The Elixir is for You, The Poison is for Me

#377 - Jade pendant and handwriting

Although Lu Jing had already prepared himself to some extent, he was still stunned when he heard the number.

Two hundred thousand taels was not a small sum.

Despite Gu Caiwei's thriving charcoal business, her total net worth didn't amount to two hundred thousand taels.

Lu Jing was also shocked. Previously, Wen Xiaochuan's rouge costing four hundred taels of silver was enough to make him feel the gap between rich and poor, but he didn't expect to encounter someone even more extravagant today.

The key was that the man seemed to genuinely live a simple life, without a roof over his head. Lu Jing had originally wanted to try to use money to pave the way, but now it seemed that he had been too hasty.

After agreeing with Lu Jing, the man turned around and climbed back up the tree, taking down a tattered cloth bag hanging from the thick branch where he slept.

After rummaging through it for a while, he finally found half a jade pendant.

"Here, take this first."

After saying that, he buried his head again, "Huh, where's my brush? When was the last time I wrote? Half a year ago? Where did I put it?"

He muttered to himself while climbing up and down, searching for nearly the time it takes to brew a cup of tea before he finally gathered the brush, inkstone, and paper.

Once he had ground the ink and held the wolf-hair brush in his hand, his entire demeanor seemed to undergo a subtle change.

And when he began to write, his brush moved like a swimming dragon, graceful as a startled swan, showing no sign of stiffness from not writing for half a year.

When Lu Jing first came here, he had considered the imperial examination route, so he had practiced calligraphy for a period of time. Although not outstanding, it could barely be considered decent.

But now, compared to the man, the difference was immediately apparent.

The latter's mastery of calligraphy could already be called that of a contemporary master.

With just this skill alone, even if he really knew nothing else, he could live a comfortable life, and with a little more effort, he could pass the imperial examination and become a prestigious member of the Hanlin Academy without much difficulty.

Unfortunately, his ambition did not lie there.

The man finished in one go.

After finishing writing, he put down the brush, took out a seemingly valuable jade seal from the tattered cloth bag, stamped it at the end, and then handed the freshly written letter to Lu Jing.

"Take this to the manager of the Taiping Bank, and let him verify that half of the jade pendant. He will know that you are my person, and you can negotiate with them on my behalf."

"Okay." Lu Jing had been standing by, so he naturally saw the contents of the letter.

He didn't know whether to marvel at the man's confidence or generosity, because according to the letter, Lu Jing completely represented him, and even if he withdrew all the remaining money, the bank wouldn't object in the slightest.

"Oh, right, one more thing."

Seeing that Lu Jing was about to leave, the man hesitated and then said, "If you have time, please go to Jujube Lane again. There's an old man named Hu there. Take a look at him, see if anything is wrong. Well, just take a look. If he needs money, leave him a hundred taels of silver, and I'll pay you back when you return."

Lu Jing nodded, "Is there anything else?"

"No," the man waved his hand, "Hurry up and leave. Don't stay here and bother me. I need to think carefully about the poison pill you want."

Lu Jing cupped his fist in thanks to the man, then greeted Ah Bao and left the small valley with the jade pendant and the letter.

He had originally planned to go directly to the Taiping Bank, but after thinking about it, he turned back to his residence and brought the black cat with him.

Since Hanshan Guest wasn't interested in the white shell, Lu Jing would naturally keep it for his own use.

Although he actually had quite a few things to cultivate now.

Sword Control Technique, Lush Greenery, Fire Scale Armor, Steadfast and Solid, Wind and Cloud Change… each required time, but when it came to card draws, no game player could resist.

Moreover, this was the legacy left by the many paper figurine predecessors of Mirror Lake Valley for hundreds of years.

No one knew what treasures were hidden within. What if Lu Jing's luck exploded and he drew the poison pill he had dreamed of? Well, that was basically only possible in dreams…

But in any case, Lu Jing still had some expectations for the many unique skills within Mirror Lake Valley.

However, as everyone knew, card draws belonged to metaphysics. Under normal circumstances, what you ended up drawing, whether it was useful or not, was beyond your control.

In the past, Lu Jing could only rely on washing his hands and the toilet to add buffs, but now that he had a real buff collector, he naturally wanted to give himself a lucky buff before starting.

However, with the previous experience of the wealth buff, Lu Jing was actually a little hesitant, because this thing could only be predicted by observation, and the final result could have a big deviation.

But he had no other good way, and ultimately decided to trust the black cat once more. Even if he couldn't find a lucky buff this time, finding a real wealth buff in advance wouldn't be bad.

With this mentality, the man and the cat once again climbed out of the coffin and returned to Lintian City.

Lu Jing decided to take care of business first. After buying a meat pie to fill his stomach, he headed towards Jieshen Lane.

He had been to Jieshen Lane before when investigating the Nine Dragon Treasure Basin case.

Xin Bapi's pawnshop was located there, and it wasn't just pawnshops. There were also banks and gold shops, dozens of them, large and small, with magnificent buildings and wide storefronts, resembling Lintian City's Lujiazui.

As one of the four major banks, the main branch of Taiping Bank was also located there. It was said that the daily silver transaction volume was as high as one million taels.

But this million taels was just turnover, and the profit belonging to the bank was definitely not that high.

Therefore, when the clerk who received Lu Jing heard his purpose, he knew that this matter was beyond his authority and quickly went inside to invite the manager.

Because Taiping Bank did a lot of business, one manager couldn't handle everything, so there were four managers just at the main branch, one big and three small. The tall, scholarly-dressed, sixty-year-old man in front of Lu Jing was the chief manager.

He didn't look down on Lu Jing because of his age and casual clothes, nor did he deliberately flatter him because Lu Jing had a lot of money deposited in the bank, performing a face-changing act.

After coming out, he politely cupped his fist at Lu Jing, took the letter Lu Jing handed over, carefully read it, and then returned it.

Then, he asked someone to go to the back hall to open a cabinet with a number, and took out a small wooden box from it.

"Mr. Nanzhai's token."

"Oh." Hearing this, Lu Jing took out the half of the jade pendant that Hanshan Guest had given him, and the old manager also opened the wooden box, carefully took out the other half from it, and pieced them together, finding that they matched perfectly.