Oh. My. Fate?! (BL, Volume #1)

53 Where Did This Guy Come From?!

The owner furrowed his brow. Wheredid this guy come from? How come he hadn't seen him before or heardthe door?

Qiu Ling didn't care for the uglyexpression on the owner's face, came forward and leaned against thecounter. "I came to ask for a room too but it seems this isn'tthe place for that. I'd suggest you go somewhere else too," heproposed to Mister Zhong.

"Ah?" Mister Zhong didn'tknow what to say. He wished his wife would have been with him to tellhim what to do. Should he trust the owner or rather this man that hadsuddenly popped up?

The owner gritted his teeth. His innwasn't situated in a good position and not many people had come byin the last few days. If those two also went somewhere else ..."Alright, alright. Looking at how it's late already I thinktwo-hundred-fifty copper coins would be enough."

Qiu Ling ran his finger over thecounter, lifted his hand and rubbed his fingers together. Dusttrickled down. "Two-hundred-fifty ... seems like quite a lot."Especially looking at the condition your inn is in! Argh, can Ireally bear to let my beloved rest here for a night?!

The owner went from gritting tognashing his teeth. Where did this guy come from?! He'd earnnothing if it went on like this! "It seems like it at first butit actually isn't that much. You see, he wants one room and placein the stables. That are two things he has to pay for. Only a roomwould, of course, be cheaper."

Mister Zhong tightened his lips.They really shouldn't have taken the horses with them! It seemedthey wouldn't have any problem to find a room for the night withoutthem.

Qiu Ling just glanced at the ownerand dusted his hands off. "Is that so?"

The owner gulped. It seemed thatthis guy knew all too well that he was trying to hornswoggle them.But could anything happen if he just pretended that these prices werenormal? The other man looked as if he was nearly convinced. Yes, heshould just concentrate on the other one! One guest was better thanno guest!

He turned toward Mister Zhong andforced a smile. "So, how about it? The room and the place in thestable for two-hundred-fifty copper coins?"

"That ..." Mister Zhongstill had that much but he really didn't want to spend all of it.Those were his savings of many years! And what if they couldn'tfind his cousin tomorrow? What if they really had to travel backhome? Mister Zhong took a deep breath, still torn between taking therisk or looking for another place but Qiu Ling interrupted him.

"Actually, some streets further—"

"Aiya! Look at me!" Theowner didn't let Qiu Ling finish his sentence. Just those couple ofwords reminded him of the inn three streets further. He and the ownerof that inn had always been in a competition. Unfortunately for him,the people liked the other inn more. It was neater and the ownerdidn't try to ask for horrendous prices. Going there feltcomfortable and yes, they had a stable.

It was just that the Zhongs hadn'thappened upon that inn. Even Qiu Ling didn't know there was such anestablishment. He had just tried to come up with something and therehad to be a better inn somewhere.

In fact, Qiu Ling didn't even knowthat the prices were too high. He had only thought so because of theway the owner looked at Mister Zhong and reduced the price by half assoon as he knew that this potential guest couldn't pay that much.If his rooms were really worth that much, would he drop the pricelike that? And now it seemed that his gamble had paid off.

The owner slapped a slip of paper onhis counter. "I looked at the wrong thing. That would be ... theprice for a week. It's only fifty copper coins for a day."

Mister Zhong's brows lifted."Fifty copper coins?" Mister Zhong repeated the number.That seemed like a more decent price but he wasn't dumb. The ownerhad changed prices three times in a couple of minutes. That wasn'tnormal. Unsure, if he had really gotten a normal price this time,Mister Zhong looked at the man next to him again.

Unfortunately, Qiu Ling also didn'tknow what a normal price would be. It had been ages since he had beenin the human realm. And he had never bothered with things like inns.He looked at the owner and tried to gauge his expression.

Having that serious gaze directed athim the owner started to sweat. He felt like kneeling down to thatguest and begging him to stop. He could have made so much money! Andnow he not only missed out on the money, but he was even losing face!He felt like crying.

"Oh ... Oh, look at this."The owner slapped a different piece of paper down next to the firstone, his hand covering as much of the writing as possible. "You'rein the capital for the first time, right?"

Qiu Ling didn't react but MisterZhong nodded.

"So, it's like this. Forthose who come to the capital for the first time, we're giving thema ... gift. Yes, that's right, a gift. They have to pay ..."He peeked at Qiu Ling and tried to ascertain how much he'd bewilling to pay.

Feeling the man's gaze Qiu Lingnarrowed his eyes into slits. There seemed to be a dangerous glint inthem that sent shivers down the owner's spine.

"Half!" the owner criedout. "They only have to pay half. So it would be twenty-fivecopper coins."

"Twenty-five copper coins ..."Qiu Ling repeated the number slowly. Mn, he should have taken someonewith him who knew about such things. But ... it didn't seem much?

Really, who would expect the dragonking to have any concept of money? Whoever did certainly didn'tknow Qiu Ling. Was something expensive? Was it cheap? He didn'tknow. Though he could glean the quality of something he never knewhow much it was actually worth. He would just pay whatever was askedfor if he liked something.

But Qiu Ling knew that the Zhongswere different. They didn't have much money. He should try to get abetter deal for his future father-in-law.

With that thought in mind, Qiu Lingnodded slowly. "Mn. So, since we're two people, that'd betwelve copper coins for each of us, no?"

"Tw— twelve?" The ownerrubbed his ears. Did he hear wrong?

Qiu Ling nodded. "Of course.You said to pay twenty-five. We are two people but you can't wanthalf a coin from us, can you? Don't you think asking for half acoin is ridiculous?"

"Yes, sure, bu—"

"Great. Then I guess thereshould be no other problem." He smiled and turned around toMister Zhong. "I seem to have seen that your wife and child arewaiting outside. Why don't you pay first?"

"Sure ... Thank you very much."Mister Zhong nodded and gave the stupefied owner the twelve coppercoins. After that, he went out to bring the horses into the stableand get his family. Qiu Ling too went into one of the free rooms,though his body vanished as soon as the door closed behind him.

Meanwhile, the owner sat at thecounter and pondered over a difficult problem. In the end, why didthey each pay half when they didn't come together?