Chapter 223 Undercurrent
"No, but I can feel it." Song Bei took off the pouch from his waist, poured out the broken stones inside and said, "This stone doesn't look like ordinary weathered stone. It looks like someone used internal force to penetrate it, creating these holes. The material of this stone doesn't look like weathered stone at all."

The man stepped forward and took a closer look, frowning, "Is there something wrong with this guy? Why is he so idle?"

"This was given to me by Taoist Sanzhu. I saw her pick up the stone from the ground with my own eyes." Song Bei said, "Even I can't do this, which shows how high her martial arts skills are."

Song Bei raised his lips slightly and said, "He is highly skilled in martial arts, young, simple-minded and easy to deceive. He has no other problems except that he likes money and asks for a high price. Who can refuse such a thug?"

The man looked back and forth at the stone in his hand, and said thoughtfully: "That's true, but judging from her performance when she entered the city, this person has a hot temper and I'm afraid she can't be tolerated."

Song Bei didn't care. "As a genius, it's normal for her to be a little arrogant. If I could have her martial arts skills at her age, I would be arrogant too. How could I let a lowly soldier guarding the city gate be bullied by them?"

"What if she knew you had lied to her? Would she then use this arrogance against you?"

Song Bei said innocently, "I lied to her? What did I lie to her about?"

The man opened his mouth and thought carefully about their conversation just now. He found that he really didn't lie about anything. He just concealed some information, and the three young men didn't ask at all.

Song Bei smiled and said, "I said I was escorting goods, and I did ask them to escort goods. Don't say they didn't ask me what the goods were. Even if they asked, I couldn't tell them."

"No one says that the employer must tell the employee about the goods being escorted, right?"

The man couldn't refute it, so he put the stone on the table and said, "I hope you won't be attacked. If something happens, don't involve Ping An Inn."

Song Bei: "Don't worry, I like Ping An Inn very much, and we are friends, why would I implicate you?"

The man stopped talking and turned back to the private room next door. After a while, he heard the sound of the door opening next door.

The waiter passed by with dishes and called out, "Young Master."

Pu Si nodded and walked down to the second floor. Many people greeted him with a fist bump when they saw him.

Pu Si smiled and clasped his fists as he walked out, but was stopped by someone as he stepped out of the door.

Pu Min stood in front of him with a red face, "Young Master, I, I want to borrow some money from you."

Pu Si smiled when he saw him, put his arm around his shoulder and walked forward, "We are brothers, why do you call me Young Master like the people outside? Call me Big Brother."

After that, he asked, "How much do you want to borrow, and what do you want to borrow the money for?"

Pu Min: "My teammate offended someone today, and I want to buy a gift to apologize. We are all short of money, so I want to borrow some money from Shao... Big Brother first, and I will return it to you after we get our salary next month."

Pu Si agreed with a smile, took out a ten-liang silver note and gave it to him, asking, "Is it enough? If not, I'll ask my servant to go home and get it."

"That's enough, that's enough, thank you very much, brother." Pu Min immediately put the money away.

Pu Si asked curiously, "Who did you offend? Why is the person you offended so nervous?"

Pu Min recounted what happened at the city gate today, "... that person was invited into the backyard of the county government office. Fortunately, the county magistrate is not in the city today, so we want to quickly raise money and go to her house to make amends so that she won't file a complaint."

Pu Si: ...

His cousin was so stupid that he wanted to withdraw the money he had lent him in an instant. He always felt that it was not cost-effective to lend him the money.

Looking at his stupid cousin's face, Pu Si smiled and said, "Are you talking about three very young female Taoist priests driving a carriage with ten bags of grain on it?"

Pu Min: "Yes, brother, how did you know that they had ten bags of food in their car? Have you seen them?"

"I have seen them," Pu Si pointed to the inn behind him and said, "They are staying here."

Pu Min's eyes widened. "Don't they live in the county magistrate's house?"

Pu Si just smiled and said nothing. He also wanted to know why the three of them didn't live in the county government office, and who were they looking for?
Song Bei couldn't ask the answer, but Pu Min and others might be able to.

Pu Min learned their room number from Pu Si, and immediately ran back to find the head of the team, Luo Jiecheng, with the borrowed money.

When the big man heard that Pan Yun was not staying at the county government office, he became suspicious. "The county magistrate's wife is a virtuous woman. Why would she not let guests stay overnight when they came to her house, but instead let them stay at an inn?"

Pu Min: "Then should we still give this gift?"

Luo Jiecheng thought for a moment and said, "Send it. Go buy three pieces of cloth and some snacks. The value should not exceed five taels. Call Ding Yuan later and the three of us will go together to apologize."

Pu Min agreed and went shopping immediately.

At this time, the sun set and an orange sunset appeared in the sky.

Pan Yun and the other two went out before dark to inquire about the price of grain.

Since I'm going to be a bodyguard next, it's better to get rid of the grain in the car.

The price of grain in Nan'an County is slightly higher than that in Jiangnan, and millet can be sold for two hundred coins per stone.

The shopkeeper took a look at the samples they brought and asked, "How many stones do you have?" Pan Yun: "Ten stones."

The shopkeeper was a little disgusted, "Only ten dan... OK, send it to the door of the grain store, one hundred and ninety coins per dan."

Pan Yun: "...just now you said 200 wen per stone."

"You sell and I buy, so naturally it's cheaper. Otherwise, I buy for 200 coins and sell for 200 coins. What's the point?" The shopkeeper said, "You also heard that I only make 10 coins for a stone of millet. This grain business is not profitable at all!"

Pan Yun thought so and nodded, "Okay, I'll bring the grain tomorrow. Shopkeeper, do you know the price of grain in Quanzhou?"

"Quanzhou Prefecture? That's more expensive than our Nan'an County. With your quality, you can probably sell it for 200 coins. But if you buy millet there, you'll probably have to pay 210 to 220 coins or more."

Pan Yun: "With such a huge difference, aren't you afraid that the people of Nan'an County will sell their grain to Quanzhou Prefecture instead of selling it to you?"

"Afraid?" The shopkeeper smiled contemptuously and said, "To be honest, I'm not afraid at all."

"I meet less than five people a year like the Taoist priest who sells grain to stores in person," he said. "Farmers are timid and seek stability. Many of them have never left their village in their entire lives, let alone transporting grain to the city to sell."

"Their grain was collected by us grain merchants in the village. You want them to transport the grain to Quanzhou Prefecture to sell it? That would be harder than killing them."

Pan Yun frowned.

The shopkeeper said, "If you, the Taoist priest, had not personally delivered the grain to my door, I would not have offered the price of 190 coins."

Pan Yun: "How much do you get per dan of millet in the countryside?"

"It depends on the quality. It's between 160 and 190 wen. So, Taoist priest, if I go to the countryside to collect millet of your quality, I can only give you 170 wen at most. You didn't dry it very well."

Pan Jun smiled.

The shopkeeper turned around and asked her, "Did you harvest this grain? Or was it planted by your Taoist temple?"

Pan Yun said: "Neither, I performed a ritual for someone and they paid off their debt."

The shopkeeper looked Pan Yun up and down, somewhat suspicious. How could he be taking orders to perform rituals at such a young age?
Is it so easy for Taoist priests to make money?
Pan Yun did not explain any further and left after getting the price.

The shopkeeper escorted her to the door and said, "Little Taoist priest, my grain store is the largest in Nan'an County. We can handle any amount of grain. If your temple still has grain, just ship it over. I will give you a reasonable price."

"Sending it to Quanzhou is a long and unsafe journey," he said. "Do you know why the grain price in Quanzhou is so high? Because there are bandits and pirates there. I heard that there was a Japanese pirate incident in Citong Port recently, which caused the grain price in Quanzhou to rise a little bit."

"It sounds good. We can make a profit by transporting the grain. But let's not talk about the cost of transporting the grain. The bandits, pirates and Japanese pirates along the way are enough to make people suffer. It is not certain that the grain can be transported."

Pan Yun asked, "Are pirates and Japanese pirates rampant in Quanzhou Prefecture now?"

"Very fierce, extremely fierce," the shopkeeper looked around and whispered, "Haven't you noticed that there are more people carrying knives and swords in Nan'an County these days? They are all chivalrous men from the martial arts world who went to Quanzhou Prefecture to suppress bandits and rob money."

Pan Yun's eyes were confused: "Suppressing bandits and robbing money?"

"That's right. It's illegal for those people in the underworld to fight and kill, but it's not illegal to kill bandits, pirates and pirates." The shopkeeper lowered his voice and said, "I don't know where the rumor came from, saying that there is a big treasure on the pirates' island, and many people went to look for it."

Pan Yun's eyes lit up, and he clapped his hands together, saying excitedly, "What a good idea! Even if we can't find the treasure in the end, killing those pirates and robbing their belongings is also a way to get rich."

The shopkeeper looked at Pan Yun in surprise.

The two looked at each other silently. The shopkeeper couldn't help but take a step back. After a moment, he raised his thumb and praised with a stiff face: "The Taoist priest is amazing."

Pan Yun also felt that he was quite capable, and he and Miao Zhen said, "Based on my experience, robbery is indeed the most profitable business, but it is written in the criminal law and we cannot commit it. But now there is an opportunity for legal robbery in front of us. If we don't seize it, wouldn't we be letting God down?"

Miao Zhen: "Master Junior, do you have experience in robbery?"

Pan Yun: "I once robbed a human trafficker and instantly went from being extremely poor to being rich, so believe me, this is a good way to get rich."

Miaohe: "If I were a pirate or a Japanese pirate, I would not bring a lot of money with me when I go out. I would definitely keep the gold, silver and jewelry well hidden at home."

Pan Yun: "So to catch pirates and Japanese pirates, you must find their lair, otherwise you won't make much money just by killing people."

Miaohe: "But where can we find their nest?"

Miaozhen: "Don't we have a chance now?"

Pan Jun raised the corner of his mouth slightly and nodded, "Yes, we have already stepped half a foot in. We just need to wait for the right time to step the other half foot in."

Miaohe looked confused, "What?"

But she quickly reacted and her eyes widened, "You are talking about...Okay, you figured it out a long time ago, but you didn't tell me."

　One more chapter

　　(End of this chapter)