A life of two souls traveling through time

Chapter 441: Bargaining with the Iron-Calculating Butler

As he was carrying tens of thousands of taels of silver on him, even with Manager Li protecting him, An Ge did not dare to relax at all. He only rested for a short while occasionally along the way and did not delay for too long. He would rather run for an extra day or two to let Lao Yan bypass the dangerous Chaoyun City.

Manager Li was pleased to see that Ange had become more steady and cautious since becoming the butler. At the same time, he suddenly remembered the late Butler Fang. Butler Fang had asked him to train Ange, but he did not expect that Ange now had some of Butler Fang's shadow, which made him sigh inwardly.

Ange and his companions rode non-stop for about ten days and finally arrived at the foot of Yanjiaopo Mountain. They stood in front of the carriage for a long time but still did not see any bandits, so they followed Lao Yan's lead and went up the mountain.

"There is a dense forest on the top of the mountain, and the terrain is very complicated..." When they reached the middle of the mountain, Lao Yan pointed at the top and turned back to speak to Ange and Manager Li. However, halfway through his words, two whistles sounded from somewhere, and then a little bandit holding a spear stood in front of them and shouted loudly: "Who is going to Yanjiapo?"

"Little brother, please inform your boss that a man named Li from Jiangnan has come to redeem someone." Lao Yan then took two steps forward and bowed.

"Come with me!" Upon hearing that it was the famous Li from Jiangnan who came to redeem someone, the little Luoluo relaxed his vigilance and waved to them. At the same time, there was a rustling sound in the bushes in the distance, and an agile figure had already gone to the top of the mountain.

By the time Ange and the others reached the top of the mountain with their spear-wielding minions, Yan Song, the leader of Yanjiaopo, and several brothers, including the second-in-command Xue Gen, were already waiting in the dense forest.

"Boss, there is no owner of the famous Li family in Jiangnan here." The strong man who had previously accompanied Lao Yan to the Li family to deliver the message came to Yan Song, bowed his head and whispered.

"Hmph, there are rumors outside that Li Yunye has a very good relationship with his sworn brother, but he didn't show up at this critical moment. It seems that he is nothing special!" Yan Song heard this but said nothing. Instead, the impatient Xue Gen snorted coldly and muttered disapprovingly.

Then, Yan Song took a few steps forward with his fierce eyes narrowed, and pretended to be enthusiastic, bowed and smiled, saying: "You have been tired all the way, why not go to the village to rest first."

"Thank you for the invitation, boss. I hope you can understand that it is not easy for us to come here from far away in such a hot summer. I wonder if you can agree to let Manager Mu come out to meet us first?" An Ge also learned from Lao Yan's introduction that the person in front of him was the boss of Yanjiaopo, the living devil Yan Song, so he also took two steps forward, bowed and said with a smile.

"Which famous Li in Jiangnan are you?" Yan Song asked without rushing to answer.

"I am the steward of the Li Mansion. I'm here on the orders of my young master to redeem Manager Mu." An Ge bowed again and responded. In front of the bandits, he changed his address to Mu Liang as the manager. Naturally, he was deliberately distancing himself from the bandits so that they would think that Mu Liang was actually an outsider in the Li family.

"I didn't expect that the Li family's housekeeper is also a young boy, hahaha..." As soon as Ran Ange finished speaking, bursts of laughter suddenly rang out in the dense forest.

Faced with the ridicule in front of him, Ange was not annoyed. She still looked at Yan Song as if nothing had happened, as if waiting for his response.

"Don't worry, Manager Mu treated us well in my Yanjiapo, and he hasn't been hurt in the slightest. But it depends on your sincerity if you want to see him." Looking at An Ge, who was mature and steady despite his young age, Yan Song felt that his brothers' laughter was extremely harsh, so he waved his arm to make them shut up, and laughed again.

"Boss, there are small difficulties and big hardships. Although the Jiangnan Li family seems to be prosperous and respectable outside, ever since our master was harmed by the bandits from Jiugang Village, my wife and son were left an orphan and a widow in a panic, walking on thin ice. In just over a year, they were framed and betrayed because of the treacherous nature of people and their poor judgment of people. After several twists and turns, the Jiangnan Li family was almost destroyed. Now that they are lucky enough to survive, they are still breathing hard. So I beg the boss to be kind and reduce the ransom?" Ange suddenly frowned, sighed helplessly, and took two steps towards Yan Song, begging with a worried look on his face.

"Interesting. Have you ever heard of a bandit doing good deeds?" Ange's complaint left Yan Song unmoved. He just sneered. Although he had asked someone to pass on the message that the price could be negotiated, he could not give in easily now.

"It is indeed putting the boss in a difficult position. Well, there are still a few days left before the half-month deadline. We can only go to the capital to find a way to borrow it. But before we leave, we have to check on Manager Mu and see if he is okay." An Ge shook his head, put on a helpless look, bowed again and sighed.

Upon hearing that the Li family was going to the capital to borrow money, Yan Song's heart tightened and the smug smile on his face disappeared instantly.

"What nonsense are you talking about! What are you doing here without all the money? If you want to go to the capital, get out of here now. If you keep talking, believe it or not, I will go back and throw your Li family's adopted son off the cliff!" However, Xue Gen did not expect such a deep thought. He was very annoyed to see An Ge's hesitation, and could not help but shouting.

"Don't be upset, Second Master. As long as we can meet Shopkeeper Mu and make sure he's safe, we'll be relieved, right?" An Ge said to Xue Gen with an apologetic smile, then turned to Yan Song and continued to lament, "Fifty thousand silver taels is not a small amount. Didn't the First Master send someone to tell him that the price was negotiable? Although the famous Li family in Jiangnan is wealthy, it's more or less just a facade. I'm afraid you may not believe it even if I tell you..."

"Alright, a lean camel is bigger than a horse. Even if the famous Li in Jiangnan is not rich, isn't he still the richest man in Jiangnan? Jiangnan is a wealthy place, with brothels and willow alleys competing for money at night. Do you really think that we in Yanjiapo are so easy to fool?" Yan Song was also impatient to listen to An Ge's complaints about his poverty, so he interrupted him in a deep voice before he could finish and tried to test him again.

"That is to say, who in this world would believe that the famous Li in Jiangnan is just a name in vain." Ange remained calm. He smiled and spread his hands, then said, "In this case, we have no choice but to continue to rush to the capital to borrow money from the young master's cousin, Zhuo Yushi. I beg the boss to let us meet Manager Mu."

Ange bluntly brought up Censor Zhuo, which made the bandits present gasp in shock and look at each other. Even the second in command, Xue Gen, looked at his eldest brother in panic.

Seeing that the other party had broken the window paper, Yan Song immediately lost his temper. After finally compromising and cursing inwardly, he looked down at the much thinner boy in front of him and asked, "How much did the butler carry?"

"Eight thousand taels." Ange was not afraid. He looked up at the burly and ferocious living devil in front of him.

For a moment, the two men stopped talking. Their figures, one big and one small, and their expressions, one angry and one smiling, formed a sharp contrast.

Yan Song's heart was filled with rage, and he wished he could chop the brat in half with an axe. Is there anyone who bargains like this in the world? He never thought that a small butler of the famous Li in Jiangnan could be such a calculating person!

Although Ange smiled calmly on the surface, his heart was trembling. He had negotiated with the young master to half the price, but now that it had come to this, he had no choice but to take a gamble. It was also because he heard from Lao Yan that Yanjiapo had always been wary of the government that he understood why Young Master Muliang wanted them to bring out Censor Zhuo, so he was betting that Yanjiapo would not dare to offend the current Censor easily.

When Manager Li and others behind Ange heard that the butler had reduced the ransom from 50,000 taels to 8,000 taels, they were also shocked, but they did not dare to show their fear on their faces and were secretly sweating.

"What? You, the famous Li from Jiangnan, are sending away beggars? Damao, go back and cut off one of the hands of that shopkeeper Mu. Eight thousand taels can only redeem one hand!" However, Ange's words made all the bandits in the dense forest furious. They wished to eat them alive. Xue Gen was so angry that he jumped up with his eyes wide open and immediately pointed at a bandit and gave the order.

The named bandit was about to turn around and go back to the stronghold, but was scolded back by the leader Yan Song.

"Brother, you..." Xue Gen guessed that his brother wanted to compromise, but Yan Song raised his hand to stop him when he was about to speak. Then he ordered in a cold voice:

"Bring the people here."

Ange won the bet. Yan Song really didn't dare to offend the imperial censor. In addition, he had previously overestimated the weight of the shopkeeper Mu in the Li family, so he dared to ask for a ransom of 50,000. However, from the attitude of the famous Li in Jiangnan today, it can be seen that although the shopkeeper Mu is the adopted son of the Li family, he is still an outsider. The rumors of affection are probably just for show.

The boss had spoken, and no matter how unwilling the people below were, they dared not raise any objections. Moreover, after calming down, some of them understood that the boss was forced to compromise because he was worried about the support of the famous Li from Jiangnan in the capital. Even if they took a step back, eight thousand taels of silver was a great gain for them at Yanjiaopo.

Soon, Mu Liang and his three guards were led out of the dense forest. Ange was relieved to see that Master Mu Liang was truly unharmed. When Manager Li went to pick up Mu Liang, he also took out eight thousand taels of silver notes from his sleeve, presented them to Yan Song with both hands, and said with gratitude: "Thank you for your understanding, Boss."

Yan Song took the banknote with a gloomy face. At the same time, Mu Liang had walked up to An Ge. The two of them looked at each other and nodded without saying a word, then turned around and prepared to go down the mountain.