My domineering ex-husband is living off his wife in ancient times.

Chapter 15: Prices have increased so much?

"Grain, oil and groceries are all concentrated in Dongshifang. Let's buy grain first, and then go find him."

With Silang here, it's inconvenient for us to put the extra grain we bought into our storage space.

"Row."

Si Shaoheng also reminded:

"Put the medicinal herbs in too. Leave a little outside so that the medicine you take out later can be easily detected."

Cheng Ruoan: "That's what I think too."

The donkey cart stopped under the big tree here, not far from the rice shop. To save time, Si Shaoheng carried Cheng Ruoan inside.

In the rice shop, Cheng Ruoan and his assistant bought grain, while Si Shaoheng went to chat with the shopkeeper, as he needed to learn more about the current political situation.

As agreed upon by the two of them.

The food in the space is all white rice and high-quality flour. If it is difficult to replenish food on the road, Cheng Ruoan will have to take food from the space. So for now, he can only buy fine grains.

Although the original owner wasn't in charge of the household, she still knew the price of grain. Cheng Ruoan calculated the money and said to the shop assistant, "Young man, I want two hundred shi each of white rice and white flour."

"To let you know, sir, our shop offers white rice at sixty coins per dou and white flour at thirty-six coins per dou."

Cheng Ruoan was shocked: "Why has the price increased so much?"

In the original owner's memory, a dou of white rice cost twenty coins, and a dou of white flour cost twelve coins. That's three times the original price!

In the Great Xia Dynasty, ten dou equaled one shi. If we were to follow the original price, one hundred shi would only amount to sixty-four liang. Now that the price has increased, wouldn't we have to spend almost two hundred liang on grain?

That won't work.

Cheng Ruoan looked at the young shop assistant and began to haggle: "Young man, isn't your price a bit too high? I need quite a lot, so the price is negotiable."

The young shop assistant shook his head vigorously: "No, no, no, I dare not quote prices randomly. Now, not only grains and oils, but even needles and thread are going up in price."

"Objectively speaking, whether you want two hundred shi (a unit of dry measure) or two thousand shi, the price is the same."

Cheng Ruoan sat in the chair, her delicate eyebrows furrowed, and remained silent.

Could it be that chaos is about to break out in the southwest?

Otherwise, the prices of grain, oil, and wine were regulated by the government in the Great Xia Dynasty.

It's not like there's going to be a change of dynasty, how could it suddenly increase so much?

Si Shaoheng and the rice shop owner also looked this way, and the two walked over together.

The rice shop owner and Si Shaoheng were having a very pleasant conversation, and now he was explaining to Cheng Ruoan with a smile on his face.

"Don't be angry, Madam Cheng. Our Zhang's Rice Shop has stores all over the Great Xia Dynasty. We would never bully our customers."

"This price was indeed adjusted and communicated directly to us by the head office in Beijing. We're just doing the work for our employer; we really don't have the authority to lower prices."

Si Shaoheng walked to Cheng Ruoan's side, leaned down and whispered, "Zhang's Rice Shop is one of the imperial merchants, with the imperial court holding shares. If you can't negotiate the price, don't try to force it."

Cheng Ruoan glanced at him, "I didn't know before. If you have time on the way, could you please explain this dynasty to me?"

"it is good."

“But now that we’re short on cash, what are we going to do with the food? Should we buy less or just coarse grains?” Although he had three hundred taels of silver, Cheng Ruoan planned to keep some money for himself.

Let alone the fact that you don't spend any money on food and drink while fleeing.

With so many prefectures and counties to pass through along the way, and Cheng Ruoan having a space to keep more money on hand to trade goods, isn't that a good thing?

Si Shaoheng: "How much grain is in the villa?"

Cheng Ruoan: "There are 5 bags of 20kg rice and 2 bags of flour, which is less than 5kg."

Si Shaoheng's expression was somewhat solemn. "Let's each buy two hundred shi (a unit of dry measure), and not coarse grains."

"Why? Coarse grains are much cheaper than refined grains, and the Si family has been eating mostly coarse grains these past two years."

Si Shaoheng: "I'm not used to it."

Cheng Ruoan: "..." That's a good reason I can't refuse.

"Moreover, the cost-effectiveness is not as good as that of refined grains."

Cheng Ruoan: "Hmm? Whole grains won't triple in price too, will they?"

As she spoke, she looked at the rice shop owner.

The shopkeeper smiled kindly, then silently extended one hand, showing five fingers.

Cheng Ruoan: ...

The price of whole grains has increased fivefold!

It's outrageous!

What kind of lousy government is this?

How can they fleece the poor even more than the high-ranking officials? Do they really want to change the world?

In Daxia, it's impossible to resell rice, grains, oil, salt, and other similar items to make a profit. Si Shaoheng's concern was simply that it would be difficult to buy grain later on.

“It’s the same principle as medicinal herbs, I understand.” Cheng Ruoan understood, so in the end she gritted her teeth and paid 192 taels.

According to the measurements of the Great Xia Dynasty, one shi is approximately 50 kg, and one sack is two shi.

This is a total of two hundred bags of grain.

The rice shop owner simply had his assistant lead the two men to the warehouse entrance to wait and collect their rice.

Seeing that the two only had a donkey cart, the shop assistant kindly reminded them, "Young Master Si, Madam Cheng, our rice shop can deliver goods for an extra penny per bag. Would you like that?"

This price is really cheap, even lower than the price for carrying heavy loads at the docks. You wouldn't normally get this much money for a hanger-on in the city.

Cheng Ruo put on a stingy act, "No need to waste that money, our donkey can haul it all in two cartloads!"

"What a powerful donkey! But aren't you going to get on the cart?" The waiter smiled awkwardly, glancing at Cheng Ruoan's legs.

Cheng Ruoan tossed her hair and said in a strong voice, "The doctor told me to walk more with crutches, which will help with my recovery."

"Okay...okay, okay." What else could the waiter say?

He had never seen such a stingy woman before.

The shopkeeper said that this young scholar was taking his family of nearly thirty people north to find his relatives.

With natural disasters and man-made calamities occurring frequently and the situation still turbulent, the fact that they rushed to flee before the county government even provided earthquake relief, and bought so much grain at once, suggests that their family must be quite wealthy.

I never imagined that his wife could be so stingy.

Si Shaoheng found it amusing and didn't say anything. But when the waiter wasn't looking, he reached out and ruffled Cheng Ruoan's hair.

Cheng Ruoan: !!

"Isn't this annoying? Are you a primary school student?"

I like to pinch and deflate people's buns!

Um... it's not exactly a bun, it's a woman's bun from the Great Xia Dynasty, which is a bun wrapped up and hanging down at the back of the head.

Si Shaoheng smiled slightly and said, "I just think you look good with your hair like this."

The original owner had a lot of hair, and Cheng Ruoan wasn't very good at combing it, so it was wrapped loosely, with a few unruly strands of hair floating in front of her forehead.

There was no other way; she couldn't accept using vegetable oil as hairspray, so she could only let it hang there.

Although she had a bit of the brothel-like demeanor of Lin Xiaoniang from a certain well-known domestic drama, with Si Shaoheng standing in front of her, no one dared to say anything to her.

Cheng Ruoan rolled her eyes. "I don't believe you."

She didn't have a mirror when she transmigrated; she only knew from the original owner's memories that the original owner was quite good-looking.

They should be no different from each other in their past lives.

Soon, fifty bags of white rice and fifty bags of white flour were transported out.

The rice shop assistants and porters helped load the grain onto the donkey cart. Si Shaoheng drove the cart, saying, "Thank you, brothers. We'll take this cart of grain to the city gate first, let my family load it, and then we'll come back to get the remaining hundred bags."