During the Tongzhi period of the Qing Dynasty, an Anhui couple came to Jingzhou City. The man's name was Shen Rui and the wife was You Shi. They came to join a relative and did some business, by the way. However, when the relative went out, the couple had to wait in the hotel.
On this day, Shen Rui went to the street and found that there was a Li Ji pawn shop that was about to be transferred. The location of the pawn shop was very good, and the traffic count was also large. Shen Rui originally opened a pawn shop in his hometown, and he couldn't help but be moved at the moment. He asked Shopkeeper Li why he didn't keep doing it. Shopkeeper Li's expression changed slightly, but he soon recovered to nature, saying that someone in his hometown was seriously ill and needed money turnover, so he made this decision in desperation.
Opening and closing a store was a common thing in the business world, and the transfer price offered by Shopkeeper Li was relatively low. Shen Rui did not have too much doubt, so he bought the pawnshop and renamed it "Shen Ji Pawnshop".
A few days later, it was an auspicious day. In a burst of festive firecrackers, Shen Ji's pawnshop officially opened, and the surrounding people gathered around to hear the news, whispering about something. At this moment, Shen Rui's relative hurried in and said, "How can you set up the pawnshop in such a hurry? Why don't you wait for me to come back before making a decision?" Shen Rui was stunned and asked, "Is there anything wrong with the pawnshop?"
Relatives told Shen Rui that this pawnshop had a long history in Jingzhou. It was originally opened by a shopkeeper surnamed Wu, and the business had been good. However, three years ago, shopkeeper Wu suddenly transferred the pawnshop and left Jingzhou with his family. The shopkeeper who took over the pawnshop was a shopkeeper surnamed Zhang, and everything was normal at first. Who knew that a year later, he suddenly transferred the pawnshop and left. What's even more strange is that two or three shopkeepers came to take over, but they all disappeared after only opening for a year and a half. Because the pawnshop was transferred too frequently, no one in the city dared to take over. Unexpectedly, Shen Rui, a foreigner, was fooled.
Shen Rui became a little uneasy and hurriedly asked, "There must be something hidden, they didn't tell me, and you didn't ask about it either?" The relative said, "Of course everyone was suspicious, but when they left, they all kept their mouths shut and looked panicked, as if they had gotten into some trouble. Once, I went to a neighboring state to meet Shopkeeper Wu, and he repeatedly told me not to reveal his whereabouts. I asked him why he left that year, but Shopkeeper Wu only said half a sentence, saying that he had collected treasures that should not have been collected, and he refused to say anything else."
When Shen Rui heard this, he immediately panicked. His relatives consoled him and said, "Now that the pawn shop has opened, the business still has to continue. Whether it is a blessing or a curse depends on your own luck."
Just as a customer entered the door, Shen Rui hurriedly put away his mind and started his business. After the pawn shop opened, the business was not bad, but Shen Rui was cautious every day, for fear of making a mistake, so he passed three months safely without any abnormalities. Shen Rui secretly prayed that bad luck would not come to him. At noon that day, the sky was cloudy and there were no customers in the store, so Shen Rui didzed off at the counter. Suddenly, a vigorous voice sounded in his ear: "Shopkeeper, pawn!"
Outside the counter stood a young man in his twenties, with a tiger's back and waist. Shen Rui did not dare to neglect him, and hurriedly took the brocade bag from the young man's hand. When he opened it, he couldn't help but be stunned, and he saw a jade cat half a foot tall. The cat body was carved from high-quality Hetian jade, and the eyes were embedded with orange-yellow crystal amber eyes.
Shen Rui glanced at the jade cat and thought that regardless of the price of the pair of amber eyes, the cat body alone was worth more than 2,000 taels, and it was normal for young people to pawn it at half price. Shen Rui had just opened the store, and the working capital in the store was not much, and it was estimated that it was only 1,000 taels in total. He felt it was too risky. But then he thought about it, the interest of 1,000 taels of silver was very attractive. Besides, if the young man had no money to redeem when it expired, this jade cat would become a perfect opportunity and belong to himself, and then he would make a fortune.
When Shen Rui was hesitating, the young man said with disdain, "Could it be that the shopkeeper has never seen such a treasure before, and was frightened?" Inspired by him, Shen Rui was determined to take it, and he collected one thousand taels of silver, and then issued a pawn ticket, which stated the redemption date and the interest of the pawn, and there was another one later. If the pawn is damaged or lost, the pawn shop will pay the original price. This is also the rule in the industry. The young man took the ticket and looked at it, then put it in his arms, picked up the silver and turned to walk outside the store.
At this time, Shen Rui suddenly shouted, "Guest officer, wait!" The young man was stunned, turned around and asked warily, "What else is there?" Shen Rui picked up an umbrella from the counter, walked out and said to the young man, "It's raining heavily outside, you can only walk with an umbrella." The young man took the umbrella and looked at Shen Rui, his face showing a hesitant expression, and finally stomped his feet and rushed into the wind and rain.
After the young man left, Shen Rui carefully wrapped the jade cat, because there were many thieves, and the pawnshop had always been their target. Therefore, Shen Rui did not dare to put the jade cat in the warehouse, but put it under the dark compartment by the bedside.
It was only three days before redemption date of the jade cat. That night, Shen Rui closed the door and returned to the back hall. He saw a pile of messy things in the room. It turned out that Youshi saw that the warehouse was full, and he was going to clean it up thoroughly, cleaning out some useless things so he could burn them. Shen Rui took a look and found an account book with the word "Li Ji" written on it. It seemed that it was left by Shopkeeper Li, so he picked it up and looked through it. It was just an ordinary pawn record. Shen Rui was about to discard the account book when he suddenly found a page with the word Jade Cat written on it, and there was a supplement below: Made of Hetian jade, it is worth 2,000, and the price is 1,000.
This was obviously the jade cat he accepted two months ago. Shen Rui immediately became uneasy, but You Shi said, "This is not surprising. Maybe this person only had this valuable treasure in his house, which was redeemed at that time, and now he needs money at home, so he pawned it again."
You Shi's words were reasonable, and it was not uncommon for customers to pawn items repeatedly, but for some reason Shen Rui was still worried. He rummaged through the pile of sundries and finally found two account books, both of which had been left by the previous shopkeeper. Shen Rui read through them carefully and was surprised to find that there were also pawn records about jade cats in these two account books. He had a bad premonition that the one after another departure of those shopkeepers had something to do with this jade cat!
Shen Rui hurried into the bedroom, opened the brocade bag, and took a deep breath. It turned out that the jade cat had only a pair of empty eye sockets left, and the amber eyes inside were gone! Originally, Shen Rui would open the hidden compartment to take a look at the jade cat every day when he was sleeping, but because the light in the bed was dim, he just saw the jade cat and was relieved, but he did not pay attention to the amber eyes and disappeared.
It seems that the thieves must have stolen the amber pupil. Maybe because there is a mark on the jade cat, it is not easy to attack, so the thieves abandoned the cat and only stole the amber pupil. Shen Rui murmured: "What should we do now, the jade cat lost its pupils and became a defective product. According to the regulations, we have to compensate 2,000 taels of silver." You Shi was also very panicked, thought about it, and said: "Now we have to hurry up and buy two high-quality amber to match, although it will cost a lot of silver, but compared to compensation, the loss is less, the young man may not be able to see it on the spot, and we can get through this level."
Shen Rui thought to himself, isn't this the path that Shopkeeper Wu and the others took? Now he finally understood that it must have been Shopkeeper Wu and the others who took the jade cat and had their amber pupils stolen. In the end, they had to buy a new pair of amber. Because they were afraid that the truth would be revealed and the customers would investigate them later, these shopkeepers had to transfer the pawnshop and fly away. It was obviously the best way to follow Shopkeeper Wu and the others. The young people had never seen the amber pupils changed, and they might not pay attention this time. But Shen Rui thought again that doing business should be based on integrity, how could they deceive customers like this? In the end, Shen Rui decided to confess the truth to the young people, and You Shi worriedly said, "If this is the case, we will be bankrupt." Shen Rui said seriously: "Doing business without conscience, even if you make money, you will feel uneasy inside."
Three days later, the young man arrived as planned. Shen Rui took out the jade cat from the counter and said apologetically, "Because our store was not well kept, I don't know when the amber pupil was stolen by the thieves. Shen is willing to compensate according to the agreement. But Shen's wealth is poor, so he can't take out the silver for a while. This pawnshop, which Shen bought for thousands of taels of silver at the beginning, will be paid to you now." After saying that, he took out the store deed prepared in advance and handed it to the young man.
Shen Rui was stunned, and the young man continued, "That's fake amber I made from turpentine. You can see that the price of jade is expensive, which is far higher than that of silver, so I didn't carefully identify the authenticity of the amber. The turpentine I used was soaked in a concentrated acid liquid beforehand, and it slowly melted and corroded in the past two months. There are small grooves in the cat's eye nest, and the liquid flowed into the cat's body."
When the young man said this, he smiled slightly and said, "I have used this method to drive away several shopkeepers of this pawnshop, and every time I get a pair of precious amber." After listening, Shen Rui suddenly realized, glad that he did not hide the truth, but he was a little puzzled by the young man's behavior, so he asked him why he did it.
The young man said that his family had been doing business for generations to make a living. After his father died of illness, he was young and his mother was not in good health. Soon, the family fell into poverty and had to rely on pawnshops to make a living. Once, his mother took a porcelain to the pawnshop to pawn, but later redeemed the house and found that the porcelain had been damaged. It was a remnant of the shopkeeper. His mother went to the pawnshop to argue, and the pawnshop denied it in every way. He beat his mother, and her mother died soon after. From then on, he was angry with the profiteers in the pawnshop. When he grew up, he came up with this way to use the jade cat to take revenge on these profiteers. After the young man finished speaking, he looked at Shen Rui and said, "I didn't expect this plan to fail when it came to Shopkeeper Shen. I admire Shopkeeper Shen as a person and am willing to let go of hatred. This jade cat will never appear again."
It was not until the young man's back disappeared from the street corner that Shen Rui came to his senses. He looked down and saw an umbrella next to the chair on which the young man had just sat. It was the one he gave her last time.
Shen Rui picked up the umbrella and found it heavy. Just as he was about to open it to take a look, amber suddenly rolled to the ground. He counted, a total of twelve.
Because Shen Rui was honest and trustworthy, honest and fair, his business became better and better, and he became bigger and bigger. In the end, he became a legend among Huizhou merchants.