The man appeared to be around thirty years old, dressed in elaborate finery that gave off a somewhat frivolous air. With powder applied to his face, he looked even more effeminate.
Judging by his tone, though he clearly knew Wei Jie, their relationship was far from intimate. His words sounded polite enough, yet they fell well short of the deference one might expect.
Wei Jie offered a faint smile. "Brother Lin, business must be good."
As he spoke, he turned to Jiang Chen and made introductions. "This is Brother Lin Ming — a man of some standing in the Fish-Dragon District."
"Brother Lin, this is my friend, Zhen Shi."
Of course, Wei Jie had simply swapped two characters in the alias.
"Hello, Friend Zhen." Lin Ming nodded, his expression neither particularly cold nor especially warm — just measured enough.
"Young Master Wei, what wind brings you here today? If I recall, you've never shown much interest in the slave market."
Lin Ming was a businessman. Seeing that Wei Jie was dragging his feet about revealing his purpose, he grew wary and proactively brought up the matter of trade.
Wei Jie smiled. "Brother Lin, might we speak privately?"
Lin Ming could hardly refuse that small courtesy. He gave a slight nod. "Please, gentlemen, step inside."
After fine tea had been served, Lin Ming grinned. "Young Master Wei, all this mystery is making me positively itchy with curiosity. If there's something good on offer, just come out and say it?"
The man was extremely shrewd. Opening with "something good" made his subtext unmistakable — if there was nothing in it for him, save his breath.
Both Jiang Chen and Wei Jie caught the implication.
But Wei Jie simply smiled. "Brother Lin, straight talk between honest men — I've come to purchase some information."
Lin Ming's expression tightened, the smile vanishing from his face in an instant. "Young Master Wei, I deal in merchandise, not in intelligence. You've come to the wrong person if you're looking for information."
A merchant chasing profit — that much was perfectly understandable.
"Brother Lin, as long as you have the information, I can offer generous compensation in return." Without batting an eye, Wei Jie slid ten thousand Ling Shi across the table toward Lin Ming.
Ten thousand Ling Shi was no small sum.
Lin Ming's gaze flickered over the spirit stones, but without the slightest hesitation he pushed them back. "Young Master Wei, I'm sorry. Every trade has its rules, and ours is no exception. I stick to my own business, and I absolutely will not gab about anything else."
Lin Ming was clearly very cautious. Even though he had no idea what Wei Jie wanted to know, faced with such a lavish offer he turned it down flat — without so much as hearing the question.
This level of wariness caught Wei Jie off guard. He had assumed that asking for a bit of information was hardly a matter of great secrecy, and ten thousand Ling Shi was a remarkably generous price. Yet Lin Ming had refused without a moment's thought.
"Brother Lin, if it's a matter of price, we can still negotiate. Name your figure."
Lin Ming set down his teacup. "Young Master Wei, since we've reached this point, I won't hide anything from you. No matter how much money you offer today, you won't get a single piece of information out of me. I can't speak for others in my line of work, but I absolutely will not break the trade's rules. To put it bluntly, what we do operates on the edge of the line. It's legal, yes, but the risks are enormous. One misstep and you're ground to dust. I hope Young Master Wei can understand — don't put me in a difficult position."
The slave trade was enormously profitable, but the risks were very real. Those in the trade generally refused to discuss their business and never looked into the backgrounds of their merchandise. A slave was a slave — tag it, sell it, done.
There was a benefit to this: slave information never became public, never leaked out, and never created vendettas.
Sell only the slaves. Don't ask where they came from, what their identities were. It was, in effect, a way of protecting oneself.
This was to avoid the catastrophic fallout of one day trafficking someone with a powerful backing.
Though the Liuli Royal City feared no faction, the city's strength did not mean every individual doing business within it was equally powerful.
In this trade, more than a few had been destroyed because they sold the wrong person.
And so the trade had its rules. Despite the enormous profits, practitioners kept an extremely low profile and a very tight lip.
Lin Ming had shut the door so decisively that Wei Jie was left momentarily at a loss for words. They were both people who navigated the world of dealings — how could he not recognize that Lin Ming had essentially shown them the door?
He cast a helpless glance toward Jiang Chen.
Jiang Chen had not said a word since entering, leisurely savoring his tea the entire time. Now, catching Wei Jie's look, he set down his teacup with unhurried ease.
He regarded Lin Ming with a placid gaze. "Shopkeeper Lin, you haven't been sleeping well lately, have you? Every night at the hour of the Rat, your left shoulder aches as though ten thousand ants are gnawing at it? And white patches have already appeared on your left cheek — which is why you have to apply powder to cover them?"
Wei Jie was stunned, unable to fathom why Jiang Chen would suddenly bring up such things.
But the moment those words left Jiang Chen's lips, Lin Ming's entire body jolted, and an expression of utter disbelief shot into his eyes.
"What a shame," Jiang Chen continued, "that a man in such a profitable trade, earning so much money, may not have all that much time left to enjoy it."