Lu Yuan was utterly fed up. "Three to five thousand? Do you think my lord runs a merchants' guild?"
Xu Yi fixed his gaze on him. "There has to be a number, or this will be impossible to explain. Everyone has hundreds or thousands of mouths to feed. Besides, as far as I know, Lord Kuang controls the Traveler Department's resources and has a dedicated fund he can use."
Lu Yuan was so startled he nearly threw back the curtain of his carriage. "So you've been plotting this for a while—you even went to the trouble of digging up all this information. Two thousand. That's the most I can offer. Take it or leave it. If you won't, then we'll each rely on our own abilities."
In Lu Yuan's eyes, since Suijie had already looked into things this thoroughly, the demand for a payoff clearly hadn't been a spur-of-the-moment idea. It had been planned well in advance, and if Lu Yuan's side didn't bleed a little, there was no way the matter would go forward. After all, Kuang Wenyuan really couldn't back down now. The arrow had left the bow—there was no turning back.
But after all this back-and-forth from Suijie and his lot, if they ever wanted to work together again, it would be like lifting tofu with a hemp rope—no chance in hell. Xu Yi pretended to mull it over. After a long while, he let out a heavy sigh. "All right. None of this is easy. In the end, both our sides share the same goal: taking down Xu Yi. Let's endure a little for the greater good."
"What a noble sacrifice for the greater good. I've got you figured out now—you've eaten the plaintiff's meal, and now you're eating the defendant's too. Have you really got