Chapter 28: Chapter 23 Bait_2
Translator: 549690339
Seeing that the price was agreed upon, the old shopkeeper’s heart eased slightly, and then he continued counting: “So, there are a total of nineteen pieces of fur, which are worth a total of one hundred and thirty silver taels. Do you want a silver note or current silver?”
“I want current silver.” Lu Yuan replied directly.
Silver notes in Yue Country were issued by various large banks. The banks collected the current silver from customers and then issued checks, which could be used to withdraw cash at banks in various merchant locations, with the bank collecting a certain handling fee.
Under this process, not only were there many procedures, but there was also a risk of leaving traces when withdrawing money, which increased the risk of exposure.
Therefore, even knowing that silver notes were more convenient, he still chose current silver.
However, upon hearing this choice, the old shopkeeper’s face showed difficulty, “We don’t have that much current silver in the store right now. If you choose current silver, we will need to go and get it, which may take some time.”
Lu Yuan’s eyes were fixed on the other party, but the old man still looked troubled and difficult to read.
After hesitating for a moment, he nodded and said, “Fine, but I won’t wait long, no more than a quarter of an hour.”
A quarter of an hour was about fifteen minutes.
There was a silver bank right next to the fur shop, and it would only take two or three minutes to get there from here. A quarter of an hour was more than enough to fetch some current silver.
“Alright.”
The old shopkeeper quickly nodded, then called an assistant, handed a few silver notes to the assistant, whispered some instructions into his ear, and let him go.
Lu Yuan watched the scene silently, waiting without saying a word.
After a while, the assistant returned with a large bag of current silver.
“Here is the payment,” the old shopkeeper opened the package and pushed the silver towards Lu Yuan. The dazzling glow of the silver was captivating.
Lu Yuan picked up a silver ingot and weighed it. These were all large ingots worth ten taels each, and the weight seemed accurate. He nodded, “Alright, looks like we’re settled.”
Thirteen large silver ingots worth ten taels each weighed more than eight catties (roughly 8 lbs). For ordinary people, this was quite a burden.
Perhaps this was one of the reasons for using silver notes.
But now, his physical fitness was incomparable to when he had just crossed over. With his Inner Strength, the weight of eight catties in his hand was no heavier than holding an egg.
After leaving the shop, he glanced left and right.
The market was bustling with people, and it seemed like today was a market day for the locals, which had attracted quite a few people from outside the city.
The vendors and the villagers who came for the market made this place extremely noisy.
However, Lu Yuan’s sharp hunter instincts still enabled him to detect a few glances.
He was very familiar with this kind of gaze. It was the gaze of a hunter when targeting prey.
Someone was watching him.
“It seems that the old man really took the opportunity to spread the news secretly when he went to fetch the current silver,” Lu Yuan quickly realized this, but he didn’t panic, as he had already anticipated this and was not too surprised.
Without doing anything unusual, he calmly headed towards the city gate, looking like an ordinary hunter who had just made a fortune and was anxiously wanting to go home.
Soon, he passed through the crowd and left the market. After walking through two more streets, the city gate was in sight.
All the way, there were still hidden gazes hiding in the darkness, but they only stared intently and did not take any action.
Apparently, the people in the shadows were still somewhat cautious in the city and dared not directly kill and rob in broad daylight.
Taking a large step out of the city gate, the guards glanced at Lu Yuan and then lost interest after seeing the quilt on top of his backpack used to cover up.
For people like this who only bought a quilt for the winter during the New Year, they were not worth a second glance from the masters.
“Come on, follow me,” Lu Yuan turned his head and looked back. Compared to the dense crowd inside the city, there were far fewer people outside the gate.
At a glance, he saw two figures in gray clothes, and the familiar feeling surged instantly. It was these two people who had been following him just now.
Those two people seemed to have noticed that they had been discovered as well.
But instead of panicking and hiding, they no longer concealed themselves and looked straight at him.
That gaze was outrageous, just like Lu Yuan’s own gaze when sizing up prey on the brink of death.
Seeing this, he couldn’t help but sneer twice, “Soon you’ll know that not only do you want to hunt me, but I also want to hunt you.”
Having said that, he turned around and left immediately, his figure disappearing at the crossroads without delay.
The bait had been set, and now it was time to see how many fish he could catch.
Not long after Lu Yuan left, five figures hurriedly came to the city gate.
The leader was a burly man with a well-built figure, fierce eyes, and ferocious-looking muscles, resembling a man-eating wild beast.
“Big Brother.”
The two gray-clothed men who had been watching Lu Yuan approached hurriedly upon seeing the arrival of the burly man.
“Where is that man?” The burly man glanced at his subordinates and asked gruffly.
“He went towards the official road, probably planning to escape back to the mountains.” One of the grey-clothed men pointed at the endless official road and mocked, “He thought he had discovered us, so he tried to hide.
Little did he know that Zhao Er had already set up an ambush on the road earlier, blocking his escape route.
This time, it will be difficult for him to escape even if he grows wings.”
Another person beside him chimed in with a laugh, “This guy must be from out of town, trying to avoid extortion, so he came to our Nan’an County to do business. But what he doesn’t know is that he can avoid the extortion over there but not over here.
Well, it’s good for us, as we’ll get an easy hundred and thirty silver tales.”
Although they knew that they wouldn’t get all of the silver, they knew that the bigger share would have to be handed over to their gang.
But as the ones directly involved, they could still at least get three to five silver tales, more than enough for them to enjoy themselves for a while.
“To do business in our Qingzhu Gang’s territory without paying tribute, disregarding our rules and regulations.”
The burly man sneered, “This time, we will teach him a lesson. But as for his tuition fee, I’ll take his money and his life.”
Upon hearing this, the others beside him laughed as well.
They had already killed many who refused to follow the rules, with no hesitation nor mercy, even making it a fun pastime.
Now they were just thinking that they shouldn’t be too ruthless, lest the man dies too soon, spoiling their fun.
“Let’s go, let’s catch up to him. Zhao Er only has three people with him; there isn’t enough manpower, so let’s not let the prey within our grasp get away.”
The burly man waved his hand and led his subordinates as they hurriedly chased towards the mountain.
Meanwhile, five miles away from the county town, under a bush, Lu Yuan bent down, dug into the mud with his hands, and retrieved the iron bow and arrows he had buried.
He looked back at the direction of the town, which was already blurry in the distance. He could barely make out some black shadows, confirming the location of the county town.
“Estimating the time, those guys should have just left the town and are chasing towards me.”
There were only two people who had been watching Lu Yuan earlier, although they still outnumbered him. However, considering his identity as a Hunter, who often fought fierce beasts in the mountains, the opponents most likely wouldn’t dare to approach him.
When he had been trading in the shop earlier, he only gave the shopkeeper a quarter of an hour. This might have been enough time to tip off the local gangs, but not enough for them to gather a larger force.
As a result, the local gangs should have only just received the news and were now anxiously rushing out of the city.
“I still have time.”
Lu Yuan muttered to himself. He took out the silver, stored it securely next to his body, threw away his carrying basket, and headed towards the mountain.
Compared to the open plain at the foot of the mountain, the densely complex forest in the mountains was his true territory.
As he held the cold and heavy iron bow in his hand and felt the quiver filled with arrows at his waist, excitement and strong self-confidence swelled in his heart.
His perfect archery skill gave him great confidence, and the Inner Strength coursing through his body further enhanced his speed and agility.
With these two abilities, he was the king in the mountain forest.
Those who pursued him would become his prey to be hunted down.
The hunt had begun..