Seems like giving up
Adding another 50 silver in one go?
The crowd in the dining hall suddenly twisted their heads to look at the nobleman that entered the tavern and swallowed out loud.
Sitting on the third private box, Nannan who was gnawing on some chicken legs raised his head suddenly, his little forehead twisted in a frown as he asked puzzled: “How come this voice sounds so much like Uncle Mo’s?”
Shen Ying was sitting next to him was responsible for looking after the boy. The corner of his mouth twitched at the question. ‘How couldn’t be him?’ That person is precisely Mo Xian, who had been made into a tool for raising the bids by Yu Qingluo.
Nannan wiped his mouth using his hands and proceeded to rub the now greasy hands on Shen Ying’s clothes, then turned around to lean on the windowsill, sticking half of his body outside to check out the situation downstairs.
Looking at the finger marks on his own clothes Shen Ying’s face turned glum. This brat…
On his side, Wen Tian laughed at the scene. But when he noticed that on the other side of the room Nannan was leaning on the window about to stick half of his body outside he rushed to hug him back: “Don’t look outside, that person is indeed your Uncle Mo.”
“Why does Uncle Mo want to buy that wooden token?” Nannan was extremely confused by this, but noticing that the chicken legs on the bowl on the table still had some meat leftover, he went over to gnaw on it a bit more until it was bitten off cleanly by him, not a shred of meat would be wasted. This time he went towards Wen Tian and wiped his hands clean on his clothes. Then, with a dark expression, he said: “Is uncle Mo sick? If he wants to see Mother then there’s no need to go buy that wooden token! He just needs to amuse me well and I can ask my mother to treat his illness for him.”
After saying that that he went on to take a couple of sips from his teacup: “Let me tell you, as long as Uncle Mo’s disease isn’t a venereal disease[1], then my mother can cure it for good.”
Venereal disease? Shen Ying and Wen Tian were perplexed, sympathizing with Mo Xian who was just misunderstood as a sick person for no reason at all.
“Uncle Mo is also so stupid, doesn’t he know that the pavilion nearest to the water[2] is the first to bask in the sunlight? I’m so close to him but he didn’t even think about telling me.” Nannan took the grapes that Da Wu had brought especially for him and plopped them, one by one, into his mouth.
Shen Ying coughed lightly then went to correct him over: “Nannan, it’s ‘the pavilion closest to the water enjoys the moonlight first’.”
“In broad daylight, how could we see any moonlight? You’re so stupid.” Nannan shot him a disdainful glance, then turned around to take the oranges from the table and proceeded to eat them as well.
“…” Shen Ying shed silent tears, why is he arguing this matter in such a serious manner with a kid still in his diapers? And the worst is, he isn’t able to get the upper hand in this at all.
Only Peng Ying, who had been laying on the couch since the beginning, had the corners of his mouth hooked into a smile, observing Nannan eat all the chicken feet, drinking all of the tea, plopping all the grapes into his mouth and then the oranges. He was now eating the osmanthus cakes as well.
All this time his mouth never stopped chewing.
How could such a small child eat so much food nonstop in such a short time? He looked like a person who had been starved for centuries before finally being released from his sentence.
Peng Ying couldn’t help but shake his head, wasn’t this kid afraid of being sick in the stomach from all this gluttony?
With this in mind, he decided that it was better to give him a reminder.
However, before he could open his mouth to say anything, a deep voice sounded from outside: “Number one, 600 taels.”
Yu Feng stared at the person who had previously spoken downstairs and scowled.
Yu Zuolin’s heart sunk. He didn’t anticipate that just when those people from the room next to his went silent, there would be a random nobody, who no one knew where he came from, that would suddenly raise the bid so high.
Jin Liuli smiled, then turned to look at Mo Xian to her side, her sweet voice entwining on his ears: “The price has already reached 600 taels, is anyone going to raise it even further?”
“700 taels” Just adding 50 taels each time was too slow. Since Miss Yu wanted to rip a person off then he is going to give her a hand.
“Number one, 800 taels”
“850 taels” a voice came from the 10th private room, it almost sounded like this person wasn’t reconciled with the fact that only the both of them were increasing the bid.
“900 taels.” the people from the 4th room closely followed.
Yu Feng gritted his teeth: “Number one, 1000 taels”
Mo Xian looked up and thought that he might just be here wasting time. Pursing his lips he said: “2000 taels.”
Jin Liuli’s eyes suddenly shot open wide, ‘not bad, such a bold move’.
2000? At this moment, the voices bidding from the private rooms on the second floor came to a halt.
They were only people from a small county and the wealthy people in here were few. Although 2000 taels isn’t a sky-high price for them, still, the Ghost Doctor wasn’t the only doctor around who was able to treat their people. 2000 taels were more than enough for them to be treated in full, prepare quality medicines and maintain their health, and still would be able to buy a bunch of supplements with what is left.
Furthermore, they heard from the other patients who went to the backyard and got treated that they never even saw the Ghost Doctor’s face at all. They went in and came out blindfolded. The Ghost Doctor didn’t even say a word to them.
This alone was enough to make them suspicious of whether the person in the backyard was really the Ghost Doctor or if that person was just an unusual doctor with exceptional medical skills.
Asking them to spend 2000 taels just to buy a chance to see a doctor whose identity they weren’t even sure of wasn’t worth it.
Therefore, after the price rose to 2000 taels, the bids from the private rooms on the second floor stopped.
Nannan, who had just finished eating a small strawberry, wasn’t able to keep his cool any longer. He was feeling dizzy and unable to think straight.
He pointed his right finger at Mo Xian downstairs, saying to Shen Ying: “That wastrel! That’s way too extravagant! 2000 taels. Doesn’t he know how many delicacies a person can buy with 2000 taels? Does he actually want to spend 2000 taels on a mere wooden token? It would be better to give the money to me. That’s not right, we can’t let him do this kind of evil. I have to go and have a talk with him!”
With that, Nannan wiped his hands on his clothes and jumped down from the chair, directly rushing out of the private room.
Shen Ying and Wen Tian felt awkward as they pulled the little boy back without a second thought, their hearts still had a lingering fear.
Now they finally understood why they had to take care of Nannan together and why they had brought him so many things for him to eat. It was because they were trying to prevent this from happening.
“Nannan, please calm down…’ Shen Ying was feeling helpless, so he could only tell the little boy about Miss Yu’s plan in a simple, clear and easy-to-understand way, hoping that he would understand this complex matter at least a bit.
But after Nannan listened to his explanation, he gave him a contemptuous look: “Uncle Shen, couldn’t you just tell me that this was something my mother told uncle Mo to do? Speaking that many words, doesn’t make you thirsty?”
“…” Shen Ying facepalmed. How come he got the impression that, in Nannan’s mind, everyone aside from Miss Yu was labelled as a stupid person by him?
He sighed. And not being able to find words to reply, he turned his attention to keep watching the situation downstairs develop.
Yu Zuolin’s hands tightened into a grip, his lips pressed into a straight line. It took some time before he gave Yu Feng an order: “Increase it.”
Yu Feng was feeling a bit worried but still went on to shout: “2100.”
“3000.” Mo Xian sneered, ‘so stingy! what’s the fun in increasing the price only by 100 taels?’
Jin Liuli’s mouth twitched. ‘Big brother, please take your time. If you increase the price this much in a single bid, what should we do if we scare Yu Zuolin away?’
3000! The crowd went into an uproar. Looking from Mo Xian to the window of the private room number 1 who had been fighting for the token with teeth and nails.
However, there was no sound coming out from it. It seemed that the people inside had given up.
Translated by C, The Apostle of Coffee
Edited by NoveLeo, Life is a Drama
Translator’s Notes
[1] 花柳病 – This term is an ancient one, used to refer to venereal diseases or STIs (new way of calling STDs) if you will. If you dissect it “Disease of the Flowers and Willows”, this word comes from the proverb: 寻花问柳 which means to ‘enjoy the spring scenery’ or ‘to frequent brothels’ (Lit: Seeking for flowers and asking for Willows, the Flowers are the women engaged in this business and the Willows are the men, after all the profession is not gender-exclusive). I wish to remind the readers that the most widespread STI in ancient times was probably syphilis and, although it was later treated with penicillin, be aware that this medicine was discovered only in 1928 and first tried on a critical patient in 1940 (the first patient didn’t survive, but the fact that his condition turned for the better for a while gave hope to the researchers and health staff involved. Later it became the most well-known antibiotic and the second class of its kind to be used in the world. The first was the sulfonamides in the 1930s!)
[2] 近水楼台 – Lit. pavilion nearest to the water. It’s a shortened version of the original mentioned below, Nannan actually kinda mixes both of the phrases that comprise this saying changing ‘moonlight’ for ‘sunlight’. According to my research, it comes from a Song Dynasty poet – Yu Wenbao’s work 《清夜录》 and the segment goes as “‘近水楼台先得月，向阳花木易逢春。” which roughly means ‘the pavilion closest to the water enjoys the moonlight first, the flowers and plants leaning towards the sun meet with spring the earliest’. So, if you curry favour with the powerful, the source, you’ll be able to have the opportunity ahead of the others. I hope I was able to convey this meaning in full.
Obviously Too Busy to Translate 
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