The tavern keeper had clearly grown weary of running the place. The harassment and extortion from various government offices every day had left him with no heart to keep it going.
The Black Robe Investigation Brigade alone had bled him for three thousand silver coins, nearly half a month's earnings. And before that, plenty of other government offices had already shaken him down for quite a bit. Everyone knew his tavern had no powerful backers, and that he was a fool with money.
In just the past few days, he had lost nearly seven or eight thousand silver coins. That was already more than a month's profit. At this rate, forget making money—he wouldn't even have enough to cover the losses with his savings.
Once a business started eating into its owner's savings, the sooner it closed, the better. Cutting the losses in time and keeping the hole from getting any bigger was the right move.
So he truly hadn't decided to sell the tavern on a whim. He simply no longer had the heart to keep at it.
At his age, he didn't have the ability or energy to maintain relationships and deal with all those government offices. That sort of thing wasn't something he was good at.
Worn out in body and mind, selling the tavern was his best option. The middleman's insistence on pushing the price down had only made him angrier.
Now Jiang Yue had been so straightforward: he hadn't haggled over the price of the tavern at all, and had even suggested selling the secret recipe. The old keeper knew that this way, he could get at least two hundred thousand for it. That would be more than enough to fund a comfortable and prosperous retirement.
He wasn't the sort to be slick or calculating,