Chapter 28: Root Sculpture, Windfall

The next day, Mo Qianxue took a ride in Azhao’s carriage to downtown.

Azhao silently drove the carriage while Xiaoqizi was a talker, but after being given a cold shoulder for a few times, he shut up too. Mo Qianxue gained quiet finally.

She didn’t follow them to Baiyunju, but got off the carriage and thanked Azhao immediately after they arrived at downtown area.

Wandering on the street and passing pawnshops one after another, she just couldn’t make the decision to put the jade in pledge and never entered one.

She thought of Ning Shaoqing’s sadness in his eyes when he handed her the jade and felt grudged to sell it.

Ning Shaoqing was a person who regarded money as dirt. Therefore, the sadness in his eyes mustn’t be produced by the money it worth but some special significance behind it. otherwise, he wouldn’t always wear it. She strolled aimlessly on the street. Every time she became determined to sell it and when she came at the door of a pawnshop, she stamped her feet and left.

Actually, she could go to Baiyunju and drooped down to lend money from the seventh young lord. But on the one hand, she felt shameful to lend money. On the other hand, she had to consider Ning Shaoqing’s face.

“Can’t you carve a bigger piece for the birthday party? It’s so small, how could our master present it…”

At the door of a pavilion of high-end furniture and wooden pieces shop. Mo Qianxue planned to take a browse, but when she entered, she saw a person, looking like a long-term servant, shouting at the shop assistant.

Mo Qianxue was about to get out when she glimpsed at a wooden sculpture of about a meter high before the shouting servant.

Sculptured pieces? Big ones? A group of stars shone in her mind.

“Don’t be angry, brother. Frankly speaking, your master’s standard is really hard to reach. A piece as big as he wants even can’t be made by a master hand from the capital city, let alone our small shop…”

“In seven days, it’ll be the old madam’s birthday. We spent three hundred taels of silver to buy just this thing as the gift?”

Mo Qianxue, on a whim, regarded the wooden sculpture carefully. That was in an ordinary shape of a-boy-offering-birthday-felicitations. Because of the raw root which was relatively thin branches and limited in the shape, less skillful carving technique of the carver, and poor color scheme, the sculpture looked rigid and dull.

If the raw material was tree root, it would be much better, because root itself was flexibly-shaped, so the sculpture made of tree root would look livelier.

Right! Root sculpture! Root sculpture!

No matter how thick a trunk could be, it couldn’t be as flexible and broad as root.

Anything will be alright!

Her late grandfather was a root sculptor. When she was a child, she often imitated grandpa and learned to sculpt for a few years. Her painting skill was exactly trained at that time.

Huge tree roots were rare in modern times, but here there were loads of them. Just yesterday on the way to the dock, she saw numerous roots which were left after the trunks were chopped off as building materials for the construction of the dock. Even the roots as thick as several people’s waists together were more than a dozen.

Mo Qianxue rolled her eyes. It seemed that she didn’t need to sell the jade.

Money came to find her itself!

Scolding the shop assistant, the servant stepped out, puffing. Mo Qianxue followed him out.

Outside stopped a luxurious carriage. The driver stood up straight. Even if for someone who knew nothing about horses like Mo Qianxue could tell this was a strong pretty horse. Therefore, the owner of the carriage couldn’t be an average person.

The servant walked right to the carriage. If she didn’t seize this opportunity to talk business, it would be too late if they left. She sprinted over and asked out loud, “This brother, can you spare a moment?”

The servant was just about to bow down and report the situation to the person in the carriage, so he was pretty impatient once he was disrupted. He turned around and found it was a girl, so he held back his impatience and asked with doubt, “You are?”

“Nice to meet you. Just now I saw you checking sculptures in that shop, so I summoned up my courage to recommend you a master hand who has unparalleled sculpting skills…”

Mo Qianxue’s voice was loud and steady. The people in the carriage listened clearly of what she said and at the same time didn’t annoyed by her abrupt presence.

“Where does this master hand work? He’s better than the workers of that shop? Miss, you must be kidding. Our master has things to handle. Sorry!” Though the servant didn’t believe her, his tone was polite, which indicated the character of his master.

“The world is too big for you to know everything. Never hearing something only means your little knowledge but can’t prove that it doesn’t exist. ”

Being talking back by her, the servant got grumpy, “You…you’re so rude…”

“Gao Lang. Don’t be rude! Miss, could you please tell me where this master hand lives? I can’t thank you more!” The sound flew out of the carriage, clear, courteous and confident.

“The master has always lived in seclusion and he dislikes to be disturbed by others. I came to know him by accident. He has trusted me to take orders for him. Today, I can, on behalf of the master hand, take your order in the theme of birthday-celebration. We shall quote five hundred taels.”

“Five hundred? Are you crazy? The master of that shop asked only three hundred, and their material is scented wood…”

“Is that a master? I believe the three hundred is all for the good wood. The works of our master are many times better than the dull rigid sculpture. Of course the price is twice higher.” The implication was that she charged too low.

Mo Qianxue wasn’t bragging. Root sculpting was an art, utilizing roots’ original natural and wild shape to make exquisite handicrafts which featured in its unique charm of crudity and originality.

Compared with the dull rigid a-boy-offering-birthday-felicitations, the master’s works were hundreds of times better. If she had top-quality raw material, she would charge even higher.

“Bragging won’t break the law. Just continue. A woman…”

The young lord sitting in the carriage at once stopped Gao Lang’s disrespectful words, “Miss. Since we never saw the works, but you charge five hundred. Isn’t it too…”

“It doesn’t matter. By then, if you don’t like it, you don’t have to keep it. I won’t charge guarantee deposit. What we need to do is to set a delivery time.” Hearing his word, Mo Qianxue was delighted. The business was ninety-nine percent settled. Ancient people valued trust and honesty, let alone a gentle and courteous young lord like him. He must value his fame more than his life.

Whether her work would way surpass that produced by the shop, Mo Qianxue was full of confidence.

On the flip side, even if he didn’t like it, she could sell the sculpture to others, such as the wooden-piece shop. Though it might worth less, it’d better than nothing.

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