dtnovels Chapter 638 Buying a Boat
Chapter 638 Buying a Boat
Through word of mouth among the drunkards, in just one night, most people in the town knew that there was a fool from outside the town who spent a lot of money in the tavern just to listen to stories.
Small places have this characteristic: the slightest disturbance can spread the news quickly.
It is human nature to watch the fun, and on the second night, before the opening hours of the "Not Enough Drinking" pub, a large crowd had already gathered in front of the door.
Most of them were drunkards who wanted to get free drinks, and a small number of people just wanted to join in the fun and see what the rumored "fool" looked like.
Unfortunately they were destined to be disappointed.
The crowd sat in the pub and waited for a long time but didn't see any unfamiliar faces. They had no choice but to ask the bartender who was slowly wiping the beer glasses.
The bartender didn't answer, he could only look up at the price list hanging in the lobby.
Everyone looked at each other. Finally, a drunkard in the crowd couldn't resist his urge to drink anymore and ordered a beer. The bartender, whose expression looked a little better, was willing to tell the group of freeloaders.
"Don't wait, they left at noon."
A group of drunkards sighed and groaned, as if they had missed out on five million.
The person who was being targeted by a group of drunkards and people who were looking for fun was currently at a fishing port more than ten kilometers away, inspecting the means of transportation that would accompany them for a while.
In the afternoon, there were only a few scattered boats parked on the shore of the fishing port. These were fishing boats that had returned from fishing. The fresh fish had been taken to the local market for sale, while the fishermen returned home to rest and dry their fishing nets.
Fishing nets are woven with cotton thread. If they are soaked in sea water for too long, they will easily become loose, and the net opening will become larger, so fish and shrimp will slip through the net.
Therefore, there is a saying in coastal areas that people fish for three days and dry the nets for two days.
Yuri, the owner of the "Can't Drink Enough" tavern, acted as a temporary broker and brought the two guests to a somewhat remote place.
Different from the bustling fishing port, this place is empty except for an old building, and the ground is littered with various woods and parts.
"It's the salmon migration season now, and it's a time to make money. No one will sell their cornucopia at this time. So this is the best boat you can find on the market."
Yuri led the two into the dock, pointed to the only fishing boat docked in front of them, and introduced: "This ship is called Izumo, weighs 10 kilograms, is 3 meters long and more than meters wide, and is built entirely of iron and wood, so it is sturdy and resistant to flooding. Come on, I'll take you up to have a look."
Wang Xiaofeng and Nitia followed Yuri onto the fishing boat, and were greeted by the faint salty smell unique to fishing boats.
"The Izumo has three floors in total. The top floor is the captain's room and the deck, the middle floor is the rest room and cargo hold, and the bottom floor is three fish holds that can carry up to 100 kilograms of cargo. In addition, the ship also uses iron plates to separate the holds. If one or two holds are damaged during the voyage, the other holds will not be flooded."
Yuri took them to visit the captain's room, kitchen and other places one by one.
Wang Xiaofeng is quite satisfied with the ship overall.
Although the ship is not big, it is made of good materials and is sufficient for coastal sailing. Even if it unfortunately encounters a sea soul beast and is hit two or three times, it will not suddenly disintegrate and sink.
Nitia was on the deck, feeling the cold wind blowing from the sea, when suddenly a hoarse voice came from the shore.
"Hey, who are you? Who let you on my boat?"
Nitia looked down and saw an old man standing on the shore, holding a harpoon and looking at her vigilantly.
Nitia lifted her skirt and nodded, smiling, "Old sir, you are the seller of this ship, Mr. Yuri and my husband are in the captain's room. Your ship is perfectly maintained, and I believe my husband can't wait to negotiate the price with you."
Nitia's etiquette was impeccable, and even the vigilant old man could not use a harpoon against such a lady.
The old man put away the harpoon and said proudly, "Of course, I use tung oil to maintain it every month."
Yuri came out of the captain's room and bluntly exposed the old man's lie, "Okay, stop bragging. With your old arms and legs, it's good enough if you can oil them once every three months."
Yuri walked up to the old man and whispered, "This time, he is a rare rich man. I spent a lot of effort and used my persuasion to change his idea of chartering a boat into buying the whole boat.
Don't blame me for not reminding you, quote a lower price later, don't ask for a high price like before and scare people away."
Wang Xiaofeng walked down from the boat. When he was alone just now, he used his soul power to quietly scan it. Generally speaking, there were not many places that needed to be repaired. It would be enough to fill the small gaps between the wood with oil putty.
"This boat is very well maintained. I am very satisfied with it. Please name your price, old man."
The old man looked at Wang Xiaofeng's unimaginably young and immature face, his eyes unconsciously drifted towards Yuri, with a hint of suspicion in his eyes.
Is this the rich man you mentioned?
Yuri gave him a reassuring look in return.
The old man looked at his old friend who had been with him for decades and passed it down from his father.
The ironwood keel in the boat was made from the body of a seven hundred year old hard ironwood soul beast that was killed by a soul master at a huge expense.
However, the dowry for his daughter's marriage and the high medical expenses for his seriously ill wife every month forced him to decide to sell it at a low price.
"...1 gold soul coins." These words seemed to drain all the energy from the old man.
Wang Xiaofeng and Nitia looked at each other.
so cheap?
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Nitia quickly pulled Wang Xiaofeng to a corner and whispered, "Little Crazy, that old man must know the current market price of iron wood. That dragon bone alone is worth about 10,000 gold soul coins. I thought I had to bargain down from 100,000 or 80,000 gold soul coins."
Ironwood is a hard, dense wood that is a very high-quality material and is often used to make furniture and build houses.
However, since ironwood grows very slowly and is difficult to cultivate artificially, every time one ironwood tree is cut down within the Xing Luo Empire, one less tree will appear. A hundred-year-old ironwood tree is priceless.
But if you say that this old man has no idea about the value of ironwood, that is nonsense. People who are not sensitive to prices cannot do business at all and would have gone bankrupt long ago.
Wang Xiaofeng speculated: "Maybe it's due to environmental reasons. There are a lot of ironwood trees here, and they are not as valuable as we thought."
Nitia nodded, reluctantly accepting this explanation. "But do we really need to buy a boat? It's more cost-effective to charter a boat anyway."
"Are you serious?" Wang Xiaofeng looked at Nitia in surprise. "We are going to fight two sea beasts that are believed to be over ten thousand years old in the sea. What ship can withstand the aftermath of the battle?"
Nitia thought about it and agreed. If they chartered a boat, they would have to take care of the crew during the battle.
They are not short of money, so there is no need to make trouble for themselves just to save money.
Just when the old man was wondering if his offer was too high again, the two men turned around and came back.
"Old man, although the price is a bit high, I really like this boat, so I'll pay the price you said."
Even after signing the contract and exchanging the money and goods under the witness of the statue of Poseidon, the old man walked out of the bank still felt a little confused.
Sold it already? Without even bargaining for the price?