Skott glared at Stelle and showed a disdainful expression.
"How rude. I won't bother arguing with the likes of you."
He snorted coldly.
"I said, I only came here to send a package. Instead, you people surrounded me. Shouldn't you give me an explanation?"
"Stop playing dumb!"
Sushang clenched her fists, barely holding back from punching him.
"There's something wrong with your cargo. It damaged other customers' goods and caused the dock to lose a lot of money these past two days!"
Stelle swept her gaze across the seemingly normal cargo packages piled to the side and remained silent for the time being.
"If you say there's a problem, then there's a problem? If you want to apologize to me in advance, just say it directly. Why beat around the bush?"
Skott spoke in a strange, sarcastic tone, deliberately dragging out his words.
Stelle frowned upon hearing this.
"Whether there's a problem with the cargo or not, we'll know after opening your package and checking it."
She thought this guy would panic, but Skott simply placed his hand near his ear, pinched his throat, and let out a sharp, mean voice.
"Haa—? Speak louder, I can't hear you clearly. Is this how Aurum Alley treats its tourists?"
"I'm opening your package right now. There's definitely something fishy going on!" Sushang rolled up her sleeves, ready to act.
Skott sneered: "Go ahead, but you'd better think carefully. If you damage my things, even selling you off wouldn't be enough to compensate!"
Stelle narrowed her eyes: "And what if there really is a problem with your package?"
"You only know how to say there's a problem with my package?" Skott spread his hands and couldn't help laughing. "Then I could also say there's a problem with you people."
"Stop being so sarcastic. We're opening it right now!"
Sushang stopped trying to reason with him verbally. She exchanged a glance with Stelle and directly began unpacking the cargo.
Skott wasn't flustered at all. He crossed his arms and watched the show, his eyes full of provocation as he looked at Stelle.
Stelle couldn't be bothered to deal with him. Instead, her gaze swept across the several dock workers nearby.
Under her stare, one of them maintained a calm expression on the surface, but cold sweat was pouring down his back.
…That look was almost like it could see right through a person.
Skott's package was opened. There weren't many items inside, but they were quite large in scale and fully visible.
The first was an exquisite vase that looked very old, with balanced proportions and unique natural patterns formed on its body.
The problem was that genuine antique porcelain was usually very expensive and fragile.
Under normal circumstances, such a piece of porcelain should not have appeared in Aurum Alley's freight port — it would never have passed the transportation security inspection.
Yet here it was. It was hard to say whether there had been a lapse in security checks.
The second cargo item was a tall antique wooden display shelf, even taller than a person.
Its color was deep and solemn, its lines elegant and simple, its shape rustic and classical. The overall design balanced solidity and emptiness perfectly, giving off an ethereal feel.
Cultured people liked placing brushes, ink, paper, inkstones, and various vases and jars on such shelves to enjoy a refined pleasure.
This item was valuable and fit the transportable category.
As for the final transported item—
It was an incense burner known as the Dense Cloud Golden Toad.
So far, while the Astral Express crew had been busy dealing with matters concerning the Ambrosial Arbor on the Xianzhou Luofu, they had beaten up quite a few of these demonic mechanical devices.
This one looked quiet and peaceful on the surface, but who knew if it would suddenly go berserk?
Although it going berserk wouldn't pose any real threat to people, the fragile items beside it were another story…
"Skott, seeing this thing, aren't you panicked at all?"
Stelle stared at Skott with a dangerous look in her eyes.
"When people panic, they tend to speak the truth. Go on, you have at least three lines to say."
Skott scoffed: "Fine, then I'll say it. You people from the Aurum Alley Chamber of Commerce are abusing your power to bully others and trying to frame an innocent, law-abiding citizen like me!"
The moment his words fell, the previously quiet Dense Cloud Golden Toad suddenly moved and charged straight toward the fragile goods.
Stelle had been paying attention with her peripheral vision the entire time. Without any panic, she precisely disabled its kinetic circuit, then picked it up with one hand and threw it at Skott's feet.
"What you wanted to say wasn't that previous line."
"No need to say anything. He clearly tampered with this mechanical device! The other cargo on the ship was damaged by it!" Sushang said angrily.
Skott: "Haa—? Speak louder, I can't hear clearly."
Stelle: "Not that line either. The evidence is conclusive, and you still want to deny it?"
Skott burst out laughing.
"Hahaha, don't you people have eyes? This antique monster isn't mine at all."
Sushang was stunned: "What?!"
"If you don't believe me, ask these workers!" Skott pointed at the several workers beside them.
A worker who looked somewhat timid stammered: "Y-Yes… this Golden Toad is not Mr. Skott's."
"Then why was this toad placed inside your cargo package?" Sushang asked, full of suspicion.
Skott: "That's your own problem. What does it have to do with me, right?"
"On the contrary, I should be asking how a dangerous object suddenly appeared inside my well-packaged vase and nearly destroyed my vase! How are we going to settle this, huh?"
Sushang froze, unsure how to refute him.
Stelle: "Inspection complete. Since there's no issue, prepare to ship the goods."
"Haa—?"
Skott exaggeratedly dug at his ear.
"Did I hear that right? After causing such a scene, it wouldn't make sense if you don't apologize to me."
"T-This requires an apology?!" Sushang's face faintly flushed red.
Skott smiled sinisterly as he looked around: "If you don't apologize, it won't sound very good when word gets out."
Sushang's fists turned white from how tightly she was clenching them.
After a long moment, she squeezed out a few words through gritted teeth.
"…S-Sorry."
Hearing this stifled apology, Skott looked extremely pleased and didn't mind that Sushang's voice was only slightly louder than a mosquito's buzz.
"It's fine if your voice is small now. Just treat it as practice in advance. Apologizing to me won't be limited to just this time, hahaha!"
Skott walked away arrogantly with steps that showed he recognized no one as family.
The gazes from the surrounding crowd falling on Sushang made her extremely uncomfortable.
It didn't matter if they were watching her as a joke, but every single gaze filled with doubt deepened the guilt in her heart.
It wasn't just her who was suffering — it was also the reputation of the Aurum Alley Chamber of Commerce.
She realized that Skott had come prepared.
But she was still so angry!
"Uuuuuhhhhh——"
Sushang gritted her teeth tightly, trying her best to control herself so she wouldn't blurt out the name of the Yaoqing's prized technique in rage.
Stelle sighed: "Sigh, we were schemed against."
A person's energy is limited.
These past few days, everyone had been extremely busy trying to turn the Chamber of Commerce's losses into profits.
The moment they slightly loosened their watch on Skott, they fell into the opponent's trap.
Mingxi's face was full of apology.
"Sorry, I didn't manage to get a word in at all."
Sushang took several deep breaths repeatedly before she finally calmed down the resentment from being humiliated.
"My mother told me that as long as I train hard and master real skills, others would be willing to reason with me…"
"It seems my current skills are still not enough."
???
The corner of Stelle's eye twitched.
"One kind of rice feeds a hundred kinds of people, but one specialized skill cannot deal with a hundred kinds of people."
Just as she was about to continue speaking, someone patted her shoulder before the words left her mouth.
"This young lady figured it was about time you needed my help!"
"March?!"
Turning around and seeing the familiar cute girl, Stelle's face showed surprise.
"You finally decided to show up!"