Unparalleled Double Harmony

Chapter 449: The sky is asking for a price

Snapped--

After listening to Hu Wenzhi's story, Yu Jianli slammed the table and shouted, "Great!"

Everyone was startled by his shout and turned to look at him, only to see that... his head was tilted, his shoulders were slanted, his cheeks were red, his eyes were rolling... his eyelids were almost drooping, and he looked like he was very drunk.

"Mr. Yu, what's good?" Faning, who was sitting next to him, asked.

But the answer he got was: "Say... well said, hiccup... sounds crisp!"

After Yu Jianli said this nonsense, he staggered onto the table, put his head on the table and fell asleep with his face on a plate of food. He snored as he slept, and from time to time he uttered words like "Oh!", "That's it?", "Me?", etc., as if he was relying on instinct to make a joke out of nothing.

Of course, this phenomenon is actually very easy to explain, because Mr. Yu is a well-known "big friend" in the underworld, and he has drinking parties almost all year round. For example, today, before he came to Xinghui Building, he had already finished two parties, and he started at noon... With this intensity and density, no matter how good the alcohol tolerance or how fast the metabolism is, people can't stand it. So Mr. Yu has developed the ability over the years... Even if he is drunk for a while, sober for a while, or even drunk and lying down, he can still chat with other drunks at the table.

Right now, he was talking to other people at the table unconsciously in a semi-drunk state, leaving the others at a loss for words.

However, after thinking about it for a while, Ding Buzhu came to his own judgment.

"Heh...it looks like Mr. Yu is drunk." He said, then stood up, walked to the door, opened it and shouted outside, "Someone come in."

Some people may say, "Boss Ding, how come this is just like when we eat in a private room in a not-so-good restaurant? Why do we have to walk to the door of the private room, open it, and yell for the waiter?" In martial arts movies, when the host wants to call someone in, the host should sit still and just raise his voice or clap his hands to call the person in.

You are right, this is how TV dramas usually play out, but if you think about it carefully, there are only two possibilities to achieve this:

First: There was always a servant waiting very close to the door.

But there is a problem with this. Since the servants can hear you clapping, they can definitely hear you talking. This means that there is no difference between having them stand outside and inside to serve you. It will not keep confidentiality at all.

Besides, clapping is not a reliable method to call people in. Unless you come up with a particularly complex clap signal, who knows if it is you who claps two or three times? If you meet someone like Uncle Yu, who gets drunk and starts to have fun, singing and dancing to Wahaha for you, he can clap you in eight times.

Second: Let the servant wait at a distant location designated by the master, and when the master needs it, the servant will use his inner strength to transmit his own voice to that location.

This way, the servants won't be able to eavesdrop on the conversation in the room, and the master can still maintain his dignity when calling people. The problem is... the master's martial arts must reach a certain level to do this.

As for Ding Buzhu...his martial arts skills were not that high, so he could only stand up like us and shout at the door with his flesh voice.

After he shouted, a while later, two male servants wearing Xinghui Building uniforms came quickly from a distance.

"Boss, your orders." Even though they look big and strong, when they are in front of Ding Buzhu, they have to lower their heads and speak in soft voices.

"You two, help Mr. Yu to the guest room to rest." Ding Buzhu was not vague and made the decision for Yu Jianli.

"Yes." The two men nodded and went into the house to move people.

Uncle Yu naturally didn't put up any resistance at this moment. But when others lifted him up, he was still humming, "If you see I'm a little tired, please pour me a glass of water." I don't know what he was doing in his dream, he was even singing.

"Be careful not to hurt Mr. Yu. Remember to find two girls to look after Mr. Yu after you put him down." After the servant left, Ding Buzhu gave a few more instructions at the door, then closed the door and sat back at the table.

As soon as he sat down, he was met with a sharp gaze.

Sun Yixie was seen staring at Ding Buzhu with his small eyes, as if he was going to kill him with a knife.

Ding Buzhu's heart tightened under the glare, and he thought to himself, "This Sun guy is really aggressive. For just such a small matter, do you want me to make it clear and explain it clearly?"

Despite his thoughts, he still had a smile on his face and quickly explained, "Haha... Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to make the decision for Mr. Yu, but Mr. Yu's actions just now are undoubtedly telling us... He doesn't want to get involved in this matter, so Ding is just doing him a favor and helping him get out of it."

Ding Buzhi was telling the truth. He judged that Yu Jianli's behavior just now was just a case of great wisdom pretending to be foolish. He wanted to stay out of the matter by pretending to be drunk, so he asked people to carry away Yu Jianli who was "already drunk".

But was Yu Jianli actually what Ding Buzhu thought... hard to say, but anyway, Sun Yixie glared at him, not because he acted on his own or something, but because he heard the words "find two girls to take good care of Mr. Yu", so he got angry again.

Sun Yixie gave him a look, the subtext was probably: "You bastard, you asked the girl to take care of the drunk man instead of here, and you even told us about it, did you do it on purpose? The key is that you took the guy who paid the bill away, so who will pay the bill later? I've been here for a long time, and I've spent hundreds of taels of silver, but in the end, I just drank tea and ate food, and listened to middle-aged uncles telling stories, and then you stole my house and jumped on my face, fuck... Can I ask you for mental damages now?"

"Boss Ding, then this 'Silkworm Seeking Ring' is a priceless treasure." On the other side, Huang Donglai got back to the point and asked a more pragmatic question, "You said you want to do this business with us, what price are you going to offer?"

Ding Buzhu heard that this was finally the point, so he immediately put away his polite smile, his face and tone sank at the same time, and replied: "Well... that's easy to say. Ding's Youjia Gang has quite a lot of assets, whether it's gold, silver, jewelry, antiques, calligraphy and paintings, weapons secrets, or even talented people and beauties... As long as the two dare to ask, there is nothing that I can't save face with Ding Buzhu. We ask for a high price and pay on the spot. I think we can always negotiate a result that satisfies both parties."

Ladies and gentlemen, this is a very powerful statement.

He starts with a few big statements to demonstrate his strength; in the middle he doesn't say anything final, indicating that there is room for "bargaining" to prevent the other party from asking for an exorbitant price; but in the end he says "we can always negotiate out a result", giving a posture that shows he is determined to win.

If you think about what these words mean, you will find that they are essentially a combination of empty promises and intimidation. They won't let you leave until you can't come to an agreement.

Everyone present was smart and it was impossible for them not to understand the meaning of these words, so after hearing these words, Fanning and Hu Wenzhi's faces changed immediately.

Fanning was already considering whether he should get drunk and get away like Uncle Yu.

As for Hu Wenzhi, even though he and Shuangxie came together, as we mentioned earlier, his friendship with Shuangxie was not that deep, and was not even as good as the relationship between Yu Jianli and Shuangxie. So at this moment he was very nervous, fearing that things would develop into "no deal, no way to leave", and he would be dragged in.

"Ha! Hahahaha...hahahaha..." A few seconds later, Sun Yixie and Huang Donglai's loud laughter came as expected.

Obviously, after these few seconds, these two guys have come up with a solution.

"Boss Ding..." Huang Donglai, who had just raised the question, was the first to speak. "You are indeed a man of quick words, heroic spirit, swift and decisive, and heroic... I admire you very much!"

Anyway, according to the routine, at this time, they would first open the way with a few polite words of flattery, and then start to do the things that hide a dagger behind a smile and a needle behind cotton.

"Well said!" Sun Yixie, who had just been killing people with his eyes, now had a hypocritical smile on his face. As he spoke, he picked up the wine glass in front of him, raised it and said, "Boss Ding...Brother Ding! Today we brothers must toast you a glass!"

"That's right!" Huang Donglai followed suit, half-standing up, holding a wine jug on the table with both hands, and slowly and respectfully poured a glass of wine for Ding Buzhu. Then he deliberately changed another wine jug and filled his own glass. Then he raised his glass and said, "Brother Ding, you won't refuse to give us brothers this face, right?"

Looking at Ding again, he couldn't help but break out in a cold sweat.

Boss Ding's inner thoughts were: "Okay, you two boys want to play with me like this, right? Everyone knows that you, the Huang Men of Shu, are the best in the martial arts world in terms of using poison. Now you are pouring wine for me in front of me, using this action. That means you are telling me that the wine is poisoned, right?

"Then you two used words to control me and forced me to drink this glass of wine... This is a very clever conspiracy!

"If I drink this wine, I will be controlled by you. If I don't drink it, it means I am not giving you face, and it will be my responsibility if the deal fails.

“And if I directly point out that the wine might be poisoned, then I have to prove that the wine is really poisonous, otherwise I would be slandering you… But what if what you did just now was just bluffing and you didn’t really poison it, or if the poison you put in is something my people can’t detect, then the result will be the same: I will lose face and suffer in silence.

"Well... young people nowadays are so cruel... The young are to be feared!"

Ding couldn't help but think that the inner drama was quite intense, but he was right, Sun and Huang were using the same method.

But actually...if Shuang Xie met someone who was simple-minded today, this trick would be useless.

Think about it, the two parties haven't torn their faces apart yet, and he has covered up the fact that Ding stole their rings with that gangster excuse of "I'm keeping it for you to prevent theft"; to put it another way, even if he didn't cover it up, he would have said clearly "I stole your ring because I wanted it. Can I buy it from you now?" The two would have to wait until he failed to buy it from them and really started fighting, or when there were signs of fighting, before they would have the excuse of self-defense.

Dong Xie Xi Du is a well-known "young hero" in the martial arts world. Under the current circumstances, it is impossible for him to directly poison the leader of the Youjia Gang.

Therefore, if Ding Buzhu hadn't been so cunning and didn't think about anything, and just drank the wine in one gulp with a smile, nothing would have happened; or, if he had been smarter and thought things through more thoroughly, he would have realized that the wine was drinkable.

However, he just thought too much and yet not enough - this character or lack of ability eventually determined Ding's fate.

"Heh...you two, don't rush..." After obviously hesitating for a while, Ding couldn't help but think of a solution, "Wouldn't it be better if we drink this glass of wine after we have finalized the deal?"

He didn't drink it either, but he didn't say he didn't want to drink it, but he wanted to delay it.

This response is not bad, it's a delaying tactic... let's see how the situation develops later, if we're done talking, we'll drink, if we're not in a good mood, then there's no need to drink.

Given Ding Buzhu's status in society, most people would not deny him face at such a time. After all, this is not a common thing nowadays... If you don't drink a sip of the wine at the stupid drinking party organized by country relatives or low-class leaders, a bunch of middle-aged and old idiots will lose face on the spot, and that self-righteous low-class bootlicker may even urge you to perform a show to help you "smooth things over" or something like that... Anyway, I believe most people have experienced this kind of thing or will experience it sooner or later, so I'll stop here.

Boss Ding is a respectable man, and all the people who come to negotiate in person are respectable people. As long as he doesn't explicitly refuse, he can still delay the transaction.

"Well... OK." Huang Donglai saw that his plan failed, so he immediately came up with another one. After a moment, he put down his wine glass and said to Sun Yixie in a relaxed tone, "Brother Sun, you are good at accounting, why don't you calculate for Boss Ding... How much is this Silkworm Hunting Ring worth?"

When Sun Yixie heard this, he understood what he meant. He immediately put down his wine glass and curled his lips.

This time, he laughed sincerely.

"Hiss... let me think about it for a moment..." Sun Ge's fishmonger face came out immediately, not only making faces, but also muttering in a pretentious manner, "If you get the Silkworm Seeking Ring, you can find the Heavenly Silkworm Magic Skill. If you find the magic skill, you will be invincible. If you are invincible, you can dominate the martial arts world. After dominating the martial arts world, you can own all the gold, silver, jewelry, antiques, calligraphy and paintings, weapons secrets, talents and beauties in the martial arts world..."

Ding Buzhu was listening to this and his scalp was numb. According to this calculation, he really couldn't do it. What the hell, I will dominate the martial arts world? According to your calculation, I can own the entire ocean just by buying a fishing rod, right?
At this moment, Ding Buzhu really wanted to drink some wine to calm his nerves, but his mother couldn't do it yet.

He just listened to Sun Yixie mumbling like a turtle chanting sutra for several minutes. Finally, Brother Sun pretended to understand, and slapped the table, saying with a very tangled look: "Tsk, let's take a loss, and give the ring to you, Brother Ding, and consider it as making friends with you." He paused at this point, and then changed the subject, "But if you find the Heavenly Silkworm Divine Art in the future, it's not too much to let us take a look, right?"

(End of this chapter)