Octopus and Rope
"Huh!?" Jin Shu paused, then quickly took two steps forward. "That place won't work, let's go to another one."
"Why not?" Li Jin asked with a smile, holding a fan in one hand, her feet moving without stopping.
"This... Your Highness Prince Jing..."
"Shh..." He pressed his fan to his lips, making a shushing gesture. "I'm just traveling incognito, sir, please be careful what you say."
Jin Shu looked at his handsome profile and gritted her teeth: "Young Master..."
Seeing that she reacted quickly, Li Jin was in a good mood and continued walking towards the restaurant.
“Young master, I have a younger brother to support. I only have ten taels of silver a month, which is barely enough to make ends meet. Now that my brother needs to go to school, it's even worse…”
As she spoke, she looked wistfully at the approaching "Lianxianglou" building. She had never been inside such a high-class and prestigious place in all the years she had lived in Dingzhou.
I always felt that once I stepped into that situation, the gap between me and bankruptcy would be narrowed further.
"Where are your parents?" Li Jin asked as he walked, taking in the details of the streets and markets of Dingzhou.
The evening market was bustling, but most of the vendors were small stalls selling toys. So far, I haven't seen any goods tied with hemp rope, let alone those special three-strand hemp ropes.
"My parents died in an accident six years ago, and now I only have my younger brother to depend on."
Upon hearing this, Li Jin paused for a moment, then gathered his thoughts and looked at Jin Shu's face.
After a long pause, he said nothing.
That complex, scrutinizing gaze made Jin Shu feel somewhat intimidated.
"With your skills, if you were to go to the capital and apprentice under a chief coroner, your monthly salary would certainly not be only ten taels of silver, and you would not be in such dire straits."
The implication is that they understand poverty, but they still need to eat, and they still want to eat at this expensive-looking restaurant.
Zhou Zheng glanced at Jin Shu, who looked utterly dejected, with a hint of pity in his eyes.
He knew his lord very well. The lord had taken a liking to Jin Shu's talent and wanted to take her to the Six Doors in the capital.
The methods were too ruthless. Knowing she was short of money, he first made her bankrupt, and then lured her with a high salary. It was extremely brutal.
Just as Jin Shu was stunned by the words "going to the capital", Li Jin had already lifted the hem of his clothes, stepped over the threshold with ease, and walked into Lianxiang Tower.
Seeing his nonchalant expression, Jin Shu grimaced and reluctantly followed behind. She had made up her mind that she would find a way to get Lord Liu to reimburse her for the meal.
Although they said they were going to eat fish, Li Jin ordered a private room, a table full of fine wine and dishes, and even brought up the singers and dancers from Lianxianglou.
Listening to the music and watching the birds singing and dancing in front of me, it was quite a lively scene.
Only Jin Shu looked ashen-faced, her eyes bulging.
"Mr. Jin is exceptionally talented. I am deeply impressed today. Let me first offer you a toast." As he spoke, he poured Jin Shu a glass of wine.
The Third Prince of Wei personally poured wine for him. Even though Jin Shu had a bellyful of complaints, he could only swallow his anger, put on a smile, and drink it all in one gulp.
As the music ended, Li Jin looked at the fish that had been served and called out to the waiter with a smile, "Would your manager be so kind as to come over for a chat?"
He smiled, took out a gleaming gold ingot from his sleeve, and placed it on the table.
With this, how can it be inconvenient?
The manager of Lianxianglou jogged along, bowing and scraping, his face creased with wrinkles from smiling so broadly.
He stood aside, hands clasped together, and said, "Young master, I am the manager of Lianxiang Pavilion. May I ask what other needs you may have? I will do my best to satisfy you!"
Before him stood Li Jin, dressed in a pale yellow robe. She pinched her sleeve, poured a glass of wine for Jin Shu, and then poured one for herself. Her demeanor was elegant and unhurried.
The shopkeeper was even more convinced by the man's methods, demeanor, the material of his clothes, and the value of his accessories that this person was wealthy and that there was money to be made from him!
“It’s nothing serious.” After a short while, Li Jin asked with a smile, “I think this fish is from the Yangtze River, but Dingzhou is only a hundred miles away from the Yangtze River. I’m a little curious about how it was transported here.”
"I see!" the shopkeeper laughed. "Young master, you may not know this, but these fish come from fish farms outside Dingzhou City. They are caught from the Yangtze River, tied with hemp rope, placed in large buckets full of water, and then transported here."
"Oh? So those are dead fish?"
Upon hearing this, the shopkeeper hurriedly waved his hand, "No, no! Live fish, all of them are live fish!"
He stood there, gesturing with his hands and feet: "The fish in the Yangtze River are big. If they are not tied together in groups and put in a bucket, they will probably all jump out before they get very far. So the fishermen on the river tie several fish together so that none of them can escape and they can be transported further."
As Li Jin listened, he ate peanuts from the table and pondered for a moment: "The shopkeeper just said it was hemp rope... Hemp rope is made of paper, and it softens when it gets wet. How can it be used to tie fish?"
As he spoke, he glanced at Jin Shu beside him. She looked at him with a look of sudden realization.
It turns out that the leisurely prince's visit to eat fish was a ruse; his real purpose was to find clues.
"Ordinary hemp rope does soften when it gets wet and doesn't last long, but our Dingzhou Fish Shop has an ancestral craft. The hemp rope they make is excellent for tying fish, and it takes two or three days to soften when soaked in water."
"Oh?" Li Jin's gaze sharpened considerably. "Such a magical hemp rope? I wonder if I could have the honor of seeing it?"
"This..." The shopkeeper was very troubled. "There's really no way to do this. After the fish shop delivers the fish, they untie the ropes and take them all away. They don't leave a single one behind, and they won't even let you touch them."
At this point, the shopkeeper felt angry: "You know, my Lianxiang Restaurant is one of their biggest customers. I once went to ask for some rope from their fish shop because I was thinking that the rope they use is good. But they kicked me out without saying a word. Humph, it's just a broken rope, but they act like it's some kind of secret."
"This rope is so unique?" Li Jin picked up his wine cup, took a sip, and said with a hint of amusement, "I wonder if it's gold, or if it has gold thread in the middle, made into three strands, which is why it's so valuable."
"Who knows!" The shopkeeper, still immersed in the memory of being kicked out, complained indignantly, "There was definitely no gold added, the rope wasn't shiny at all, but... what you said, young master, does remind me, the rope was indeed three strands, quite different from ordinary hemp rope, much thicker than ordinary hemp rope."
“Three strands of hemp rope…” Li Jin muttered to himself, but then he noticed that Jin Shu, who had been full of energy just moments before, was now drinking one glass of wine after another.
From the side, her neck and earlobes were all bright red.
Is he drunk?!
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