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After discussing the plan, Shen Yu’an left, but before her departure, she handed two hundred taels of silver to Liang Hui to have them tidy up and refurbish the shop. She also instructed them to procure everything needed for the backyard.
Liang Hui worked swiftly, and in just three days, they had all the shelves set up in the shop, along with a complete stock of large and small sacks.
On this particular day, which happened to be the end of the month, Shen Yu’an carried a small basket on her back and went to the town. She took out two thousand catties of various grains from her spatial storage and neatly stacked them inside the house. She even used sacks that were common in this era to transition the grains and store them properly.
After finishing these tasks, Shen Yu’an was sweating profusely. Transferring such a large quantity of goods and repackaging them took a toll on her mental and physical energy.
She locked the door and casually found a noodle stall in town to eat a bowl of noodles.
After her meal, Shen Yu’an strolled around the town before heading to the courtyard behind the grain store.
Since the grain store hadn’t officially opened yet, she couldn’t enter through the front entrance. Instead, she entered the small courtyard through the side entrance, connected to the three courtyards.
When Shen Yu’an arrived, Liang Hui was busy organizing the yard with the help of Feng San and Feng Si.
In just three days’ time, the courtyard had been organized to perfection, showing no signs of long neglect.
There were several rooms in the courtyard. They had reserved two for resting, and surprisingly, they had also cleaned up a kitchen, stating that there was no need to go out for every meal.
The remaining rooms were reserved for storing the grain they would bring back.
They hadn’t visited the courtyard where Shen Yu’an stored the grain yet.
All three of them strictly adhered to the rules set by Shen Yu’an and didn’t go to the other courtyard on days not designated by her.
Today happened to be the last day of the month, and Liang Hui planned to wait until evening to bring Feng San and Feng Si to help transport the grain.
Otherwise, making such a big commotion might attract too much attention to the small courtyard.
Shen Yu’an’s entrance successfully diverted the attention of the three busy men in the courtyard.
They knew that the connected house belonged to Shen Yu’an, so they hadn’t locked the door on this side.
Sure enough, Shen Yu’an had come from there.
Feng San and Feng Si greeted Shen Yu’an with smiles. “Miss Shen,” they said.
Shen Yu’an returned their smiles and asked in a friendly manner, “Have you had lunch?”
Feng San replied, “Not yet. We’ve just finished setting up the kitchen.”
Liang Hui added, “Miss, you’ve come at the right time. Once we’re done with this work, we can go out for a meal.”
Shen Yu’an, placing her basket on a nearby table, asked, “I’ve already eaten, and I figured you might not have time for lunch. So, when I came, I bought some food for you. Once you’re done with your tasks, you can eat.”
The three of them expressed their thanks, saying, “Thank you so much, Miss Shen.”
They continued working diligently on their remaining tasks.
Shen Yu’an went straight to the kitchen, fetched a few plates, cleaned them, and then filled them with the food she had smuggled out of her spatial storage.
She wasn’t sure what their preferences were, so she randomly selected a few items to bring out.
She set up quite a spread: a roast duck, a plate of pig trotters, a plate of spicy chicken feet, a plate of cold lotus root slices, a plate of cold wood ear fungus, and a dozen large meat buns and vegetarian buns. Since all of it came from her spatial storage, it was cold, but most of the dishes were meant to be served cold, so she wasn’t concerned about raising suspicion.
Although the buns were cold, they were still soft and enjoyable.
When Liang Hui and the others finished packing and saw the table filled with food, they were overjoyed. While enjoying their meal, they reported on the progress of their work over the past few days.
The grain store had been set up, and they only needed to finish making the signboard and then transport the grain.
“We’ve also inquired about grain prices. There are various price points in the market now, reflecting both current and previous prices. We’ve decided on the pricing for the initial period after the shop opens,” Liang Hui said, taking out a small notebook where he had diligently recorded all the details, making it easy for Shen Yu’an to review.
Shen Yu’an was impressed by the thoroughness of the information, which was even more comprehensive than what she had gathered before deciding to open the grain store.
Satisfied, she nodded and asked, “What about the plan you mentioned earlier? Is it well-developed?”
Liang Hui chuckled and said, “Miss, you can rest assured, everything is prepared.”
Shen Yu’an looked at him with a shrewd smile, having no doubt about the truth of his words.
In this town, aside from their grain store, there were three other grain stores. Two were owned by wealthy merchants, and the third was operated by people under the fourth prince’s name, disguised as businessmen.
Liang Hui had even managed to gather information about this, and Shen Yu’an, looking at the note that recorded details about the “Juxin Grain Store” linked to the fourth prince, had an evil thought. She intended to fleece the fourth prince thoroughly.
She said to Liang Hui, who was having his meal, “This Juxin Grain Store has the fourth prince and the consort as their backers. They must have more financial resources. You should try to extract more from them.”
Liang Hui was momentarily puzzled and asked, “Has this fourth prince offended you? Why are you instructing us to target his grain store?”
Shen Yu’an replied indignantly, “No, but they’ve been bullying Ah’Chen in the capital! I want to give them a taste of their own medicine.”
Lest he didn’t know, it was that fourth prince who had done terrible things to Ah’Chen’s family and even wanted to kill Ah’Chen.
It took Liang Hui a while to realize who Shen Yu’an meant by “Ah’Chen.”
Listening to Shen Yu’an’s seemingly childlike words, he couldn’t help but smile.
At this moment, someone was genuinely supportive of the Crown Prince. If the proud Crown Prince were to find out, his lips might reach the heavens.
Liang Hui was of the same generation as Prince Wuding, making him almost an elder to Fei Yanchen.
Initially, when he was sent to this small town, he didn’t quite understand why. Now, he was beginning to understand. With Miss Shen here, the Crown Prince probably didn’t trust anyone else to handle this task.
After lunch, Liang Hui brought the signboard of the grain store back and hung it up. It bore the four characters “Auspicious Grain Store,” which Liang Hui had arranged to be engraved based on Fei Yanchen’s calligraphy. The characters were elegant and graceful.
The grain store had an excellent location, and when Feng San and Feng Si hung up the signboard, passersby noticed it. Some literate pedestrians read the four characters aloud.
Hearing that it was a new grain store, people stopped to take a look, and Shen Yu’an stood among the crowd, observing as well.
The conversations of the passersby reached their ears.
“Our town isn’t that big, and we already have three grain stores. Why open another one? Grain prices are sky-high nowadays, and no one will be eager to buy.”
The onlookers nodded in agreement with these words.