About half an hour later, Chen Yi returned to the Xiao Family.
As he stepped down from the carriage, he noticed that Wang Lixing and the others' brows had already relaxed, unlike this morning and yesterday.
Chen Yi looked around, guessed something, and merely smiled in greeting before heading straight for Chunhe Garden.
Faintly, he heard Liu Si'er and Wang Lixing conversing behind him.
"Grain prices rose again today. A shi of fine grain costs one tael and eight qian."
"But the Marquis has decided not to buy grain. He'll borrow it."
"Borrow it? From whom?"
"Guangyue Prefecture."
"Duke of Gan?"
"Who else could it be?"
"That is a fine idea. Borrow grain to weather the emergency first, then make up the difference to Duke of Gan once grain prices fall later."
"Still, this cannot be settled until the Marquis sends Duke of Gan a letter. It will probably take several more days..."
Borrow grain?
Chen Yi secretly delighted. Old Master had finally been clever for once.
It was obvious someone in Shuzhou was digging a pit for the Xiao Family. Whether they took the bait or not, trouble awaited them afterward.
Either they fought to the bitter end with the people behind the grain merchants, or they found a way to raise money.
But Old Master taking a roundabout route to Duke of Gan in Guangyue Prefecture was different.
Whether Shuzhou's grain prices rose or fell, it would not affect the Xiao Family in the slightest, nor could anyone use it to restrain them.
Most ingenious of all, Old Master was not buying grain, but borrowing it.
He still held a vast sum of silver in his hands.
This way, the Xiao Family could advance to attack or retreat to defend, and in any case hold out longer.
As