America 1881: They Call Me Legend

Chapter 216
Manager Pete and the members of his evaluation team sat in the carriage and swayed along with the carriage.

The cold wind in the early winter morning blew head-on, and got in through the holes in the clothes of these few, making the members of the evaluation team who were mostly wearing missing accessories feel cold all over their bodies.

It wasn't until the sun climbed into the sky that the temperature began to rise, and Pete and the others felt a little warmer.

After walking for a whole morning, he realized that Chen Jianqiu's "coming soon" seemed to be different from what he understood.

Still no sign of Lincolnshire.

"Chen, Mr. Chen, how long until we arrive?" Manager Peter asked in the carriage, he was hungry and sleepy.

Since this morning, they haven't eaten anything. They thought that the group of people traveling together would stop to eat something, but Chen Jianqiu and the others had no intention of stopping at all.

"Before sunset." Chen Jianqiu replied without turning his head while riding on the horse.

"Then, what, Mr. Chen, is there anything we can fill our stomachs with?" Before Pete could speak, an old man named Schultz next to him spoke first.

The old man was the oldest in the assessment team. He used to be a chemist and is now a refining engineer for Standard Oil.

He was already so hungry that his chest was pressed against his back. If he continued to toss like this, he was afraid that his old bones would fall apart before he reached Roswell.

Chen Jianqiu took out a paper bag of biscuits from his saddle bag, took two for himself, tied the bag open, and threw it to them in the carriage.

As soon as Schultz caught it, he opened the bag with trembling hands, but Pete's fat hand reached out unexpectedly, and took out two biscuits from the bag with lightning speed.

The manager couldn't wait to stuff the biscuit into his mouth and bite it down.

"Boom!"

Pete felt as if he had bitten a rock, but he felt something in his mouth.

The manager quickly took out the biscuit and found that the biscuit itself was intact, except for a row of tooth marks on it.

He spat out what was in his mouth and took a closer look, only to find that what fell out was a tooth of his own.

Pete was grieving over his teeth, while Schultz looked at the biscuit in his hand in bewilderment.

"Maybe your tooth is about to fall out, and it will leave you sooner or later." Chen Jianqiu "consoled", "At least you didn't feel too much pain."

He put the same biscuit in his mouth and took a few sips from the water bottle in his other hand.

"You need some water."

Pete's grief couldn't be added, and after drinking a few sips of the water Li Sifu handed him, he leaned against the iron bucket and fell into a deep sleep.

When he woke up again, he found the carriage parked in front of a hotel.

The sky is not completely dark yet, but the setting sun has fallen below the horizon, leaving only some afterglow to illuminate the small town.

"Lincolnshire is here." Chen Jianqiu got off his horse.

A clerk in the store ran out and took the rein from his hand. At the same time, Li Sifu also moved the valuables down.

Chen Jianqiu and the others walked into the hotel.

The hotel owner had some impressions of Chen Jianqiu, Camilla and Holmes, and he quickly opened a room for Chen Jianqiu and the others.

The evaluation team also followed.

The boss looked up and down at the group of people dressed in avant-garde clothes. Although there were some weird guys coming and going in his hotel all the year round, this was the first time he had seen this kind of dress.

"Beggars?" The hotel owner finally made a conclusion about their identities, "Stay at the door, maybe someone passing by will give you some money."

"Boss, everyone is a decent person, please don't insult us!" Manager Pete and the experts behind him blushed.

They were justifiably angry, and no rough innkeeper would treat them that way in the East.

Manager Pete pointed to the logo on his clothes and said emotionally to the hotel owner: "We are managers of Standard Oil Company! Can you open some rooms for us?"

In Ohio, Pennsylvania and some other eastern states, everyone knows Standard Oil, and everyone knows that this logo is a symbol of credit.

Still, he overestimated his company's impact in the West.

"Do you have cash?" The hotel owner looked at Manager Pete.

"This sign is our credit. After one month, we will send someone to settle the settlement with you." The manager said solemnly.

"Get out!" The hotel owner gave him a blunt answer, and the spit was almost sprayed on his face.

Pete and his experts wanted to explain something, but the hotel owner scolded directly:
"Go away! Don't interfere with my business! Do you want me to have your ass kicked you liars?"

Manager Pete was desperate.

These savages of the West simply cannot reason.

He was a little desperate.

In this winter, he must not sleep on the streets. He had a deep understanding of the temperature difference between day and night in New Mexico last night.

"I suggest that you can sleep in a stable. If you lie on the street, you may become food for wild dogs in the middle of the night, hahahaha!"

A gruff old cowboy with a scar on his face and a twisted mustache sat at a table by the bar, grinning savagely.

His laughter resonated with a group of "martial arts heroes" around him, and he also crazily laughed at the few people in front of the bar.

Pete shuddered.

Suddenly, he saw Chen Jianqiu coming out of the room, gritted his teeth, and walked towards him.

Chen Jianqiu had just finished packing and was about to come out to see if there was anything to eat, when he ran into Manager Pete.

"Could you lend me some money?" Pete said.

Chen Jianqiu adjusted his cuffs: "How much?"

Pete looked back at the few people behind him and made some calculations: "Thirty dollars."

Their clothes need to be re-purchased, supplies must be re-purchased, and even horses need to be re-purchased.

The lobby of the hotel suddenly fell silent, and these people all turned their gazes to this side.

"Then you have to write me an IOU." Chen Jianqiu continued to straighten his cuffs.

"How much interest?" Pete stared at Chen Jianqiu.

Chen Jianqiu compared his fingers.

"15.00%?" Pete felt that it was a bit high, and he opened his mouth, as if he wanted to discuss it.

"Yes, on a monthly basis, at a rolling profit." Chen Jianqiu didn't even bat an eye, he turned around and was about to leave, "If you don't want it, I'll go back."

"Okay, fifteen is fifteen." Pete knew he didn't have much choice.

He found a pen and paper from the hotel owner, wrote an IOU and pledged it to Chen Jianqiu.

Chen Jianqiu looked at the IOU, folded it in half and put it away, then took out three dark green bills from his pocket, and stuffed them into Pete's hands under the watchful eyes of everyone in the hall.

There was still no sound in the hall, and the eyes of a group of "unemployed vagrants" were all straightened, emitting a hot light.

But the people on the assessment team didn't notice this.

They all thought that tonight, they should be able to sleep well.

As it turns out, they did get a good night's sleep.

Good enough that when they got up the next morning, the window was open.

And the thirty dollars, except for the tens of cents paid to the hotel owner last night, everything else disappeared.

So, after that night, Manager Pete found that he still had nothing.

Oh, no, he also owes Chen Jianqiu a loan of thirty dollars.

　two more

　　
　
(End of this chapter)