Chapter 27: The Wealthy Traveling Merchant
At Illya’s house, over ten children had gathered. Only a few had gone to greet Chu Feng at the village entrance earlier.
But when word got out that Hill and the others returned with candy, the rest of the kids couldn’t sit still.
“Gray, when is that outsider coming back?” Hill asked.
Gray shook his head. “My brother took him to see the shaman. They should be back soon… not sure what’s taking so long.”
Hill rested his chin in his hands. “Can we take a peek at his boxes?”
When Illya and the others came back to the village, the backpacks and snacks they brought had already made the whole village jealous.
All the kids were dying to know what else was in those boxes.
Gray hesitated and shook his head. “We probably shouldn’t. That stuff doesn’t belong to us.”
He himself was quite curious about what Chu Feng brought, but he still held back.
Loga blinked and said, “Just a peek. We won’t touch anything.”
Gray looked at Loga and thought: If only you didn’t have drool dripping from your mouth when you said that… it’d be a lot more convincing.
“Gray, just let us take a look—we won’t eat anything.”
“Yeah! Just let us see it, please!”
“We promise, only looking, absolutely no eating.”
…
Surrounded by pleading friends, Gray looked a bit helpless.
If it were just one person asking, he could’ve refused. But when everyone was saying the same thing, it became harder to say no.
The group chattered endlessly, each pair of eyes looking at Gray full of sincerity and anticipation.
Unable to resist their pleading any longer, Gray said reluctantly, “Fine, you can look, but no eating! The things he brought this time actually have a purpose.”
“What kind of purpose?”
Gray thought for a moment and said, “Probably to hire people for work. I heard from my brother that he might be planning to build a castle.”
Moore nodded. “Build a castle, huh? That’s great! I can help with that!”
Gray looked at Moore and said, “You’re going to carry stones?”
Moore thought for a bit and said, “If he’s willing to pay me ten pieces of candy a day, then I might be willing to build him a house.”
Gray thought to himself: Moore really has no ambition. Just ten pieces of candy? Chu Feng’s got way more good stuff than that—Moore will understand soon enough.
Hill glanced at Moore and said, “I think I heard something about building a house too. But if it’s a castle, he’ll probably ask the Highlanders. You’re not strong enough.”
Moore glared at Hill and said, “If I’m not strong enough, then you’re even weaker.”
Hill: “…”
Under everyone’s eager requests, Gray finally dragged out the suitcase.
He said with some difficulty, “We agreed—just looking, no eating.”
The little ones all thumped their chests and promised, “Just looking!”
Gray opened the suitcase. The moment they saw the box full of candy, a collective gasp erupted from the children.
“Moore, with this much candy, you’d have work for a whole lifetime!” Loga said.
“Are all of these really candy?” Hill asked, staring at Gray.
Gray nodded. “I think they’re all candy.”
Chu Feng had brought a wide variety of candy this time, with all sorts of packaging—even Gray hadn’t tried many of them. Looking at the overflowing box, even he wasn’t 100% sure if every single item was actually candy.
“Hey, doesn’t this one look like me?” Paine asked, holding up a bear-shaped candy.
Among Chu Feng’s stash were animal-shaped candies, molded into various creatures.
“This one looks like me!” said Duoduo.
“What’s this—some kind of snake? Why does it have horns?!”
“…”
Watching his companions, Gray thought: We said we’d just look—but everyone’s already gripping candy like they’ll never let go. He could sympathize with them though. A whole box of candy like this… it was really hard to resist.
With a straight face, Gray met everyone’s hopeful eyes and secretly prayed that Chu Feng would come back soon.
“Gray, have you eaten all of these candies before?” Hill asked.
Gray scratched his head and said, “Only a few kinds.”
The handful of candies Chu Feng had shared before were already shocking enough. Truthfully, even Gray was stunned by the contents of this suitcase.
Hill said enviously, “You’re so lucky!”
Gray gave an awkward smile. “I guess…”
“Gray, did he bring barbecue this time?” Moore asked. “That barbecue—was it really as good as you said?”
Gray blinked. “Barbecue really is delicious.”
“He seriously had pepper? Just how rich is this guy? He can use pepper like it’s nothing?!”
Gray started to notice the looks in his friends’ eyes turning more and more hostile. He suddenly regretted bragging so much earlier—it was starting to backfire.
Duoduo tilted his head and said, “I actually prefer cake to barbecue.”
Gray glanced at Duoduo and thought: Can this dumb rabbit please stop talking? Didn’t he notice how everyone else is looking at us like they’re about to eat us alive?!
Laurel looked at Duoduo and asked, “Cake is really better than candy?”
Duoduo nodded. “Yup! Soft and fluffy, sweet and fragrant. Gray had a lot of it.”
Gray: “…” It was my brother who ate most of it, okay?!
