Du Qian had loved money for as long as he could remember. Well... who didn't? The difference was that he loved…
Du Qian had loved money for as long as he could remember. Well... who didn't?
The difference was that he loved it a little too much. His parents tried everything, beatings, scoldings, and lectures, before finally drilling one rule into his head: other people's money was off-limits. No stealing. No robbing. No cheating.
Which left him with a problem. If all that was forbidden, then what was the fastest way he was allowed to make money? Du Qian mulled it over day after day. The law books didn't say how far their jurisdiction went. And officials? Never seen one.
So he began to test the edges. A pebble traded for his little sister's Candied Hawthorn. A rigged game here, five coins in, twenty back by nightfall.
It dawned on Du Qian that he might be gifted at this sort of thing. Still, his parents' words echoed too loudly, so under the cover of the night, he returned a fresh Candied Hawthorn to the little girl he'd tricked.
He thought harder about it. Tricking good people was fraud. Tricking bad people, though, that was taking from the rich to help the poor.
Then a crowd of wanderers drifted into Brokegate Village. Du Qian made up his mind and set up a gambling board.
Wanderers weren't necessarily good people, and gambling didn't always mean winning, right?
Logic intact.
Making money isn't shabby work!