Ding Yu then looked at Hu Qi.
He asked with some apprehension.
"What do you think?"
Hu Qi had just finished his inspection.
He nodded.
'The duck's feathers probably aren't dyed.'
"Not bad. How much are you asking for it?"
Hearing this,
a smile appeared on Ding Yu's face.
Then, he held up two fingers.
"Twenty thousand!"
"Heh. Goodbye."
Hu Qi nodded.
Then, he turned and walked away. His movements were crisp and decisive, without the slightest hesitation.
Seeing this, Ding Yu instantly grew anxious.
He quickly reached out and grabbed Hu Qi.
"Hey, don't go! We can still negotiate the price."
Although the price of Exotic Beasts on the market was generally high, spending twenty thousand on a duck was obviously out of the question.
Ding Yu had originally seen how eager Hu Qi seemed and figured he must be in desperate need of this kind of Exotic Beast.
So he had decided to fleece him.
But he never expected the guy to not fall for it at all. He didn't even try to haggle; he just turned to leave.
At this,
Ding Yu had no choice but to speak up.
Previously, while he was still in school, the allowance his family gave him was too small and wasn't enough to live on.
He had taken out a two-thousand-yuan campus loan, which he was now unable to repay.
The lenders had given him one last month.
He was originally prepared to get a job or confess to his family if he had no other choice.
However, after seeing Hu Qi's post, a new idea had suddenly struck him.
How could he possibly let Hu Qi leave so easily now?
"Why don't you name a price!"
Hearing this,
Hu Qi took the opportunity to stop.
After all, he didn't actually want to leave.
Although he wasn't short on money,
letting himself be fleeced like a sucker was definitely not in his nature.
He glanced at the other man.
He held up one finger.
And said flatly,
"One thousand."
He haggled by a simple rule: half off for strangers, and even more for acquaintances.
After their journey here, they were practically acquaintances now.
So Hu Qi simply lopped off a zero, cut the remainder in half, and made his perfectly reasonable offer of one thousand.
"That's too low! This is a rare breed. Where else could you find a duck like this? Forget ten thousand, it should be at least seven or eight thousand!"
Ding Yu said.
"What's so rare about it? I just want to buy it to see how it tastes. It's not like eating it will make me ascend to the heavens."
Hu Qi waved his hand dismissively.
"If you don't want to sell, then forget it."
"It's not like that. This is a female duck. It can also lay eggs."
Just then,
as if remembering something, Ding Yu pointed at the duck and said.
"A female? It lays eggs?"
Hu Qi's expression shifted slightly.
His gaze couldn't help but drift to the duck.
The sex of a duck can usually be distinguished by its appearance.
Generally, drakes have larger heads, rounder bodies, and pointed tails that curve downward.
In contrast, hens have smaller heads, flatter bodies, and fanned tails that curve upward.
However, this duck already looked different from others of its kind, making it very difficult to tell just by its appearance.
As if afraid Hu Qi didn't believe him,
Ding Yu turned, ran into the courtyard, and brought back a woven bamboo basket.
Inside were four or five fist-sized duck eggs.
They were the same size as regular duck eggs, only their shells had a few faint purple stripes.
"The ones it laid before were all eaten. These are the only ones left.
This duck is special. It can't breed with other drakes, so the eggs can't be hatched. But they taste really good."
Ding Yu said with a sincere expression.
"I've told you everything I know. One thousand is too low. If you add a bit more, I'll throw in the eggs."
Afterward,
following some intense bargaining,
the price was finally set at thirty-five hundred.
After some probing conversation, Hu Qi also understood that this was Ding Yu's rock-bottom price.
They sealed the deal immediately.
"Right, if you come across any more Exotic Beasts like this, you can call me anytime. I'll make it worth your while, but don't you dare try to fool me with fakes."
Hu Qi took a wad of cash from his bag and handed it to him.
"Don't worry. The moment I have news, you'll be the first one I contact."
Looking at the cash in his hand, Ding Yu's face blossomed into a wide smile.
He then eagerly helped Hu Qi put the duck into a burlap sack.
Hu Qi then carried it away.
Behind him, he could faintly hear the voices of Ding Yu and an old woman.
"Yu, you sold that duck for a few hundred. Wasn't that too expensive?"
"Grandma, you don't understand. Rich people love to eat these weird, rare things for the novelty of it."
Apparently, Ding Yu had pocketed most of the money, only telling her he'd sold it for a few hundred.
Hu Qi paid it no mind.
It was their business, after all.
...
「Over half an hour later.」
Hanlin Garden District.
Inside the rental apartment.
A faint, fragrant aroma drifted through the air.
QUACK QUACK!
Perhaps because it was in a new environment, or maybe because it smelled the aroma of its own kind,
the duck quacked from time to time, struggling constantly inside the burlap sack.
Hu Qi ignored it for the time being.
He gave the pan a gentle toss with his arm.
A fragrant, fried egg slid out of the pan.
Its appearance was no different from a regular duck egg.
'This thing shouldn't be poisonous, right?'
Hu Qi thought for a moment, then used his chopsticks to break off a small piece and pop it into his mouth.
He immediately summoned his panel.
His gaze fixed on the Modification Point column, and as he focused on it,
the percentage behind it appeared.
Modification Point: 1 (91%)
'It really works!'
A glint appeared in Hu Qi's eyes.
Over the past few days, he had made it a habit to check the Crimson modification panel several times a day.
He was, of course, perfectly clear on his previous stats.
After modifying his Mixed Martial Arts to Perfection,
his Modification Point was 1 (89%).
This meant that a small bite of the duck egg just now had raised it by 2%.
Immediately,
Hu Qi no longer hesitated. He cracked open the remaining eggs, fried them, and ate them all.
————
Modification: 4 (36%)
There were five eggs in total. By his calculation, each one provided him with roughly 50% worth of Modification Points.
'Eating so many fried eggs is a bit much. I should consider making them differently next time.'
Hu Qi was very satisfied.
He glanced at the duck still flapping around in the burlap sack, his mood excellent.
He had originally planned to make an old duck soup tonight.
But he never expected that it could lay eggs.
That meant he couldn't kill it.
After all, with this thing, he had a steady source of Modification Points.
He reached into the burlap sack and pulled the duck out.
QUACK QUACK!
The moment the duck was out, it saw its strange new surroundings and began to flap its wings furiously, quacking loudly as it opened its beak to bite Hu Qi's arm.
SMACK!
The next moment,
Hu Qi slapped it on the head.
"Keep quacking and I'll boil some water and stew you right now!"
Hu Qi frowned, his gaze cold.
It was unclear whether it was due to the slap or if it was scared by Hu Qi's words,
but the duck actually stopped struggling.
"Good. From now on, I'm your master. Since that's the case, I'll give you a name."
Hu Qi muttered to himself.
His eyes swept up and down the duck.
"Seeing as your feathers have a purple sheen and your meat looks plump, I'll call you Camphor Tea Duck!"