Crab Vouchers

There is a river in Nanchiao Town, and across the river is the Dongwan Crab Farm.

The crabs from Dongwan Crab Farm are very famous; they only release one batch each year, making it difficult for outsiders to buy them. The townspeople who can't buy crabs just watch the crab prices across the river every day. Today it's twenty taels, tomorrow twenty-three taels, and the day after it falls back to nineteen taels. Over time, the crab prices became the weather of the town, discussed in tea houses, taverns, and by those moving goods at the docks.

Autumn hasn't arrived yet, but Lin Ji at the eastern end of the town hung up a sign saying that here one can buy Dongwan Crab vouchers.

Someone asked him where the vouchers came from.

Shopkeeper Lin patted the counter and said, “They come from across the river.”

This statement was very effective.

Because the words “come from across the river” sound better than any explanation. Soon, Lin Ji's ledger started recording crab vouchers for customers. The vouchers had quantities, prices, and could be bought and sold at Lin Ji's counter. When the crab prices across the river rose, Lin Ji's vouchers rose too; when the crab prices fell, Lin Ji's vouchers fell as well.

The first person to sell crab vouchers really got paid.

So everyone believed it.

Regardless of whether there are crabs, if it can be sold for money, then it's a crab. It doesn't matter whether one can cross the river; as long as the price follows the Dongwan crabs, it’s fine.

Every day, there were people shouting prices at Lin Ji's counter. Some made money, some lost money, and many others looked at the numbers in the ledger, feeling that they finally also bought Dongwan crabs.

After a while, Gu Ji on West Street hung up a new sign.

The sign stated that Gu Ji had obtained the exclusive sales rights from the chamber of commerce across the river, so from now on, anyone wanting to sell Dongwan crab vouchers in Nanchiao Town could only do so through Gu Ji.

As soon as this sign was hung up, the town suddenly remembered Lin Ji's earlier words.

Hadn't Lin Ji already said that his vouchers came from across the river?

If the exclusivity was now granted to Gu Ji, then where did Lin Ji's previously sold vouchers come from?

Someone went to ask Shopkeeper Lin.

Shopkeeper Lin didn't explain where the vouchers in the ledger were printed or why the exclusivity had gone to Gu Ji. He took out a yellowed invitation, saying he had been a guest of the chamber of commerce across the river many years ago; then he took out an old receipt, saying he had bought Dongwan crabs years earlier; finally, he pulled out a release schedule, stating that he had known for half a month when the crab farm opened for fishing, when it released goods, and when they could be transferred.

The onlookers were momentarily stunned.

Some said, with a release schedule in hand, he shouldn't be an ordinary person.

Others said that the vouchers from Lin Ji had indeed been received, could indeed be sold, and the money could indeed be withdrawn, so what difference did it make whether Gu Ji put up a sign or not.

But some still felt it was wrong and secretly wrote to the chamber of commerce across the river: Did you sell Dongwan crab vouchers together with Lin Ji?

A reply came quickly.

The letter was very polite, stating that they knew of Lin Ji's shop in Nanchiao Town but had not collaborated with Lin Ji and had not sold crab vouchers through him. The rumors circulating outside were not accurate.

After this letter was circulated, Shopkeeper Lin still did not explain where the vouchers came from.

He only mounted that old invitation and hung it in the most prominent place in the shop; placed the old receipt on the counter; and covered an entire wall with the release schedule.

Then he said that Gu Ji's female manager did not understand crabs, nor the rules of the river crossing, and even less understood that real business people only care about results and profits.

In the end, he even laughed and said that she was just an apprentice, lucky enough to become the manager, and should be careful not to let the true owner behind her see the joke.

Once this statement spread, the voices in the town quickly changed.

At first, everyone was asking whether Lin Ji's vouchers really came from across the river.

Later, everyone began questioning whether Gu Ji could be considered a manager.

Eventually, even those who inquired about the vouchers diminished.

Because Lin Ji's counter was still operating, the ledger was still active, and those who bought yesterday could still sell today, with the money still coming in. For many people, that was enough.

Every night after closing, Lin Ji's assistant would lock the ledger in the cabinet.

Inside the cabinet might be the crabs that Shopkeeper Lin bought years ago, perhaps his own old receipts, or a genuine release schedule that had seen the tides.

No one knows about these.

What everyone truly hasn't seen is the receipt showing that the chamber of commerce across the river handed over this batch of crab vouchers to Lin Ji.

The next morning, as long as the counter opened again, as long as there was someone willing to take over, those crab vouchers would continue to rise and fall with the prices of crabs across the river.

It appeared so harmonious.

As for whether they really came from across the river, not many people cared anymore.

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