Punk, who made up his mind to squeeze something out from Minohorn family, looked straight into Lo Lan's eyes and slowly said:
"So... what's the price?"
"What...!"
Lo Lan didn't seem to expect that Punk would say this sentence.
Punk secretly shook his head, a little disappointed. It seems that Lo Lan was still just a little girl after all. Even if she had a strong heart, there were still some shortcomings in the mind.
"What was that saying! "One can't have both fish and bear's paw." Since I want to have good control, then I also have to accept the fact about their insufficient IQ."
With a light sigh, Punk decided that it would be better to educate the inexperienced little girl. From now on, she could be regarded as his business spokesperson, so she shouldn't be too embarrassing.
"Listen, little girl,"
"I'm not a little girl," she replied.
Punk said to Lo Lan with a serious tone, ignoring her muttering.
"If you want to achieve something, and revive the Minohorn family through business, then you have to learn to accurately judge the value of the goods in your hand and the value of other people's goods like a proper businesswoman. The goods here don't only mean material things! Human relationships, connections, and even a word of praise are all resources that have a price."
After listening to Punk's preaching, Lo Lan felt a bit confused. She didn't like the idea of someone her own age speaking to her in such a mature manner.Even more, she didn't want to admit that, as the proper young lady of the Minohorn family, she didn't know much about business. But she had to acknowledge that what Punk said made a lot of sense, and she was indeed lacking knowledge in this area.
Not paying attention to the pitiful look in the little girl's eyes, Punk continued to preach.
"Now, your cooperation with me is a good example. In this cooperation, the alchemy potions I will provide are my goods, and the sales platform you provide is your goods. In the end, we will divide the profit according to the degree of contribution. This is a fair deal."
"But now you're suggesting that you need my reputation to help with your business. This is an extra condition. My reputation is like another item, and you must offer something valuable in exchange to gain my approval."
Punk, after he was done talking, noticed that Lo Lan looked really confused. Her eyes seemed like they were about to spin in circles. He just sighed and rubbed his temples.
"Sure enough, the business logic from the earth was too complex for children of other worlds to understand!"
But The old butler next to Punk somewhat understood it. HHe cleverly understood that if his family didn't offer something, they could forget about using the prestige of this official-level mage as backing. In fact, he was already prepared for this, so the old butler quickly stopped Lo Lan, who didn't fully understand and wanted to ask something, then carefully took out a thin old book from the pocket of his suit and presented it to Punk in a respectful manner.
"Oh--?"
Punk picked up the old book and could sense the lingering signs of official-level magic in it. This indicated that the book used to belong to an official mage.
He carefully opened the curled, brown-yellow book cover, and the title of the old book was "Walker's Notes on Flesh Golem."
"Walker?"
Punk tried to remember this name, but he couldn't recall ever hearing it before.
"He should be some unknown alchemist, I guess!"
He quickly flipped through the old book. Inside, amid the somewhat messy Byron letters, he found the instructions for creating an official-level alchemy golem using a biological body as the main raw material.While the instructions were a bit rough and the language not very clear, Punk was confident in his ability, with the help of the system's analysis, Punk had the confidence to figure out the method of making an alchemy golem.
"Very good, I will accept this payment, and now you may use my name."
Punk put the magic book into the storage ring left by McNeesey, then took out a gold coin and sealed a trace of his mana in it. Now any professional who sensed this mana would immediately understand that this gold coin represented the identity of an official mage.
During the time of their meeting, the carriage had reached the gate of Dolez City.
"Ok then!"
Punk threw the gold coin and three bottles of alchemy potions to Lo Lan. She screamed and caught the gold coin in a panic, but the potions still fell on the leather seat, and Punk opened the carriage door and walked down.
"I will give you a little test."
Looking at the wall of Dolez painted with gold dye, Punk said to the old butler and Lo Lan without looking back.
"I'm going to the Mage union in the city to purchase some materials, and you have to sell these three bottles of alchemy potions before I returned..."
"Understood, but there is one problem, what... if... I mean, if we haven't been able to sell these potions, does it mean that our Minohorn family is not qualified to cooperate with you?"
When Lo Lan heard Punk's test, she first assured him with confidence and then asked in a small childish voice!
"...Disqualified?"
The corner of Punk's mouth rose slightly, and he slowly turned around, looking at the innocent Lo Lan intensely.
"No, no, little girl, if you can't do it, I will chop your head off."
The smile on her face froze all at once, and big drops of sweat dripped down Lo Lan's chin.
"That...Mr. Punk...Don't make such a joke...Haha...!"
"Joking? I'm not joking. Let me think about it, if the cost is only the termination of our cooperation, what would you do? You'll run to all the influential folks you can find and declare that you're backed by an official-level mage. Then you will return to me and say that you are ashamed for not completing the task. And when I leave this city or go to seclusion, then you'll use my name to play the big, bad wolf, right? Nobles often pull off these sneaky moves, don't they?"
Punk gazed at the carriage ahead, unimpressed, and slowly said his "speculation"!
"I wouldn't do anything like that..."
Lo Lan felt very wronged. It was the first time she'd been misunderstood, especially by the young man she had a secret crush on, tears started to appear in the eyes of the little young girl.
"No, you wouldn't do this!"
Punk interrupted Lo Lan's speech forcefully!
"But you can't control the choice of some people, even if they are truly loyal to you!"
Punk was still expressionless as always.
"But... it is normal to have different opinions from your subordinates, but in a situation where you can easily be persuaded by them, then you have no so-called confidence! This is another thing you should learn."
The light blue mana revolved in Punk's deep eyes as he looked at the door of the carriage behind Lo Lan, where the old butler who had just got off was standing, stunned.
The old butler was sure that this was the first time in his life when he has been scared like this, and he had to admit that he really messed up.
Mentally, he strategized exactly as Punk had "suggested." They could secure strong support for the Monohorn family while also sidestepping the risk of becoming mere pawns. This plan formed in his mind when he heard Punk's test. And he knew it would be easy to persuade the young lady to agree to his "conspiracy."
After all, in his opinion, Punk was merely a "young man" trying to appear deep and profound, but now, the little schemes in his heart had been effortlessly exposed by this "young man."