Bai Shu shook her head, the smile on her face fading, but her attitude remained firm.
"This quote is already quite cheap. If it weren't because you've placed several orders with us before and count as a returning customer, someone else would never get this price. It would start at three million at the very least."
Zhang Lie was momentarily speechless, a trace of helplessness appearing on his face.
He silently thought it over for two or three minutes, his fingers still tapping lightly on the tabletop with a steady tok tok.
"I used to place orders with you for at most a million. You've doubled the price outright, and you still call this a familiar-customer rate? Isn't that a little too ruthless?"
Bai Shu set down her coffee cup, leaned back slightly against the chair, and explained in an unhurried tone.
"You know perfectly well what Rong City has been like lately. You should know how strict the Ability Management Bureau's investigations have become.
"They've been striking one after another, destroying the strongholds of many underground organizations and arresting plenty of people. Everyone's been thrown into a panic, and no one dares show their face easily.
"We're not only using manpower to find something for you now—we also have to avoid the investigators' crackdown. We're taking a huge risk, and the slightest mistake could bring disaster down on our heads.
"So two million isn't expensive at all."
Zhang Lie listened to her explanation, his brows drawing tightly together as he weighed the pros and cons.
He knew Bai Shu was telling the truth. The Ability Management Bureau had indeed been extremely active lately.
Many things that had once been easy to accomplish had now become extraordinarily difficult.
Although it pained him to spend the two million, if he didn't