My dao to eternity

The ore incident became a small joke among the merchants along that stretch of the northern market within the week — the kind of story that got repeated more for its neatness than its importance, a formation master handing over a fairly bought stone without so much as raising his voice. Li Fan heard a version of it himself, secondhand, from a spice seller commenting idly to a neighboring stall while he waited to pay for dried ginger, and recognized his own transaction in the telling only because he'd been there for the original.

He said nothing to correct the details that had already drifted from what actually happened. Correcting a rumor drew more attention to it than simply letting it run its course, and the shape it was taking, however inaccurate in its smaller particulars, served him well enough that he saw no reason to interfere.