The crimson-clad girl paused fanning herself, and at that moment, the bronze bells on the eaves began to tinkle. Jiang Dinglian keenly caught his wife's momentary hesitation—the girl's inner voice was talking about settling the 150,000 taels bill.
"Mother, my second brother has a disease of affluence." Jiang Songyi waved her round fan, startling butterflies from the flowers. "It would be better to kick him out of the house and tell the shopkeepers not to give him any money."
Jiang Baichuan was about to yell when his cousin Jiang Qingmo suddenly jumped out: "Zhenxiu Pavilion has changed its owner now, second cousin, don't even think about eating there for free!" He suddenly remembered what the casino owner said, that the one who redeemed the pawn was a girl wearing a veil hat.
"One hundred and fifty thousand taels!" he murmured, looking at his sister. The crimson hem of her skirt brushed against the blue bricks, and the sting of red made his eyes burn—it turned out that she had secretly redeemed the Treasure Pavilion long ago, but she chose to play the villain.
Xu tapped the stone table with her fingertips and suddenly said, "Just as Song Yi said." She turned and ordered the housekeeper, "Spread the word to all shops: Anyone who dares to help the Second Young Master will be sold immediately!"
As dusk drifted over the screen wall, Jiang Baichuan stood at the corner gate, clutching a coarse cloth bundle. The gatekeeper slammed the lock shut. He gazed at the darkening sky and suddenly laughed out loud—stuffed inside the bundle were two sets of coarse cloth clothes, the patches with crooked stitching clearly the work of his younger sister.
"Please come in, Second Young Master." The driver, Old Li, whipped his whip and pointed toward the West Market. "This old servant has been ordered to take you to the City God Temple."
Jiang Baichuan climbed into the carriage and felt something hard under the cushion. He lifted the cotton mattress and found a steaming sweet-scented osmanthus cake wrapped in oil paper. Beneath it lay a note: "Don't come back until you die of starvation."
Under the dilapidated eaves of the City God Temple, Jiang Baichuan, wrapped in a coarse cloth shirt, counted copper coins. He'd pawned his jade pendant for twenty wen, and after buying some steamed buns, he still had three wen left. A beggar next door offered him half a bowl of stale porridge, which he swallowed through pinched nose. As his stomach churned, he suddenly remembered how, last winter, he'd insisted on adding sea cucumber to the porridge at the Zhenxiu Pavilion, disliking the porridge.
"Mr. Jiang?" the old man selling pancakes handed over a pancake tremblingly. "Thanks to you for waiving the fee for the leftovers from the Treasure Pavilion last time!"
Jiang Baichuan clutched the cold, hard biscuit, his throat choking with pain. It turned out that the kindness he had casually bestowed upon others was truly remembered by others.
As the night deepened and the dew deepened, a rustling sound came from the alley behind the Zhenxiu Pavilion. Jiang Baichuan squatted against the wall and watched his sister's personal maid, Hongying, hand the food box to the shopkeeper. "The young lady said, you can't feed the leftovers to the dogs or give them to people."
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