Meng Shijie and his friends drove an ox cart to the town. The usually bustling streets were now mostly deserted except for the few of them.
Some shops were even closed.
There were almost no people in the shops that were open. The idle waiters stood at the door, staring blankly at the heavy snow outside. When they saw a group of people passing by, they all stuck their heads out to look.
Because the family needed to stock up on more food, Meng Shijie and his friends came today to buy as much as they could.
Anyway, the food won’t go bad if stored in the winter, and there is a place to store it now.
The two large houses at the entrance of the village also had cellars. They had all gone down to look in the cellars and found them to be quite spacious.
Several people went to three or four grain shops separately, inquired about the price of grain, and finally chose the cheapest one, Zhuangji Shop.
In fact, this Zhuangji shop is only half a cent per pound cheaper than other shops.
Half a cent still costs money, and they can save a lot if they buy a lot.
However, because the price is slightly cheaper than others, there are still many people in the store.
Most of the people who came to buy food looked like they were from wealthy families. They probably wanted to stock up on food at home for the snow.
Meng Shijie and others left twice before it was their turn to buy.
"What would you like?"
The shopkeeper was fiddling with an abacus, and the waiter was busy in the back. Now he was alone, and he looked up at the many people who came in.
Seeing that they were all dressed very casually, and neither very enthusiastic nor disgusted, he asked with a blank expression and continued to work on his abacus.
"Shopkeeper, we want to buy some grain. We need both polished rice and brown rice. If you have flour, we'd like some too."
At this time, the shopkeeper had also sorted out his abacus and looked up at Meng Shijie who was speaking.
"How much do you want?"
The shopkeeper did not give them a quote first, but asked them how much they wanted.
Meng Shijie talked about his own family first. They had a large family, and the rice alone was at least 300 kilograms.
"Two dan of polished japonica rice (based on Ming Dynasty measurement, one dan equals 92-94 kg), two dan of brown rice, and two hundred jin of gray flour."
After Meng Shijie finished speaking, he felt that with so much food, it was impossible for their family to stew and eat rice every day. It would be enough for at least two months.
It will be spring in two months, and it shouldn't snow anymore then.
He was driving an ox cart today, but the old ox couldn't pull too much, and there was snow on the road, making it difficult to drive on.
If your parents feel it’s not enough when you get back, they can come back tomorrow.
When the shopkeeper heard that Meng Shijie wanted so much, he looked up and looked at him.
"Why did you buy so much food?"
The problem is that looking at him, he doesn't look like a purchasing agent for any family. Why would an ordinary farmer buy so much grain at one time?
Meng Shijie didn't expect that the shopkeeper was so gossipy about selling rice. If he paid for it, wouldn't it be enough for him to sell it?
"It's snowing so heavily outside. We live in the mountains. We should buy some food to take back with us in case we can't get out and we starve to death.
Even though we bought a lot, we are from the same village.
They couldn't get out, so they asked me to help bring the things along."
When Meng Shijie said this, the shopkeeper nodded to show that he understood.
"One liang and two qian of polished rice is worth one dan of silver, one liang of brown rice is worth one dan of silver, and one jin of flour is worth sixteen wen."
Flour is really expensive.
Meng Shijie still planned to buy more, because there were children at home, and they needed to eat more fine grains to grow better, so he couldn't lack anything to feed the children.
Rice is also ridiculously expensive. Originally, one stone of brown rice cost about seven or eight thousand silver coins, but now the price has risen to one or two taels of silver per stone.
The price of japonica rice also increased by two coins of silver per stone.
Now the land is vast and the population is sparse, so food is scarce and sells at a high price, not to mention it is winter now.
Wang Liangli swallowed his saliva, but still bought one stone of japonica rice, half a stone of brown rice, and fifty kilograms of flour.
At this time, he felt a little fortunate that there were only two mouths to feed in his family, him and his wife.
Meng Shijie helped Xiu'er and her daughter buy the same amount as Wang Liangli's family.
The Zhou family bought the same quantity as Meng Shijie.
Yongxing and his friends also bought the same food as Meng Shijie.
Meng Shijie thought he should come again tomorrow.
After all, their family is larger than the Zhou and Yong families, and he felt that what he bought might not be enough for his family to eat.
And if you buy it now, it might be cheaper.
The snow is so heavy, the price of food will definitely become more expensive as time goes by.
After the shopkeeper watched them leave, he immediately called the waiter and raised the price of the grain again.
If Meng Shijie and the others hadn't come to ask before, he really didn't want to sell it to them.
Because they bought so much food, they no longer went to the vegetable market.
The ox cart was packed full, with no space left, and there was no place to put the vegetables.
It’s impossible to just buy a little, so I decided to come again tomorrow.
They bought so much food that four ox carts were filled to the brim.
After coming out of the Zhouji shop, many people in the shop next door looked at them with hungry eyes.
So they all decided to go back to the village first.
However, there are people who want to get something for nothing and target them.
Yongxing had noticed that someone was following them a long time ago. He originally thought that they were just passing by, but until they left the city, those people were still following them, and he felt something was wrong.
He quickened his pace to catch up with Meng Shijie in front.
"Brother Meng, someone is following us, so don't spread out too much."
Meng Shijie felt very annoyed when he heard that someone was following them again.
But he was also prepared.
I had thought of this possibility before coming out.
They all came out to buy food. If others saw them pulling several carts of food, they would be living targets.
Before leaving the village, he hid a wooden stick about seven or eight feet long, as thick as a child's arm, on the ox cart.
Not only did he have it, but everyone else also had it because of his reminder.
Hearing that someone was following them, they became nervous.
"We're going to fight soon. Don't worry about the food for now. Stay close to me. Once we take them down, the food won't be able to escape."
Yongxing is good at martial arts, so he can easily deal with a few small thugs and thieves.
The people who were following them all the way to the mountain road finally couldn't help but jump out.
"You bought so much food, and we brothers just happened to have nothing to eat. Please share some with us."
"Okay, come and get it."
Meng Shijie smiled sincerely.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
