Wow, this rough-around-the-edges pregnant wife is something else, she's incredibly ruthless!

"I'll take all the rice, flour, and other grains you have."

"Is Your Highness certain?"

Meng Tong glanced at the man's resolute and generous expression, then smiled and said, "We don't really remember how many there are. If Your Highness really wants them all, we'll go back and discuss it. After all, some people have already reserved some."

"Who?"

"This... we cannot disclose it."

The woman's troubled expression made Zhou Yan lose his composure and stop asking questions, otherwise he would seem a bit aggressive.

Throughout their conversation, Meng Tong remained eloquent and talkative, making it impossible to tell that she was a village girl from a small mountain village.

Sheng Zhuzhu stared at Meng Tong with starry eyes, then secretly leaned close to Lu Chuan and whispered, "Fourth Brother, are you sure this wife of yours was bought, or given to you by the Bodhisattva?"

"..."

Lu Chuan didn't answer, but you could see the joy and excitement in his eyes.

A pair of dark eyes seemed to belong to a woman of great poise and elegance.

Almost half an hour had passed before Meng Tong said to Zhou Fu, "The stuff you threw into the fire is almost ready."

"Ah."

As they went outside to the campfire, a group of boys who had appeared out of nowhere were sniffing the fire. When they saw Zhou Fu come out, they excitedly exclaimed, "Commander, what are you burning? It smells so good!"

"Yes! Can we try some?"

They all looked at Zhou Fu with eyes that seemed to burn a hole through him, as if they were starving ghosts.

Pushing aside the guards squatting by the fire, Zhou Fu took out the item with a tense expression, only to be unexpectedly burned and quickly pulled his hand back.

"Haha, Commander, you're too impatient!"

"Don't laugh." Zhou Fu said sternly, his ears burning red. "This is for the Prince. Are you sure you want it?"

"No, no, I'd better go back and get some water!"

"Hey! I think there's still a half-eaten steamed bun under my bed."

"Hey, it's not very loyal of you to not share steamed buns with your brothers."

They huddled together in twos and threes, arms around each other's shoulders, and scattered like mice before a cat.

Zhou Fu chuckled and wrapped the roasted sweet potatoes and potatoes in a handkerchief from his pocket before going into the house.

A sweet, glutinous fragrance wafted into their nostrils, masking the original scent of sandalwood. The stomachs of the group, who hadn't been hungry before, began to rumble.

An awkward silence fell over the room. Meng Tong took a sip of tea to cover it up and said, "Just peel off the outer skin and eat the inside."

"Ah."

Zhou Fu placed the handkerchief on the table and personally peeled the sweet potato for Zhou Yan. A rich, sweet aroma wafted out, and the orange-yellow sweet potato, shimmering with a wisp of white smoke, was revealed before them.

"You can scoop it out with a spoon to eat it, so it won't burn you."

He quickly found a wooden spoon and handed it to Zhou Yan. Zhou Fu subconsciously swallowed.

It smells really good.

The sweet potato, with its rich, creamy texture, was scooped open with a wooden spoon, and Zhou Yan took a bite with elegance.

Not only was it sweet, but it was also fragrant. The man's dark pupils widened slightly, revealing a fleeting look of surprise.

After eating most of it, Zhou Yan finally felt full. He put the wooden spoon aside, then looked up at Meng Tong and asked, "What's this called?"

"sweet potato."

"What about this?" Zhou Yan asked as he ate, pointing to a potato that had already been peeled.

It has a different texture than sweet potato, but the taste is absolutely amazing. Zhou Yan ate a lot of it too.

Even though it was just two tiny clods of earth, Zhou Yan felt almost full.

"This is called a potato. There are many ways to cook it, but baking it is the simplest."

"Mm." Zhou Yan wiped his mouth with a handkerchief, smiled and looked at Meng Tong, asking, "I'll take both of these. Take as many as you have."

People with money and influence are different; they even speak with more authority than others.

Do you have seeds for these two other things?

To be honest, Fucheng's situation has its bad points as well as its good points. If it's possible to grow crops there, Zhou Yan thinks it's the safest option.

With a slight raise of her eyebrows, Meng Tong was surprised that he had reacted so quickly, but she didn't want to sell the seeds right now.

The woman shook her head and smiled, saying, "We don't have any seeds right now, and we don't have many sweet potatoes and potatoes either. All together, it's only about 500 shi (a unit of dry measure)."

Five hundred shi (石) is roughly equivalent to fifty thousand jin (斤), which is about right.

Meng Tong didn't want to reveal too much at once, as that would easily expose his trump card.

Unexpectedly, there was so little. Zhou Yan frowned slightly and then said, "I'll take them all."

"Alright, we're not very clear about the price either. We'll have to trouble Your Highness to help us figure out what price range would be appropriate."

"The price of rice in the Great Wei has always been ten coins per catty, but it has risen quite a bit to twenty coins now. Your stuff is also a rare commodity, so how about twenty-five coins per catty?"

The price was about what she was looking for, so Meng Tong smiled and said, "Okay."

In this way, 50,000 catties of sweet potatoes and potatoes were sold to Zhou Yan at a price of 25 wen per catty.

The man also said that if there were any more in the future, he would sell them all to him, and the price was negotiable.

They earned 1,250 taels from these 50,000 jin of sweet potatoes and potatoes, which was a very large sum of money.

They agreed to exchange money for goods three days later, and Meng Tong and his group of six left Fucheng and headed into the night.

Standing on the city gate, Zhou Fu leaned close to the man's ear and whispered, "Should we send someone to follow us?"

"No need." The man waved his hand, pulling his cloak tighter around himself, and said, "I only need food. As for the people... we'll see!"

"Yes."

……

After leaving Fucheng, they walked along the dark official road for about an hour. After confirming that no one was following them, Meng Tong used the "green carpet" to send the six people to a small mountain range more than 200 kilometers away.

They took out two luminous pearls from their spatial storage and hung them on the tree trunk. The six of them sat around a flat area with a fire burning in the middle.

Each person held a tree branch with a large or small roasted pheasant, glistening with oil and emitting a fragrant aroma. Only then did Lu Chuan ask Meng Tong, "Wife, how much rice and flour do you plan to sell to them?"

"How much do you think is appropriate?"

"Around 60,000 will do," the man said.

Sheng Xiu chimed in, "I think what Fourth Brother said is pretty much true. Saying more might arouse suspicion. Zhou Yan isn't as easy to get along with as he seems on the surface."

“I think so too. He looks sickly, but his aura is quite imposing.” Sheng Zhuzhu took a bite of pheasant meat and mumbled, “Was he injured in the Northern Border? Did the dog emperor not trust him and then send him to Fucheng?”

"Maybe! Of course, there's another possibility."

"what?"

All five of them turned to look at Sheng Xiu, who remained calm and composed.

After slowly removing the pheasant from the tree branch, the man said, "The Northern Border is now the most populous place in the entire Great Wei, and the Wei Emperor will not want to see this situation. Zhou Yan is not as patriotic as he appears."

"You mean... you're afraid he'll rebel?"