Peach Blossom Temple is built against the mountain and is quite large.
The thin monk, afraid of being watched, pulled Jing Zhe along the courtyard wall of Peach Blossom Temple until they reached a deserted corner surrounded by dense peach trees before stopping.
Jing Zhe followed him, wanting to see what he was planning to do.
Are you going to buy it or not?
Once the thin monk stopped, he turned to look at Jing Zhe, holding up a long incense stick with a gloomy expression, and asked.
"What difference does it make whether I buy it or not?"
"Buy it or pay up, don't buy it or you'll have to go down the mountain! Anyone who wants to participate in today's Peach Blossom Poetry Gathering must buy incense!"
Jing Zhe neither confirmed nor denied this answer.
This Peach Blossom Temple was built against the mountain and named after the Peach Blossom Mountain. It has a long history and deep roots. Perhaps the peach trees around the temple were planted by the monks of the temple. That is also possible.
Therefore, it is perfectly reasonable for Taohua Temple to hold a poetry gathering and for people to pay some incense money to participate.
So Jing Zhe said, "Since I'm going up the mountain, I naturally want to participate in the Peach Blossom Poetry Gathering, so I'll naturally have to buy this incense."
After hearing this, the thin monk snorted coldly, as if to say, "You're smart enough to know what's good for you," and then handed over the long incense stick.
But Jing Zhe didn't take it. Instead, he said, "Although I said I wanted to buy incense, I didn't buy long incense sticks, but short ones!"
"The short incense sticks are gone, only the long ones remain."
"But I just saw that you had a lot of short incense sticks at your stall at the entrance. How can you say you didn't?"
"Hehe, let me tell you, other people can buy short incense sticks, but you can't! You can only buy long incense sticks!"
After listening to the thin monk's blustering but cowardly words, Jing Zhe narrowed his eyes and sneered, "Oh? Are you trying to force me to buy or sell?"
“This Peach Blossom Temple belongs to us, and the Peach Blossom Poetry Gathering is also hosted by our Peach Blossom Temple. So what if I force you to participate? If you want to participate, then you have to buy it! If you don’t want to participate, how can I force you to participate?”
"..."
There was absolutely nothing wrong with what he said, and Jing Zhe was speechless. After thinking for a moment, he began to reach into his pocket for money. Seeing this, the thin monk sneered repeatedly: "Why didn't you just be so quick about it earlier? Why go through all this trouble?"
Jing Zhe didn't answer him, but instead asked as he reached for his incense stick, "How much is one stick of this incense?"
"How much? You're overthinking it, five taels of silver a stick!"
"..."
Jing Zhe withdrew his hand, which was reaching for silver.
He had bought incense before and knew the price. A short stick of incense cost only ten coins at the foot of the mountain, but the thin monk was selling it to others at the door for one hundred coins, which was ten times more expensive than at the foot of the mountain.
This is understandable, since things sold at tourist attractions are bound to be more expensive than elsewhere. Plus, this is a long incense stick, which would only cost two or three hundred coins at most. But the thin monk asked for five taels of silver. Not to mention compared to the price down the mountain, it was more than ten times, fifty times, more expensive than the short incense sticks they sold themselves!
Isn't this blatant robbery?
Jing Zhe took his hand out; it was empty. The thin monk immediately frowned upon seeing this.
"What's going on? Are you buying it or not?"
"I want to buy it, but it's too expensive! Five taels of silver! If we were down the mountain, that would be enough to buy all your incense!"
"Hehe, you know it's down the mountain!"
The thin monk sneered, "But we're on the mountain now. We decide how much silver we get!"
"You've raised the price of incense by more than a hundred times the market price. If this is reported to the authorities, do you believe the Da'an laws will arrest you all?"
"The laws of Da'an? The government?"
Upon hearing Jing Zhe say this, the thin monk burst into uncontrollable laughter.
"Judging from your accent, you're from out of town, right?"
Jing Zhe nodded and said, "What's wrong? Does that mean outsiders can be easily swindled and cheated by you?"
"Watch your mouth! Who's cheating or swindling? Believe me, I'll report you to the authorities, and you'll be the one arrested!"
I don't believe it.
Jing Zhe shook his head: "The government arrests people based on the laws of Da'an, but I haven't broken the law. You are the ones who broke the law, inflating prices, cheating and swindling, and even forcing people to buy and sell!"
"Hehe, that's why I said you're from out of town!"
The thin monk glanced at him disdainfully. "If it were anyone else, I wouldn't bother to say anything, but since you're from out of town, I might as well tell you that Prefect Xu of Jiangling will also be attending the poetry gathering later. Prefect Xu is a frequent guest of our Peach Blossom Temple and has a very deep relationship with us. Who do you think he will side with?"
"Oh? So according to you, your Peach Blossom Temple is in cahoots with the Jiangling Prefect? Even if he knew that your Peach Blossom Temple was engaging in forced buying and selling and price gouging, wouldn't the Jiangling Prefect stop or punish you?"
"Heh, you're pretty smart! And since you dared to report it to the authorities, you'll be the first one arrested!"
Jing Zhe crossed his arms, a playful look on his face: "Then this Jiangling prefect is quite something, actually colluding with your Peach Blossom Temple. I even suspect that you've given the Jiangling prefect quite a bit of money for selling at such a high price, otherwise why would the Jiangling prefect help you? By the way, the Jiangling prefect also knows that you sell incense for five taels of silver a stick, right? I'll have to ask him in person later!"
"Don't talk nonsense!"
The thin monk hadn't expected Jing Zhe to be so stubborn. He had already tried to reason with him and appeal to his emotions, but Jing Zhe was still so oblivious and even wanted to report the price to the authorities.
The thin monk was right; the prefect of Jiangling had a very good relationship with their Peach Blossom Temple and protected it in every way. But in the end, Jing Zhe had already guessed it.
As the saying goes, no one gets up early for nothing. Peach Blossom Temple holds more than a dozen poetry gatherings of varying sizes every year, and can make a considerable amount of money by selling incense. Of course, it's not that no one reports them for raising prices privately, but the government has suppressed these reports. Over time, everyone has come to know that Peach Blossom Temple has powerful backing, and no one reports them anymore.
If they hadn't given a portion to the government, how could the government have protected them? Even the prices of these short and long incense sticks were jointly set by Peach Blossom Temple and the government. They would then purchase the goods through the government, and after the poetry gathering, the government would tally up the remaining stock and split the profits 50/50.
Of course, the government couldn't possibly set the price of an incense stick at five taels; that would be too exorbitant. The five-tael price was simply set by the thin monk himself, who saw that Jing Zhe was from out of town.
Moreover, he deliberately called Jing Zhe to a secluded and deserted corner so that he could keep the five taels of silver for himself and not have to share it with the government. Through this method, he could earn a lot of money on his own!
"There's no one else here except the two of us. Who would know I asked you for five taels of silver? Besides, do you think Prefect Xu would listen to an outsider like you, or to me?"
"..."
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