What was going on?
Shen Nianyi’s heart gave an inexplicable lurch. She set down her brush and strode out.
There stood Manager Liu, their madder root supplier, in front of the counter, wringing his hands as if he’d just pulled them from a flour vat. The anxiety and unease on his face were worse than if he were facing the county magistrate.
Pei Yanshu’s gaze was fixed directly on Manager Liu, as if saying, “You’d better have a very good reason.”
“Manager Liu, what brings you here?”
Suppressing that sliver of foreboding, Shen Nianyi put on her usual smile. “Has the raw material from the Wang Dye Workshop in the west of the city been prepared?”
Manager Liu couldn’t meet her eyes, his gaze darting everywhere, his voice weak. “Manager Shen… I’m sorry! From now on… from now on, I… I can’t supply the premium madder roots anymore.”
The shop fell silent instantly.
A Man’s smile froze on her face. Da Chun fell quiet. Xiao Ya stopped what she was doing.
The smile vanished from Shen Nianyi’s face. She narrowed her eyes, staring at Manager Liu.
“Manager Liu, we just settled this a few days ago. I paid the full carriage fee, and you even thumped your chest promising the goods would be sufficient. And now, just days later, you come in person to break the agreement?”
Her words were sharp and direct, puncturing that thin layer of pretense.
Manager Liu’s face flushed red then paled white, shamefaced and mortified.
“Manager Shen… Old Liu here has wronged you! But Madam Chen… the price she offered… it’s just… too high to refuse… She also said if I kept supplying you, her influence in the East Market could make my business observe Tomb-Sweeping Day every single day—the grave-visiting kind! I… I had no choice!”
He cried out, “The contract… she already forced me to sign it! For the entire next year, not a single grain of madder that meets your requirements can flow to the West Market! The last bit of stock in my warehouse that met your standards… just now… her people already hauled it away! I’m sorry! Truly, I’m sorry!”
Having said this, Manager Liu could no longer bear to stay. He fled Cloud Silk Atelier as if escaping.
A deathly stillness settled over the shop.
A Man trembled with rage, pointing at the door. “Shameless! They’re ganging up to bully us! They want to cut off the very root of our Rouge Crimson! Without that unique color, what do we have to compete with Brocade Splendor Workshop?”
Da Chun also panicked. “The Li family’s young lady who ordered the wedding dress is coming to collect the cloth the day after tomorrow! How are we going to explain this?”
Xiao Ya’s brows were knitted into a tight knot, her anxious gaze fixed on Shen Nianyi.
Shen Nianyi stood rooted to the spot, staring at the doorway where Manager Liu had disappeared, her fingers tightening imperceptibly within her sleeves.
Chen Wanqing’s move was not just monopolizing the raw material; she was severing the very channel for dyeing. She intended to completely erase the color Rouge Crimson from Cloud Silk Atelier’s signature!
At that moment, Pei Yanshu stretched lazily, his bones emitting a contented, light crackle. Then his gaze drifted lightly over everyone’s faces, which looked as if they were mourning their own parents.
“I thought Madam Chen had sent someone to set the shop on fire,” he said, pausing briefly, his tone flat. “Turns out it was just some grass roots being snatched.”
Shen Nianyi whipped her head around to glare at him. “Pei Yanshu! Is this just ‘some grass roots’? This is our signature color!”
“I know, I know. Rouge Crimson.”
Pei Yanshu sauntered over and lightly tapped Shen Nianyi’s shoulder with his fan, only for her to swat it away irritably.
He wasn’t annoyed at all. Instead, he grinned at everyone and said, “In business, you cut off my supplies, I intercept your customers; you poach my people, I ruin your reputation… Isn’t it just these few tricks back and forth? Madam Chen has chosen the dumbest and most expensive one—we should be setting off firecrackers to celebrate.”
Da Chun blinked blankly and echoed, “Celebrate?”
“Of course, celebrate.” Pei Yanshu flicked open his folding fan with a swish and fanned himself leisurely.
“Think about it. Madam Chen is usually such a shrewd person, yet now she can only resort to this stupid tactic that hurts the enemy a thousand while costing herself eight hundred. It shows she’s at her wit’s end. The more desperately she tries to block us, the more it proves we’ve hit her where it hurts, doesn’t it?”
Da Chun struggled to digest these words, then slapped his thigh hard with a sudden look of enlightenment:
“Oh! I get it! Young Master Pei, you mean Madam Chen is ‘money-donkey-chicken-poor’! She spent all her money buying up the madder roots, so she’s so poor she can’t even afford a donkey or chickens anymore, and that’s why she’s panicking, right?”
“Pfft—cough, cough, cough!”
A Man choked on her own saliva, her face turning bright red. She pounded her chest while pointing at Da Chun, laughing so hard she could barely speak. “Money… money-donkey-chicken-poor?! Da Chun! You big oaf! It’s ‘the Guizhou donkey has exhausted its tricks’ (at one’s wit’s end)! Good heavens…”
Pei Yanshu leaned against the counter, laughing so hard he could barely catch his breath. “Da Chun, oh Da Chun, you really are… a talent!”
Even Shen Nianyi, who had been keeping a straight face, couldn’t help but twitch the corner of her mouth fiercely.
A Man finally managed to stop laughing, wiping away the tears of mirth from the corners of her eyes, and looked back at Pei Yanshu. Though she was still frowning, her tone had softened considerably:
“Young Master Pei, even if Madam Chen really is ‘money-donkey-chicken-poor,’ our Rouge Crimson is about to run out—that’s a real, tangible problem!”
Da Chun watched everyone suddenly burst into laughter again and scratched the back of his head in confusion. He could only follow along: “Without Rouge Crimson, what are we going to do about Miss Li’s wedding dress? Our shop’s reputation…”
Pei Yanshu snapped his fan shut with a smack against his palm. “That’s why you’re all so narrow-minded. She hoards her madder roots—do we have to hang ourselves from the same tree? Chang’an City is so big. If we lose Zhang the butcher, can’t we still eat pork with the hair on?”
Da Chun’s eyes lit up, feeling he had finally caught up with Young Master Pei’s train of thought this time. “Got it! Young Master Pei! We’ll switch pigs… I mean, switch colors! We won’t fight her over that red cloth! We’ll dye yellow! Dye blue! Dye… dye patterned!”
Hearing this, A Man couldn’t help but join in the fun, planting her hands on her hips and laughing, “Exactly! We’ll dye a five-colored pitch black! Dye a shimmering radiant white! Let Madam Chen see what we can do!”
Even Xiao Ya was infected by the lighthearted atmosphere, a shy smile appearing on her face.
For a moment, the shop was filled with cheer, as if the earlier crisis had been nothing but a joke.
Right in the midst of this laughter—
“Pei Yanshu!”
Shen Nianyi’s voice rose sharply, carrying obvious anger:
“You make it sound so easy! Can dyeing formulas be changed overnight? Can new materials just appear out of thin air? The customer is coming to pick up the goods the day after tomorrow! The fire is at our eyebrows! What’s the use of you standing here spouting all this irrelevant, glib talk?”
Her shout froze all the laughter in the room with an audible crack, turning it all to ice.
Da Chun hunched his shoulders and whispered to A Man, “Oh no, the shopkeeper’s getting worked up again…”
Shen Nianyi grew angrier as she spoke, watching Pei Yanshu’s carefree “treating the sky falling as a blanket” demeanor. An indescribable sense of grievance and fury surged straight to the top of her head.
“Do you even know how many trials my father went through to finalize the Rouge Crimson formula? Do you know how many regular customers Cloud Silk Atelier will lose without this color? You… you…”
She was so angry she momentarily choked on her words. Staring into Pei Yanshu’s peach blossom eyes that always seemed to hold a hint of amusement, she felt a wave of irrational anger with nowhere to vent. She stomped her foot hard.
“I can’t be bothered to waste words with you here!”
With that, without waiting for anyone’s reaction, she flung aside the door curtain. Her figure “whooshed” out of sight through the moon gate leading to the backyard, leaving the curtain swaying on its own as if panting on her behalf.
The front shop instantly fell silent.
A Man and Da Chun exchanged glances, while Xiao Ya watched the swaying curtain with concern.
Pei Yanshu gazed in the direction Shen Nianyi had disappeared, rubbed his nose, and muttered to himself: “Tsk, she’s all ruffled up.”
He then turned to the three remaining, cowed assistants. Flicking open his fan, he resumed his lazy tone: “Alright, your shopkeeper needs to cool off. As for us, let’s get back to work.”
He directed Da Chun: “Go, polish that cat-paw style signboard at the entrance. That’s our lucky charm.”
Then instructed A Man: “A Man, display the newly arrived bolts of plain brocade in a prominent spot. The fabric itself is the best advertisement.”
Finally, he nodded to Xiao Ya: “Xiao Ya, mind the counter.”
Infected by his calm and composed attitude, the three instinctively responded “Yes” and went about their tasks.
The next day.
Early morning, Cloud Silk Atelier backyard.
Shen Nianyi had practically stayed awake until dawn, dark circles evident under her eyes. Her heart felt as if weighed down by a stone, heavy and suffocating.
She pushed open her door, her gaze instinctively sweeping across the courtyard—quiet and still. The windows and door of the side room belonging to Pei Yanshu were tightly shut.
Frowning, she walked to the front shop. A Man was wiping the counter, Da Chun was tidying the shelves, and Xiao Ya was quietly sweeping the floor. The lazy figure was nowhere to be seen.
“Where is he?” Shen Nianyi asked.
A Man looked up, paused for a moment before understanding: “The shopkeeper is asking about Young Master Pei? We haven’t seen him this morning either. Perhaps… he hasn’t gotten up yet?”
Da Chun chimed in: “I went to check. Young Master Pei isn’t in his room. The bedding is cold. He probably went out long ago.”
Went out?
An inexplicable tightness gripped Shen Nianyi’s heart.
Usually, she found him an eyesore, but now, at this critical juncture when she was counting on his unconventional ideas and tricks, he was nowhere to be found.
After a long silence, Shen Nianyi muttered under her breath: “…Ran off pretty fast. Truly unreliable.”
A Man whispered to Da Chun nearby: “See, the shopkeeper… cursing with her mouth, but searching with her heart.”
Da Chun nodded naively: “Mm, looking for Young Master Pei to settle accounts.”
Xiao Ya silently continued sweeping, but his ears were perked up high.
A Man put down her cloth and approached with concern: “Shopkeeper, your complexion… did you not sleep well last night? Perhaps you should rest a bit more. We’ll think of another way to find the madder root…”
Da Chun agreed: “Yes, Shopkeeper, don’t worry yourself sick. When one door closes, another opens. There’s always a way…”
Xiao Ya, unable to speak, quickly poured a cup of warm water and carefully handed it to Shen Nianyi, his manner resembling someone administering medicine to a wounded person.
Shen Nianyi took the cup of water but didn’t drink it, instead placing it heavily on the counter.
“I’m fine. Now is not the time to rest, and we certainly can’t just sit around waiting. Solutions come from thinking, not from waiting.”
With that, she grabbed her money pouch and hurriedly instructed A Man, “Keep an eye on the shop. I’m going out to ask around!” Then she plunged into the bustling crowds of the West Market.
Watching Shen Nianyi’s solitary figure disappear through the doorway, the shop fell into a brief silence.
A Man withdrew her gaze with a worried expression and sighed, “Is the shopkeeper… really alright? Her face looked frighteningly pale.”
“If you ask me, if it really comes to it… maybe we should talk properly with Miss Li and offer some compensation? We can’t let the shopkeeper get sick from the stress…”
“Bah!”
A Man immediately turned and spat at him, “You blockhead! Is this just about money? Rouge Crimson is the signature fabric of our Cloud Silk Atelier! It’s the result of years of hard work by the shopkeeper and her father! If our reputation is ruined, who will recognize our fabrics in the future? If we swallow this insult, won’t Madam Chen just walk all over us from now on?!”
Da Chun shrank back from the scolding and muttered softly, “I… I was just worried about the shopkeeper…”
Xiao Ya, who had been listening quietly, also nodded vigorously. He pointed toward the direction of the dyeing workshop in the backyard, then pointed to his own heart, and finally shook his head firmly—meaning, it wasn’t just about money, it was about heart and soul, and they absolutely couldn’t give up.
Seeing Xiao Ya’s serious “I understand, I support this” expression, A Man couldn’t help but smile and patted his shoulder. “Alright, with you all here, I don’t believe Madam Chen can really walk all over us.”
Da Chun chimed in naively beside them, “N-not even walking.”
Xiao Ya let out a “pfft” of laughter, then quickly covered his mouth and pretended to continue sweeping.