The workers immediately left.
Who would stay?
Who would dare stay?
Their boss was already at the stage where he could probably sit there and smile at a pearl for an entire hour without blinking. Watching that was more frightening than night duty.
The moment they left, the shop owner sat there alone and began dreaming.
He dreamed of auctions.
He dreamed of profit.
He dreamed of merchants crowding his door, asking for favors with smiling faces.
He dreamed of becoming so rich that he could develop a completely new personality.
Maybe once he had enough money, he would no longer need to be such a shameless man.
Maybe he could become elegant.
Maybe he could become calm.
Maybe he could even learn how to speak with dignity.
Then he thought about it and decided that no, being shameless was still very useful, and becoming richer while shameless was much better.
