Ch. 97 - Haunted

"Where's Anbi?"

"She went to take a bath—bathing!"

Tang Qi entered Catherine's room carrying plates piled high with dishes.

It was a standard double room with thick cotton-woven mattresses laid over wooden boards. At first glance, it was far more comfortable and soft than the straw beds at the Golden Oak.

According to Chuck, staying one night at the Friendly Home cost 8 silver coins and didn't include breakfast.

Compared to the few copper coins at the Golden Oak, this was naturally sky-high pricing.

But value is relative.

Compared to the Lower District's accommodation fees that started at one gold coin, the Friendly Home truly lived up to its name—

"I've never seen a girl who could bargain like that. She nearly cut the accommodation fee in half.

If it weren't for your sake and the fact that your entire party could fill up my inn, my wife would never have agreed to rent rooms at 5 silver coins.

We even threw in dinner—

'Totokata,' that's the big pot dish you're holding. Translated into Common Tongue, it's called Welcome Soup!

Don't think it's just a vegetable and chicken hodgepodge. In fact, it's made with turkey stock, supplemented with green beans, peas, sweet flint corn, red bell peppers, and hand-shredded chicken—most importantly, four different colors of carrots all stewed together.

During the cooking process, you need to add different ingredients in sequence according to timing to ensure that after one ingredient is thoroughly cooked, you immediately adjust the heat.

It's too complicated to explain in detail, but it's one of us halflings' signature dishes.

Only it could be stewed in one pot to satisfy the needs of you three hundred people.

Of course, we're not losing money either.

After all, the payment is three bottles of starberry wine, which I must collect carefully—that stuff is quite precious in Longgold City."

Undeniably, though it was just a stew, the taste was absolutely exquisite.

Especially after eating over twenty days of dry, tough wolf meat and hard, bitter black wheat bread that even starberry wine couldn't save their tongues from.

The broth was rich and went down smoothly. The first taste was the spiciness of black pepper, immediately followed by the umami of chicken soup blooming on the tongue. When you bit into the vegetables at the end, only sweet aftertaste remained.

Of course, perhaps due to some unknown spices, the entire stew leaned toward the salty side. But dipped with long baguette bread—crispy on the outside, fluffy inside, yet chewy—it perfectly compensated for that part.

However, Chuck's non-stop chatter along the way still made Tang Qi think this halfling should get along well with that so-called Motor-mouth Rumi.

Mm, and Stonecrusher too.

Short folks always sympathized with each other, because they could always share their experiences of craning their necks to look up people's nostrils.

Seeing Tang Qi enter the room with plates, Catherine hurriedly pulled out a chair for him, pushing him by the shoulders to sit down:

"There's something I must tell you."

"Not bathing today?"

"No, that's not..."

"So you are bathing?"

"Be serious!"

Catherine lightly punched Tang Qi.

This was all his fault—she could barely look at that word normally anymore!

"I'm talking about the Golden Oak's location issue—I realized I was thinking too simply before."

As she spoke, she spread out her notebook with every expense recorded for Tang Qi to examine carefully.

Seeing the series of numbers, Tang Qi had the illusion of lying in a wagon, being bounced on rough roads until his brain matter sloshed around, nearly making him dizzy:

"Just give me the conclusion?"

"Alright, so basically—we're not as rich as we thought we were."

Catherine sighed, pushing all her assets onto the table for Tang Qi to inspect.

It was a small treasure chest about a forearm's length and width, filled with brilliant gems and gold and silver coins.

"I originally thought that years of accumulated savings, along with the jewelry my mother left me, would be enough to maintain at least half a year's livelihood in Longgold City, which would allow us to make things work.

But after asking the innkeeper's wife, I discovered that the money in my hands couldn't even rent a shop in Longgold City for more than three months.

And preparing materials and decorating the shop also costs money. Calculated this way, by the time I'm ready to open for business, the money will be completely exhausted.

And that's even the worst location in the city—

Longgold City has over a dozen taverns large and small, like the Sewers that adventurers frequent, or the Mermaid's Song that port dockworkers favor...

To seize market share from them, I could only rely on selling starberry wine at low prices. But we couldn't carry much cargo while fleeing, and the stock on hand can't possibly be sold cheaply all at once..."

By the end, Catherine was as dejected as a wrung-out sponge, completely losing the courage she'd shown before reaching Dragon's Tail Pass.

"I surrender."

Tang Qi was also somewhat troubled.

The money problem—he really couldn't help with that.

Never mind supporting a money pit with osteoporosis and a gold-devouring beast with a massive appetite.

Even if he sold all his belongings, it wouldn't fill Catherine's needs.

But fortunately, Catherine wasn't just complaining. She immediately flipped to the next page of her notebook and continued:

"So I gave up on the idea of 'establishing ourselves in Longgold City' and calculated another set of expenses.

If I open the Golden Oak at Dragon's Tail Pass, setting aside materials and decoration costs, my savings would at least sustain me for three months.

If I can't break even after three months, I can declare bankruptcy and go perform street music with you."

"Sounds quite romantic."

"Are you betting or not?"

She desperately wanted Tang Qi's answer.

And Tang Qi understood that it was out of respect for him that she hoped he would help her make this choice.

However, for him, this wasn't really a choice at all.

Eyes can speak.

When he met those fiery red eyes, Tang Qi had already discovered that there was only one answer she wanted:

"Let's bet. I believe in you."

"If we lose, I won't be able to compensate you for your 'investment.'"

"No worries, just compensate me with yourself."

"I'm not that cheap!"

"It's not certain we'll lose either. Three months is enough time to accomplish many things."

"What's your idea?"

"It's not mature yet. I'll tell you once it's nearly done."

If he didn't have absolute certainty about some things, promising and then failing to deliver would just seem ridiculous.

Tang Qi then asked:

"I'm guessing you've already thought about what to do next?"

"Not yet, mainly because there's an issue with the location selection—

Because opening a shop at Dragon's Tail Pass doesn't require registering with a guild like in Longgold City. You just need to secure land usage rights and pay monthly taxes.

But land at Dragon's Tail Pass is also limited, and suitable storefronts for taverns aren't that numerous. I spent an entire evening figuring out the situation and finally settled on three decent houses—"

"An entire evening?"

"It was just visiting around, didn't take that long."

Holy hell, what incredible initiative.

If it were him, he'd probably sleep first and make a decision after waking up tomorrow.

Then due to a series of reasons like exhaustion, hunger, pondering dwarf jokes, etc., he'd delay until tomorrow evening, thinking 'It's already night, let's talk tomorrow,' and keep postponing things as much as possible, right?

Yet this girl had gone out only after negotiating prices and properly settling the refugees.

Catherine had even drawn a complete map of Dragon's Tail Pass to make it clearer for Tang Qi:

"First is this one at the far north of the town, farthest from the gate. The first house we saw when we arrived at Dragon's Tail Pass—I'm considering it for a simple reason: because it's the cheapest."

Tang Qi glanced at the map's crisscrossing streets, lanes, and paths, shaking his head:

"But Dragon's Tail Pass as a whole is quite large, and those coming and going are just some adventurers who have better quality options. Opening here won't attract much foot traffic."

"Then there's the town center, located on the main road, also the most densely populated area. The downside is it's expensive, and there are already two taverns competing in the center—we're not the only ones who can spot a good location."

Tang Qi didn't rush to judgment: "What about the third one?"

"The third is more remote, even more toward the southwest than the Friendly Home. The advantage is it's near the inland sea with nice scenery, and people often fish nearby, but compared to the second one, the foot traffic can only be considered moderate."

"Advantages done, what about the disadvantages?"

"It's haunted."

"Huh?"

Catherine repeated the information she'd gathered earlier:

"I heard that shop has been plagued for months by the sound of a woman's mournful singing. It's as if some ghost is haunting inside...

The nearby residents hired priests and adventurers from Longgold City, but none could find any clues.

Anyway, it's very strange."

Tang Qi's eyes lit up: "So it's relatively cheaper?"

"No, it's the most expensive, thirty percent more than the central shop."

"Why?"

"I don't know, but that's the price the listing agent quoted."

Tang Qi blinked, staring intently at the position Catherine's fingers indicated, pondering aloud:

"Both haunted and expensively priced—isn't this clearly showing they don't want to sell it? Then why bother listing it at a high rental price to deliberately attract attention..."

"Supposedly because the owner doesn't regularly reside in Longgold City but is unwilling to abandon it due to taxes, complaints from nearby residents, etc., so they list it at a high price.

Longgold City is a city that values profit. As long as you can prove it still holds value, they won't demolish it for now.

Such a remote, expensive location with no cost-effectiveness—I actually didn't plan to include it in my considerations at all..."

Tang Qi asked curiously: "But you still did?"

"Because..."

Catherine pretended to look at the scenery outside the window, her voice suddenly becoming soft.

Like it had melted into the breeze outside the window, into the flapping wings of birds:

"I thought you'd be very interested."

"Oh?"

"You—you really like recording adventure experiences in your journal, don't you...

I thought telling you some interesting stories about Dragon's Tail Pass would pique your interest.

So you wouldn't sigh every day saying you just wrote another bunch of boring daily entries—and bathing!"

She rubbed her flushed cheeks, walking to the window on her own to get some air.

Only after feeling somewhat calmer did she turn around with hands on hips, resuming the rationality she'd shown while calculating accounts:

"Moreover, that shop has already attracted attention from people in Dragon's Tail Pass and even Longgold City because of the 'haunting' rumors.

If you can solve those 'ghosts,' it could serve as perfect publicity for our Golden Oak's reputation—

Then we won't worry about no one being curious about this tavern.

The geographical disadvantage could be offset by this, actually saving us promotional expenses!"

Tang Qi raised an eyebrow:

"'Penny-pinching' Catherine, so this was also part of your plan?"

"Hmph."

"You're right. I might not care whether the tavern loses money or not.

But I definitely care whether there's a story there."

Tang Qi didn't delay any longer, shouting toward the room's exterior:

"Dawn, Dawn! It's time for the paladin to work!"

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