Te Langpu

Chapter 82 – Te Langpu

March 30th, Julu City.

Te Langpu, the young master of the wealthiest merchant in Ye City, and his entourage arrived at Julu. They brought 100,000 tons of grain and other provision to trade with Tong. Their caravans and escorts occupied the entire road in front of the city south gate, which caused an uproar and interest of the civilian onlookers.

Five hundred patrolling light cavalries under Bo Cai had to stay around the vicinity of the conveys to protect them and kept the order. These people were too eye-catching, so Bo Cai was afraid that a random hoodlum or triad group might take this chance to rob them on the way.

Te Langpu saw that the city sent a small unit to protect them, he snorted.

"They underestimate me too much. Even if I'm by myself, no one in this world and kill me."

As a reincarnator, Te Langpu had a few tricks in his sleeves to protect himself, including his system skills. He did not need Bo Cai's men to guard him and his caravans.

"Well, I'll leave them be. For now, let's see what kind of city that Zhang Tong has built."

…

Te Langpu entrusted the negotiation and other minor details for the business dealing with his subordinates, then he ditched the work and took the tour around the city.

Before Te Langpu got far into the inner city, he caught sight of two familiar buildings.

The mysterious buildings "Wall-Marked" and "Swing-Eleven" had been completed, and the craftsmen and carpenters with various tools were busy crafting mysterious long shelves and furniture inside the buildings.

The town people gathered around to see what these large buildings with 3 meters in height and 200 square meters were for.

Then a sign was placed at the front door. It said "Supermarket for commoners. Open date – April 2nd". None of the civilians understood the meaning behind it, even the scholars.

Within the crowd, Te Langpu glared at the sign with a deep frown. He was the only one who understood the purpose of this kind of buildings.

'Someone has made this move before the great me.'

'This is not good. I've lost the brand awareness competition.'

'Fudge! Why is it always the Chinese!?'

'I competed with you in my last life. Even in this life, you are still bigly haunting me!'

'Is it because I had kidnapped a daughter of a scum in my last life?'

'It was not my fault! Some assholes came up with this idea! I even let her bailed out!'

Gritting his teeth in frustration and envy, Te Langpu returned to his men. He no longer was in the mood for touring the city because of the existence of these shops.

Afterward, he heard about the new laws which Tong had implemented recently. Te Langpu wanted to curse Tong out loud for his amateurish constitutions and his government corporate system, but he swallowed his words back because there were too many people around him.

…

The meeting with the officials was smooth. Although Te Langpu could not meet Tong, he completed his transaction and got his hands on 10,000 bars of soap. He would take this soap and journey southward to Xu Chang or toward southeast to Xia Pi City to resell all these goods.

It was a troublesome process of a peddling distributer, but the profit was worth the time and effort. If he sold it around this province, the price would be limited to 40 gold a piece or lower. Instead, if he took a trip further into the area which had not been touched by the soap merchants of the Yuan family, he estimated that he could get at least 70 gold a piece in return.

Te Langpu looked at the bronze mirror in his hand and combed his bang.

'A pity that I can't get to see Zhang Tong. But it doesn't matter. I'll get my hands on the soap recipe, then I'll relocate from Ye to the future Capital of Wei. Or maybe I should go a bit further south to Xiangyang City? Xiangyang was untouched by the civil war until Cao Cao snatched it over from Liu Biao's descendant. So I should be fine over there.'

Te Langpu recollected his thought. Although he was strong and almost invincible, he did not enjoy participating in any conflict, be it with the natives or other reincarnators.

'Zhang Tong utilized 7-11 and Walmart business model over here, so I can't compete with him in his turf. Maybe I should do something similar in other cities before he does. I-KEA still hasn't been taken yet. Right, I should also rebuild my casinos over there as well. I'll make it the new Las Vegas in this freaking ancient world!'

…

…

March 31st.

The auction, which was organized by the city government, was held today. Although many merchants were dissatisfied with the new laws and disliked how Tong and his family operated the city, they still could not resist the treasures, antiques and the soap recipe that Tong put into the auction.

The auction would be held in the stadium in the noble resident area. This building once belonged to one of the corrupted nobles that Tong had killed. It was renovated into an open-air theater with a wooden stage and stone chairs, which was designed based on the European theater in the renaissance era.

The wealthy nobles and merchants cued in line and entered the manor. They sat on the seat that they were assigned with.

On the other side, five fat merchants were being escorted into another entrance. They were guided to the VIP lounge on the separated seat section.

These people were the representative merchants that made a deal with Tong a couple months ago. They had finished gathering their funds and provision, and they shipped everything in Julu. Although they spent almost a million tael of gold to buy 50,000 bars of soap from Tong, they made a loan from their colleagues in other cities with their shops as collaterals, so they had enough money to compete the others for the soap recipe.

Meanwhile, the unique hair chubby man from Ye City also participated in this auction. At first, he wanted to attend the auction in the VIP lounge, but he was declined by the staffs and was given the seat on the side instead.

When they entered the theater, a gigantic signboard on the side caught their attention. On the signboard, a message, which was written in large letters, was posted there.

"Theater Schedule:

March 31st, 9 AM to 7 PM. - Auction

April 1st, 9 AM to 12 AM. - New Product Demonstration"

The schedule note was understandable to the merchants. However, the next event tomorrow piqued their interest. As traders, they were sensitive to the word "New Product". Some of the auction participants started inquiring about the demonstration.

"Hey, you there! Do you know about this [New Product Demonstration]?"

"Excuse me! Could you tell me the details about the tomorrow event?"

"Do you know how can I reserve a seat for tomorrow?"

Betraying their expectation, the staffs shook their head as they had no idea what would be the new product or what kind of event they would have. Tomorrow schedule was organized by the son of the city lord himself, and he did not give any details to the staffs.

…

On the stage, Hua Shi walked out from behind the curtain. She took the role as a host in this auction.

At first, she refused to take this job because she already had her hands full dealing with the accounting and being Zhang Jiao's secretary. As usual, Tong convinced her on the bed for two days straight, which resulted in Hua Shi being here with another part-time job.

Because she had been given a lot of love lately, her skin became glossy and smooth. She grew more beautiful as if she was a maiden-in-love. The assets on her chest also seemed to get bigger as Tong massaged them a lot during their dual-cultivation.

Most importantly, unlike the local women in this world, Hua Shi took bath every day. She also used Tong's soap and the secret shampoo that he was experimenting with, which made her looked cleanlier and healthier than ordinary girls.

The crowd was stunned by her beauty. They swallowed their saliva in instinct. Some of them lost control of their conscience and drool. All eyes were fixated on her as if she was a national treasure.

"I BID 100,000 TEALS OF GOLD!!"

A twelve-year-old young noble lost control of himself and shouted, which caused everybody to laugh.

"Hahaha, she's the host. She's not a merchandise, you idiot."

"Naïve youth is naïve."

"Please be careful of yourself. You're a noble. You are held responsible for your every action."

"Y-Yes. I'm sorry."

The youth was reprimanded by his surrounding auction participants. He bowed his head down in shame, but he still sneaked a glance at Hua Shi.

"Still, the price was a little cheap. Don't you think so?"

"Huh? 100,000 gold is cheap!? You got to be kidding right?"

"Do you have any idea who she is?"

"No, who is she?"

"She's your goddamn "Goddess of Death" and the Immortal Zhang Tong's wife! If you want to seek death, go ahead and try bidding for her for only 100,000 gold. I want to see how Zhang Tong reacts when he hears about you."

"N-No, thanks."

Because of the commotion made by the naïve youth, the crowd murmured and joked among themselves.

Hua Shi coughed to get their attention and started the auction.

"May I get your attention, please? My name is Hua Shi, and I am your host for today. I will not waste your time with my speech or useless introduction. We will start with our first item …"