Chapter 200: Guilty or Not?

“Attention, everyone! I don’t have much Red Potion left—only ten bottles of Large Red Potion and twenty bottles of regular Red Potion. The regular Red Potion is only about half as effective as the Large one, so if you want some, raise your hands and join the bidding now. Highest bidder wins.”

“To save everyone’s time, I won’t auction them off one by one. Instead, I’ll be grouping them in bundles for the auction.”

“Let’s look at our first bundle: one Large Red Potion plus two regular Red Potions. One plus two, starting bid is 7,000 energy coins. Highest bidder wins. Bidding starts now.”

Those who had planned to wait and see how the first bottle went suddenly couldn’t afford to hesitate anymore.

Bundle auctions! That meant only a handful of people would be able to get their hands on these potions.

And who knew if Miss Yun would get impatient later and just auction off all the remaining Red Potions in one big lot? So anyone with a bit of spare cash was thinking: they had to seize this one-plus-two opportunity.

Otherwise, who knew if there’d even be a next time?

So, “8,000!” “10,000!” “12,000!”—the bids shot up rapidly.

The price was climbing way faster than the auction for Green Frost Stones.

“This Miss Yun really is clever—she’s got the cunning of a merchant in her bones,” Yi Beimeng said softly, half-squinting his phoenix eyes at the radiant, beautiful Yun Qimu on stage, a faint smile on his lips.

Even though he’d already figured out Miss Yun’s marketing tactics, he still couldn’t help but get swept up in the bidding, signaling Shentu to keep raising the price.

But since Honglian Village’s funds were limited, they eventually had to drop out.

In the end, this one-plus-two bundle of Red Potions was won by Xun Min for 120,000 energy coins.

A Large Red Potion and two regular Red Potions, originally worth just 2,000 energy coins, now sold for 120,000—a sixtyfold increase!

Sixty times the original price!

There was only one word for this feeling: Incredible!

Yi Beimeng thought Shentu had really lucked out earlier, getting a Red Potion for just 2,500 energy coins.

The people from Longteng also felt like they’d struck gold. If they hadn’t followed Miss Yun to Earth Village before, there’s no way they could have afforded this 120,000 energy coin bundle—not even if they sold themselves.

Once again, they felt grateful for their decision to move to Earth Village.

The only one still oblivious was Xun Min, who was now feeling smug—he’d won the first round.

Once the money and goods were exchanged, Yun Qimu started the second round of the auction.

With a bright smile, she continued, “This time, let’s do a two-plus-three bundle: two Large Red Potions and three regular Red Potions. Starting bid is 12,000 energy coins. Bidding starts now.”

“Ha! I knew it, the bundle size is going up!”

“Hurry, bid! Who knows, next time it might go up again, and then we really won’t be able to afford it.”

“20,000! I bid 20,000 energy coins!”

“30,000!”

“50,000!”

The room was in an uproar, the bidding reaching new heights. The shouts of bids shook the roof—the potion auction was in full swing.

Outside the crowd, Wu Xingyu and the others who weren’t bidding just stared, dumbfounded.

So potions were the real treasure—the best way to make a killing!

It was just a shame the total number of potions in the workshop was limited. They could only hope Ming Mu could brew more Red Potions soon, so they could all achieve “Red Potion freedom,” get rich, and live the good life.

Pei Yu, unable to contain himself, nudged Wu Xingyu and said with a teasing tone, “Hey, hey, you’re really slacking as the caravan leader. You’re making Village Chief Yun do everything herself. By rights, this auction should be your job, but now she’s doing it. Don’t you feel the least bit guilty?”

Wu Xingyu scooted away in disdain and shot him a cold look. “Those who are capable do more work. I don’t feel guilty at all.”

After all, this handsome guy wasn’t getting any appreciation—everyone’s attention was on that one flower among the thorns.

Besides, lying back and letting someone else handle things felt pretty good to him.

Guilty? What’s that?

Pei Yu, not satisfied with the reaction, kept pestering him, “But you can’t just rely on Village Chief Yun for everything. Isn’t that basically being kept? Where’s your ambition, your backbone, your courage to threaten me?”

Wu Xingyu wasn’t angry. Instead, his starry eyes burned into Pei Yu. “If being kept means I can do nothing and still get paid, then why not?”

Pei Yu was stunned, then rubbed his chin, recalling the lives of those kept women he’d seen in Chaos City. After thinking it over, he nodded decisively, “Yeah, you just lie back and get paid, and you even get food.”

Wu Xingyu mused, “Then maybe being kept by Village Chief Yun isn’t so bad.”

Pei Yu almost spat blood. He’d thought Wu Xingyu, who cared so much about face, would be furious, but he never expected him to actually think it was a good deal.

“You—are you out of your mind?”

Wu Xingyu glanced at him. “Hmph, as if. Even if you lost your mind, I wouldn’t.”

“Then why are you okay with being kept?”

“Because it makes money. And because Village Chief Yun is good-looking. If she keeps me, I’m not losing out.”

Pei Yu: “...”

Sorry, Village Chief Yun. I’ve done you wrong. I never thought Wu Xingyu could be this shameless.

But then he caught onto something, and asked suspiciously, “How do you know Village Chief Yun is good-looking? Didn’t Yun He say you’re face-blind? Especially to women?”

Yun He, whose name was suddenly mentioned, jumped, and gave Wu Xingyu a sheepish smile. “I—I only heard it from my brother. Third Brother, don’t look at me like that. I feel like a piece of meat being eyed by a butcher.”

He even shrank his neck to show how scared he was.

“Hmph.” Wu Xingyu snorted, withdrew his gaze, and fell silent, refusing to answer Pei Yu’s question.

Thinking he’d finally scored a win, Pei Yu grinned, the corners of his mouth twitching upward.

Little brat, I’ve finally found your weakness.

He wanted to press his advantage and keep talking about the face-blindness issue, but was quickly shut down by Wu Xingyu’s icy, “Want to revisit your black history?”

Pei Yu was, as always, no match for Wu Xingyu.

The auction lasted for half an hour.

With each round, Yun Qimu increased the number of potions in the bundles, and the prices kept climbing, the profits soaring ever higher.

Pei Yu, Yuan An, Yun He, and Old Tang, who had brought a few Red Potions themselves, were itching to join in and make a quick fortune.

But Wu Xingyu stopped them with talk of “limited supply” and “hunger marketing,” so in the end, they didn’t get to join the auction extravaganza."