Chapter 46: Misunderstood as village boy
Selling herbs was a deed performed by poor villagers, who made their living by risking their lives to gather herbs and magical mushrooms and stuff from the spiritual forest and the other wild habitats nearby the Cloud City.
The lady assumed that he, too, was one such herb gatherer.
As for why he was able to dress himself so well, they believed that he must've picked up and sold a good herb for many gold taels and used his recently earned fortune to buy luxurious clothes and accessories, which also meant that he had no gold left on him and that he was no better than a nicely dressed poor hillbilly who had to risk his life daily to gather herbs and sell them to make a living in the near future.
No matter how handsome, a poor person was not worthy of them.
A poor person, who had to risk his life every now and then, was even less worthy of them than pigs dreaming of eating swan meat.
They dared not take an interest in a man with a high life-risking job.
Who would want to end up a widow soon after marriage?
None of them!
So, they kept their eyes away from Xie Yang, not knowing they had misunderstood everything on their own.
The head clerk gawked at Xie Yang.
'Seeling herbs is an act of poor villagers who want to make money irrespective of danger, so why is this young master who seems rich from every corner doing the same? Have I judged a book by its book? No! I am still not that old! He must not be a villager! His aura is too refined!'
The head clerk nearly thought he had misjudged Xie Yang as a young master.
Xie Yang took out what he wanted to sell.
The clerk looked at the things he set on the table, and the next moment, his eyes widened to the size of saucers.
These weren't cheap herbs but alchemy ingredients that the doctor needs to treat patients and heal their wounds!
They were miraculous alchemy ingredients, ah!
Each of them was more than his monthly salary!
Xie Yang asked, "Are you not buying these herbs?"
"I don't have the authority to purchase them, but luckily, the person who can is in the clinic today. If you don't mind, please wait here while I will go and get the manager."
The head clerk was extremely respectful to Xie Yang, and it raised many eyes.
'It looks like we've misjudged him!'
"I will wait." Xir Yang said as the head clerk walked away from him.
The head clerk went away from the counter and deeper into the clinic.
Soon, he returned to the room with many shelves with medicinal jars in them with a young man dressed in white robes. A silver mask covered his face, making it impossible for others to discern his appearance. His hair was long and white, falling on the back of his snow-white robe sewed with ever-fresh white petals.
The young man piercing gaze remained on Xie Yang for a few moments. Xie Yang noticed unfriendliness in the young man's eyes, and he wondered how he had offended him.
"Have we met before?" Xie Yang asked as his brows furrowed.
"Nope, it must be your imagination."
After saying that, the young man moved his gaze away from him and looked at the herbs on the table. He saw that they were undamaged, meaning that Xie Yang was an old hand at harvesting such herbs. Moreover, they were inside a spiritual jade bottle, which preserved their medicinal essence, making them as fresh as they were at the time of picking.
"Are you the one selling them?" The young man asked Xie Yang.
"Who might you be?"
"I am the manager of this store. My name is Silver."
"You must really love money."
"Are you taunting me?"
"I don't have a habit of picking up fights, so it must be your imagination."
'Is this his way of getting back at me? So petty!'
An indigent expression appeared on the young man's face, but he wasn't in much of a condition to fight, so he could only use his tongue to make an opportunity to stab Xie Yang with his words.
"Your name must be far better than mine–"
Xie Yang cut him off in the middle of his sentence.
"Xie Yang."
Silver's gaze grew more profound, "The third young master of the Xie Manor?"
The ears of everyone in this place perked up!
Even though no one had seen him before, everyone here had heard of the third young master of the Xie Family.
Who didn't know that the city lord cherished his youngest son?!
If this person, who some of them had considered a handsome-looking villager, was really the youngest son of the city lord, then even all of their lives combined wasn't worth his toe!
"I guess you've heard of me." Xie Yang smiled as he flashed him a token of identity.
He only meant to show it to Silver, but others caught sight of it too.
One couldn't fake the token.
The officials made it using seals that only a handful of people knew how to create, and those people were either under the scrutiny of the empire or already dead.
Thus, it was hard to make such an identity token.
The young man felt glad that he hadn't offended Xie Yang.
The onlookers felt that they were really blind as they failed to recognize a mountain of wealth and status even though it was standing before them!
"You're pretty good at this."
The young man had to praise Xie Yang for being meticulous and good at alchemy material gathering. Doctor Silver was mistaken as it wasn't Xie Yang but Merchant Jin who picked them up. The latter was an alchemy master, and one of the basics of being one is to be good at picking up herbs, so he was good at it. It was just that his hard work was going to benefit Xie Yang in the end.
"Really? This is the first time I'm hearing that."
Of course, Xie Yang felt that the young man had misunderstood him as an alchemy master or at least an alchemy apprentice. Still, he had no intention of clearing a misunderstanding beneficial to him.
"Are you selling all of them?"
Silver was a doctor, and according to the empire's law, they didn't need to address feudal lords' descendants formally in their turf.
"If you can afford it, then yes." Xie Yang gave him a nod.
"Since they are fresh and won't be spoiled if they remain in the spiritual jade bottle, I would like to purchase them along with their casing for 333 gold taels." Silver said, "What say you?"
Silver was not only a manager but also a doctor.
He needed these ingredients to heal his patients.
Although most used them as ingredients to make low-level healing pills, he could also use them to make powder or paste, which once he puts on his patient's wounds, would heal their wounds at a rate visible to the naked eye.
Xie Yang knew that selling them in the market with the casing would net him around 300 gold taels, and selling them to the clinic helped him earn about 30 taels more than that, so he was pretty happy.
"Fair enough." Xie Yang accepted the deal.
"If you have more such fresh ingredients, I would like to purchase them too." Silver said while looking at Xie Yang in a new light.
The young master of the Xie Manor was no longer a cripple but a good merchant who knew where to pick up high-quality goods and also knew where to sell them to get the best profit.
'I find him annoying but befriending him shouldn't be a waste of time,' Silver thought.
He found Xie Yang annoying because of how he stared at him outside the clinic!
Xie Yang replied, "I will."
Silver found Xie Yang staring at him.
"Do you have anything else to say?"
"I wanted to ask if you know of a boy this tall with white hair working in this place? If possible, can you bring me to him or him to me? I want to talk with him."
"Why would you want to meet him?" Silver asked in a gruff voice, obviously not pleased for some reason.
"Personal matters."
The head clerk wanted to tell something to Xie Yang, but Silver flicked his sleeve, and he, who had just opened his mouth, closed it shut.
"There is no one like that in my place."