Flipside

Chapter 2

"...Do you think faking my death is out of the question?"

"Hmph, well if anyone can pull off such a stunt and get away with it, it's you." He replied.

"But it would be better to do that after you rip off Yi MeiHua."

"Hey! I may hate her guts, but I would never rip anyone off." He defended. "It's against my moral code!"

"Your moral code?" JiHua raised an eyebrow. "Forgive me, I wasn't aware that you had one."

"Ha ha, you're a comedian, truly. This is the height of your comedy career." He sarcastically muttered.

"Look, did you come here to whine, or are you here on business?"

"Oh, yeah right. The new clothes and hairpins will arrive in two days." He sighed pinching the bridge of his nose.

"Well, that's good to hear."

Currently, Fuyu's was the only textile shop in Jiangnan that sold to brothels.

"Are you sure you don't mind selling to us? Doesn't this damage your reputation?"

"Who cares if the other old fuddy-duddy businessmen don't like me because of it?" He confidently replied.

"Even if they don't like me, their wives sure as hell seem to." He playfully winked.

"And their daughters. And their sons. And besides, do you know how much money I'm making?"

"Everything is money with you, isn't it," JiHua replied.

"My goal in life is to fulfill that one hangover dream I had where I filled up a pond with banknotes and jumped in," Wangji answered with one hundred percent seriousness.

"you know that dream, the one with the-"

"Yeah. I know. When you had it, you wouldn't stop going on about it for days." JiHua rolled his eyes.

"You're lucky. At least when you came to Jiangnan chasing your dreams, you actually caught them." JiHua sighed, downing a shot.

"Look where I ended up. Almost ten thousand taels in debt, and working as a male dancer. Even if I do buy my freedom, my pride is already long gone."

"It could be worse." Wangji comforted.

"...How, do tell?"

"You could be ugly? At least you're hot. Hot people always find something to do. It's just how it is." Wangji scoffed, pouring a glass for them both.

"Why do you think I spend all that money on beauty tonics every month? The moment this gorgeous face of mine goes so does my business."

"You're a cultivator! You probably won't start aging for another twenty years or so!" JiHua shouted.

"Say it louder, inform the whole establishment why don't you?" Wangji whisper yelled.

"And besides, if you ever met my uncle-"

"Don't call these things," JiHua interjected, knocking on the wooden table.

"If you ever met him, and that's a big if, you would change your mind pretty quickly. He's always looked like an old geezer."
He laughed, eating a moon cake.

"I'll never understand why he doesn't just shave that crusty, dusty goatee off. He'd look a hundred times better without it."

"Maybe he suffers from poor circulation, and keeps his face warm with it." JiHua joked.

"Pft, maybe." Wangji remarked.

"But enough of that. I'll have to leave the shop to Shen'an for most of the time. He's a little clumsy, but at the end of the day I can definitely trust him."

"And it's not like you won't be able to check up on things from time to time, Mr Magic mirror." JiHua added.

"Yeah. It still doesn't make me feel any less uneasy about this. I'm going to have to supervise Nie Huaisang again, and that's going to be positively delightful." He sarcastically retorted.

"Isn't that guy supposed to be timid and a little weak from what I've heard?" JiHua questioned.

"He may be weak, but he's sneaky. He may act dumb around everyone else, but he's a lot smarter than he let's on." He sighed, crossing his arms in displeasure.

"I don't like hanging around people like that. What if he sees through my façade?"

"I highly doubt that. Not even your own brother has caught on yet, which I'm still shocked at."

"I am an amazing actor." Wangji bragged.

"And don't forget, I studied for years on how to close off my emotions using ancient cultivation techniques. After hanging around me for long enough, he just got used to me being like this. 

Eventually he just accepted that this is my "personality". But even still, if you haven't known me for too long, and you were skilled enough you could see through it."

Since age ten, Wangji had practised keeping his emotions under wraps using special techniques and methods that he found in the library. 

It's not that he didn't want to show his true side to his uncle and brother, but he was afraid.

Afraid that his uncle would punish him everyone else would think he was weird and Un-Lan like.

And he was sure that if his uncle found out he didn't even want to be a cultivator, let alone wanted to go into fashion, he would be heavily punished for it.

It was just easier to put a wall between him and his family.
He didn't even talk to his father, let alone bother telling him about himself.

He didn't feel good about it, but if he wanted to keep running Fuyu's and persue his dreams, it was necessary.

"Cultivation really is incredible. I'm rather glad my parents forced me to form a golden core before I ran away."

"Y'know, if you asked them, they could probably pay off your debt." Wangji said, standing up to leave.

"Not to be dramatic or anything, but I would rather die." JiHua huffed, crossing his arms.

"Besides, you already gave me a thousand taels and that's more than enough. With the amount of money I make for this damn place I'm bound to pay it off eventually"

"Suit yourself." He replied, now near the door.

"Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go figure out how to make red satin and purple brocade work together without it looking like crap."

"Sheesh, good luck. Ai, if it gets too hard you can leave a little early." Jihua's eyes creased as he gave Wangji a kind smile.

"And who knows, maybe you might actually make a friend during lectures."

"I doubt that."Wangji sighed as he closed the door behind him.