My reborn husband and son are thinking about how to kill me every day.

Cui Yang nodded slightly, not denying the pills' effectiveness. He asked, "I wonder who made this medicine? How many of these pills will my wife need to take to recover?"

Pei Zhengqing said, "Master Cui, I sincerely want to befriend you and do business with you. So what I told you before was not a lie."

This medicine was bestowed upon me by my Majesty, and it must have been made by her own hands. No one else in this world could make such medicine except my Majesty.

This medicine was originally given to soldiers who had rendered meritorious service to help them recover. You can't buy this medicine on the market. We went to great lengths to obtain it from other generals.”

Cui Yang believed Pei Zhengqing's words.

After confirming that the pills were indeed effective for his wife's illness, he not only had the butler arrange his second meeting with Pei Zhengqing, but also sent people to inquire about information related to the pills.

The first group of people he sent out have already reported the news to them.

The information he has now is almost identical to what Pei Zhengqing said.

"As for how much medicine is needed to cure your illness, I have no way of answering that."

Pei Zhengqing adopted a sincere and open-hearted demeanor and said, "I can only say that if your lady still needs medicine in the future, I will try my best to find a way."

"You don't need to worry too much about the pills. Our Emperor is a sage ruler for all ages. If our cooperation successfully establishes a trade route between Canglan and Daqi, His Majesty will surely reward us handsomely."

Cui Yang frowned deeply, clearly not satisfied with his answer.

But precisely because Pei Zhengqing didn't guarantee a cure for the lady's illness like those charlatans of the past, she trusted him even more, despite her dissatisfaction.

He suppressed his dissatisfaction and started discussing business with them.

"Your perfumes and flower teas are selling very well in the city, but transporting these goods from Daqi to Canglan is a long and arduous journey. Have you ever thought about building your workshop in Canglan?"

"Mr. Cui, you may not know this, but the flower tea we sell is not ordinary flower tea. It requires flowers grown in special soil and climate to produce tea with beauty and skin care effects. The same applies to the raw materials used in our perfume balm. Changing the location might affect the effect."

Pei Zhengqing first rejected his suggestion, then said, "However, we could set up workshops in Canglan for a few of the hottest snacks on the market right now."

Cui Yang places more emphasis on businesses such as skincare products, perfumes, and herbal teas. These items are popular among the imperial concubines, sell well, and generate high profits.

The business of snacks is clearly not as good as the other items.

However, Pei Zhengqing's words were reasonable and well-founded, and since he was currently at a disadvantage, he had no choice but to put that aside for the time being and talk to Pei Zhengqing about matters such as cooperation in the workshop.

Pei Zhengqing said, "Master Cui must have seen how popular the snacks we brought are."

These expensive and popular snacks represent its lowest value. Its true value lies in the raw materials used to make them.

Cui Yang said, "Could it be that the raw materials used to make these snacks were also brought by your divine emperor?"

Pei Zhengqing said, "Indeed, these are seeds brought from the Immortal Realm by His Majesty. This crop has an extremely high yield, producing three thousand catties per mu. If managed properly, it may even produce five thousand catties."

Moreover, this crop can be prepared in many ways. With this crop, your Canglan Kingdom will never have to worry about famine again. Don't you think that's a great achievement?"

"Is what you're saying true?" Cui Yang didn't believe Pei Zhengqing's words. "How could there be such a high yield of grain in this world?"

It's worth noting that a good rice harvest is considered to yield 300 jin per mu (approximately 150 catties per hectare). In contrast, a typical soybean harvest is only 150 to 200 jin per mu.

And the "miracle potato" he mentioned could actually yield several thousand kilograms per mu?

Even without Pei Zhengqing saying it, he understood the gravity of the situation.

However, he simply couldn't believe that such a wondrous thing existed in the world.

"Why would I lie to you about something like this?" Pei Zhengqing said frankly, "Once the news about the Immortal Potato spreads, how could this opportunity possibly come your way? This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. If we miss this chance, we'll never have another one."

"You first lured me to meet you with drugs, and then promised the Cui family such important grain seeds. You want the Cui family to do something extremely important, don't you?"

Cui Yang speculated to himself, "Your Northern Pass is short of food, and you want my Cui family to provide it? And in such a large amount?"

Pei Zhengqing smiled and said, "Master Cui is indeed worthy of being the head of the Cui family. That's right, we hope to cooperate with the Cui family in business and make a transaction of 200,000 catties of grain."

Cui Yang's expression changed drastically. "No, this is the Cui family's life-saving food."

The Cui family has a long-standing tradition of storing a sum of grain each year to prepare for natural disasters and other calamities.

It's still early before the autumn harvest, but if this batch of grain is moved, and something goes wrong during the harvest...

He absolutely cannot take such a huge risk with the Cui family.

Pei Zhengqing said, "Patriarch Cui, you should think this through carefully. If we reach an agreement now, all of your Cui family's land can be planted with celestial potatoes this spring. At that time, your Cui family's grain reserves will increase several times over."

Moreover, at that time, not only will your Cui family's harvest double, but this will also be a golden opportunity for your Cui family to gain the Emperor's favor.

Cui Yang's heart wavered, "What if this kind of magical potato doesn't have such a high yield..."

“Absolutely not!” Pei Zhengqing said, “Besides, I’m not exchanging the seeds of the Immortal Sweet Potato for 200,000 catties of your grain. I’m buying it from you at market price, with real money. We’re just discussing a business deal.”

Cui Yang said, "You would be so kind as to give me the Cui family's immortal potato seeds for free?"

Pei Zhengqing said, "Giving it away for free is impossible. After the Immortal Potato is grown, I will take one-third of your harvest every year."

"You!" Cui Yang's face changed, and he almost couldn't help but curse. In all his years as the head of the Cui family, he had dealt with countless businessmen, big and small, but he had never seen such a shameless person.

“If you are unwilling, I can talk to someone else,” Pei Zhengqing said. “To be honest, I have taken on the task of solving the grain problem in Beiguan.”

But from the very beginning, I didn't put all my eggs in one basket. Besides your Cui family, I also arranged for people to contact other prominent families.”

Cui Yang said, "No other aristocratic family can produce 200,000 catties of grain. Only my Cui family has the family motto of being prepared for danger in times of peace and storing grain, so we have grain stored every year."

Pei Zhengqing said, "Perhaps no other aristocratic family in Canglan can produce this, but Canglan isn't the only one close to Beiguan. Wherever the Immortal Potato lands, that country will experience a surge in food production. Consequently, its national strength will greatly increase, won't it?"

Cui Yang's heart skipped a beat, and his expression suddenly turned cold as he said, "Are you threatening me? Aren't you afraid I'll hand you over to Emperor Shengwen right now?"

"Do you think that our people sold all the goods to the palace and he wouldn't know we existed?"

Pei Zhengqing said, "Then why do you think he pretended not to see it?"

Emperor Shengwen's attitude was actually quite clear.

Whether he was different from the previous emperor of Canglan and disliked war, or whether he was afraid of the weapons of Daqi and dared not act rashly.

These are all the bargaining chips they use in negotiations.

After much deliberation, Cui Yang had to admit that Pei Zhengqing had already seen through their emperor's desire to stop fighting and used this to precisely control them.

In fact, as far as he knew, with the current weapons and military strength of the Great Qi, even if they attacked them with weapons and demanded compensation for food, the Great Qi would have no way to stop them.

He said, "A third of the harvest is far too much; at most, we should hand over one-fifth."