Grandmother Lu and all of her workers were waiting inside the shop. When he stepped back inside, all of them bowed to Sen. He knew they meant it to convey their respect, but it mostly just made him uncomfortable.
No wonder Master Feng tried to keep a low profile when he went away all those times
, thought Sen. Sen supposed that some people might crave that kind of attention all the time, but he could do without it. Still, there was no getting around the people in the shop. He gave them a shallower bow in return, setting them all free to return to doing whatever they had been doing before the excitement outside. Some of them looked like they would linger, but Grandmother Lu shooed them away. Sen nodded to the back room they had been in before. When Grandmother Lu nodded in return, he made a hasty retreat to the relative privacy of the space.
While Grandmother Lu tended to her employees, Sen pulled out the storage ring heâd taken off the other cultivator. While heâd imagined some kind of minor wealth in the ring when heâd grabbed it, heâd also done it as a minor act of spite against the townspeople and their judgment. Faced with the reality of actually taking whatever was in the ring didnât sit entirely right with him.
Itâs not like you can give it back
, he reminded himself. When curiosity finally got the better of him, Sen accessed the ring and emptied its contents onto a table. It was mercifully free of truly personal items. The most personal items were just some spare clothes in the ring. It was a habit that Master Feng and Auntie Caihong had strongly encouraged Sen to adopt. He found a small cache of pills that he couldnât readily identify. He supposed that he might be able to sell those. It was even possible he could use them, although he had no intention of ever using any pill he hadnât at least seen getting made.
There were other odds and ends in the ring. Basic camping supplies that he already had and a strange, enchanted object that seemed to channel environmental fire qi. He supposed it would be useful for starting campfires without using oneâs own qi. He found several more daos, at least one of which he
thought
was a spirit-level weapon. He lingered over that sword for a while. He didnât know exactly how rare spirit-level weapons were, but he knew they were far rarer than mortal-grade weapons. Sen vaguely wished that heâd trained with the dao, but it was a passing thought. He knew he could learn to wield one, but he also knew what it would require from him. He already had a firm foundation with the jian and the spear. That was enough. He would build on those skills. He would wait until he reached a larger town or city and then sell the dao or all of them if he could. It might even be possible to make a trade for another spirit-level jian. After a moment of deliberation, he pushed the weapons and the enchanted fire starter into his larger storage ring.
Then, he turned to the last thing that had been in other cultivatorâs ring. It was a plain canvas satchel with nothing to make it stand out. Sen opened it up expecting to find food or possibly some kind of document. What he hadnât expected to find was gold. The satchel was half full of golden taels. The sight of so much money, just sitting there, had a certain unreal quality for Sen. He didnât know how to process that kind of wealth. Then, he started to wonder where a foundation formation stage cultivator could have gotten that kind of money. Sen supposed that the money
could be
the manâs life savings. Yet, it rang hollow to him. Sen couldnât imagine a scenario where heâd want to carry around that kind of wealth for any length of time. Heâd have found somewhere to hide it, as insurance against a future disaster. Auntie Caihong had even told him about things called banks where people could put their money for safekeeping. No, there were no good reasons to carry around that much money. Sen suspected that the man had either stolen the money or been told to hold it for someone else.
If heâd stolen it, there wasnât much Sen could do about that. He wouldnât even know where to begin to look for the victims. Heâd seen enough about people to know that if he just announced that heâd found stolen money, everyone would come running. He didnât have the resources to find out quietly. That would take delicate questions asked of discrete people. Sen didnât know those people, nor did he have the experience to figure out how to phrase those delicate questions. Of course, if the cultivator had been holding the money for someone, that was a different problem. Theyâd want that money back. When Sen considered who might have that much money or access to it, it was a depressingly short list. In fact, the most likely suspect was someone that Sen was very ready to never think about again. He found himself wishing that he had let someone else loot that corpse. It might have spared him some trouble. Then again, it might not have spared him anything.
Uncertain about how best to proceed, he closed the satchel and waited for Grandmother Lu. Sen could recognize when he was in over his head with a problem. With that much wealth on the line, he was absolutely out of his depth. He worried that it may well be out of Grandmother Luâs depth, too, but she at least had more experience with the world and politicians. Even if she couldnât tell him exactly how to handle it, she likely could at least point him in a direction. That was more than he had now. Perhaps half an hour passed with Sen staring daggers at that bag full of unwanted trouble before Grandmother Lu came back to check on him.
âWhatâs all this?â She asked, gesturing at the table.
âThat other cultivator had a storage ring. Those are things I canât use,â he said, gesturing at the pile of clothes and camping equipment. âI thought you might know someone who could use them.â
Grandmother Lu cocked her head to one side for a moment, thinking, before she nodded.
âYes, I think I know some people who could use them. They canât afford much,â she warned Sen.
âJust give it to them. I donât need money from people who donât have it. Besides, thatâs not the problem. That,â he said, pointing at the satchel, âis the problem.â
He reached over and flipped the satchel open. Grandmother Luâs eyes went as wide as they could. She reached out a shaking hand and grabbed a handful of the golden taels, letting them run through her fingers. Sen watched as the inevitable happened. For most of a minute, he could see the dreams of wealth running through the older womanâs mind. He could almost guess at the content of those dreams. She was imagining her trading empire expanding by leaps and bounds, stretching clear to the capital, and then raking in profits by the bushel. Slowly, though, he saw her start to frown. She looked down at the satchel and started to really consider it. The longer she studied all of that gold, the more unhappy she looked. She glanced at him, almost as if to check and see if he had understood the dangers. Reassured by whatever she saw, she went back to frowning at the gold. Then, much as Sen had done, she closed the satchel.
âPut that away somewhere before anyone else sees it,â she ordered, her eyes distant as she thought through something.
Sen did as she instructed and put the satchel into his storage ring. He idly tossed the other cultivatorâs storage ring to Grandmother Lu. She caught it and offered Sen a briefly puzzled look until she realized what she held. She immediately tried to give it back. Sen waved her off.
âYou can use it. I already have one.â
âThese are expensive, Sen. You could sell it.â
Sen shrugged. âConsider it a few yearsâ worth of back new year gifts.â
She rolled her eyes, but eventually slipped the ring into a pocket.
âTheyâll come looking for that gold,â she said.
âYou think itâs the mayorâs?â
She nodded. âWho knows where he got it, but yes. I think he imagined that cultivator you fought was the safest place he could keep the money. The mayor probably never imagined that someone would wander through town that could kill the man. Probably never even considered the possibility when he sent the fool here.â
âProbably not. When do you think theyâll come?â
âIâm surprised they arenât here already. I suppose itâs too much for them to simply raid my shop in the middle of the day without a very good excuse.â
âTonight then?â
Grandmother Lu sighed, then scowled, and then nodded. âTonight.â
âWell, since we have time, I have gifts for you, Grandmother. Courtesy of Master Feng, Uncle Kho, and Ma Caihong.â
She looked both excited and apprehensive at the prospect of gifts from the elder cultivators. âWell, who doesnât love presents?â