"No, if I go over and ask her like this, even if she has some, she might not give it to me. I'd better wait and see."
Su Chen thought it over and remained where he was, making no move.
"Bastard! You dare try to pass off junk in front of me, Chen Pi? You really don't know how to spell 'death,' do you? Beat him! Keep beating him until he smokes!"
Suddenly, a string of curses came from not far away. Chen Pi, a short man, berated a middle-aged man, then ordered the two lackeys behind him to kick and punch him.
"Ah! Ah! Master Chen, I was wrong! I know I was wrong! I'll never dare do it again! Please, stop beating me!" The middle-aged man was beaten until he was a groveling mess, desperately begging for mercy.
Chen Pi, however, paid him no mind. He leisurely inspected the medicinal herbs the man had brought. Once he had finished picking through them, he kicked the bamboo basket away and turned to the middle-aged man, who was beaten half to death.
"I'll let you off this time. If there's a next time, tell your family to come collect your corpse!" Chen Pi said coldly, then moved on to the next herb farmer.
"Master Chen, all these herbs of mine are genuine. I haven't mixed in anything fake. Please have a look," an old woman said in a trembling voice.
Chen Pi casually sifted through them and nodded with satisfaction. "Not bad. They're all real, but the quality's a little poor. Fifty wen per tael."
"But, Master Chen, you paid sixty wen before," the old woman protested anxiously.
"What? You think that's too cheap?" Chen Pi stopped what he was doing and glanced at her. "Then forty wen."
"Ma-Master Chen..."