Ten Ginseng Roots

The steward, trembling, wiped the sweat from his brow and said, "Our family ancestral hall was completely emptied; we brought all these ancestral tablets back."

Cui Wenyuan sobbed twice in anger and said:

"Damn it, who is so ruthless? Investigate them thoroughly, investigate them to the death!"

I'm going to dig up his ancestral graves and drag his ancestors out to whip their corpses! These beasts, don't they even know whose house this is?

Zhou Wanwan propped her head up with her hand, and the Old Scholar Tree beside her reported, "Cui Wenyuan said he's going to dig up your family's ancestral graves!"

Zhou Wanwan smiled faintly and said, "Go dig! This Cui Wenyuan is pretty ruthless!"

The orchid beside them said, "Speaking of ancestral graves, I suddenly remembered that Cui Wenyuan seems to have hidden a sum of money in the Cui Family graves."

Zhou Wanwan's eyes lit up, and she touched the orchid, saying, "You're amazing! Let me give you some more energy!"

Tonight, we'll definitely dig up those things from Cui Wenyuan's ancestral grave.

And before he could react, the Old Scholar Tree quickly made the arrangements.

It wasn't until evening that it returned and said:

"Wanwan dug out six large boxes and asked the surrounding trees."

These were all things that Cui Wenyuan had hidden inside not long ago.

Zhou Wanwan smiled and said, "Well done, thank you for your hard work, Uncle Scholar Tree."

The Old Scholar Tree smiled and said, "Our Old Ancestor has already gone to the seaside. Recently, the price of salt here has risen sharply."

Zhou Wanwan looked at it and said, "Salt prices have gone up? What's going on?"

The Old Scholar Tree said:

"During this period, the prices of salt and grain in the city skyrocketed, and it wasn't just one or two families that were in charge, but more than a dozen prominent local clans."

The Cui Family, the Nie Family, the Cheng Family, the Fang Family, and about a dozen other powerful clans all got involved.

They held most of the grain and salt permits, having secretly stockpiled them well in advance.

When the people's grain reserves were almost empty, they stopped supplying grain to them all at once.

Then, rumors were spread that the salt fields would be shut down and the grain ships would be seized, which frightened everyone into rushing to buy salt.

With supplies tightening, the prices of salt and grain are changing daily, rising rapidly.

Cui Wenyuan played a crucial role in this, using the power of the Cui Family to suppress anyone from selling cheap salt and grain indiscriminately on the market.

The Nie Family was responsible for blocking the supply of goods from other places, preventing cheap grain and salt from entering.

The other major families then sold their wares at inflated prices on the black market, taking a cut at each level.

Zhou Wanwan snorted coldly:

"Let's give that bad habit a try."

"Can I stabilize the local grain and salt prices and make these vermin lose everything?"

The Old Scholar Tree looked at Zhou Wanwan and said:

"Wanwan, we do have a lot of grain, but we also have a lot of people to support."

There's also salt. Although it's free, it still takes some time for my Old Ancestor and I to produce it.

Only a dozen or so barrels of salt can be produced in a single night.

It's probably far from achieving the effect you want.

Zhou Wanwan chuckled and said:

"Isn't it easy for us to get food and salt?"

These bedbugs are everywhere in their homes; you can just go to their house and get rid of them.

These powerful families thrive on natural disasters, as only during such times can their stockpiled resources be quickly converted into cash.

Overnight, prices throughout the city seemed to have been violently overturned.

Even the most ordinary vegetables like greens and radishes have increased in price by two or three times.

The price of rice and other grains is jumping three times a day. The money that could buy a bushel one day is now not even enough for half a bushel.

The most serious issue is salt, a necessity that every household cannot do without, which saw its price surge nearly tenfold overnight.

Long queues formed in front of official salt shops, and purchases were limited; the prices on the black market were even more outrageously high.

Zheng Xing'an said in a deep voice:

"Girl, it's chaos outside! People are crowding the entrances of grain and salt shops, scrambling for goods."

If prices keep rising like this, ordinary families won't even be able to afford food.

Several other trees were outside reporting:

"Wanwan, Cui Wenyuan is currently out collecting all sorts of ginseng."

He buys anything that's decades or even centuries old. Do you sell our ginseng?

Zhou Wanwan smiled and said:

"Sell! If the price is right, of course we'll sell. We have all kinds of ginseng; if we don't sell now, when will we?"

Cui Zhiyi's illness is a bottomless pit; initially, she only needed one ginseng root a day.

However, as the body's resistance increases, several plants are needed every day.

I wonder if the Cui Family can hold out.

Zhou Wanwan also wanted to see how long Cui Wenyuan could hold out.

Those few trees quickly dug up several ginseng plants on the mountain, and now there are several acres of ginseng on this mountain.

The youngest ginseng is over ten years old. This kind of ginseng that is over ten years old occupies about two acres of land, while ginseng that is several decades old occupies about three acres of land.

There are also ginseng plants that are over a hundred years old, covering an area of more than one acre, and ginseng plants that are four or five hundred years old, also covering an acre.

The most terrifying thing is that Zhou Wanwan has already cultivated more than a dozen thousand-year-old ginseng plants.

They dug up ten wild ginseng plants that were over a hundred years old and then returned them to the Cui Residence.

The next day, as expected, the steward from the Cui Residence went to Zhou Wanwan's pharmacy.

Zhou Wanwan now owns two pharmacies in the city.

The shopkeeper looked at them and said, "You want wild ginseng? I certainly have some, but I don't know if you can afford the price."

The shopkeeper immediately took out 10 top-quality wild ginseng roots and said:

"These are all a hundred years old, and they were all recently dug out of the mountains. You guys are really lucky."

However, these wild ginsengs are not cheap; one plant costs two thousand taels of silver.

The steward frowned and said, "Your price is too high. Ginseng of this quality usually only costs a little over 1,000 taels."

The shopkeeper shook his head and said:

"The ginseng in my family are all over a hundred years old, and they are very fresh."

This price is already quite low; if you don't want it, then forget it.

"Yes, yes, we want all of these ginsengs!"

There are not many ginseng plants left on the market, and it's even rarer to find ten of them at once.

The shopkeeper received the 20,000 taels of silver notes and handed them the ginseng, saying:

"We have a special team that goes up the mountain to collect ginseng. These people work hard every day, rain or shine, to be able to dig up so much ginseng."

If you need anything, please come again next time.

The steward returned home, Cui Wenyuan, looking at the ten ginseng roots he had collected, said, "These wild ginseng roots are quite good. Quickly have someone make some soup and send it to Miss."

Cui Wenyuan really dotes on Cui Zhiyi; after drinking the ginseng soup, Cui Zhiyi's complexion improved significantly.

She got up and said, "Father, this ginseng is really useful, but it's too expensive. It's made you spend so much money."

Cui Wenyuan patted her head and said:

"Don't think too much. If ginseng can cure your illness, your father will be willing to spend any amount of money."

Soon our family will have money, and we'll be able to cure your illness."

Cui Zhiyi looked at her father and asked, "When are you going to punish that wicked woman?"

"Tonight..."