Chapter Thirty-Eight Negotiation

  Aurora stood up and curtsied, saying: "I have seen the Duke."

  The duke hastily returned a courtesy and then straightened up and looked around the room.

  The duke saw that there was no one else in the house except for them. He felt very strange and asked, "Nia, what's going on? Where is Yefeng's wife?"

  Niya pointed at Aphrodite with a bad temper and said: "There, it's her."

  The duke couldn't believe his eyes, and in a most unbecoming manner, he shouted loudly: "Ye Feng, you...you scoundrel! When did you get so lucky? It's utterly shameless of you to have plucked one of the most beautiful pearls from Diman Sea!"

  The duke saw Nia and Diana's sharp gaze, and quietly wiped the fine white sweat that had seeped out of his hair.

  It was then that everyone remembered that the Duke had been discussing "academic" matters with Madame Dobarla and did not know about their previous agreement.

  Nina pulled the duke aside and briefly told him what had happened. The duke finally understood.

  He asked with some concern: "Miss Aphrodite, it's admirable that you're thinking of the refugees like this, but what about your song and dance troupe?"

  Afura smiled and said, "Don't worry, sir. I have a substitute in the song and dance troupe, and it will continue to perform in various places. In this way, no one will notice our relationship."

  The duke put his mind at ease, saying: "So I can rest assured. Alright, I won't disturb you anymore. You handle the specifics, if you need things like seals, Nia knows where I put them."

  He nodded slightly and walked towards the door.

  These aristocrats who hold power don't take the Empire's Circulation Act seriously at all.

  Aphrodite saw Nia's impatient face and thought: It turns out that the Governor of Xiniya is a flower rack, and the real governor is Nia's rumor is true.

  The duke opened the door and suddenly remembered something, turned his head and said: "Miss Afu Luo, I have written a few more poems recently. Let's find some time to discuss them thoroughly, how about it?"

  "Alright! I'll be staying here for a long time, so when I have the chance, I'd be happy to discuss it with you in more detail, milord."

  Nia glared impatiently at the duke, scaring that poor father into hastily closing the door from outside.

  Nina saw the door closed again from outside and let out a sigh of relief. If the duke continued to stay, she would have blown up.

  If it weren't for him always being like this and not doing things properly, she and Diana would have taken over the affairs of Sienia with all their might. Who knows, they might have gotten married and had children just like other girls of the same age. Every day, they only needed to dress themselves up beautifully and didn't need to worry about anything else. But then they wouldn't have met Ye Feng either.

  Her heart skipped a beat as she turned to look at Ye Feng beside her.

  At this time, Ye Feng let Diana find the maps of Xiniya City and surrounding areas, and the two were studying something on the map.

  Niya leaned over and heard Ye Feng asking: "Which of the guys' estates are by the sea and haven't been hit by pirates?"

  Diana thought for a moment, then drew a large circle on the map with her hand. "Here, here, and here." She suddenly exclaimed in surprise, "Huh? This... this is impossible. These places are all on the edge of the pirates' invasion route, yet they've all survived intact."

  Ye Feng threw down the list and stretched his waist, saying: "As long as they collude with the pirates, nothing is impossible. Do you remember that rough-made ramming car?"

  Diana slammed her fist on the table and shouted: "This bunch of bastard hybrids."

  Nia interrupted: "I also remember, what's up?"

  Diana explained: "The trees used for the battering ram cannot be found on the coast where the pirates landed, and even if they could fell them, it would not have been possible to bring them back to the camp and build a battering ram in one day. That would take at least three to five days. There must be traitors supporting them from behind."

  Nina also rudely cursed: "This bunch of scum."

  But at the same time, a sense of frustration surged up in her heart. They could only shut their doors and curse to themselves here. Not to mention anything else, just the source of the intelligence that exposed those nobles' connection with pirates was not something they wanted to see the light of day.

  Aphrodite coughed softly beside him twice.

  Nia saw Aphrodite being thrown aside, feeling a bit embarrassed, and remembered the purpose of her trip. She said, "Miss Aphrodite, I was a bit slow just now."

  Aphrodite smiled lightly and said, "It's nothing. But I think we should talk about buying grain."

  As she spoke, she took out a sheepskin paper and placed it on the table. Ye Feng leaned over to take a look and found that it was a contract. He couldn't help but say: "You just need to send the money over, why bring out the contract? This clearly shows that you don't trust us."

  Aphrodite said: "1.5 million gold coins is not a small amount, it also relates to the survival of hundreds of thousands of refugees. I have no choice but to be careful."

  She saw the skeptical gaze in everyone's eyes and sighed, saying: "Alright, I'll tell you the truth. In the past, Miss Nia had the final say, even if it was about her own character, I had to be careful. And now that everyone has already heard, a Scarlet Blood Dragon Knight, Lord Ye of Xinya, has arrived."

  Aphrodite hesitated for a moment, looking at Ye Feng and saying: "This Lord Ye is quite formidable. He's currently collecting taxes at the west gate of Sina City, even more ruthless than a giant dragon. He's leaving nothing but bare bones, not even a single hair or shred of skin remains. The roof of the palace of the Underworld God Harris is almost exposed."

  Ye Feng didn't expect Afu Luo to be so unyielding and unwilling to give him any face, he subconsciously rubbed his nose in embarrassment.

  Nia looked at Ye Feng with some apology, then gazed at Aphrodite and said seriously: "Everything Ye Feng did was for the sake of Xiniya City. It was my incompetence in the past that led to everyone being implicated and bearing infamy."

  Aphrodite's expression changed slightly. It wasn't until now that she realized this young girl was quite extraordinary too. No wonder she could shoulder the heavy responsibility of managing Xynthia City.

  Niya picked up the contract and took a look at it, then stamped her ring seal on it.

  Aphrodite let out a deep breath. She stood up, bowed deeply at a 90-degree angle, her long hair cascading down like a waterfall, and said: "Miss is very kind, Aphrodite represents more than a million refugees struggling on the line between life and death, thank you for saving our lives."

  Niya hastily returned the courtesy, smiling: "You don't have to be so polite, we're all thinking of the people."

  Diana was also moved on one side, her eyes were slightly red.

  Ou La was eating an apple with a puzzled expression on his face. He secretly pulled at Ye Feng's sleeve and asked, "What's going on?"

  Ye Feng snorted and said in a low voice, "If you want to pick up chicks in the future, especially a bunch of them, you must remember that women are purely emotional animals. As long as you say some nice words, you can deceive them all."

  "Eh?" Euler exclaimed in surprise.

  Ye Fengdao said, "This matter is actually just a thing between two gangs of hooligans. The Jia Tai gang didn't have enough food this year and people would starve to death, so they coveted the grain in our Norman gang's hands. Our Norman gang was afraid of the twin flower red stick of the Jia Tai black gang, that is Hannibal, Han Ge led his younger brothers to fight over, so we had no choice but to sell out the grain to exchange for peace."

  Oola let out a long "oh".

  Three women heard Ye Feng's explanation and cast him a gaze as deadly as Medusa's.

  Ye Feng shivered and hastily changed the subject, saying: "Miss Aphrodite, since the contract has been signed, where's the money? Did you bring it too?"

  "Aphrodite said: '1.5 million gold coins, even if we calculate one box of gold coins as 1000 pieces, it would still be a staggering 150 boxes. As far as I know, the war reserves of the Norman Empire are only around 80 million gold coins. Gathering such a large amount of gold coins at once is almost impossible.'"

  Ye Feng's old face turned red, and he said: "What do you want to do according to your meaning?"

  Afurou smiled and said: "Of course, it will be transported in batches and checked on the spot. This is also one of the reasons why I want to stay here for a while."

  Yefeng thought for a moment and said: "I don't know how much grain Miss wants to buy with this money?"

  Aphrodite hesitated for a moment before saying: "Of course it's the more the better, the more you buy the better."

  Ye Feng shook his head and said, "If you do it this way, you won't be able to buy much grain. As soon as you release the news, those grain merchants will be like sharks smelling blood, raising prices and hoarding grain."

  A glint flashed in his eyes, and he raised a finger, saying: "I dare to make a bet with you, if you can get half of the grain in the end, it will be a great achievement."

  A Fu Luo's heart sank.

  Although she was not very familiar with these business matters, thinking of those greedy businessmen's faces, she had to admit that Ye Feng's words were indeed reasonable, and for a moment, she became hesitant.

  Niya was about to speak when Ye Feng signaled her to keep quiet with a wave of his hand, as if he knew what she was going to say.

  Afura faced such a predicament and thought for half a day, but still felt that there was no good strategy to adopt. She looked up and saw Ye Feng's smiling face, suddenly enlightened, and said: "I hope the adults will teach me how to save those tens of millions of people."

  Ye Feng sneered coldly, saying: "That's why such things should be handled by experts like me who can get the job done. Just relying on so-called kindness and sympathy is not enough. Kindness can't be used to feed refugees."

  Afro stood up again and bowed, saying apologetically: "Lord Ye, you are right. My previous words were offensive. Please don't take it to heart."

  Ye Feng rubbed his nose and smiled: "I'm not going to get angry over such a small thing. However, you need to tell me an exact number of how much grain is needed."

  "Afro thought for a moment and then quickly said: '1.5 million bags of grain.'"

  Ye Feng turned his head and asked Niya: "What's the current price?"

  Oola hastily said: "I know this one, the current price is one gold coin per bag of grain."

  Nia was taken aback and asked: "How did you know?"

  Euler saw the astonished gaze of the crowd, shrugged his shoulders in a manner similar to Ye Feng's and said: "You promised me that for one day's tax you would give me a gold coin. Of course I want to know how much it can actually buy."

  Ye Feng spread his hands and said to Aphrodite, "You also know that the current market conditions are not good, but it's still one gold coin for a bag of grain. If we make a large purchase, the price will definitely rise, so 150,000 grains is unrealistic. Now there are only two options: either you add more investment or you reduce the amount of grain."

  Aphrodite smiled wryly and said, "Is there a third way?"

  Ye Feng stared at her eyes and said firmly: "Yes!"