Wang Lu’s eyes were wide opened with surprise as he looked at the food in his bowl.
As a dignified second generation youth from the rich Wang Family Village who completed the twelve incredibly toilsome tasks, the food that he got for dinner was actually just a boiled white radish.
He suspiciously looked at the errand boy. “Do you have to be so frugal?”
Wang Zhong felt extremely aggrieved. “You can’t blame me about this, Young Master. Why don’t you go out and see for yourself. The prices at this inn are simply crazy! One boiled white radish costs ten liang of silver!”
Wang Lu was stunned for a while. “If it is ten liang, then so be it! Why did you only buy one, we are rich so we are not lacking money to spend.”
“The problem is that the Lady Boss limits the white radishes to one per person!”
“Have you told her that we’re guests living in the best room?”
Wang Zhong nodded. “Yes, otherwise, the price would have been five hundred liang for one radish!”
“That’s even heavier than the radish! Did the price of silver drop that much lately?”
Wang Zhong was indignant. “That Lady Boss was a bit delusional. She thinks that people are fools! Even the people in the lobby would rather starve than buy her radishes. Not to mention that she isn’t the only one who sells food in the town.”
“Then why did you buy this ten liang radish then? Did you really think we don’t need money?”
Wang Zhong continued to complain, “The prices in the other shops had also been increased ages ago. Gold and silver are like dirt now. Ten liang for a radish is actually a fairly reasonable price.”
Wang Lu frowned. “But a reasonable price doesn’t equal good food… I hate radish.”
Wang Zhong snappily said, “I’ll eat it if the Young Master doesn’t want to eat it. I’m still hungry.”
Wang Lu ignored his errand boy’s complaint. “I want to eat meat.”
“If a white radish costs five hundred liang, a piece of meat would probably cost five thousand liang. Our money is enough to buy half a piece of meat.”
“I see…” Wang Lu pondered for a moment and looked down at the bowl of radish, and then he suddenly asked, “Did other people buy the Lady Boss’s radishes?”
Wang Zhong shrugged. “Of course not. Only idiots would buy her radishes.”
“In that case, we don’t need to worry about our dinner.” Wang Lu’s eyes lit up, his fingers kept knocking on the table as his excitement steadily intensified.
“Young Master?” Wang Zhong tilted her head in puzzlement.
“Hmm, tonight, we are going to have meat to eat,” Wang Lu said, then he grabbed his bag, got up and went out.
–
In the lobby, the Lady Boss behind the counter looked impatient. More than one hundred white radishes were cooked in the kitchen, but none of them were sold except for the one that was sold cheap for ten liang. Although those princes and sons of officials were a bunch of waste, they were not that stupid. Even if there were many of them, nobody bought her overpriced radishes.
From the cost point of view, the radishes didn’t cost the Lady Boss a lot, and the loss would be minimal. But she could not afford to ruin her reputation as the Lady Boss of the Ru Family Inn. More importantly, she was probably about to lose the bet.
“Ahhh… so annoying.”
The Lady Boss took a long stretch, scanning the lobby with her narrowed eyes.
“Tsk, that big-headed fellow from the Azure Billow Country isn’t here! Shame, I could’ve sold a couple hundred radishes to him…”
While the Lady Boss was considering whether she should promote her radishes to those princes and sons of officials in the lobby, she heard the sound of footsteps coming down the stairs.
The Lady Boss’s eyes lit up – Wang Lu, the man who completed the twelve tasks came again.
Seeing him, she could not help but want to laugh. Especially when she thought about how he had completed the twelve tasks which was confidently described as “unsolvable” by a particular person, she would laugh even harder.
Looking at his face, it was obvious that Wang Lu had some plans in mind as he came downstairs. Unfortunately, there were no more tasks to be completed anymore.
“Lady Boss, I want to buy some radishes.”
The Lady Boss smiled. “That was a one-time special offer.”
“No matter. I’ll buy at the original price.”
Lady Boss’ smile faded a little. “How many?”
“I want five, but bigger.”
“Big ones may cost a little more.”
“It’s okay. I have money.”
“Okay then. Three thousand and five hundred liang of silver. You need to pay first.”
Wang Lu did not say anything; he just put all the money he had – more than ten banknotes of the Great Ming Kingdom – on the counter.
The Lady Boss waved at Wang Lu and said, “I’ll bring the radishes to you later. Please return to your room.”
Wang Lu did not wait any longer as he immediately turned around and went upstairs. The Lady Boss then took all the banknotes and began to slowly count them.
“What an interesting person. No wonder he can complete the twelve tasks. He thinks in a completely different way compared to those noble idlers in the lobby. That heretic up on the mountain can finally find a person of her kind.”
The Lady Boss calmly counted. After she finished counting, there were already several people standing in front of the counter.
They were all servants or bodyguards of those princes and sons of officials. They all hung smiles on their faces, but those smiles were very unnatural.
“Lady Boss, I am here to buy…”
“Lady Boss, your radishes…”
“My Young Master wants…”
The Lady Boss didn’t even raise her head. “One thousand liang for one radish. How many do you want?”
Those servants and bodyguards were surprised. “Wasn’t it five hundred liang for one radish?”
“The price just went up. If you don’t like it, then you don’t need to buy it.”
The servants and bodyguards all went back and awkwardly consulted their masters, but without exception, they all received the same replies.
If it was simply a blackmail, every coin spent would have been a waste. However, if it could increase one’s affinity with the Immortal Cultivation World by even a little, even ten million liang of silver would be worth it. Now it appeared that this strange inn must have had its reasons to put such a ridiculous price on its radishes, just like the bizarre chain of tasks at the entrance of the town.
“Opportunities are everywhere in Spirit Creek Town.” The princes and sons of officials in the lobby hesitantly waited at the lobby. Seeing that someone has taken the lead, everyone naturally swarmed towards the counter.
The fact that even an ordinary countryman could afford thousands of liang of silver, the other people could naturally offer more.
“How about… two?”
“I want five!”
“Give me ten!”
“Damn. Our Young Master is buying all the radishes!”
Banknotes of different countries soon piled up on the counter. Not to mention the one hundred radishes that were already cooked in the kitchen, even the next several plates had been reserved. The one thing that those princes and sons of officials didn’t lack was money.
It was always a happy event for business people when they made a large amount of money. However, while the Lady Boss was counting tens of thousands of silver liang in front of a bunch of customers with an infinite level of consumption, the smile on her face was nowhere near sincere.
“Alas, what a bunch of idiots.”
This time, she said it very blatantly.
–
At midnight.
Accompanied by the breeze through the window, the rumblings of hunger were extremely obvious.
On one side of the room, Wang Zhong softly said, “Young Master, are you hungry?” On the other side, The young master snappily snorted, “No.”
“… Young Master, I only ate half of the radish. If you’re still hungry…”
“I’d rather starve to death than eat the radish.”
“But Young Master, one can’t function properly on an empty stomach…”
“Since you are so concerned about me, why don’t you go outside and dig up some wild herbs or hunt a boar for me?”
“How would I even be able to do that?”
“Then shut up.”
Wang Lu turned around and stopped talking. The errand boy wanted to say something, but kept his mouth shut. There was always something that couldn’t be said.
The young master proudly staked all of his money on the radishes, but apparently, he did not get the desired result. They did not get the five radishes they bought, let alone any kind of meat.
For this proud and ambitious young master who had never encountered any obstacles in his life, this novel experience did not seem pleasant, but… nevertheless, he was not an immortal, so setbacks in life were inevitable.
The errand boy shrugged on his bed, thinking that it would not be a bad thing for his young master to experience this life lesson. Otherwise, he would actually think that he really has that Heavenly Spirit Root, and thus, he was different from ordinary mortals.
While thinking, he suddenly heard someone knocking at their door.
While Wang Zhong was still in a daze, his young master had already went to the door.
As he opened the door, Wang Lu saw the pretty face of the Lady Boss. Her two small hands, with a towel pad, were carrying an outrageously large box.
Standing in the doorway, Wang Lu laughed, “Lady Boss, you finally came.”
The Lady Boss also laughed, “I felt terrible for letting the guest wait… but I really couldn’t come. Those fools ordered almost a hundred plates of radishes. I just finished cooking them… so your dinner had to be delayed slightly.”
While speaking, she strode into their room and put the heavy box on the table. The box was not open, but the delicious aroma of meat had already floated into their noses. Wang Lu could not wait to open the box. Although the candlelight in the room was dim, the oil on the food was very shiny.
Wang Lu said while wiping away his saliva, “Lady Boss is such an honest person… an honest person with amazing cooking skills.”
The Lady Boss clapped her hands. “You helped me make millions of liang of silver. These cooking skills are nothing.”
Although the box was large, the food in the box was really common: braised pork, pork stew with vermicelli, moo shu pork and chicken wings… But at the moment, this box alone would have probably costed more than ten million liang of silver.
Wang Lu put the food on the table one by one, then he called his errand boy to eat together. Both of them were still growing up, so they had very big appetites. Within moments, they had already finished a third of the food.
Wang Lu put down his bowl and chopsticks. Although his stomach was somewhat uncomfortable, he felt very satisfied. “Lady Boss, you can take back the leftovers. Don’t waste it.”
The Lady Boss raised her eyebrows. “What are you talking about? This is your food for the whole week. I think the way you ate your food just now should be considered a waste.”
“… What whole week?”
The Lady Boss rightly explained, “There are still six days before the Immortal Gathering, but you should be out of money, right? If you don’t control your appetite, you won’t have anything to eat in the last few days.”
Wang Lu was stunned for a long time. After a while, he asked in disbelief, “Lady Boss, what do you mean? According to the ticket, aren’t you supposed to cover all my accommodations over the next few days?”
“Ha ha, how could that even be possible? You expected way too much.”
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“… Let’s put aside the money that you earn with my help. At least I paid you three thousand and five hundred liang, right?”
The Lady Boss laughed, “With the current prices in this town, can you even buy a box of food like that at three and a half thousand? Stop complaining and save some food. The rest of the food should be enough for you to eat for the next six days. Those idiots who spent tens of thousands for radishes are not getting enough to eat, at least you can eat meat till the last day.”
“…”
The Lady Boss suddenly remembered something. “Oh wait, when I think about it, the money that you gave me did have some change. Here it is.”
After a moment, she excused herself. Looking at that worn out copper coin on the table, Wang Lu cannot help but be lost in thought.