“What have you heard?”

The female lizard demihuman ordered a glass of wine and casually chatted with Lazer about some irrelevant matters. She then proceeded to say “Shaen, the Yamin family candidate competing in the throne war, has suddenly tried to get rid of the management rights of some of his unimportant shops including his textile and wine shops.”

“Are people paying a lot for these shops?”

“Well… someone made a good offer. Is this all you really want to talk about today?”

He rubbed his eyebrows, knowing that pressing her for information abruptly might be counterproductive. “Sorry, I am just really tired.”

“Well, serving nobles will do that to you, but you have to learn to relax when you are here.” She ordered another bottle of wine for him. She subsequently proceeded to pour a glass for him, leaning her head to one side and giving him a charming smile. “Drink this and we will talk.”

He looked at the glass of wine, which was rich in aroma and beautiful, ruby-like in color. This was going to cost him all the money he had with him, he thought. He took a sip reluctantly and hoped that the information was worth it.

“Who bought the management rights to these shops?”

She observed his facial expressions in enjoyment and shook her tail gently, producing a musical sound. “You may know him. He is a gray-scaled businessman.”

“Jharif…” he recalled that Jharif was one of the guests at the banquet who voiced his opinion when the Haliph family head challenged the Juan family. “This is highly reliable information if he was the one who bought these shops.”

“Is this information useful to you? I do not understand why this would have anything to do with the throne war.”

He knew she was trying to gather information from him, and this was exactly what he was waiting for. “As you have probably heard, Diana of the Juan family was kidnapped.”

“Wow. Really? That is really bad,” she said as she cringed.

“The kidnapper asked us for a huge ransom, putting the Juan family in a very difficult situation. But I suspect that the kidnapper was also talking to other buyers.”

“I see.” She filled his glass again. “Is this the reason why you are not particularly generous today?”

“I hope this is not bad for your business.”

“Do not say that, Mr. Chameleon. Important matters must be taken care of first. Although I must say that I have been looking forward to having your attention so that we can finally get ‘down to business’—”

“I have other places to go to soon. Let’s drop the sales pitch; it does not suit you,” he put down his glass. There was still a lot of wine left in it, but that was enough for him.

“Ah, you turn me down every time,” she combed her hair with a smile and stopped giving him the teasing look. “As for talking with a straight face, I wish I could do it too, but the boss is watching. I cannot just sit there with my legs crossed, smoking tobacco and complaining about men.”

“Have you said enough?”

“Come on… do me a favor please, Lazer? Let me sit here for one more hour, or my boss will think that I am worthless.”

He did not seem to care about her pleading and got up to leave. However, an idea suddenly hit him and he asked, “Oh, by the way, I remember that there was a hatchery near here, where did it go?”

“I thought it went out of business, didn’t it?” She lay in a semi-prone position on a sofa and looked up at him sadly.

“I know, but do you remember where it is?”

She suddenly sneered a few times and gently swayed the bell on her tail.

“This is a really good excuse to take me out of here—hold my hand, let’s go.”