At that moment, Qian Kang, the manager of Li's Grain Shop, was inspecting the shop and looking through the account books for the past two days when his face suddenly fell.
With the decrease in refugees and the arrival of relief grain, Qian Kang immediately stopped raising prices and had someone keep an eye on the Wen family mansion and the Wen family escort agency. The day after Guard Qi arrived, he already knew that the Wen family had brought in a large amount of grain and medicine from somewhere.
Qian Kang slammed the ledger onto the table, his face full of resentment. Just who was this Wen family?
Not only did they inexplicably appear in the northern desert, but they also dared to openly oppose the Li Family Trading Company!
Qian Kang felt he couldn't tolerate it any longer; if he did, the Wen family business would open a grain shop!
He immediately went to see Li Yanping, the head manager of the trading company, his old face scrunched up in a bitter expression: "Manager Li, what has the boss found out about the Wen family? Such a large quantity of grain and medicinal herbs, if all of it were put into the market, it would definitely cause a shock to grain prices throughout the entire northern desert."
A while ago, Qian Kang was laughing in his sleep every day. After all, the food supply in the northern desert was tight in winter, and the price of grain was already higher than in autumn. Who knew that many cities in the northern desert would be hit by snow disasters!
Qian Kang felt as if even God was on his side, and the price increase began overnight and continued day after day. But who knew that after only a few days of price increases, that damned Wen family returned with grain!
He strongly suspected that the Wen family brought back so much grain just to open a grain shop!
Qian Kang became increasingly angry as he thought about it: "This Prefect Qi is secretly supporting the Wen family. If the Wen family really has a stable source of goods, then all the efforts of our Li Ji Trading Company over the years have been reduced to ashes."
Li Yanping tapped the table lightly with his fingers: "The boss has been very busy lately and hasn't replied to my messages yet. I have some ideas about who's behind the Wen family. If I'm right, then the Wen family definitely has other ambitions. Don't panic."
Qian Kang looked at him with resentment in his eyes. The head manager really made it sound so easy. If the Wen family really opened a grain shop, he would be the one to get scolded when the owner audited the accounts next year!
Li Yanping glared at him: "The incident at the clinic almost gave Prefect Qi a handle to use against you. You better behave yourself. If something goes wrong here and disrupts the master's plans, don't blame the master for being heartless when he blames you!"
Upon hearing this, Qian Kang finally quieted down, muttering, "So we're just going to ignore it like this? If the Wen family gets too powerful, we'll be the ones getting the blame..."
"Idiot! You can't even understand what I'm saying!" Li Yanping glared at him fiercely. "If the Wen family really is opening a grain shop, do you think this amount of grain is enough?"
"If you're going to investigate, you should investigate more thoroughly. Most of the Wen family's fine rice was sent back to their residence, while the escort agency received mostly unpolished rice, which means that the rice they brought back was for their own use."
If it weren't for the fact that this person was still somewhat useful, he would have really wanted to get rid of him: "Use your brain more when you need to do things, and don't just raise prices all the time. Believe me, even if the Wen family hadn't transported these grains back, if you raised prices again, Prefect Qi would have given you trouble."
Qian Kang rolled his eyes imperceptibly. Now he's saying nice things, but why didn't he say anything when he raised prices one after another? He must have been laughing all the way to the bank when he saw the profits on the books.
However, the head manager was the owner's confidant and was ruthless. The head manager was indispensable to Li's Trading Company's rapid establishment in the northern desert.
No sooner had Li Yanping finished speaking than Huang Fu, the shopkeeper, pushed open the door and entered, his face full of anger. He had clearly also heard the rumors circulating in the marketplace: "Shopkeeper Li, the Wen family..."
Before he could finish speaking, Li Yanping threw a cup at him: "Idiot! I was only gone for a little over a month, and the first thing I heard when I came back was that you almost smashed the clinic's signboard!"
Huang Fu covered his head and muttered, "How can you blame me?"
The doctor from the Wen family set up his consultation stall right next to theirs and even gave away free medicine. In order not to let Li's clinic be outdone, Huang Fu had no choice but to follow suit and give away medicine as well. Fortunately, the Wen family did not have any other medicinal herbs.
He thought he had won back a point, but to his surprise, the patient he had diagnosed was actually cured by the Wen family's physician!
Now, the Wen family's physician was seen as a miracle doctor by the disaster victims. Even if they didn't have medicine to treat their external injuries, they were unwilling to let their doctor treat them. How could Huang Fu tolerate this?
So after the man was moved to a centralized living area, Huang Fu arranged for someone to take action.
If that man dies that day, the doctor from the Wen family business will inevitably be held accountable!
To Huang Fu's surprise, the Wen family discovered that not only had the man been moved, but his wife was also helping the Wen family attract customers everywhere!
It wasn't until he heard rumors circulating throughout the city that the family was going to open a pharmacy that Huang Fu had a feeling that he had just realized it.
He felt wronged and asked the same question as Qian Kang, "Manager, does the boss really not know the background of this Wen family? They robbed the escort agency we had our eye on, and now they want to open a pharmacy."
Huang Fu guessed, "Next, they might start opening grain shops and restaurants, and soon they'll take away all of our business!"
Li Yanping lowered his eyes and remained silent.
He was away from the northern desert for a while, and who knew that those mountain bandits outside the city would be so foolish as to steal the imperial gift, which not only exposed the entire mountain stronghold, but also revealed the scheme they had set up.
The master is being closely watched and doesn't dare to come to the northern desert. Even if he knows what the Wen family is all about, he doesn't dare to make a move easily.
Huang Fu and Qian Kang exchanged a glance. "Hey, manager!"
"Alright!" Li Yanping slowly opened his eyes and glanced at the two of them. "Don't touch the Wen family for now, just send someone to keep an eye on them! The Mobei market is so big, and we've monopolized it for so many years. It's not appropriate to continue monopolizing it."
Huang Fu and Qian Kang snorted in dissatisfaction, exchanging glances, clearly not intending to let the matter rest.
Li Yanping knew the two of them fairly well and instructed them, "I don't care what you think, just do your own thing."
The head manager had gone to such lengths that Huang Fu and Qian Kang were extremely dissatisfied and left.
After the two had been outside the courtyard for a while, Qian Kang said, "Manager Huang, would you be interested in coming to my place for a sit and have a taste of the newly brewed osmanthus wine?"
Huang Fu cupped his hands in greeting: "It would be impolite of me to refuse."
Only after the two of them were left in the room did Qian Kang eagerly say, "Manager Huang, I have received reliable information that the Wen family businessmen brought a lot of grain into Changzhou. I think what you said makes a lot of sense; the Wen family will open a grain shop sooner or later."
They came on strong and were not as easy to deal with as ordinary small grain stores; just look at how the pharmacies suffered losses one after another!
A hint of resentment flashed in Manager Huang's eyes: "We must take action and nip the possibility of the Wen family growing too big in the bud!"
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