After the guards exited her office, Hou Ju scanned the room for Li Bai. He was leaning on the wall with his eyes closed. How did this kid sleep while standing? She got a feeling of wanting to play with this kid. He was a well-known trash, but he was also just a kid. She felt like he wasn't as bad as the rumors made him be. Still, this mischievous kid was taking up her time, and her time was the most valuable belonging that she had.
"Li Bai!"
Li Bai, as calm and composed as he is, would, like any normal person, be startled by a sudden awakening. His sleep was very light, he didn't have any dreams, so a shout like the one Hou Ju just made would easily wake him up. He couldn't control his balance after this surprise and fell on the floor face first.
Hou Ju saw this scene before her very eyes and couldn't help but sneer. The trash is indeed trash! She quietly cursed him, while covering her mouth with her hand. She turned away, not wanting Li Bai to see her mocking him. She didn't want him to snitch on her with his sister.
Li Bai stood up, thinking about how rude this woman was. She's not polite after all. He walked towards the chair on the opposite side of where Hou Ju was on the table, the one where the drunk guard seated and sat down. He furrowed his brows and crossed his arms.
Hou Ju turned around behind her and opened a drawer. The drawer contained many items, for example, contracts and cards. She got two cards: one platinum and one golden. These cards were the currency should the number of coins be too much to carry by hand.
The card was an interspatial storage designed specifically for money. Only high ranking nobles have cards like these; it would be inconvenient for them to carry around all their money in a pouch as they have too much.
The golden card specifically can store up to 999 gold coins, only one short of a platinum coin. Likewise, a platinum card can contain up to 999 platinum coins, one short of a diamond coin, and so on.
The only problem was that a golden card could only carry around gold coins, and not anything lower ranked, like silver and bronze coins. The same applied for the platinum and the diamond card too.
Silver and bronze ranked cards didn't exist. In the past, they did exist, mass-produced for commoners and nobles alike. But they discovered that the materials used for these interspatial storage cards were rare. Soon after, it was declared that commoners weren't worthy enough to have their own cards, and the nobles have no use for measly cards like those. They halted production for them soon after.
Hou Ju put the two cards in the center of the wooden table. Li Bai's hands were too short to reach them. Hou Ju saw this and laughed. No matter how trash this kid is, he's still young. She got an unexplainable feeling of wanting to mess with him.
Li Bai's impression of this old hag was getting even worse. Why is the old hag messing with me? Why doesn't she just give me the money and get over it? Doesn't she value her time? Even though he had all these complaints, he didn't voice them because the old hag might take up more of his time to lecture him. He had more experience than anyone on this continent! Why would he need lectures? He turned his head as if to indicate annoyance.
"Li Bai trash! Can't even reach the center of the table..."
Li Bai was stunned. Why is she even insulting me? This is a huge waste of time. He clicked his tongue in vexation. No matter how he looked at it, Hou Ju was more childish than him! She should be the one in the childish body.
Hou Ju continued to laugh until she noticed something. Her face turned grave when she did. This Li Bai kid is clearly not drunk, why doesn't the "Scary Formation, Phase II" affect him? She thought about it some more and brushed it off as just a kid putting up a front.
Li Bai suspected this too, why didn't the "Intimidation Formation" affect him? It should be able to affect anyone below Second Level Mark! Unless... He thought about it too, and maybe this formation had a whitelist.
Whitelists rarely appeared in formations, but when they did, the people who engraved their names and supplied their aura into the scripture would be exempted from the effects of the formation should the formation be an area of effect type.
But this couldn't possibly be the case. Why would his name be engraved on the formation when he wasn't even born when it was made? Or maybe he was, but he didn't know about this city. Besides, he wouldn't have supplied his aura without knowing it.
He then dismissed it and just associated his mark with this peculiar situation. For now, he wanted to get back to the subject at hand - his cards. He couldn't reach them.
Hou Ju's slight happiness was now gone, that one thought disturbed her sense of peace. She wanted to quickly get rid of this weird kid in front of her. The formation was supposed to be hidden but this Li Bai found it. He was also unaffected by said formation.
Hou Ju quickly grabbed the cards in the center of the table and put them closer to Li Bai, who had his arms crossed. He looked to be sulking. But in truth, he was contemplating about the different happenings since he got here.
Of course, Hou Ju had no way of knowing this and concluded that he was annoyed by her, and was considering telling her sister that his treatment within the Hou Auction House was the most unpleasant experience he had so far.
Crap! I forgot that this brat's sister is Li Bao! Hou Ju had completely forgotten what Li Bao had said: her brother, Li Bai, was the one who made the pills.
"Um, Li Bai, the cards are now closer to you..."
Hou Ju awkwardly informed Li Bai about the change in position of the cards. Li Bai was taken aback by the drastic change of attitude of this old hag. Is she bipolar? However, after this initial reaction, he was quite amused. He looked at Hou Ju teasingly, a wide grin visible on his face.
"Hmm? What's this?"
Li Bai was naturally mentally older than Hou Ju. But his body was not. If one were to see this scene right now, it would look very weird, with old hag Hou Ju acting timidly while small kid Li Bai was teasing her.
Hou Ju was fed up with Li Bai's antics, and snapped! She stood up suddenly, hands on the table.
"Just take the cards and go!"
What a hypocrite. Li Bai was unsatisfied but he had no excuse to stay further now that Hou Ju had already handed him the cards. He slowly walked towards the door and looked back on the last step.
Hou Ju saw the kid's small but smug face. He was humiliating her! Humiliating!
