You crooked merchant, Hu Xiaotian thought. The moment you stick your ass out, I know what kind of shit you're going to take. Haggling is my specialty. Without even looking Cao Qianshan in the eye, he picked up his teacup and thought, Twenty taels? Does this bastard think he's tossing alms to a beggar? A palace this big, with tens of thousands of mouths to feed-the daily vegetable bill alone must be substantial. Hu Xiaotian slowly sipped his tea and said, "Since you're so attached to old acquaintances, Boss Cao, why not wait until you can do business with Wang Desheng again?"
That single remark startled Cao Qianshan into a cold sweat. When Wang Desheng had handled procurement, Cao Qianshan had initially paid him two hundred taels of silver a month in kickbacks. But that Little Eunuch had been exceedingly greedy, and the payment had recently risen to three hundred. Cao Qianshan had assumed Hu Xiaotian knew nothing of the arrangement, which was why he had held up two fingers. He had never expected Hu Xiaotian to be so formidable. Terrified of offending this god of wealth, Cao Qianshan hurried to make amends. "Eunuch Hu, how does three hundred taels a month sound?"
Hearing him name the actual sum of three hundred taels, Hu Xiaotian was startled himself. He had never imagined there was so much fat to skim from procurement outside the palace. Three hundred taels! Holy shit, and this is just one merchant. If I squeezed something out of every supplier, the bribes alone would give me over a thousand taels in spending money each month. No wonder Wang Desheng had looked at him with such venom. Robbing a man of his wealth was like taking his life. To Wang Desheng, this was a hatred so deep they