CH 19

Liu Feng stood by the window in the study and looked at the military camp. Roars of exhaustion echoed in his ears, and he nodded in satisfaction.

This military was his capital to settle down. As long as he has strong soldiers, no one would dare to say that he could be killed.

“Peng peng peng….”

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. It was not eaten by humans at all and was too disgusting. It was extremely oily a 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 leaf tea.

Liu Feng had drunk both drinks before. He could bear to drink the wheat wine, but the tea made from bitter leaf tea made him vomit.

He only had one word for it: bitter. It was like he took some Niuhuang Jiedu Pian.¹ It made him disgusted. After all, the tea was made by using live bitter tea leaves and then squeezing its juice. Not many people can bear it.

May had previously took out 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 in 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 polite. She reached out her hand 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 was well received, and she used the teapot to pour 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 the other world 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? You eyes would drift every time you have something on your mind.”

“Ah?” Nicole couldn’t help but blushed. 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.”²

“Peng! D*mn it!” Mina suddenly slammed the table, stood up, and said angrily, “This 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 would 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 much 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 at the direction of the military camp, and said lightly, “There’s no need to save food. Immediately let Ba Fu arrange someone to buy wheat. I want enough wheat that can last a month for three thousand 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 and took out his pen, and skillfully signed his name in the words of the other world. This scene has been done 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 somewhat ugly writing was. 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 took out a military knife and said confidently.

Translator’s Notes:

¹ 牛黄解毒片. It’s a type of herbal supplement in the form of tablets. Idk what it does though.

² 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.