as they opened the window.

When He Xiaokui went up to the third floor, a young eunuch, who was only about ten years old and still had a childish face, was sitting behind the table, engrossed in reading a storybook.

This young eunuch, originally surnamed Huang, was fortunate enough to be assigned to the Directorate of Ceremonial after his castration. At that time, Gao Shiming was the powerful and influential Junior Supervisor of the Inner Secretariat. Seeing the boy's intelligence, Gao Shiming renamed him Gao Chengen and made him a disciple of Gao Yingqiu, recognizing Gao Yingqiu as his godfather. In April of this year, the banking business surged, and at Gao Shiming's request, the head office transferred Gao Yingqiu to the Zhengyangmen branch as the executive deputy head. Gao Chengen then followed Gao Yingqiu to the Zhengyangmen branch to serve as a resident attendant to his godfather.

His footsteps sounded heavy in the empty corridor. Just as He Xiaokui approached the small duty room, Gao Chengen, engrossed in his book, called out to him without looking up, "Stop. What brings you here?"

Startled by the sudden voice, He Xiaokui stopped and bowed, saying, "Replying to Eunuch Gao, I'm going to speak with the master."

"Tsk, nonsense!" Gao Chengen raised his head and chuckled. "Everyone who comes up to this floor is looking for their boss. I'm asking you, what are you looking for your boss for?"

He Xiaokui licked his slightly dry lips, his heart pounding. He took a deep breath and patted the spot on his chest where he kept his money: "Yesterday I went to that 'European Trading Company' to deliver a letter. Before I left, the foreign owner there gave me a tip. I felt I should tell him."

"Pshaw! I thought it was something important." Gao Chengen subconsciously assumed that the so-called reward was just a few silver coins or a dozen copper coins. He leaned back in his chair, his face immediately showing an indifferent expression, and lazily waved his hand: "It's just a little reward, right? Take it if you want."

"I only accepted this reward money because of the bank's influence. I wouldn't feel right not telling the owner, and I wouldn't feel at ease keeping it," He Xiaokui said with a smile. He Xiaokui's words were eloquent, and Gao Chengen didn't think much of it. He casually asked, "Why are you only mentioning the reward money you received yesterday today?"

"Young Master Gao, you really have a bad memory. Yesterday afternoon, I came up to find the master. You clearly told me that the master had gone out and hadn't returned yet, and that we could talk about it tomorrow." He Xiaokui was somewhat relieved that Gao Shiming hadn't returned at the time, which meant that he had only used his cleverness on Gao Yingqiu when he was handing over his work. Otherwise, he wouldn't have had any room to maneuver now.

"Hmm," Gao Chengen thought for a moment, then smiled sheepishly. "It seems there is such a thing."

“That,” He Xiaokui looked down the corridor.

"Troublesome." Gao Chengen put down the novel he was reading, stretched lazily, then walked out of the small duty room and led He Xiaokui toward the bank manager's duty room at the end of the corridor, where the door was tightly closed. "Follow me."

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Inside the bank manager's office, Gao Shiming was hunched over his desk, furiously drafting a report. The draft paper spread out before him was densely covered with words and phrases; he would pause occasionally, then cross out and rewrite. Corrections were almost everywhere.

It's hard to write, really hard to write. Even though I had a draft in mind, every word was still difficult to write when I actually put pen to paper.

Beneath, bee, bee.

A soft knock interrupted Gao Shiming's thoughts. He stopped writing, frowning slightly in displeasure. He quickly blew on the still-wet ink on the paper, carefully folded the draft, and placed it under a thick ledger. Then, he casually picked up another ledger, flipped it open, and pretended to be checking it: "Who is it?!"

Gao Shiming's writing was not smooth, and even a single word carried a hint of resentment. Gao Chengen keenly sensed this displeasure and subconsciously shrank back: "Grandpa, it's He Xiaokui. He said he went to the Western trading post yesterday afternoon to deliver a letter and received some reward money. He wanted to come and report to you."

Gao Shiming's brows furrowed even more, and his impatience practically overflowed from the window frame: "What's there to say about such a trivial matter? No need to say anything more!"

"Yes!" Cheng En responded from outside the door, then turned around, shrugged at He Xiao Kui, who looked nervous beside him, and gave a wink. His expression seemed to say—I knew it.

He Xiaokui felt a tightness in his chest. He felt he could just take the money and leave, but as his mother had said, two taels of silver was no small sum, and without a sure thing, he wasn't sure he would dare to use it. Just as he was hesitating whether to tell Gao Shiming that he had received two taels of silver, Gao Shiming's voice suddenly squeezed out from the crack in the door: "Let him in."

Gao Chengen's funny face froze instantly. He blinked awkwardly, turned his head away, and replied in a low voice, "...Yes!" Then he pushed open the door to the bank manager's office, turned to the side, and whispered with a smirk, "Go in."

He Xiaokui's heart skipped a beat, and he quickly lowered his head and went inside.

The door to the duty room closed gently behind him.

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The bank manager's office was brightly lit and elegantly furnished, exuding the air of a scholar's authority. He Xiaokui dared not look up for long, quickly passing the guest seat by the window and walking to Gao Shiming's large desk, bowing deeply. Without saying a word, he directly took out the two slightly damp silver notes he had been carrying in his pocket, carefully holding them with both hands and placing them on the smooth desk.

“Master,” He Xiaokui’s voice trembled slightly, “yesterday I went to the Western trading company to deliver a letter. Before I left, the foreign master, surnamed Wu, gave me two silver notes as a reward. I wanted to come and pay my respects to you yesterday, but unfortunately, you didn’t return even after the shop closed.”

Gao Shiming hadn't paid much attention at first, intending to just give a casual remark. But when he heard the foreigner give He Xiaokui "two silver notes," a look of surprise flashed in his eyes. He reached out and picked up the two silver notes, examining them carefully: "Two taels? They're so generous?"

He Xiaokui forced a fawning smile, his tone full of flattery: "Of course, I'm not worth their two taels of silver. It's the bank's reputation that matters. I know in my heart that they're only giving me this generous reward because of your face."

Upon hearing this, Gao Shiming's lips curled up almost imperceptibly. He put down the silver note, looked up at He Xiaokui with a smile, and said, "This two taels of silver should be enough for two months' wages, right?"

"Yes, you're right." He Xiaokui nodded hesitantly.

"With so much money, you—" Gao Shiming drawled, "didn't you think about keeping it for yourself?"

He Xiaokui instinctively wanted to deny it, but the words caught in his throat. He gritted his teeth, raised his head, and tried to appear honest yet somewhat fearful: "Master, it would be a lie to say I don't want it. But I know in my heart that I'm just running errands and delivering messages. How could I deserve so much reward? Even if I took it, I wouldn't feel at ease."

Looking at him like this, Gao Shiming's eyes showed a hint of barely perceptible appreciation. He pondered for a moment, then suddenly stretched out two fingers, picked up one of the silver notes from the table, and handed it to He Xiaokui across the desk: "You're quite a generous person, and I like generous people. Keep this one for yourself. Consider it a reward from me."

He Xiaokui was overjoyed; the surprise and delight instantly washed away all his anxiety and gloom. A smile uncontrollably spread across his face, his knees buckled, and he knelt down with a thud, kowtowing loudly: "Thank you, Master! Thank you for your kindness, Eunuch!"

"Okay, get up."

He Xiaokui kowtowed again before standing up and respectfully taking the one-tael silver note from Gao Shiming, carefully tucking it into his pocket.

Immediately afterwards, Gao Shiming picked up the remaining silver note on the table and handed it to He Xiaokui: "Take this one too."

He Xiaokui was stunned. Looking at the silver note handed to him again, his heart pounded! He thought his master was in a good mood and would give him another extra reward! His knees involuntarily bent again—

"Don't kneel." Gao Shiming stopped him in time, a smile flashing in his eyes, clearly seeing through his thoughts. "This isn't a reward for you. You'll exchange it for cash later, and then" He paused, then instructed, "Go outside and find a good pastry shop, buy some stuffed rice cakes, pastries, and other snacks, and distribute them to the shop assistants and waiters, so everyone can have a treat."

(End of this chapter)