Mark's words disturbed Shang Jiao a little bit, actually, quite a lot because she had never imagined Ji Guanli in that way.
However, she had been friends with Ji Guanli for more than a decade and treats him just like her own sibling too. On the other hand, she had only found out that Mark was her real brother, just a day ago.
In the end, the decade-old friendship won over her immediate thoughts and she assumed that her brother was probably trying to draw a wedge between her and her friend because of his enmity with Ji Clan.
But, at the same time, she cannot refute his words as well. In the end, she decided to confirm herself with her friend directly and also give him clarity on her opinion in case he misunderstood her supporting actions for love.
An hour passed away. Maybe, today isn't a good day for Mark, or maybe, it's because people are feared due to Mark's freezing the customer on the earlier day. Whatever the reason, his business wasn't going well from the morning. Only three customers had visited during the past four hours.
Not being interested to work on creating bullets and other weapons, Mark leisurely curled himself up on the chair and basked in the warm sunlight. The little kitten is also enjoying his presence while sleeping on his lap. As for the manticore, it wasn't interested to move from its chamber. So, Mark left it as it is.
As Alina busied herself to complete Journey to the West novel, Shang Jiao was left with two choices. One is to join her brother and the other is to stay behind and chat with Chang Bo.
Unlike Mark, Shang Jiao was a pure ice mage. She is uncomfortable to heat in general. And because of her constitution, during hot temperatures, she would sweat a lot when compared to others.
With the temperatures outside reaching 35, she was more comfortable inside the store where a temperature of 18 degrees is maintained constantly by some unknown magic.
As a result, she opted for the second choice and sat nearby the reception. Chang Bo also took a seat nearby at her behest.
"So, how did you end up here? It looked like Owner Lu looks after you very much. Were you acquainted in the past?" She initiated the conversation to know more about her brother as it was a little embarrassing to talk to him about personal matters, right at the moment.
"No, it's not like that at all, Your Highness. I met him for the first time when…"
She patiently listened to his story but she still didn't understand why Mark was generous to him. Even if she's a princess, she knows the value of money. 6 gold coins per day is not by means a normal salary for someone who was working in a weapon store.
In comparison, even the maids serving the Emperor wouldn't earn that much amount.
Did her brother see something in him? Or maybe, her brother knows Chang Bo's parents and is secretly helping him this way? Shang Jiao formed several theories in her mind.
As a result, she slightly developed curiosity. She started asking personal questions like where he was from. What was he doing before he joined the guild? And how does Mark treat him and the other two, etc…
While Shang Jiao is in the middle of soft interrogation, Allen returned to the store but he wasn't alone. Lin Xue was with him.
Mark got up from the chair as he saw Lin Xue's worried expression.
"It's been a while, Lady Lin," Mark greeted her first as a formality and then asked right away without even inviting her into the store, "What brings you to my store?"
Earlier, the system sent him a notification, regarding a message sent by Allen. According to the message, Lin Xue intends to ask him for some help but he didn't know what it is.
But, Mark cannot say it to her. So, he acted as if he doesn't know anything. As it appears to be an urgent situation, he asked right away.
To which, Lin Xue replied, "I need you to help out my friend, Song Yue."
"Lady Song?" Mark furrowed her brows. "What happened?"
"Uncle Song, I mean, Minister Song had arranged her marriage to Ji Clan's eldest heir, Ji Mingyu." Lin Xue explained the matter.
"Eh?" Mark was completely taken aback by surprise. Just a while ago, he was talking to his sister about the Ji Clan's marriage proposal strategies and now, it looked like they made their move, confirming his suspicion that Western Moon had rejected the proposal.
He felt a little bit bad for that young woman but there isn't much he can do about this issue.
After thinking for a bit, he asked her, "does Lady Lin is interested in Ji Mingyu or have anything against him?"
"Eh?" This time, it was her turn to be surprised. She also realized that Mark had misunderstood. So, she explained to him in detail, "No, I have never met him in my life. It's just that Song Yue was against this but Minister Song was forcefully marrying her to him to forge ties with the Ji Clan and strengthen the position of the Song Clan.
I went to her house and found out that she was under house arrest until her marriage.
I want to approach the Imperial Palace but my father had strictly instructed me to not be involved in this because he doesn't want to disturb the relations between our clans."
Mark doesn't know what to reply to her and just stared at her in silence.
The last time she visited the store, Mark indeed acted cold towards her. Adding on top of that, Lin Xue never had a good impression of Mark. She grew as the heiress of the Lin Clan, and from her birth, she observed that everyone around her would act good and nice toward her.
It made her have negative feelings towards those who put up fake expressions. Naturally, she came to dislike Mark, keeping him in the same class as others because he constantly puts fake smiles in front of everyone and is quite greedy towards money.
As Allen never bothered to impress her, Lin Xue had a good opinion of him. Unfortunately for her, Allen doesn't have free will and needs Mark's permission.
So, in the end, she had forgotten all of that and came here in the hope of asking Mark's help because she believed that only he and Allen could help her at the moment.
However, she knew that Mark is money-minded but might not take money directly. So, she put forth a proposal when she saw his silence. "Help me out with this situation and I will even buy 20,000 gold coins worth of weapons. I don't have that many gold coins with me right now but I was willing to give high-quality ether crystals instead."
High-quality ether crystals are indeed very precious and even Mark didn't have the guts to reject them.
But, he should also take the consequences into consideration. Any wrong step, he might face irreversible losses. Not to mention, there was no indication of a quest as he expected it to be. What if it turns out to be a trap, instead? Mark couldn't help but even suspect her intentions after thinking for a while.
But then, as an image of a crying Song Yue popped up in his head, he suddenly felt bad for her.
In the end, he asked, "What kind of help are you expecting from me?"
