Simply Trading

"We had met, briefly, during the last Sword Trials in Summer. I was suffering from ... my flows at that time and he was helpful enough to come up with a recipe for me. After it proved useful, I shared it with some of my friends and asked him to help me cultivate more of the herbs required."

Qin Feng had to admit that she had managed to convey just the right tone in her brief speech. It seemed to paint him as someone who had gone through the trouble to grow those herbs, out of his particular friendship with her.

Her explanation should be sufficient to clear up their up-till-now ambiguous relationship. If the Elders suspected that they were in cahoots, it would be more an infatuation on his part, rather than any sort of arrangement that involved them working together to cheat silver from the rest of the female disciples.

Elder Xuan nodded gravely at Lingxi, pointedly ignoring Qin Feng, who was still trying his best to rid his eyes of the juice that was making him cry. Not that he could miss the white-haired fellow"s attentive state. Clearly, the old man had some reason for wanting to find out more about the matter.

Nor was Qin Feng going to stop him. From what he could sense, this Elder Xuan didn"t seem to have anything against him. Or his attempts to squeeze some coin from the female disciples. Something that the girl was certainly not about to talk about, since a good chunk of the money had flowed into her own purse!

Lingxi, on the other hand, seemed to hit her stride as she went on with her tale:

"Of course, my frequent visits to Feng"er here might have led to ... some unsavory remarks by some of the other disciples," she added then, with a rather fetching blush, "So I had to ... pa.s.s him a few coins now and again, in obviously public places to ... preserve my reputation. But it was only fair to recompense him for his efforts on our behalf, with our silver. There has been no arrangement to fix a point-exchange for these herbs at the Medicine Hall."

The two Elders waved their hands at her, indicating that they understood. Elder Xuan"s mannerisms, however, did hint at his suspicions; that things weren"t as innocent as what she had claimed. But he didn"t look as if he was bothered with the details.

"Well, some of the other girls ... Lingyuan, in particular. She said that ... she claimed that she could mix the concoction as well as I can, and she must have ... tried to s.n.a.t.c.h the Wormroot leaves from Feng"er here. It is rather hard to find out in the wild."

Ming Guanhe scowled as soon as she got to that point. "And they blamed him when ... things did not work out as they had planned? Such idiocy! Did they think that medicines are that simple to concoct? Why did we bother to set up a Medicine Hall then?"

Qin Feng hid another grin behind his sleeve as soon as he heard that. Well, the Medicine Hall wasn"t supplying the female disciples with what they needed, was it? Otherwise, how was he able to s.n.a.t.c.h that large piece of pie away from under their nose?

Besides, the medicinal potion wasn"t that difficult to handle. It was just a matter of double-boiling the ingredients in the correct proportions. And if anyone had access to the dregs of one of the successful brews, it would be a simple matter to discern just how much of each herb to include in the mix.

If not for that, why had he bothered to make certain that the girls led by Lingyuan had only managed to get away with the Wormroot leaves that were far too young to be effective?

This was one of the most lucrative of the small trades that he had set up with the various groups of disciples, and he wasn"t about to let it get s.n.a.t.c.hed away by that uppity b.i.t.c.h! Especially not after she had threatened him!

Elder Xuan merely smiled as he heard the other Elder"s gripe and shook his head at Ming Guanhe. Then he turned back to Lingxi, who was still looking somewhat upset. And his voice was surprisingly collected when he spoke to her:

"Then there are no other sources of that particular herb? In the Medicine Fields, I mean? He is the only one who is growing them?"

Lingxi nodded proudly, sticking out her chest as she spoke. It was clear from her mannerism that she was taking the credit for that. "No one else in the Medicine Fields was interested, even though Feng"er here brought me over to some of the women who were there. They were more interested in earning more points from the Medicine Hall, rather than helping out us girl disciples. Only Feng"er here was willing to put in the effort," she report with a slight pout.

"Yes, I believe I had heard something about that."

Elder Ming Guanhe turned his head and looked at Elder Xuan without bothering to disguise the curiosity on his face, as soon as he heard the older man say that. Qin Feng, however, was more cautious, and managed to put on an expression that displayed his utter surprise.

The older man merely chuckled, and waved his hand in the general direction towards the rear of the Heaven Sword School. "You forget that I have a rather young daughter? And that she is studying with the female disciples as well? Under Nu Yuanqing? Well, she was the one who told me about the issue. And how some of the girls were about to take action against one of the Outer disciples in the Medicine Fields.

"Unfortunately, I got the news a little too late to prevent our ... Feng"er here from getting himself bashed up so badly."

The look that he shot the young man, however, made it clear that he had his own ideas of what was really going on. And Qin Feng didn"t doubt that it was a lot closer to the truth than the performance that he had just orchestrated.

To his credit, however, Qin Feng managed to keep from shuddering and giving the game away. It did not seem like this Elder Xuan had any intention to tear away the facade just yet. So he told himself to maintain his stance, and see what developed from this.

After all, he doubted that the old man would have bothered to go through all of this trouble for nothing!

* * *