Chen Xuan kept his expression calm, as though he had everything under control. "Well... this room isn't any worse than the guest quarters at the government office, is it?"
"Worse? There's no comparison!" Liu Shuyue murmured. "I can feel how rich the Spiritual Energy is here. It would be a tremendous help to cultivation. Even the meditation chambers of the Lotus Cloud Sect can't compare."
Rich Spiritual Energy?
Why can't I feel it?
Chen Xuan raised an eyebrow and pushed the question aside. "Only VIP customers get this privilege. Of course, the room isn't cheap. I'll give you a discount and charge you five thousand a day."
He had made that price up on the spot.
"Five thousand what? Five thousand taels of silver?"
"Five thousand in standard currency." Chen Xuan had wanted to show her a banknote, but everyone paid with digital wallets these days. Who still carried cash? He changed tack. "The money isn't physical, and it doesn't convert to silver one-to-one... But don't worry about that. My shop's prices are perfectly reasonable, and you can afford them. If you can't pay right now, I'll let you put it on credit."
Liu Shuyue was half convinced at best.
But she couldn't bear to give up a blessed place like this.
If word reached her sect, the elders would surely spare no expense to claim it.
More importantly, she needed to see the shopkeeper every day, not part ways with him for years—at least until the refugee crisis was resolved.
So she'd owe him money... It wasn't as if she wouldn't pay him back.
After wrestling with the decision, Liu Shuyue bit her lip and nodded. "Then I'll trouble you."
Chen Xuan had begun to suspect something: each room's surroundings probably changed to suit its guest. The moment a customer registered, the room matched itself to their identity and background, making them feel at home. That was personalized hospitality for you.
When he retired, could he bring all his abilities along and become the next shopkeeper's prized customer?
"Why is there another door over there?" Liu Shuyue suddenly asked.
Chen Xuan followed her gaze. Sure enough, a door was set into the rock wall across the pool.
"Open it and you'll see."
He had no idea either, so he kept his answer vague.
Liu Shuyue suspected nothing. She leaped into the clear pool, skimmed across the water, and opened the door. A startled cry escaped her. "That's... my room out there!"
Chen Xuan made his way around the pool after her.
Beyond the door was an ordinary room. Incense still burned in a copper burner, giving off a faint osmanthus scent much like the one she carried. The window stood half open, revealing a familiar corridor and courtyard.
It could only be the Zhangwei City government office.
He could even see where the shop should have been—diagonally across from her room.
But only the spot was there. An ordinary building stood across the way now, with neither plastic strip curtains nor a rolling shutter. It couldn't have looked more unremarkable.
So when he closed the shop, it really did temporarily disappear.
"After all that, we've ended up back at the government office?" Liu Shuyue gave a soft laugh. It was the first relaxed expression Chen Xuan had seen from her since they'd met again. "That's convenient. I won't have to explain myself to the Prefect."
"Now you see. The back door doesn't stay in one place." Chen Xuan was beginning to understand how the guest room worked. "It lets you return to your VIP suite whenever you like, and the suite connects to the shop. That means you can reach me at any time."
"The Summoning Mustard Seed Transfer Technique?" Liu Shuyue said in wonder. "I'd heard such a marvelous art existed, but I never thought I'd see it with my own eyes."
Chen Xuan smiled without a word.
All the better if she came up with her own explanation.
"Then there's no time to lose. I'll go organize the refugees outside the city." She looked invigorated, as though she'd found her resolve again. "I'm counting on you for the food."
"Of course." Chen Xuan added a reminder. "Food matters, but don't underestimate the importance of organization. The government has nothing to do with this food, so the refugees themselves will have to handle its distribution, storage, and records. You need to use your abilities to their fullest and become a leader everyone trusts. That's the only way this relief effort can succeed."
After watching Liu Shuyue leave, he returned to the ground floor through the guest room and opened the shop's rolling shutter.
As expected, the familiar Tianlu Residential Area lay outside.
"Now to see how much food I can get."
Chen Xuan felt confident about that.
Food might be precious beyond measure in a famine-stricken region, but here it was everywhere.
There were only seven thousand refugees for now. Even if that number rose to a hundred or two hundred thousand, as Liu Shuyue had said, it still wasn't unmanageable.
Besides, Great Qi's disaster relief system was already in motion. Surrounding cities were gathering food and funds for Zhang Wei, which would arrive in a week or two. He only needed to help the refugees hold out until then.
What gave Chen Xuan the confidence to do it was the first substantial sum he had earned from Hundred Herbs Hall.
How much rice could two million buy?
He tapped the numbers into a calculator. At the local wholesale price, it could buy a full 364 tons of uncooked rice! At 250 grams per adult per day, that was enough to feed a hundred thousand people for a month!
Of course... that assumed three full meals a day. People facing famine would be grateful for a bowl of porridge to get by on. The same amount could support twice as many.
Even if costs exceeded his budget, he could make up the difference by refining more pills. If necessary, he could get Liu Shuyue to help. Producing over a hundred pills a day would bring in a tidy sum.
Chen Xuan immediately dug out the phone numbers of wholesale sellers and began calling them one by one to ask about prices.
"...You want to buy that much rice? Have you filed the paperwork?"
"The price is negotiable... but we can't sell that kind of volume to a private buyer."
"Yes, you'd be better off working with a nearby supermarket licensed to purchase grain."
After several calls, Chen Xuan realized it wasn't so simple.
There was a limit on how much grain he could buy as a sole proprietor!
He looked it up and discovered there was such a thing as a "grain procurement license." Without one, he was limited to buying fifty tons a year!
For a neighborhood general store, fifty tons of rice a year was more than enough. Selling even half of it would be impressive.
But compared with his target of 364 tons, a fifty-ton limit fell well short.
What now?
Chen Xuan scratched his head. He had already promised to provide the food; he couldn't back out halfway.
There was clearly no time to get a license. Could he use a connection instead?
The owner of Hundred Herbs Hall had done business for years and might have the right contacts. But how close was he to Xu Wangxian? Why would Xu Wangxian help him break the rules?
After pacing around the shop a couple of times, Chen Xuan's gaze settled on a shelf.
Two packets of instant noodles sat there.
Stock he had only recently brought in.
Of course! Inspiration struck. Staple grains like rice had purchase limits, but instant noodles didn't!
What if he supplied those instead?
The packets his store sold for two and a half yuan each were priced for retail. A large wholesale order would cost much less, and if he switched to a cheaper brand, he might get them for one and a half yuan a packet.
Chen Xuan grabbed his calculator and punched in the numbers. Instant noodles would cost more than rice, but not much more overall. At one and a half yuan each, he could buy 1.33 million packets. One packet a day would keep someone alive, and their high salt and oil content would be advantages here. They even had more nutrients!
He called a wholesaler again.
"Boss, are you sure you want that many cases of instant noodles?" The man on the other end sounded overwhelmed by the prospect.
"Yes. Don't pad the order with anything close to expiring. Do you have the stock?"
"We absolutely do! If I have to source it from all over the city, I will! It's just... that's a very large order, so I may need some payment up front," the man said cautiously.
"No problem. Add me on WeChat and I'll transfer whatever deposit you need," Chen Xuan said readily. "I have only one requirement: ship it as soon as possible."
Before you continue