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"I'd say... 7000 Yuan seems fair. For now."

He'd stopped laughing, but a wide grin was still on his face.

"Lotus can surely foot the bill for a poor man's pleasures."

If Eponine accepted, Shee didn't really want to be the one to tell Wraith about this particular incident. He wouldn't be too happy about fueling a greedy man's addictions, let alone spending almost 1000 US dollars on him. It's not like they couldn't afford it, Shee thought, but Wraith was a penny-pincher if ever there was one.

"Determined, aren't you? It's Chong, Miss Eponine.

Now, what exactly is this favour you want of me? My price goes up with the difficulty, mind you," he added hastily.

Chong hoped Eponine wouldn't fall over and mix up his Keno tickets. Those were major sources of income.

Shee sighed. She supposed it was alright to help Eponine out a little.

"Well, Chong, we need to assist us in some questioning of other shopkeepers. Basically, you'll be acting as a translator. I needn't remind you that if you translate wrongly, Lotus will of course find out about it. And Lotus, having 'monetary compensation', as you so eloquently put it, can make sure that you will regret that."

Shee put a hand to her mouth as Eponine proceeded to topple over and out the door. She made a move to help her get up, but Eponine had already gotten up and quickly come back to her original position. Eponine was very... variable, Shee decided.

Chong looked at the two women- little girls, really, the both of them. But he knew that LOTUS did have the money, and that they were powerful enough to make him regret any sort of betrayal. He thought it was probably for the best to do what they said- for now.

"Alright. Where is it you want to go first?"

Shee walked a bit faster to fall into step with Eponine. Chong was sort of... creepy.

He was following the two of them, strolling along at a leisurely pace, until Shee pointed to the shoe store they had passed before.

"That's it."

"Perfectly," Shee answered, as she pushed open the heavy, wooden door of the store and walked in.

This store was in much better shape than Chong's had been. Aside from proper lighting and the complete absence of smoke, the spacious room looked made of wood that had been meticulously and repeatedly scrubbed until it shone so brightly that it looked out of place in this little store. Lining the walls were boxes, many open to reveal numerous types of shoes inside.

Chong quickly translated Eponine's question after briefly introducing himself to the old man behind the counter. After he had finished speaking, the old man started and anger poured into the lined crevices of his face.

He started yelling and motioning so wildly that Chong fell back and bumped into Eponine.

Chong didn't need to be told twice. Although he didn't really appreciate the woman roughly pushing him aside, he didn't quite care for wild yelling either.

Yelling back at the old man to calm down, he watched as Eponine actually walked closer to the senile guy. Realizing the man wasn't listening to him, he entertained the notion that Fuhua probably wasn't a guy that either this man or the LOTUS girls liked. Yelling that idea to the old man, and watching him calm down in seconds, although there was still a fiery rage in his eyes, he thought that this would definitely drive his price up.

Chong shrugged.

"Just that LOTUS doesn't care much for this Fuhua, as I suspect this man doesn't. That'll be 50 Yuan."

The old man was still furiously staring at the three people standing, uninvited yet not buying anything, in his shop. What did they want to know about that dirty thief Fuhua?