Chapter 393 – Charlie
Zhao Hai stared blankly when he heard the knock. It was because he already told the hotel attendants to not disturb him if there’s nothing important going on. He believed that the hotel attendants wouldn’t dare disregard his instructions.
When someone knocked on the door the first time, Zhao Hai expected it to be Shun, and it turned out the be him. But who would knock on the door this time? Zhao Hai waved his hand as the monitor appeared. The group immediately saw a man dressed in gorgeous clothes standing outside. What was bizarre about this man was the fact that even though he wore good quality and well-made clothes, the appearance of his garments seem to be those worn by servants.
The clothes of a servant were actually more magnificent than most n.o.bles? When Zhao Hai and the others a.n.a.lyzed the man’s clothes, they couldn’t help but feel confused.
However, Zhao Hai knew that for a servant to be able to dress like this, his master should be anything but simple. Zhao Hai gestured to Shun, Shun gave a nod as he opened the door.
Right outside the door was the servant. Although he had magnificent clothes, the servant still acted very humble. When he saw Shun open the door, the man politely gave a small bow and said, “h.e.l.lo, this one seeks an audience with Mister Zhao Hai.”
Looking at the man’s very polite att.i.tude, Shun didn’t decrease his vigilance even by a bit, he looked at the man and said, “Can I ask why you are here? Why do you need to meet the young master?”
The servant showed a faint smile and said, “This one is just a servant, here to convey a message from my master. It’s just that the ident.i.ty of my master is quite special, so this servant was the only one that came to see mister Zhao Hai.”
Just as Shun was facing a dilemma, Zhao Hai’s voice came, “Shun, make him enter.”
After listening to Zhao Hai’s instruction, Shun immediately complied then turned and gave a gesture towards the man. Then the well-dressed servant entered the room.
Zhao Hai was now sitting inside the living room. Naturally, the servant recognized Zhao Hai, so he immediately went towards him and gave a bow, “Little Liru has seen Mister Zhao Hai. My master is currently at his accommodation and is inviting mister Zhao Hai over.”
Although his tone of voice was very polite, the atmosphere around the servant revealed a sort of pressure that seems to don’t accept refusal. This made Zhao Hai quite confused, he didn’t know what this servant was planning to do.
However, Zhao Hai wasn’t affected too much. He just looked at the servant and said, “Can you tell me the ident.i.ty of your master? You should know that I have a lot of enemies in the continent, I wouldn’t just accept casual invitations.”
Liru froze for a moment, but he still continued to look at Zhao Hai and said, “Mister Zhao Hai, I really can’t just say the name of my master. Just know that my master is very sincere this time. I ask you to please accept his invitation.”
Zhao Hai frowned as he stared at the servant, “The people in this room can certainly be trusted, I’ll vouch for it. If you really don’t intend to tell me, then I’m sorry, I don’t like meeting with people who likes to hide things from me.”
After listening to Zhao Hai, Liru;s expression couldn’t help but sink. He looked at Zhao Hai and said, “Mister, since you really wanted to know. My master who wanted to meet you is His Highness Rosen Empire’s Third Prince.”
Zhao Hai stared blankly, with a puzzled look he asked, “If His Highness the Third Prince wanted to meet me, then why does he have to be quite mysterious? Is something wrong?”
Looking that Zhao Hai seemed to be confused, the servant said with a light tone, “I didn’t realize that mister wasn’t informed, I have misunderstood mister. Rising Water City is under the control of the Second Prince while Jade Water City belonged to the Third Prince. His highness’ trip this time is a secret matter. He couldn’t just go out into the city since he is afraid of alerting the Second Prince. So this time when His Highness wanted to meet Mister Zhao Hai, he could only request for a secret meeting.”
Zhao Hai understood, so he didn’t have any more worried. He turned to the servant and said, “Good, lead the way.” He stood as he said that.
Seeing at Zhao Hai accepted to come with him, Liru finally relaxed. He feared that Zhao Hai would change his mind, so Liru immediately led him out.
Zhao Hai and Liru went to the back of the hotel where a carriage was already waiting for them, inside one of the courtyards. Without being polite, Zhao Hai immediately sat inside the vehicle.
The carriage looked extremely ordinary, it lacked even a smidgen of special quality material. It was only quite big, can fit about five or six people. Zhao Hai took Shun and Shue with him, Liru was driving the carriage at front.
Zhao Hai initially thought that Liru was just having unnecessary caution. What was the point in being too serious? However, he changed his mind when he thought more deeply about Liru’s words and actions. Liru might be afraid because the battle between the princes may have reached quite a heated period. If this was so, there was enough reason for the Third Prince to be very careful.
But Zhao Hai was even more confused when he recalled that the Rosen Empire’s King was still quite healthy. Under such circ.u.mstance, it was quite confusing for the princes to be this vigorous in their battle.
The carriage went out of the hotel and into the busy street outside. They went around quite a few times before stopping at a house. Although this was the back side of the house, the light coming from the door made it look quite unordinary. The look on the door was more intricate than what most people would use.
The carriage didn’t stop and directly entered the house before completely stopping on a parking s.p.a.ce. Liru asked Zhao Hai to disembark, Zhao Hai became curious, he wanted to know why the Third Prince called him over.
Under Liru’s guidance, the group pa.s.sed through several courtyards before arriving at a small courtyard. This courtyard wasn’t that large, about the same size as Sweet Plum Courtyard. However, this place didn’t have any plum blossoms, instead, it had some ornamental trees. Zhao Hai couldn’t name them, but this made this place even more distinctive.
When the group arrived at the courtyard, there were two people already standing at the front door. One looked about 50 years old and wore a magnificent merchant’s garment on his fatty body. The fellow looked very big, just like a meat mountain that was standing there. What made Zhao Hai surprised was that even though the man was a literal meatball, he didn’t look like he was exerting any effort in staying up. This certainly showed that the man had quite the strength.
The other person wore a very ordinary n.o.ble’s clothing, not looking very magnificent. He was about 30 years old and had a very gentle look. The person was very well groomed, although he was just standing there, the atmosphere around him commanded respect and superiority.
Liru went towards the 30-year old man and said, “Your Highness, this is Mister Zhao Hai.” The man nodded and smiled at Zhao Hai, “Please forgive Charlie for the disrespect, mister. The situation didn’t leave me with enough choices.”
Zhao Hai showed a faint smile and said, “This one has seen Prince Charlie. His highness is too polite, it is my honor to be invited by Your Highness.”
Charlie smiled faintly and said, ‘Mister is too courteous. Let me introduce mister to Rising Water City’s famous sea merchant, Aonas.”
Zhao Hai bowed and said, “Zhao Hai pays his respects to Mister Aonas.”
Aona’s’ flabby face rippled as he smiled, “Mister is too kind. Your Highness, Mister, please.” Then he led the two men inside the living room of the house.
After settling in the living room, Liru immediately served the group with a cup of tea. When the group already had a few sips of the tea, Charlie opened his mouth, “This time when I came to handle some matters in Rising Water City, I came to hear about mister’s arrival. So I took the liberty of inviting mister over, I hope you could forgive my disrespect.”
Zhao Hai gave a smile and said, “You’re highness is too polite. Let’s forget about being disrespectful, what did Your Highness look for me for?”
Charlie stared, he didn’t think that Zhao Hai would be so direct. He could only show a faint smile as he replied, “Mister is really a straightforward person, not beating around the bush. This time, I asked mister to come to discuss whether I could have the honor of having a partners.h.i.+p with mister or not.”
Zhao Hai had already expected this point. Except for the products that he had, there were no other qualities of him that other people could remember. So when Charlie got to the point, Zhao Hai wasn’t surprised. He just looked at Charlie and said, “May I know which business Your Highness wanted to cooperate with me?”
Charlie looked at Zhao Hai and smiled, “I know that mister is currently working with the Sh.e.l.ley Family and the Calci Family for some business. I’m also interested about your fire fishes and milk wine. I just don’t know if mister can also cooperate with me?”
Zhao Hai looked at Charlie and said, “Your Highness, to tell you the truth, it isn’t impossible to work with you. The products that I supply the Calci Family and the Sh.e.l.ley Family which were 55 thousand jin of fire fish and 50 thousand jin of milk wine aren’t my limit. I can provide you with 45 thousand jin of fire fishes as well as 50 thousand jin of milk wine per month. Is Your Highness satisfied with this?”
Zhao Hai’s words were actually a probe towards Charlie. He wanted to see whether the prince wanted to s.n.a.t.c.h both the Calci’s and the Sh.e.l.ley’s share of milk wine and fire fish. If he did, then that meant that he didn’t care about offending the two families. Zhao Hai also wanted to see whether he would acquiesce if there was a way of avoiding to offend the families. If Charlie really wanted the shares of the two families, then Zhao Hai would have to think twice about their cooperation. This was because it meant that the prince most likely held a grievance towards the two families.
When he heard what Zhao Hai just said, Charlie was dumbfounded, he wore a happy expression as he said, “Mister is really telling the truth?”
Zhao Hai nodded and replied, “I won’t dare deceive Your Highness, of course it is real.” Seeing Charlie’s reaction, Zhao Hai had found his answer.
Sure enough, Charlie smiled and said, “Good, good, that is good. Mister can rest a.s.sured that I’ll also accept the same price that you give the Calci and Sh.e.l.ley Families. I certainly wouldn’t let mister suffer a loss.”