Chapter 18 Cao Chang
Cao Chang, a clerk in the storehouse of the Luo family, was from Heming Township in Dayi. He had studied for two years and learned Taoism from a Taoist priest in Minshan (Cao Chang also studied under this Taoist priest). Cao Chang was able to interpret yin and yang. After hearing that Meng Quan was from the capital, Cao Chang said to Meng Quan as if he had seen a relative, "When I first came to Chengdu, I saw hermaphrodites everywhere. Hermaphrodites are people whose three souls and seven spirits are mostly yin. Hermaphrodites are men just like yang people, but because their souls and spirits are not yang, they are evil. The evil of hermaphrodites is not the viciousness of yang people, but they are dangerous. For example, my shopkeeper Wang Lu. He never tells me directly what he wants, but tries to extort money. For example, I presented the jade camel badger I bought from Feng Xie to him, but he didn't say anything about the treasure, but only asked me about the process of buying it. After I told him that Feng Xie first came to pawn the kesi painting and Xi Tinggui, he said that the jade camel badger was also a tribute, and the hoof and the seat were broken by Feng Xie. It was a damaged product. Damaged products are worthless. At this time, he wanted I went to Feng Xie to ask for the two hundred coins back, but in fact, I was not asking for money, but to cause trouble for Feng Xie. This thing is stolen, and Feng Xie is afraid of being discovered by the government, so he has to surrender. First, force Feng Xie to surrender by reporting to the authorities, and then buy the paintings and ink in Feng Xie's hands at a low price - this is the plan of my shopkeeper Wang Lu. This is a hermaphrodite, and if you don't tell me directly, you have to blackmail me. Hermaphrodites also like to post pictures of men, and post pictures of yang men with all three souls and seven spirits as yang. My shopkeeper Wang Lu posted a picture of Meng Shilang, who hides behind his boss all day long like a ghost. I don't know where he heard that Shilang likes male homosexuality, so he wears flowers and powder. I said that yours is not male homosexuality, but female homosexuality. He was unhappy, remembered the grudge, and also took revenge for the past life. He said, you warm pig who will go to hell for three lives! "
Anyone working in the pawnshop must have an eye for identifying precious stones. Cao Chang explained that when Feng Xie first arrived, he simply took the ink block from his sack, and the people at the counter recognized it as "Xi Tinggui." The Southern Tang emperor used this ink when he wrote "Yu Meiren." He also used this ink when he wrote "The Crow Cries at Night." "Nanzhuang Tu," "Lushan Tu," and "Yi Guang Xiang" (Dong Yuan) all feature this ink. After our Taizu, every imperial edict used this ink. First, Pan Gu admired ink, then Zhao Ji loved it. "Gold is available, but Li's ink is not." Since it's unavailable, how did Feng Xie acquire it? The people at the counter suspected it was stolen. They turned the ink block over and over. Sure enough, it was engraved with the words "Kaibao Tribute Ink." The clerk then invited Feng Xie to the door and pointed out the fifth of the "Five Things Not Accepted" signs: "Six Stolen Goods Will Not Be Redeemed." Feng Xie first claimed he couldn't read, then said he'd won the item in a gamble, and asked, "How could I have known if the officer's item was stolen when he gambled with me?" The clerk and Feng Xie started arguing. The sergeant stepped forward, pulled Feng Xie aside, and asked, "That's it. Is there anything without the word 'tribute'?"
Feng Xie left the house and walked down the street. When he returned that afternoon, still carrying the sack, he took out the contents: a Hetian jade camel badger. The shop assistants, skilled at jade identification, could tell at a glance that it was carved from a medium-grade sugar-white seed material used in Khotan. Hetian artifacts were rare on the market, mostly in the palace. The few that survived were figurines and pendants. This item was incredibly rare, making it difficult to ask or offer a price. The price depended on the status of the buyer and seller. The treasury prided itself on being a prestigious institution, so the price couldn't be low, otherwise it would appear to be financially deficient. But the seller was Feng Xie, a low-class gambler, so the price couldn't be high. Thinking of this, Cao Chang regretted having allowed Feng Xie to come to the treasury. He thought that if the shopkeeper's rule of "not accepting valuable items from poor people" was followed, then this item wouldn't be accepted. But seeing that this thing was a foreign imperial gift, he felt it would be a shame not to accept it. In the end, he accepted it and gave it two hundred coins, not too much, not too little. (The sergeant later explained that the thing wasn't a camel-badger, but a dragon horse. It was only because its design was too simple, and Feng Xie had broken off and shortened its two majestic hooves, making its hands and feet look small, that it was mistaken for a camel-badger.)
At this point, Cao Chang hadn't anticipated Wang Lu's rebuke, much like a gambler anticipates the consequences of gambling. However, what Cao Chang hadn't anticipated was that Wang Lu would actually force him to blackmail Feng Yu.
That day, Wang Lu met the Jade Camel Badger and heard the captain's story about Feng Xie selling the treasure. Wang Lu said, "It's a dilemma. If it weren't for your aunt, who ran the yard from my father-in-law's house and nursed my brother-in-law, I would have to fire you. But because your aunt is close to my mother-in-law, I have to keep you. Now, go find Feng Xie and bring him to me. I want to ask him what serious crimes he committed to obtain these stolen goods."
The sergeant said, "I can't find it."
Wang Lu poked the commander's nose and said, "That's not firing you. It means you have to return me two hundred strings of cash."
Cao Chang said, "My whole family has only fifteen strings of cash."
Wang Lu said, "Get lost!"
Cao Chang had no choice but to go find Feng Xie. Unsure where to begin, he wandered the city for three days before vaguely remembering Feng Xie's claim of winning a treasure at a dog gambling parlor. He also vaguely remembered his wife, Wei Shi, saying her eldest brother, Wei San, was a dog trainer. Cao Chang went to find his brother-in-law, Wei San. Wei San led Cao Chang to the dog stall owner, Dou Shuang. As Cao Chang entered the stall, he saw a man (a blue-flowered civet cat) wearing a crimson crown, a woman's jacket, and a tilted hat. He held a large cat with burnt-yellow legs and pure black ears in one hand and a bone in the other, feeding a large dog.
When Cao Chang came in, he saluted Dou Shuang. The dog barked twice, and the man in the jacket meowed like a cat. Dou Shuang said, "I should live in the mountains."
The one wearing a jacket asked, "What?"
Dou Shuang said, "It's better to prevent them from treating this as a temple and coming back and forth to worship." Then he asked the sergeant, "What are you doing here?"
Cao Chang said he wanted to find someone - Cao Chang could not tell Dou Shuang directly that the shopkeeper Wang Lu planned to take all of Feng Xie's "stolen goods", and he did not want to force Feng Xie to hand over the "stolen goods" on behalf of Wang Lu, so he told Dou Shuang'er that Feng Xie had cheated two hundred strings of money from the pawnshop by passing off the leftover goods as good ones.
Dou Shuang said, "Chengdu is huge."
The sergeant asked, "How much?"
Dou Shuang said, "If you stay within the city, it's fifty coins. If you go outside the city and look for it in the counties, it's one hundred and fifty."
The commander took out a jade badger from his bag and asked, "Do you know Hetian jade?"
Dou Shuang said, "I don't run a pawnshop."
Cao Chang said, "When Feng Xie went to the treasury, he first wanted to sell Xi Tinggui. I refused to buy it, so he sold it. Go find him, and if you can find him, it will be yours. I want two hundred strings of cash. You can do with Xi Tinggui and his other treasures."
Dou Shuang laughed and said, "You want to dump this leftover thing on me, and you want me to help you find someone, and you want to charge me two hundred coins?"
The sergeant said, "Put this thing aside. If you don't believe me, go find someone else and see if he has anything else."
That day, when Cao Chang went to the dog stall, Dou Shuang didn't promise whether he could find Feng Xie. But as Cao Chang was leaving, he overheard Qinghua Li, who was wearing a tilted hat, say, "Feng Xie is a gambler, and he's making quite a fuss." Cao Chang didn't know at that moment that the Xi Tinggui he had seen before, along with the eight-treasure chamber pot, the Zhou and Yue authentic, the Pengcheng Zhao State bowl, the Heiding bowl, and the Ruzhou agate bowl, would all be delivered to the counter of the Lujia Pawnshop the next day. The seller who placed these items before Wang Lu wasn't Feng Xie, but Qinghua Li, Dou Shuang's junior apprentice.
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