Adding the more than one thousand taels earned in Baishong Town, he had just over six thousand taels in total, equivalent to about six million star coins. Earning six million in one day—he was filthy rich! Truly filthy rich!
Some viewers asked why he didn’t sell the older ginseng roots as well; he could have—no, he definitely could have—fetched a higher price for them. Seeing the manager of Baiyutang pay without the slightest flicker of pain, it was clear his family fortune was quite substantial.
As Lu Xuan followed the manager out, he said, “Five-hundred-year-old ginseng is relatively rare even in the deep mountains, so I’ll keep it for my collection for now.”
If he found himself short on silver while shopping later, he would consider selling them all then.
When he returned to the front hall, a young man from a noble family, dressed in fine silks, hurried in and asked the manager loudly, “Manager, do you have any aged ginseng here? My grandfather hasn’t been feeling well lately and really needs it. If you have any, I’ll buy it at a premium!”
The manager, who had been preparing to keep the 300-year-old ginseng as a shop treasure, instantly perked up upon seeing the newcomer and blurted out, “I’ve just acquired a good one! Young Master Bai, you’ve come at just the right time!”
After saying this, he remembered Lu Xuan hadn’t left yet and cast an involuntary, worried glance at him.
Lu Xuan raised an eyebrow, easily guessing the manager’s thoughts.
If the banknotes hadn’t been in his hand yet, he might have considered switching buyers to earn a bit more. But since the money and goods had already been exchanged, there was naturally no reason to go back on the deal.
He waved a hand at the manager, nodded at Bai Xuefeng—who was looking at him with curiosity—and left Baiyutang.
The manager breathed a sigh of relief and soon began enthusiastically greeting Bai Xuefeng.
After leaving Baiyutang, Lu Xuan first went to a carriage rental shop to hire a flatbed cart. Then, he found a deserted alleyway, took a large quantity of simply processed meat from his space and piled it onto the cart, and pushed the cart full of meat toward the large restaurants.
The large restaurants in the Prefectural City were as wealthy as Baiyutang. Upon discovering that he had tiger and bear meat—flesh rarely supplied by common hunters—they were very generous and bought the entire cart of meat.
The cart wasn’t big, so it naturally couldn’t hold all the meat. There was still plenty of wild boar and wolf meat left over, so Lu Xuan moved on to several other restaurants and eateries, selling it in batches until he had finally sold all the meat he intended to part with.
Lu Xuan did not sell the venison. As a herbivore, the taste of venison was far superior to that of carnivorous animals, and it was equally nourishing, so it was only natural to keep it for his own family to eat.
The remaining meat brought him an income of one hundred taels.
After that, he found another deserted spot, loaded a cart with various furs, and went to a fur shop to sell them.
Among all the furs, tiger skin was undoubtedly the most valuable, followed by bear and wolf skin. Among these, only eight wolf pelts were intact; the others had been shredded by the blood-sucking vines, significantly reducing their value. However, because the quantity was high, the dozens of pelts combined still sold for the high price of one hundred twenty taels.
After a busy day of running around, dusk had gradually fallen, and Lu Xuan found an inn to stay at.
Because he booked a superior room, the inn’s service was quite excellent; not only did it include a sumptuous dinner, but hot water was provided for free.
After dinner and a comfortable hot bath, Lu Xuan felt completely relaxed.
Today’s livestream didn’t have much to see—the viewers reacted enthusiastically when he was selling items, but overall, the total gift earnings didn’t rise much. After converting them into points, he had just over five thousand.
Lu Xuan glanced at the daily discount items.
Much like yesterday, the only things he could afford were nutrient solutions, energy stones, and a furniture set—none of which were necessities.
Lu Xuan didn’t spend points to refresh this time; after a quick look, he closed the screen and went to bed.
Early the next morning, Lu Xuan ordered a table full of dishes directly at the inn. After teasing the viewers’ appetites, he asked the innkeeper for the location of the agency, took a trip there, and then began his shopping for the day.
The first, and most important, stop was the grain shop.
To ensure the grain shop had sufficient inventory, Lu Xuan specifically went to the largest grain store in the city.
Upon arriving, as expected, many customers were coming and going. Lu Xuan ignored the other patrons and carefully examined the types of grain displayed in the shop.
Although Yunlu Village and the Prefectural City were located in the north, grain shops naturally prepared as many types of commodities as possible. Therefore, basically every staple grain he could name was available here.
Brown rice, millet, yellow rice, refined rice (white rice), flour, peanuts, and various beans such as soybeans, black beans, red beans, and mung beans, etc.
After walking around the shop, Lu Xuan found the manager.
“I want to make a large-scale purchase of various grains. How much of a discount can your shop offer?”
The manager looked at Lu Xuan in surprise and asked, “How much does the guest want to buy?”
Lu Xuan said, “A few tens of thousands of jin.”
Manager: “!!!”
A few tens of thousands of jin! This was a major deal!
Lu Xuan asked again, “So, is there a discount?”
The manager said immediately, “Yes! I guarantee I can give you the best possible discounted price!”
Lu Xuan: “I want stock on hand, to be delivered today—tomorrow at the latest. Can you supply it?”
The manager was full of confidence. “Don’t you worry. Our store has sufficient inventory. Even if the main store’s inventory is insufficient, we can temporarily transfer stock from the other two branches in the city.”
Lu Xuan nodded with satisfaction. “That would be best.”
Following that, the manager took out his ledger and began to ask Lu Xuan earnestly which grains he needed and how much of each.
Lu Xuan had already calculated this when he first made his procurement plan.
There were four people in the Lu family, but because his appetite was large—one man equaling three to five people—he prepared for ten servings.
One person eats one jin of rice a day, so ten people consume ten jin, totaling 3,650 jin a year.
The “Weather Companion” predicted up to five years. Five years would total over 18,000 jin, so he rounded it up to 20,000 jin.
The cost of living in the Prefectural City was higher than in Baishong Town. White rice was thirty wen a jin in Baishong Town, but thirty-five wen here. However, the manager gave him the lowest discount, bringing it down to twenty-eight wen per jin.
Refined flour was even more expensive than white rice; even after the discount, it was thirty-two wen. Lu Xuan bought 20,000 jin of rice and 10,000 jin of flour.
Brown rice and coarse flour tasted relatively inferior, but because they were cheap, he decided to stockpile a batch, ordering 1,000 jin of each.
In addition to that, he bought 800 to 1,000 jin each of various beans, glutinous rice, sorghum, and oats, plus 100 jin of assorted high-quality seeds.
The grain shop in the Prefectural City also sold oil, so Lu Xuan bought 2,000 jin of four different types of vegetable oil.
The grain and edible oil combined cost 1,090 taels.
After calculating the bill, the manager’s eyes were practically glowing; he looked at Lu Xuan as if he were a walking gold ingot—his attitude was incredibly enthusiastic.
Lu Xuan paid a deposit of two hundred taels, instructing the manager to deliver all the grain by tomorrow at the latest to a small courtyard not too far from the inn.
He had just rented the courtyard at the agency for five hundred wen for three days, perfect for receiving the bulk cargo he would be purchasing over the next few days.
The manager patted his chest in guarantee. “Rest assured! By noon tomorrow at the latest, I guarantee all goods will be delivered to the location, and I absolutely won’t short you on the weight.”
Lu Xuan nodded, took the pickup receipt, left the grain shop, and continued to his next procurement location: the seed shop.
The seed shop’s frontage wasn’t large, but the variety of seeds sold inside was quite complete.
The vegetable variety was also extensive due to the developed overseas trade: green onions, ginger, garlic, chives, spinach, rapeseed, baby bok choy, celery, cabbage, lettuce, cucumbers, radishes, chili peppers, winter melon, pumpkin, zucchini, eggplant…
It wasn’t that they had everything, but it was far more complete than Lu Xuan had anticipated.
There were some missing items, such as sweet potatoes and corn—the shop didn’t carry them.
It wasn’t that the dynasty didn’t have these two crops, but the former consumed soil nutrients, had an average taste, caused heartburn when eaten in excess, and was generally considered unrefined; furthermore, they had a short shelf life—once they sprouted, they were inedible.
Therefore, except for some poor families who might plant a few in their vegetable gardens, or occasionally dig some up as emergency food when found while picking wild vegetables in the mountains, basically no one grew them on a large scale. Naturally, the seed shop didn’t specifically stock them.
For similar reasons, potatoes, which had long been introduced, hadn’t received enough attention either.
As for corn, it had truly only been introduced to the dynasty recently, and the quantity was currently very scarce; wealthy and noble families only collected a small portion for ornamental purposes, and it wasn’t yet widely cultivated.
Potatoes, sweet potatoes, and corn—these were essential life-saving foods for disaster years. The key was that they were delicious and had many ways to be eaten. The result was that they didn’t have any, and Lu Xuan was very disappointed.
But there was no other way for him to get what wasn’t for sale. In the end, he bought five jin of each of the twenty or so vegetable seeds, and half a jin of seeds for each of the common fruits.
Not far from the seed shop was a pharmacy of moderate size. Lu Xuan only remembered after leaving Baiyutang yesterday that he had forgotten to buy Chinese herbal medicine seeds, so he went in and bought a batch of common medicinal herb seeds.
After leaving the pharmacy, Lu Xuan was just preparing to continue purchasing the next set of supplies when, not long after walking, he sensed that someone seemed to be following him from behind.
He maintained an indifferent expression, as if he hadn’t noticed anything, but simply turned his footsteps, turning from the busy main street into a small alley not far away.
Someone in the livestream immediately noticed something was wrong.
[Isn’t the host supposed to be going to the workshop he just asked the shopkeeper about? The workshop isn’t in this direction, is it?]
[Didn’t the host just smile? There’s a problem!]
[Look at those people in the corner behind the camera—are they following the host?]
[They really are! I have a feeling there’s going to be a show!]
Just as the viewers realized something was wrong and waited in anticipation, the group of men behind him indeed followed Lu Xuan into the alley, intercepting his path with lightning speed and surrounding him completely.
The brawny man in the lead said with malicious intent, “Kid! Did you sell ginseng at Baiyutang yesterday? You must have made a lot of silver, right? How about sharing some with us brothers to spend?”
Livestream viewers: Oh, ho! It’s a robbery!
[…I feel like I can already see the ending for these people.]
[Sigh, who else would you choose to mess with? Why the host? Is it written on the host’s face that he’s a “pushover”?]
[Waiting for the host to slap their faces.]