Free Web NovelChapter 21: Chapter 21: Wood Pays for Medicinal Soup
The boss, wearing a small cap, was startled by the high pitch of Xie Yuan’s voice and subconsciously repeated himself:
"F-four taels."
"..."
"..."
"H-how much?"
Xie Yuan repeated himself as well.
"Four taels of silver! Don’t be too greedy, young man. If you hadn’t chopped it up so badly, it would have been worth almost five taels. But look, all these surfaces are ruined..."
The boss grumbled and pointed out flaws, then held up four fingers:
"One whole Fragrant Camphor Wood tree, four taels of silver. An honest price for one and all!"
Xie Yuan tried to calm himself down.
’Nope, can’t do it.’
"Deal!"
"Huh?"
The boss froze, looking Xie Yuan up and down before it dawned on him.
’Wait, so you weren’t shocked because the price was too low?’
He instantly felt a pang of regret and asked tentatively:
"You’ve never sold this kind of wood before?"
"First time."
Xie Yuan tried his best to maintain a calm expression as he spoke the honest truth.
The boss slapped his forehead, fighting the urge to beat his chest.
’I named too high a price! I should’ve haggled him down further...’
It wasn’t his fault, really. A hard-to-find and hard-to-fell tree like Fragrant Camphor Wood was something only old, experienced woodcutters could manage.
Xie Yuan looked young, so the boss figured he hadn’t felled it himself. It was probably a seasoned woodcutter in his family with decades of experience. People like that knew the prices, so he hadn’t just thrown out a random low number.
Who would have thought he was a complete novice!
The boss let out a groan and couldn’t help but complain: frёewebnoѵel.ƈo๓
"How are you so inexperienced?"
"What can I say, Boss? There’s a first time for everything."
Xie Yuan was immersed in immense joy.
’Chopping down one tree can earn me four taels of silver?’
’Wood can be this valuable?’
Although he figured wood for furniture would be more expensive, he didn’t know the local prices and would have been ecstatic to get even one tael.
’But I got four taels?’
It was simply beyond his imagination.
"Why is this camphor wood so valuable anyway?"
Xie Yuan couldn’t help but ask.
Hearing his foolish question made the boss’s heart ache even more.
He said sullenly:
"You’re really a clueless kid. Camphor wood is a natural insect repellent and has a fragrant aroma. It’s one of the best woods for making chests, boxes, and makeup cases for young ladies and madams, so of course it fetches a high price. Besides, Yunzhao County is populous, and all the camphor wood in the nearby foothills was chopped down long ago. You can only find it deep in the mountains now. Scarcity drives up the value." freewēbnoveℓ.com
"Even so, four taels is too much!"
"...Then give me the money back!"
"No way, I was just saying."
"Honestly... a good piece of wood for furniture costs this much, young man. You think there are a lot of poor people, but there are a lot of rich people, too! Some use camphor wood to make heirloom chests, some use it for ordinary furniture, and some even use it as firewood! Just because they like the smell when it burns.
"But don’t you dare think it’s worth firewood prices. There’s a sea of people willing to spend the money. Camphor wood is nothing, Nanmu is even more expensive! And that’s not even mentioning things like Golden-Thread Nanmu, Red Sandalwood, Yellow Rosewood, or Acacia."
Seeing Xie Yuan’s ignorant look, the boss sighed and stopped holding back.
He remembered back when he only knew how to bury his head in his carpentry work, earning a meager wage for his hard labor. When he first found out how much money could be made in business as a proprietor, his reaction hadn’t been much different. After he switched careers, his first deal only earned him a few hundred copper coins, yet he’d jumped much higher than this kid.
Xie Yuan’s eyes lit up as he listened, his sharp ears catching a specific word.
Nanmu!
’Not far from that camphor tree, there’s a Yellow Nanmu!’
So he suppressed his racing heart and quietly asked:
"So how much is Nanmu worth?"
"A tree this size—if you don’t chop it up badly—would be no problem for eight taels of silver."
Xie Yuan leaned back, taking a sharp breath.
He felt as if the eight taels were already in his grasp.
The boss was a master at reading people. Seeing his expression, his eyes lit up:
"What, you can get your hands on some Nanmu?"
"Mhm."
"Good! Great! If you can get it, hurry and bring it to me. I have a client right now who’s in a rush for some Nanmu furniture."
"We’ll see when I get it. Maybe its quality will be worth more than eight taels?"
Xie Yuan said noncommittally.
The boss froze for a moment, then chuckled.
"You little rascal, you’re learning to be slick. Fine, as long as the quality is good, I can offer ten taels! If you’re afraid I’m cheating you, go take a look around Panlong Town, or even Yunzhao County, and see if anyone can give you a better offer!"
Seeing the boss’s confidence, Xie Yuan began to trust him a little.
’Still, when the time comes, I’ll have to ask around at other shops.’
"Alright, I’ll come back when I have news."
"What’s your name, young brother?"
"The name’s Xie. Xie Yuan."
"Good name. My surname is Wan, and I’ve been a carpenter for thirty years. Younger Brother Xie, if you get good stock, you have to bring it to me! I guarantee you the best price. Also, let me tell you, you have to cut wood for furniture like this, otherwise you can’t make large pieces..."
"Thank you for the lesson."
Xie Yuan cupped his hands in a salute and left Boss Wan’s shop.
Clutching the four taels of silver he had just earned, it took him quite a while to calm down.
To be honest, four taels of silver wasn’t a huge amount. He had hunted a tiger before—one tiger was worth forty taels, and his share was twelve. He had held a large silver ingot before; this wasn’t the first time the poor boy had seen silver.
It wasn’t that four taels of silver was a lot of money. It was that *one tree* for four taels of silver was a lot!
A tiger was valuable, worth ten of these fine trees.
But he had no idea where to find a second tiger. As for trees, he remembered seeing many more near that clearing!
Camphor, Nanmu, Redwood... ’There had to be at least ten of them.’
’If I chop them all down, won’t I have the money to properly restore my body?’
’If it takes ten days per tree, I can get two or three in a month. That’s more than ten taels of silver.’
’If I work faster, maybe half a year! In just half a year, I can fix the problems that have built up over the last ten years.’
’This is so much better than I expected.’
Xie Yuan’s spirits soared, and he walked with a light step toward the Iron Cloak Sect.
He hadn’t been there in ten days.
As he entered, Cao Shan saw him, raised an eyebrow, and greeted him with a smile:
"Junior Brother Xie, you haven’t been here in a while. I thought... you didn’t want to train anymore."
"I do! Senior Brother Cao, I’m not the type to give up easily."
"Your determination is commendable!"
Cao Shan gave him a thumbs-up.
"Are you here today to show Senior Brother Huo your progress?"
"I haven’t practiced in ten days, so there’s no progress to see. I’ll skip it."
"Huh?"
Cao Shan was taken aback. ’Didn’t he just say he doesn’t give up easily?’
Ten days without practice... Tao Jelin and the others hadn’t given up. They must have caught up to where Xie Yuan was ten days ago.
Of course, no one at the Iron Cloak Sect knew that Xie Yuan had already achieved the initial sense of qi ten days prior.
However, Xie Yuan’s next words cleared up his confusion:
"I’ve been scraping together some silver lately. Senior Brother Cao, I’d like to buy some of the sect’s tonic soup."
"Oh? That... alright. The low-grade tonic soup is one tael of silver per dose. You want to start with one dose?"
One dose was a day’s worth. To prevent their secret formula from being copied, the sect generally sold the finished medicinal soup.
Xie Yuan directly took out four taels of silver and said:
"I want four doses."
"So many?"
Cao Shan was a bit surprised. It wasn’t that he thought four taels of silver was a lot of money—he naturally wasn’t short on cash, which was why his training was going well;
It was just that he knew what Xie Yuan did for a living. A dirt-poor woodcutter from a mountain village—how did he scrape together four taels of silver in ten days?
"Junior Brother Xie, you didn’t go and pawn your belongings or gamble, did you?"
Cao Shan asked with a frown. It wouldn’t be the first time something like this had happened. Some people became obsessed before they’d even made a name for themselves.
Xie Yuan chuckled.
"Of course not. I just earned it with my axe... Er, I mean, by chopping trees."
Seeing Cao Shan’s expression turn strange, it was clear he had misunderstood, suspecting Xie Yuan might have become a bandit.
’What kind of woodcutter earns this much... Was he chopping down trees of gold and jade?’
Though Cao Shan was puzzled, he didn’t ask any more questions and quickly packed up four days’ worth of medicinal soup for Xie Yuan.
With the soup packed, Xie Yuan walked back briskly.
When he got home, he couldn’t even be bothered to heat it up. He drank the first dose down in one go!
A short while later, a restless heat began to stir in Xie Yuan’s abdomen.
’Feels like... it’s giving me some strength?’
