CHAPTER 203: CHAPTER 37: STRANGE PERSON

By the time Gu Chengyu finished copying the answers onto the test paper, the sun was already setting!

From above the examination hall, only a bit of lingering twilight could be seen. Gu Chengyu checked his test paper and found no issues. He waited a while longer until he heard someone ringing the bell.

Someone had been the first to hand in their paper, thus ringing the bell now wouldn’t make him stand out. Gu Chengyu shook the little bell beside him, and shortly after, two ceremony book attendants came over to seal his paper with his name.

Everything belonged to the examination hall, so Gu Chengyu left the examination hall with ease. Suddenly, he noticed Prefect Jiang, sitting at the head, gave him a meaningful look. He bowed to Prefect Jiang.

Gu Wanqian and Ming Mo had been waiting outside the examination hall; seeing Gu Chengyu come out, they quickly approached.

"Young master! I inquired with the broker about the shop we went to yesterday. He said the owner of the restaurant is willing to reduce the price by only twenty taels! If we don’t want it, they’ll have to find another buyer!" Ming Mo had visited many brokerages yesterday, and there were only two shops that caught Gu Chengyu’s interest.

One was a large three-door shop located on West Street, surrounded by stores selling rouge, perfumes, and silk. It used to be a restaurant, but its food lacked novelty and lost business to a newer establishment. The owner saw the business was declining and decided to sell the shop and return to their hometown.

The other shop was on North Street, not large, but suitable for a pastry shop. North Street was inhabited by wealthy families, with few commercial stores. Since First-class House aimed for a high-end market, the price was naturally not low. The shop had a good location at the street entrance, so business wouldn’t be a concern.

However, the prices for both couldn’t be negotiated down, which filled Gu Chengyu with sentiment—it was the Prefecture, after all, where shop prices were more than three times those in the county! The smaller shop was priced at four hundred taels, while the large three-door restaurant was priced at thirteen hundred taels.

Originally, he thought the profits from the shops in the town and county would be substantial, but unexpectedly, all the earnings went in and still fell short. He sent Ming Mo to negotiate the price again today, hoping the owner would lower it. Who knew the owner remained adamant, which made Gu Chengyu grit his teeth in frustration!

"Only willing to reduce by twenty taels? That’s ridiculous! If they’re unwilling to reduce the price, then I don’t want to buy it either! Is the other smaller shop unwilling to lower the price at all?" Gu Chengyu asked about the other small shop. He decided to pass on the restaurant as it could be revisited later, given he couldn’t open a restaurant right now; it would be better to look for a suitable one in the future!

The pastry shop, however, was urgently needed because the money he had earned wasn’t nearly enough. Although there was plenty of gold and silver in reserve, nothing felt as secure as using money he earned himself.

"That shop..." Ming Mo scratched his head, as he wasn’t good at negotiating prices and wasn’t eloquent. Steward Yu wasn’t present, and he couldn’t ask the young master to handle these matters personally, as the young master was here for the exams, lacking the time to deal with such things.

Gu Chengyu thought to himself that he had only glanced at the shop briefly yesterday, and after a day of exams today, it was now too late to visit the owner for business negotiations at this hour.

Gu Chengyu also knew Ming Mo was sincere and diligently completed his orders, with a solid foundation in martial arts, taking meticulous care of his daily needs. However, he was utterly clueless when it came to business matters; he couldn’t always personally handle business affairs in the future, right?

Yu Tuanzi was also overwhelmed, and they clearly had too few capable people! Suddenly, Gu Chengyu turned his gaze to Gu Wanqian, who was standing next to him. At that moment, Gu Wanqian appeared serious, seemingly deep in thought, not noticing Gu Chengyu’s gaze!

"Wanqian!"

Gu Wanqian was thinking about the conversation between Gu Chengyu and the others earlier. He actually had some thoughts. Negotiating with the seller coldly would, of course, make them unwilling to lower the price. If Ming Mo seemed eager, the seller would be even more reluctant to budge. In the past few days beside the young master, he had gained some insight and grown bolder. Why not let him give it a try?

Lost in his thoughts, Gu Wanqian heard Gu Chengyu call him!

"Yes! Uncle!"

"I’m assigning this task to you. Do your best. If you succeed, I’ll certainly reward you; if not, then consider it an experience!"

"Uncle? I..." Gu Wanqian could hardly believe his ears—was this task really entrusted to him?

"Alright! Consider it decided!" Gu Chengyu planned to give Gu Wanqian a day; if he couldn’t finalize the negotiation, Gu Chengyu would handle it personally!

When Sun Xian and the others emerged, it was already early evening.

"Little Uncle! Thankfully Grandpa pushed me to study at home this time, or I might’ve only completed half. Still, there are two questions I couldn’t finish!" Gu Wanhua voiced his concern after coming out, uncertain about the outcome this time; can luck always be on his side?

"We can only do our best and leave the rest to fate!" He Shunian also sighed, noting how difficult it was to rank high among the thousands of examinees!

"We’ll know when the results are announced tomorrow! Now that the exams are over, let’s not overthink and head back quickly; I’m starving!" Sun Xian patted his stomach, feeling it’s empty.

It took Gu Chengyu and the group over a quarter of an hour to reach the inn, as it was rather distant!

"Manager Niu! Bring us a few dishes quickly; we’ll eat in the main hall!" Gu Wanhua started calling out as soon as he entered the inn!

"You gentlemen have just returned; you must be famished! His wife, bring a couple of the cold plates out!" Manager Niu, seeing Gu Chengyu and the others, quickly ordered from the backyard.

Gu Chengyu and his group picked a table in the corner to sit. Before long, Manager Niu personally brought over two plates of food.

One plate was seasoned pig’s head meat, and the other was braised pig’s trotters. "Please make do with these for now; the hot dishes will come shortly!"

"Please whip up a few vegetable dishes!" Gu Chengyu instructed Manager Niu.

He was just about to pick up his chopsticks when he noticed the people at the adjacent table looking over. Their table held nothing but a plate of cold cucumber salad, and six men were each holding two white flour buns, already munched halfway, staring at them.

Gu Chengyu took a closer look and realized they weren’t eyeing their food but rather them!

Gu Chengyu frowned; the looks from these people weren’t friendly! Other tables also had meat dishes, but they only focused on their table—what was that supposed to mean?

After Gu Chengyu glanced at them a few times, they finally turned back to continue eating. Gu Chengyu also withdrew his gaze, wondering if he was being overly cautious. He felt they might be exchanging subtle signals!

Gu Chengyu had carefully observed their posture and muscular, knotted arms, seemingly storing strength. Compared to ordinary people, there was a more menacing aura about them!

"Meet me in my room after dinner; I have something to discuss!" Gu Chengyu intended to caution them—a bit of caution couldn’t hurt! This group likely wasn’t friendly!

"What’s up?" Sun Xian asked, noticing Gu Chengyu’s grave expression, suspecting something had happened!

The group at that table cast a few more surreptitious glances this way, but when caught by Gu Chengyu, they didn’t show any unusual expression and resumed biting their buns calmly.

Gu Chengyu decided to inquire with Manager Niu about this group’s background. There were six of them, and though they were dressed like laborers, Gu Chengyu suspected that wasn’t the case!