Upon hearing this, Meng Zhao's tense shoulders relaxed slightly. Three years should still be enough; she smiled and pushed the chessboard towards the center of the counter: "Come on, I'll teach you how to play backgammon."

As she spoke, she took out two colors of chess pieces and placed them in their designated positions on the board. Upon seeing the symmetrical arrangement of alternating black and white pieces, the man instantly felt a flood of memories. Meng Zhao continued, "Backgammon requires two players, each holding fifteen pieces, and the number of moves is determined by rolling dice..."

Meng Zhao explained step by step how to set up the chessboard, the rules for moving the pieces, how to attack and capture pieces, and the different ways to win.

The shop owner listened intently, his eyes gradually brightening. In a daze, he seemed to return to that afternoon when his father held him on his lap, sunlight filtering through the leaves and casting dappled shadows on the chessboard.

After Meng Zhao finished explaining, the shopkeeper breathed a sigh of relief. "So that's how it is. I finally understand. It's a relief. Since that's the case, I won't break my promise. Please wait a moment, young lady. I'll go and get what I promised you."

While he was back in the backyard, Shen Qingze and Shen Qingyu had already taken up positions on either side of the chessboard and started playing according to Professor Meng Zhao's rules.

Meng Zhao occasionally offered pointers, and soon the shopkeeper returned to the front hall carrying several cloth bags: "We originally had quite a few, and my grandmother and I planted some casually, but unfortunately, none of them yielded a harvest. Later, we really didn't know how to plant them anymore, so we just left them aside."

He spread out the cloth bags one by one, saying, "Take a look. If you find anything useful, just give me some money."

Meng Zhao quickly went up and opened them one by one to check, and found that they were indeed all kinds of plant seeds. One of them was oblong, tapering at one end and blunt at the other, looking like lettuce seeds. However, lettuce seeds can probably only be stored at room temperature for about two years. These seeds have been stored for three years, and it is unknown whether they can still germinate.

There was also a small box of seeds that looked like wild cherry seeds, but they were already shriveled and blackened, probably having lost their vitality and were unusable. Meng Zhao couldn't identify the other seeds either, and he couldn't be sure if they were usable, but no matter what, he would take them back and try them, just in case there was any hope.

Meng Zhao told Afu to take the things to the car. Before leaving, she took out two gold melon seeds from her purse and placed them on the counter. She walked out of the shop amidst the shopkeeper's surprised gaze.

Inside the carriage, Shen Qinghe asked, "Sister, what are these things for? Are they worth spending so much money on?" Those two gold melon seeds were worth at least forty or fifty taels of silver.

While tidying up the seed packet, Meng Zhao replied, "These are seeds for an ingredient. Although they are worthless to the shop owner, if they can actually be grown, their value is far greater than a few dozen taels of silver. Besides, these seeds were brought from such a far place, so they have put in a lot of effort even if they haven't done anything special. This price is fair."

"Then all our bargaining just now was a waste of time," Shen Qinghe said with a wry smile.

Meng Zhao raised an eyebrow upon hearing this: "From what you're saying, you were tricked by him before?"

Shen Qinghe nodded and held up two fingers.

"Twenty taels?"

"Two hundred taels," Shen Qinghe said in a low voice.

"What?!" Meng Zhao's voice suddenly rose, "Two hundred taels for a few broken planks?"

She had studied them carefully. Although there were many symbols and numbers on those things, they were not continuous. They were probably just numbers on the boxes to mark the contents and quantity of the boxes.

She slapped the car wall in frustration: "That shop owner is so greedy! He ripped you off for so much money on such cheap stuff? And you actually paid him? Are you out of your mind?!"

Shen Qinghe was also somewhat helpless. Meng Zhaohui's things were really too amazing. She casually said that she read them in a book, and her own family would not care. But if someone were to investigate thoroughly, there would be no way to refute her. On the contrary, those wooden boards could shift the focus to the Western Regions. Even if someone really wanted to investigate, the distance was far and the information was not smooth, so they probably wouldn't be able to find anything.

Luckily, it was Shen Qinghe's money. If she had been cheated like that, she would have been really upset. However, she still gritted her teeth and thought that if she had known that the shopkeeper was so cunning, she should not have been soft-hearted and given him so much money.

Now that the money and goods are settled, there's no use regretting it. They can only swallow this loss and hope that the seeds they have will come in handy so that their investment of so much money won't be in vain.

Upon returning to the Meng residence, Meng Zhao carefully sorted and stored the items she had brought back. Just as she was busy with this task, Huang Cui rushed over to report the information she had gathered that day.

"Shopkeeper, the best-selling product at Yu Yan Zhai is this 'Peach Blossom Smile' rouge. Its main selling point is that it's long-lasting and doesn't smudge. Even when you're sweating profusely in the sweltering summer, your makeup won't budge. It's said that we sell thousands of boxes of this one every year."

Meng Zhao took the bottle and examined it. The white glazed bottle was carved with daylily patterns and had a base for easy handling. Meng Zhao asked, "How much is a box of this rouge?"

"The price in summer is about one tael of silver. In the off-season, it may be a couple hundred coins cheaper, but not by much."

As a rouge with such a high reputation, the price was cheaper than Meng Zhao had expected. However, it makes sense; if it were a high-priced rouge that sold for several taels of silver, it probably wouldn't have sold this many. A rough calculation shows that this single product alone could bring in thousands of taels of silver for Yu Yan Zhai every year, so they must value it highly.

Meng Zhao dabbed some rouge with her fingertip and applied it to the back of her hand. Surprisingly, the rouge, once spread, was not as intense as it appeared in the box. Instead, it gave off a translucent feel, a delicate pink that wasn't at all dull. Moreover, it had a luminous sheen in the sunlight. It seems there's a reason why it sells so well.

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