Free Web NovelChapter 383: Chapter 150: Sucker
She calmly asked the old doctor, "I have my eye on this ginseng. Name your price."
The old doctor stroked his beard and looked between the two parties. "Mrs. Meng, this ginseng is for this..."
"But it hasn’t been sold yet, has it? I know business is on a first-come, first-served basis, but I truly need this ginseng for a prescription. Please, I must ask you to part with it."
The old doctor tried again, "That’s not..."
"You have a healer’s compassionate heart; surely you couldn’t bear to see me tormented by illness. Please, sell me the ginseng you’re holding. A fifty-year-old ginseng is worth at least fifty taels. How about this? I’ll give you seventy taels. What do you say?"
"Well..."
Chen Wanqing stepped out from beside Zhao Jing and suddenly spoke. "I’ll offer one hundred taels."
The three words, "one hundred taels," silenced the entire pharmacy.
Patients and doctors alike all stopped what they were doing to stare intently at them.
Mrs. Meng smirked. The Meng Family was in the silk business. While one couldn’t describe them as fabulously wealthy, the household was certainly not short on money.
It was only a hundred taels of silver. The monthly allowance paid to the maids in her household was more than that.
But for a poor couple, that amount was another matter entirely.
Mrs. Meng smirked. "I offer one hundred and twenty taels."
"One hundred and fifty taels."
"One hundred and eighty taels."
"Two hundred taels..."
In the span of just a few breaths, a ginseng worth a mere fifty-two taels had been bid up to this price, its value multiplying several times over in an instant.
Two hundred taels—an amount of silver many common folk could never save in a lifetime.
But Zhao Jing was a Triple First Scholar, so he might have prize money from the government office, and Chen Wanqing also ran a business, so she probably had some money of her own.
From Mrs. Meng’s perspective, even if Chen Wanqing’s business was doing well, her earnings were surely limited. This was mainly because the Meng Family currently had no scholars, and Mrs. Meng had strictly forbidden her clansmen from patronizing Chen Wanqing’s business. So, while she knew Chen Wanqing’s business was successful, she had no real idea of the extent of that success and mentally discounted it.
But as long as it was successful, it was making money. ’That couple probably really does have a few hundred taels of silver,’ she concluded.
For a moment, Mrs. Meng thought about backing down and letting Chen Wanqing get ripped off.
But losing this ginseng felt like losing face, and Mrs. Meng, who had always harbored a grudge against Chen Wanqing, couldn’t possibly bear that.
Mrs. Meng smirked and hiked the price up sharply. "Two hundred and fifty taels."
She was about to add some taunts to lure Chen Wanqing into a bidding war, hoping to set a nasty trap for her, but Chen Wanqing saw right through her and refused to take the bait.
She gave a mocking smile and made a gesture of concession. "Since you insist on having this ginseng, it’s all yours."
The moment Mrs. Meng saw Chen Wanqing’s smile, her heart sank. It wasn’t that she felt the sting of spending so much silver on a single ginseng, but rather that she was struck with a sudden, ominous feeling.
The premonition was direct and intense. Just as Mrs. Meng was about to delve deeper into her thoughts, Chen Wanqing raised an eyebrow at her. "Aren’t you going to pay? Or do you not have that much silver? Or could it be that you were just competing with me for fun and had no intention of buying the ginseng in the first place?"
More and more people crowded around. Even people from the street, seeing a commotion worth watching, ducked inside one after another to see.
The crowd pointed at the people involved, and some who recognized them began quietly explaining the "history" between them to the others.
Under the watchful eyes of the crowd, how could Mrs. Meng possibly go back on her word and not pay?
She lifted her chin and looked at her son. "Well? Settle the bill."
Meng Jinchun didn’t want to fork over the silver.
’Spending an extra two hundred taels on something that’s only worth fifty? Just to vent some frustration?’
’Was it worth it?’
’Was it really necessary?’
’Do we really have to be the suckers who pay for it?!’
Meng Jinchun glanced left and right, only to receive a sharp slap from Mrs. Meng. "Hand over your purse."
How could Meng Jinchun dare to hand it over?
His purse was full of all sorts of questionable things. If his mother saw what was inside, she’d faint from fury.
Left with no choice, Meng Jinchun took two hundred and fifty taels in silver notes from his purse.
He was extremely reluctant as he handed them over, whispering to his mother, "Have you really thought this through? Are we really spending this huge sum on one ginseng? I was planning to buy you a set of gold-inlaid ruby jewelry. If we buy the ginseng, I won’t be able to get the jewelry."
"Stop your whining and give them to me."
Meng Jinchun gave the silver notes to Mrs. Meng, who in turn handed them to the old doctor. The old doctor glanced at Chen Wanqing and Zhao Jing, sighed, placed the ginseng in a gift box, and gave it to Meng Jinchun.
That one glance from the doctor made Mrs. Meng feel even more suspicious.
She couldn’t help but stare at the old doctor before her gaze shifted back to Chen Wanqing.
Right in front of her, Chen Wanqing calmly held out her hand, and the old doctor placed the silver notes—still cool to the touch—directly into it.
At this sight, Mrs. Meng’s vision went black, while the surrounding onlookers erupted in laughter.
"HAHAHA, she totally got played!"
"Oh man, I watched the whole thing from start to finish without daring to breathe. That was absolutely brilliant!"
"Well, that was an eye-opener. So that’s another way to ’earn’ silver."
"Quick, look at Mrs. Meng! She was made a complete fool and is about to faint from rage. I’d faint too if it were me! Who could have possibly expected that?! She was trying to crush the other party, but in the end, she just gave them all that money for free. It’s a miracle her lungs haven’t exploded from anger!"
