Chapter 4066 — All Out of Stock

"Hmph! Fine! Just fine! This manager has learned today what they mean by the fickleness of the world and the chill of human feeling. You're all looking at me, a man whose meridians have been shattered, and deciding I'm nothing but a cripple now, aren't you? I tell you, a healing elixir can restore me from an injury like this—and even if it can't, I am still your manager, and your very lives remain in the palm of my hand! Excellent. This manager has seen how each one of you has behaved, and not a single one of you will come to a good end!" Si Haitao raged on and on without pause.

Just then, the young clerk nearest to him—one whom he had beaten and cursed at every turn in the days before—suddenly spoke up: "Whether we come to a good end, we don't yet know. But you certainly won't. Your affair reached the headquarters yesterday, and the higher-ups there have already pronounced your punishment. To give the mistress of West Island and the master of the Chongtian Pavilion a fitting account, you have been struck from the rolls of the Hong Clan Merchant Guild entirely—never to be employed again!"

"What? Impossible! You're spouting nonsense! You wretch, you dare to hoodwink this manager—have you a death wish?" Si Haitao's body convulsed in disbelief, and then he burst into a frenzied roar.

"Hoodwink you? Open those dog eyes of yours and look properly before you speak! A branch manager as short-lived as you has truly no precedent in our Hong Clan Merchant Guild—sir, you may well call yourself the first of all time, ancient and modern!" The clerk gave a cold sneer of contempt and pointed at a notice pasted dead center on the wall.

Upon it was written, plain as day, the disposition of Si Haitao by the senior leadership of the Hong Clan Merchant Guild's Mid-Island offices, and the seal stamped there was indeed the exclusive seal of the headquarters. In that instant Si Haitao felt a thunderbolt split his skull, and his mind went utterly blank.

Yesterday he had still been a manager high and mighty in his own domain—all because of one drunken, lust-addled moment of harassment, he had actually been expelled from the Hong Clan Merchant Guild forever?

Si Haitao lay sprawled at the doorway like a man whose soul had flown from his body, but no one in the Hong Clan Merchant Guild paid him any mind; they went on with their own business. New sovereign, new courtiers—what they needed to consider now was when the new manager would arrive. As for a fool like Si Haitao, whether he lived or died was no concern of theirs.

In but a brief moment, Si Haitao seemed to have aged decades. He raised his head with great effort and said, "Even if I am no longer your manager, I wish to buy medicine now—I wish to buy a healing elixir. Surely I still count as a valued customer of yours. Is this how you treat a valued customer?"

The clerk nearest him could not help but sneer at this: "A valued customer? Have you lost not only your meridians but your wits along with them? Oh, of course—to have done what you did yesterday, you never had much in the way of wits to begin with. So let me, in my great mercy, remind you: I'm sorry to say you have been blacklisted by the Hong Clan Merchant Guild. Go to any branch, go to the headquarters—you will not be received!"

At this, Si Haitao was completely silenced. He stared longingly at the healing elixirs in the display cabinet, yet there was nothing he could do.

"A good dog does not block the road. I'd advise you, sir, to find somewhere else to lie, or if you interfere with the Hong Clan Merchant Guild's business, you will not be able to bear the charge." The clerk's sneer was ugly.

Si Haitao gritted his teeth. In the old days he would have slapped the life out of this boy, but now he was a commoner with nothing to his name—worse, a cripple who could not even walk. However unwilling his heart, for the moment he could only swallow his anger.

Silently he crawled out of the Hong Clan Merchant Guild, but Si Haitao did not give up. He turned and crawled toward the neighboring guild, for his most urgent priority was to buy a healing elixir and cure this injury at once. Even if it could not be cured in a short while, at the very least he had to stabilize the wound and stop it from worsening.

Not far from the Hong Clan Merchant Guild stood the Haomen Metropolis. Its foundations were somewhat weaker than the Hong Clan Merchant Guild's, but only by a limited degree.

Thick-skinned, Si Haitao crawled all the way into the Haomen Metropolis. Paying no heed to the strange stares of the onlookers, he cried out impatiently, "Someone come! Quickly prepare a Fifth-Grade Great Meridian-Opening Pill for me!"

His entire body's meridians had been shattered by a blast of true qi. To treat such an injury, only a Fifth-Grade Great Meridian-Opening Pill offered any chance of healing.

The clerks of the Haomen Metropolis were taken aback. After whispering among themselves, they dared not decide on their own, and promptly summoned their manager, Steward Hao.

"Well, well, if it isn't the newly arrived Steward Si from next door—what a rare guest! To what do we owe the honor of your visit to our humble shop today?" Steward Hao's face wore a hearty welcome, but the mockery hidden in his eyes was plain for anyone to see—and from first to last, he made no move to help Si Haitao to his feet.

Si Haitao held back his rage and said, "I require a Fifth-Grade Great Meridian-Opening Pill. Have one prepared for me."

"A Fifth-Grade Great Meridian-Opening Pill? Ha, that is a rare and substantial piece of business!" Steward Hao raised an eyebrow, but then said with a look of great regret, "It is only a pity that such a rare healing elixir as the Fifth-Grade Great Meridian-Opening Pill is temporarily out of stock in our humble shop."

"What? Out of stock?" Si Haitao nearly spat blood at these words. Whether he could heal his injury and find a chance to turn things around depended entirely on this Fifth-Grade Great Meridian-Opening Pill. How could a guild as large as the Haomen Metropolis not have it!

Little did he know that the Haomen Metropolis was not truly out of stock—Steward Hao simply did not wish to sell to him.

After their great triumph at the Far North Island auction, the Hong Clan Merchant Guild was now at the very height of its power. Even a rival like the Haomen Metropolis had to yield to it somewhat. To offend the Hong Clan Merchant Guild for the sake of a stupid useless wretch like Si Haitao was entirely unnecessary—and not worth the trouble besides.

"No Fifth-Grade Great Meridian-Opening Pill, then... surely you have a Fourth-Grade Great Restoration Pill?" Si Haitao said, refusing to give up. The Fourth-Grade Great Restoration Pill was not as effective as the Fifth-Grade Great Meridian-Opening Pill, but at least it could stabilize his injury and ease the immediate crisis.

Unexpectedly, Steward Hao shook his head again: "Truly sorry, we don't have that either. Some time ago, someone bought up the entire stock."

"None of that either?" Si Haitao was struck dumb. Anything inferior to the Fourth-Grade Great Restoration Pill would have no effect at all on his present injury.

With no other choice, Si Haitao had to huff and puff his way out of the Haomen Metropolis and turn to another guild, his purpose all too obvious—still seeking to buy the Fifth-Grade Great Meridian-Opening Pill and the Fourth-Grade Great Restoration Pill.

Yet at guild after guild, the answer he received was invariably the same: all out of stock!

Now, however dull Si Haitao's mind, he finally realized something was wrong. These guilds were clearly watching the Hong Clan Merchant Guild's face—they simply did not dare sell him medicine.

This outcome left Si Haitao seething with indignation, yet utterly helpless. A phoenix brought to earth is worse off than a chicken; merchants are all snobbish creatures. In his present state, there was no help for it but to be bullied by them. R1152