Chapter Ninety-Six: Fatty Du Yue

Liu Shaoyu looked around at the buildings in the courtyard. They were somewhat run-down, yet it was clear at a glance that someone had been tending them for a long time.

Not a single weed had been allowed to grow inside the yard. Everything was neat and orderly.

The sunset’s afterglow dyed the entire courtyard a warm orange, making it especially comforting.

Though Liu Shaoyu had already memorized every scrap of the dossier on the person he was about to meet, he still could not quite put his mind at ease. After all, the man on the other side was no kindly soul.

The black-market dealer Monkey had found this time was a steward in the Azure-Red Chamber of Commerce, the largest smuggling syndicate in the black market. With Monkey’s usual little jobs, he would never have been worthy of meeting such a person.

But this time, Monkey was not the one in the spotlight. After his efforts, the steward had finally agreed to meet them while staying on Earth.

“Hahaha, Brother Hou, it’s been a while!”

Halfway there, Liu Shaoyu and Monkey ran into an acquaintance, or more precisely, someone Monkey knew. It was this man who had helped Monkey establish the connection.

“Brother Nei.” Monkey greeted him with a smile when he saw the man.

“This young brother here is the seller you mentioned?” Nei Shanxing asked, looking at Liu Shaoyu beside Monkey.

“Hello, I’m Liu Shaoyu.” Liu Shaoyu introduced himself first.

When the man heard Liu Shaoyu speak, he examined him carefully, then said to Monkey, “You’re not kidding me, are you? He’s this young? I thought he was some huge rich tycoon.”

Sensing the suspicion in Nei Shanxing’s tone, Monkey gave an awkward laugh.

“Brother Nei, you can rest assured. When have I ever done anything without a plan?”

At that, Nei Shanxing thought it over carefully. That was true enough. He had helped set up this connection precisely because Monkey had always handled things reliably.

“I’m only warning you out of kindness. You know the people above are not easy to talk to,” Nei Shanxing said bluntly. He was the kind of man who said exactly what was on his mind, which was why both Liu Shaoyu and Monkey understood his earlier reaction.

“Don’t worry, Brother Nei.” Monkey gave him another reassuring look.

Nei Shanxing still had his misgivings, of course, but things had reached this point, and he could only steel himself and go through with it.

“Big brother, they’re here,” Nei Shanxing called from outside the door.

Nei Shanxing looked to be in his thirties, though in truth he was already about fifty. Hearing him call him big brother, Liu Shaoyu and Monkey had already pictured an elderly face in their minds.

But the man before them was... entirely unexpected.

Fat. That was the first impression he gave them. Slick-haired and powdered-faced, he did not look much older than Monkey and Liu Shaoyu, no matter how you looked at him.

The scene as the door opened was oddly harmonious: a fat man was busily making his way through a whole table of dishes.

It looked almost heartwarming.

“Big brother, they’re here.” After the fat man had welcomed them in and then returned to his meal, Nei Shanxing coughed lightly and repeated himself.

“Mhm, you’re here, then? Have you eaten? If not, join me.” The fat man glanced up at them when he found a spare moment, waved a hand carelessly, and then resumed his fierce assault on the braised elbow before him.

Liu Shaoyu felt a faint chill. The dossier had mentioned that the man was a little on the heavy side, but this... this had already gone far beyond mere plumpness, hadn’t it?

“Then thank you. I haven’t eaten yet, just in time.” As soon as Liu Shaoyu said that, he sat down opposite the fat man. From his posture, he really did seem ready to dig in.

His movement startled everyone present.

This was clearly just polite formal talk from Du Yue.

Du Yue was the fat man’s name. At that moment, he froze slightly as well, but only for an instant before returning to normal.

All of this left Nei Shanxing somewhat at a loss. He slowly turned his head toward Monkey, his eyes asking a question.

Monkey had gone a little blank as well. He gave a shrug to say, I don’t know either.

The two of them were left standing there awkwardly, unsure whether to sit or stand.

And so they ended up watching Liu Shaoyu and Du Yue eat for half an hour.

At last, Du Yue patted his own belly. That was about enough. He was fat, yes, but he had his limits; every meal stopped at seventy percent full.

The moment he looked up, he discovered that Liu Shaoyu had also finished eating and was now gently wiping his hands with a handkerchief.

“So, you’re Monkey, right? And your friend here, what was his name again?” Du Yue asked, deliberately pretending to have a poor memory.

“Liu Shaoyu,” Monkey answered this time instead of Liu Shaoyu.

“Oh, right, right. Brother Liu. I hear you’ve come to see me about doing business?”

Monkey was really starting to have trouble tolerating all this posing, but under someone else’s roof, there were things one had to endure.

Liu Shaoyu merely smiled at the fat man’s performance. Such petty tricks were long since beneath him.

“Yes,” he replied in just two words.

When Du Yue heard that answer, he toyed with the gemstone ring on his finger and looked at Liu Shaoyu sidelong.

“Has no one ever told you the rules? If you come to see me without anything suitable... hmm, that would be a bit hard to justify.” His cold tone carried a hint of threat.

Liu Shaoyu knew he had the ability to say such a thing. But... could he not be quite so showy? It practically stirred Liu Shaoyu’s competitive streak.

“Really? Then what would count as suitable in your eyes?” Liu Shaoyu asked back, and his expression turned interesting too.

Du Yue felt the situation growing more amusing by the second. There were only two possibilities for someone who spoke like Liu Shaoyu.

The first was that Liu Shaoyu was truly no ordinary man, and that he really did have something remarkable in hand.

The second... was that there was something wrong with his head, and he had come courting death.

Du Yue faintly felt that the first possibility was far more likely.

That also made him sit up and take notice. In truth, under normal circumstances, no matter who had introduced Liu Shaoyu or how much they had vouched for him, Du Yue would never have met him so readily.

Nei Shanxing was only a minor underling, several ranks below Du Yue.

If he had not had some connection to him, the message would never have reached Du Yue’s ears at all.

Still, Du Yue had not been having an easy time lately. The Federation had gone utterly mad for some reason. The first purge had come without the slightest warning. Within the entire sphere of the Earth Federation’s influence, every pirate had vanished without a trace. That had nearly been the death of Du Yue.

One had to know that the Azure-Red Chamber of Commerce was not made up of Du Yue alone. He had plenty of other fellow stewards above and beside him.

Much of Du Yue’s business, however, was deeply entangled with pirates. That purge had badly wounded him, and the matters that followed had left him unable to recover ever since.

It was also because of that incident that the rights to handle the spoils from the Blade Tower Campaign were taken by one of his elder brothers. Before long, he could only watch as others grew richer and more powerful. During this period, Du Yue had the distinct feeling that he had lost quite a few pounds.

Still, a starving camel was bigger than a horse. Fortunately, aside from his elder brothers, the other stewards were all uncles or grandfathers in age, and they were not so shameless as to lay hands on a junior like him. Add to that the fact that Du Yue possessed not only an enormous appetite but also truly astonishing talent in the black market, and that was how he had managed to hold on until now.

But temporary calm did not mean everlasting calm. Du Yue had already begun hearing rumors that someone... intended to move against him.

Coming back to himself, Du Yue straightened in his seat. Meeting Liu Shaoyu’s sharp gaze with his own narrowed little eyes, he said, “So long as it’s good merchandise, it’s suitable.”

These chapters have nearly made someone as bad at math as me cough up blood... My brain is in knots. I was calculating as I wrote. Please recommend it and please bookmark it!