Armed with a machete and a gun, armed with a system, they fled the famine.

"Are you two here to buy grain too?"

After serving the previous customer, the waiter walked up to Zhao Yan and her companion with a smile.

Zhao Yan's dark, almond-shaped eyes swept around the shop before she slowly nodded.

"Yes, we'll buy grain."

After hearing this, the shop assistant warmly invited the two into the store to make their purchases.

"Do you need me to explain? The prices are all listed above."

Zhao Yan kept her eyes glued to the nearest bag of rice and shook her head in refusal.

"No need, we'll see for ourselves."

When she's shopping, she hates it when someone keeps staring at her, making it seem like she's going to steal something.

Fortunately, when the waiter heard her reply, he simply raised his hand to let them do as they pleased, and showed no intention of following her.

Zhao Yan scanned all the grains in the shop, starting from the left.

She was shocked when she saw it.

Rice that normally costs 12 coins per pound now costs 60 coins per pound, which is five times the original price.

Black flour that used to cost six coins a pound now costs twenty coins a pound, a price increase of several times over.

Wheat flour used to cost only ten coins per pound, but now it has risen to twenty-eight coins per pound.

Other grains have all increased in price to some extent; even soybeans, which have seen the smallest increase, now cost 18 coins per pound.

After browsing through the list, Zhao Yan noticed that only the price increase for condiments was not significant.

Originally, coarse salt cost 12 coins per pound, but now it costs 20 coins, so the price has increased, but not as drastically as grain.

Zhao Yan frowned slightly, turned her gaze to exchange a glance with Yang Sanlang, and then looked at the grain shop clerk.

"Brother, isn't the price increase for grain a bit too much? It's not just Yuzhou and Qingzhou that suffered from the disaster, Yizhou should be alright, right?"

“Young lady, you may not know this,” the shopkeeper explained calmly, “Yizhou hasn’t seen much rain since the New Year. The grain harvest in the first half of the year has already decreased by two-thirds. If it doesn’t rain again, there will be no grain to harvest in the second half of the year. It could very well become the second Qingzhou.”

He leaned closer to Zhao Yan and the other woman and said mysteriously, "To be honest, what you two can see is all the store's inventory. If you have extra money, you should buy more grain."

Zhao Yan blinked, secretly observing the waiter's facial expression.

Seeing his serious expression, which didn't seem like he was lying to her, the feeling of being deeply wronged in her heart gradually dissipated.

She asked Yang Sanlang, "What do you think?"

Yang Sanlang subtly blocked others from peeping at his wife with his body, his brows slightly furrowed.

"There are many of us, so we can buy more."

For some reason, ever since he handed the letter over to the escort agency, he hadn't felt at ease for a single moment, always feeling that something big was about to happen.

At this point, don't worry about the high price of grain. If his intuition comes true, the price of grain might skyrocket in the future.

Zhao Yan's original intention was to take this opportunity to buy more grain and flour, and then make wild vegetable pancakes that could be stored for a long time.

Buy plenty of coarse salt so you won't run out of salt when making pickled products in the future.

Oh right, I also need to go to the butcher shop later to buy pork fat and pork belly. I can process and store these in advance.

And eggs too. I haven't had these for over two months, so I'm definitely going to buy a lot today.

When you do the math, you realize there's quite a lot to buy on this trip.

Without further hesitation, Zhao Yan boldly ordered the shop assistant, "Give me 100 jin of wheat flour, 200 jin of wheat flour, 100 jin of rice, 20 jin of millet, 20 jin of soybeans, and 10 jin of brown sugar..."

She also asked the waiter to pack two pounds of each of the other seasonings.

Do you deliver to my door?

Despite buying so much stuff at once, the shopkeeper remained calm and simply nodded.

"Yes, madam. You can pay a deposit first, and the shop assistant will deliver the goods to the destination. Then you can pay the remaining amount."

Zhao Yan was very pleased with this approach.

After the grain shop's accountant calculated the total price of the grain she had purchased, she paid a deposit of two taels of silver, left an address for the grain shop clerk, and then left with Yang Sanlang.

Following the address given by the grain shop clerk, the two found the best-reputed butcher shop in the east of the city.

There weren't many people buying meat at the butcher shop; only one woman in her forties or fifties was picking and choosing meat in front of the stall with a bamboo basket.

The butcher was tall and burly, but he had no black beard and was neatly groomed.

But the tone of his voice wasn't very likable.

"Hey, Aunt Zhu, you've been circling around me three times already. Are you going to buy this meat or not? If not, get out of the way and stop blocking other people from buying. What are you trying to do, clinging to my counter like that?"

With such a fierce tone, anyone with a thin skin would probably have already stormed off.

The woman named Aunt Zhu wasn't afraid of him at all, and she didn't seem to care about shame. She grinned at the butcher.

"Look at what you're saying, what could I possibly do? My little grandson at home is craving meat and insists on having some, so I came to check on him. What? Is your meat so precious that you won't even let me look at it?"

The man glared at her fiercely and said in a harsh tone, "You can look all you want, but don't touch my flesh."

Upon seeing Zhao Yan and Yang Sanlang enter the butcher shop, his face immediately lit up with a smile, and he said politely, "What would you two like to buy? All the meat here was just slaughtered this morning, it's very fresh."

Zhao Yan glanced at the cutting board with her big eyes, and without asking how much the meat cost, she rattled off a list of items.

"Give me twenty catties of pork fat, twenty catties of pork belly, twenty catties of hind leg meat, and twenty catties of pork ribs as well."

Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed a large basin of pig offal on the ground. She hesitated for a moment and didn't say she wanted to buy it.

It would take a lot of effort to clean that stuff before eating it, and they're busy gathering supplies right now, so it's better not to eat it.

"That's all for now. After you've divided the meat, calculate how much it costs, and we'll pay you back when we get back."

The butcher knew she was a wealthy man, and replied with a smile, "Alright, young lady, go ahead and get busy."

"Ah."

Zhao Yan glanced at him, then turned and walked out of the butcher shop with Yang Sanlang to continue to the vegetable market to buy eggs and vegetables.

Aunt Zhong stared intently at Zhao Yan's departing figure, muttering, "What a terrible child."

Even if you have money, you shouldn't spend it so recklessly.

If you don't even ask the price, what if you get scammed? Wouldn't that be incredibly stupid?

"boom!"

No sooner had she finished speaking than the butcher slammed his cleaver down on the chopping board, looking displeased. "Aunt Zhong, if you're not going to buy meat, fine, but why did you call her a bastard? Are you worried I'll take the opportunity to overcharge her?"

Aunt Zhong pursed her lips and said sourly, "That's hard to say."

Who doesn't like money? If she had money, she would let her grandson eat fish and meat every day.

Not only did he refuse to buy meat, but he also questioned his character?

The man suddenly didn't want to see this woman anymore. He looked at her fiercely and said in a deep voice, "Aunt Zhong, please leave my butcher shop immediately. If you want to buy meat, go somewhere else. I don't sell meat to you here."