Chapter 21 Journey to the City: Climbing Over the Wall at Midnight
Meat spoils quickly in the summer. To ensure freshness, although all one hundred sheep were delivered, only one-third of the pigs and chickens were slaughtered. The rest will be delivered by evening and tomorrow.
Lu Xuan only settled the bill for today's shipment with the delivery person.
The third batch delivered included jars of soy sauce, vinegar, wine, salt, and sugar.
After confirming that there were no other goods to receive, Lu Xuan closed the courtyard gate and, making sure that the neighbors on both sides could not see what was happening inside the courtyard, began to put the supplies in the courtyard one by one into his spatial bracelet.
Thirty-six thousand catties of grain sounds like a lot, but in reality, each bag of grain weighs one hundred catties, so more than thirty thousand catties is only three hundred and sixty bags, which only takes up about one-thirtieth of the space inside the bracelet.
The various soy sauce jars and wine jars took up even more space; the 120 jars alone occupied 100 cubic meters.
The pork, lamb, and chicken together totaled less than 100 cubic meters, and with the remaining thirty bags of salt and sugar, which were only a small fraction of the total, a quarter of the 1,000 cubic meters were filled.
The main course is taken care of; the first thing to solve today is what to wear.
Lu Xuan went straight to the largest cloth shop in the city.
Durable and cool linen; comfortable and breathable cotton; gauze of much higher quality than linen, which is also very cool to wear in summer; and even higher-grade silk, satin, brocade, etc. I bought hundreds to thousands of bolts of each, depending on how often I wore them and the different colors.
The cheapest linen costs 350 cash a bolt, while the most expensive brocade costs as much as 30 taels a bolt.
In addition, he bought 500 jin of cotton and 1,000 sewing kits.
The total cost was 2,540 taels.
Although Jinxiu Cloth Shop was one of the largest cloth shops in the prefectural city, the shopkeeper was still ecstatic after losing so much silver in a single day.
The shopkeeper was puzzled as to why the customer was buying so much cloth.
Fabric doesn't last as long as grain. It will fade after being washed a few times, and even new fabric that hasn't been used will become dull after a year or two. You simply can't wear all of it if you buy so much.
However, cloth is not as sensitive as grain, and the manager of Jinxiu Cloth Shop is not very curious. As long as there is money to be made, Lu Xuan is his father, and he has no intention of testing him.
Not only did he not say a single unnecessary word, he also gave Lu Xuan several dozen bolts of cloth that were slightly faded or flawed, as well as a large pile of scraps of medium- to high-grade cloth. The total amount was quite considerable, and could be sold for several dozen taels of silver.
Lu Xuan was very satisfied with the result and picked out several more sets of ready-made clothes with high style and quality before paying the bill.
When he entered the city yesterday, he noticed that the people in the prefectural city, who were obviously from ordinary families, wore clothes with many different styles and looked quite energetic overall.
When Lu Xuan arrived, he was wearing clothes bought in town. The style wasn't as rustic as the clothes made by the village aunties, but it still carried a subtle rustic feel, perhaps also related to his hairstyle and appearance.
So after buying a more exquisitely made garment, he immediately changed into one. After paying the deposit and leaving the fabric shop, he went to the silver shop next door and bought several silver hair accessories. He untied his 'bun' at the back of his head and used one of the silver headbands with silver chain decorations to tie himself into a neat and dashing high ponytail.
The simple country boy has transformed into a dashing and cool guy in the blink of an eye.
Although his appearance is not particularly outstanding, his unique temperament, which is quite different from ordinary people, has attracted the attention of countless passers-by, and the viewers in the live broadcast room are also impressed.
This outfit looks several times better than before! It's like she's a completely different person!
[He's gotten even more flamboyant! Hahaha!]
[The streamer is the coolest guy on the block right now! All the girls around are staring at him.]
Lu Xuan, in a good mood, didn't mind the audience's teasing.
With clothing and food secured, all that's left are some less important supplies.
For example, various jars used for holding water or pickling vegetables.
The viewers in the live stream were all bewildered as they watched Lu Xuan navigate a maze of turns and finally find a workshop selling jars of all sizes.
Is it necessary to stockpile these things?
[Host, there are plenty of sturdy, large-capacity containers in the system shop. Is it really necessary to buy so many jars?]
Lu Xuan said with a meaningful look, "You don't understand the importance of pottery jars."
Pickled vegetables and sauces taste best when made in earthenware jars; anything made in plastic, glass, or stainless steel is just not the way to go!
However, you don't need to be too picky about the style of the jar used for pickling vegetables, as long as it is of good quality and has enough capacity.
Small workshops may have to make orders to avoid stockpiling inventory, which can lead to longer waiting times, while large workshops have a lot of ready-made stock.
He checked what sizes of jars were available in the workshop and bought two hundred jars of various sizes, as well as fifty large vats, based on his needs.
I bought about two hundred pieces of porcelain bowls and plates for eating, and one hundred pieces of earthenware bowls, earthenware plates, and casserole dishes.
After leaving the ceramics workshop, Lu Xuan remembered the extremely cold weather shown on the weather app. He asked around and spent some time finding a charcoal-making workshop in the city, where he bought twenty tons of charcoal.
The charcoal was leftover stock from last year, but fortunately it was well preserved and worked without any problems.
Furthermore, since summer is the off-season, the price is very reasonable. In winter, the price of ordinary charcoal is 20 to 25 wen per jin, but now the price has been halved to only 10 wen per jin, so 20 tons would be 200 liang.
At noon, Lu Xuan casually found a roadside stall and ordered some plain noodles to tide him over. After finishing his meal, he prepared to continue his work.
The viewers in the live stream who were actually being fed nutritional supplements: "Fight? Who? Say it again if you dare?"
·
Lu Xuan had only one goal for the afternoon: the ironware shop.
Farm tools for planting, weapons for hunting, and most importantly, an iron wok for cooking must be bought!
Considering that the game hunted after entering the mountains cannot be sold in town and must be processed by ourselves, a small pot is not enough, so we need to buy a large iron pot like the ones used for cooking large meals.
Ironware is a valuable item in any dynasty. Even ironware shops would not make a lot of large iron pots for no reason. Lu Xuan spent an afternoon visiting eight large and small ironware shops before he finally bought ten large iron pots.
There are about thirty standard-sized iron pots that an average household would use.
In addition, Lu Xuan also bought all the other unsold finished products in the blacksmith shop.
This includes various farm tools, woodcutting knives, kitchen knives, boning knives, iron axes, saws, scissors, and a few daggers.
Finally, I also bought 100 catties of pig iron, which cost a total of 100 taels.
The amount of money spent wasn't much, but the viewers in the live stream were still completely confused.
They understand buying iron pots, iron axes, machetes, and farm tools, but why specifically buy pig iron?
Is he planning to forge iron himself?
Lu Xuan simply said, "I have my own purpose."
Because of his sensitivity to iron, several blacksmith shop owners intentionally or unintentionally probed what he planned to do with so much pig iron, and even reminded him that it would be best to report it to the government office to avoid getting into trouble later.
Lu Xuanming nodded to show that he understood, but his actions showed no intention of reporting it.
In the evening, Lu Xuan went to the courtyard again to collect a batch of pork before returning to the inn.
Unbeknownst to him, shortly after he left, the group of thugs he had beaten up during the day returned, unwilling to give up.
In the darkness, several figures gathered at the base of the wall, exchanging hushed conversations.
"...Is this the place?"
"It can't be wrong, I found out from the people at the brokerage."
"Did he really buy a large quantity of grain and meat?"
"That's right! It's said there are tens of thousands of kilograms of grain and at least several hundred pigs. Many people in the neighborhood saw the delivery people bringing in truckload after truckload. The yard is probably piled high with them!"
A glint of greed and smugness, hidden by the darkness, flashed in the eyes of the local thug leader.
"very good!"
That damned guy didn't want to hand over the silver, so they'll just take all the grain and meat he bought. Not only can they sell it for money, but they can also live a life of luxury for a long time.
Just thinking about how that bastard would regret it and be in pain when he came to the courtyard tomorrow and found everything was gone made the thug grin uncontrollably... Then he gasped in pain because the movement aggravated the wound on his lip.
Damn it!
The local thug leader, remembering the beating he'd received earlier that day, was seething with hatred. He quickly waved to his underlings, ordering them to form a human wall. One by one, they used their hands and feet to scramble over the courtyard wall in a disheveled manner.
Today he's determined to take all of that bastard's stuff!
The five men were fully expecting to be greeted by a huge amount of supplies that would fill the yard, and they even had a plan in mind where they would go to have fun after selling the goods.
But when they excitedly searched all the rooms, they found that there wasn't even a single grain of rice inside, and the yard was so clean and empty that even a mouse would curse "bad luck" if it came by.
Where are the promised tens of thousands of kilograms of grain and hundreds of pigs?!
The thugs, who were so enthusiastic just moments before, were now completely disheartened.
The local thug leader stared at the empty yard in front of him, which seemed to be mocking his stupidity. He felt as if a silent slap had landed on his face. He held back for a long time, but finally couldn't bear it any longer and burst out with a roar.
"Fuck your ancestors—!"
·
Lu Xuan was unaware that a group of fools who wanted to gain without effort had lost their dreams in the courtyard.
Back at the inn, he calculated his expenses for the day and found that he had spent more than yesterday, nearly three thousand taels.
He only has four hundred taels left in his hand.
Lu Xuan clicked his tongue and said, "They really can't resist flowers."
The viewers in the live stream wanted to yell: "Is money just too cheap?! It's clearly because you spend too much!"
For two consecutive days, watching him frantically spend money to hoard goods, they went from being excited and pumped up at the beginning to gradually becoming numb. As they watched the thick stack of silver notes in his hand dwindle to just a few thin ones, many viewers felt as if they were spending their own money and began to have difficulty breathing.
Looking at how much money the streamer spends, who would believe he's just a farmer's son?
The live stream data was similar to yesterday's. Lu Xuan redeemed all his points as usual, chatted with the audience for a while, and then went to sleep.
By the fourth day, there were really no supplies left that were needed.
When receiving yesterday's goods, Lu Xuan noticed some unfamiliar footprints in the courtyard.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com