Seeking Happiness

Chapter 108 Price competition

To get Shang Xin back wasn’t Jiang Haitian and the owners’ original intention. After all, after getting the person back, if they wanted to extort money, they had to waste more saliva. Moreover, they had planned to sell the person after they got her. They had to move her one more round. It was better and more convenient to sell her to Gu household and get more money.

Therefore, when they heard Gu Xiran spoke, the owners revealed a happiness that they couldn’t contain. Even Jiang Haitian couldn’t hide his inner ecstasy. He lowered his head and said, “Then…then, this matter would be difficult to deal with…”

Fortunately, when the owners were reminded by him, they remembered the business. Among them, the thin man immediately said, “Since we have the slave contract, even if you don’t want to hand over the person, you have to hand her over!”

“Right! If you don’t hand over the person, then pay ten times the price. Otherwise, don’t think that this matter will be settled!”

“…”

After his voce fell, other voices echoed him. Some words were very ugly and fierce to the ears. Meijing turned her head to be in anger. However, Shu Huan still felt that it was interesting and felt that this drama was getting livelier.

After Gu Xiran listened for a while, he sneered, “Don’t make any more noise! As for the person, I can’t give her to you, but your price is too high! Do you take this master for being a spendthrift and foolish? Alright, I will give you five silver liang, you hand out the slave contract!”

“Five silver liang! Do you think we are beggars?!”

“We don’t want money; we want the person!”

“Right! We want the person! If we sell her to a rich master to be his concubine, it would be more than this price. If we are a bit more black-hearted and sell her to a brothel, then, the price would be even higher!”

“We want the person! Hand over the person!”

“…”

The dispute couldn’t be settled between the two sides. Jiang Haitian saw that the timing was perfect. He cried with a long face and smoothed things over, “If you continue to dispute like this, there would be no result. Why, don’t you…compete for the price? The person would belong to the one who pays the higher price….”

Gu Xiran raised an eyebrow, “Then, wouldn’t the part who bids a lower price lose the person and the money?”

“No, no, no!” Jiang Haitian quickly gestured with his hand. “Master, I know that I was wrong. How would I dare to still keep the money?! I will return the money on the slave contract back to the party who had a low bid…The money of the price competition would also be to the side with the lower bid as a compensation!”

“Like that, ah!” Only now did Gu Xiran nod. “It is fair!”

“Right,” Jiang Haitian went along. “If you bid a high price, you will get the person. If you bid a lower price, you won’t loss any money and will even earn some. It is very fair!”

Gu Xiran casted him a glance with a smile that was not yet a smile, “I only said that it was fair and didn’t say that there was no loss!”

Jiang Haitian went blank for a moment, “Master…”

“See, originally, when I bought the person, I only spent five silver liang. Now, you want me to compete for the price. If I want this person, I have to spend more money. How is that not a loss?”

In the brothels, Jiang Haitian had seen the madness of the price competition from those children of rich families in order to comb favor from an official. He only thought that rich young guys loved face and that when they heard about a price competition, their heads would turn hot and would fight for the price to get face. He never thought that Gu Xiran would take till this layer into consideration. He immediately made things difficult, “This…if master doesn’t want to loss money, then, return the person…”

Gu Xiran deliberately made things difficult for him, “Then, wouldn’t we go back to the old question?”

This wouldn’t do!

That wouldn’t do!

What would do?!

Could it be that they still had to be entangled on this question?

Jiang Haitian’s expression was immediately so entangled that it couldn’t be described in words.

Gu Xiran wasn’t tired because he was sitting. He also had tea to drink. Some small snacks was also on the table. However, from the moment Jiang Haitian and those owners entered, they haven’t been allowed to sit. After talking for half a day, their mouths and tongues were dry. They truly had a feeling that they were being tormented near madness by Gu Xiran.

Shu Huan looked on the side and couldn’t hold from wanting to laugh. She said, “Second young master, why don’t we do as he had said? After all, we will get nowhere if we continued to be deadlocked like this.”

“Mm,” Gu Xiran nodded thoughtfully.

Jiang Haitian quickly used his hand to wipe the thin layer of sweat that had appeared. However, he wasn’t able to take breath yet when he heard Shu Huan continue, “This all happened because of you! You sold one niece to two parties. We will admit bad luck now that we had to pay more, but it seemed that you should also show some remorse, right?”

“How…how to show remorse…?” The sweat that Jiang Haitian had just wiped appeared again. He said, “Why don’t I kowtow and apologize to you?!”

“Who wants that?!” Shu Huan rolled his eyes at him and asked Gu Xiran, “What about we let him compensate some money?”

Gu Xiran was very cooperative, “Very great!”

The owners only cared about that they had money to earn. They didn’t care from whom it was. They also screamed that it was great! They didn’t do it for anything else than that they felt unhappy when they still needed to split Gu household’s money in half with Jiang Haitian after the deal.

At this moment, Jiang Haitian truly wanted to cry. He only thought about ripping off another and didn’t expect to be ripped off. He sobbed, “Masters, you can’t be like this…I…I don’t have money, ah! If I have, I wouldn’t have sold my niece!”

“No problem. We don’t want much. Just give two liang,” Shu Huan said while her head was raised. “Our Gu household doesn’t lack money. We just wanted to get some justice!”

“I don’t even have half a liang one me…”

Shu Huan was a bit startled, “Didn’t you earn five silver liang yesterday. You wouldn’t have spent it so quickly, right? If you have spent it all, then were you deceiving us when you said that you wanted to return the value of the slave contract?”

Jiang Haitian was made speechless by her. He indeed did spend a lot of money yesterday, but in order to continue the play, before they came to cause trouble, he borrowed two more liang from the owners and was able to gather five liang in order to prevent Gu household from wanting a refund after returning the person.

“Looking at you being like this. You must have some!” Shu Huan reached out her hand smilingly and said, “First, give the money to redeem your fault. Then, we can continue discuss on this matter. Otherwise, all of you can leave!”

To let him give out the money; it was better for him to die!

Jiang Haitian was still unwilling and eagerly said, “If I give you, then I can’t return the money of the slave contract later!”

“Doesn’t matter,” Gu Xiran said smilingly. “Meijing, bring the brush and paper. If you can’t pay the money back later, you can write a certificate of indebtedness!”

Jiang Haitian widened his eyes. He still wanted to say more, he didn’t expect that he was kicked by that thin man. “Be more straightforward. Don’t hold up the proper business!”

Proper business!

The proper business was naturally to extort money!

Jiang Haitian ached very much, but he had awakened…

If one couldn’t give up on a small amount of money, the big fortunate wouldn’t come!

He gritted his teeth and said, “Alright! Here!”

When two silver liang was given, Jiang Haitian felt that the meat of his heart had been dug out by a dagger. He stood dismayed at a side with lowered head and didn’t have the enthusiasm anymore. Gu Xiran let Meijing bring a wicker basket to put money into. He first threw the two silver liang that Jiang Haitian gave carelessly into the wicker basket. Then, he smiled slightly, “I will add two silver liang first!”

Originally, the owners thought that they would verbally bid first and then pay the money. Who would’ve thought that he would throw in real money? This rich and imposing attitude made them stunned.

“What?” Gu Xiran smilingly swept a glance over them. “You won’t follow? Then, I’m sorry. The person is mine!”

“Isn’t it paying after the fact?” Jiang Haitian was afraid that the owners didn’t got money on them and that this matter would be see through. He quickly helped them by asking.

Gu Xiran sneered at him, “Does this mean that you didn’t bring money? Why compete for the price with me when you don’t have money?”

Moreover, they weren’t afraid that he would renege on the money; he was afraid that they would renege on the money!

“We have! We have!” The owners immediately woke up to reality. They immediately took out money from their sleeves. To eat meat or drink soup depended on this. Hence, no one dared to hide private money. However, they could still be considered to be smart and didn’t dare to let Gu Xiran see how much money they had. They had their backs towards him and quietly pooled the money together.