Chapter 587: Too Popular

Cen Ermu watched them leave with his own eyes.

Soon, the entire earth god temple fell silent, with only the rustling wind blowing through.

He raised his head to look at the knife hanging from the roof beam, staring at it longingly.

The knife swayed in the wind, but did not fall; the rope remained taut.

Cen Ermu's eyes welled with tears as he watched it slowly stop swaying, nearly in despair.

Pan Yun flew back to the Cen family.

Qu Le asked: "Just leaving the person there, not going to deal with it?"

Pan Yun: "We already got the information we wanted, why bother with him?"

She snorted: "Wanted to rob me? I was merely catching a thief."

Qu Le thought it made sense—if Pan Yun really were a delicate young lady without the strength to truss a chicken, and Cen Ermu had snuck into her room like that, losing money would be a small matter; if things went badly, she could lose her life.

Cen Ermu's punishment was not unjust.

"What we need to think about now is whether to take Cen Dachuan with us when we leave tomorrow." Pan Yun said: "From what Cen Ermu said, this Cen Dachuan does have some backbone."

"Someone like that is hard to interrogate; we won't get anything out of him in a short while, and it's easy to alert the villagers." Pan Yun said: "To interrogate him, we have to take him out."

Qu Le: "How do we take him?"

Pan Yun rubbed her chin: "We'll play it by ear tomorrow."

Having said that, she dropped to the ground and gently pushed open the door.

Inside, Miao Zhen and Miao He were sitting by the bed, legs swinging; seeing her return, they immediately stood up: "Little Martial Aunt, what happened?"

"Caught a mouse, nothing much," Pan Yun closed the door behind her and asked: "Did anyone from the Cen family get up?"

"Miao He and I have been keeping an ear out the whole time, didn't hear any movement."

Pan Yun nodded, told the two to lie down and sleep, and she lay down too: "From now on you two need to practice your alertness; when out and about, you can't sleep too deeply."

Miao Zhen and Miao He didn't even know when she had gone out; hearing this, they guiltily replied "Oh" and agreed.

Neither Cen Ahou's family nor Cen Ermu's family noticed anything amiss.

Today was the grand market; those going out to set up stalls and those going out to browse the market to buy things soon made the streets bustling.

Cen Ermu had been in a bad mood ever since returning from the sea, sleeping until the sun was high every day, so his door was tightly shut; the Cen family thought it perfectly normal.

They casually dug out the things Cen Ermu had brought back, carried them to the table, and went to set up stalls on the street.

They had all heard that a big buyer had come to the village; villagers rarely bought these imported goods, so they could only sell them to outsiders.

They hoped the things from their house would be picked by the big buyer.

Even Cen Dachuan quickly brought a few of his men to carry out several crates of goods, taking the best spot in the market to lay them out.

After setting up, his gaze swept around and he frowned slightly: "Where is Ermu? Why didn't he come?"

"He's definitely still sleeping. That kid's been in a foul mood since coming back—every day either fighting with his brothers or arguing with his parents. Dachuan-ge, should we go to his place to call him?"

Cen Dachuan thought for a moment, then said: "Forget it, let him sleep. He's got a bad temper; if he comes over, he'll only cause trouble."

Everyone immediately put Cen Ermu out of their minds.

Meanwhile, Pan Yun and her group had only just gotten up.

The group took their time washing up and eating breakfast; seeing the brilliant sunshine, Qu Le urged her again and again before Pan Yun reluctantly took up her round fan and went out.

The so-called grand market was a bazaar that had formed over time, where villagers from several nearby villages would come to buy and sell.

Since it was the villagers' grand market, these imported goods were naturally not the main merchandise.

At the grand market, daily necessities like cloth, sugar, meat, rice, flour, and oil were the main goods. Everyone wore dusty coarse-cloth clothes; Pan Yun and her group, in their bright dresses, stood out conspicuously among the crowd, and everyone turned to look.

All five were used to being stared at, so they remained composed.

Qu Le, as if no one else were around, introduced things to Pan Yun: "Little Aunt, look, there's someone selling mushrooms. This kind is especially fresh and sweet—boiled with meat, it's better than dragon meat. Shall we buy some?"

Pan Yun: "Have you eaten dragon meat?"

Qu Le: "... No, but country folk all say that."

Pan Yun snorted and said haughtily: "Buy it!"

Qu Le immediately responded, sent Tao Yanbai to buy the mushrooms, then smoothly led Pan Yun to a small stall and took out a small mirror: "Little Aunt, look, this is a mirror imported from overseas, clearer than the best polished bronze mirror. Best of all, it's cheap. Stall-keeper, how much for this mirror?"

The stall-keeper listened in a daze as Qu Le pitched to him, and immediately said at the words: "A hundred wen! This mirror is only a hundred wen."

Seeing Pan Yun frown, he hurriedly pushed the mirror toward her hand: "Very cheap, much cheaper than in the county town. In the county town, three hundred wen."

Pan Yun: "The county-town ones for three hundred wen are much bigger than this one. Yours is..."

She shook her head with a look of disdain: "Too small."

!

The stall-keeper gritted his teeth: "Ninety wen for you."

Pan Yun said nothing; Qu Le immediately said: "Eighty wen. If you sell, my little aunt will take it."

The stall-keeper thought for a moment and nodded in agreement.

Pan Yun simply glanced at Miao Zhen.

Miao Zhen immediately pulled Tao Yanbai over, fished out a string of coins from the pouch on his back, counted out twenty wen, and handed the rest back to him.

The stall-keeper counted them, became delighted, hurriedly took out a piece of rough paper to wrap the mirror, and recommended his other wares to Pan Yun: "Young Lady, look at something else; I have quite a few imported goods at this stall."

Pan Yun looked down, and after a long while picked out a gemstone necklace: "This gemstone is alright, but the necklace is made too ugly—it should use a silver chain. Once we get back, we'll pry the gemstone off and forge a necklace ourselves."

Miao Zhen agreed, and asked loftily: "How much for this chain?"

The stall-keeper: "Five taels!"

"Five taels—are you robbing us? Two strings of cash. Take it or leave it."

After haggling, they finally settled at three strings eight hundred wen.

Miao Zhen counted out the money from the pouch and paid him.

The surrounding gazes grew even hotter, fixed on Pan Yun as if they would burn her alive.

Cen Yuan finished watching the spectacle, immediately squeezed out of the crowd and ran back to Cen Dachuan's side, excitedly saying, "Big Chuan, that bitch is loaded—Big Mu has already sold over four strings of cash."

Cen Dachuan's eyes glinted slightly with delight, yet he still shot Cen Yuan a sharp look: "Watch your tongue. When important guests come by, you'll call her Young Lady. If I hear another one of those filthy nicknames…"

"Yes, yes, I won't say anything improper."

Pan Yun walked along, buying as she went.

She didn't just buy foreign goods—any local item she liked, she was willing to pay for.

Wooden hairpins, bamboo wares, even medicinal herbs and wild vegetables—anything that caught her interest, she bought.

Though the people around her always tried to haggle down the price, they only did so once or twice, and paid with remarkable speed.

In less than half an hour, Pan Yun became the most popular customer on the entire street.

Throughout the entire fair, from the eighty-year-old grandmothers to the five-year-old children, everyone who stood behind a stall and saw her burst into a grin—those without teeth showed their gums.

Walking and browsing like this, Pan Yun finally reached Cen Dachuan's stall.

(End of Chapter)