Chapter 42:  今天会有雷阵雨的

There will be thunderstorms today

The good news came early the next morning.

The price of grain in Shang Yuanzhou had suddenly collapsed overnight!

It turned out that because of the influx of grain merchants in Shang Yuanzhou there was competition among them. Some small grain merchants could not compete with the big ones, so they had to fight a price war and take the lead in reducing prices.

When the grain merchants saw that the civilians were buying grain from other merchants, they also lowered their prices.

It was only overnight.

The price of grain had surprisingly dropped to the usual price.

The local grain merchants in Shang Yuanzhou were completely dumbfounded.

It was only in one day, but how could grain prices have dropped to the bottom all of a sudden?

They were originally expecting to make a huge profit, but now they are lucky even to be able to sell the grain in their hand. 

Lord Zhou, who had not slept for two nights, finally breathed a sigh of relief upon learning the news.

Just before he went to sleep, he thought, ‘When did Little Prince Rui become so great? Merely one official document has reversed the price of grain in Shang Yuanzhou overnight effortlessly (as easy as blowing dust—as easy as falling off a log). This move is indeed clever!’

For the past two days, Lu Yunluo has been staying in the Cold Palace fiddling with gunpowder.

Several times she almost blew herself up because the ratio was not right.

Luckily she survived from the calamity by hiding in space in time.

At the beginning, when it exploded, Yin Shuang was so shocked, but then she thought that her Niang Niang was able to use a stone and turn it into ice cubes, what could even be more magical and amazing than this?

Compared to this, the occasional explosion with tremendous noise or sound was no big deal/nothing serious. 

In addition, she had been spying in the imperial concubines palace in front of her for the past two days and had not spent much time in the Cold Palace during the day, so it did not affect her much at all ah. 

Anyway, Her Majesty (Niang Niang) must be working on something very powerful right now.

“Yin Shuang, you should not go out recklessly today.”

“Why?” How could she spy or inquire some information without going out? They already lived in a remote area, and since the emperor had come once before, yet he hadn’t come again for the past two days.

Niang Niang’s only servant is Yin Shuang only, if she didn’t go to the front to find out what was going on, how could she know what the Emperor was up to?

Lu Yunluo swept a glance at the hot and suffocating day outside, “There will be thunderstorms today.”

“Thunderstorms?” Yin Shuang glanced at the bright sun shining overhead, creating doubts in her heart. 

Such a big sun or sunny day, would it rain?

Lu Yunluo smiled and didn’t explain.

Alone, she paced to the laboratory she had set up not far from her bedchamber.

This was an empty and spacious simple wooden shed she had set up specifically for doing experiments on gunpowder here.

Again, she began to devote herself to experimenting with gunpowder.

Above the courtroom, 

Ji Wu Jue, dressed in a golden clawed dragon robe, sat in the main hall.

The bright and shining golden crown on his head set off his already demonically handsome face like a godly man, and his innate monarch aura made him even more intimidating to look at.

He was playing with a slip of paper folded into a square in his hand, listening indifferently to the report of ministers below.

“Your Majesty, recently officials from all over the country have reported that many wealthy people have started to stockpile grain in large quantities, and within a short period of time, the price of grain has started to rise. Although the current prices have been kept within a certain range, if this continues, the entire population will start to buy grain. Even if there is more grain, we will soon run out of supply.” ‘Taiwei’ (imperial minister in charge of military affairs) Lu had a serious face.

This was an unprecedented crisis in the Dong Lan Kingdom.

Food is the primary need of the populace and if this was not handled properly, the consequences would be unpredictable. 

Ji Wu Jue looked at the slip of paper in his hand with a cold expression, the two-day appointment deadline time had started. 

Before he went to the morning court today, he inadvertently glanced at the square note that he had forgotten on the table in the imperial study room. 

Thinking of the woman’s ‘pledge in all sincerity’ appearance that day, he opened it and read it.

The note said that a downpour rainstorm would fall between 9-11 am (in the system of two-hour subdivisions used in former times) today.