Chapter Forty-Four: The Little Cart

“I can’t sell them at all…”
As dawn broke in the east, Nie Yunzhu sat on the steps in front of her small building, resting her chin in her palm, her tone tinged with distress.
“I did as Young Master Ning suggested a few days ago and visited the managers at several nearby restaurants, but they all said no one’s ever eaten this before and it’s too expensive. They refused to put it on their counters for sale.”

In these times, productivity was low, and staple foods like rice, wheat, and grains were seen mainly as means to stave off hunger, so their prices were relatively low. Meat and eggs, however, were pricier. By comparison, if a two-cash pancake equaled one yuan, then a ten-cash salted egg would be five yuan apiece, and the preserved egg, sold at twenty cash each on Ning Yi’s advice, was practically a luxury item. In an era when even well-off families only occasionally had meat or eggs, such items naturally proved hard to sell.

Of course, there were plenty of wealthy people in Jiangning. To take the brothels as an example, the more popular courtesans charged three strings of cash—three taels of silver, three thousand cash—just to enter, and the same again for singing or playing music, and another three for the night, meaning a total of nine strings, or about forty-five hundred yuan per session. Those who sold their bodies for higher prices were rare exceptions. For those who didn’t, like Yuan Jiner, Lu Caicai, Qilan, and formerly Nie Yunzhu herself, the price was even higher, and there was no set limit. There would always be a crowd of patrons eager to spend. If you were stingy, you wouldn’t even get through the door, and if you were stingy after entering, you’d be ignored next time. For people like Su Tan’er’s brothers, extorting dozens of taels of silver at a time was already a fortune for an ordinary family, but if they wanted to show off among friends, it would only last for a gathering or two.

Someone willing to spend nine thousand cash on a courtesan wouldn’t necessarily buy a preserved egg for twenty at a street stall, but it still proved such purchasing power existed in Jiangning. To sell at twenty cash each, one had to find the higher-end venues nearby, the famous tea houses and restaurants, and get them to sell on consignment. But since this was a new thing, asking someone to sell an egg for twenty cash apiece as a favor was a tough sell—these weren’t charitable people. Nie Yunzhu was talented and beautiful, but those qualities didn’t translate into the hard-nosed world of business. She failed to secure a consignment deal for these twenty-cash eggs. Some restaurant managers barely spoke to her; one, seeing her beauty yet selling pancakes, tried to take liberties, so she left immediately.

To Nie Yunzhu, who was determined to shed her old identity and earn an honest living like ordinary folk, this was a blow. But she was stubborn; others might give up on selling preserved eggs after setbacks like these, but she clearly had no such intention. At this moment, Ning Yi arrived, sweating from running, idly spinning a copper coin in his hand. He smiled, “Actually, I made a bet with someone recently, saying these preserved eggs would be selling within a month.”

“Selling well?”

“Mm. I said at least twenty or thirty a day.”

“…Uh.” Nie Yunzhu considered this, then smiled. “I’ll try my best to sell thirty a day. Actually… maybe I could consign some at Golden Breeze Pavilion…”

She hesitated noticeably before mentioning this. What she was thinking was clearly different from Ning Yi. In her mind, Ning Yi was good-natured, independent, witty—a true scholar—but not really a businessman. He’d invented this preserved egg and asked her to help sell it, perhaps bragged to someone about it, which was understandable. If she couldn’t sell that many, he’d lose face. If she had any other way, she wouldn’t consider Golden Breeze Pavilion again. The madam there, though she kept her word and didn’t pressure her anymore, wasn’t exactly kind-hearted. Owing her a favor would be hard to repay, and using such a connection was really her only option now.

When Ning Yi heard her mention Golden Breeze Pavilion, he was briefly taken aback before understanding. “No need for that.” He shook his head, then pointed to the cart under the awning. “Let’s close up early today and repackage the cart. It looks too plain now—nobody will pay twenty cash for it.”

“Repackage?”

“Uh… just decorate it a bit.”

Nie Yunzhu nodded, though her eyes showed puzzlement.

When school let out at noon, Ning Yi went to the market for lunch, then bought paints, brushes, and supplies, and headed to Nie Yunzhu’s place. Only then did she realize what he intended. That afternoon, after cleaning the cart, Ning Yi sketched a design with chalk, pondered for a while, then sat on a low stool and began to paint.

Nie Yunzhu couldn’t help much; she occasionally squatted nearby to watch. When she went inside and saw Walnut, the maid asked, “Is Young Master Ning painting the cart to sell preserved eggs?”

“That seems to be it.”

“But can you paint well with oil paint…”

“Many lacquerwares are painted, aren’t they? I suppose Young Master Ning has some skill in this…” Nie Yunzhu was a bit worried—painting, chess, music, and calligraphy were the arts of refined society. Whether Ning Yi was good at painting was another matter, but with his reputation, painting a small cart just to sell preserved eggs might invite criticism. The better the painting, the greater the risk.

Walnut was also uneasy. She’d been worried about her mistress for some time. Since Lantern Festival, when she confirmed that this Ning Yi was the renowned scholar, and that he truly had talent, her worries grew daily. She, too, hoped to marry Ernian soon, but without a settled future for her mistress, she couldn’t rest easy. Now her mistress seemed fond of this man, but what could come of it? As the lady said: it couldn’t lead to marriage.

The man was a live-in son-in-law. Even if her mistress liked him, nothing could come of it. The more talented he was, the deeper her mistress would fall, and she’d never like anyone else. The Su family was powerful; if his wife found out and came to confront them, what then? With such thoughts, her anxiety only grew worse.

Once, Ning Yi called Nie Yunzhu out to ask whether the stall should be called “Nie’s” or “Bamboo’s.” She thought for a moment and chose “Bamboo’s.”

By evening, the sunset glowed over the bend of the Qinhuai River, and the cart’s decoration was finally done. When Nie Yunzhu saw it, she was stunned—it was a style she’d never seen before!

Not that it was poorly painted; it was too well done—too bizarre. The composition was three-dimensional.

With lacquer paints, one could create various styles—delicate or rough—but this cart was singular for its time. The painting was simple: a few bamboo stalks evoking a corner of bamboo forest after rain, shrouded in mist. On one side, a preserved egg was sliced into four, not lifelike, but suggestive. The characters “Bamboo’s Preserved Eggs” floated across the image—yet the painting was three-dimensional.

To Ning Yi, it was a simple technique: controlling the proportions of different elements to make the bamboo appear to jut into view. The five characters, together with their floating shadows, seemed to drift or fall in the mist. The preserved egg itself wasn’t perfect; he couldn’t mix a beautiful color, so he made it look as appealing as possible. Because mixed lacquers could blur, he outlined various elements with crisp black lines, heightening the sense of contrast and depth. If this cart hit the streets, it would instantly catch the eye, and its unconventional style would simply be seen as a merchant’s novelty, not the work of a celebrated scholar.

Resources were limited, but seeing Nie Yunzhu’s astonished expression, Ning Yi was pleased with the result. Recalling Ning Yi’s odd musical tastes, Nie Yunzhu remarked, “Your painting, Liheng, is so… um, so strange. I’ve never seen a style like this—it’s as if the bamboo is growing straight out of the cart…”

With realistic art, the first impression is always straightforward. This differs from music. Nie Yunzhu almost wanted to touch the painted bamboo, but Ning Yi smiled and stopped her, pointing to the canopy overhead.

“The paint isn’t dry—don’t touch it. The canopy needs a new look, too. I’ll buy one tomorrow. For the next few days, you won’t be able to do business until the paint dries. We need to prepare pretty bowls and dishes, a variety of sauces, vinegar, and tofu—different ways to eat it. Everything should look clean and appealing. That’s the first step…” Ning Yi calculated. “Once this is done, we’ll deal with those stubborn restaurant managers…”

Over the next few afternoons, things proceeded methodically: attractive bowls and dishes, all sorts of sauces, and different ways to eat the eggs. Every afternoon, Ning Yi came by, and Nie Yunzhu seemed happy, but Walnut was not. At night, she complained to her mistress, “Miss, buying all that stuff is not worth it at all…”

Ning Yi chose only beautiful tableware—impractical and expensive for ordinary folks. Even though he paid for half, calling it an investment, Walnut saw no point. They didn’t have much money, and though her mistress could get by for a while, at this rate, they’d soon spend it all. To Walnut, Ning Yi was just blindly wasting money, and her mistress, unwilling to refuse him, went along. If Ning Yi didn’t care about throwing money away, what could her mistress do? In the end, she might lose everything.

“If you ask me, Miss, Young Master Ning is certainly talented—that’s beyond question—but he doesn’t know business. We’re just running a little stall; there’s no need for all this fuss. You can’t just go along with his nonsense! We can’t afford it…”

“Young Master Ning is genuinely talented. Since he’s so confident, I trust him. Until the end, how can you be sure he has no solution?” In truth, Nie Yunzhu herself wasn’t certain, but she could only say this to Walnut.

“How many talented people have you seen, Miss?” Walnut retorted. “Talent is talent; business is business. Plenty of talented men ended up gamblers and paupers in the end. I may not understand much, but I’ve seen enough. Most street vendors are like this. Real businesses, or brothels, are a different world. Miss, Young Master Ning married into a merchant family, and I hear his wife is formidable in the Su family. Maybe he just wants to prove himself and is using you as an experiment…”

“Enough!” Nie Yunzhu’s eyes flashed, cutting her off.

Walnut stood there, lips pressed tight for a long time before tears rolled down her cheeks. At last, she bit her lip and choked out, “You know you can’t marry Young Master Ning, Miss. If you could, I wouldn’t say another word…”

After that, the room was silent for a long while. Nie Yunzhu sat at the edge of her bed, leaning against the bed frame, her gaze occasionally shifting. After a long time, as the lamp flickered, she finally closed her eyes tightly. “I know…” When she opened them again, she smiled faintly.

“Go to bed, Walnut. It’s late…”

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