Chapter 41: The Shameless Bargaining Method

At these words, the crowd erupted in enthusiastic cheers, which thrilled Yuan Qian'er to no end!

Backstage, Yuan Qian'er said with an expression of admiration, "Qingcheng, you truly are my bestie and ride-or-die! Now the madam has no choice but to sell the brothel, haha!"

Su Qingcheng replied with a smug look, "Well, of course! Look at who I am. After all these years, how could I not know you? Don't worship me, sister, sister is just a legend!"

Standing nearby, Mo Yiran felt a creeping sense of foreboding. While running a brothel wasn't necessarily a bad thing and as long as Yuan Qian'er was happy it was fine, his intuition told him that she wasn't just planning to run a simple brothel!

"Qian'er, why the sudden urge to run a brothel? I thought you only wanted to help Miss Su buy back her freedom!"

"Hehe, Mo Yiran, I suddenly came up with a brilliant idea. I'll give you the details when we get back to the Prince's Mansion. Right now, the most important thing is waiting for the madam to come find us!"

No sooner had she spoken than the madam marched toward them looking as if she wanted to murder Su Qingcheng. "Su Qingcheng, you were just supposed to dance! Why did you go telling everyone there would be novel dances? Now look at this, how are we supposed to clean up this mess? Honestly, I never should have kept you here in the first place!"

Yuan Qian'er grabbed the madam's arm and soothed, "Oh, Mother, what are you panicking for? Since Qingcheng dared to say those words, naturally she has a way to handle it. But what about you? Have you considered my offer? Do you want to sell or not? Look at you, you can't find anyone else to perform these novel dances right now, so this brothel is just a sinking ship. If you don't transfer ownership now, you'll end up offending people and losing your reputation completely. You might as well hand the brothel over to me and let me clean up this mess. Whatever happens to me after that won't have anything to do with you!"

The madam thought about it and realized it made sense. Su Qingcheng had already made the declaration. Although her indenture was held here, she had Prince Mo backing her—taking her away was just a word for him. By that time, if the place had no performers, the angry patrons would probably tear the brothel down. After pondering it over and over, the madam gritted her teeth: if she had to sell, she would sell!

"Since that's how it is, young master, fifty thousand taels of silver and this brothel is yours!"

"What? Fifty thousand taels? You might as well just rob me! Ten thousand! Not a single coin more!" Yuan Qian'er had no real concept of ancient currency, but converted into RMB in her mind, she felt it was outrageously expensive and her heart ached terribly!

"Young master, be reasonable. Do you have any idea how much capital I've invested in this brothel? Ten thousand taels is simply impossible!"

"Everything in this brothel that can be moved, you can take with you. If any of the girls want to leave with you, I won't stop them either. You can easily open another brothel yourself. How about this, twenty thousand, final offer!" Yuan Qian'er's main interest was simply that this brothel had a great location and was spacious enough!

Madam: "Forty thousand."
Yuan Qian'er: "Twenty thousand."
Madam: "Forty thousand."
Yuan Qian'er: "Twenty thousand."
Madam: "Forty thousand."
Yuan Qian'er: "Forty thousand."
Madam: "Twenty thousand."

"Deal! Many thanks, Mother! Someone, fetch brush and ink! We have a new boss!" Seeing the madam take the bait, Yuan Qian'er grinned as craftily as a fox.

Watching this, Su Qingcheng and Mo Yiran speechlessly covered their eyes: There was simply no watching this—it was too embarrassing! Don't tell anyone you know us if we ever go outside!

Only then did the madam snap back to her senses: "You—you set a trap for me! You're shameless, utterly shameless!"

"Hehe, Mother, don't get so worked up. Getting angry is bad for your health. Come on, let's finish the paperwork!" Yuan Qian'er was so thick-skinned that she didn't feel the slightest bit guilty about her behavior!

The madam watched with a bleeding heart as the brothel she had managed for so many years was practically handed away for the price of cabbage. In the end, once the paperwork was completed, she literally gutted the place, carrying away everything down to the bare structure. It was so thoroughly cleaned out that you couldn't even find a single hair inside, and she took every single courtesan with her!