Liu Feng stood by the window in the study and looked at the military camp. Roars from the camp echoed in his ears, making him nod in satisfaction. The military was his capital for safety. As long as he had strong soldiers, no one would be able to easily kill him.
Knock knock.
Someone knocked on the door. Liu Feng turned his head and saw Nicole coming in with a tray.
“Young master, the afternoon tea is here,” Nicole said softly. She put down the tray and took out some exquisite snacks and a cup of brewed coffee from it.
Afternoon tea was an indispensable thing for the nobles here. Generally, they ate a kind of pastry made with lard, wheat flour, and mint leaves. For the more advanced pastry, they used butter.
After Liu Feng had eaten it once, he indicated that he would not eat that kind of afternoon tea anymore. According to him, that thing was not something for humans to eat and was too disgusting. It was extremely oily and greasy on the inside.
The drinks for the afternoon tea included an extremely turbid wheat wine made from fermented wheat or a tea made from something called bitter tea leaf.
Liu Feng had drunk both drinks before. He could bear to drink the wheat wine, but the tea made from bitter tea leaf made him vomit.
He only had one word for it: bitter. It was like he took some detoxifying tablets. He was disgusted. After all, the tea was made by using live bitter tea leaves and squeezing its juice. Not many people can bear to drink it.
May had previously made bitter leaf tea and some snacks, and Mina tried them excitedly. She then immediately vomited and drank 2 bowls of polished rice porridge, which prevented her from getting anorexia.
After that, Liu Feng taught May and Nicole how to make Earth’s version of snacks and pastries, and the two immediately loved it.
“En!” Liu Feng went over and looked at the snacks on the plate. He was surprised and praised, “Nicole, your skill is getting better and better; you’re almost catching up to the level of snack masters in my hometown.”
“Wow! Red bean cake!” Mina wouldn’t be reserved. She reached out and picked up a snack and stuffed it into her mouth.
“Delicious!” Mina chewed on the red bean cake. Her blue eyes were shiny and her cat’s ears kept shaking. She was very happy.
“Here, try some green tea!” Nicole was very happy to see that the snacks she made were well received, and she poured a cup of tea for Mina.
Liu Feng picked up the cup of coffee and took a sip. He then took a fork and used it to pick up green bean cake. He gave a thumbs up after he tasted it, which made Nicole happier. Both green tea and coffee were brought over by Liu Feng. He also brought seeds. He believed that soon enough, he would be able to drink this world’s version of coffee and tea.
Liu Feng stuffed two plates of dim sum into Mina’s hands and made her go eat it at the side. He looked at Nicole and said, “What’s the matter? Your eyes would drift every time you have something on your mind.”
“Ah?” Nicole couldn’t help but blush. She didn’t know that she had this habit.
“Is there not enough food?” Liu Feng supported his chin with his hands.
“En! Because an extra 140 soldiers were added, the wheat we bought can only last a few days.” Nicole took out a notepad from her arms. It was given to her by Liu Feng.
She wrote down a lot of things on it, such as how to make snacks as well as Liu Feng’s favorite foods and habits.
“Those food merchants raised the price again?” Liu Feng narrowed his eyes and asked calmly, “How much did they raise this time?”
Nicole flipped through the notepad and said, “This time the grain merchant brought the price up another copper coin. Now the wheat costs four copper coins for what could previously be brought with one copper coin.”¹
“Peng! D*mn it!” Mina suddenly slammed the table, stood up, and said angrily, “These unscrupulous food merchants only know how to make wealth from hardships.”
Liu Feng was very calm instead and said, “They just want to make a big fortune before the autumn harvest.”
“Then what should we do? If this continues, many people in Xi Yang City will starve,” Nicole said anxiously.
“No need to hurry,” Liu Feng said. “How long does it take to deliver food from the nearest city? Adding on the capital, how many copper coins are required?”
Nicole immediately flipped through the notepad and reported in a short while, “It will take four days to transport food from the nearest city if we travel by water. It would cost three copper coins for one catty of wheat.”
“So, how many days can our wheat last?” Liu Feng’s eyes were full of calculations.
“If we save what we can, then it can last about 8 days,” Nicole responded immediately.
Liu Feng got up, stood by the window, looked in the direction of the military camp, and said lightly, “There’s no need to save food. Immediately let Ba Fu arrange for someone to buy wheat. I want enough wheat that can last a month for 3,000 people.”
“Yes!” Nicole said immediately. She came to the table, took out a sheet of paper, and wrote Liu Feng’s request on it. She also took out a seal from the drawer and stamped it with the Chinese characters “Liu Feng”.
Liu Feng turned around, took out his pen, and skillfully signed his name in the words of this world. This scene has happened many times in the past few days.
Nicole said that she was Liu Feng’s maid, but she was pretty much a secretary. Liu Feng’s handwriting was somewhat ugly, so Nicole usually wrote for him.
“It’s done.” Liu Feng stroked Nicole’s hair and said, “Let them raise the price of wheat all they want. They should hope that the wheat doesn’t rot in their hands.” He thought of a wonderful plan. After a while, no one would buy wheat from those people, and after the autumn harvest, they would lose everything.
“En en!” Nicole blushed and ran away. She was going to deliver Liu Feng’s order.
“Mina, go check out the background of these food merchants tonight. I want to know who’s behind them,” Liu Feng said with a slightly cold face.
“No problem, leave it to me,” Mina said confidently, taking out a military knife.
Translator’s Notes:
¹ 四枚铜币一币. Literally, four copper coins one coin. I think that the author meant that the wheat costs 4 copper coins for the same amount that could be brought before for 1 copper coin.