It's hard for my elder sister. I rely on the mountains to farm and pay off my debts.

When the monkey heard this, he nodded quickly and said, "I know where to find those merchants coming from the south."

He seemed very familiar with these things, but he continued helplessly: "However, I am just a small beggar and cannot talk to these people."

Song Zhi nodded. "That's good. I don't need you to talk to them. I want to buy some medicinal herbs from them, so I want you to lead the way. I will discuss the transaction with them myself."

When the monkey heard it was such a simple request, he readily agreed.

He patted his chest, then led the brother and sister through the streets and alleys to the inn where the merchants usually stayed.

The group stopped not far from the inn. Monkey explained, "Please wait a moment, kind man. I know there are many merchants from other places staying in this inn, including a medicinal herb caravan from the south. Please wait a moment. If I see them, I will point them out to you."

Song Zhi was curious, "How do you know they came from the south?"

The monkey tilted his head and replied, "That's easy to tell. The merchants from the south like to wear long robes with wide sleeves, while our merchants from the north like to wear narrow-sleeved Hu clothing."

"When the person arrives, I'll point it out to you and you'll know."

Song Zhi suddenly realized that because this place was close to the border, many northern merchants were influenced by nomadic peoples, and their clothing tended to be practical and warm.

This little guy is quite clever, he knows how to judge a person's origin from his clothes.

This was something she had overlooked before.

The three of them waited outside the inn for only half a quarter of an hour when Monkey suddenly pointed at a group of people approaching from a distance and said to Song Zhi, "Good man, they are here."

Song Zhi looked in the direction the monkey was pointing and was stunned.

It was just as Monkey said, the two teams in front were wearing very different clothes.

I only heard the monkey beside me say with great confidence: "Good man, do you see the man on the left wearing a long robe with wide sleeves? He is coming from the south."

"A few days ago, when I was begging in the city, I happened to meet this man who was bringing his goods into the city to stay overnight. He called me over and asked me where in the city there were many traveling merchants, and I pointed him to this place."

Song Zhi took out a handful of copper coins and handed them to the monkey. "Thank you for your help. I will take care of the rest."

Monkey didn't expect Song Zhi to give him money. He patted his chest happily and said, "Good man, please go and discuss it first. I'll wait here. If this one doesn't work out, I'll help you find other medicine dealers."

Song Zhi smiled and nodded, signaling Song An to follow her with her eyes, and then walked towards a group of people walking in the distance.

"Mr. Xu, what a coincidence, I actually met you here!"

Xu Feng was slightly startled, then he recognized Song Zhi in men's clothing. He said in surprise, "Mrs. Song, you are dressed like this today, I didn't recognize you."

Song Zhi took the opportunity to explain the purpose of her visit. "I noticed that the herbs shipped from the south to the pharmacy are very expensive. Doctor Zheng said that buying from a pharmacist outside the area might be cheaper."

"But I was worried that since I'm a girl, the drug dealers might ignore me, so I changed into men's clothes to make things easier."

The drug dealer who was walking with Xu Feng became interested after hearing this. "I wonder what kind of medicinal herbs this lady wants. I happened to have brought some herbs with me in my caravan. Who knows, I might find what you need!"

Xu Feng was also very curious about what kind of medicinal herbs the other party wanted to buy.

He then introduced, "This Mr. Li is the medicine dealer from the south. He brought a lot of medicinal herbs in his caravan. If you want to buy any herbs, you can ask him."

Very good, this is exactly what Song Zhi wants.

She looked at the two of them excitedly, and then said, "This isn't the place to talk. There's a tea stall across the street. Shall we sit down and talk?"

"I just happen to have some questions for you, Master Li."

The two of them had nothing to do, so they followed Song Zhi to the tea stall.

Song Zhi ordered a pot of tea and saw that the tea stall also sold jelly, so she ordered one as well.

"Mr. Li, please try this. This is our county's specialty snack—jelly. It tastes refreshing and cool, and is very refreshing and appetizing."

Although Li Xiangcheng had just arrived here, he had also tasted this jelly.

He took a bite and exclaimed, "This jelly is indeed delicious. I believe it will be very popular if it spreads to our south."

"It's a pity that I don't know who makes this jelly and how it's made. If I could bring the recipe back home, it would be a unique treat to have a bowl of jelly in the bitter summer."

Xu Feng smiled and pointed at Song Zhi across from him and said, "Brother Li, let me tell you, this jelly was made by this Miss Song."

Li Xiangcheng widened his eyes, obviously not expecting that his thoughts would be spoken out in front of the main person.

He bowed to Song Zhi and said, "My lady, you are so kind and thoughtful, and you made such delicious food."

He changed his casual attitude and was obviously more polite to Song Zhi than before.

Song Zhi smiled back and stopped dwelling on the topic. Instead, she asked directly, "I wonder what medicinal herbs Mr. Li brought with him on this trip?"

Li Xiangcheng didn't expect Song Zhi to change the topic so quickly. He wanted to ask her indirectly whether the recipe of this jelly could be sold.

But then I thought, their business is so prosperous now, why would they be willing to sell it easily?

If it were him, he would definitely not give it to others.

After he collected his thoughts, he turned the topic back to the herbs he had brought.

"My main focus on this trip is on some herbs unique to the south, such as dendrobium, patchouli, agarwood, amomum villosum, Panax notoginseng, star anise, cinnamon..."

His original purpose of this trip was to sell herbs, and this was not a secret that could not be told, so he simply answered Song Zhi's question directly.

When Song Zhi heard that there really were the herbs she needed, she calmly asked, "I wonder what price Master Li plans to sell these herbs for?"

Li Xiangcheng didn't think much about it and directly made an external offer.

After hearing this, Song Zhi took note that the most expensive Dendrobium needed one tael and two coins of silver per catty.

The ancient version of Panax notoginseng, the holy medicine for hemostasis, cost five hundred coins per catty.

And the star anise and cinnamon she just bought yesterday were 80 wen and 60 wen per pound respectively.

Song Zhi couldn't help but click her tongue. She wouldn't have known this until she asked around. After asking around, she found out that the spices she bought from the clinic were more than twice as expensive.

She didn't know the real price of these herbs, but it was obvious that since Li Xiangcheng could quote her this price, he must be making a profit.

If she instigated Zhou Yu, he could either directly form a caravan to go to the south to purchase herbs, or purchase herbs directly from these drug dealers.

Wouldn’t it be better to sell it to people in need?

But she immediately shook her head and suppressed the thought for the time being.

Seeing that he remained silent, Xu Feng couldn't help but ask, "Why, do you have any doubts?"