Chapter 214 News
Guhu Town itself wasn't large, but the rice paddies were vast. Luo Xuanyi would stroll along the ridges of the paddies whenever she had nothing to do, carefully observing the green rice turning from green to yellow.
The old farmer working in the fields told her a lot about the land, what snails were edible, what insects were harmful. He said that in all his life, the only thing he couldn't understand was the rice from the Beast Cloud Plague. Sometimes the rice wouldn't turn yellow even once a year, while other times it would be harvested in a month.
Luo Xuanyi then realized that crops in the fields needed to be tended to, otherwise they would be plagued by insects and disease. She remembered hearing from her father that white rice grew outside the high walls of the Third Valley, and that the outer sect monks of Yanzhen Pavilion would sprinkle some water and wait for the harvest. She had always believed that white rice grew individually in the ground, just as her father had said.
At other times, Luo Xuanyi would chat with the owner of the Puji Trading House and extract information, always using the excuse of buying some unfamiliar talisman paper. The owner's real name was Zhong Su, and although she stayed in this small town, she was quite well-informed. However, she was overly cautious, and Luo Xuanyi's repeated indirect attempts to inquire about her opinion of the six major alliances were always evaded with simple deception.
On the other hand, the servant, Jin Guyi, was quick-witted and carefree. Every time Luo Xuanyi brought some snacks, he treated her like a friend. Luo Xuanyi learned a lot of information from him, but unfortunately, the rumors Bai Zhen spread seemed to have been severely suppressed by the six major alliances. Luo Xuanyi wondered when she would give them another drastic measure.
After gathering intelligence, she would go to the Wangyouke teahouse in the town center for tea, choosing from the cheapest to the most expensive. The cheapest Baihu tea cost one coin a pot, while the most expensive Suiyulu cost ten coins. She always chose a seat by the window on the fourth floor, where she could take in the entire town center.
Besides the four trading houses, there was also the main gate of the mayor's government office. Painted dark red, the gate was imposing and majestic. The servants guarding it changed five or six times a day, with more than a dozen servants alone. Luo Xuanyi was very curious about how the mayor could afford such a grand occasion. Unfortunately, she had never met the mayor in all those days. She only knew his name, Li Zhiyan, from the servant Jin Guyi.
Today was the end of the month, and after deducting the minimum quota for the trading house, the spiritual herbs and demon bones she had collected would be handed over to Luo Xuanyi. She was in a very good mood and, as usual, sat down by the window on the fourth floor. The waiter saw her and immediately trotted over to greet her with a deft trot, "Sir, what would you like to order today?"
From the cheapest to the most expensive tea, Luo Xuanyi still couldn't understand why tea could be so expensive. Tea wasn't a necessity, and the most important thing in her stomach wasn't water. She simply used tea to while away the time and find a quiet place to think.
According to the tea that impressed her the most, Luo Xuanyi casually said, "A pot of broken jade dew."
The waiter's eyes narrowed into crescents with a smile. Luo Xuanyi was already a regular customer. Too lazy to pay every time, she simply deposited a thousand spirit coins on the counter. Since there were so few people drinking tea, the entire teahouse treated her like a distinguished guest, offering meticulous care.
The waiter moved briskly between the floors, a complete set of teaware neatly arranged on the sandalwood tea table. He respectfully inserted a stick of purple incense into the incense burner and lit it. The fragrance wafted out, elegant and tranquil. This incense had been concocted this month by the teahouse's perfumer, who had found it somewhere, especially for Luo Xuanyi, because she always smelled of purple spider orchids.
Luo Xuanyi didn't explain the floral scent, saying it was simply because Puji was full of these flowers and she'd naturally gotten used to it after spending so much time there. After all, the scent was truly wonderful.
Luo Xuanyi looked at the tea leaves in front of her and suddenly asked the waiter a question she had wanted to ask for a long time: "Do any townspeople in this town really order some Broken Jade Dew? Every time I come here, I see only one or two people in the building at most, and they all order Baihu tea."
The waiter carefully heated the fire spirit stone beneath the teapot for Luo Xuanyi, drawing a wave of hot spiritual energy from the stone. Cultivators used this spirit stone to heat tea, creating a trace of smokeless dew. "You're a very observant person. The townspeople really don't come to drink tea here. The shopkeeper is suffering. We all say that coming here is for the sake of hardship! Fortunately, you're here," he said, not forgetting to offer a sweet word.
"The townspeople aren't coming? Then who are these few people who occasionally come to drink tea?" According to Luo Xuanyi's observation, even the casual cultivator Pu Ji Trading Company has its own spiritual tea, and she has never seen a cultivator come to the teahouse to drink tea.
"They are servants of the mayor. They can save some money and come here to order a pot of tea occasionally. But they just like to hang out here and brag. Three people can drink a pot of tea from day to night!" The waiter seemed to be quite disgusted with them and couldn't help but curl his lips.
Luo Xuanyi watched the waiter pick up the copper kettle and fill the teapot with mountain spring water: "They stay here all day and night, and the mayor doesn't care?"
"How can I win!" Seeing that the important customer was interested in talking, the waiter said, "There are two hundred servants in the mayor's mansion, even the lowest-ranking ones! Look at the doorman."
Luo Xuanyi followed the waiter's finger and saw the doormen changing shifts. The waiter smacked his lips and said, "They change shifts every hour of the day. We only see two standing outside, but there are actually two more sitting inside the door room. He has forty-eight doormen alone!"
"So many people?" Luo Xuanyi was surprised. "How could a mayor like him afford such a large event?"
Seeing her asking questions, the waiter became more and more excited, and suddenly said mysteriously: "Of course, the average mayor wouldn't make such a big fuss. If you really count it, he has already overstepped his bounds."
Luo Xuanyi casually threw a spirit coin, and the waiter took it smoothly into his sleeve and spoke without any pause.
"Our mayor is a relative of Duke Yu." Seeing that Luo Xuanyi's eyes didn't waver at all, the child immediately realized, "You are an immortal. To you, Duke Yu is just an insignificant person. It's normal that you don't know him."
"But for us ordinary people, Duke Yu is the person we cannot afford to offend the most. His sister is the Empress Dowager, and his daughter is the Empress of the current Emperor. The Empress's son and daughter are the Emperor's only two bloodlines."
The waiter sighed. Talking to Luo Xuanyi, a cultivator, he couldn't help but feel a little relaxed: "It's being said nowadays that sooner or later this kingdom will be taken over by the people..." Suddenly realizing something, the waiter stopped talking and turned back to the mayor.
"Although the mayor doesn't share the same surname as Duke Yu and is a distant relative, he's still powerful enough to intimidate the village. The thousands of acres of rice fields you often visit are all Duke Yu's property. The mayor just came to inspect Duke Yu's land, and he got the job."
"So, the townspeople are all hired by Duke Yu to farm the land?"
The waiter chuckled coldly, "Hire them? Not to mention not paying them a penny. They won't even eat a single grain of rice after working the land for a whole year!"
"As soldiers, they're not supposed to farm and pay grain anywhere. I've been to so many places, but I've only seen that here!"
"Isn't the price of rice very high? Why don't they buy all this rice and sell it here?" Luo Xuanyi's thoughts turned, and what she thought of flashed through her mind.
"Selling rice is out of the question! Wouldn't the price go down if we sold it?" The waiter thought of his family and said coldly, "It's miserable to be a farmer these days. You can't even eat what you grow. The grain you worked so hard to grow only feeds borers, and you die of disease from eating stale rice!"
"The price of rice suddenly went up again a while ago. It's said that some evil cultivator burned tens of thousands of acres of rice. I'm not sure who did it. They just want to hold on to the rice and take advantage of us being obedient!"
The waiter knew he had lost his composure and said no more. He left and someone else quietly waited beside Luo Xuanyi. Luo Xuanyi just kept thinking about the few words the waiter had just said.
Second update~ Sister Yi's common sense is no longer blank, and then add the Dynasty line news
By the way, I like drinking tea~
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