Chapter 78: Stockpiling (Part 1)
"Next time, we should just run if we encounter these bandits again," Ye Lanxi muttered.
As the oldest among them, he still felt the need to take care of his younger siblings.
Ye Lingrui nodded, pursing his lips tightly. "I don’t have a good feeling about them. Yue’er, let’s replenish our poisons after this."
Upon hearing that, Ye Lingyue nodded seriously. These bandits were from famine-stricken areas, and they could only rob in order to survive, moving from their original county to their current location.
There were a lot of people in the market even though it was already afternoon. Although some stalls sold wilted or shriveled vegetables, there were still many people who would be willing to buy them.
The people selling livestock flock together, already alert for any attempt of robbery.
They were obviously already aware that their county was now filled with people from other places which were suffering from famine, so they were guarding their items strictly.
Their magistrate also had sent some more guards to be stationed at the market to ensure the safety of people there, so that they could do transactions without worry.
It was too difficult to close the access to their county for these people from famine-stricken places, after all.
"Let’s find the pharmacy first," Ye Lingrui immediately proposed the most important thing, turning to his twin sister.
Ye Lanxi’s eyes glinted. "Let’s just split. Let me sell the jewellry to some people here. You two go find the medicine."
They were in favor of his suggestion. In order to reach this place quickly, they had actually also travelled during the night a few times.
"Second Brother, don’t make trouble for us," Ye Lingyue reminded.
Ye Lanxi snorted. "I can say the same about you."
After they agreed to meet at their current location again, the twins quickly headed to some pharmacy.
"Yue’er, since we will need a large quantity of herbs, we need to buy them in more than one place," Ye Lingrui muttered.
They didn’t want to make these people find them suspicious.
She nodded and pointed in a direction. "Which one should we go first? That way or this way?"
He pointed to the left side, and the siblings went there first. Soon, Ye Lingyue was a little amazed by her twin brother’s intuition.
Not long after they arrived at the left pharmacy, the other one was filled with a commotion. There were many people arguing.
"What kind of poisonous herb did you give us?" Someone demanded, stomping the ground angrily. "My mother vomited blood after she took your medicine!"
The guard keeping watch at the front didn’t even glance at him.
"You, cursed place! Taking advantage of us poor people!" The man continued to rage. He went to grab the wooden plaque, but the guard finally took action, slapping his hand away.
"Leave the place. You are disturbing other customers!" The guard warned him.
"Yue’er, let’s go." Ye Lingrui helplessly grabbed his younger sister.
Ye Lingyue was staring at the live drama with some concentration. When she heard Ye Lingrui’s words, she snapped back to reality and smiled sheepishly at him.
They went inside the pharmacy.
The pharmacy shopkeeper lifted his head, seemingly bored. This place was quite deserted, unlike the other shop which was still filled with people despite its reputation.
Ye Lingyue had heard that some people who bought medicine in that pharmacy suffered some complication due to some poisonous properties in the wrong herbs.
Still, they were cheap compared to other pharmacies in the surrounding areas, so some people decided to take a gamble.
The people who received wrong herbs were in lesser numbers compared to those who finally recovered...
"Find these herbs," Ye Lingrui said as he handed over a list to his twin sister.
Ye Lingyue looked at the list of herbs and nodded. They both split to find the herbs they needed.
This pharmacy seemed to be owned by a merchant, which explained how they could possess some old ginseng and lingzhi.
She didn’t hesitate to grab some herbs, sweeping a lot at once. The shopkeeper’s eyes twitched when he saw this. He put down the brush in his hand.
Just as Ye Lingyue was about to grab the hundred-year-old ginseng, someone was also aiming for it. They touched at the same time.
"Let go!" He ordered arrogantly.
She rolled her eyes. "No."
Despite the current situation, this man had such a neat appearance, in contrast with her whose face was smeared with some dirt and dust from the travel.
Her eyes glinted, and she listened carefully at the discussion around.
"Is that the magistrate’s nephew? Who is that brave beggar?"
"That girl is a young calf who is not afraid of tigers. She actually dared to refuse the magistrate’s nephew’s order."
"He already has his eyes on that ginseng..."
Ye Lingyue’s eyelids twitched. She thought that ginseng would be a great supplement for Song Yulan’s weakened condition, but in order to snatch it, she had to deal with this ball of trouble first.
The shopkeeper had already come over to them, his expression stiff.
"Shopkeeper Fu, tell this beggar girl to let go of the ginseng," The Magistrate’s nephew told the shopkeeper a little angrily.
"Young Master, this..." The shopkeeper swallowed, finding himself in a deadlock. These two had grabbed it at the same time.
"You should be the one to let go of this ginseng!" Ye Lingyue scowled. "You saw that I was about to grab it and wickedly wanted to stop me!"
The man’s chin clenched. "Don’t talk nonsense!"
He turned to the shopkeeper a little urgently. "Quick, give this thing to me."
The shopkeeper gritted his teeth and finally decided. "Miss, please let go of the ginseng. Young Master Han already reserved it beforehand."
Ye Lingyue was unwilling, her temper was about to flare, but Ye Lingrui suddenly appeared beside her.
The shopkeeper looked like he had just seen a savior. "Young Master, please tell your sister to let go of the ginseng. It already belonged to someone else."
Ye Lingrui swept his gaze to the so-called Young Master Han, whose body radiated hostility aimed at them.
"Yue’er, let’s find something else, alright?" He whispered to her, pinching a certain spot on her neck which made her tension slowly fade slightly.
She pursed her lips. "Fine."
Then, she finally let go of the ginseng, slightly unhappy. However, before she could fully let go...
"Don’t withdraw your hand."
She heard her twin brother whispering at her. The moment she glanced at him, his eyes flashed with cunning.
"Shopkeeper, we are going to buy a lot of herbs, does this shop have a discount?" Ye Lingrui smiled at the shopkeeper, whose face immediately stiffened.
Meanwhile, Young Master Han’s face was already filled with impatience, a few seconds away from exploding.
Shopkeeper Fu broke into cold sweat. Neither party was someone he could trifle with; one was the magistrate’s nephew and the other was such a scheming person... he was clearly threatening him.
The twins should have already known he merely said that the ginseng was reserved in order to favor Young Master Han.
He also happened to see the words Ye Lingrui was mouthing off, and he froze.
"Shopkeeper Fu, be quick! Why are you so slow like a snail?!"
Young Master Han’s angry voice snapped him back to reality, and he immediately nodded at the twins. "Yes, yes, of course we have a discount. We will give you one ten percent off."
With Ye Lingrui’s cue, Ye Lingyue finally let go of the ginseng. Her anger had dissipated slightly, and she immediately grabbed Ye Lingrui. "Third Brother, let’s go find more herbs."
The discounted price for all of the herbs was better compared to one lousy ginseng.
Shopkeeper Fu thought that his trouble would end there, but he didn’t expect Young Master Han would also ask him for a discount.
"Ten percent off for today, right, Shopkeeper Fu?"
In the end, he paid with a discounted price. Shopkeeper Fu could only silently shed some tears in his heart, especially when the twins actually buy so many herbs!
"Young Master, Miss... aren’t those too many?" He thought they would only buy a few considering that their clothes looked so disheveled.
There would be a few people travelling from a far away place just to get medicine from the pharmacy in their county’s market. However, most of them were poor and ended up buying nothing from the pharmacy.
Originally, he thought the twins were such people, desperate for medicine. And when they heard the actual price, they would either leave the shop in disappointment or beg him for free medicine.
He never gave them any.
After all, it wasn’t his own shop.
"Is it a problem?" Ye Lingyue raised her eyebrows.
Her twin brother also asked. "Are you going back on your words?"
Shopkeeper Fu immediately shook his head. "I will wrap them up then... I hope you have enough money to pay for them."
And indeed, they did have enough money; they also saved quite a bit of money from the discount.
"Third Brother, what did you tell Shopkeeper Fu?" Once they were outside, Ye Lingyue asked her brother curiously.