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Chapter 436
Jia Xu allowed the merchants to leave after he said what he wanted. The two merchants would not try any tricks as the conditions Liu Mang gave them did not allow them to refuse. They simply needed to go to Yangzhou without exposing their identity and become a government merchant. What else could they do? If they were to report Liu Mang, Liu Mang could just withdraw and pretend he did not do anything. The merchants had no evidence.
Meanwhile, the festival at the brothel was still ongoing. Cai He had left feeling satisfied along with Luo Xiang while the remaining women were being auctioned off to the other nobles and rich merchants.
“The beauty of Yangzhou, Qiao Er! Starting price, two hundred and fifty gold!”
“Three hundred gold!” Someone from Sky 3 shouted out.
“Three hundred fifty gold!” Another person shouted out.
“Four hundred gold!” With that earlier incident with Cai He, not many people were willing to compete. They were all afraid of accidentally offending some influential family like Fatty Liang and Wu De. If that were to happen, they could only face the consequences. Look at Wu De and Fatty Liang. They wasted so much money, obtained nothing and lost so much face until there was nothing left. It was truly the ultimate loss of face.
“Four hundred and fifty gold!” Liu Mang heard that this voice came from Sky 5, the Huang brothers’ box. Hearing this, he could no longer resist.
“Haha. Four hundred and fifty one gold!” Liu Mang also threw in his money. He was not like Wu De who wanted to gain the most profit with the least cost. No. Liu Mang simply wanted to infuriate people to death.
“Hmph! Five hundred gold!” How could the two Huang brothers not understand Liu Mang’s intentions? With a cold harrumph, they raised their offer to five hundred gold.
This was the second person that has reached a five hundred gold offer. It can be said that they are more valuable than those in the previous sessions which is why the customers were more competitive.
All the lower class people may not have even seen a hundred gold before but nobody was stopping them from watching.
“Five hundred and one gold!” Liu Mang added another one gold just to prevent the Huang brothers from obtaining what they want.
“Kuai Ran! Wang Shu! Well played!” The Huang brothers over at Sky 5 could tell that Liu Mang was trying to pick a fight. However, they was did not have any good way to stop it. If they were to stop now, it would mean that they were afraid of Kuai Ran and Wang Shu.
“Five hundred and fifty gold!” The Huang brothers raised their offer again. On that day, the brothel have truly profited a lot. They had managed to sell two women back to back, both over five hundred gold each. Added together, they have easily reached one thousand and two hundred gold.
“Five hundred and fifty one gold!” Liu Mang said again. He really wanted to make life difficult for the Huang Family. “Brother Huang. Have you run out of money? Do you need me to lend you money?” Liu Mang who suddenly lacked confidence asked after raising his offer. This is because they have almost reached six hundred gold. If the Huang Family suddenly stopped bidding, Liu Mang would have shot himself in the foot. That was why Liu Mang asked this question. He wanted to taunt the Huang brothers to raise the offer again.
“Who says we have no money? Six hundred gold!” Huang Chen angrily shouted, allowing Liu Mang to feel relieved.
At this time, Huang Kai said to his little brother. “Little brother. We will stop if Kuai Ran and Wang Shu increase their bid again. Let them buy this Yangzhou woman for over six hundred gold!” Qiao Er was not worth this price. Although she was a beauty, she was not as beautiful as Luo Xiang. She was only as good as Yan Ran. Liu Mang had already bought Yan Ran along with five other women for seven hundred gold. So, how could this one person be over six hundred gold?
“Understood, brother.” Huang Chen nodded. He also intended to make Liu Mang’s life difficult. Kuai Ran was definitely broke but since they managed to obtain a private room, Wang Shu must have some money. Even then, it would not feel nice to have pointless expenses.
“Brother Wang. It is better to stop while you are ahead.” Kuai Ran cautioned while Liu Mang was preparing to provoke the Huang Family even more. If they were to continue, it would reach seven hundred gold. Was one woman worth that much money?
“Phew.” Liu Mang breathed out. He had been too excited and was about to raise his offer again. He was only provoking them instead of competing against them. If the fight continued, would he be able to shoulder the price of defeat?
Liu Mang turned to Kuai Ran and cupped his fist. “Brother Kuai. Thank you for the reminder.”
“It is a trivial matter. There is no need for thanks.”
The Huang brothers waited for a while but Liu Mang continued to stay silent.
“What’s wrong? Kuai Ran and Wang Shu. If you do not have any money, you can borrow from us!” Huang Chen repeated what Liu Mang said earlier as vengeance.
The others also believed that Liu Mang had no money left. This is because he had already spent seven hundred gold earlier. If he were to spend another seven hundred gold, it would become one thousand four hundred gold. Nobody in Jingzhou had that much money.
Hearing Huang Chen’s words, Liu Mang could not help but reply. “Sigh. Money is just worldly possession. However, I am not an idiot who would spend this much money for something only worth a hundred gold!” Liu Mang had no intentions of treating the woman like a possession but these were facts during those chaotic times. Only the beautiful ones would be bought while the ugly ones could only disappear.
“You!” Huang Chen finally understood that he got tricked by Liu Mang again. He finally realized that Liu Mang intended to raise the price to provoke him. The worst part was that Liu Mang was correct. The woman was only worth a hundred gold but he needed to pay six hundred gold for her like a fool.
“Hahaha!” The audience laughed after hearing Liu Mang’s words. Huang Chen had ended up being treated like a fool.
“Alright. Since nobody is raising the price any further, Qiao Er of Yangzhou will be sold to Huang Chen in Sky 5!” The old woman said after watching Liu Mang and Huang Chen. She knew that the two would not bid any further so she hurriedly sold Qiao Er to Huang Chen for six hundred gold.
“Qiao Er thanks the Lord!” Qiao Er thanked Huang Chen with a smile, angering him even further1.
“Don’t mention it!” Huang Kai replied instead of his little brother as Huang Chen was still exploding in anger.
“Brother. I cannot take this anymore! I am definitely going to humiliate those two today!” Huang Chen roared loudly within Sky 52.
“Little Brother. Are you so impatient?” Huang Kai scolded his little brother. “Didn’t we already agree to show them their place when we compete in talent?”
“But they
!”
“There is no but about it! Right now, we bought Qiao Er for six hundred gold but we would not be the one paying for her. Kuai Ran and Wang Shu would be the one to pay for her! They are the ones who would suffer!” Huang Kai said to his little brother while suppressing his anger.
Huang Chen then took deep breaths to calm himself down. “I understand.”
“Next is another Yangzhou beauty, Wen Ning!” Liu Mang’s father-in-law had ruined Yangzhou so thoroughly that it could be seen clearly. It would be unlikely for there to even be a hundred thousand of Yangzhou’s original residents in his current Yangzhou. The ones that left Yangzhou were the homeless or even those so heartbroken they refused to return to Yangzhou.
Rather than a Wuxi themed sweet feast, this was becoming more a Yangzhou themed sweet feast.
Wen Ning starting price was also two hundred gold. The people then kept bidding until three hundred gold. At this time, Huang Kai opened his mouth. “Three hundred and fifty gold!” Huang Kai raised the price by about fifty gold, in hopes that others would stop.
“Three hundred and fifty one gold!” Liu Mang spoke up again. It doesn’t matter whether it was Huang Chen or Huang Kai. He wanted to annoy them.
“Four hundred gold!” Huang Kai shouted again.
“Four hundred and one gold!” Liu Mang said again. By now, the audience all knew that Wang Shu must have some hatred for the Huang Family. One person wondered if this was Kuai Ran’s actual intentions. If Kuai Ran were to oppose the Huang brothers at every opportunity, it may be a sign that the Kuai Family and Huang Family were having a conflict. Otherwise, their children wouldn’t behave this way.
“Five hundred gold! Brother Wang Shu. If you bid any higher, I will give Wen Ning to you. After all, we already got one woman from Yangzhou!”
“Five hundred gold is too expensive for me, I think I should not bid any higher. Hahaha. Brother Huang Kai, it seems like the Huang Family is very wealthy. You already bought two in such a short time. Altogether, they would be one thousand and one hundred gold. How extravagant.” Liu Mang replied back with a sneer.
“You flatter us too much. We of the Huang Family may not be very influential but we are also not nobodies. We can still spend this much money!” Huang Kai ridiculed back. If the Huang Family is not influential, there is nobody in Jingzhou that could be considered influential. He also subtly called Liu Mang a nobody.
At this moment, the real Wang Shu would have been jumping from anger. However, Liu Mang was not Wang Shu. The two of them had no relations to each other at all. Liu Mang could only feel apologetic to the real Wang Shu that was receiving all this ridicule.
The Huang Family paid another five hundred gold and took in Wen Ning.
There were another twelve women after that. Altogether, the Huang brothers bought five. Three of them were Yangzhou women. The most expensive one was Qiao Er, which they had bought earlier for six hundred gold while the cheapest one was a delicate beauty named Dan Dan, who was bought for three hundred gold.
The Yangzhou women were all delicate and pretty. As for the two other women bought by the Huang brothers, one was from the North and the other is from Jiangdong. Altogether, they cost two thousand and one hundred gold. It was truly an enormous amount.
The main course was not even here yet and Liu Mang was already wondering whether the Huang Family was really that rich.
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There is a weird space somewhere here with “        “   in the raws. No idea whether my raw is faulty.