Chapter 63: 62 When the Flood Hits the Dragon King Temple

62 When the Flood Hits the Dragon King Temple

"You're not joking, are you?."

After pulling his hand out of his pocket, he looked at the scarf woman in front of him, who was tilting her head with an insolent air and couldn't even be bothered to glance at him. Hearing Li Ang's mood instantly soured, and he protested with a frown:

"The stuff you gave today really is generous, but it's actually just a scoop of coffee powder, plus a bit of bread and ham. Splitting it up, the cost couldn't be more than two copper wheels even if you stretched it. Charging this much is way too shady, isn't it?"

"What?"

Hearing Hearing Li Ang's complaint, the scarf woman gave a slight start, then turned her head back and demanded with a dark face:

"You're saying this stuff is only worth two copper wheels?"

Damn it! To prepare this surveillance point across the street, the field office demanded a full four gold wheels! Just for ingredients and the like, they billed a full two gold wheels. These bastards really have no shame!

"..."

No... you're actually getting mad at me? Is Old Charle's daughter this unreasonable?

Looking at the scarf woman whose expression was turning unfriendly, and having been fleeced like a sucker first thing in the morning, Hearing Li Ang also felt a surge of anger rising in his chest. With an equally dark face, he said:

"Of course it's not worth it! I've eaten at this stall several times, I can barely count as a regular customer. How could I not know roughly what these things cost?"

"You've got the wrong idea, haven't you?"

The scarf woman frowned and said:

"What regular customer? I only just opened for business today!"

"..."

Ah? Only just opened today? So you're not Old Charle's daughter?

Realizing he had mistaken the stall and caused a blunder, Hearing Li Ang's momentum instantly deflated. But thinking of the woman's sky-high charge of a full silver wheel, he still couldn't help but argue his case:

"Even if you're not the same stall, selling this little bit of stuff for one silver wheel is still too expensive."

"Mm-hmm!"

The corner of her eye swept across the building opposite, and she noticed someone in the target's room seemed to be looking out. Worried about being noticed, the scarf woman quickly ducked back into the tent, pretending to be serving a customer, and replied absently:

"Then what's a fair price? You name it!"

"..."

Ah... you're letting me name the price directly? Are you this casual about doing business?

Stunned by the scarf woman's bizarre move, Hearing Li Ang tentatively spoke up:

"As for the price... before, when I ate this stuff at other stalls, they charged two copper wheels. But you really did give a generous portion, and the fire was burning strong..."

"Then I'll charge two copper wheels too!"

"..."

After waiting a few seconds without hearing Hearing Li Ang respond, the scarf woman immediately withdrew her gaze from looking across the street and said with some impatience:

"Still think it's too expensive? Then..."

"No, no, that price is fine..."

As for the scarf woman's business philosophy, Hearing Li Ang was completely at a loss for words.

He raised his hand in a stop gesture, blocking her from continuing to lower the price. Then Hearing Li Ang obediently sat back down in his seat and began eating his breakfast without tasting it.

This person's way of doing business is really... it's practically a joke. And she doesn't even look at people when she talks, keeps glancing over at the building across the street...

Speaking of which, could she be a detective catching a cheating spouse, a criminal keeping lookout for her accomplices, or maybe a secret police officer doing surveillance?

Although generally speaking, it wasn't very likely to run into such a coincidence, the more Hearing Li Ang thought about it, the more he felt that this woman using a scarf to cover the lower half of her face was off in every possible way. At the very least, she didn't look like a coffee stall owner at all.

"Customer!"

Having keenly detected Hearing Li Ang's gaze and read a hint of suspicion from his eyes, the scarf woman's attention was finally drawn back. Her bright, dashing almond eyes narrowed slightly, and an intensely oppressive gaze swept over instantly.

"You've been staring at me? Is there anything else you need?"

"Uh... no..."

Feeling a bit creeped out by her glare, and knowing it really was impolite to keep staring at people, Hearing Li Ang mumbled a couple of times, then turned his head away, chewing the bread in his mouth while gazing absently at the street.

Reasonably speaking, if this scarf woman really was conducting surveillance, then she was probably either waiting for someone to pass down this street, or watching that building across the way.

If he remembered correctly, across the street seemed to be the staff dormitory of the Tongqi Factory, but after the Tongqi Factory went bankrupt later on, the bottom four floors were rented out and converted into an apartment building.

However, because the location was a bit out of the way, and because it was noisy being right on the street, business had never been very good, and most of the rooms on the first and second floors were often vacant.

So if the scarf woman really was conducting surveillance, considering that looking up from below would have obstructed sightlines, the third or fourth floor should be monitored from a higher position. Her target should be a resident on the first or second floor...

Hm? Wait a minute! Why is that window on the second floor open? And...

"Customer!"

Accompanying the cold shout, a pair of full, shapely long legs stepped into Hearing Li Ang's line of sight, instantly blocking the view of the building across the street completely.

Hearing Li Ang followed these legs upward with his gaze, passing over her slender, cinched waist and the pair of large fruits tied to the thin branch, and saw two eyes brimming with piercing cold intent.

"What are you looking at?"

Having blocked his line of sight to the target's residence to prevent him from alerting the target, the scarf woman looked at this man who had first entangled her with words to probe, then not only repeatedly sized her up, but even frequently glanced toward the target's location. The cold intent in her eyes instantly surged, and she demanded in a cold, hard tone:

"Or rather... what exactly are you looking at?"

"..."

Good lord! You're actually really conducting surveillance!

Looking at the scarf woman who had essentially just revealed her identity outright and was even starting to suspect him, Hearing Li Ang couldn't help but frown.

When this woman glared at people, the aura about her was as sharp as a blade. At a glance, she didn't look like a detective catching a cheating spouse, and she certainly wasn't some lookout thief. She was most likely someone who had seen blood.

In the entire capital, someone with this kind of aura who also did surveillance work had to be either a special ops team from the military, a secret police officer from the Security Bureau, or even a rebel preparing to launch an attack. And these three types of people were each more troublesome than the last...

Just as Hearing Li Ang was hesitating over whether to take out his Clearance Bureau credentials and gamble that she was a rebel rather than half a "colleague," a furious roar suddenly came from the direction of the building across the street.

"Where is he?!"

Hearing Li Ang looked up in the direction of the sound and saw a scar-faced burly man with bulging veins on his face leaning out from a second-floor window, roaring furiously in this direction:

"Where did the person go! Yisha!!! Is this how you tailed them for me?"?!!!

……

"I know it sounds a bit hard to believe, but I really just wanted to go buy a cup of coffee…"

Hearing Li Ang, dragged into the Security Department's interrogation room and cuffed to a chair, glanced at the several secret police eyeing him menacingly across the way, and could only helplessly tilt his chin toward the scarf woman's direction.

"It's really not that I had to keep pestering her—mainly I just ordered one cup of coffee and two slices of bread, and she actually wanted me to pay one silver wheel! That price could buy almost half a ham, okay?

My money isn't just blown in by the wind either, I still have to earn it bit by bit through hard work. If it were you and you ran into such an outrageous situation first thing in the morning, could you hold back and not argue with her for a couple of lines?"