Chapter 4: Ghosts!

"Waiting for Meng Qinghe to return, Aunt turned and left, 'What a damn Minister's Residence legitimate daughter, what Crown Prince's side concubine? To hell with the side concubine, Aunt wants to become the richest!'"

She went straight to the pawnshop, needing to pawn those gold and silver ornaments first so she would have enough silver to buy things.

She didn't expect those gold and silver ornaments to be quite valuable; a box of ornaments sold for eight hundred taels of silver, Chi Nan Yi stored the silver notes in her inventory and hurried toward the grain shop.

It wasn't a famine year, so grain prices were low; a few dozen wen could buy a jin of refined rice.

Chi Nan Yi waved her hand, exchanged the eight hundred taels of silver entirely for grain, and the shopkeeper was overjoyed.

"Shopkeeper, how much grain does your shop have in total?"

"Young master, to be frank, this year's new grain hasn't been harvested yet; the current stock is all reserve grain. We've already been bought out by you, and until the new harvest, we won't need to open for business."

Chi Nan Yi heard this and nodded.

She recalled that in her previous life, after a locust plague, the whole Jingcheng's grain prices surged dramatically; refined rice that used to be thirty wen per jin sold for three hundred wen, yet it was still in short supply. At that time, the shop with the most stored grain was… the Five Grains Shop.

The shopkeeper of the Five Grains Shop was also the most unscrupulous; relying on his abundant grain, he forced the price of refined rice up by dozens of times.

He leapt to become the capital's richest.

In this life, still wants to be the richest?

Or a reality born of a dream.

"Shopkeeper, how do I get to the Five Grains Shop?"

"The Five Grains Shop is just on the next street over," the grain shopkeeper said with a smile. "I tell you, young master, what do you need so much grain for?"

Chi Nan Yi tossed out a casual excuse, unable to tell him that in a few days locusts would pass through and the grain would be almost entirely lost; even if she said so, they'd think her crazy.

Chi Nan Yi arrived at the Five Grains Shop; it was indeed larger than the previous grain shop.

"Young master, what grain do you need? Our shop has a full selection."

"How much reserve grain does your shop have?"

Hearing her ask, the shopkeeper was startled; is this a big business?

"Three thousand dan." The shopkeeper's eyes glittered, looking at Chi Nan Yi as if looking at a piece of fat meat.

"Three thousand?" Chi Nan Yi pursed her lips. "I thought you had more reserve grain! Only three thousand dan, fine, I'll go find another shopkeeper for this deal."

If the original owner's memory is correct, the Five Grains Shop's reserve grain is at least ten thousand dan.

The shopkeeper, hearing her say that, hurriedly stopped her: "Young master, don't leave. It's simple, it's just grain, after all. We open our doors to do business, we sell grain. Whatever amount you want, just speak it."

"Twenty thousand dan, does the shop have that?"

Twenty thousand dan?

That much?

Their entire Five Grains Shop only has fifteen thousand dan in total.

"Young master, this… you're trying to empty our Five Grains Shop!"

"Twenty thousand dan of grain would cost sixty thousand taels of silver; can you possibly produce that, young master?"

"Then you needn't trouble the shopkeeper." Chi Nan Yi took a gold bar from her bosom and placed it on the counter: "This is a deposit. I give you five days; after five days deliver the twenty thousand dan of grain to the manor in the outskirts. After I inspect the goods, I'll settle the remaining silver notes in one payment, okay?"

The shopkeeper, upon hearing this, nodded repeatedly.

The manor in the outskirts was an abandoned residence; it was said to be haunted, so for several miles around no one lived there. In her previous life, the haunted house caused a great stir; in the end it turned out that the haunting was just people scaring themselves.

She used the remaining silver to buy cloth, cotton and other daily necessities, and also purchased many medicinal herbs and seeds.

She kept spending until the last wen on her person was gone, then stopped.

She patted her chest, a faint smile flashing across her face.

"With these things, I'm no longer afraid of famine or disasters."

The previously purchased grain was also delivered by that shopkeeper to the manor; Chi Nan Yi stored all the grain in her inventory, and just as she took her first step away, a lone figure sneaked toward the courtyard.

"Strange, weren't there many people unloading goods here just now? Where are those goods? How did they all disappear?"

He walked around inside and didn't find even a single grain of rice.

At that moment, a gust of wind blew, making the man's hair stand on end, recalling the rumors about this manor.

"Could it be… that the grain is… for ghosts…" the man swallowed, feeling a cold wind from behind, and shouted loudly, "Ghosts, ghosts! There's a ghost! Help! Help!"

The chilling scream echoed through the outskirts; within an hour, rumors of a haunting spread across the outskirts.

"Did you hear? The manor in the outskirts is haunted again."

"Yeah, I heard someone almost died of fright."

"Serves you right. Do you know who the frightened person was?" a man lowered his voice: "Remember the thug who killed the tavern family two years ago? No one knows his backers; he was locked up for two days and then released, now he's gone mad from fear. Maybe the tavern's shopkeeper family is seeking revenge."

"Serves him right; you can't live after bringing trouble on yourself."

Preparing to return to the Minister's Residence, Chi Nan Yi heard these words, blinked, thinking, "With such a small nerve, how can they still kill people?"

At the back gate of the Minister's Residence, a few young servants stood guard; Chi Nan Yi approached a low wall and prepared to vault over it.

At that moment, a breathing sound reached her ears.

In modern times, she was the top agent of Z Country, with extremely keen sense of smell and hearing.

Though the breathing was faint, she heard it crystal clear.

Chi Nan Yi furrowed her brows and abruptly turned to look back.

Her gaze landed squarely on a masked man perched in a tree.

"Heh."

A light laugh; the man looked at Chi Nan Yi: "Kid, you're pretty sharp."

Chi Nan Yi stared at him and said coldly, "Who are you?"

The man said nothing, only glanced toward the back door, then smiled and said, "Kid, we'll meet again. This time, consider yourself indebted to me."

"What?"

"I still owe him a favor?"

Without waiting for her answer, the branch moved and the man flew off.

"Who's there?"

The servant guarding the entrance hurriedly pursued.

Seeing this, Chi Nan Yi raised her eyebrows slightly; the back door was empty, so she didn't need to climb over the wall.

"This is unnecessary; I can get over it myself, this favor doesn't count."

Seeing no one around, she entered the space, changed into female attire, and walked straight in through the back door.

To get from the back door to her room, one passes through several courtyards, one of which is the Minister's Residence's warehouse.

The warehouse contains many treasures.

Apart from the Minister's Residence's possessions, there is also the dowry the Jiang Clan brought from her maiden home.