26 I Did It Well

Qinghai soon grew bored; there wasn't much movement inside, the footsteps of an old man and a kid walking in the back part of the store were the only noise he could hear. The situation couldn't have been more static and unappealing that he didn't bother in using his soul sense to see what was going inside. He really wondered how Xingtian seemed to put more attention as the time passed.

'Tsk, tsk…' he shook his head in his mind, not understanding what could have him like that.

*Sigh* Then, he turned his sight to the table and began to play with the cup before him that was full of a bluish wine to release some of his boredom…

It wasn't until half an hour had gone by that the old man and his grandchild came out from the room at the back of the herb store. Even so, the old man had yet to finish collecting all the herbs on the list so he was now going through the shelves of the store with his grandchild helping him by the side after both had left some boxes on the counter.

When they had come out, Huan Meirong had wanted to ask them about some of the herbs she had identified but hearing how busy they were she decided to wait; she could hear how, every now and then, the little kid went and came from the old man to the counter to put some boxes on it.

Almost twenty minutes passed for the old man to finally go back to the counter, "The young lady, here are all. Would the young lady like to check up the contents?"

Huan Meirong got up from her sitting position and took out her hand from her veiled-hat to wave it, "There's no need but Meirong would like to ask, does his elderly sells Golden Mellow Peaches, Cold Water Lilies and Red Spirit Ambergris?" This time, she first asked to know if he had them instead of throwing a list away.

"Ah, yes, yes." The old man replied with a slight pause between his words. It was strange for her to ask as they were on display no far from where she was. But he didn't go deep into it as whatever assumption he made would be just that, a simple guess; he didn't have a way to know the right answer to the question he had in his head.

'So I was right.' She tilted her head to a side while rising her hand to her chin to make a thinking gesture, 'Then, this store had more kinds of herbs that I had thought but how?' Because Zhi'er had told her that it was a small herb store, she had assumed that it only sold rank one and two herbs; it was not until later that she recognized the fragrance of plenty rank tree ones like the Golden Mellow Peach and even rank four ones like the Cold Water Lily and the Red Spirit Ambergris.

'It is rare but it couldn't be better for me.

*Sigh* If it wasn't because I had come into contact with the aroma of some rank four herbs before I wouldn't have known it as I'm now blind. Urghh… like this, I'm really tempted to spread my soul force as there were many scents that I couldn't identify. Hmm…'

"Ahm… young lady?" The old man asked with some doubt.

"Eh, ah, right. How much of each does his elderly have?" Huan Meirong said after being taken out from her thoughts.

"It's not much as it is a small store but if this old man counts what is in stock. There are 43 Golden Mellow Peaches, 33 Cold Water Lilies and fifty grams of Red Spirit Ambergris, all low quality."

'…' Huan Meirong's mouth almost twitched, 'Is he calling not much to that quantity. Moreover, he still dares to say that this is a small store. Tsk, people in the south are lavish. Hmm… Hold on…' She paused and palmed her cheek, 'This is the south and not the north. I had forgotten about it. Then, no wonder,' she nodded to herself and said, "The elder, pack half of each one. Meirong is surprised, the stores I have visited before didn't have this much." She added a slight praise with a hidden purpose.

Zhi'er was a bit taken aback and turned around to see his miss, 'When has the eldest miss visited those stores? Had the eldest miss gone out without him knowing it or it was before he had come into the City Lord's House?' he tried to remember by himself and that was good as it kept him from voicing out his thoughts.

"Ahh… Then, that means those stores had been doing well or that couldn't a good deal with the bigger shops," the old man didn't expect she will compare his store to other ones; hence he was slow in replying. However, his reply wasn't a smug one but reserved one. Even so, he had revealed some information which was what Huan Meirong wanted.

"Hmm… deal with bigger shops?" She inquired.

"Yes, small stores like this don't have the personnel to go and seek for rank three and above herbs so all of them come from being bought to medium-sized stores and above; all we can get are the low-quality ones though," he answered before quietly commanding his grandchild, who was also listening to the conversation, to go and pack those things.

"Oh." She quite began to understand but new questions emerged too, 'So bigger shops don't have on display high-rank herbs if they are of low-quality?

Tsk, the south is fancy indeed or… is the north just too poor?

Ugghh, whatever… who am I now to worry about the Huang Dynasty? As long as my Huan family is all right, I won't mind if his Empire collapses under his reign.' She got a swing of mood when her thoughts suddenly passed from how were the things on the south to the ones on her far away past home…

*Thud*

"Here is the fifty grams of Red Ambergris, grandpa," the little child said as he went to the opposite side of the counter of where Huan Meirong was.

The old man nodded, he was also at the back of the counter too as he had gone back to his place when Huan Meirong went quiet and seemed to have gotten in a bad mood out of nowhere. He wasn't sure about the latter though, as her face was covered by a veil that hung from a hat.

The call of the child had made the upset Huan Meirong came back to reality. She forced herself to calm after finding out her altered air and then said, "How much is it?"

"185 gold coins and 32 silver coins but for the young lady only 180 golden coins."

'So cheap?!' She felt her mind blowing away. Even if they were low-quality herbs, that was cheap, or at least to her and yet again she began to feel bad for her old dynasty. Though she didn't want to care, she still had her concerns about it; she had been the mother of that nation, after all.

Even so, she suppressed whatever feeling it had sprouted in her heart and thought positive, 'Long live to the south, I guess.' And then, she took out the 180 golden coins from the qiankun bag she had got earlier.

The old man took them with a wave of his hand and nodded, though he hadn't count them; the young lady had trusted him so he chose to do the same.

Huan Meirong did the same, she focused on the lingering herbs' aroma from the thin wooden boxes and some folded sheets on the counter and waved her hand.

When the things were inside her first golden qiankun bag she checked them, just to see if she hadn't taken anything extra.

'*Sigh* I did it well,' she felt relieved with her success, "Thanks, we will come back. Zhi'er let's go back," she said before turning around to go.

"Aye," Zhi'er nodded cheerfully as he walked to her to lead the way; he was happy that his miss had bought what she wanted, though he didn't know from where his miss had gotten so much gold. In fact, he had been a pool of opposite emotions in the short amount of time from where the old man had said how much it was till his miss had gotten her things; he had felt anguish when the old man uttered the amount of gold, surprise when his miss had paid and then really happy with the latter.

"Hua'er, send the young lady and little customer out."

"Ah! Yes, yes," the little kid replied and rushed to accompany them to the door.

Huan Meirong heard the old man and turned her head back without stopping her steps and gave a slight nod.

The old man nodded in reply before returning to the room in the back.