Chương 82: Bargaining with Death, II

"Are you sure?" Jin Qilong asked again. They were ambling up a short path to a pavilion. The path was beautiful: carefully chosen flowers ringed the sides, each in colorful summer bloom. A small river ran to the side, more for decoration than any real practical purpose. Occasional trees lined the route, reaching high enough that they provided some shelter from the sun blazing overhead.

Each branch of every tree had been so neatly trimmed it might have been done with a machine of some kind rather than by the hand of a mortal man. Wu Hao could tell, though, that those branches had been sawed through just enough that they'd collapse underneath the feet, instead of supporting even a martial artist attempting to stand on them. The Jin Clan, Wu Hao thought to himself. The most beautiful garden that he'd ever been allowed to see, and as beautiful as it was, still it was a weapon in some ways.

"Yes," he said, realizing that he hadn't answered Jin Qilong.

"Yes, I'm sure. Why else would I be walking along with you, young master?" Jin Qilong mumbled something under his breath.

"What?" Wu Hao asked.

"Nothing," Jin Qilong said.

"I just thought - you seemed like you had other things to do?" It was true, he did. Those could wait until after he'd learned why Lady Jin had wanted him here, though, and he could return to his knives and his preparations afterwards. They reached the pavillion, where nearly everyone else had seemingly already arrived. Sitting off to the side was Shi Huyin, who seemed surprised to see Wu Hao there, and at the main table a man and a woman were sitting.

"Prefect Shi," Jin Qilong murmured.

"And his wife, Shi Limin." Prefect Shi was a portly sort of man, with an amiable smile. His moustache looked extremely elegant, coiffed and brushed and everything, to the point where Wu Hao suspected that he'd put less total care into making himself presentable his entire life than Prefect Shi did into his moustache every morning after waking up. His hair was greying slightly at its edges, and Wu Hao estimated that he was about fifty years old, give or take. With every laugh, his belly shook, and he laughed a lot.

As they sat there, servants arrived with a few trays of snacks - buns, tea, wine, cookies baked into the shape of characters, and other things that Wu Hao would've struggled to put a name to. Prefect Shi would've had no such difficulty, he was sure, and set about them with some gusto. As he gorged himself, his qi roused itself slightly, burning away at his throat every time he so much as took a sip.

It was hard to put a feeling to the qi, Wu Hao thought, and certainly the man wasn't more than a third-grade martial artist. Wu Hao could have defeated him in a fight, he thought. That said, the guards that had been arranged outside the tent were worth the trouble of running his senses across. Each of the three men that stood guard for Prefect Shi and his family were second-grade martial artists, as was the man who was pretending to be a coachman.

They were matched on the Jin Clan's side by three martial artists, of which two were second-grade martial artists. The final man was the same that Wu Hao had seen by Lady Jin's side before, whose name he didn't know but who was a first-grade martial artist. Prefect Shi's wife, whose name Wu Hao had already forgotten, was a short woman with long hair, tied into an elegant ponytail. Her dress matched with the one worn by her daughter.

Both wore pink, and while Shi Huyin wore a few hairpins woven into her hair, her mother had little ornaments and absolutely no qi to speak of, as well as lines across her face from frowning.

"Has my mother arrived yet?" Jin Qilong asked, entering the stone pavillion. He was talking to the first-grade guard.

"No, young master. She is on her way, however." Jin Qilong nodded. Prefect Shi took a drink of his cup, set it down, and after eyeing Jin Qilong for a moment he prepared to speak, but before he could Lady Jin swept in moments later, wearing a cream-colored dress. Her guard pulled out a chair for her, she sat in it without much ceremony, and then was handed a war fan, a few scrolls, and a drink, in that order.

"My apologies for being late," she said. Her tone was casual, and she didn't sound apologetic in the slightest.

"Another request came in for arbitration."

"Don't worry, Lady Jin," Prefect Shi said. He laughed, a booming sort of laugh that grated at Wu Hao's ear because he could see exactly how little real warmth it contained.

"Work places its demands on us all."

"True," Lady Jin said, with a faint upturning of the mouth that might have been called a smile.

"You haven't been kept waiting long, have you?"

"Not at all," Prefect Shi said.

"Besides, waiting here is downright pleasurable. What an exquisite garden." Lady Jin shook her head humbly.

"It's only so-so, really."

"So-so?" Prefect Shi laughed.

"You're too humble, Lady Jin!" She waved her fan, fanning herself slightly, but didn't answer.

"Now, I don't mean to boast," Prefect Shi said, "but speaking of gardens, I had the honor once of being invited to the medicinal gardens of the Tang. Beautiful - and enormous! Not quite as perfectly arranged as this garden, however. No, they were more... functional, perhaps is the word? Larger, I'll have to admit." His wife gave a polite laugh.

"You're exaggerating, dear."

"No, no," Prefect Shi insisted.

"I'm not! The largest garden I'd ever seen. I asked how many different plants they kept and they told me at least a thousand, all perfectly catalogued and recorded in their great Annals of the Tang. Incredible." Wu Hao was a little awestruck by the number, despite himself. A thousand plants? He could name maybe a dozen, at the most. Were there even thousands out there, each with a separate use? They would have some incredible poisons, he thought, and made a note of it.

It'd be good to have a poison on hand that could kill him instantly, for if he ever got stuck somewhere without qi and had to kill himself.

"I'd have liked to have seen them," Shi Huyin said. She seemed to be getting over her feigned shyness a little.

"Of course, such opportunities don't come around every day." If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. Lady Jin gave her a small smile of amusement, then turned to Prefect Shi.

"The Tang outer gardens do have more than a thousand plants," she said. With the smallest possible gesture she beckoned her guard forward, who bowed and poured some milk into her tea.

"The inner gardens, however, have only ten. I suppose that's not common knowledge, though." Prefect Shi looked somewhat surprised.

"You've been, Lady Jin?"

"Of course I have," she said calmly.

"Is it so strange that the wife of the leader of the Jin should be invited to see gardens of the Tang?" Despite his lack of outward reaction, Prefect Shi's qi rippled with surprise, and Wu Hao wished he knew why that was surprising at all.

"I see," Prefect Shi said.

"Well, no wonder this is such a fine garden, then!" He boomed with laughter. On and on the small talk went - they mentioned things, places, people. Wu Hao's head spun with the notes he was trying to make. The Sovereign of Flowers's lineage? A conversation about the cuisine of Sichuan and what tea went best with it? Places Wu Hao hadn't ever heard of, doing things Wu Hao had never considered, meeting people Wu Hao didn't even know existed. Slowly, though, he was starting to realize something.

Whatever they said, it wasn't really a conversation. It was more of a fight with words. If he visualized it that way, then he could start to make sense of it. Lady Jin was duelling Prefect Shi and his wife at the same time and more than holding her own.

"Yes," Lady Jin said, tapping the side of her cup.

"Well, I don't think they sell that anymore. We had to put in a rush order ourselves, and I don't think he'd have sold it if not for our prior relationship." A verbal parry to something that Shi Huyin had said about the quality of the tea, which Wu Hao was now figuring had to be a stab of some sort for reasons he didn't quite understand. Prefect Shi's wife gave a small smile.

"What a shame. Still, it is lovely tea."

"Quite right," Prefect Shi said.

"Quite right indeed, dear. Might you introduce us, actually? I find it helps to build new relationships whenever one can." A counterstroke in two parts: one blocking, one returning fire. Shi Huyin chimed in sometimes, but never contributed all that much. Jin Qilong occasionally said a few things, showing off his own learning, and Wu Hao realized that there was absolutely nothing he could say.

It was often that he felt like he was lacking something, but now he felt like he was lacking things he'd never even considered himself to be lacking before. He couldn't hold conversations like these - in fact, from his experience, it sometimes felt like he couldn't really hold a conversation at all. This, Wu Hao realized, was an arena of which he knew nothing. He glanced at Jin Qilong, who seemed roughly as at ease as he'd ever been and who gave him a quizzical glance.

"I'm afraid he's moved away," Lady Jin said, with a hint of pity in her voice. Just a hint, though. Her qi spoke only of boredom with the entire proceedings.

"Now, on that note, shall we get down to business?"

"Of course," Prefect Shi said.

"The matter of the mines, then?"

"The exploitation of the mines, yes," Lady Jin said. She took one of the scrolls from the table, broke it open, rolled it out across the table.

"This is your proposal, of course."

"It is," Prefect Shi said, leaning back.

"Fairly standard stuff all around, although at the suggestion of one of my advisors I've included a few things here and there to ensure a fair deal." Lady Jin looked up from where she was reading the document. Her qi snaked forward in a sign of annoyance, but she reined it back.

"All deals made with the Jin Clan are fair and honored so long as the Jin Clan itself exists, Prefect."

"Yes, of course," Prefect Shi said. A drop of sweat rolled down his forehead, and he dabbed it away with a handkerchief that his wife handed him.

"I don't mean to suggest you're not. I'm simply attempting to make sure that the terms are up to date and such."

"I see," Lady Jin said. Her tone still sounded mildly displeased, though not more so than usual, Wu Hao supposed. She tapped the scroll with a finger.

"And this?"

"The right of first offer?" Prefect Shi said, smiling.

"Yes, that is what I was talking about earlier. It requests that whatever the Jin clan makes, we - the prefectural office, represented in this case by me - that we receive a chance to be the first at the table. Only for the products made using our mine, however."

"Why?" Lady Jin asked, tilting her head slightly. It was something that Jin Qilong did too, but it looked less natural on his mother. Wu Hao decided it was because it was a sign of not knowing something, which was something that he found hard to associate with Lady Jin. Prefect Shi chortled.

"Isn't it obvious, Lady Jin?" He folded his hands across his belly.

"We know of the excellent quality of the sabers the Jin make. We're willing to take a loss in terms of raw materials, in return for the benefit of being able to buy the finished product first. We will of course offer competitive prices."

"I see," Lady Jin said blandly.

"It's an attractive proposal, Prefect. I shall have to discuss it further with my own advisors, however. The matter of this right of first offer was not yet clear to us when we received the initial documents. You've added it for today's negotiations."

"As I said," the prefect said.

"One of my advisors was insistent. It is an advantage for the both of us, so I ask that it be seriously considered." There was a certain twist to his qi there, a stiffness that he kept from his face. It was a dark streak that blurted through his core, cleaving straight through the solid mass there and then disappearing again. Lady Jin made no movement acknowledging it, though, and no one else seemed to have noticed it. Wu Hao exhaled slowly, wondering what that had been.

Whatever it was, his own gut told him that he'd just seen the entire reason the negotiations had happened at all, even if he didn't have a single idea what it might have been.