Chapter 166: The Important Person

At first, a few hundred spirit stones were enough to satisfy her, but in the blink of an eye, another mountain-high pile of spirit stones was required.
If Peng Qiao were a merchant, she would undoubtedly be the most skillful at raising prices in the Great Han Kingdom.
Lin Dong actually preferred it if Peng Qiao were the most adept at raising prices—this way, though the demands were higher, there was at least a fixed standard. With such sudden changes, how could he persuade her?
Turning sugar-coated haws into an entire room full of them, and a few hundred spirit stones into a mountain-high pile—continuing like this, Lin Dong guessed that at Peng Qiao’s rate of demand, he would eventually have to ask her to reduce Peng Zhenyuan to nothing but a skeleton frame to satisfy her.
Helplessly, Peng Qiao could only take things slowly. The top priority was still getting Peng Zhenyuan to release the people.
Before meeting Peng Qiao, Lin Dong hadn’t been sure what conditions to propose for Peng Zhenyuan to release them. If the conditions were too low, he might not get the people back; if they were too high, aside from whether Peng Qiao could further convert the spiritual energy in the spirit stones into heat or electricity, even creating a device the size of a little finger that could hold a small amount of spirit stones was a significant challenge. If it ended up costing too much and harming the inn’s development, he might lose both the people and the inn.
Now, he had no pressure.
For whatever reason, whether it was Peng Qiao’s attitude toward Peng Zhenyuan or Peng Zhenyuan’s attitude toward her, there was no trace of the familial affection expected between father and daughter. Getting Peng Zhenyuan to release the people didn’t require overly generous conditions.
Organizing his thoughts, Lin Dong spoke up, “Peng family head, Lin Dong has a request and hopes you’ll agree to it.”
Peng Zhenyuan glanced at Peng Qiao and understood what Lin Dong wanted. With a sigh, he said, “Shopkeeper Lin, go ahead and speak.”
“I just promised Miss Peng a room full of sugar-coated haws and spirit stones as high as a mountain,” Lin Dong said with a smile. “The first part is easy, but the second is hard to achieve even in ten or eight years. I might only be able to give her a few pieces a day. So, for convenience, I’d like to ask Miss Peng to stay at the inn.”
“This…” Peng Zhenyuan struggled internally. Peng Qiao meant little to him. He could also see that given Lin Dong’s attitude toward her, raising prices would be no problem. His concern was that if Lin Dong really spent a lot of money only for Peng Qiao to fail, she might demand compensation from the Peng family.
That kind of loss couldn’t be covered by just a thousand or eight hundred silver taels. Although the Peng family was wealthy, it wasn’t yet powerful enough to allow Peng Qiao to waste spirit stones like that.
Seeing Peng Zhenyuan hesitate, Lin Dong thought he might be deliberately raising the conditions and said indifferently, “Is there some difficulty, Peng family head?”

Peng Zhenyuan had no choice but to tell the truth: “To be honest with Manager Lin, I once thought of asking Peng Qiao to create other things as well, but the cost was simply too high.”
Lin Dong was relieved. In research and invention, success only comes after hundreds or thousands of attempts; failure is also common, and he had been prepared for this.
“Don’t worry, Mr. Peng. Since Miss Peng is a distinguished guest of Lin’s Inn, all expenses will naturally be covered by us.” Lin Dong said seriously, “Whether it succeeds or fails, I guarantee that the Peng family won’t suffer any consequences.”
“In that case, please take good care of my daughter, Manager Lin.” Peng Zhenyuan was still uneasy, but since he had spoken his mind, refusing would only be humiliating.
“Of course!” Lin Dong replied cheerfully.
“Then… I won’t bother Manager Lin any longer. I’ll go organize those fake treasures and deliver them by noon tomorrow.” Peng Zhenyuan stood up to leave.
“Thank you for your effort, Mr. Peng.”
Lin Dong politely escorted Peng Zhenyuan out of the room. Seeing that Peng Qiao showed no intention of following, he felt a bit relieved.
Although the trip to Qingmei Mountain wasted two days and left them in debt to Liu Lixiong, the gains were astonishing. The trouble with the Peng family was resolved, and the closure of Wanbin Tower meant that those who wanted to curry favor with the Peng family would have to find other ways to give gifts—likely through banquets at Lin’s Inn.
Add to that the numerous rare treasures and Peng Qiao herself, and the rewards were definitely thousands of times greater than the costs.
While chatting casually with Peng Qiao and planning ahead, after a while, Ma Chun rushed in, holding a handful of sugar-coated haws.
“Sugar-coated haws…”
Peng Qiao happily rushed out, snatched them from Ma Chun’s hands, glanced at his arms, then at the wooden sticks covered in haws in his hands, hesitating for a moment.
Ma Chun was shocked and instinctively stepped back a few steps.
While waiting for the sugar-coated haws, Lin Dong and Peng Qiao chatted a bit, getting to know her temperament a little better. Lin Dong asked, “Peng Qiao, want to bite them after eating?”
“Mm!” Peng Qiao nodded repeatedly. Her hesitation vanished instantly, and she happily grabbed the haws, went back to the desk, sat down, and started licking them joyfully.
“Manager…” Ma Chun felt a headache watching Peng Qiao. Having such a person who bit everyone she saw in the inn would make life tough.
“It’s fine. Just carry arm guards from now on. When she gets tired of biting, she’ll leave you alone,” Lin Dong said casually.
Ma Chun nodded with a wry smile.

“First, arrange a room for Peng Qiao. Let me know once it’s done. Then, find two staff members to take care of her and post a notice to recruit some smart and patient maids.” After a pause, Lin Dong continued, “Whether they’re the inn’s staff or the newly hired maids, have them prepare arm guards so that if Peng Qiao wants to bite, she can do so to her heart’s content. Also, give orders to satisfy whatever Peng Qiao wants as much as possible. If she wants to go shopping, bring more people to accompany her.”
Ma Chun nodded. The Lin’s Inn in Xilan City had an old troublemaker; it seemed the Lin’s Inn in Qiufeng City would need its own little troublemaker as well.
“And then there’s…” How to get Peng Qiao to start researching the storage function that could be activated with spirit stones was a challenge, but the first step was undoubtedly to keep her focused on staying at the Lin’s Inn. After pondering for a moment, Lin Dong said, “Send someone to the Peng family as soon as possible to gather all information about Peng Qiao—no detail should be missed. The more detailed, the faster we can find it.”
“Understood!” Ma Chun nodded firmly.
“Go arrange her accommodation first! Just find a decent room in the back yard,” Lin Dong instructed.
“Mm!”
By the time Peng Qiao had licked all the candied haws she had, and was licking them a second time, Ma Chun rushed back, followed by two staff members.
The room had been arranged, and the two staff members brought along had been briefed on what to do.
After coaxing Peng Qiao into the arranged room and setting it as a guest room under the inn’s system, with a comfort boost costing eight spirit stones per day, Lin Dong returned to his room.
Rolling up his sleeves, he saw two rows of deep blood marks on his arms, surrounded by bruises tinged black.
“These teeth are really vicious!”
Lin Dong smiled, applied some medicine to relieve swelling and stop bleeding, then bandaged it up before resuming the training state he had before Peng Zhenyuan and Peng Tianan came to his door.