chsdbacks Chapter 73 You've Been Deceived
Chapter 73 You've Been Deceived
Lin Bei looked at Madam Rose opposite him, his tone puzzled.
"Save you?"
"Save Rose House?"
"You're perfectly fine."
"I don't see any problems with the operation of the Rose House."
"Look, I even brought back a bounty of two hundred gold coins this afternoon."
As he spoke, Lin Bei casually took out a heavy ebony box from his bag and opened the lid with a click.
Inside the box, on a velvet lining, lay four small, bright yellow gold bars, their alluring luster reflecting the light, silently telling the story of his "harvest" on this trip.
However, the expected look of surprise from Mrs. Rose did not appear. As if she had anticipated this, she gently ran her fingers over the carved patterns on the box lid.
Lady Rose raised her eyes, her gaze falling on Lin Bei. Her red lips parted slightly, and she uttered a soft, lingering sentence:
"Lin Beijun, do you know exactly how much the bounty is on the Eye-Ear Ghost?"
She paused slightly, a faint smile playing on her lips, a smile that seemed to hold both pity and a hint of barely perceptible mockery.
However, this mockery was not directed at Lin Bei, but at her and those who judge people by their appearance.
"Do you know that, in some people's eyes, your face... actually looks 'very easy to fool'?"
Lin Bei's brows furrowed instantly, as if they were being pulled by invisible threads.
He understood the hidden meaning in Lady Rose's words perfectly.
He simply disliked beating around the bush, so he dropped all formalities and went straight to the point:
"What do you mean? Just say it."
Mrs. Rose did not answer immediately, but calmly took out the four little goldfish from the box one by one, held them between her fingertips, and lined them up in a row on the smooth table.
The gold bars clinked against the table with a dull thud, as if striking Lin Bei's heart. Her gaze swept over the bars, as if examining evidence, before she looked up and spoke slowly, her voice clear and calm, as if stating a fact she had already calculated:
"The bounty for the Eye-Ear Ghost has been in effect for two full years since it was posted."
"Over the past two years, because no one has been able to complete the mission, the reward amount has been snowballing and has been accumulating and increasing."
"More importantly."
"She emphasized, "The Rose House has its own ironclad rules: if a bounty remains unfulfilled for more than a year, the final reward will be doubled on top of the existing amount."
She paused for a moment, allowing Lin Bei to process the information, before stating the cold, hard number: "So, according to the rules, the base amount of the bounty you should have received this time should have been four hundred gold coins, not a mere two hundred."
Lady Rose tapped her fingertips lightly on the table, making a soft, rhythmic sound, and her gaze sharpened.
"However, that's not all."
"Because the bounty on the Eye-Eared Ghost has been pending for so long, in order to further motivate the hunters, a few months ago, as the owner of Rose House, I added an extra incentive bounty, bringing the total amount to two hundred gold."
She looked directly into Lin Bei's eyes and revealed the cruel truth, word by word: "Therefore, the total amount of bounty you should ultimately receive should be doubled—totaling eight hundred gold coins."
"Eight hundred gold coins?!" Lin Bei's pupils suddenly contracted, and a chilling anger surged from the bottom of his heart.
He stared intently at the four small gold bars on the table, which now seemed particularly glaring, and his voice turned icy.
"You mean... my bounty has been withheld?!"
"I'm short a full six hundred gold coins?!"
"A full three-quarters!!"
This enormous contrast struck him like a hammer blow to the chest. The task he had fought desperately and risked his life to complete had, in the end, been so blatantly stolen!
"That's not all, Lin Beijun."
"You still underestimate the greed of those guys."
Her eyes held a kind of worldly-wise melancholy.
"Since they dare to cut off your hard-earned money, how could they be satisfied with just letting you take the remaining quarter? That's still 'too much' for them."
"This...is that a lot?!"
Lin Bei's tone grew increasingly cold.
Lady Rose did not directly respond to his angry question. She remained silent, stretched out her slender hand, picked up one of the small goldfish with two fingers, her movements as light as picking up a petal, and then handed it to Lin Bei.
"You, feel its weight carefully."
Her voice had a guiding quality.
Lin Beiqiang suppressed the anger surging within him and suspiciously accepted the gold bar.
It feels slightly cool to the touch and quite heavy, which doesn't seem wrong.
kindness?
Lin Bei weighed it twice more.
Something seems... off?
He hadn't noticed it before, which made him overlook the sensation.
At this moment, after being deliberately reminded by Madam Rose, Lin Bei immediately held his breath and carefully weighed it several times.
wrong!
This weight...something's not right!
"It seems a bit too light!"
Lin Bei frowned.
Then a look of realization appeared on his face.
"The little yellow croakers they gave me...were fake?!"
He suddenly looked up, his sharp gaze fixed on Lady Rose.
Lady Rose shook her head again.
"Fake? Not necessarily. They are indeed real gold."
"only!"
"The weight has been tampered with."
"Nine times out of ten, after melting it down, they poured in cheap, heavy metals."
"Lead is usually their first choice."
She added, her tone carrying a barely perceptible hint of disgust.
"For those who are not sensitive enough to the weight of real gold, or who are so caught up in the joy that they become careless, this trap is almost always infallible and difficult to detect."
She then straightened her posture, her tone tinged with a hint of helplessness.
"Such behavior is strictly prohibited and abhorred in the Rose House!"
"Every bounty mission is the result of hunters' blood, tears, and even lives."
"Using such despicable means to withhold bounties is the most complete betrayal of the original purpose of Rose House, and an insult to every hunter who risks their life!"
Upon hearing this, Lin Bei's expression suddenly became calm.
He didn't say anything more; he needed to verify the truth of the matter.
He opened his palm, palm up, and with a slight thought, a blazing, pure, golden-red flame containing terrifying heat suddenly ignited out of thin air, instantly enveloping the suspicious little goldfish!
This is the true fire of the sun!
He would use this flame, capable of burning everything in the world, to completely melt the gold bars and ascertain whether what Lady Rose said was true or false.
The instant that golden-red flame rose, all expressions on Lady Rose's face were replaced by immense astonishment!
Her body leaned slightly forward, and her usually calm and all-seeing eyes were now wide open, filled with disbelief, like a mortal witnessing a miracle for the first time.
"What...what is this?!"
Her voice trembled noticeably, a testament to pure surprise and awe.
"Is it... some kind of sophisticated magic trick?"
Lin Bei raised his gaze from the flame leaping in his palm and landed on Madam Rose's astonished face, but a trace of doubt flashed through his mind.
If the Rose House was indeed funded behind the scenes by Urokodaki Sakonji, and if she had a close relationship with that powerful swordsman, then she should not have acted so unfamiliar and shocked by supernatural powers.
After all, the sheer power of the phantom river that appeared out of nowhere when Urokodaki Sakon used Water Breathing was still deeply imprinted in Lin Bei's mind.
Could it be... that Urokodaki Sakonji never revealed his true power to her?
Or perhaps her relationship with Urokodaki Sakonji was not as close as he thought.