The 176th chapter “breaking in halfway through”
Seeing how Du Wei was looking at him, Sandy quickly lowered his voice and said, “You are from out of town, so you may not have known this. As a regular here, that guy gained quite the fame from his purchasing habits. But that’s not all. His background is that of a steward for a large aristocratic family, so he is not to be trifled with.”
Du Wei lets out a faint chuckle at what he just learned. Then before Rolynn could open her mouth again to raise the bid, Du Wei had already spoken: “Ten…… Gold coins!”
Although “10” wasn’t all that big in the numerical scale, but 10 gold coins is equal to 100 silver coins. Therefore, when the crowd heard the young kid calling out such an offer, the entire area fell into an uproar!
It’s wasn’t that uncommon to hear stories of wealthy individuals paying high sums of money for slaves with unique features, but this time around it, was for 10 slaves mixed with 3 elderly gramps in the batch. Such a scene really piqued the interest of everyone present.
Moreover, there are many people in the crowd that recognized the middle-aged fat man, so they knew it was bad news to mess with him.
Inwardly, all of them were thinking: This kid is out of luck.
The fat guy called Guro is not reckless, in fact, his eyes were razor sharp. As he peered over at Du Wei, his initial a.s.sessment is telling him the kid before him is not mundane. Hesitating for a moment, he finally decided let up to avoid offending the opposition.
This place is after all the imperial capital, the land under the emperor’s feet, who knows if this kid is some family member of another major aristocratic family? Although Guro likes to be arrogant, but he is not foolish enough to be making trouble everywhere he went. If anything, the only people that he could in fact bully around this place are those foreigners without background.
Spending a moment in thought, he turned towards Du Wei and gave a friendly smile in greeting. To Guro, this is already the most he is willing to give up.
However, Du Wei simply ignored him and didn’t even bat an eyelash as he focused his attention on the stage.
After Rolynn finished paying, a slaver from above immediately jumped down to hand them a token. This token is so they can retrieve their slaves from the back.
Luckily Sandy’s a.s.sessment of others are very accurate, so the following group of slaves that came out also fell into the category of what Du Wei wanted to buy. However, something about this batch didn’t quite seem right in his view:
Altogether, there are 15-13 young men in the batch – all tanned skin with muscular bodies. Even though these people are standing in a straight file across the stage, their eyes were filled with vigor and life, just like that of a wild animal.
With the red flags raised in his mind, so was his curiosity. Taking a better look at the slaves, his sight instinctively fell towards the two black sheep’s hiding in the back.
One old and one young. No matter how much the white haired old grandpa tries to hide it, his prideful aura was clearly oozing out of his eyes. As for the little boy grasping onto the elder’s hand, his upper body may be naked, but he was clean and appeared to be in good health.
Like this, the young men on stage somehow turned into a defensive formation trying to s.h.i.+eld the duo from the audience’s gaze.
When Sandy first laid eyes on the group, a spark of light was lit. Hurrying to whisper into Du Wei’s ear: “Oh honorable Sir, this group is the best! In fact, they are the best I’ve seen in the past few days! Do you see that old man? I’m certain the old guy wields great influence among his people! You see those tattoos? I heard these natives would only allow their most prestigious members to branded with such symbols! If you buy such a guy back home, I guarantee those youngsters would never attempt an escape!”
But this time around, the middle aged fat guy already called out an offer before Du Wei can even say a word.
“80 silver coins.” Guro’s offer immediately caused the crowd to gasp in surprise.
There were many other sharp eyed buyers in the crowd, but all of them were too afraid to compete with this Guro fella. As such, their only option left was to reluctantly give up.
“Ten…… Gold coins.” Du Wei still spoke in his calm and unwavering voice again.
This time around, Guro became somewhat unhappy.
In his mind, he was thinking: Why is this kid always fighting with him? Didn’t he already give the kid some face earlier?
Guro gave Du Wei a look before letting out a cold laugh. Then turning to a servant on his side, he pa.s.sed on a few words in a low voice to instruct his subordinate. Nodding in understanding, the servant began to head over to where Du Wei was. As for the people in the crowd, they intentionally spread apart to open up a road for him.
As the servant came near to performing a standard greeting, his face remained polite on the surface. Clearly, the servants from a big n.o.ble household is much better trained in their manners.
“This young master.” The servant murmurs: “Our master Guro said he already gave you some face earlier, so why not let this one go? This way, there won’t be any hard feelings between us. Also, I want to mention it is our lord Count Biliaibuer that is seeking a new gardener.”
His words were spoken really well, neither soft nor hard, just right with enough subtle points to indicate their ident.i.ty.
Count Biliaibuer?
Du Wei made a small chuckling laugh.
So it is Count Biliaibuer’s house! After the coup, this person’s status also soared into the sky like Du Wei. From rumors, it is said that after Marquis Solomon fell into ruin, the one to take over the management of the Royal Household’s a.s.set is Biliaibuer.
The servant thought that after he revealed their ident.i.ty, the other side would act accordingly to past practices and retreat.
But who is Du Wei? After finis.h.i.+ng his laugh, Du Wei didn’t say much and only gave Rolynn a nod.
Rolynn didn’t do much, only grabbing a token from her pocket and handing it over to the servant. Then waving her hand, she dismissed the guy.
Seeing his subordinate returning with something in hand, Guro felt something wasn’t quite right. Hurrying, he hastily grabbed the item and had a look. It is then when his face immediately went pale!
This is only a small wooden token engraved with several simple patterns – this token is not Du Wei’s house symbol, instead, it is the symbol for his business.
The more Guro looked at the d.a.m.n thing, the more frightened he became. As he lifted his head to look over at Du Wei, a realization finally donned on him!
Although Du Wei was dressed in a commoner’s outfit, but Guro had sharp eyes. Earlier when Du Wei moved his hands, Guro vaguely caught a glimpse of the gold bracelet hidden underneath Du Wei’s sleeve. Forged out of pure gold and engraved with a green gemstone, this is clearly a magic bracelet commonly used by a magician.
This explained a lot!
As a steward in Count Biliaibuer’s house, he would of course be equipped with enough a certain level of knowledge regarding the major powers in the capital.
Looking at the token in his hand and recalling the magic bracelet from before, Guro is almost certain of Du Wei’s ident.i.ty now!
Losing every bit of his pride, a fountain’s worth of sweat came pouring out of his forehead as he came stumbling over to Du Wei’s side. After forcefully pus.h.i.+ng through the crowd, Guro was just about to drop to his knees to beg for forgiveness when a thought stopped him at midpoint.
Du Wei’s outfit!
It was obvious the kid didn’t want others to know of his ident.i.ty, so Guro immediately halted his falling legs with every ounce of his strength. Then in an awkward stance, he greeted Du Wei with a slight bow of his head before finally speaking in a humble voice: “Du…… Distinguished young man, I apologize for not recognizing you immediately! I…… I didn’t think your distinguished self would come to this humble place to…… I deserve to die! I deserve to die!”
After his speech, Guro didn’t wait for Du Wei to say anything else when he shouted up at the stage: “20 gold coins! 20!”
After finis.h.i.+ng his words, he took a step back before speaking in a polite voice: “Oh n.o.ble young lord, please accept these slaves from me. Consider it a present on my behalf!”
Sandy was already frozen with shock…. And the crowds around them had a lot of people whom recognized Guro’s ident.i.ty; yet, this arrogant guy was acting like a dog in front of a teenage kid….
This child … … What is his ident.i.ty?!
Du Wei faintly smiles as he glanced at Guro: “Hmm, seems Count Biliaibuer’s men knows how to do things. In this case, Rolynn, accept it.”
“Thank you, thank you my lord!” Guro was so relieved that almost kneeled to the ground without intending for it. Guro is only a lowly steward in his household, so how can he expect Count Biliaibuer to stand up for him, especially when the opposition is a Duke!
The slaver that was dressed like a clown on the stage also recognized Guro. So when he saw how Guro was acting, how can this slaver not know when to advance or retreat?
Generally, when someone calls out an offer, he is supposed to cry out a few times to lure in more people to bid. But after seeing what just happened below, where would he find the guts to keep to the norm?
Just when he was about to announce the success of the sale…….
But unlikely today, there seems to be a lot of things brought together by fate.
On the furthest end of the crowd, an indifferent male voice echoed out: “25 gold coins. All of these slaves, we want them.”
The audience fell into a uproar!