"Click, click!"

Half an hour later, Anne Pompo appeared in a room on the second floor of an extraordinarily ornate restaurant in St. Louis.

In front of her was a table of expensive and hearty dishes, but she basically didn't move, but was very interested in a plate of pale yellow human-shaped biscuits, one by one, which she held in her hands and brought to her mouth to bite down, making a crisp sound.

That's gingerbread, made with ghee, sugar, ginger powder, cinnamon powder, clove powder, honey, eggs, refined flour, etc. Ginger powder, which is an essential ingredient, is not produced locally in St. Louis City, and needs to be transported from distant places, and the price is extremely expensive, so it is not something that ordinary people or small nobles can taste.

Anne kept eating gingerbread, her face expressionless, and not far from her, Richard stood silently. On the other side stood Brando, head bowed, frustrated, frowning, racking his brains as to how to redeem his image in the eyes of Miss Anne.

The door of the room was suddenly pushed open without warning, and a figure walked in and shouted, "Annie!"

"Who!" Brando jumped up and quickly stopped, just worried that he couldn't find a chance to perform, and made a gesture at this time.

Looking at a young man in a purple gorgeous dress who walked in outside the door, Brando showed a wary gaze and asked as if he were examining a prisoner, "Who are you?

"Me?" the purple-clothed man who walked in smiled, curling the corners ......of his mouth, "I'm Anne's friend!

Looking at Brando up and down, the purple-clothed man's eyes flashed with a green light: "Hmm, is it a third-level wizard apprentice, the strength is okay, but it's almost okay to stop me, at least wait until you become a first-level wizard." ”

Brando's expression froze, sensing the mana fluctuations deliberately exposed by the man in purple, and his eyes shrank.

At this time, the man in purple smiled, looked at Brando very gentlemanly and asked, "Then now, can you get out of the way for me?"

"I'm ......," Brando turned to look at Anne.

Anne made a gesture of waving.

Brando understood, looked at the man in purple again, and shouted with great momentum at the next moment: "Get out of the way, get out of the way!"

As he spoke, he turned abruptly and walked up to Anne and stood still.

This made the man in purple stunned, but he was only stunned for a while, and quickly reacted, ignored Brando, looked at Anne and greeted: "Anne, I passed by here just now, and I saw your family's carriage parked outside, and I thought that you were here, so I came here to meet you." ”

"That's it. Anne listened, her face did not have much enthusiasm, not even the kindness that belonged to her friend, and her voice did not have many ups and downs, "Then you can meet now, you can leave and go about your business." ”

"Don't. The man in purple smiled, "I have something else I want to tell you." ”

"You're the real reason you're here to see me, aren't you?" Anne said, rolling her eyelids.

After being exposed, the man in purple smiled awkwardly: "Okay, I know that I can't hide it from you at all, after all, your cleverness is obvious to all......"

"What the hell is going on?" Anne interrupted the man in purple, and asked directly without bothering to be long-winded.

"That's right. The man in purple sat down, rubbed his hands and said, "You should know that this year's taxes are about to be paid, and my family agreed with your family last year that it was thirty percent." But during the year, my family's profitability was not good, and several bad things happened, almost burning down the warehouse of the entire family station, you should have heard of it. So, I thought, can you lower this tax, how about 20 percent?"

"You shouldn't talk to me about this, I don't care about family matters. Anne glanced at the man in purple and said.

"Yes, yes, I know you don't care, but I also know that you have the ability to manage. So, can you help?" said the man in purple with a smile.

"Even if I could, I wouldn't help you. Anne said, "The agreement of thirty percent is low enough, and twenty percent is absolutely impossible, and it can't break the bottom line of the Pombo family." ”

"Heh, actually, as far as I know, this is not the bottom line, Anne?" the man in purple squeezed his eyes at Anne and said, "I heard that the agreement between you and the Dumen family is 20% of the tax. ”

Anne raised her eyebrows and looked at the man in purple: "Are you very well-informed, Claire! The things we agreed with the Dumen family are absolutely confidential, and I wonder where you heard about it." ”

"Ha, I have some channels of my own, right?" said the man in purple.

Anne's expression became serious, and she looked directly at the man in purple and said, "Yes, my family and the Dumen family have agreed on a tax of 20%, but there are conditions. The first is that the time is only three years. The second is that the Dumen family will hand over all their iron mines to us. Claire, can you Snow do it?"

"That...... If we can really pay 20% of the tax, we can do it. Iron mines or something, just those on the banks of the Green River, can be handed over to you like the Dumen family. The man in purple said.

Anne sneered when she heard this: "Heh, then I really want to say that your family is generous enough! The Dumen family has a total of twelve iron mines handed over to us, and your Snow family, there are only two iron mines on the banks of the Green River, and the big one is almost gone."

If your family really wants to reduce the tax to 20%, okay, take your family's seven copper mines and a silver mine in exchange, don't say 20%, it's 10%!"

"This-" The purple-clothed man named Claire's expression stiffened slightly, and he looked at Anne with a slightly displeased expression, "Anne, this is a bit exaggerated. Our family, but we rely on these mines, all of which are handed over to your family, what do we live on? ”

"As far as I know, your family has acquired twenty-seven large and small estates, eight villages, sold dozens of shops in St. Louis City, and monopolized more than half of the spice business. Anne said in a deep voice.

As he spoke, he picked up a piece of gingerbread on the plate and said, "Let's just say this gingerbread, the ginger powder in it must pass through your family's hands to come to this St. Louis City, the price is exaggerated." That's enough for your family to survive, right?

Claire, don't pretend to be poor for me, your family has developed very well in recent years, and in some places it has greatly surpassed our Pombo family. Therefore, it is impossible to reduce the tax by 30 percent, and it will be increased to 40 percent next year. ”

Claire's face changed, and her eyes sank: "Annie, I thought we were friends, and it made me a little sad that you did this." ”