flstandardbreds Chapter 135 Harvesting Reed Flowers
Chapter 135 Harvesting Reed Flowers
Shen Ruolan made a mental estimate. There were more than 13,000 people in her mountain. Including bedding, each person would need at least four to five pieces of cloth. So, she would have to buy at least tens of thousands of pieces.
Shen Ruolan was silent for a moment, then said to Village Chief Wu, "Uncle Wu, please take a few people to Cangling City to help me inquire. If there are merchants who have more than 10,000 pieces and less than 60,000 pieces, please bring the merchant back so that I can negotiate with him in person. As long as the price is not excessive, I will accept all the cloth."
When Village Chief Wu heard that Shen Ruolan wanted to buy tens of thousands of pieces of cloth, he was shocked. When he came to his senses, he looked at Shen Ruolan with a complicated expression and said, "Okay, I'll take everyone to the city to have a look today."
Shen Ruolan took out ten taels of silver from her bosom, handed it to Village Chief Wu, and said, "Uncle Wu, this time, please give me various fruit and vegetable seeds, about 100 kilograms each, and the rest will be everyone's meal money."
Village Chief Wu looked at the silver that Shen Ruolan handed over, and said to Shen Ruolan with a troubled look on his face: "Madam Shen, this is too much."
There are only a few kinds of fruits and vegetables, and 100 kilograms of each would not cost that much silver.
Shen Ruolan smiled at Village Chief Wu and said, "Uncle Wu is already old, and he still has to go out to help me. The rest of the money can be used to buy wine for Uncle Wu."
"In that case, I will accept it with audacity." After hearing what Shen Ruolan said, Village Chief Wu put away the silver and said, "Madam Shen, if there is nothing else, I will take everyone into the city now."
Shen Ruolan nodded and said, "Well, Uncle Wu, don't forget to ask about the reed flowers for me. As long as the reed flowers don't exceed 10,000 quilts, I can accept them."
"Okay, I'll have someone notify everyone right away. If anyone sees anything for sale, ask them to bring it over." After the village chief Wu finished speaking, he left in a good mood. He could earn at least three taels of silver by running errands, which was enough to cover his annual income.
After Village Chief Wu left, Ji Ning whispered to Shen Ruolan, "Master, is it really reliable to let Village Chief Wu and his men buy so many things?"
Shen Ruolan retracted her gaze and said to Ji Ning: "It's okay, as long as they can bring the merchants here, other matters don't need to go through them, there shouldn't be any problem."
There was another important reason why Shen Ruolan asked Village Chief Wu to help her buy things, and that was that they were local villagers and the procedures for entering and leaving the city were much simpler than theirs.
Ji Ning heard that her master was very confident, so she stopped asking questions.
Village Chief Wu was also very fast. As soon as he left, many women came to ask her about the price of reed flowers. Shen Ruolan looked at the women who came to her and asked, "Sisters-in-law, what is the price you usually sell reed flowers for?"
Several women looked at each other and told Shen Ruolan the truth: "Madam Shen, I am not happy with what you said. The price the court paid for the reeds is very low, only two cents per catty. The reed flowers are very light. Our whole family works hard all day and can only pick about three catties of reed flowers. So we are reluctant to sell them and keep them for ourselves to keep warm. Of course, if Madam Shen gives us the right price, we can sell them."
The court charged them two cents per pound of reed fluff, but if they went to buy it, it would cost ten cents per pound. Because it was not cost-effective, they simply gave up selling it.
The other women also quickly agreed, "Madam Shen, what the second sister-in-law of the Wu family said is right, and if we go to buy reed flowers, we have to pay an extra eight cents, which is not cost-effective. Later, none of us sold them."
After listening to what they said, Shen Ruolan looked up and asked them, "What is the price of reed flowers in the city?"
Several women answered, "The ordinary ones are ten cents, and the better ones are twelve cents."
"So how are your cattail flowers?" Shen Ruolan asked.
Several women nodded vigorously and said, "Madam Shen, we pick the reed flowers for our own use. We guarantee that they are better than those sold in the city."
Shen Ruolan said to the others, "Okay, then go and get your reed flowers. The better ones are twelve cents a pound, and the inferior ones are ten cents a pound. I'll take whatever you have."
After hearing what Shen Ruolan said, several women said to her happily, "Okay, Madam Shen, let's go and move all the reed flowers from our home here."
Shen Ruolan looked at their backs and reminded them, "Remember to save some for yourselves, so you don't get frozen in the winter."
She didn't want people to sell all their warm clothes to her. When winter came, they would have nothing to keep warm and would freeze to death or get frostbitten. It would be bad if people would blame her.
"I understand." The woman responded loudly to Shen Ruolan.
After the women went back, they told everyone about Shen Ruolan's purchase of reed flowers and the price. Word spread from one person to ten, and from ten to a hundred. In less than half a day, villagers from several villages surrounding Nanfeng Village all knew about it. They all came to Shen Ruolan with reed flowers to buy from her. Even the villagers on the other side of the river heard about it, and many of them rowed their boats over to sell the reed flowers.
This allowed Shen Ruolan to purchase more than 500 kilograms of cattail fluff in just half a day.
Suddenly, a sharp-eyed villager from Nanfeng pointed at a few villagers on the opposite side and shouted to Shen Ruolan: "Madam Shen, these villagers are from Xiaonan Village."
"Xiaonan Village?" Shen Ruolan didn't react at first, then she looked at the villagers who called her and asked, "Xiaonan Village, are they the villagers who caused my premature birth that day?"
"Yes, it's them." The villager who just spoke responded to Shen Ruolan.
When Shen Ruolan heard that it was the family members of the villagers who harmed her that day, she suddenly changed her expression and said to the villagers of Nanfeng Village: "Let her go back. No matter how good their things are, I won't accept them."
After hearing what Shen Ruolan said, one of the women from Xiaonan Village knelt down and begged Shen Ruolan, "Madam Shen, please take our things as well. My child is sick and urgently needs money for medical treatment. Please."
"Yes, Madam Shen, I know that the people in our village are not decent, but they have paid a heavy price for this matter. Please forgive us, we are all innocent."
"Madam Shen, please." The villagers of Xiaonan Village pleaded with Shen Ruolan one after another.
Shen Ruolan still said to them with a cold face: "I'm sorry, I can't forgive the family members of my enemies who forced me to die."
After she finished speaking, she said to the people present: "Except for the villagers from Xiaonan Village and Daqu Village, everyone else please come up."
Shen Ruolan was a very vengeful person. Although she had killed ten of the twenty-five men who had caused her miscarriage that day, Li Heng had killed eleven, and four had escaped, she was still furious. It was just a matter of time before she and her children would have been killed. Therefore, she would never buy anything from these two villages.
When the villagers of Xiaonan Village heard that Shen Ruolan would not accept their things, some of them could not help but curse at her, "Mr. Shen, how can you be so vicious? Not only did you kill our head of the family, but now you are trying to cut off our livelihood. You are also a mother who just gave birth to a child, why can't you do something good for your child? Aren't you afraid of being struck by lightning?"
After Shen Ruolan heard the words calling her a woman, she put down what she was holding and walked towards her with a cold face.