Zhu Nao

After some time, Zhu Nao led Cheng Jingzhe out again.

The two walked downstairs to the tavern, when suddenly a group of children rushed out, surrounded Zhu Nao, and shouted at him: "Prince Zhu, you are a liar, you are a liar, you have no shame, you are a liar, you have no shame! Prince Zhu, you are a liar!" ..."

These children are all children from poor families. They are young, have no education, and play around with their buttocks bare all day long.Sometimes they would chase after Zhu Nao and playfully call him "Prince Zhu", but this was the first time they called him a liar.Obviously, these words were taught to them by others.

Zhu Nao was not angry at being called a big liar, and even smiled and patted the head of the child closest to him.The child blushed and mumbled a few times, feeling embarrassed to read along with his friend.

Jing Zhe was not as polite as Zhu Nao.He stepped forward to chase these children away, but the children were frightened by his ferocious appearance, screaming and rushing away.Chasing away the children, Jing Zhe looked around, and soon found Li Shen and others upstairs in the tavern.

Li Shen sat by the window, smiling at Zhu Nao with a full face.Just now those children were bribed and driven by him to speak ill of Zhu Nao on the street.

Jing Zhe frowned, clenched his fists, wishing he could rush up and beat those guys up.But Zhu Nao nodded to Li Shen indifferently, as a greeting.He said, "Let's go."

Jing Zhe stared: "That's all?"

Zhu Nao walked forward calmly, making it clear that he didn't intend to care about it.

After walking for a while, Zhu Nao still didn't hear the voices from the people around him, and looked back, only to see Jing Zhe twisting his face, with a look of pain and hatred on his face.

Zhu Nao asked, "What's wrong with you?"

Jing Zhe said with a sullen face, "I'm angry."

Zhu Nao didn't expect the young man to be so angry, he asked in surprise, "Why are you angry?"

It was only after the words were out of my mouth that I remembered about the direction, and said with a smile, "You mean those children just now?"

Jing Zhe curled her lips: "I'm not angry with those children, I'm angry with the person who instigated those children to trouble you."

Junao didn't respond for a while.Jing Zhe looked up, only to see Zhu Nao smiled and looked at him.

Jing Zhe was at a loss.what's so funny?

He is considered tall among his peers, but after all, he is still a bit shorter than Zhu Nao because of his young age.Zhu Nao suddenly reached out and rubbed his head, and said with a smile: "Children." After speaking, he continued to walk forward.

Jing Zhe's thin face was immediately stained with a blush.He stood there stupidly for a while and then chased after him, asking, "Master, are you not angry at all?"

"What's wrong with you?" Zhu Nao asked back, "What about anger? Hire some people to scold you back?"

Jingzhe was speechless for a moment.He knew Junao would never do such a thing.But he was just unhappy.He said in a muffled voice: "But the young master has suffered a disadvantage."

This kid is loyal.The old man saved his life that day, so he took care of the old man all the way to Langzhou.Now that he is Jun Nao's subordinate, he is loyal to Jun Nao and doesn't want Jun Nao to suffer any grievances.

Zhu Nao smiled and asked him, "What's wrong with me?"

Jing Zhe was about to answer, when Zhu Nao asked again: "What is the disadvantage?"

Jing Zhe didn't know how to answer.

Zhu Nao was still walking forward, Jing Zhe heard a lazy word floating in front of him.

"What's more, they are right..."

……

Liu Qi rushed to Zhu Nao's residence in a hurry, only to see the other two shopkeepers under Zhu Nao's hand, and he couldn't help being secretly surprised.Just now Zhu Nao's servants called him, saying that Zhu Nao had something to look for him, and he came without thinking too much.Only when I got here did I find that there were so many people here, so it seems that there is something important?

After a while, Junao also came.Seeing that his three shopkeepers had arrived, he invited them to sit down and talk.

"Boss, why are you here with us?" A shopkeeper asked straight to the point.

Zhu Nao said: "I looked at the account books you sent these days, and the stocks of several shops are almost sold out, right?"

The shopkeepers nodded one after another.

Zhu Nao said, "Looks like it's time to buy."

Everyone was startled and quickly sat up straight.They had already urged Junao to buy new products, but they hadn't seen any movement from Junao, but they were very anxious.At this moment, they suddenly heard Zhu Nao take the initiative to buy goods, they couldn't believe their ears.

Zhu Nao said: "In a few days, it will be the autumn harvest, and the price of grain should go down. I don't plan to continue the grain business. We will buy some in the future..." The words suddenly stopped at a critical point.

The three shopkeepers were sweating anxiously, their eyes were glued to Zhu Nao's mouth, wishing they could go up and grab his shoulders and shake them, forcing him to continue talking quickly.

Zhu Nao smiled slightly, took out a piece of paper from the drawer, dipped a pen into the ink, and slowly wrote two words.The shopkeepers stretched their necks to see what he was writing, but their chairs were too far away from Zhu Nao, so they couldn't see anything.

After finishing writing and drying for a while, Zhu Nao folded the note and handed it to Jingzhe beside him.Jing Zhe took the note to several shopkeepers.

Zhu Nao said: "I will arrange for someone to buy the goods as soon as possible."

The appetite of the three shopkeepers has been lifted to the extreme, and they are scrambling to grab the note, wanting to see it first.It was Liu Qi who was the best, snatching the note from Jing Zhe and unfolding it quickly.

The two big characters written by Zhu Nao just now caught everyone's eyes, and the expressions on the faces of the three people all froze.

After a long time, Liu Qi regained his voice: "Boss, we will...operate this in the future??"

"Yes, that's it." With a smile, Zhu Nao put up his finger and put it on his lips, making a silent movement. "Please keep the shopkeepers tight-lipped and don't leak the news."

The three of you looked at me and I looked at you, dumbfounded.

……

A few days later, what Li Shen was most worried about happened—Junao began to purchase a large number of medicinal materials and reopened the pharmacy.

Nowadays, the medicine business is also a good business that makes money.Food is scarce, people are getting sick one after another, and the epidemic is spreading.Although the price of medicine is not as exaggerated as the price of food, it has also increased several times after the disaster.Zhu Nao has experience and knowledge in this industry, and returning is undoubtedly the best choice.

However, under the open river, there is another dark tide surging.

Not long after, a strange news reached the ears of merchants in Langzhou City.

At night, the eyeliner Li Shen sent out to follow Zhu Nao returned to the mansion to report the situation to Li Shen.

"What? You said that Zhu Nao is buying a large amount of wheat straw?" Li Shen was puzzled by the news.

"Yes! Today Zhu Nao hired a lot of people to go to the field to pick one load after another, and covered the baskets so that no one could see what they were picking." Yang Yang said, "He thought he could deceive people by doing this, and he looked too stupid. I went to the field and asked a few farmers, and they said that Zhu Nao bought all the straw from them with money."

"Buy all the straw? All???" Li Shen was incredulous.The wheat straw produced by hundreds of acres of fertile land is not a small amount.

"That's right, all of them. We picked a hundred loads!" said the waiter, "Then Zhu Nao even asked the porter to go on several routes, apparently because he didn't want to attract attention. Unfortunately, no matter how careful he was, he couldn't hide it." my eyes!"

The guy repeatedly asked for credit and wanted to get a reward, but unfortunately Li Shen was immersed in shock and couldn't take care of his small thoughts.Li Shen confirmed again and again: "Wheat straw? Is it wheat straw after threshing? Wheat straw without wheat ears?"

The man could only reassure: "It's really straw. I went to the field to see it myself. There are all the threshed wheat, but there is no straw at all."

Li Shen frowned.Wheat straw is the straw after removing the ears of wheat.It can neither be sown nor eaten, but the poor will use it to feed their livestock, and more often they will be burned as fertilizer.After the autumn harvest, these things are piled up all over the mountains and valleys. No one has ever bought them with money, and no one will tell anyone who wants to take a few baskets away.But now, Zhu Nao has bought all the wheat straw in hundreds of acres of fields? !

He hurriedly asked the man, "Do you know what he is going to do when he harvests the straw?"

The guy looked embarrassed: "I don't know..."

He had inquired so much information, but he didn't get a good word from Li Shen.This "I don't know" made Li Shen almost get angry.However, the fire didn't come out after all - few people could understand what Zhu Nao did.Li Shen himself knew that this was embarrassing.

He paced back and forth in the room, muttering to himself: "What can the straw be used for?" However, even if he tried to crack his head, he couldn't figure out what Zhu Nao was thinking.

The buddy asked: "Master, shall we also collect some?"

"What are you collecting? Wheat straw?" Li Shen looked at him like a ghost, "Why should I collect this thing?"

The clerk scratched his head: "But Zhu Nao hoarded so much, there must be his intentions. Maybe after a while, the price of wheat straw will rise like the previous grain..."

If it were left in the past, if someone said such a thing, Li Shen would definitely be 1 unconvinced.But with the lessons learned from the past, the buddy's words cannot be said to be completely unreasonable...

Li Shen opened his mouth and closed it, struggling again and again, and finally said: "Forget it, don't worry. Anyway, the straw is everywhere. I don't believe that Zhu Nao has the ability to collect all the straw in the field. Even if this Things are cheap, so where does he get such a big place to store them? In short, you go to watch Junao for a few more days, and it won’t be too late for us to make a decision after we figure out what he uses those things for.”

After hearing what he said, the man had to go out.

……

There is no impenetrable wall in the world, and within a few days all merchants in Langzhou knew about Zhu Nao's secret purchase of wheat straw.

In the evening, Li Shen went to drink flower wine again.Usually he arrives late, but this time he waited for a long time, and his cronies and friends came one after another, and many of them didn't come.

When Zhang Xiang arrived, Li Shen couldn't help complaining: "What's the matter with you recently? One or two are free to walk around with birds on weekdays, but they have been looking for you these days, but they all hide and see no one. You said you were busy, what's the matter?" Are you busy? Have you come out of the womb to do serious things for a day? If I offend you somewhere, you don’t want to see me, tell the truth as soon as possible! I’m not here to blame you.”

The dudes looked at me and I looked at you, but no one said a word.

Still Zhang Xiang was honest, wiped the sweat off his brow, and said: "It's not that I don't see you, I'm really busy these days, and I don't even have time to eat. You don't have to complain, my brothers have come here, Then have a good drink."

Li Shen asked: "What are you busy with?"

This question is very fresh.Zhang Xiang raised his eyebrows and said, "You don't know?"

Li Shen frowned: "What do I know?"

Zhang Xiang looked at him for a long time, and seeing that he seemed to be ignorant, he couldn't help being surprised: "Impossible? You sent that Jin Si to watch Zhu Nao every day, don't you know about this?"

"Junao?" Li Shen was stunned for a moment, not understanding how this matter was related to Zhu Nao.But fortunately, he was not so stupid yet, before he could ask for clarification, he suddenly came to his senses and came to his senses, "You, could it be that you...?!"

Zhang Xiang looked at him with a strange expression.

Li Shen inspected the whole table in shock: "You... all of you?!"

Those dudes laughed.Some of them want to save face and don't want people to know that they are doing things like Zhu Nao; some want to make a fortune in silence and don't want more people to join, so they don't admit it.But let Li Shen guess right - they have been busy buying and hoarding wheat straw recently.

Just as Li Shen said just now, these people were born in the womb and haven't done anything serious for a few days. After so many years of fooling around, they have reached the age when they should be in charge of the family.They usually get together all day long to speak ill of Jun Nao, but after discovering Jun Nao's ability, they have grown their minds and sent people to pay attention to Jun Nao's every move.Li Shen's people can find out that Zhu Nao is hoarding wheat straw secretly, so can they; Li Shen is still waiting and watching, but they don't hesitate and take action immediately.

Li Shen felt like being hit by a heavy hammer, his mind was buzzing, and it took him a while to recover.The first thought in his mind was regret: he had thought that he could wait and see for a few more days, anyway, there was plenty of straw, and Zhu Nao couldn't stock it all by himself.But with so many people starting to buy, wouldn't the straw be divided up immediately? !

He already had a sense of crisis in his heart, but he was always stubborn, and now what he said was completely different from what he thought in his heart.He exaggeratedly pretended to be disdainful: "You are not bewitched, are you? Zhu Nao's crazy thing, you actually followed him?"

The dudes looked at each other.They have known Li Shen for many years and know Li Shen's temperament very well.At this moment, he couldn't help but joked: "You said the same thing when Zhu Nao stockpiled food last time. What's the result?"

Li Shen: "..." Indeed, as soon as the words came out of his mouth, he felt familiar.

Li Shen said again: "What's the same then and now? Food is always edible, it's just a matter of price. But can wheat straw be eaten? No. I can't think of it to make money anyway. You should be careful Don't throw it all in your hands."

One person retorted: "Is it useless if you can't eat it? Everything in this world has its use, it just depends on whether you can use it or not. Since Zhu Nao started the medicinal herb business again, he must buy wheat straw for medicine In the past few days, I have been asking many people, and I really heard that ancient doctors have a prescription, using the ashes of wheat straw as medicine, which has the effects of detoxification, tonic, and longevity. I reckon Zhu Nao must have this prescription in his hand son."

Everyone was secretly surprised.Although many of them harvested the straw, they were still confused and didn't understand its use.Hearing what the man said, I felt suddenly enlightened.

Someone hurriedly asked: "What prescription? Dude, give me a copy too!"

The man said: "I don't. I just heard people say that, I haven't seen it with my own eyes. But the truth is always the same."

Everyone looked at him suspiciously.They no longer doubted that the prescription was fake, but only wondered whether this person really didn't get the prescription, or he kept it secret and refused to reveal it.Some people have already secretly planned how to inquire about the prescription in Zhu Nao's hand.

Li Shen was even more astonished.There is such a thing?In this way, is the straw really useful?No wonder that Zhu Nao bought wheat straw insidiously and secretly, and wanted to make a fortune all by himself!

But he continued to be brave: "Don't fall for Zhu Nao's tricks. He..."

This time before he finished speaking, Zhang Xiang pushed back unceremoniously: "Come on, Li Shen. Let's send someone to follow Zhu Nao, don't we just treat him like an iron arrow hanging from the pole and want to see Where is the wind blowing? Don’t tell me that you followed Junao just to see his jokes, right? Now that the wind is coming, it’s fine if you don’t want to blow it yourself, and you still want us to get out of the wind too Come out? Or, do you want the wind to blow you alone?"

Li Shen was speechless.

This meal of flower wine was very unpleasant, Li Shen didn't sleep well all night after returning, and at dawn the next day, he hurriedly called up his servants and followed him out.

Since many merchants in the city also followed Zhu Nao to buy wheat straw, that wheat straw has become a tight commodity.At first, only the merchants knew about it, but later the common people also found out that the merchant was harvesting straw.So in the past, these things were randomly piled up everywhere, and no one cared who picked up a few bundles.Now whoever still has wheat straw in his hand puts it away like a treasure, and it is not easy to pick up a straw for nothing.Ordinary people do not have spare money in their hands, so they will not participate in hoarding and buying.On the contrary, they are willing to sell it-it is useless to keep it, why not sell it for some food?

So even in the market, many stalls began to sell wheat straw.

Li Shen led people to the market. At dawn, many peddlers had already come out to sell their goods.Li Shen saw a few wheat straw sellers at a glance, and ran over in a hurry for fear of being robbed.

"How do you sell these straws?" Li Shen asked.

The peddler raised two fingers: "Two taels of silver."

Li Shen had a bad premonition in his heart, pointing to several baskets of wheat straw brought by the peddler, he asked: "These baskets add up to two liang?"

The peddler gave him a blank look: "What are you thinking about? Two taels of silver for a basket."

Li Shen: "..."

"Two taels of silver?! One basket?! Wheat straw?!" He spattered his saliva, almost breaking his voice, "A basket of wheat straw?! You sell two taels of silver?! You are stealing money!!"

The peddler was almost deaf when he shouted, and wiped the saliva off his face in displeasure: "No counter-offering. If you don't believe me, just ask around, the price is still the same now."

The two looked at each other with crazy eyes.

Since the autumn harvest, grain prices have dropped somewhat. Although they are still much higher than before the disaster, a basket of wheat ears can't exceed two taels.Now this straw is sold more expensive than ears of wheat? !

Li Shen came today with a lot of silver on purpose, originally thinking of taking away all the wheat straw in the market.However, after asking a family, it was found that the money he brought, not to mention the purchase of wheat straw in the entire market, was only enough to buy the wheat straw in the hands of a peddler.He didn't believe this evil, turned around and left without hesitation, and ran to the next stall.

However, I don't know if all the vendors have made an appointment in secret. He even asked several vendors, but they all had the same price.Two liang of silver is a basket, and he refuses to give up a penny.

Li Shen jumped up angrily: "Crazy, crazy! Everyone is crazy!"

The buddy who accompanied him said resentfully: "Yesterday it was only one tael, but today it has risen to two taels of silver, doubled. Even soaking dried mushrooms in water, there is no such increase."

Several people stood in the market worrying.Another clerk asked Li Shen cautiously: "Boss, shall we still collect wheat straw today?"

The sky is getting brighter, and there are more and more people in the market.Li Shen watched someone ask the price of wheat straw again, and in the end he actually bought a few baskets and left. He was very upset and couldn't make up his mind.

His family's business has not been good in recent years.At such a price for the straw, even if he exhausted his family's money, he still couldn't collect much.Not to mention he is better than Zhu Nao, even his few cronies can't catch up.Moreover, the price of two taels of silver for a basket of wheat straw, he felt that the end had come, and if he sold it now, he might not be able to make much money by then.In case of a loss, the gain outweighs the gain.

Finally, he gritted his teeth and made up his mind: "Let's go! I won't buy it!"