Chapter 469: A Small Game

Coming to the round table, Zhang Wanfu forced a smile and kept apologizing repeatedly.
“Lord Zhang, please sit!” Lin Dong said with a smile, gesturing to an empty seat.
“Please, Manager Lin! Please!” Zhang Wanfu hurriedly took his seat.
“This fellow is Li Xun, right? Come and sit with us!” Lin Dong smiled at Li Xun, who stood there like a statue.
Li Xun remained motionless, as if he hadn’t heard or seen anything.
“Manager Lin, please forgive me!” Zhang Wanfu was startled and quickly shouted at Li Xun, “You wretched slave! Manager Lin is giving you a seat—sit down quickly!”
Li Xun said nothing and simply sat down on the nearest chair.
This situation made Ren Qingsong frown. Li Xun’s every move gave him a very familiar feeling, as if he were back in Xiangyan Mountain.
“Lord Zhang, I heard you plan to open a restaurant?” Lin Dong asked with a smile.
“I dare not claim such things. Last time I visited the manor, butler Li mentioned that Lord Ren could help establish connections, and he asked if I wanted to partner up to open a restaurant. I thought, why not give Qingsong Manor a 40% stake? Who knew he was actually deceiving Lord Ren?” Zhang Wanfu immediately used Li Chongshang as a scapegoat.
“So it was just a misunderstanding,” Lin Dong said, looking enlightened.
“Yes, yes, it was a misunderstanding,” Zhang Wanfu agreed readily.
“Then it’s a shame about Li Xun’s excellent cooking skills, isn’t it?” Lin Dong remarked.
“Not at all. That wretched slave can only cook roasted meat; his other dishes are quite ordinary,” Zhang Wanfu shook his head.
“Coincidentally, my inn is in need of a chef who can cook roasted meat,” Lin Dong said cheerfully.
Zhang Wanfu froze, suddenly realizing why Lin Dong had kept him around. It was all because of his slave.
“That wretched slave was sold to me since he was young. I’ve had him serve me all these years—over twenty now. I’m afraid… I’m afraid I can’t part with him right away. Besides, he’s always been rebellious. As Manager Lin saw just now, he doesn’t even obey me after all these years. Expecting him to obey Manager Lin is even more difficult.” Zhang Wanfu watched Lin Dong carefully—he knew well the rules regarding slaves. By law, since Li Xun had been a slave for over twenty years, his ransom would be at most 4,000 taels.

Although Zhang Wanfu was not a wealthy noble, he was still a prominent local tycoon who dominated the surrounding areas within ten miles of the capital. Four thousand taels of silver wasn’t exactly a huge sum. He didn’t understand Li Xun’s true value, but he knew that with such cooking skills, Li Xun’s worth could easily increase a hundredfold. Moreover, Li Xun was quite capable—at the very least, within those ten-mile radius, whoever Zhang Wanfu ordered to be defeated, Li Xun could defeat them as well.

“Master Zhang, I do know a bit about the rules regarding household slaves,” Lin Dong said casually.

Zhang Wanfu’s heart skipped a beat. He inwardly cursed himself, regretting bringing Li Xun here and regretting having referred to him as a household slave or dog slave right away. If he really wanted to know the rules, it would only cost a hundred taels of silver to go to the government office and cancel his slave status. With four thousand taels of silver in hand, he would be forced to sell Li Xun anyway.

“Shopkeeper Lin, this… this…” Zhang Wanfu couldn’t help but glance at Ren Qingsong. Seeing his dark expression, he began to complain bitterly. It was clear that if he refused, he would suffer consequences.

“Master Zhang, if you can’t make up your mind right away, I think you might as well stay here and think it over!” Lin Dong said calmly. “I’m not in a hurry.”

Zhang Wanfu heard an obvious threat in these words. His expression changed several times. Gritting his teeth, he forced out a reluctant reply, “To be honest with you, shopkeeper Lin, this dog slave has suffered from a serious illness since childhood. Otherwise, his parents wouldn’t have sold him to me. If I were to sell him to you, I’m afraid he might suddenly fall ill again and waste your silver.”

“That’s fine. I have plenty of silver!” How could Lin Dong not realize that Zhang Wanfu was threatening him? If Zhang Wanfu really wanted to buy Li Xun for four thousand taels of silver, he might order Li Xun to swallow poison or even commit suicide.

Lin Dong had experienced many negotiations like this, so he paid no attention to Zhang Wanfu’s words at all. He knew it was time to play a bold move.

Reaching out, he brought over several large porcelain plates. Then, using his mind to reach into the mobile cabinet, he caused the 32 million taels of silver notes kept for Yang Shun, along with the 500 taels earned from Ling Chenyue, to pile up on the empty space of the round table. There were three tall stacks, each about a foot high.

Zhang Wanfu glanced at the three stacks and his heart began pounding violently. Each of those stacks consisted of silver notes worth 100,000 taels each. Just these three stacks amounted to 300,000 taels of silver. More importantly, it seemed likely that all the notes below were also worth 100,000 taels each.

Although Zhang Wanfu had never seen silver notes of such a large denomination before, he had seen smaller ones before. With three such stacks, he estimated the total value to be tens of millions of taels of silver.

Lin Dong smiled as he pressed one hand on one of the stacks of silver bills, applying slight downward pressure, causing the entire stack to slowly tilt to the side. In the blink of an eye, it turned from a stack into a row of bills, with only the edges visible.
“Shopkeeper Lin, w-why is this?” Zhang Wanfu swallowed hard. Even with Ren Qingsong present, he almost couldn’t resist urging Li Xun to snatch them.
“I remember there are about 120 bills in this stack, all worth 100,000 taels each. One of them seems to be fake,” Lin Dong blurted out, pointing at the row of bills. “Lord Zhang, could you please pick one out for me?”
Zhang Wanfu was confused. “Pick one out?”
Lin Dong nodded with a smile.
After hesitating for a moment, Zhang Wanfu still couldn’t resist the urge to touch those 100,000-tael bills and pulled one out from the middle. He quickly checked it—indeed, it was a 100,000-tael bill.
“Lord Zhang is lucky! I wonder if this bill is enough to buy Li Xun’s indenture,” Lin Dong asked.
“Th-this…” Zhang Wanfu hesitated. His resolve not to sell wavered. He knew Li Xun might be worth more, but with Ren Qingsong sitting there, he feared for his life if he refused. With 100,000 taels, the other party might not be too harsh.
“It seems Lord Zhang is still reluctant,” Lin Dong said after waiting a while. Seeing Zhang Wanfu still undecided, he nudged the bills with his mouth. “How about Lord Zhang picks two more?”
“Two more?”
Encouraged by Lin Dong’s gaze, Zhang Wanfu pulled two more bills from the middle. Upon checking, they were also 100,000-tael bills.
“Lord Zhang is lucky! These three should be enough to buy Li Xun’s indenture,” Lin Dong said with a smile.
Zhang Wanfu licked his lips, his greedy eyes gleaming like green flames as he stared at the row of bills.
“Since Lord Zhang is reluctant, how about picking four?” Lin Dong asked.
Zhang Wanfu nodded eagerly. Without waiting for Lin Dong’s instruction, he reached for the bills. After checking each one, they were all 100,000-tael bills.
“700,000 taels should be enough, right?” Lin Dong asked calmly.
“Th-this… Shopkeeper Lin, it’s not that I don’t want to, but Li Xun really has a serious illness,” Zhang Wanfu said, no longer as hesitant as before. He was curious whether eight more bills would be drawn next.

“Since that’s the case, Lord Zhang can draw eight cards to give it a try. If he feels lucky, sixteen, thirty-two, sixty-four… it doesn’t matter!” Lin Dong nonchalantly pushed the other two stacks of silver notes forward.
“You can draw as many as you want?” Zhang Wanfu was surprised.
“There’s one fake note in each of the three stacks. As long as Lord Zhang is lucky enough not to draw any fake notes, he can draw however many he wants,” Lin Dong said with a smile.
“Why can’t I draw anymore if I get a fake note?” Zhang Wanfu was confused. In his view, since he held the life and death of Li Xun in his hands, the initiative should be in his own hands. Why couldn’t he keep drawing if he got a fake note? He should decide how many notes he was satisfied with. Otherwise, if he got fake notes after just a few draws, who would be willing to give up all the remaining notes?
“To be honest with Lord Zhang, I’m not very patient. Even if someone displeases me, I might want to kill them or even exterminate their entire family. Later, I regret it deeply. So, I took tens of millions of taels of silver and divided them into three stacks, with one fake note in each.”
Lin Dong said with a smile, “Then I classify the severity of those who offend me into different levels. For the lightest level, which is the first level, I draw one note. If I get a fake note, I act according to my temper—killing them or exterminating their family. If not, I let them go. For the slightly heavier level, which is the second level, I draw two more notes on top of the first. It doesn’t matter whether I get a fake note or not. For the third level, I add four more notes. For the fourth level, it’s eight more, then sixteen, thirty-two… If Lord Zhang is lucky, he won’t even draw a fake note at the third level.”
Thud…
As soon as Lin Dong finished speaking, Zhang Wanfu was so terrified that he collapsed to the ground, trembling violently. He finally understood why he had to draw one, two, four notes at a time, and why he couldn’t draw anymore if he got a fake note.
This Lin manager, who came from nowhere, was clearly a ruthless murderer.
He had actually negotiated with such a merciless murderer for quite some time. Moreover, those seven silver notes carried a chance of over 50% of being killed or having his family exterminated. Just thinking about it made Zhang Wanfu feel extremely breathless.
“Manager Lin, this game is quite interesting. Tomorrow, I’ll also find some fake notes to play with,” Ren Qingsong suddenly said, very interested. Although he didn’t understand why Lin Dong would spend 700,000 taels of silver to buy a household slave, it didn’t stop him from supporting him.

“I think Dean Ren will definitely be interested,” Lin Dong added with a smile, his gaze never leaving Zhang Wanfu. He could tell that Zhang Wanfu’s thoughts were completely under his control. Seventy thousand taels of silver, and all the effort to manipulate Zhang Wanfu—after all, it was a last resort for Lin Dong. Going to the yamen to free Li Xun from slavery actually only required four thousand taels of silver. But he didn’t dare take that risk. He didn’t know much about this Mr. Zhang and was afraid he might prioritize money over life, resorting to having Li Xun commit suicide to end things abruptly. If Li Xun were truly willing to join Lin’s Inn, rather than maintaining a false loyalty through a bond of servitude, Lin Dong wouldn’t even flinch at seventy thousand taels—or even seventy million taels. In fact, as long as Li Xun wasn’t completely heartless and devoid of desire, his loyalty as shown by the inn’s system would increase by a little, something that, in his view, was incomparable to money.