Selling the Tiger Whip: Master Tian Asks Chu Feng About Taking a Concubine

Master Tian was sipping tea in the main hall.

Tian Xin stood nearby, attending to her grandfather.

Ever since the death of her elder brother, Tian Zhuang, however, Master Tian had never given Tian Xin a kind look again.

"Grandfather, shall I help you back to rest?"

A cold gust of wind swept through, and goose-feather-like snowflakes drifted into the hall.

Fearing that her grandfather might catch a chill, Tian Xin asked.

"No need. Don't touch me. Don't think that just because you are acting nice to me now, the Tian family's estate will be handed over to you in the future. Don't even dream about it!"

Faced with Master Tian's expression of utter hatred, Tian Xin could only feel a sense of grievance.

"Grandfather, what are you talking about?"

"What am I talking about? Now that your brother is dead, the man you find can only marry into our family as a matrilocal husband; you are not allowed to marry out. If you marry out, you won't get a single coin of the Tian family's property," Master Tian warned.

Tian Xin had been accustomed to wealth and luxury since childhood.

Almost nothing ever went against her wishes.

Yet facing her grandfather, Tian Xin felt deeply weary.

She had never expected that the old man's thoughts were solely fixed on the family property.

Nor had she expected that a dozen years of grandfather-granddaughter affection would be repaid with such deep suspicion and guarding.

"Master, three hunters are here to see you."

After entering, the steward pretended not to have heard the conversation between the two.

He hurriedly spoke to Master Tian.

Hearing this, Master Tian was somewhat puzzled.

Hunters looking for him?

He remembered that a week ago, he had asked three hunters to help procure a tiger's penis.

That was a tiger.

Ordinary people might not even be able to track its movements.

Let alone hunt down a tiger.

And all within the span of a week.

That was simply impossible.

Even so, Master Tian had the three men brought in.

Sure enough, when he caught sight of Chu Feng's face, a look of disappointment crept over Master Tian.

Could it be that these three found hunting a tiger too difficult and had come to ask him for help?

"If you encounter any difficulties, you must find ways to solve them yourselves. You cannot simply come running to the Tian family for help without putting in any effort..."

Before he could finish his sentence, however,

Chu Feng gave the hemp sack in his hand a couple of shakes.

A massive tiger head rolled out from the bag.

"Master Tian, we have hunted what you asked for. To ensure you don't think this is a fake, here is the tiger's head, freshly killed yesterday."

Chu Feng picked up the tiger head and walked towards the courtyard.

Master Tian, Tian Xin, the steward standing nearby, and the surrounding guards—at the very moment they laid eyes on the beast's head,

every single one of their hearts trembled.

Their legs grew weak.

They felt an urge to collapse onto the ground.

Have they ever witnessed such a terrifying creature in their entire lives?

After all, there were no zoos in this era.

Many people had only ever heard the names of such wild beasts,

never having seen one with their own eyes.

Not only were these beasts few in number, but they were also extremely dangerous.

No one would deliberately go looking for them.

Yet certain parts of these beasts could indeed be used in medicine.

And precisely because of their scarcity, their prices were exorbitant.

Every year, hunters lost their lives while trying to capture these beasts.

Those truly capable of capturing bears and tigers were actually a tiny minority.

When Master Tian initially handed this task to Chu Feng, he hadn't expected the other party to complete it quickly.

In fact, he hadn't even expected them to complete it at all.

Chu Feng was merely one of the many options in his widespread net.

Yet never did he imagine that in a mere seven days,

Chu Feng would actually find one.

Not only did he find it, but he also successfully hunted it.

Master Tian asked with a slight tremor, "Is this a real tiger?"

"Could there be any falsehood in this?"

With that, Chu Feng produced the tiger's penis.

At the sight of it, Master Tian finally seemed to see a glimmer of hope.

He rushed forward eagerly and peered closely at it twice.

"Quickly, send this to Mr. Liu."

Mr. Liu, Liu Congzhong, was the best physician in the entire town.

The so-called Rejuvenation Decoction was a formula given to Master Tian by Mr. Liu.

And the principal ingredient in the Rejuvenation Decoction was none other than a tiger's penis.

Master Tian patted Chu Feng on the shoulder with delight.

"Good lad, well done. Would you be interested in marrying into the Tian family?"

Chu Feng was momentarily stunned.

What was the meaning of this?

Did that mean the five hundred taels were no longer going to be paid?

Otherwise, why bring up marrying into the family out of nowhere?

Tian Xin was standing right beside them, and upon hearing these words, her cheeks instantly flushed red.

To be honest, viewed from this angle, Tian Xin was indeed very attractive.

Attractive women were always kept at home by the wealthy.

In any era, this remained true.

However, Chu Feng shook his head decisively.

"I already have a virtuous wife at home. I appreciate Master Tian's generous kindness, but let us simply settle the account instead."

"That is truly a pity. Although you, young man, hold no official rank or military degree, the fact that you were able to capture a bear and a tiger on the mountain is an extraordinary achievement worthy of calling you a hero. To think you are already betrothed... How about this? Once I father another son, how would you like to take my granddaughter as a concubine?"

Hearing this, Wang Wei and Sun Can standing behind him

instantly grew excited once more.

The daughter of a wealthy squire!

Having her sent to their home as a concubine would be an immense honor.

Chu Feng, however, felt something was amiss.

"Master Tian, do you intend to go back on your word? Or is it that the great Tian family cannot even spare five hundred taels?"

Master Tian drew in a sharp breath.

As expected, clever men were not easily fooled.

"Frontline military operations are tense right now. It is not that I am unwilling to give you the money, but rather that most of the family's funds have already been poured into the front lines. How about this? There are still over three hundred taels of silver left in the house; I will give all of that to you, and for the remaining hundred-plus taels, how about I write you an I.O.U.?"

Chu Feng smiled.

He nodded and said, "If it comes from Master Tian, naturally that is acceptable."

Master Tian nodded with a smile and said, "A teachable youth. You may take your leave now."

Then he waved his hand, dismissing them as if commanding servants.

To Master Tian, what difference was there between a person like Chu Feng and a mere servant?

Yet in the end, Master Tian did not fulfill his original promise.

He only gave Chu Feng two hundred taels of silver.

During this process, Wang Wei and Sun Can were so furious they wanted to tear the Tian estate apart on the spot.

But Chu Feng stopped them.

"Let's go. We're going home," Chu Feng said.

"Brother Feng, isn't this simply breaking one's promise?"

Wang Wei said angrily.

People of their era were still relatively simple-minded.

Especially when it came to valuing promises above all else.

They simply could not comprehend how anyone could treat a promise with such disregard.

"Didn't we still make two hundred taels? Once the three of us split it, it's still a tidy sum."

"It's not about that, Brother Feng! The deal was for five hundred taels from the start, and now there are only two hundred—we've been shorted by more than half! How can anyone be so shameless!"

Wang Wei began cursing right at the front gate.

Sun Can chimed in, "Damn it! Spouting utter dogshit day in and day out—five hundred taels turns into two hundred, and the remaining three hundred becomes an I.O.U.! In this day and age, what good is an I.O.U.? Does your Tian family have no grain?"

This was the primary reason for their intense anger.

If there had only been two hundred taels to begin with, they wouldn't have thought much else.

Your Tian family has so much grain.

Just use grain to pay off the debt.

But now, the missing money was neither to be paid in grain nor in land.

There was only a blank piece of paper serving as an I.O.U., bearing Tian Xin's name rather than Master Tian's.

What earthly use was this piece of trash?

"I'll give him two beast-hide tubes!"

Wang Wei unslung his bamboo basket and reached for his flint.

A slap from Chu Feng landed squarely on his head.

"If you want to die, go ahead and blow it up! I know you're resentful—why did a promised five hundred taels end up being less than half? But even this lesser amount is enough for the three of our families to live free of worry and hunger for the rest of our lives, isn't it? If you make a scene against the Tian family in broad daylight, how many lives do you think you have? They have over twenty estate guards; are you a match for them?"

"Once those beast-hide tubes truly detonate, the families of all three of us will have to flee and hide up in the mountains! If the imperial court learns of this contraption, the three of us will be locked away in a dark dungeon forever without ever seeing the light of day. Do you believe me?"

These words successfully frightened the two men.

Yet they still felt a lingering bitterness.

"Then are we just going to let this matter go?"

"Let it go? How could that be? Even if it were the Emperor himself, nobody gets to take advantage of me!" Chu Feng sneered.