"The same question, I don’t want to ask a third time. What is the price?" Ya Molian’s cold gaze fixed on the shopkeeper as he asked again.
The shopkeeper shuddered in fear, nervously swallowing his saliva.
"This...five...five thousand taels."
When he first took over this shop, he had intended to use twenty thousand taels of silver, but the previous owner insisted on twenty-five thousand taels. In the end, he felt the location of the shop was indeed quite good, so he bought it for twenty-five thousand taels.
Now, he could just make that five thousand taels back.
"Five thousand taels, you heartless shopkeeper, are you robbing me?" Lin Caisang exploded upon hearing the amount.
Even if she had a lot of silver, she couldn’t just throw it away, right? Everyone knows this thousand-needles jade is neither good-looking nor useful. To buy it is to bring home a useless piece of jade, and they want five thousand taels for it?
Why didn’t he just say fifty thousand taels?
Seeing Lin Caisang’s reaction, the shopkeeper felt somewhat guilty.
"I’ve never seen such price-gouging. For such a broken piece of jade, you actually demand five thousand taels? Do you think my silver grows on trees?" She placed her hands on her hips, angrily addressing the shopkeeper.
"This... Prince Mo, Miss, the thousand-needles jade indeed has this price. Prince Mo, you know that the thousand-needles jade is mined from White Blind Mountain, and even on the mountain, it’s very rare. Not to mention the costs of transporting it from White Blind Mountain to Shaohua City. The expense along the way is considerable. This... five thousand taels of silver is already quite reasonable," the shopkeeper pleaded quietly to Ya Molian, feeling wronged.
If it wasn’t for the presence of Prince Mo, he would have asked for at least ten thousand taels for this piece of thousand-needles jade. Even if he couldn’t sell it, the value of the jade is indeed apparent.
He wanted to say more but stopped when he saw Ya Molian raising his hand.
"Send it to Prince Mo’s Mansion."
He instructed the shopkeeper, then turned to Lin Caisang, "Let’s go upstairs to look some more."
"You’re buying it just like that? Isn’t the price a bit too high?" Lin Caisang was still hung up on the price. Wasn’t the thousand-needles jade supposed to be pretty useless? Then why did it cost so much?
Ya Molian looked at the young girl with a hint of exasperation.
"Are you lacking that bit of silver?" he retorted.
"This...it seems not."
Lin Caisang thought for a moment, then answered earnestly.
She could easily earn more than five thousand taels on just one mission, alright? Was she someone who lacked that bit of silver?
"Well then, let’s just buy it. It’s only a small amount of money, after all."
Saying this, she followed Ya Molian to the third floor.
The shopkeeper trailing behind them: "..."
A small amount of money, five thousand taels is considered a small amount?
Whether it is a small sum or not, he really had never seen anyone throw away five thousand taels of silver, especially when the thousand-needles jade truly was of little use. After all, in Shaohua City, there weren’t many who would be willing to spend that money.
Later, on the third floor, Lin Caisang took a liking to a palm-sized piece of jade, mixed with two colors, one milky white and the other peach. After purchasing it, the two went downstairs.
When they passed by where the thousand-needles jade had been displayed earlier, other pieces of jade had already taken its place.
Such a large piece of jade could be moved that quickly; probably by the time they finished a brief conversation, the thousand-needles jade had already reached the gate of Prince Mo’s Mansion, right?
The thousand-needles jade, indeed, had already arrived at the gate of Prince Mo’s Mansion.