Doomsday Code

Chapter 873 Pretending to be Rich

The two were personally escorted to the door by Airaf. After thanking him with some trepidation, Chen Cheng left with Sheli.

As the two figures disappeared into the street, Elav chuckled.

Since Chen Cheng has already agreed to donate such a large sum of money, Ai Laf is not afraid that Chen Cheng will dare to go back on his word.

Thinking about the price of tens of thousands of magical beast pelts, he couldn't help but want to go back and get his abacus to calculate how much money he could get.

As he hummed a song and walked into the city lord's mansion, the official in charge of other affairs within the city smiled and said:

"What's wrong? Did that kid just give you a big sum of money? Look how happy you are."

Elav glanced at him, then said:

"It's vulgar. People are moved by my sincerity and want to donate money to me to reward me, a meritorious soldier who guards the northern border."

Don't constantly use terms like "paying tribute" or "taking bribes"—these are obviously negative words. If you keep hearing them, even if it's not bribery, it will sound like bribery.

"Yes, yes, Lord City Lord, you are absolutely right. From now on, we'll call it donations. But we can't stop people outside from saying we're taking bribes, hahaha."

At the end, the governor burst into laughter.

"I have nothing to say to a vulgar person like you. Go and investigate this person for me. Since he promised to donate, the money should be transferred on time."

Elaf appeared approachable, but his words carried a subtle hint of murderous intent.

He's seen it all, from the kingdom to the North. Some guys like to put on airs, spending a little money to borrow his fame, and then go and extort money from him.

Of course, whether he's extorting money or not is none of Ai Laf's business; it's just that this rotten garlic can't pay, so that's his fault.

After the consul left to receive his orders, Elav returned to his simple office with his hands behind his back, humming a little tune.

When Elav opened the office drawer and saw the ledgers and abacus inside, his eyes narrowed into slits with a smile.

However, when he took out his abacus and ledger to continue calculating, he suddenly discovered that one of the beads on the abacus had moved an extra one.

After adjusting the beads, he continued using the abacus.

Outside the city lord's mansion, Sheli disappeared for a moment and then reappeared from the shadows of an alleyway.

"Son."

"Don't rush, we'll talk about it when we get back."

Walking through the streets of Engla at night, Chen Cheng felt a little hungry as he smelled the aroma of food wafting from the street stalls.

"Let's go there for dinner first before going back. By now, that Snow Woman has probably already eaten with Octopus Brother."

Arriving at the only food stall still open on the street, Chen Cheng looked at what food the stall owner was making.

"Would you like dinner, sir? Our shop has all sorts of ways to cook monster meat: fried, stewed, and boiled. Not only will it help you stay healthy, but it will also strengthen your relationship with your wife. Would you like to try some?"

The stall owner took out a piece of snow wolf leopard monster meat and enthusiastically introduced it to Chen Cheng.

Chen Cheng had naturally eaten this monster meat before; for the first ten years of his life, he ate it almost every day.

However, after separating from Sam, Chen Cheng never ate it again.

Chen Cheng looked at the monster meat the shopkeeper had brought out; it was just low-level monster meat, containing very little magical energy.

However, if given to ordinary people, it can also improve blood circulation and strengthen the body.

"Then give us the most expensive and best piece of meat you have here, and cook it the way you're best at."

Chen Cheng and She Li found a relatively quiet table to sit down, and the stall owner immediately brought over a pot of hot water and poured them a glass of water.

"Please have some water, the food will be served shortly."

"We can handle things here ourselves, you don't need to help us, landlady."

The proprietress placed the kettle on the ground, wiped the table, and left.

"What did you just see?"

Chen Cheng picked up the water glass, holding it like a hand warmer, and then looked at Sheli and asked.

“That Elaf is indeed very greedy. I saw an account book in his desk drawer. According to the records in it, he can make hundreds of thousands of gold every month.”

"And according to what is recorded in this ledger, everything he knows or can provide can be priced."

The above mentioned the transaction made when the church elders came to him to inquire about the whereabouts of the northern messenger, and the price was extremely high.

The proprietress placed a plate of stir-fried monster meat on the table, and also brought the two a bottle of her homemade wine, saying:

"It's getting dark and cold. Here's a bottle of homemade wine to warm you two gentlemen up."

Chen Cheng took the plate from her hand, and She Li also took the bottle of wine, saying thank you.

After the proprietress left, Chen Cheng smiled and looked at him, saying:

"You actually thanked her, that's good. You can't be so cold anymore."

Sheli rolled her eyes at Chen Cheng, then continued:

"Moreover, there are also transaction records on this site where he helped other nobles from the inland to inspect the Great Wall. The price was around 20,000 gold coins, so I think it's feasible to just use money to build a road first."

Chen Cheng picked up a piece of meat with his chopsticks and said as he ate:

"Don't be fooled by Elaf's appearance. He may be willing to take those nobles to see the Great Wall, but he might not be willing to agree to our request."

"But we should try this method. I'll see how it goes when I talk to him tomorrow."

The two then devoured all the food they had ordered in a flash.

After drinking the last sip of his homemade rice wine, Chen Cheng took out ten gold coins and handed them to the proprietress, saying:

"Big sister, this is the first time I've ever tasted such delicious monster meat. Brother's cooking skills are excellent, and your rice wine is also very good."

The proprietress was a little flustered when she saw so much money and wanted to return the extra to Chen Cheng.

Chen Cheng said goodbye and then strode away with She Li.

It wasn't that Chen Cheng was pretending to be rich, but he had to let that greedy city lord see his wealth.

Moreover, the owner's cooking skills are indeed very good, as are their wines.

So why not just give them the money they're given in the first step?

Shortly after Chen Cheng and his companion left, someone came to question the couple.

Upon hearing that Chen Cheng and his companion had only eaten a piece of monster meat and had generously given away ten gold coins, the interrogator was so envious that he almost wanted to rob them.

Because the North is sparsely populated, monsters are arguably even more rampant here than in the interior. Outside of towns, the entire North is practically a monster kingdom.

Since several major kingdoms stationed their troops here, their usual training exercises naturally involved taking down those magical beasts.

Therefore, in this northern region, monster meat is really not a rare commodity.

The meal Chen Cheng just ate cost at most a dozen or so silver coins.

On his way back, Chen Cheng would go into any shops that were still open and buy any beautiful dresses he saw without even looking at the price.

Not long after Chen Cheng and his companion left, someone came to inquire about them.

However, what they found out was that Chen Cheng bought all these things for his sister, and that Chen Cheng had also given her tips.

It's clear that with these few spending actions, Chen Cheng quickly spent several hundred gold coins in a short period of time, thus solidifying his image as a rich guy.