The group entered Yuncheng.
Many commoners were walking along the streets of Yuncheng, some even carrying rice and grain in their arms it seemed they too were preparing to pack up and leave.
“Let’s buy some rice and grain too, otherwise who knows if there’ll be anywhere to restock later,” Qi Yanxuan said to Shen Yanqing.
From now on, even if rice and grain were available, prices would only keep rising, and after the disasters struck, even money wouldn’t buy food.
Money in hand was worth less than grain.
Seeing this, the village chief also told the villagers, “Everyone should stock up on grain too. Prices are rising now, and who knows if you’ll even be able to buy any later. Each family should leave at least one person to watch the belongings, and the rest can go buy supplies.”
Qi Yanxuan actually wanted to stock up on supplies as early as possible, opportunities like this would only become rarer and rarer, and now was the perfect chance.
Seeing Qi Yanxuan’s eager expression, Shen Yanqing couldn’t help but want to laugh. This person was truly changeable sometimes obedient, sometimes vicious, sometimes calm, sometimes skittish. Could one person really be this mercurial?
He went back to give Shen Yanshan a word of notice, then took Qi Yanxuan and headed toward the rice shop.
A long line had formed in front of the rice shop. Seeing this, Qi Yanxuan’s eyes flashed and he said to Shen Yanqing, “Brother Shen, you wait in line here. I just saw someone coming out of that street carrying a sack of rice, there should be a rice shop over there. I’ll go buy from that one.”
He was about to leave when Shen Yanqing grabbed him, pulled ten taels of silver from his robe, and placed it in his hand. “You forgot the money.”
“Oh, right.” Taking the silver, he dashed off around the corner.
Qi Yanxuan slipped into an empty alley and sent his consciousness into his space.
He took out a thousand-year-old ginseng root from the space he had gotten it during the apocalypse when he looted a large traditional medicine shop.
Tucking the ginseng into his robe, he left the alley and asked an older woman on the road about medicine shops.
“Auntie, may I ask which medicine shop in this city buys medicinal ingredients?”
Seeing that the person who had stopped her was a handsome young man, the woman answered with a smile, “The Baicao Hall in this city buys medicinal ingredients. It’s an old established shop, and their prices are very fair. Keep going straight ahead, and when you reach the fork in the road, turn right. You’ll see it before long.”
“Thank you, Auntie.” After thanking her, Qi Yanxuan headed toward the Baicao Hall.
Baicao Hall
Seeing a customer arrive, the shop assistant greeted him warmly, “What medicine would you like, young sir?”
“I’m not here to buy medicine. I’m here to sell medicinal ingredients. Does your shop still purchase them?”
Hearing that he was selling, the assistant could only say helplessly, “Young sir, I’m sorry, but our shop has stopped buying ordinary ingredients. The shopkeeper plans to sell off what we have and then take us to find our employer.”
Hearing this, Qi Yanxuan pulled the ginseng from his robe and held it out for the assistant to see. “It’s not an ordinary ingredient. Do you still buy ginseng?”
Seeing it was ginseng, the assistant didn’t take it. “Please wait a moment, young sir. I can’t make this decision myself. Please come with me to the inner room for some tea, and I’ll go fetch our shopkeeper.”
With that, he ushered Qi Yanxuan into the inner room and went to get the shopkeeper.
Half a cup of tea later,
The man who arrived was around forty, slightly plump, with a kind, smiling face. “So you wish to sell a ginseng root, young sir? May I take a look?”
“Of course.” Qi Yanxuan handed the ginseng to the shopkeeper.
Surprise appeared on the shopkeeper’s face. After examining it carefully, he said, “This ginseng root is a full thousand years old. How much were you hoping to sell it for, young sir?”
“What do you think it’s worth, Shopkeeper?” Qi Yanxuan didn’t know the going price for ginseng in this era, so he could only let the shopkeeper name a price first.
The shopkeeper pondered for a moment before naming his price. “How about this, I won’t deceive you, young man. The honest price is ten thousand taels. You won’t find anyone in all of Yuncheng willing to offer more.”
Seeing that the shopkeeper’s gaze was clear and upright nothing like that of a sly, slippery schemer Qi Yanxuan agreed. “All right, I trust you, shopkeeper. Ten thousand taels it is.”
With the ten-thousand-tael banknote tucked away, Qi Yanxuan left Baicao Hall and found a ready-made clothing shop to enter.
The owner was a woman in her thirties who still retained her charms. Seeing a customer walk in, she hurried up to greet him everyone was stockpiling grain these days, and business at the clothing shop was truly poor.
“Young man, are you buying ready-made clothes or fabric?” the owner asked, all smiles.
“Both. The fabric, ready-made clothes, shoes, and quilts in your shop including everything in your storeroom, I’ll take it all.”
The owner froze for a moment, and when she came back to her senses, she thought she must have misheard. “Young man, you’re saying you want everything?”
“Mm, all of it. Work out how much silver it comes to.”
Seeing that Qi Yanxuan’s expression was serious and he wasn’t joking, the owner was instantly overjoyed. “Good, good, good! The shop still has silk, cotton cloth, coarse cloth… 400 bolts in total, 200 quilts, 500 pairs of shoes, 360 sets of assorted ready-made clothes, and 600 jin of cotton. I’ll knock off the odd amount for you four thousand taels in all.”
There was a light in the owner’s eyes as she looked at Qi Yanxuan. “Where would you like everything delivered?”
“No need for that. You head off first. I’ll have someone come carry things later.” Qi Yanxuan declined the owner’s kind offer, took out four thousand taels, and handed them over.
“All right, I’ll be off then. Just close the door behind you when you’re done moving things.” Money in hand, the owner left in high spirits.
Once she was gone, Qi Yanxuan swept his hand and stored everything in the shop into the clothing warehouse in his space.
Walking down the streets of Yuncheng, he spotted a bookstore around the corner ahead, its owner sitting there blankly with a troubled frown.
He figured that once things settled down later, he could pass the time reading storybooks.
Spending five thousand taels, he used the same method to buy out every book in the store.
After the owner left, Qi Yanxuan stored all the books on the shelves of the daily necessities warehouse in his space.
Then he took a fifty-jin bag of rice and a fifty-jin bag of flour out of his space, there simply wasn’t any unpolished rice in there. When the time came, he could just say the unpolished rice had sold out.
Only after shouldering the grain did he head toward where the group was stationed.
He hadn’t gone far when he noticed someone following behind him. Feigning ignorance, he turned into a small alley.
The moment he entered the alley, those people emerged.
They were three disaster victims dressed in rags, their hair a tangled mess.
Seeing Qi Yanxuan walk into the alley, the three of them grinned with unmistakable ill intent. The tallest among them pulled out a dagger and glared viciously at Qi Yanxuan. “Kid, leave the grain behind and you can go. Otherwise…”