When the Saintess Arrives, No King Exist-Chapter 749 - 704 The Ship Has Arrived! _2

Fan Mei'er's grandfather was fortunate; he made a fortune from speculating in silk and spices, but by the time it got to Fan Mei'er's father's generation, they lost everything in a previous gilded speculation disaster.

By the time it was Fan Mei'er and his brother's generation, although they still bore the noble title, they were left with nothing but a few silk clothes, the ancestral home, and a small pharmacist's shop.

These possessions would certainly ensure a lifetime of comfort for any other family, but for the Fan Mei'er brothers, whose estate was already bankrupt and left with only a title, losing even that title would make them noble in name only.

But to make a living, Fan Mei'er had no choice but to become the shady hand of the merchant tycoons he despised, specializing in debt collection from those nobles who owed money, amassing quite a bit of savings over the years.

This time, however, Fan Mei'er decided to go all in and invest all his savings in buying sugar.

This was guaranteed by the merchant tycoons above him, who assured him that sugar prices would definitely not drop.

In this, Fan Mei'er was utterly convinced. These merchant tycoons controlled the supply channels of the sugar workshops. With no changes in the sugar raw material market, it was impossible for a large amount of sugar to appear suddenly.

So he couldn't understand what motivated this little girl, Lupher, to claim an increase in sugar production—what was she thinking?

"Brother, what do we do next?"

"Disrupt her newspaper, and the Stormwind Family will hand us the futures contracts. You keep an eye on the newspaper, as long as nothing goes wrong, our Bastian Family can get back to the table." Fan Mei'er rubbed his reddened hands.

"Okay." Wolfhardt rode off on his small pony, while Fan Mei'er continued to wait at the canal dockside.

At the dockside, almost a thousand people were gathered, all stretching their necks like waiting wives, gazing towards the end of the canal.

These people were all speculators in the sugar battle, some going long, and others going short.

Fan Mei'er found a flowerbed to sit by, but his eyes never left the river surface for a moment.

He had to stay focused; it was the last day for Nao'an River navigability. If the shipment didn't arrive today, they wouldn't be able to transport anything come the winter dry season.

He waited from noon until evening, and whenever a boat appeared, the crowd sitting on the ground would rush forward together.

Upon finding it wasn't a sugar-carrying ship, they would disperse like startled birds and beasts.

The sun gradually sank in the west, and there were fewer and fewer boats on the river, let alone any large ships.

Under the winter sun, seeing this scene, Fan Mei'er hummed a tune, looking at the increasingly desperate short traders at the inland dock with a satisfied smile on his face.

He even pulled out some cheese from his pocket: "Eating sauerkraut-wrapped cheese, not even the Emperor's majesty can match this."

The red light of the setting sun shone on the rippling river like blood reflecting in everyone's pupils.

Many speculators and citizens were unsteady on their feet; some pessimists began to viciously curse Lupher as the "sun on the shoreline," and even the most optimistic optimist couldn't muster a smile.

The sun sank inch by inch towards the water, and so did people's spirits.

When the sun touched the water, the crowd rippled like water waves, gradually beginning to disperse.

Just as the waiting crowd was about to leave, the clattering of hooves accompanied by loud, cracked shouts arose: "The ship has arrived, the sugar shipment is here."

"Nonsense." Hearing the shouting, the previously reclining Fan Mei'er jumped up, leaping onto the flowerbed platform and shouting towards the direction of the sound, "I've been waiting at the canal all day, no ship in sight!"

But when he saw who it was that was shouting, he was stunned: "Wolfhardt? You rascal, you're supposed to be minding the newspaper, why are you here babbling nonsense?"

"Not nonsense, brother." Wolfhardt was so anxious that he was spitting as he spoke, "The sugar shipment came by sea route, they didn't come through the Nao'an River."

"What?!"

Mounting his small pony, Fan Mei'er and his brother rushed breathlessly from the inland canal to the sea dock on the other side.

At this moment, the dock was as crowded as a festival, filled with onlookers crying and laughing, some even madly banging their heads against trees on the street corner.

Seeing this scene, Fan Mei'er's heart sank infinitely.

Stumbling to the dockside and pushing through the crowd, the moment Fan Mei'er saw the sea, he felt as if an invisible chain strangled his throat, leaving him gasping for breath.

Eight merchant ships from Falan were docked at the pier. With one glance, Fan Mei'er instantly calculated that the ships were carrying between 40,000 to 50,000 dan.

Boxes filled with silver moonlight-like fine sand and damp sugar blocks were being unloaded from the ship's hold, while the tax collector's feather pen was moving at lightning speed, his fingers cramping.

"Silas." Seeing a familiar junior official at the docks, Fan Mei'er pounced on him like a man grabbing at a life-saving straw, "Here, how much sugar is this? Is this sugar?"

"Are you blind?" The junior official glared at him, "The ship is unloading 48,000 dan of sugar, tsk, don't block the way."

He pushed Fan Mei'er aside like a stray dog, and the junior official jogged forward, while Fan Mei'er stood there like a statue.

Wolfhardt cautiously approached, rubbing Fan Mei'er's shoulder: "Brother..."

As soon as he spoke, Fan Mei'er suddenly rushed forward, slipping beneath the guard's armpit and kneeling before a crate, he began shouting wildly: "Impossible, impossible, Black Snake Bay doesn't produce 40,000 dan in a year, it's impossible!"

He kicked over the crate and pried open the nailed-down lid with his hands and teeth, and then thrust his hands into the gritty sugar.

Unfortunately, his hands didn't touch the stones he imagined, and amidst the cold gazes of the guards and other ship owners, he scooped fistfuls of sugar out.

Yet, all the sugar in the box was genuine, full-measure sugar, and visibly higher quality than the sugar from Red Leaf Hill Sugar Workshop.

"Citizen, let me remind you, this crate of sugar is about 10 dan (1120 pounds)." A ship owner with a heavy Falan accent walked slowly up to him, "You'll have to compensate, um, let me calculate, 150 gold pounds."

The previously kneeling Fan Mei'er trembled all over, slowly raising his head, his eyes bloodshot, his voice tinged with a quiver of tears: "How much? You said how much!"

Fan Mei'er lunged at the ship owner, grabbing his collar: "Why is it only this much, why only... ugh..."

Clutching his stomach, he slowly knelt down, while the ship owner disdainfully wiped his fist with a handkerchief: "Are you possessed by a demon? You're not happy with less compensation?"

Fan Mei'er couldn't hear the ship owner's words. Being a veteran speculator, he instantly calculated the per-pound price of this sugar at about 16 dinars.

16 dinars! 16 dinars! The current per-pound price of sugar in Dam City was 30 dinars!

He had previously borrowed futures sugar 50 dan; the buyers sold it for 1,400 gold pounds, and today they would need only 746 gold pounds to repurchase the 50 dan of sugar for him.

"Cough cough cough cough—" Fan Mei'er began coughing violently.

His brother rushed up to support his arm, but as Fan Mei'er lifted his head, the look of misery and shock on his face transformed into a smile.

"Brother, you..."

"Yay—" Fan Mei'er clapped his hands, "I've made it! I've made it! I've earned 653 gold pounds, I've made it, hahahaha!"