Being a Life Player in the Middle Ages

Babak soon realized that Mia, who seemed young and easy to fool, was actually not easy to deal with. Not only did she have an extremely eloquent mouth, but she also knew the actual value of these goods very well. No matter how he lowered the price, she would continue to argue with him unmoved, and even took the dominant position without realizing it.

Babak even felt that he was not facing a young girl, but an experienced businessman whose ability was no less than his.

——Babak was unwilling to admit that he was actually the loser in this negotiation.

Mia's bargaining skills were honed after she lived on her own in places like the vegetable market and wholesale market. Her era was an era of information explosion. A girl who had just reached adulthood like Mia was probably more knowledgeable than a businessman like Babak. She had seen all kinds of bosses and vendors in those places. In her opinion, Babak was much easier to deal with than them.

Mia's memory contained the values ​​of most of the goods her father had told her during the journey, plus she had previously learned about the market prices of various goods at the market. She also had the confidence that Bayad had said before, "If they can't reach an agreement on this, they can find someone else." Therefore, she was not at all inferior in front of Babak.

Finally, Mia sold all the goods, including two carriages and a draft horse, to Babak for 520 Nomisma gold coins.

Both parties were satisfied with the price. Mia's merchant father once said that his truckload of goods could be sold for at least 500 gold coins, but when Mia took it back, part of the goods had already been taken away by bandits, and these could not be recovered. In addition, she had reserved some goods, so she originally felt that the remaining part could be sold for about 450 gold coins.

But in the end, it was sold for 520 gold coins. It was not because Babak was stupid enough to pay a high price for these goods, but because he had his eyes on the caravan's carriages and draft horses and insisted that Mia sell them to him.

What the merchant father and Xiaomia said was not bragging. The four horses in his caravan were indeed top-quality draft horses, heavy draft horses at that. Each one was tall and majestic. Except that they were slower than war horses, their strength and endurance were greater than ordinary war horses. Under extreme conditions, they could even pull four or five tons of cargo. They could be said to be the favorites of merchants.

So when Babak went to see the carriage that Mia wanted to sell, he saw the draft horse next to it and naturally became excited, and insisted that Mia sell it to him.

In the end, Mia sold it, but only one. She refused to sell the remaining three.

The price of such a good draft horse is not low. The market price can even be sold for fifty gold coins, but she sold it to Babak for forty-five gold coins. This price can be said to be very cheap, so Babak didn't care so much about the less profit from other goods. Although Mia's asking price was a bit high, it was above his bottom line and did not make him lose money, so in the end, everyone was happy with this deal.

The business was going well, so Babak offered to help them send the remaining goods back and even sent a man to be their driver.

Bayad, who had watched the whole process, couldn't help but look at Mia in amazement. It was the first time he saw someone who could make Babak bow his head. He even had the idea of ​​asking Mia for help when he sold the spoils in the future.

Institutions similar to banks already existed in ancient Rome, but they were called "money shops" at that time, and the main providers of such services were temples. They would provide services such as money storage and lending, but such money shops basically only served the nobility.

Today, many private bankers and currency exchange merchants, known as money merchants, have appeared in the city. The money shops opened by these money merchants are all located in the most prosperous areas of a city, and the square where the city hall is located obviously meets this standard.

Babak didn't bring a lot of money with him when he went out, so after the business was settled, they went directly to a nearby money store. Babak took out the money and gave it to Mia, but Mia refused to keep the money with them under the enthusiastic recommendation of the store staff.

Are you kidding? These money shops not only don't pay interest on deposits but also charge a handling fee, and that handling fee is not low. She doesn't want to deposit money here.

Mia has her own game backpack to store money. It is safe, convenient, free of charge, and can be withdrawn whenever needed. How can these money shops compare to this? However, she knows this, but others do not. Martha and others are a little worried about the safety when they see her holding a large bag of gold coins to take home.

However, after Mia said that she would use part of the gold coins to deal with the funeral of the merchant father and others, they temporarily put their concerns aside.

In addition to the 520 gold coins, Mia also received compensation proposed by the Queen. Because it was the Queen's order, the department in the city hall responsible for distributing compensation was quite generous. Not only did they give ten gold coins as compensation for the damaged goods, but they also gave one gold coin to each person according to the number of victims. Mia received head fees for her merchant father and those slaves, a total of thirteen gold coins.

Including the gold coins left in her backpack, she now has about 550 Nomisma gold coins and some small amounts of Fulli and Numi. It can be said that she has suddenly become rich.

As for the compensation for other people, the other party also asked Mia if she wanted to take it away together. Mia hesitated and did not agree. Anyway, Bayad said that someone would notify their families to claim the bodies, and would also inform them about the compensation. The family members could come and claim it themselves. She would not go back to her original city, and if she claimed it on their behalf, she would still need to find someone to help deliver it. If there was any trouble on the way, or if some of the family members saw that she was young and deliberately made trouble, she would have nowhere to complain.

Besides, Mia didn't want to be visited by those relatives, so she would naturally avoid such things if possible.

Those slaves were all young and strong single slaves of the merchant father. They had no family or friends and were also the property of Mia's family. Since Mia took their compensation, she had to take care of their affairs after their death both publicly and privately.

When they returned home, Babak's men had already delivered the goods and were waiting for them in the carriage. There were not many people around watching. After all, the carriage was obviously used to transport goods. The neighbors thought that the herbal medicine store was receiving goods and did not pay much attention to it.

John opened the shop door and several people began to move things in. The clerk also came to help and soon unloaded all the things on the cart. Martha gave the clerk a few numi (copper coins) as a thank you. The clerk happily left the three horses and left with the carriage and the horse bought by Babak.

At this time, Bayadben also wanted to say goodbye, but his family persuaded him to stay and have dinner before leaving.

Martha also said, "And didn't you say you would lend the backyard to Mia to raise horses? You should at least take her to familiarize herself with the environment, right?"

After hearing what she said, and feeling a little hungry, Bayard decided to stay.

"Then I'll be looking forward to the delicious food you cook, Martha."

"Don't worry, I'll make it right now. After you finish eating, go back early so you don't have to travel too late at night."

Although the Grand Palace where the Emperor and Empress live in the Sixth District and the First District are only separated by the three parallel Districts, the Third and Fifth Districts, and are only slightly farther away than the City Hall in the Fourth District, it is obviously not enough to go back after dark with only the light from the torches, so walking at night will take longer than during the day.

Besides, they missed lunch when they went out today, and everyone just ate some bread and fruit that Martha brought, so they were probably a little hungry now.

In order not to delay Bayad's return to the Grand Palace, Martha immediately went to prepare even though it was still several hours before dinner time. Before she left, she had thought of keeping Bayad at home for dinner, so she asked her neighbors to help buy some fish and meat. Together with the vegetables grown in the backyard, it was enough to make a rich meal.

Bayard took Mia to his backyard, and this was the first time Mia entered his home.

Obviously, Bayard's father was much richer than John's family. His house was much bigger. It was also a three-story building, but it was twice as big as the one next door. The first floor was designed with a shop in front and a kitchen and living room in the back. Martha said that Bayard's father used to be a well-known grain merchant. Because his business was good and there were more and more children in the family, he bought the land of the family on the other side and expanded his own home. That's why his house was so much bigger than other families on the street.

However, since Bayard's father passed away and Bayard joined the army, his family naturally stopped doing business. Now there are only some containers left in the store. It is empty everywhere, but very clean. It is kept clean by Martha and John who come to clean from time to time.

The things in the kitchen and living room were neatly arranged, and there were a lot of items, but it was obviously lacking the atmosphere of worldly life. The whole house exuded a sense of emptiness and silence that had not been occupied for a long time.

Bayard unbolted the back door and opened the door to the backyard. A breeze with the smell of livestock blew through the hall.

The smell in the wind certainly did not come from the backyard, but from the neighbor's house. The houses on the left and right of Bayard's house both raised livestock. Compared to Martha, they only raised a few chickens, so the smell was not that strong. The neighbor on the other side built a pigsty in the backyard and raised a pig. Although it was cleaned fairly well, the smell was still very strong.

However, every household here raises livestock, and there are all kinds of livestock running around on the streets. Mia has lived here for more than half a month and has become accustomed to the smell.

And now that she is going to become one of them, she naturally has no right to complain about such an environment.