Gringotts, Shopping, and Returning to School

On the last day of the Christmas holidays, Ye Ting went alone to Gringotts in Diagon Alley early in the morning. He intended to exchange a large sum of US dollars for Galleons.

At Gringotts, the exchange rate between Galleons and pounds was one to five. Ye Ting brought out five hundred thousand dollars to exchange for Galleons, which meant he could get nearly eighty thousand Galleons.

Faced with such a large transaction, the young goblin at the counter was clearly unable to make the decision. He hurriedly called over a very, very old goblin, whose face was wrinkled like orange peel left sitting for too long, his voice shrill and raspy.

"Since I began working at Gringotts in my youth, I've never seen a transaction this large." Faced with the five-hundred-thousand-dollar check, the old goblin erupted with vitality that did not match his age, his eyes gleaming with the light of money. "Are you sure you want to exchange all of it for Galleons?"

"Of course." Ye Ting handed over the check somewhat impatiently.

As he took the check, the old goblin's hands trembled incessantly. For an instant, he even had the urge to take it and Apparate away immediately.

Of course, he could not truly do that. Before he could evade pursuit and cash the check, Ye Ting only needed to make a phone call to have it voided.

Sometimes, Ye Ting found the magical world's financial system rather strange.

Although five hundred thousand dollars was a considerable sum in the Muggle world, it was barely a drop in the bucket to the truly wealthy. Yet to wizards, those five hundred thousand dollars—eighty thousand Galleons—amounted to a great fortune.

Harry Potter's parents had left Harry at most several tens of thousands of Galleons, and that included the assets James Potter possessed as the heir of a pure-blood wizarding family. The Potter family was already considered quite wealthy among pure-blood families.

In other words, even the richest people in the wizarding world would only rank as ordinarily wealthy in the Muggle world. And since the wizarding population was far smaller than the Muggle population, why had the wizarding economy not collapsed after all these years?

If the child of any Muggle tycoon became a wizard, then exchanged one or two hundred million pounds for Galleons and spent it all, the entire wizarding world would suffer severe inflation. He even suspected that Gringotts simply could not produce that many Galleons.

Of course, one or two hundred million pounds in 1991 was worth far more than the same amount twenty or thirty years later.

But as Muggle productivity continued to rise, even though Muggle currency was constantly depreciating, Muggle wealth was still growing at a rate far beyond that of the wizarding world.

In another ten or twenty years, there would be far more wealthy Muggles capable of exchanging one or two hundred million Galleons in one go. By then, the wizarding world would be far more likely to suffer a financial crisis as a result.

The wizarding world's finances were perfectly normal now, and the biggest reason was simply its secrecy and isolation. It was like a relatively closed financial system, where funds could freely enter and leave foreign markets, but foreign funds could not freely enter, so international financial crises had little effect.

After carefully putting away the check, the old goblin began promoting Gringotts vaults to Ye Ting. "Esteemed sir, you possess a great fortune, but you can't possibly carry eighty thousand Galleons on you at all times, can you? I sincerely recommend Gringotts vaults. Gringotts can provide you with the safest, highest-quality storage service. Other than yourself, no one can take even a Knut from your vault, and our interest rates are higher than those of Muggle banks. The cheapest vault costs only five hundred Galleons. If you are willing to pay ten thousand Galleons, your vault will receive our highest standard of protection—including a Sphinx or a fire dragon as anti-theft measures..."

The old goblin chattered on and on. It was hard to imagine that only moments ago, he had looked so frail and near death.

Ye Ting could no longer stand his endless sales pitch. He suspected that if he did not make the man shut up soon, the old fellow might start talking about financial management services and regular fund investments. Besides, he genuinely needed somewhere to store his money, so he immediately agreed to spend ten thousand Galleons on the most expensive vault. His money would now lie in the deepest part of Gringotts alongside the wealth of the wizarding world's oldest families.

When he left Gringotts, Ye Ting received a dragonhide pouch containing five thousand Galleons, a vault key, a personal seal, a Gringotts checkbook, and a badge.

The checkbook and seal were for large purchases, while the badge was a symbol of Gringotts' distinguished clientele.

After arriving in Diagon Alley, Ye Ting was finally able to indulge in some serious spending. He had been waiting for this day ever since his shopping trip before the start of term. He bought a foldable, self-stirring cauldron made of platinum and goblin silverware—similar to the mithril from The Lord of the Rings, and the material used to make the Sword of Gryffindor—a platinum scale and telescope, several sets of crystal test tubes, a marble Wizard Chess set, large quantities of precious magical ingredients, and plenty of expensive cat food.

Even after using Reducio, his backpack was still stuffed full.

Naturally, he did not buy any more books.

For one thing, Hogwarts certainly had far more books than Flourish and Blotts.

For another, Ye Ting felt that most books available for purchase might be given to him as gifts by his fan club. As far as he knew, his fan club had a shared reading list, and every book given to him by a member would be added to it to prevent duplicate gifts.

Third, most books written by wizards seemed flashy and casual, lacking system and logic. In addition to his studies, Ye Ting had begun another task: using the methods of Muggle academic papers to systematically summarize wizarding knowledge. The final product would probably be a great work like the Oxford Encyclopedia, or a magical academic edition of the Yongle Encyclopedia or the Complete Library of the Four Branches. With such works, there was no need for him to collect so many wizarding academic books.

Finally, he went to Madam Malkin and ordered seven or eight sets of clothing modeled after Chaldea uniforms, Atlas Institute uniforms, Polar Chaldea uniforms, and other designs from FGO. Only then did he finish his shopping.

Sure enough, shopping was not a privilege exclusive to girls. Given the chance, boys could enjoy the process just as much.

Without stopping to rest, he hurried to King's Cross Station and boarded the train bound for Hogwarts.

Naturally, on the train, he had to properly placate the three girls who were angry over his broken promise to correspond with them. Fortunately, the local souvenirs he gave them were quite effective. Hermione received an amber necklace containing a beetle, Cho Chang received a pair of enamel earrings, and Penelope received an ornate Fabergé egg.

Girls truly were like Dragons, creatures with an innate fondness for sparkling things. Such gifts easily won their favor—the three girls all came from fairly well-off families, otherwise they would not have dared accept such presents. On top of that, Ye Ting cleverly shifted the conversation to the scenery of Russia and his experiences witnessing the dissolution of the Soviet Union, successfully piquing their interest and getting through the matter.

After a pleasant train journey, they returned to Hogwarts.