Aimless Ascension

"I won\'t hold it against you if you\'re one of those fools who fancied Xiaolin. There is no other fairer girl in this town than her," Wang Yushen paused to check his expression. Gale hadn\'t shown any sign of embarrassment, much to her doubt. "If that\'s not the case, then you\'re dumber than those fools."

Gale kept his silence as there was nothing to say. Anything to refute that would be her point. Gale had lost enough of those to his master and sister-in-law.

"Why do you want to go out of your way and get into trouble if not for wooing this lass?"

Gale sighed. "The land met my requirements." He paused to add at last: "And I don\'t like when everyone tries to oppress the weak."

"So, it has nothing to do with how pretty Xiaolin is?"

Gale kept a neutral look, but eventually broke into a sigh. "I\'ve been told I have quite the knack of playing the hero. "

A silence descended on the veranda as Grandma Yushen considered. Xiaolin tried to get out of there without notice, as the topic was rather embarrassing for her to listen to. She barely moved a few muscles when Grandma Wang\'s eyes drifted to her.

"Sit down, girl. I have taught you enough not to embarrass yourself."

"Yes, grandma," Xiaolin said, her shoulder slumped as she sat back rigidly.

"Mr Gale--"

"You can call me by my name, Grandma."

"Alright," Yushen nodded, "Gale. I believe what you said. I simply wanted to see the reason behind your decision."

"Are you satisfied that I didn\'t come with some profound reason and whatnot?"

"I am," Wang Yushen agreed. "I have the papers ready. With a little more work, we can proceed for the verification. Also, don\'t worry about any problems, all will be taken care of."

Xiaolin seemed genuinely relieved hearing her out. So Gale nodded.

"12 acres of land," Yushen continued. "An acre of farming land is usually priced at around eighty thousand iron marks, however, considering the complication and the location of the station, Xiaolin can recompense a twenty thousand iron marks. So sixty thousand per acre, seven hundred and twenty thousand iron marks in total. Is that agreeable?"

"What?" Gale frowned, gaining a nervous gasp from Xiaolin. But his next words relieved every worry of her. "Isn\'t that too cheap?"

"If you consider it cheap, you can buy the land for full price," Grandma Yushen said with a smile. "But yes, the land is rather cheap. Anybody can get their money back farming within five-six years, I reckon.

"Or you can court this lass and gain all forty-odd acres of it for free."

"Grandma . . ." Xiaolin called, looking down nervously. Her face was red with all the embarrassment and blushing.

Gale smiled fondly. "My father had a philosophy about marriage. It had to be one of love, political gain or wealth to marry someone."

"He seemed like a practical man."

"True," Gale agreed. "He married my mother for the latter two. Eventually, they went their separate ways. I\'m not like him very much."

"That I can see."

"Madam Wang said it would take about a week for the paperwork," Gale said. "When do you need me to make the payment?"

"As soon as you can," Grandma Wang answered. "That kid of the Han Family will want to create problems if he can, so the quicker we can go forward the better it would be."

"If there\'s a problem, you can pay in instalments," Xiaolin stated from the side.

"Money isn\'t an issue." Gale rubbed his fingers and calculated, considering how many marks he had with him. "Sadly, it seemed I don\'t have that many iron marks."

"That\'s unfortunate," Grandma Wang intoned.

Gale didn\'t think so. He asked, "Can you make it happen with Silver marks?"

Wang Yushen was momentarily stunned, but it was so faint that others thought their eyes were playing a trick on them. "The exchange rate is a hundred to one. If you can produce that many, we can go forward immediately."

"Great." Gale closed his eyes and all the contents of the void lock came into his mind. There were a lot of items inside, from useless stuff that he poured he didn\'t know when to earthly and heavenly treasures. In one corner were a few piles of spirit coins.

Most of them were gold marks, the highest grade of spirit coins. Still, they weren\'t Gale\'s most valuable collection. Gale\'s eyes drifted towards a hefty heap of silver marks.

With a thought, he opened a hole in the middle of the veranda and let silver marks fall out of it. They were similar to iron marks, silvery crystals perfectly carved into coins. Thin smoky white mists drifted around them slowly, pulling a different vibe around them.

Gale only needed seven thousand two hundred of them, but he let it free until the number reached close to five digits.

Even though the fate-lock worked on command, it wasn\'t efficient enough to produce the exact number of coins on command. Well, it was mostly Gale\'s fault. If he wanted, he could\'ve made it happen, but it would take more time and energy.

Gale was patient, but not to the point that he would waste time on such a nuisance.

"You really aren\'t someone who cares about wealth," Wang Yushen read. "Xiaolin, go fetch a scripted lockbox. Each second you waste, you lose a few copper marks."

Xiaolin was stupefied at the revelation of Silver marks at first and then at Grandma Wang\'s word. She didn\'t understand why she would lose money, but she trusted Grandma Wang enough to lurch up from her spot to scurry into the inn.

"Sorry, I forgot that the natural density of energy here is low."

Grandma Wang gave him a flat look which told quite clearly: that\'s why you\'re still a boy.

Gale looked away and turned to his fingernail. They grew quite long. He took a mental note to groom them well.

______

Drop powerstones, if you like the book