"Here, weigh this."

Stella Sterling placed the goods in front of the pig seller.

He looked up in surprise, not having expected her to actually come back.

He had given up hope after she left, assuming she had just said that to save face before walking away.

But he never imagined she would actually return with grain.

He nodded quickly. "Yes, yes, of course. I’ll weigh it right now."

He took out a very old iron scale and weighed the grain. It came out to 140 pounds.

Hearing the amount, Stella Sterling’s expression remained calm, but inwardly she was a little surprised. ’Looks like Mr. Cheney had his people pack some extra for me.’

She made a mental note of the favor.

Just as she was about to speak, she heard the pig seller say, "140 pounds is the perfect amount."

As if afraid Stella Sterling wouldn’t understand, he looked up and explained, "Miss, my pigs... I just weighed them again. There was a mistake before. The four pigs are exactly 70 pounds, so your 140 pounds of grain is the perfect amount. I’ll take this 140 pounds of grain, and these four pigs are yours!"

Hearing this, Stella Sterling let out a speechless-sounding laugh.

’Is this man in front of me playing me for a fool?’ A moment ago, he was able to state with precision that the four pigs weighed 63 pounds, which meant he must have weighed them repeatedly.

Now that she’d brought 140 pounds of grain, he was claiming his pigs were 70 pounds. ’Is he trying to take advantage of me because he thinks I’m an easy target?’

The man was looking at Stella Sterling with an enthusiastic smile, but inwardly, he was a little nervous.

’She’s just a woman, and all alone,’ he thought. ’She seems pretty well-off, too. She didn’t even haggle and just came back with so much grain. She’s probably rich and won’t miss a little extra.’

’People like that are the easiest to fool.’

Stella Sterling chuckled softly again and looked at him. "Are you sure it’s 70 pounds?"

The man’s expression didn’t change as he nodded firmly. "Yes, 70 pounds. If you don’t believe me, I can weigh them right in front of you."

As he spoke, he moved to grab the piglets to weigh them again.

But just as he moved, a large blade appeared from nowhere and was pressed against his neck.

Stella Sterling was smiling, but her eyes were ice-cold as she looked at him. "Do you take me for a fool? I try to do an honest trade with you, and you decide to try and pull a fast one on me."

"Miss, miss! Let’s talk this out! Please, don’t do anything rash! I’m really not lying to you."

The pig seller raised his hands, putting on a sincere yet frightened expression as he hastily explained himself.

She had tried to deal with him civilly, but he tried to play tricks on her. Stella Sterling wouldn’t be polite with someone like that. She drew her blade across his neck, and a few drops of blood trickled down.

The man was so terrified he broke out in a cold sweat.

Stella Sterling had controlled her strength perfectly. The cut wasn’t fatal, just breaking a tiny bit of skin, but even so, the man was trembling with fear.

He began to regret his actions. ’This woman is a hard case, not some gullible girl you can easily fool.’

’If I had known earlier, I never would have tried something so stupid.’

He trembled, terrified she would just slice his throat open.

He was filled with regret, but he didn’t dare say anything, nor did he dare admit that he had, in fact, tried to cheat her.

"Now bring me your pigs. Say one more useless word, and I’ll take your life right now!"

Stella Sterling said coldly, her tone growing impatient. 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

"Miss Sterling, what’s going on?"

Just then, a man from the nearby trading post ran over.

There was a commotion, and he had come to see who dared cause trouble on their territory, but he hadn’t expected to see Miss Sterling.

This Miss Sterling was a friend of Boss Cheney. Over the past year, Miss Sterling had interacted with them quite a lot, so of course, he recognized her.

’Miss Sterling is Boss Cheney’s friend, so she wouldn’t start trouble here on her own. That must mean...’

At this thought, he shot an icy glare at the pig seller.

As for the pig seller, when he heard how the man addressed Stella Sterling, his heart screamed, ’It’s over!’

’Not only is this woman a tough customer, but she’s also on very good terms with the people from this trading post.’

’I really messed with the wrong person!’

All this for a dozen or so extra pounds of grain. A moment of greed had led to this, and now it was too late for regrets.

His face was pale, and he didn’t dare say a word. He could only do as Stella Sterling commanded, putting the four pigs into a basket and presenting it to her.

Now that the man was behaving and Mr. Cheney’s man had arrived, Stella Sterling put her blade away, slinging it onto her back just like her small black pack.

Seeing Stella Sterling take the pigs and sheathe her blade, the pig seller finally breathed a sigh of relief. He said cautiously, "Miss, I remembered wrong, I remembered wrong! They are 63 pounds. You brought 14 extra pounds of grain. I’ll weigh it out and give it back to you right now."

This time, his movements were much quicker as he prepared to weigh the grain for Stella Sterling.

However, Stella Sterling spoke up and stopped him.

Hearing her voice, he froze, not knowing what she intended to do.

Still, he forced an enthusiastic smile and turned back to face Stella Sterling.

"You know, I feel like these pigs are pretty scrawny. They don’t look like 63 pounds. To me, they seem more like forty or fifty pounds. What do you think?"

Just then, the man from the trading post also spoke up. "How much is it, really? Tell the truth. If you dare to lie to Miss Sterling, I’ll make sure you regret it."

Hearing this, the pig seller’s heart was filled with bitter misery. He was a million times unwilling, but right now, he didn’t dare utter a single word of protest.

If he argued, he was afraid he’d lose his life, or that she would name an even lower number.

’If I had known, I would have just honestly taken the 120-something pounds of grain. Why did I have to end up like this?’

He was the one in the wrong to begin with, and now his life was in someone else’s hands.

Even though his heart ached at the loss, he could only nod repeatedly. "Yes, yes, you’re right. It’s my fault. I can’t help it, life is so hard these days, I just had a moment of weakness. Miss, please, just forgive me this once."

"You should be glad I don’t want to cause a scene here."

Stella Sterling shot him a glance, her voice cold and merciless. This was Mr. Cheney’s territory, after all, and she didn’t want to blow things out of proportion. She had to give Mr. Cheney some face, more or less.

After hearing Stella Sterling’s words, the man from the trading post standing nearby gave her a grateful look.

How could he not know that Miss Sterling was giving them face by not escalating the situation?

Otherwise, in this post-apocalyptic world, if a weaker person like him tried to pull something on someone powerful and ill-tempered, he’d be as good as dead.

This man was actually quite lucky.