Making Friends (1)

When Li Ming entered the 'Black Jade Inn', she was greeted by Wei Rong and at least 12 more males surrounding him around his table.

The normally silent and peaceful main room was completely filled with the chatters of this group.

Wei Rong noticed Li Ming standing at the entrance door and stood up in excitement.

"Ming, here you are! We have been waiting for you. As I promised, I am back with my friends."

Li Ming came into the room and stood in front of the group. She noticed that all the men were of high statuses and most of them were older than her by four or five years.

"Master Rong, you sure have a nice amount of friends!" Li Ming said with a smirk.

It took Wei Rong a moment before he realized that she was mocking him.

"Hey! I thought I am helping you!" Wei Rong said defensively.

"If that is your intentions then I'm really grateful towards you. But I just can't stop wondering why you all came here just one hour before lunch break? Will you all be leaving to eat your lunch soon?" Li Ming's expressions were really very innocent.

"Ah!...Ming....We've heard a lot about your cooking skills. Everyone in the black market is talking about your amazing and delicious food and even the Fourth Prince is your fan. So...we are thinking that maybe....you can...." Wei Rong saw the murderous glare of Li Ming and stopped at once.

Although the girl was so much younger than him but there was something about her that assured him that she could kill him without even blinking her eyes.

"If I had any idea that my act of goodness will become such a trouble for me, I would have never done that. But it's already too late to regret." Li Ming muttered bitterly.

"How long you all are going to stay here?" She asked the group.

"Don't worry Miss Li, we all will be staying here until you will kick us out yourself." Wei Rong's younger brother and General family's fourth young master, Wei Min said and everybody laughed.

"Alright then! You will help me with something then we all will have lunch prepared by my cooks. Then we will start our game. I will treat you all with my personally cooked dinner in the evening. Okay?" Li Ming asked them.

"Why the dinner, Miss Li?" Yan Jhong, the only son of the Duke Yansheng, asked while taking a sip of the coffee.

"By the way, your tea is really nice." He said and everyone else also nodded their heads in agreement.

"Thank you. And to answer your question if I'm not wrong then the Fourth Prince will also be coming for his dinner. So, it will save me from working extra time and you all will get a chance to meet His Highness." Li Ming said while taking out some drawing sheets and pencils.

"It sounds like a good idea, but what if  Fourth Prince doesn't like it?" Wei Min asked.

"Don't worry about that, I will take care if that happens. Other than that, do you all agree with my plan?" She said as she placed the drawing sheets neatly on the table.

"We are all happy to comply, but what are these things Ming?" Wei Rong asked as he picked up one of the pencils.

"Didn't I asked you to help me with something? Or your entire focus was on the dinner that you even forget that." Li Ming said with a sad tone.

"Of course I remember! But what are these things?" Wei Rong asked again as he passed the pencil to others to take a look.

Li Ming picked up a drawing sheet and said while showing everyone, "As you all can see, it's a piece of a paper. The only difference is that it is of a very high quality and it is completely white in color rather than yellow."

"Oh....!"

Then she picked up a pencil and said, "It's called a pencil. It is much more convenient for writing than a brush & ink. Let me show you!"

After that she wrote down all of their names on the drawing sheet. She made sure that all of them could see clearly what she was doing.

"Don't we have to use any ink?" Yan Jhong asked with pure curiosity in his voice.

"Of course not! You can see this sharp tip right?" She asked while pointing at the tip of the pencil with her index finger.

When the others nodded their heads, she said, "Whenever this tip broke down or finish completely, you just have to sharp it again with a sharpener."

Then she gave Wei Rong a sheet and a pencil and asked him to write something.

It took her some time to teach them how to exactly hold the pencil. But after 10 minutes everyone in the group had wrote at least one line using the pencil.

By this time the sharp tip of the pencil had shortened and it was impossible to write with it anymore.

Then she took out a sharpener and showed them how to sharp the pencil.

"See! We have again a sharp tip to write." She passed the pencil and sharpener to them to take a look.

All of the men were fascinated. "Ming, where did you get these things from?" Wei Rong asked.

"I'm not selling away my secrets. Now enough of the fun. Let's start with the main task." She told Elder Fu to ask the Huang sisters to prepare the lunch.

Then she looked at the sheets with an evil smile. The look in her eyes was like she was going to devour something alive while enjoying each second of it.

"Sometimes, you give a very evil feeling." Snowy said through their bond as he came running down the stairs and jumped into her lap. After giving her a few licks on her face, he finally settled down on her lap.

"..." Li Ming wanted to kick the idiot out of the door.

"Is he yours? He's so cute." Wei Min said.

"Thanks! His name is Snowy." Li Ming said with a little smile.

"I like him." Snowy said through their bond while looking at Wei Min.

"What are you doing here?" Li Ming asked while pondering weather to push him away or let him stay.

"I'm bored." Snowy said in a weak voice.

This was enough to make her stone made heart melt. She stroked him lightly on his head, then finally looked at the group.

"I want you all to help me organize a few things." She told them.

"As long as we can help. What are you planning?" This time it was Bai Liang, the second master of the Marquis manor, who spoke.

"Tell me what is the price that the Breezing flowers charged for one night?" She asked while she picked up a pencil and a sheet.

When she looked up at the others, she found all of them looking anywhere else but at her with different states of embarrassed looks on their faces.

It took her a few seconds to realize the reason. "You... ! I'm asking about the price of a normal stay, without any special service." She wanted to curse at all of these stupid morons.

When the males heard what she said, they finally relaxed.

"Oh!.....They charge 15 silver coins for one night stay. The tea and the snacks were also included in it." Wei Rong answered.

"Then I will charge.....50 silvers for one night." She said and wrote down something on the sheet.

"...." The others looked at each other with confusion.

"Why are you charging 50 silvers? Isn't it too much?" Bai Liang asked with surprise.

"Are you forgetting that I'm also providing three times meal to my customers. Not only that, the tea and most of the dishes are only available in here. The decorations and the comfort is also a bonus. Calculate yourself, that if you have to eat your three meals in a restaurant it will normally cost you almost 80-100 silvers. But I'm providing the three meals and a place to stay only in 50 silvers." Li Ming said while pointing out all the facts.

After hearing her words everyone agreed that she was not asking too much. In fact, she was the one who was in the loss.

When Li Ming saw that all of them agreed with her point she continued, "Also I'm going to charge 50 silvers for each plate, if someone wants to eat the dishes prepared by me."

The color on their face paled when they heard what she was saying. Li Ming laughed and said, "Don't worry I'm not going to charge you today for the dinner but you have to pay for the lunch and the game."

"Just don't ask for too much price for the game. Otherwise we all will become poor just in one day." Wei Min said and all of them laughed.