Buying Grain

"Sonny, we're rich!"

After closing the courtyard gate, Yang Ge happily teased Little Yellow.

"Woof, woof..."

Little Yellow bounded back and forth across the courtyard in delight too.

"Come on, Daddy's taking you out to splurge!"

Yang Ge swept his hand grandly.

At the mention of going out, Little Yellow's eyes lit up, and the dog rushed to dig out the leash.

Seeing that excitement, Yang Ge took the opportunity to fetch the muzzle from a corner and said with a smile, "Be good now. Let's put this on, so the children outside won't be afraid of you!"

"Clack."

The leash slipped silently from Little Yellow's mouth. Even the wagging tail went still.

Father and son headed out onto the street in matching strides, both in high spirits.

The neighbors around them greeted Yang Ge warmly. Some of the bolder little brats, seeing that Little Yellow was wearing a muzzle, even rushed over giggling to grab that big, fluffy tail.

Terrified, Little Yellow tucked that tail away and pulled desperately at Yang Ge, trying to get out of there as quickly as possible.

Yang Ge roared with laughter and held the leash tight, refusing to let the dog escape the little brats' demonic clutches.

Trapped among the little brats, Little Yellow had that sleek, glossy coat rubbed into a bristling mess, with an expression on that canine face that said life was no longer worth living.

The households near Firewood Gate Street had originally made their living gathering firewood. Most lived in fairly straitened circumstances, but they were generally simple, honest folk, and the neighbors got along harmoniously and stuck together.

When Yang Ge had been fixing up his little courtyard, hammering and banging away all day, no one had ever come to complain. Instead, several times when he had hauled heavy timber and stone home, the neighbors had spotted him and come over of their own accord to lend a hand.

After leaving Firewood Gate Street, father and son went straight to the grain market.

Just as Wang Dali had said, at least a third of the shops along the grain market's straight street had their doors shut.

There were fewer grain shops open for business, yet more than twice the usual number of people coming and going to buy grain!

Everywhere he looked, families were working together to push wheelbarrows piled with grain, inching along with the crowded stream of people.

But even more buyers were carrying bundles of grain the size of watermelons, their faces full of worry as they followed the crowd out...

An inexplicable melancholy cast a shadow over Yang Ge's bright payday mood.

Without realizing it, he quickened his pace toward the grain shop he knew.

"Young Master Yang, you're here!"

The shop assistant who knew him greeted him enthusiastically and ushered him inside.

Yang Ge entered the grain shop and glanced around. In the two grain bins he usually bought from, he saw wooden signs reading "Nineteen copper coins per dou" and "Thirty copper coins per dou."

The millet cost nineteen copper coins per dou.

The barley cost thirty copper coins per dou.

Under Great Wei's system of measures, one shi equaled ten dou, and one dou equaled twelve and a half jin.

"Hasn't this... gone up by double?"

Standing beside the two grain bins, Yang Ge asked in shock.

His shock was no act. Back when he had worked as an inn waiter, his monthly wages had only been a hundred and fifty copper coins.

And that wage was by no means low in Luting County.

That alone showed just how enormous this rise in grain prices was!

The shop assistant offered an apologetic smile. "Tell me about it! But lately, who knows what's happened to the grain? It's this price everywhere. Our owner's practically run his legs off, and he still can't find grain at the old price. Even at our current prices, he complains every day that he's losing money. We really don't have a choice..."

Yang Ge hesitated without answering.

Seeing this, the tactful assistant asked cautiously, "Perhaps you'd like to look around some more? You could come back later?"

Yang Ge sighed and asked, "It's this price everywhere?"

The assistant's reply was pleasing to the ear. "Even if I dared fool anyone else, I wouldn't dare fool you!"

Yang Ge stroked Little Yellow's head and hesitated for quite some time before finally making up his mind. "There's no purchase limit, is there?"

"Purchase limit?"

The assistant repeated the unfamiliar term, then immediately caught on and answered with complete confidence, "We still have plenty of grain in stock. However much you want, we've got it!"

Yang Ge nodded. "Good. Then give me ten shi of millet and five shi of barley!"

"H-how much? How much did you say?"

The assistant suspected he had misheard.

Yang Ge could only repeat himself. "Ten shi of millet, five shi of barley... You can deliver it to my home, right?"

"For an order that large, we can certainly send someone to deliver it to your residence..."

Unable to help himself, the assistant rudely looked Yang Ge up and down. No matter how he looked at it, Yang Ge's short kudzu-cloth outfit and coarse cloth shoes seemed little different from his own. After hesitating for a few moments, he lowered his voice awkwardly. "Young Master Yang, we know each other, but I'm just a lowly assistant whose words carry no weight. I can't let you buy on credit!"

Yang Ge said nothing more. He simply took out his money pouch, drew out the only silver ingot inside, and clutched it in his palm. Only after gripping it until his palm grew sweaty did he reluctantly hand it over. "Sorry for the trouble. Please check it for me!"

At the sight of the silver ingot, the assistant's whole way of looking at Yang Ge changed.

He plastered on a smile, bent at the waist, and accepted the ingot from Yang Ge with both hands. First he weighed it in his hand, then eagerly brought it to his mouth and bit down. Inspecting the tooth marks, he immediately declared with certainty, "Pure silver through and through... Official silver?"

Before he could finish his confident declaration, it was cut short by his own startled cry.

Puzzled, Yang Ge leaned closer and saw a clear stamp on the base of the ingot: "Made by the Ministry of Revenue Silver Treasury, Third Year of Jianping, Great Wei."

Fuck!

Yang Ge cursed inwardly in speechless frustration, but still had to look nonchalant as he asked, "What, your shop doesn't accept official silver?"

The assistant looked Yang Ge up and down again, then forced a somewhat strained smile and returned the ingot with both hands. "This is indeed the first time I've ever seen official silver... Sorry for the trouble, sir, but would you please make a trip to a silver exchange? I'll get your grain ready first. I guarantee I won't delay your important business!"

"What important business could I possibly have?"

Yang Ge took back the ingot with a hollow smile. "It's not as if you don't know what I do for a living. This is the money I got from selling my ancestral home. I hadn't noticed it was official silver before. Seems the buyer of my ancestral home must be someone from an official household!"

"Of course! Otherwise, how could they have official silver?"

While giving this perfunctory reply, the assistant extended a hand in a "please" gesture, ushering Yang Ge out. "It's getting late, sir. Do hurry back. I'll go prepare your grain right away!"

Yang Ge could only respond with vague murmurs of agreement as he led the dog outside.

The assistant stood on the steps in front of the shop, smiling broadly as he watched Yang Ge leave.

Only after Yang Ge's figure vanished into the crowd did the smile abruptly disappear from his face. He spat and said, "You say you're a waiter at the Welcome Inn? I'd sooner say you're a bandit who cuts through mountains and waylays travelers!"

He composed his expression, turned around, and went to greet the other customers enthusiastically.

Prepare the grain?

He didn't believe Yang Ge would come back at all!

The second chapter will be a little late~