Chapter 223: Undercurrents Stirring

"No, but I can tell." Song Bei took the pouch from his waist and poured out the gravel inside. "These stones don't look like ordinary weathered stones. They look like someone used internal force to pierce through them, creating these holes. The material of these stones doesn't look like weathered stone at all."

The man stepped forward and looked carefully, frowning. "Is this person crazy? That bored?"

"This was given to me by Daoist Priest Sanzhu. I personally saw her pick up the stone from the ground." Song Bei said, "Even I can't do this, which shows how high her Wu Gong is."

Song Bei's lips curved slightly as he said, "High Wu Gong, young age, simple-minded and easy to fool. Apart from liking money and charging a bit high, there are no other flaws. Who could refuse a thug like that?"

The man looked back and forth at the stone in his hand, pondering. "What you say makes sense, but judging from her behavior when entering the city, this person has a fiery temper and probably can't be tolerated."

Song Bei didn't mind. "Geniuses, it's normal for them to be a bit wild. If I had her Wu Gong at her age, I'd be wild too. How could mere lowly soldiers guarding the city gate be allowed to bully her?"

"What if she finds out you tricked her? Will that wildness be turned on you?"

Song Bei said with an innocent face, "Trick her? What did I trick her about?"

The man opened his mouth, carefully recalling their conversation just now, and realized he really hadn't tricked her about anything. He had only concealed some information, and those three little Daoist priests hadn't asked at all.

Song Bei laughed and said, "I said it was escorting goods, and I really did just hire them to escort goods. Not to mention they didn't ask what goods, even if they had asked, I couldn't say."

"No one said the employer must tell the employee what goods are being escorted, right?"

The man couldn't argue back. He placed the stone on the table and said, "I hope you don't get backlashed. If something happens, don't drag the Ping'an Inn into it."

Song Bei: "Don't worry. I really like the Ping'an Inn, and we're friends. How could I drag you into it?"

The man said nothing more, turned around and went back to the private room next door. Before long, the sound of a door opening next door was heard.

A waiter passed by carrying dishes, saw him, and called out, "Young Master."

Pu Si nodded and walked down from the second floor. Many people saw him and cupped their fists in greeting.

Pu Si smiled and cupped his fists all the way out, but just as he stepped out the door, someone stopped him.

Pu Min stood before him with a flushed face. "Young Master, I, I want to borrow some money from you."

Pu Si smiled when he saw him, draped an arm over his shoulder and walked forward. "We're brothers, why call me Young Master like outsiders do? Call me Big Brother."

Only after saying that did he ask, "How much do you want to borrow, and what for?"

Pu Min: "The brothers in my squad offended someone today. They want to buy a gift to apologize. Everyone's tight on money, so we wanted to borrow a bit from Young... Big Brother first, and pay you back next month when we get our salaries."

Pu Si agreed with a smile, took out a ten-tael banknote and handed it to him, asking, "Is this enough? If not, I'll have a servant go home and get more."

"Enough, enough, thank you, Big Brother." Pu Min immediately pocketed the money.

Pu Si asked curiously, "Who did you offend? How did you offend them to be so nervous?"

Pu Min then recounted what happened at the city gate today. "... That person was invited into the back courtyard of the county office. Luckily the County Magistrate isn't in the city today, so we want to quickly pool money to go apologize at their door, so she won't file a complaint."

Pu Si:...

His clansbrother was too stupid, making him want to take back the money he lent for a moment. He always felt lending money to him was not a good deal.

Looking at his stupid clansbrother's face, Pu Si smiled slightly and said, "You're talking about three very young female Daoist priests, driving a horse cart with ten sacks of grain on it?"

Pu Min: "Yes, how does Big Brother know they had ten sacks of grain on the cart? Have you seen them?"

"I have," Pu Si pointed at the inn behind him. "They came to stay at the inn."

Pu Min's eyes widened. "They're not staying at the County Magistrate's house?"

Pu Si just smiled without speaking. He also wanted to know why the three of them weren't staying at the county office, and who exactly they had come to find.

Song Bei couldn't find out, but Pu Min and the others might be able to.

Pu Min learned the room number from Pu Si, immediately took the borrowed money and ran back to find Squad Leader Luo Jiecheng.

The big fellow, hearing that Pan Yun wasn't staying at the county office, became suspicious. "The County Magistrate's Lady is virtuous. With guests at home, how could she not put them up, and instead let them stay at an inn?"

Pu Min: "Then should we still send the gift?"

Luo Jiecheng thought for a moment and said, "Send it. Go buy three bolts of cloth, and some pastries. Don't let the value exceed five taels. Call Ding Yuan later, the three of us will go apologize together."

Pu Min agreed and immediately went to buy things.

At this time, the sun set in the west, and an orange-red sunset appeared in the sky.

Pan Yun and the other two also took advantage of the daylight to go out and inquire about grain prices.

Since they were going to be bodyguards next, it was better to get rid of the grain on the cart.

Grain prices in Nan'an County were a bit higher than in Jiangnan. Rice could be sold for two hundred wen per shi.

The Shopkeeper glanced at the sample they brought and asked, "How many shi do you have?" Pan Yun: "Ten shi."

The Shopkeeper was a bit disdainful. "Only ten shi... Fine then. Deliver it to the grain shop entrance, one hundred ninety wen per shi."

Pan Yun: "... You just said two hundred wen per shi."

"That was you selling, I'm buying, so naturally it has to be cheaper. Otherwise, I buy at two hundred and sell at two hundred, what's in it for me?" The Shopkeeper said, "You heard it too. I only make ten wen per shi on this grain. Doing the grain business doesn't make money at all!"

Pan Yun thought it made sense, nodded and said, "Fine, I'll bring the grain over tomorrow. Shopkeeper, do you know what grain prices are like in Quanzhou Prefecture?"

"Quanzhou Prefecture? That's a bit more expensive than our Nan'an County. For your quality, you could probably sell for about two hundred wen, but buying grain over there, you'd probably have to pay two hundred ten or twenty wen or more."

Pan Yun: "With such a difference, aren't you afraid the people of Nan'an County will sell their grain to Quanzhou Prefecture instead of to you?"

"Afraid?" The Shopkeeper smiled contemptuously. "Honestly, I'm not afraid at all."

"Someone like the little Daoist Priest personally bringing grain to sell at a shop, I don't even meet five in a year," he said. "These farmers, they're all timid, they seek stability. Many of them never leave their village boundaries their whole life, let alone transport grain to the city to sell."

"Their grain is all collected by us grain merchants who go to the villages. You want them to transport grain to Quanzhou Prefecture to sell? That's harder than killing them."

Pan Yun frowned.

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The Shopkeeper said, "If this grain wasn't delivered to my door by the Daoist Priest herself, I wouldn't offer a buying price of one hundred ninety wen."

Pan Yun: "How much per shi do you pay for grain in the countryside?"

"Depends on quality, between one hundred sixty and one hundred ninety wen. So little Daoist Priest, for grain of your quality, if I went to the countryside to buy it, I'd give you at most one hundred seventy wen. You haven't dried it very well."

Pan Yun smiled.

The Shopkeeper turned the tables and asked her, "Did you pay too much for this grain? Or is this grown by your noble Daoist temple?"

Pan Yun said, "Neither. I performed a ritual for someone, and they paid off a debt with it."

The shopkeeper looked Pan Yun up and down, somewhat doubtful — at such a young age, she's already taking on ritual-service jobs?

Is being a Daoist Priest really this easy to make money?

Pan Yun, however, offered no further explanation; once she got the price, she took her leave.

The shopkeeper saw her to the door and said, "Little Daoist Master, my grain shop is the biggest in Nan'an County. No matter how much grain, we can take it all. If your Daoist temple still has grain to sell, just send it over. I'll definitely give you a fair price."

"Shipping it to Quanzhou Prefecture — the road is long and unsafe," he said. "Do you know why grain prices in Quanzhou Prefecture are so high? Because there are bandits over there, and pirates too. I hear Citong Port has been troubled by Japanese pirates again lately, which pushed Quanzhou Prefecture's grain prices up another notch."

"Sounds pretty good on paper — haul the grain over and pocket the difference. But setting aside the cost of transport, the bandits, pirates, and Japanese pirates along the way alone are enough to give anyone a headache. That grain may not even make it through."

Pan Yun asked, "Are the pirates and Japanese pirates in Quanzhou Prefecture really causing that much trouble right now?"

"Trouble? Big trouble," the shopkeeper said, glancing left and right, then lowering his voice: "Haven't you noticed that in the last few days there are way more people walking around Nan'an County carrying blades and swords? Those are all jianghu knights-errant, heading to Quanzhou Prefecture to wipe out bandits and grab some loot."

Pan Yun's eyes went blank. "Wipe out bandits and grab loot?"

"You bet. Those jianghu folk fighting and killing among themselves is illegal, but killing bandits, pirates, and Japanese pirates isn't." The shopkeeper dropped his voice even lower: "There's no telling where the rumor started, but people say there's a great treasure on the Japanese pirates' island. Loads of folks have gone running off to look for it."

Pan Yun's eyes lit up. She clapped her hands together and said excitedly, "Great idea! Even if we don't find the great treasure in the end, killing those Japanese pirates and robbing them of their belongings is still a path to getting rich!"

The shopkeeper stared at Pan Yun in astonishment.

The two of them looked at each other in silence. The shopkeeper couldn't help taking a step back, then after a moment stuck up his thumb and, with a stiff face, praised, "Daoist Master, you're incredible."

Pan Yun also thought herself quite something, and said to Seeing Miao Zhen and Miao He, "From my experience, robbery really is the most profitable line of work. But it's written into the criminal code, so we can't do it. Yet now there's a legal robbery opportunity right in front of us — if we don't seize it, wouldn't we be letting heaven down?"

Seeing Miao Zhen: "Little Martial Uncle has had experience with robbery before?"

Pan Yun: "I once robbed a human trafficker, and went straight from utter poverty to wealth. So trust me — this is a good road to riches."

Miao He: "If I were a pirate or a Japanese pirate, I definitely wouldn't carry much money when I went out. Gold, silver, and jewels would all be hidden away at home."

Pan Yun: "So if we want to rob pirates and Japanese pirates, we have to track them back to their lairs. Otherwise just killing them won't earn us much."

Miao He: "But where are we supposed to find their lairs?"

Seeing Miao Zhen: "Don't we have an opportunity right now?"

The corners of Pan Yun's mouth lifted slightly. She nodded and said, "Not bad. We've already got one foot in the door. All we need to do is wait for the right moment and put the other foot in too."

Miao He's face was blank with confusion. "What?"

But she caught on quickly, eyes going wide. "You two mean… oh, so you figured it out long ago and didn't tell me!"

One more chapter

(End of chapter)