The Elixir is for You, The Poison is for Me

#378 - Close friends

After confirming everything was in order, the old steward put down the jade pendant and turned his gaze back to Lu Jing. "Forgive my poor eyesight, but is this your first time visiting our Taiping Bank? May I ask how to address you?"

"Oh, my surname is Lu, just call me Lu Daren," Lu Jing said.

"I am Qu Zhong, the steward of Taiping Bank. Lu Daren can call me Steward Qu." After introducing himself, the old steward paused slightly and continued, "Sixth son mentioned that Lu Daren is here for Mister Nanzhai's deposit."

Lu Jing nodded, "That's right."

"May I ask what is your relationship with Mister Nanzhai…"

"We can be considered friends."

"Then the two of you must be very close," Steward Qu said, stroking his beard.

Lu Jing was taken aback, "Why do you say that?"

"Because according to Mister Nanzhai's handwritten letter, you can act entirely on his behalf. That is to say, the three million six hundred thousand taels of silver he has in Taiping Bank are also at your disposal."

"Where did three million six hundred thousand taels come from?" Lu Jing asked, bewildered. "Wasn't there twenty thousand missing?"

Halfway through his sentence, Lu Jing seemed to realize something and gasped, "Are you saying that fellow deposited a total of three million six hundred thousand taels here?"

"That's right." Steward Qu's gaze towards Lu Jing also became somewhat strange.

As the head steward of Taiping Bank, he usually dealt with wealthy merchants, many of whom were extravagant spenders, but this was the first time he had seen someone entrust such a huge sum of money to someone else like Mister Nanzhai.

Lu Jing was also somewhat absent-minded at the moment. He already knew that Cold Mountain Guest was rich, but he didn't expect him to be this rich.

This was already… beyond his imagination.

Just what kind of person could treat more than three million taels of silver as spare change, and judging from Cold Mountain Guest's appearance, he didn't really care about the lost twenty thousand taels.

If Lu Jing hadn't gone to find him, he probably would have left it alone.

It was clear that he really wasn't interested in anything other than longevity.

Of course, what Lu Jing admired or found most incredible was that Cold Mountain Guest didn't enjoy himself with so much silver, but instead ran to Mirror Lake Valley to live off the wind and dew, sleeping in trees for more than a decade. He definitely couldn't do that.

"Regarding the twenty thousand taels of silver," Steward Qu coughed and spoke again, pulling Lu Jing's thoughts back to reality, "I wasn't at the bank that day. Another steward was on duty, but I did ask him about it afterwards.

"He said that person claimed to be Mister Nanzhai, but strangely enough, even though not much time had passed, he had no impression of that person's appearance or clothing, but he was certain that he had carefully verified the token at the time.

"I believe him, because he is also an old employee of the bank. He started as a clerk and slowly worked his way up to the position of steward because he was diligent and careful.

"He may not be the smartest person in Taiping Bank, but he is definitely one of the most reliable, and twenty thousand taels of silver is not a small amount, so he couldn't have been careless about the token.

"In addition, the accounting department also has Mister Nanzhai's signature and fingerprint," Steward Qu said, "I have already asked someone to fetch it. Please wait a moment, Lu Daren."

"Alright." Although Lu Jing was entrusted by Cold Mountain Guest to handle the lost silver, he didn't have any useful clues at hand, so it was necessary to check with Taiping Bank according to the normal procedure.

After a while, the clerk who had received Lu Jing earlier, Sixth Son, walked in with an account book.

He handed the account book to Steward Qu, who opened it, turned to a page, and spread it out in front of Lu Jing, "Here, thirty-three days ago, at the second quarter of the evening, Mister Nanzhai came to the bank to withdraw money, twenty thousand taels."

Lu Jing leaned over and saw a line of small characters, and there was a signature and seal below.

Not to mention that the signature really looked like the handwriting on Cold Mountain Guest's letter, Lu Jing couldn't see any difference, and the seal was the same.

Afterwards, Steward Qu explained to Lu Jing, "There are many ways to deposit silver in Taiping Bank. Mister Nanzhai chose token plus seal, so we generally only recognize these two things, not people.

"However, it has been almost forty years since Mister Nanzhai first came to deposit money. In these forty years, he has never touched this money. To be honest, we even suspected that he had encountered some misfortune.

"As a result, he suddenly appeared last month and took away twenty thousand taels, which made me suspicious, so I sent a letter to the address he left behind, telling him about it. I didn't expect something to go wrong."

After Steward Qu finished speaking, he looked at the expression on Lu Jing's face, but found that the young man in front of him was much more calm than he had imagined, and remained silent.

After a moment, Lu Jing said, "If someone forged the token and seal, and imitated Mister Nanzhai's handwriting to deceive and steal the twenty thousand taels, I wonder how Taiping Bank plans to respond."

"There are hundreds of large and small banks and drafts in the capital, but only three have been in business for a hundred years. Taiping Bank is one of them. There is a reason why we have been able to open for so long and make our business so big. If things are really as you say, then we will naturally compensate Mister Nanzhai for the full amount of silver."

Steward Qu said without hesitation, but then his tone changed, "However, you need to prove first that the money was not taken away by Mister Nanzhai."

"Sounds reasonable," Lu Jing said, then asked, "Is the steward who was responsible for receiving Mister Nanzhai that day at the bank now?"

"Alright," Steward Qu saw Lu Jing get up, so he also stood up from his seat and sent him out of the bank.

When he returned to the street outside, Lu Jing waved to the black cat on the roof, who jumped down and landed back on Lu Jing's shoulder, licking its lips contentedly.

Lu Jing was slightly stunned, "You had dinner so soon? What did you eat? Don't tell me it's the good fortune that I've been desperately needing lately."

This place is full of banks and goldsmiths, and Lu Jing felt that the chances of encountering good fortune were quite high. Seeing the black cat smack its lips, he also became envious.

However, the black cat shook its head.

"Is it bad luck?"

This time the black cat nodded.

"Alright." Lu Jing breathed a sigh of relief, then asked, "Did you really not see any good fortune while I was inside?"

The black cat shook its head again, and Lu Jing was a little disappointed, "Alright, let's look again."