In years of famine and drought, their village even rejected fatty meat.

Chapter 51 Sweet as Bubbles

"If you say less, no one will think you're mute!"

Chen Da glared at Chen Jiang. The young man in brocade robes was surrounded by a retinue and dressed exquisitely. It was clear at a glance that he was a nobleman in the city, someone they could never afford to offend.

However... although he told Chen Jiang to keep quiet, Chen Da was also extremely annoyed. That disdainful look could easily hurt someone's feelings.

"Fuck him!"

This time, Chen Jiang didn't stop talking. Instead, he spat on the ground and cursed, "One day, I'll trample these rich kids who look down on me under my feet!"

"That young man is clearly a nobleman from the city, so it's normal for him to look down on us. Ah Jiang, don't take it too seriously!"

Chen Si comforted Chen Jiang, but he himself was also feeling bad. The feeling of being looked down upon was really unpleasant.

As for the three Chen brothers, they didn't seem to mind. They were probably used to being looked at like that, even in the village, people would occasionally cast similar glances at them.

"go in!"

Chen Dao didn't say anything. Perhaps because he had lived two lives, he was much more accepting of such things than Chen Jiang and the other young men.

In Chen Dao's view, other people's disdainful looks can't hurt him in the slightest, so why bother with them?

As Chen Dao stepped into the grain store, the first thing that caught his eye was the once again rising grain prices.

Rice: 28 yuan/jin (approximately 0.5 catties).

Millet: 26 yuan/jin.

Wheat flour: 20 yuan/jin.

Sorghum flour: 13 wen/jin.

Sorghum: 12 yuan/jin.

Bran powder: 6 yuan/jin.

Rice bran: 5 wen/jin.

As Chen Dao had predicted, grain prices had risen considerably since his last visit, with rice and millet increasing by an average of 2-3 coins.

Rice costing 28 coins per pound was something that even people in county towns probably couldn't afford. Imagine what rice costing 28 coins per pound meant in China in the past.

Not to mention, in the previous life in China, it was much easier for ordinary people to earn one dollar than for people in this world to earn one copper coin. This shows how terrifying a grain price of 28 wen per jin was for ordinary people.

"Sir, what kind of grain would you like to buy?"

A clerk from the grain store greeted him warmly.

Chen Dao waved his hand and went directly to the grain shop owner in front of the counter: "Shopkeeper, I need to buy a lot of grain, do you know if you can give me a discount?"

"That might be difficult!"

The shopkeeper shook his head and said, "The young master of the family just came by and asked us not to lower the price."

Upon hearing this, Chen Dao couldn't help but think of the young man in brocade robes who had just walked out of the grain store. If nothing unexpected happened, that person should be the young master the shopkeeper had mentioned.

As far as Chen Dao knew, this grain store in the East Market should belong to the Yuan family, which meant that the boy from earlier should be a member of the Yuan family.

"These big families are really something..."

Chen Dao sighed inwardly. The large families in the county town must have a lot of grain stored up. After all, most of the land in Taiping County is controlled by these large families. The reason for the price increase is just to take advantage of the situation and hoard grain!

But didn't these powerful families ever consider that if the people couldn't afford to eat and rebelled, they might be the first to suffer?

Perhaps they know, but don't care; or perhaps they've never taken peasants seriously.

Chen Dao shook his head, dispelling the unnecessary thoughts in his mind, and said to the shopkeeper, "Shopkeeper, I need 200 jin of wheat flour, 200 jin of rice, 200 jin of sorghum, and 300 jin of rice bran!"

Chen Dao stated the amount of grain he needed. In fact, Chen Dao originally intended to exchange most of his silver for grain, but considering the limited carrying capacity of the donkey cart, he chose to buy less.

The shopkeeper's eyes lit up, and he hurriedly took out his abacus and began to calculate: "200 catties of rice, 5600 wen; 200 catties of wheat flour, 4000 wen; 200 catties of sorghum, 2400 wen; 300 catties of rice husks, 1500 wen; a total of thirteen liang, 500 wen. Is that correct, sir?"

The shopkeeper looked Chen Dao up and down, his face full of smiles, but in his heart he had some doubts, wondering if this young man could really come up with so much silver.

"Yes!"

Chen Dao was quite good at mental arithmetic and knew that the shopkeeper's calculation was correct. So he took out 14 taels of silver from the money bag Li Ying had given him and handed it to the shopkeeper: "Shopkeeper, please help me pack the grain and move it to the donkey cart outside."

"no problem!"

The shopkeeper readily handed 500 copper coins to Chen Dao, then instructed the shop assistants to start loading the grain and moving it onto the donkey cart outside.

"How much grain did Daoge'er buy?"

Outside the grain store, Chen Si, who had been standing by the donkey cart, stared blankly at the bags of grain placed on it.

The three Chen brothers' eyes lit up. Chen Dao had bought so much grain, which meant that their previous guess that Chen Dao's family had no grain was wrong. It also meant that they no longer had to worry about Chen Dao stopping building the house because of a food shortage.

"Wow, so much grain! Brother Dao is so rich!"

Chen Shi said with drooling, "With Dao Ge'er's generosity, he bought so much grain, how could he possibly lack our food rations?"

Just thinking about being able to eat fragrant steamed buns every day in the future made Chen Shi feel as if he were soaking in honey water, bubbling with sweetness!

Chen Dayi smiled as he watched the bags of grain being loaded onto the donkey cart.

Although his family currently has a surplus of food, seeing so much grain still makes him feel very reassured.

Soon, all 900 jin of grain were loaded onto the donkey cart, piling up almost like a small mountain.

Looking at the cars that were now completely occupied, Chen Dao smiled and said to the group, "Looks like we'll have to walk back!"

The cart was so full of grain that there was no room for anyone to sit except for the driver's seat. The group had no choice but to walk back to the village alongside the donkey cart.

"What's the big deal!"

Chen Cheng scratched his head and chuckled, "It's only a dozen or so miles, not far at all!"

Chen Da and the others nodded in agreement. For them, who often did manual labor, a dozen miles was not far at all.

"Okay, let's go then!"

Chen Dao said, "Let's go to Baicaotang first."

About fifteen minutes later, the donkey cart stopped outside the Hundred Herbs Hall. Chen Dao asked everyone to wait outside and went into the Hundred Herbs Hall himself.

Upon entering Baicaotang, they found that the usual manager, Su Shihua, was not there; instead, Su Qiaoxi was sitting behind the counter.

Perhaps because there weren't many customers, Su Qiaoxi was dozing off behind the counter, her arm supporting her cheek, revealing a section of her snow-white wrist. Her pretty face was drooping as if it were about to fall onto the table at any moment, and a trace of glistening tears clung to her lips.

"Miss Su."

Chen Dao called out softly, but Su Qiaoxi didn't respond at all.

Seeing this, Chen Dao couldn't help but find it amusing. This girl was far too unguarded. The shop was open, and she was already asleep. Wasn't she afraid that someone would come in and steal things?

"Miss Su."

Chen Dao tapped on the counter, raising his voice slightly.

"ah!"

Su Qiaoxi suddenly woke up and subconsciously leaned back until she saw that the person who came was Chen Dao. She then breathed a sigh of relief and said, "Young Master Chen, it's you!"

Chen Dao smiled without saying a word, and pointed to the corner of Su Qiaoxi's mouth.