Chapter 2488 — Consignment Sale

Inwardly, though, she was cursing Wei Zhao a thousand times over, wishing he would stumble on a stone this very moment and break his neck.

"What is it?" Wei Zhao turned his head to look at Yang Qiqi, his hand giving her chest a couple of squeezes as he did.

"Ah..." Yang Qiqi let out a soft gasp, nearly driven out of her mind, but in the end she endured it. "It's nothing... there are so many people here... it's not right..."

"Oh, nothing, then," Wei Zhao said indifferently, though his movements grew even more brazen.

Han Xiaopo's face was a mass of question marks. Wei Zhao was not normally such a slave to lust; Han Xiaopo had had a great deal of contact with him, and though beauties gathered around Wei Zhao like clouds, he had never once made such a lewd, unsightly gesture...

Could it be... revenge? Han Xiaopo grasped it in an instant—he was no fool either. Earlier Yang Qiqi had wanted to trade the blue crystal to that Heaven-rank cultivator for the blood of an earth-attribute Heaven-rank spirit beast, but where would she get another blue crystal? Had her blue crystal not ended up in Wei Zhao's hands?

In that case, her scheme was plain as day for all the world to see. In seducing Wei Zhao, she wanted nothing more than to get that blue crystal back from him, and Wei Zhao, striking the snake and following the staff, had probably guessed her intent as well.

Shaking his head, Han Xiaopo sneered inwardly. This little girl might have a fine figure, but she had underestimated their leader far too much. The women around him were many; in a contest of figures, could she possibly outdo Shen Yushu?

"How about... how about... tonight I come to your room?" Yang Qiqi said in a sweet, coquettish voice.

"Heh heh, sure. But what happens at night, we'll discuss at night." Wei Zhao, having such a fine public opportunity to take his due and never one to let it slip by, was no lecher—but at least a normal man—and since this little miss Yang Qiqi was forever returning kindness with enmity, he did not mind taking a bit more of his due from her as a lesson.

Yang Qiqi was helpless. All she could do was let Wei Zhao fondle her. Though in her heart she wished to kill him on the spot, her eyes still had to show a coy, bashful light, a look of one who refused and yet welcomed, thoroughly enjoying it... a sight more wretched than words could tell.

After making a round, Wei Zhao was satisfied that none of these stall vendors had anything he needed, and his interest began to flag; Yang Qiqi, however, was growing anxious within. Being toyed with by Wei Zhao like this was no solution—not only was it unpleasant for her, it was a betrayal of her beloved Brother Xiao Yi...

But the facts were so helpless: Yang Qiqi could only kill Wei Zhao afterward to vent her fury. Yet at the thought of Wei Zhao's terrifying skill, she felt she was probably no match for him at all—and if she had been, she would not have been bullied by that scrawny scarecrow in the first place.

Her heart swung between gain and loss. In her utter helplessness, Yang Qiqi had no choice but to endure.

"Xiaopo, when is that auction going to be held?" Wei Zhao asked.

"By the usual arrangements, it should be tomorrow. There are free lodgings here in the market at night for people to stay in," Han Xiaopo said. "Leader, do you have anything you want to auction? We could put it up for consignment."

"I do." The pills in Wei Zhao's possession were of little great use to him, and he had no time to set up a stall here and trade them with others; the simplest path was to convert them into funds and then purchase other things. So Wei Zhao said, "Then let's go consign the goods first."

"All right." Han Xiaopo nodded and volunteered to lead the way. He knew the affairs of the market better than Wei Zhao did.

Yang Qiqi, meanwhile, was overjoyed within, wondering whether she might find a chance to steal the blue crystal back while Wei Zhao was consigning his goods.

Han Xiaopo led Wei Zhao out of the stall area of the market to the gate of a somewhat secluded side courtyard. At the gate, disciples of the Law Enforcement Hall were on patrol.

"Who goes there? What's your business? This is the office of the Cultivators' Commerce Guild. If you have no business here, please leave," one of the Law Enforcement Hall disciples said to Wei Zhao and the others.

"Oh, we've come to consign goods for auction. How do we go about the procedures?" Though Han Xiaopo knew a fair amount about the cultivators' market, the hidden Han family of old had not done business, and to avoid drawing attention they had never come here to consign goods, so Han Xiaopo knew only the rough outlines.

"Consigning goods for auction, eh? Of course that's possible. Follow me," the Law Enforcement Hall disciple said with a nod.

It was not that no cultivators came here to consign goods—there were simply not many. Most cultivators still preferred to set up stalls outside and trade freely, so that they could barter directly and see whether there was anything they needed; but the proceeds of an auction could only be money.

Yet few did not mean none. There were still some—for instance, the people of the hidden You family often consigned pills and the like, for the operation of a hidden clan still required a great deal of money.

Entering the side courtyard, Wei Zhao and the other two were led into a room where a man dressed somewhat like the clerk of an old-fashioned pawnshop was sorting something. Seeing the Law Enforcement Hall disciple bring people in, he asked directly, "You have goods to consign for auction?"

Wei Zhao did not see that Heaven-rank vice-chairman here. No doubt a vice-chairman was stationed here to hold the fort and would not stoop to such trifles personally. This set Wei Zhao's mind at ease—his one fear had been that the vice-chairman would settle private scores under public cover and tamper with the auction value.

"Indeed. I have some pills I'd like to consign for auction," Wei Zhao said with a nod. As he spoke, he took the pack from his back, opened it, and laid several small bottles out one by one before the pawnshop clerk.

"Pills?" The pawnshop clerk was rather surprised at the sight of what Wei Zhao brought out. "Are you of the hidden You family?"

"No." Wei Zhao shook his head. "Does auctioning here require inquiring into the consignor's identity?"

"That it does not," the pawnshop clerk said with a somewhat embarrassed shake of his head. "It's only that in the past, only the hidden You family ever came to auction pills. As you know, this cultivators' market is small in scale—the Mystic Pill Sect would never stoop to look at it—so our former source of pills was only one. When someone suddenly came to auction pills, I assumed by reflex that you must be of the hidden You family as well."

"Heh heh, then tell me, what are the rules for auctioning?" Wei Zhao asked.

"For consignment sales, according to the rules, we take a twenty percent transaction commission on the total final sale price of the auctioned goods. So when you set your price, you must factor this in and not sell at a loss," the pawnshop clerk said.

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