Yang Ge did not know whether he had misunderstood the words "in a few days."
Or whether Shen Fa had misunderstood how efficiently those eunuchs worked...
Either way, he waited and waited, until even the fifteenth day of the first month had passed, without seeing any sign of the imperial envoy.
On the eighteenth, the grain market, which had been closed for over a month, suddenly reopened.
Not just the Three Great Grain Houses-even the small grain shops that had long since shut down for lack of stock reopened for business, selling at last year's August and September prices!
The people of Luting County were naturally overjoyed. In groups, they pushed handcarts and wheelbarrows into the grain market, then hauled cartload after cartload home...
And the grain shops turned no one away. They imposed no purchase limits and raised no prices, letting the people of Luting buy as much as they pleased.
For a moment, it seemed the rain had passed and the skies had cleared.
As though Luting once again had a just official watching over it beneath a clear blue sky.
At first, Yang Ge also thought the grain merchants had been frightened by the stir in the capital, and that the grain shortage might end here.
Until the following day, when he received the official notice that the imperial envoy would soon arrive in Luting.
He suddenly realized that he had once again allowed himself hopes he should never have entertained.
On the evening of the twentieth day of the first month, in the main hall of the Embroidered Uniform Guard's station on Gong and Drum Lane.
Yang Ge sat at the head of the hall, leafing through the recent daily work reports.
Fang Ke and Gu Tong waited below, ready to report at any moment.