IHOEAYSTTTIW Chapter 38
by VolareChapter 38: Highest Bidder? Don’t be ridiculous, that’s for suckers.
Saving people afterwards?
“Me?” Lin Yan pointed at himself, incredulous, “What can I do? Give them a cookbook?”
Yun Qi didn’t speak, just quietly looked at Lin Yan.
“You mean those seeds?” Lin Yan quickly reacted, and he began to consider the feasibility of this.
Yun Qi didn’t force Lin Yan to make a decision, but waited for Lin Yan to say the rest of the words himself.
Big Brother will definitely agree, he understands Big Brother, Big Brother is a particularly good person, sincere to everyone, but he has been scheming against Big Brother.
Scheming about Big Brother’s kindness towards him, scheming about the things in Big Brother’s hands.
Yun Qi felt particularly vile, but Lin Yan didn’t give him a chance to dwell on it.
“I am willing to do something, but I don’t have any connections…” Lin Yan put down his milk tea, looked at Yun Qi and narrowed his eyes slightly, “Wait, I do have connections, I’ll just give them to you, right?”
The reveal came so suddenly that Yun Qi barely managed to force a smile, trying to play dumb: “Big Brother, what are you talking about.”
“I don’t understand the twists and turns of the court, but I’m not an idiot.” Lin Yan rolled his eyes, pointing to the street hung with lanterns, “You just now…”
The private room suddenly became noisy, and Lin Yan didn’t finish his sentence, just gave Yun Qi a meaningful look.
Disordered footsteps approached from afar, finally stopping outside the private room.
A bossy voice sounded from outside the door: “This young master has taken a fancy to this private room, clear it out for me right now.”
Lin Yan was already preparing to leave, but after hearing that muffled voice, he sat back down.
The teahouse manager pushed open the door and saw the two people in the private room enjoying snacks. Seeing him enter, they gave him a disgusted look, and the fair-skinned Ge’er even slammed his teacup on the table.
The manager bowed even lower, his face full of apologetic smiles: “I’m really sorry, two young masters, a distinguished guest has taken a fancy to your private room. Your bill for today will be waived, what do you think…”
Lin Yan picked up his teacup, slowly took a sip, and remained unmoved: “There are so many distinguished people in this Capital City.”
“I’m really sorry.” The manager repeatedly bowed, his voice pleading and earnest, “I’m just running a teahouse, please have mercy on me…”
Lin Yan beckoned for the manager to come over, and whispered like a devil: “Would you like to earn a little extra?”
“What?” The manager didn’t react, and looked at Lin Yan blankly.
“You have to split the money with me 50/50.” Lin Yan assumed the manager had agreed, cleared his throat, and shouted towards outside the private room, “This young master isn’t short of these dozen or so taels of silver, such a good private room naturally goes to the highest bidder. Here’s twenty taels, tell the people at the door to get lost for me.”
“Twenty taels?” The person outside sneered, unwilling to be outdone, “This young master offers thirty taels.”
“Forty taels.” Yun Qi joined in the heckling.
“Sixty taels.” The person outside, wanting to appear generous, directly added twenty taels.
The manager’s eyes grew brighter and brighter, and he cupped his fist at Lin Yan, indicating that it was almost enough. Lin Yan lowered his head and played with the teacup in his hand, and said slowly: “Ninety taels.”
The sound of bidding didn’t come.
Lin Yan wasn’t anxious at all, and fanned the flames with a disdainful tone: “Is that all you’ve got? What are you pretending for…”
“One hundred taels.”
“Good, good, good, young master is generous, one hundred taels for a pot of tea.” Lin Yan snapped his fingers, opened the door, and made a gesture of invitation to the person at the door, “This private room is yours now.”
Only then did the person realize he had been tricked, but it was already too late to back down. He reluctantly threw the bank-notes to the manager, his attitude becoming increasingly rude as he looked at the almost finished snacks on the table: “Waiter, throw these filthy things out for me, and bring the best tea.”
“Yes, yes, yes.” The manager nodded and bowed, and only after closing the door did he breathe a sigh of relief. He extracted a bank-note from the stack, and then handed the rest to Lin Yan, “Young master, your bank-notes.”
Lin Yan originally thought that one bank-note was his, but the manager handed him the whole stack. He was in a great mood, accepted the bank-notes with peace of mind, and didn’t skimp on his praise for the manager, “You’re generous, manager.”
The manager gave a wry smile, pointed to the private room and whispered a reminder: “Young master, that person isn’t easy to provoke, you…”
“It’s a small matter.” Lin Yan waved his hand, interrupting the manager’s reminder, he put his arm around his big backer, and left the teahouse with him.
It wasn’t early when Yun Qi pulled Lin Yan into the teahouse, and by the time they came out, it was almost dark.
When Lin Yan entered the teahouse, the lanterns on the street hadn’t been hung up yet, but now they were starting to compete in beauty, and even the shops on both sides of the street were hanging lanterns of various shapes. The light of the lanterns shone through the thin paper, scattering on the ground, forming hazy halos.
The stalls on the street were full of a variety of goods, fragrant wontons, golden and crispy sugar oil Dad, and stalls selling trinkets, delicate sachets, small rattles…
Yun Qi looked at Lin Yan being drawn in, flitting aimlessly between the stalls, and continued to tempt him: “There’s no curfew tonight, it’ll be even more beautiful when the lights come on later.”
Lin Yan nodded, having just taken a bite of the newly bought glutinous rice cake, he was attracted by the melodious and graceful sound of a flute. Lin Yan followed the sound and saw that it was even more lively over there than here.
Lin Yan pointed in the direction of the flute sound, and pulled Yun Qi forward: “The lights over there must already be on, let’s go take a look.”
Yun Qi looked in the direction he was pointing, his smile instantly disappeared, and his face was full of resistance. He grabbed Lin Yan’s hand and shook it slightly, “Big Brother, don’t go, there’s nothing fun over there…”
Seeing Yun Qi being so resistant, Lin Yan also hesitated, but this hesitation was quickly swept away by the hurried crowd around them.
“Hurry, hurry, this is Madam Xuanji’s first performance on stage, if we’re late, we won’t be able to get a good spot.”
Lin Yan grabbed a person at random and asked, “Who is Xuanji?”
“You don’t even know that?” The person sized Lin Yan up and down, and after confirming that Lin Yan really didn’t know and wasn’t trying to cause trouble, he patiently explained, “She’s the new top courtesan in the Yi Hong Courtyard this year, I heard her appearance…”
The person had only said half of his sentence when the person walking in front of him impatiently urged, “Brother Zhang, hurry up…”
“I won’t tell you anymore, go see for yourself.” The person shook off Lin Yan and hurriedly squeezed into the crowd.
“So that’s a brothel over there.” Lin Yan stroked his chin, pretending to ponder.
Yun Qi obediently waited for Lin Yan to make the right decision, and then saw Lin Yan eagerly rushing forward again: “Then I have to go take a look.”
Yun Qi barely managed to pull him back, and begged with tearful eyes: “Big Brother…”
Lin Yan looked again at the brightly lit place, and then at Yun Qi, wavering for a moment.
Weighing the pros and cons, and thinking it over again, the thought of ‘we’ve already come all this way’ prevailed.
Lin Yan put his hands together and bowed, “Just once, just once.”
Yun Qi’s lips were pursed so far that they could hang an oil bottle on them, but he finally nodded, reluctantly moved closer to Lin Yan, and followed closely: “I’ll go with Big Brother.”
This site has no pop-up ads, permanent domain (volarereads.com)