Chapter 77: Disputes And Careful Thoughts
Unsure whether Alice’s words were intentional or not, that sentence made Alan understood that Athena locked herself for training. His anger was slightly relieved and he continued to stare at Joseph fiercely.
Athena saw her friend, Alice whom she hadn’t seen for a long time and finally smiled, “Alice!”
“Chen Rui is here too! Come over!” Alice took Chen Rui’s and Athena’s hands and pulled them to the second floor in front of Joseph and Alan.
Kaguli, Kia and others were all here. There were also a few customers, and one of them was even injured. The customers seemed to not dare to leave because Joseph and Alan were blocking the stairs. Just now, Alice was checking on the injured, so she didn’t notice Athena and Chen Rui at the first place.
Chen Rui knew after asking Alice that the dispute between Joseph and Alan was for the grand master’s work, “burr puzzle”. Of course, if it weren’t for the dispute the night before yesterday, the two sides who were originally working closely together wouldn’t have such a tense relations.h.i.+p.
The birthday of the empire’s regent, Prince Obsidian was coming soon. Alan wanted to buy the burr puzzle as a gift and offer it to Prince Obsidian through his father at the capital. Coincidentally, Joseph came to the Princess Retail Store. After learning about Alan’s intentions, he offered to buy the burr puzzle with twice the price. Alan had already hated Royce and Arux who killed Mikas and fought their way to his mansion. Now that Joseph returned to the Dark Moon, not only he didn’t initiate reconciliation, but he provocatively competed for the burr puzzle. Alan was extremely furious. If it weren’t for his lack of strength, he would’ve started a fight. The injured customer was hurt by Alan’s subordinate because he was unlucky.
“Joseph, are you that rich? You should keep that little money to continue fighting with your brother, Kanita!” Alan diverted his biggest hostility to Joseph again. “I’ll pay 3 times the price! This burr puzzle is mine!”
The original price of the burr puzzle is 50,000 black crystal coins. 3 times the price is 150,000. That’s a huge sum of money!
The Demon Realm’s rule was generally the highest bidder won. Alice didn’t bother greeting Chen Rui and Athena and her big eyes were in the shape of black crystal coins. She immediately asked, “This burr puzzle… Joseph, are you still increasing the price?”
“200,000.” Joseph heard Alan mentioned Kanita’s name intentionally and his eyes flashed with cold lights.
Alan was about to speak, then the lich at his side whispered, “Sir, we don’t have enough money.”
Seeing Joseph’s smile, Alan was even angrier. He thought of something and took out a few things while sneering, “I didn’t bring enough money, but these magic equipments are all of superior quality. If the little princess wants, you can convert them into black crystal coins. I still have a lot of such equipment that I can convert for Your Royal Highness with discount.”
Royce who was behind Joseph growled as he saw the magic equipment; his murderous intention was overflowing. Joseph raised his brow and knew that these were definitely the missing items from his magic store. Alan’s behavior was undoubtedly provocative; both parties were furiously staring at each other at once.
However, Joseph wasn’t angry. He turned around and patted Royce’s shoulder. Royce then took a deep breath and regained his calmness.
Chen Rui praised Royce for his good acting skills in his mind. Alice hesitated and couldn’t make up her mind and secretly looked at Chen Rui for consultation. Chen Rui couldn’t offer his opinion in front of so many people, so he just looked at a plaque at the center of the second floor. On the plaque, there was a word carved according to Chen Rui’s idea: integrity.
Alice was very clever. Following the direction of his gaze, she suddenly understood. She was still frowning and was clearly struggling in her heart. Finally, she said, “I don’t want these things.”
Alan’s face changed at once, then he heard Alice continued to say, “The motto of Princess Retail Store is integrity and that includes all our customers. Alan came in before Joseph today, so the burr puzzle will be sold to Alan at the original price, 50,000 black crystal coins. However, Alan, your subordinate injured my customer, so you must pay for his treatment. Do you have any opinion?”
“I absolutely has no opinion!” Alan was overjoyed and quickly gave the injured a handful of black crystal coins, “I am really grateful! The Princess Retail Store is indeed the best store in the city. Much stronger than some guy’s store!”
Alice nodded and let Kaguli and Kia counted Alan’s 50,000 black crystal coins, then, she removed the magic protection and gave Alan the burr puzzle with a delicate packaging.
Alan carefully opened the box and he looked at the premium version of the burr puzzle as if he received a precious treasure. He then quickly kept it into his s.p.a.ce ring. Seeing Alan’s appearance, Alice recalled several pieces of “grand master’s works” piled up messily in her room, and she was secretly laughing. However, she had lost at least 150,000 less black crystal coins this time, and that was bitter thinking about it.
Joseph ignored Alan’s provocative eyes and looked at the word integrity. Although the instant communication between Alice and Chen Rui with their eyes were obscured, it couldn’t hide from Joseph. After taking a deep look at Chen Rui, Joseph bowed toward Alice and left the Princess Retail Store with Royce and Vasasha.
Seeing Joseph left, Alan was obviously proud. He thanked Alice happily and he left too. After both of them left, Chen Rui came over and whispered a few words to Alice. Alice immediately went to comfort the injured person. He was just a member of a small family. In fact, he was only slightly injured. He didn’t need to be compensated by that amount of money. Seeing little princess asking personally, he looked overwhelmed by the kindness.
Alice smiled and said, “Everyone, I am very sorry about what happened today. However, I believe everyone saw that the Princess Retail Store pays particular attention to the word integrity. In the future, no matter who comes to us, they will feel the meaning represented by the word. I hope everyone can shop at ease.”
“Little princess is truly amazing!” Alice’s words and smiles affected everyone. A n.o.bleman said with emotion, “I want to tell everyone about this. The reputation of Princess Retail Store will be known throughout the Dark Moon!”
After these customers finished shopping and left unwillingly, the smiling little princess with “integrity” suddenly changed her face. She leaped angrily and rode on Chen Rui back to choke his neck, “That’s 150,000 black crystal coins! 150,000! Wuwu… Why Chen Rui! You must tell me! Otherwise, I will kill you today!”
Chen Rui almost couldn’t breathe being choked. It seemed that under the influence of money, the little loli with the “halo of miser” had reached the level of Mikas. Athena and Kia saw it and quickly stopped her. They had to persuade for a long time before finally pulling the little miser off Chen Rui’s back.
Chen Rui gasped for air. Seeing little loli’s angry look, he shook his head, “Do you remember what I said when I made you carve that plaque?”
Alice thought about it and replied, “It seems to be ‘integrity outweighs all strategies’.”
“If you want the Princess Retail Store to truly prosper for a long time, or even open more chain stores, you must remember this sentence.” Chen Rui saw Alice still looked like she didn’t understand. “Let me tell you a story. Once, there was a Great Demon King called King Zhao of the Yan Empire. He once spent a million black crystal coins to buy a rare mare…”
When Chen Rui said the Demon Realm edited version of “King Zhao of Yan Empire Buy Horse Carca.s.s [1] with Million Gold”, Kia and Athena seemed to not understand fully, but the clever Alice had already understood the meaning.
There was another meaning that Chen Rui couldn’t tell in front of Kia and Kaguli. The magic store’s booties were troublesome. Staying in Alan’s hands was more conducive to the strategy of driving the tiger to swallow the wolf. Today, Alan’s deliberate show-offs had worsened the relations.h.i.+p between the two parties in reality. However, why did Joseph compete with Alan for the grand master’s work? Wasn’t reconciliation most needed currently?
“I’ve always known that brother Chen Rui is very powerful.” After the little loli understood, her face changed really fast. She was blinking her big eyes and instantly changed from a murderous look to look of adoration, “Perhaps, let’s go to the blue lake again for a picnic?”
“No! My body isn’t great for the past two days, so I can’t travel far.” Chen Rui head shook like a rattle – Are you kidding me? Picnicking again? She certainly prepares another stunning stick and some… d.a.m.n reference books!
“Really?!” Alice looked disappointed, “I’m so bored in this store everyday; it’s so uncomfortable. Athena, let’s stroll in the city with just the 3 of us.”
“Okay!” Athena agreed immediately.
Chen Rui heard it was just strolling outside, so he couldn’t refuse. Alice thought for a while, “Wait for me downstairs. Also, Kia and Kaguli should go down too. I have something to say to Athena privately.”
After the three went downstairs, Alice’s eyes fell on the well-developed b.r.e.a.s.t.s of Athena. She subconsciously compared it with her own, and she obviously felt a huge pressure.
“Are we good friends?”
Athena didn’t understand little loli’s thoughts, so she nodded and said, “Of course. Alice is my best friend.”
“What about Chen Rui?”
Athena’s face was a little hot, “He… is also a good friend!”
The blush flashed past on Athena’s face couldn’t hide from the mature little loli. The little loli’s pet.i.te body trembled slightly and the demeanor of a tyrant was released, “Athena! There’s something that I will not give in even if we’re good friends!”
“What is it?” Athena looked puzzled.
“For example… that…” Alice suddenly lost her demeanor and lowered her head. She gently put her two index fingertips together and mumbled, “There is one person… No! There is one thing that both you and I like to eat…”
“That’s simple.” Athena said without thinking, “Cut it in half with a knife and we’ll both take half.”
Alice seemed to be worried. Her eyes flashed with strange brilliance when she heard that sentence, “Cut it?”
“Achoo!” Chen Rui who was downstairs sneezed inexplicably. Seeing Kia’s frowning look, he smiled apologetically.
“If you can’t cut it?” The little loli thought for a moment and continued to beat around the bush. “Actually, I don’t know if I truly like to eat. However, this… ‘thing’ makes me feel a bit strange. I might want to eat a little…”
“I don’t understand what you’re saying.” Athena thought for a moment and replied, “However, if it’s something that really can’t be cut open, we will each take a bite until it is finished. We’re good friends, so shouldn’t we share good things?”
“Really? Each takes a bite?” The little loli’s big eyes lit up as if she had solved some key problems, and she skipped happily, “Although I don’t know… but Athena! You’re truly my best friend! ”
“Haven’t I always been?” The unaware Athena still hadn’t realized why Alice was hesitating at once and happy after.
“Let’s go!” Alice regained her strong vitality in the blink of an eye and skipped down the stairs while holding Athena’s hand.