Chapter 400: Buying Grain at Midnight

San Tie spoke up again: “Little brother, we won’t be leaving for a while. If your family needs firewood, come back again.” He lowered his voice, as if afraid those around them might overhear: “Since you bought our rabbits, I’ll give you a two-wen discount on the wood…”

Pengshu left with the rabbits and the letter.

Yan Yu secretly gave Brother San Tie a thumbs-up.

San Tie beamed with joy.

The two of them finally waited for the person they were expecting. The man sent by the Heir Apparent was a fresh face they hadn’t seen before, but “eight wen for the whole lot” was their secret code.

Yan Yu happily collected the copper coins. She and Brother San Tie loaded the remaining firewood onto the cart and followed the man with their donkey cart to a teahouse called Bamboo Stove.

“When a guest arrives on a cold night, tea serves as wine; the bamboo stove boils as the fire turns red.”

Yan Yu remembered this line of poetry.

This Bamboo Stove teahouse was not far from the Prefectural School^[1]. The environment was quiet and elegant, with a unique layout where the entire establishment was decorated with bamboo branches, making one feel as if they were standing in a bamboo forest.

Yan Yu didn’t know if people visiting this teahouse in the bitter winter would feel cold, but she was certainly eyeing the bamboo with envy.

The donkey cart went around to the back of the teahouse, and San Tie carried the firewood inside load by load.

Inside, Yan Yu met the person she wanted to see.

After Yan Yu performed her greetings, she stood to the side and waited.

She assumed the Heir Apparent would have many questions, so she had prepared her answers in advance, waiting for him to ask.

To her surprise, the Heir to Prince Ying was more composed than she had imagined.

He only asked if she remembered the approximate location of the heavy chest. After she nodded, he told her and Brother San Tie to stay at the teahouse for a day and leave the city with him tomorrow.

…

Xiao’an Village

Magistrate Tian smiled broadly as he drank the apprentice tea^[2] offered by Yan Lao’er.

He untied a piece of green jade from his waist and gifted it to his disciple.

He spoke a few words of encouragement regarding his studies.

Now that the formal bond of master and apprentice was established, they grew even closer.

Yan Lao’er went to the kitchen personally to prepare a table of food.

It wasn’t as lavish as the Mid-Autumn Festival feast, but Magistrate Tian ate with great pleasure.

Li Xuemei and Daya both joined the table. Magistrate Tian looked at Daya and offered a few words of praise, then looked at Li Xuemei’s belly, smiling so wide his mouth wouldn’t close, his eyes sparkling with joy.

After the meal, the master and apprentice took a stroll through the village.

Magistrate Tian followed his disciple through almost every corner of Xiao’an Village. He watched him look for people and listened as he greeted the villagers with familiarity. From the elderly to the children, everyone was exceptionally close to Tianyou. A feeling he had never experienced before welled up in his heart.

Pride, satisfaction, and a sense of shared glory.

At first, the villagers were filled with awe and trepidation toward the great official following Yan Lao’er, not daring to speak much.

But after hearing Yan Lao’er call the official “Teacher” and realizing their new master-apprentice relationship after a moment of stunned silence…

The whole village erupted.

The simple villagers didn’t know how to express their excitement.

It was unclear which household started it, but every family began sending things to the Yan family home.

Mostly food items like vegetables, meat, rice, and flour.

After Li Xuemei consulted her elder brother-in-law, she stopped refusing the villagers’ kindness and recorded each gift as she accepted it.

Granny Rong and Daya were busy for a long while before they managed to organize and settle all the items properly.

That night, Magistrate Tian and Yan Huaiwen both stayed inside the house and did not show their faces.

Yan Lao’er led the villagers, some driving carts and others pushing barrows, to wait by Dashi Bridge ahead of time.

Just after midnight, they saw a convoy of carts approaching from the direction of the Prefectural City.

Yan Lao’er stood up abruptly, patted the dust off his backside, and called for everyone to light a few more torches.

As they drew closer, the sight of grain sacks piled high came into view.

Yan Lao’er greeted them with a smile, looking as if he had just spotted a long-lost relative: “Brother Mi, I’ve finally waited you out!”

“Haha, sorry to keep you waiting, Brother Yan.”

“Brother Mi, I have the money with me. Let’s inspect the goods and finish the trade!” Yan Lao’er said impatiently.

Merchant Mi, who was about to exchange a few more pleasantries, swallowed his words.

He asked in surprise: “You still want to inspect the goods?”

Yan Lao’er also looked surprised: “Never mind a deal this big, even for a small business one has to inspect the goods first!”

Merchant Mi’s face shifted under the flickering light of the torches.

Yan Lao’er acted as if he didn’t notice, looking at the sacks of grain with great interest while seemingly absentmindedly patting the bundle in front of him.

He had brought all cash silver this time.

Some was a friendly loan from his daughter, and the rest belonged to the villagers.

Banknotes were inconvenient for trading with this party; cash silver was better. It felt safer and more substantial during a transaction.

“Inspect them if you want,” Merchant Mi said coldly.

Yan Lao’er made a gesture, and the men from the village swarmed forward.

More than half of them opened the grain sacks and reached inside, while a smaller group stood by, watching the porters Merchant Mi had brought.

“Yan Er, there’s a bag here.”

“Brother Yan Lao’er, I have one here too.”

The people of Xiao’an Village called out one after another. They wanted to carry the bags to Yan Lao’er to show him, but they were blocked by the porters, who turned to look at Merchant Mi.

Merchant Mi snorted coldly and said, “Let them carry them over.”

As soon as the problematic grain sacks were placed before Yan Lao’er, he saw the issue.

Although he had said in the Prefectural City that he wanted to buy old grain, both sides knew exactly what he really intended to buy.

Now that the man had actually brought him old grain, Yan Lao’er wasn’t angry; it was all within his brother’s expectations.

When dealing with this kind of person, it never hurt to be extra cautious.

Yan Lao’er pointed at the grain and spoke nonsense: “Brother Mi, this is all broken rice. This won’t do for the price we agreed on. Tell you what, it’s late at night and it’s a hassle for you to haul it back. If you lower the price a bit more, I’ll take it all.”

Merchant Mi had been prepared for a confrontation.

Hearing Yan Lao’er call the old grain “broken rice,” he nearly choked.

He stared intently at the other man, but Yan Lao’er was still pretending to examine the grain sacks, muttering: “Oh my, this is too broken… and this bag, why are there small stones in it…”

He told these blatant lies with such natural ease.

At that moment, Merchant Mi was genuinely impressed.

He made a concession and reduced the silver.

Yan Lao’er pushed his luck slightly, and on top of that, rounded down the total.

The two parties finally completed the transaction.

Merchant Mi took Yan Lao’er’s silver and left with a face that was almost black with annoyance.

Seeing them disappear into the distance, Yan Lao’er shouted happily: “Let’s go, back to the village!”

…

The Hagu River to the east of Yongning City was wider and faster than the Jisang River near Xiao’an Village.

It was only today that Yan Yu learned the names of the three rivers within Guanzhou.

There was another river called the Taqin that also flowed out from Fengming, passing through the mountains to reach the sea.

The Heir to Prince Ying had found an excellent reason to leave Yongning by boat.

The case of the thieves posing as Taoists to swindle people at the Floating Cloud Temple in Guiyuan Town, Linhai Prefecture, involved multiple cities in Guanzhou and affected many commoners. After the thieves were caught in Linhai, the case had been delayed because of disputes over the distribution of recovered loot.

The Heir Apparent was heading there for this reason.

Once on the boat, the Heir Apparent invited the two of them into his presence.

San Tie followed Xiao Er’s lead closely. When told to sit, he sat; when told to drink tea, he drank tea.

The Heir Apparent asked Yan Yu what books she had read. Upon hearing the titles she listed, he began to test her on them one by one.

Yan Yu: …

After finally managing to get through that, the Heir Apparent finally got to the main point.

“…Xiao Er, do you still remember the situation that day?”

(End of Chapter)