Chapter 19: Opening a zoo will lose money!

Soon, Butler Xu brought in a pile of account books and started calculating this and that as if he was reciting a sutra. When he heard that Li Yanmo was going to use spiritual fruits to buy it, his expression changed so quickly. He kept saying "value preservation" and "can't suppress it". From time to time, he would wipe away a few tears and say that he wanted to eat. He was definitely a profiteer who was driving up prices.

Li Yanmo was very satisfied and felt that there would definitely be a huge loss this time.

"Three pounds of spiritual fruit."

Li Yanmo immediately showed an expression that said, "Are you kidding me?"

Butler Xu immediately explained, "Master, you don't know this. Spiritual fruits are from the world of immortals. Ordinary people can't even see them. Each one is priceless! Although our Shen family has nearly ten thousand acres of land, part of it has been abandoned, and a large part of it is no different from being abandoned. It can't be considered farmland at all, but only wasteland."

“How much is wasteland worth?”

After Butler Xu said this, Li Yanmo sat back, pinching his temple and began to think, while Butler Xu, following Shen Wansan's eye signal, took advantage of the situation and pursued the victory.

"Also, because of the frequent attacks by wild animals, many farmers would rather move away than work on our fields. Such fields are like houses where people have died, and they are just rotting in our hands!"

Shen Wansan crossed his arms over his chest and nodded.

As expected of his most trusted steward, he reduced his fields to dog shit.

Li Yanmo was also stunned by what he said, and finally he bought nearly ten thousand acres of land from the Shen family with three kilograms of spiritual fruits.

After reporting, Li Yanmo always felt that something was wrong, but he couldn't put his finger on it. But since I have already bought it, it is not easy to go back and raise the price.

When Shen Ziqing saw Li Yanmo with his arms folded across his chest and a thoughtful expression, he knew that his father and fellow apprentice's trick might be seen through, so he immediately changed the subject, "Master, what are your plans?"

"Master has been observing Risheng City for a few days. The conspiracy of the Demon Immortal Cult is indeed tricky, but Master has already thought of a way to crack it," Li Yanmo smiled indifferently.

"My disciple is ignorant."

"I want to open a zoo outside of Sunrise City!"

The Shen family father and son and housekeeper Xu were stunned and didn't understand what Li Yanmo meant.

"Second brother, prepare an account book and go to the market to buy all the birds and beasts that the vendors have brought in. No matter how many there are or how much they cost, pack them all up and come back to me to get the spiritual stones and spiritual fruits."

Li Yanmo first glanced at Shen Wansan. Being able to start from scratch, Shen Wansan must be good at purchasing. Therefore, it is absolutely impossible to entrust such an important and money-burning task to Shen Wansan, an old veteran.

Li Yanmo looked at Shen Ziqing again.

He is young and has squinty eyes, but judging by his behavior in the Taoist temple, he is probably not very worldly-wise. He will definitely be ripped off if he goes to purchase goods!

Therefore, the task of purchasing must be assigned to Shen Ziqing.

Shen Ziqing didn't know what Li Yanmo meant, but since it was a task assigned by Li Yanmo, Shen Ziqing would definitely do his best.

Butler Xu nodded with satisfaction.

Don't be fooled by Shen Wansan's appearance as a veteran, he is actually a fool, and a soft-hearted fool at that. In his early years, he was often cheated when he went out to deal with people. Even now, he is still in a mess and still thinks he is very capable.

But as the son of Shen Wansan, Shen Ziqing is different. He looks polite and like a kind-hearted scholar, but when it comes to trade, he is like a smiling hungry wolf. When he was about ten years old, he could make those vendors collapse while chatting and laughing.

The Shen family’s current network of contacts is basically due to Shen Ziqing.

If Li Yanmo asked Shen Wansan to do the purchasing, Butler Xu would speak out to stop him even at the risk of insubordination.

Unexpectedly, Li Yanmo had a keen eye and saw Shen Ziqing's talent at a glance.

"Well, Master, I think I can also..."

Shen Wansan had just raised his hand halfway when Shen Ziqing smiled and pressed it down.

"Dad, you don't want to."

Li Yanmo looked at Shen Wansan, then at Shen Ziqing, and nodded with satisfaction.

The old hand, who thought his son would mess up, was anxious to show off his son.

It’s stable!

"Third brother, I have something else for you. Please contact a group of people to fence off the abandoned fields as quickly as possible. The stronger the material, the better. The height must not be too low. All the animals that the second brother bought must be placed inside. Please also help me find some craftsmen. I need to make some custom items."

"Master, just leave it to me!" Shen Wansan immediately patted his chest to assure.

Shen Ziqing hesitated for a moment and raised his hand, "Master, I can do this too..."

"Second brother, you have to focus on what you do and not be distracted."

Li Yanmo also wanted the young man Shen Ziqing to take full responsibility and mess things up. But what if Shen Ziqing is unable to recover and devotes himself to cultivation?

“I understand…”

Shen Ziqing glanced worriedly at Shen Wansan, who was rubbing his hands ready to fight, and then winked at Butler Xu. Butler Xu nodded in understanding, stepped forward and held Shen Wansan's arm, "Master, let's go find someone first."

“Okay, okay—”

After Shen Wansan and Butler Xu left, Shen Ziqing also bowed and left.

After finding a few reliable servants, Shen Ziqing went to the market. The first person to become Shen Ziqing's target was a bald man.

This man occupied the largest piece of land, and other vendors kept their distance from him.

It’s simple, this guy is selling a veritable beast!

In the cage under his feet was an adult white tiger!

Although the white tiger looked listless, its expression was ferocious and it would growl at the surroundings from time to time.

There were two male lions and five female lions in the cage behind him.

"These things you sell are quite interesting. I'll buy them. Give me a price."

Shen Ziqing threw away his folding fan and said with a smile.

Although the bald man was an outsider merchant, he had heard about the Shen family and knew that the Shen family was one of the richest families in Risheng City. Seeing that Shen Ziqing had a jade pendant with the word "Shen" written on it on his waist, he immediately jumped off the cage, rubbing his hands and smiling in a flattering manner.

"This must be Mr. Shen, okay, okay, look at this white tiger! It's a rare treasure that is rarely seen! My price is not high, eight thousand taels!"

Shen Ziqing closed his folding fan, nodded thoughtfully, and replied with a smile, "Okay, then four hundred taels."

"Okay! Ah? Shen, Mr. Shen, you are kidding me."

The bald man nodded with a smile at first, but he quickly reacted and looked grim.

"In order to catch this white tiger, three of my men died, and four hundred taels is not enough to compensate!"

Shen Ziqing shook his head, leaned close to the bald man's ear, and opened his squinting eyes slightly.

"Your dyeing skills are pretty good, but do you think the smell of feces can overpower the smell of dye?"

The bald man swallowed hard, his expression stiff, "Four, four thousand taels will do."

"If I report this to the government, all your goods will be taken away. The people in the government are not willing to spend time looking after these beasts. As it happens, I know some people in the government, and I can take away all your things for only 500 taels. As for whether the 500 taels will be in your hands..."

Shen Ziqing raised his hand and patted the bald man's shoulder lightly.

"That's hard to say."

"But the food in the Sunrise City prison is pretty good."

"Four hundred taels, deal!" The bald man shook Shen Ziqing's right hand with sweat all over his forehead.

"Then let's talk about the price of your other goods."

Shen Ziqing clenched the bald man's hand, with a harmless expression again, but the bald man's legs began to tremble.

The man behind Shen Ziqing stared at the bald man's appearance, as if he wanted to completely imprint the bald man's appearance in his mind.

(End of this chapter)