Unlike the hawkers who walked the streets and alleys, they woke up early and found a quiet place in the market to wait and sold their things to collect the money. People from the yamen would come to collect money. Now that the peace was flourishing, there were occasional evil things, they were needed here. The government office was still quite clear, and there were no evil officials and dignitaries who ran rampant to oppress the small people. If you gave three pennies, you could occupy a place in the morning set.
After the person who received the money left, Shen Xuanqing put away the half-sized wooden plaque that had been handed over.
If you had a wooden plaque, it would be easier, otherwise there would be too many people who sell things and it was hard to remember it. This wooden plaque was a pair with three numbers on it, one, seven and five written in vermilion lacquer. He only had one of them in his hand. When he left, he would return the wooden plaque and matched it with the other one in the yamen’s hand, and then made a sign on the wooden plaque as the roster.
Lu Gu was still breathing slightly, and his cheeks were warm. Seeing him like this, Shen Xuanqing moved a small stone from the corner to let him sit.
This was a seller who had been around for a long time, squatting and standing, tired his legs, so he made something. No one wanted to carry such a stone back and forth. Whoever came to sell something, first picked it up and sat down, when he left, someone else would used it.
“Sit and rest for a while.” Shen Xuanqing said to Lu Gu, after that he stood aside and shouted: “Come and see, the rabbits and deer that were just beaten.”
Farmers were rarely ashamed to open their mouths when they sold things .You could only eat food if you had money, so most of them could sell with a loud voice, and Shen Xuanqing was no exception. His voice was not too loud or sharp, but this physique stood behind the prey, and everyone knew that he was a hunter. Still a young hunter with steady eyes and handsome looks.
Although he was darker and thinner, his face was handsome, and his skin and bones were not bad. Standing here, such a tall and handsome man made people looked at him more.
It was such a handsome face, but Lu Gu didn’t dare to look at it, and he didn’t even have this awareness. He only had a cold and vague impression of Shen Xuanqing.
It was also the recent interactions that made him knew that Shen Xuanqing wouldn’t hit people easily, so what he thought of as “fierce and cold-hearted” before, now only left out the “fierce”.
As he was shouting, a middle -aged man approached, he looked like he was in his forties, with a small beard on his chin, and his slender face was shrewd at first glance “how about the deer? ”
Seeing that he was dressed neatly and thinking that he was the manager of a wealthy family in the town, Shen Xuanqing half-squatted down and replied, “I beat it, it’s still hot, it just died, if you buy it back today , the meat will be the freshest.”
“Isn’t this deer hurt?” The middle-aged man touched the deer a few times, it was still hot, thinking that the hunter didn’t coax anyone.
“The wild boars chased a group deer but didn’t catch it. One of them fell off the cliff and broke its spine. After running for nothing in the mountains these days, I went around and caught it.” Shen Xuanqing said a lie without changing his face, and there was some regret in his tone.
The wild boars were ferocious and hard to hunt. He set traps just by chance. If he could catch and killed them, he could sell them for money and it could be safer in the mountains. You couldn’t tell people that the prey was picked up for nothing, otherwise the price would be pushed down.
The deer skin was still intact without any injuries. The middle-aged man took a look of the deer’s belly, stood up and asked, “How much?”
Shen Xuanqing also stood up and replied, “You can give me eight taels.”
The middle-aged man opened his eyes a bit rounder: “You are also true, you dare to ask for this price. You want eight taels for this ?”
“Eight taels are already cheap. A doe can be sell for thirty or forty taels. This deer at least four months, it’s no less than 25 pounds.” Shen Xuanqing calmly negotiated the price.
The middle-aged man didn’t show weakness, but asked: “How much is the doe, and how much is this? You will need eight taels for these few pounds of meat. Five tasks, if you can, I will give you the money directly. I don’t need to go back to get it.”
This was quite lavish to say, and to carry so much silver with him, the middle-aged man looked a little smug, and five taels of silver was indeed not a small amount.
“You are also knowledgeable. Although the doe is heavy, the meat is not as tender as the young deer. You and the master in your house should know this the most. The deer in the mountains are smart and good at running, and the doe with the cub is even not easy to come out, and it’s usually impossible to hit a young deer, let alone taste it.”
“People often say that the meat of a cub that has just turned one month is tender, and the ladies and gentlemen in the city love it. We don’t know what it’s like, but the young deer that is only four months old is definitely more tender, so how can the price match the old deer.”
Doing business was all about being gentle and making money. Shen Xuanqing spoke calmly and gently, his words were clear, neither humble nor arrogant. Seeing that the middle-aged man hesitated, he added: “You asked if this deer is not injured, I think it’s because of your through consideration. This deer skin is so complete that it’s enough to make a pair of deerskin boots for the mansion, and it’s also decent to go out.”
“Well, you know what I think”, nodded with a calm expression on his face, as if he didn’t care much about it, but he was thinking.
“The price is still too high, make it less.” He said to Shen Xuanqing.
“Eight taels of silver are already cheap. If you hadn’t come to ask, I would have sold them for ten taels. In this way, if you buy it, I will give you this rabbit as a snack.” Shen Xuanqing grabbed the biggest and fattest one. The size was completely incomparable to the other two, which was enough to show his sincerity.
The good result of bargaining was not to suppress the price, but to add something as a compliment. Besides, this rabbit was the gift for the middle-aged man, which made his face grew a lot of light, but he still pretended to think. In the end, he took out eight taels of silver and gave it to Shen Xuanqing, showing his wealth and prestige in front of others, and then he carried the deer and the rabbit and left.
Of course, Shen Xuanqing didn’t know that after he went back, he reported to the master of the mansion that he bought it back with 10 taels of silver.