While the youth ate some of the dry rations and restored his strength, Hou Dong went to make true to his promise with his men and went over to the house where the merchants had taken residence.
He casually knocked on the doorway while he walked in, not waiting for anyone to invite him in. "We need to talk."
The merchants looked up from where they were sitting at the table, eating what their servants had prepared.
Hou Dong furrowed his brows when he saw that scene. He had thought the merchants had only taken the most necessary things with them but it seemed he had been wrong. They had even taken this kind of food. Wasn’t this just making trouble for him and his men again? Since they were traveling through the desert, this mission was already more difficult than they had told them. Now, it turned out that not all of the carriages were filled with goods. In that case, they wouldn’t have needed to guard everything as tightly. But once again, the merchants hadn’t informed them truthfully. Well, this was negligible compared to the misinformation before.
Hou Dong walked over and sat down at the table. He put an arm behind the backrest of the chair and leaned back. His gaze brushed over the faces of the merchants and he gave a smile, finally stopping at that of Mister Zai. This guy was the one who had originally approached him to ask if they would take on this mission and he had also been the one who had decided to sell the beauty. "Mister Zai, there’s something I’ve been wondering about."
The merchant put down his chopsticks and also gave a smile even though it wasn’t as seemingly happy as Hou Dong’s. "What might this be about, Mister Hou?" He lowered his gaze and his smile grew slightly more pronounced. He could imagine perfectly well what this was about. After all, he knew that he had lied about the contents of this mission a little. He had expected for this man to approach him sooner to demand a higher remuneration. Well, it was good that he was asking now. The timing was just perfect.
"You can probably imagine what I want. When you came to me and my men, you told us that you had valuable goods to transport on a tight schedule but that none of the mercenaries were able to accompany you since they were busy. It has always been our pride to help those in need and since you were making it sound urgent, I agreed even though escorting merchants isn’t what we normally do. But what you told me about the mission back then turned out not to be true after all."
Mister Zai looked at him strangely. "I really don’t understand what Mister Hou is saying there. Didn’t you just say yourself that I told you we needed some able-bodied men to escort us to our destination and back again? I also mentioned that it would be a long journey."
Hou Dong snorted. "That was the gist of it. You also said that we had to go to the South. I asked if there were any special difficulties on this journey. You said that there weren’t.
"Now, correct me if I’m wrong but it seems we’ve gone not just to the south but to the southeast instead. And as for the difficulties that you said we wouldn’t encounter … It seems you forgot to tell me that we would have to pass through the desert. That is indeed a bit of a difficulty.
"My men and I would have needed to prepare differently for that. The rations we take with us would have needed to be more, the amount of water we take with us would be more, the horses would also need to be taken care of differently. So how come you mentioned none of this?"
The merchant clicked his tongue. "Aiya, Mister Hou, you can’t put all of that on my head. Isn’t the city in the south? Sure, it might be a little to the east too but it’s certainly still southern looking from anywhere within our Hua country. You can’t say that I lied about that. And as for the difficulties … This just part of the travel. It is no added difficulty for you, is it? After all, your task isn’t to travel but to guard us against bandits. And I wasn’t expecting any difficulties of that kind."
Hou Dong’s eyes narrowed. This guy really thought he would get away with this? "Mister Zai, aren’t you worried that my men and I will leave you here?"
The merchant laughed out loud. "Leave us? Mister Hou, you must be joking! Wouldn’t you miss out on our generous pay then?"
Hou Dong leaned forward and stared at the merchant, his right hand grabbing the hold of the dagger at his waist. "Generous pay? Your pay already wasn’t very high when we were just talking about escorting your caravan. It got pitifully low after we started escorting you through the desert."
The merchant didn’t seem bothered by this accusation. Naturally, he hadn’t offered much. It had just been enough to entice these men but not even a single coin more. Why should he do anything else? He wasn’t an idiot! It was still best not to spend too much on this type of thing. Mercenaries could always be hired again. If not this group, then it would be another one. What was the big deal about that? These people shouldn’t think they were important! "Mister Hou, you wouldn’t want to try to renegotiate the price with me, would you? That’s not very honorable of you."
Hou Dong gave a lazy smile. "Well, I’m a warrior. Who said that I’m honorable? I’m just doing what’s best for me and my men. What you’ve offered is not enough to make us accompany you the whole way."
"So what is it that you want?"
"Why don’t you double the price? I’d say that’s fair."
The merchant choked. "Double?! You must be dreaming! Even if I had lied to you, this still wouldn’t be dangerous enough to have you deserve that kind of money."
Hou Dong squinted. Yes, they probably didn’t deserve that kind of money. At the very least, this kind of mission wouldn’t be worth that much even if they had to travel through the desert. The main problem was still that that bastard had dared to lie to them. Why should he let him get away just like that? "And what if I insist?"
Mister Zai pressed his lips into a tight line. Under normal circumstances, if the mercenaries dared to talk to him like this, he would just leave and look for somebody else. Unfortunately, they were only halfway to their destination and bandits were being sighted in the desert every now and then. If these guys decided not to care about the money and just returned home, leaving them and the goods without any protection, then who knew if they would make it safely to the city? It seemed this matter couldn’t be solved easily. Then again, he wasn’t resolved to accept this outrageous request.
Mister Zai looked at his son that was accompanying him. Even though this child did not have too much experience traveling yet, he had always been sly. Maybe he could think of something.
His son got the hint and turned to Hou Dong, giving him a brilliant smile that didn’t look any more sincere than that of his father. "Mister Hou, I do understand where you’re coming from. Maybe my father wasn’t prudent enough in telling you about this mission. But demanding double the price is a little too much, don’t you think so?"
Hou Dong looked at this father and son duo and scoffed inwardly. He could see exactly what was going on here. The son would try to lower the amount of money they had to pay extra and then they would try to find a way to get out of this completely.
Most people probably would’ve negotiated with them, accepting a price that the merchants were willing to pay before they had to leave with empty pockets. Unfortunately for them, Hou Dong had never been a reasonable person. Right now, they were in the middle of the desert. The merchants wouldn’t dare to go overboard. So why shouldn’t he demand a little more? Even if the mission wasn’t that difficult, his men were unhappy. If he let them earn a little more, they could enjoy themselves in the city to their hearts’ content, making up for the previous trouble. That was worth it. "Then what if I insist?"
Young Master Zai blinked. What did this man mean he insisted? He turned to look at his father whose expression had gotten ugly. Obviously, this warrior was not alright with accepting less money than the double price.
Mister Zai gave a cold smile. If that man refused a toast, then he’d have to force him to drink a forfeit. He certainly wouldn’t give him any more money. "Well, if Mister Hou insists, then we’ll have to pay that amount of money. But if you want to settle accounts, then we should settle all of them at once, shouldn’t we?"
"Oh?" Hou Dong couldn’t help but raise his brows. It seemed this bloodsucker had thought of something to make him give up on this? What kind of handle did he have on him? He really couldn’t help but wonder. "Then what account is Mister Zai talking about?"
The merchant motioned toward the door. "I already told Mister Hou that we would be selling that beautiful slave in the city later on. But I’m afraid I still saw you touching him. Isn’t that lowering the price of our goods?"
Hou Dong gave a hollow laugh. So it was about this? "Well, now that Mister Zai mentioned it, I’m wondering what makes you say that he is your slave that can be sold just like that? Wasn’t I the one who found him?"
"It might have been you who found him but you still found him while escorting our caravan. Whatever you find, it should be ours. That is how it is normally done with these kinds of escort missions."
Hou Dong snorted. "I wouldn’t know. I don’t do escort missions normally. I don’t think I’ve signed any contract that says so anyway, have I?"
The two men looked at each other, neither of them willing to back down.
Mister Zai’s son couldn’t help but interject. "Well, there have been some misunderstandings before. How about this? We won’t make things difficult for you for touching our goods and you won’t insist on such a high price. Wouldn’t we all be happy with that solution?"
Hou Dong snorted. "That is one hell of a trade. It’s not as if your 'goods' were known to be a virgin. So me touching him or not will not have any effect on his worth whatsoever. Furthermore, I still don’t think you can just casually claim him as your goods. Since I didn’t sign any such contract and I found him, then if anything he should be my slave. So what does it have to do with your goods if I touch my slave?"
Mister Zai grinned when Hou Dong said so. "Now, what you’re saying there doesn’t make much sense, Mister Hou. If you want to say that this isn’t our goods because you didn’t sign such a contract, then how can you ask us for money? You haven’t signed anything, so in the end, there isn’t any contract whatsoever. How can you expect me to pay you?"
Hou Dong narrowed his eyes. So now they didn’t just want to take away the beauty he had found and refused to pay him what his men’s service was worth, they even wanted to renege on their original promise and take the pitiful amount of remuneration back? "Oh? So you mean it won’t be a problem if we leave? Since there is no valid contract between us, it shouldn’t be a problem to just abandon you here. We’re not bound by anything, after all."
Mister Zai and his son exchanged a glance. They certainly wouldn’t have thought that this would be Hou Dong’s reaction.
Mister Zai cleared his throat and forced a smile. "Aiya, what are you saying, Mister Hou? I was merely saying that even though there wasn’t any written contract, our verbal promises should count just as much, shouldn’t they? So this is like agreeing on the standard contract. And following that contract, the beauty is ours."
"Still. Even if I would agree to this ridiculous statement, me touching him doesn’t change anything. You won’t be able to prove to your customers that he is a virgin regardless of whether he is or isn’t. Since there’s no proof, whatever you say is worthless. And it’s not like I raped him. I merely saved his life. Do you really want to make a big matter out of that? If I didn’t do so, then there wouldn’t be any goods in the first place."
Unfortunately, the merchants couldn’t argue that point.
Mister Zai’s son furrowed his brows but finally, his expression lit up. "Well, this matter is indeed a little tricky. How about this? We won’t make matters difficult for you in this regard. Unfortunately, there is no way for us to pay you more. You see, we’re just a small group of merchants. We don’t have that amount of money.
"If we had, wouldn’t we have paid a bigger sum to one of the experienced mercenary teams? We wouldn’t have needed to rely on a group of warriors that normally isn’t up to hire, would we?
"Ah, but since you are interested in our goods, we could make a deal about that. Why don’t you … and your men … enjoy yourself with it while we’re on the way to the city? As you said before, there is no way to ascertain that the goods are still untouched. You might as well enjoy him a few times. I’d just like to ask that you do not go overboard. One or two men a night should be the limit. Otherwise, there really won’t be any way to sell it any longer. Would you agree to that?"
Agree to that? Hou Dong gritted his teeth and clenched his hands into fists. As if he’d agree to that! He had promised that he wouldn’t force the beauty. And now these stupid merchants actually suggested that he and his men should rape him? Had they gone nuts?
He stared at the two men and his gaze brushed over the other merchants at the table before he gave a huff. "So that’s your way of dealing with this. Alright, I’ve heard what I needed to hear." He got up and walked out of the house, striding over to his men.
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