The Princess and the Pauper (Arabella) novel Chapter 1676

On the other side.

At 8 PM, Arabella and Horace made their entrance at the auction.

"Which one's Sam?" Arabella whispered to the person sitting next to her.

With hundreds of people packed into the dimly-lit venue, spotting anyone was like finding a needle in a haystack.

"I heard he's desperate for a kind of medicine. Whoever's hounding after the herb, that's him." Horace shared, his brow furrowing in confusion, "Boss, what's this medicine? What's it good for?"

It was a strange name, one he'd never come across before. At Horace’s question, Arabella’s eyes darkened, "It's for tonifying kidney, interested?"

"Why would I need it? My kidney's intact!" Horace replied, only to then ponder, "There are tons of kidney boosters on the market, why's he so fixated on this one? To the point of hitting up the black market."

"It's not just any booster. Combined with certain substances, it can boost a man’s sexual vitality overnight. Ahem, but it wrecks the body; it's banned. Use too much and you get hooked, just like those illegal substances."

Horace got the gist. No wonder it was a black-market item, it had that kind of power. Wait a sec, how did the boss know all this? She’s too savvy.

The auction kicked off.

The first item up for bids was some porcelain, the kind looted from graves, the sort that couldn't stand the light of day. Interest was scant, and the bids were even scarcer.