Chapter 43: Payment Repaid
The rich, savory aromas of the exquisite feast continued to drift across the polished mahogany table, but as the dinner progressed, the conversation naturally shifted from casual culinary praises to the more serious matters of business.
Lin Laifu set down his silver chopsticks, dabbing his mouth with a fine silk napkin before looking across the table toward his young guest with a calculating, yet friendly glint in his eye.
"Well, Young Master Lu," Lin Laifu began, his tone dipping into a smooth, professional register. "The food is wonderful, but as businessmen, we must eventually address the practicalities. During our journey here, we briefly touched upon the logistics, but we never formally settled the matter concerning the administrative fees and accommodation costs you owe to my network for the transport and entry facilitation."
Hearing the topic turn toward financial obligations, Lu Feng gave an understanding nod. Instead of making excuses or fumbling for physical pouches, Lu Feng discreetly focused his mind inward, instantly calling upon his interface.
Right there on the spot, while maintaining steady eye contact with the loan shark, Lu Feng’s consciousness opened his system interface.
A semi-transparent, glowing holographic blue box materialized directly within his mind’s eye. In one specific section of the storage box, a folded paper icon sat quietly with a small string of numbers hovering at the top of the icon, but Lu Feng completely ignored it, dismissing the notification with a mental flick of his focus.
Instead, he silently commanded the system shop to open.
A vast, cascading catalog of items flickered into view. Lu Feng quickly browsed through the seemingly endless categories, discovering thousands of different pills, elixirs, and medicinal compounds with varying grades and prices. He even noticed that a large section of the shop items were completely grayed out and stamped with a solid padlock icon, hinting heavily that those high-tier treasures were currently locked and inaccessible to his present user level.
He scrolled past the locked items until he filtered his search down to basic consumables.
Before long, he spotted a cheap, highly effective healing pill priced at a mere single gold coin per unit.
Without hesitation, Lu Feng mentally selected the item and completed the transaction. A subtle mental ripple echoed through his consciousness as he felt the physical weight of gold coins slipping out of his mental inventory space, immediately replaced by the subtle, resonant hum of ten newly acquired pills materializing in their place.
The system automatically packaged them efficiently: they were cased in small, immaculate jade bottles, with exactly one pill safely sealed inside each individual jade vial.
Deciding that these would serve as the perfect currency to settle his minor debts and thoroughly impress the loan shark, Lu Feng subtly shifted his posture. He acted like he was reaching deep into the heavy inner lining of his traveling robes, sliding his hand into his hidden pocket while actually smoothly withdrawing three of the pristine jade bottles straight from his system inventory.
He placed the three small vials gently onto the polished surface of the dining table, sliding them across the mahogany wood toward Lin Laifu.
"As for the fees I owe you, Master Lin, consider these more than enough settlement for our travel accommodations," Lu Feng stated smoothly.
Lin Laifu blinked in surprise, casually picking up one of the jade bottles to inspect it. But the moment his fingers brushed the smooth stone and he pulled the cork to peer inside, the man’s eyes widened to the size of saucers.
A potent, refreshing medicinal fragrance burst forth from the vial, instantly filling the entire dining hall with a crisp, revitalizing energy that made everyone’s breathing feel lighter.
Stunned by the raw quality radiating from a simple casual payment, Lin Laifu immediately called out to one of his trusted estate workers standing near the doorway.
"Quickly! Fetch Elder Mo from the back dispensary! Have him evaluate these vials immediately!" Lin Laifu ordered, his voice cracking slightly with sudden professional urgency.
Within minutes, an elderly, gray-robed alchemical appraiser hurried into the dining hall. With trembling hands, Elder Mo took the jade bottles, carefully extracted the medicinal pills using silver tweezers, and inspected them under the warm lantern light, running several minor spiritual tests.
After a tense, breathless silence that lasted a few minutes, the evaluation worker turned back to his master, his face pale with awe.
"Master Lin..." the worker reported, his voice hushed and shaking. "These... these are not ordinary pills. They are of exceptionally high grade. The purity of the medicinal herbs locked inside is staggering. On the open market within Crimson Vale City, a single one of these healing pills could easily sell for over ten gold coins each!"
The pronouncement echoed clearly across the room, leaving even Lu Feng momentarily taken aback.
Thirty gold coins total for items that had cost him a mere three gold coins through the system store?
Even Lu Feng felt a flicker of surprise at the massive profit margin, but within a heartbeat, he understood two fundamental truths. First, even though it was classified as a basic, cheap item by the system’s absurdly high standards, the system priced it so low merely because it possessed vastly superior, god-tier treasures in its locked catalog.
Second, the value in the real world was astronomically high simply because such refined, flawless medicinal pills were exceedingly rare; only watered-down, weaker versions ever existed in the open market dominated by mediocre local alchemists.
Realizing what he was holding, Lin Laifu swallowed hard. He looked up at Lu Feng, suddenly feeling like he was holding burning coals.
"Young Master Lu... I—I cannot take these in good conscience," Lin Laifu stammered, shaking his head as he tried to push the bottles back across the table. Yet, despite his words, his eyes were practically oggling the jade bottles with undisguised greed and longing as soon as they were placed back near his plate. "This is far too valuable for a simple transport fee! These are worth a small fortune!"
Lu Feng chuckled softly, leaning back in his chair with an unbothered, magnanimous wave of his hand.
"Nonsense, Master Lin. Please, take them," Lu Feng urged smoothly, turning the loan shark’s own hospitality against him. "You were the only one who offered to accommodate us unconditionally on the road, and true association is built on mutual generosity. Consider it an investment in our ongoing friendship."
Lin Laifu offered a broad, immensely gratified smile. After acting a little more with token protests, pretending that he simply couldn’t receive such a massive gift, he folded like a cheap tent and actually collected the bottles, clutching them tightly to his chest before carefully storing them away in his secure inner pocket.
Ecified by the massive financial gain, Lin Laifu practically beamed.
"You honor me, Young Master Lu! You truly do!" Lin Laifu declared, pouring more wine all around. "Please, all of you, feel completely at home here. My workers will always be available to serve your every whim the moment you call for them. And as for tomorrow, I will personally take you out to check out some of the finest high-end establishments and scenic spots in Crimson Vale!"
They traded warm smiles, thanking each other repeatedly, with both men showering the other with endless compliments and polished praises.
Throughout the entire exchange, Han Lin and Ye Chenxue simply watched quietly from their seats, quietly eating their food and observing the masterclass in psychological manipulation unfolding before them. They occasionally exchanged amused, knowing glances among themselves, silently discussing how easily the greedy loan shark was eating out of Lu Feng’s hand.
After a while, the feast finally drew to a natural close. The remaining dishes were cleared away by attendants, and Lu Feng, Han Lin, and Ye Chenxue stood up to bid their host farewell, departing for their private quarters.
As they stepped out into the cool night air, Lu Feng made a deliberate point to thank Lin Laifu one last time, cementing his image as a polite, generous, and highly appreciative young noble.
Slowly and methodically, Lu Feng was drawing Lin Laifu closer into his web of influence. With every polite smile, every casual compliment, and every calculated gift of high-grade medicinal pills, he was successfully making the paranoid loan shark almost entirely forget a terrifying, crucial detail.
That Lu Feng was the very same dangerous young man who had casually revealed the brutal act of slaughtering over a dozen elite attackers all by himself out in the northern wilderness.