Quinn John1 was helpless. In the past few days, they had tried to think of a way, but in the end they weren’t able to find affordable grains. It seemed that these prices that shouldn’t rise would eventually be risen.
Laura placed the letter down and forced a smile. ”The price of food is rising. If we do not increase our own prices, then we can only lose money. Although we had gotten some cheap food the last few days, the amount is too few. It can only last for ten days or so. After that, I fear we won’t be able to get even a grain of rice. When the news of the Ica plain incident gets out, I fear that those merchants will also begin.”
Quinn John gave a forced smile and said, “This is not the most fearful part. If there’s no production from the Ica plains, then the entire Purcell Duchy’s food requirements will be massive. Moreover, they need a minimum amount of grains stored for the next year. Food prices will fall for the next few months, but how much grain could the Purcell Duchy obtain? Such a large food deficit is enough to severely damage the Purcell clan. By the time that happens, how many commoners won’t be able to eat?2”
Laura also smiled wryly. They were now in a situation where they could not help and could only hope that the Purcell clan will survive this hurdle.
At this time, a servant walked in and said to Laura, “Miss, the warrior follower of Mr. Zhao Hai has asked to meet with you.”
Laura and Quinn John stared for a bit, then Laura immediately said, “Invite him in, quickly.” Laura had attached greater importance to Zhao Hai now. Before, when Laura arrived back from Stony Mountain, she immediately went to see the scaled wildebeest Green had kept here..
Laura’s observation made something clear; when Zhao Hai had said his scaled wildebeests were the best, he actually meant it. Zhao Hai's scaled wildebeest were really good. Even though their appearance seemed the same as normal scaled wildebeests, their endurance, speed, and even defenses were distinctly better. Even those level two magic beasts wouldn't necessarily compare to the scaled wildebeest.
It was precisely because of this that Laura attached greater importance to Zhao Hai. She really didn’t understand clearly how Zhao Hai was able to make such ordinary things so much better when they passed through his hands.
Soon, Green entered.
* * * * *
This time, Green was here to first deliver the oil to Laura. His second task was to buy sacks to load the corn. Lastly, he was also there to speak to Laura about the food issue.
Before coming, Green had gone to the Ica plains with Zhao Hai to observe the situation there. This time, they confirmed Ica plain’s inability to produce, something that was quite contrary to their expectations.
Zhao Hai had used Cast Pest around seven million square meters. He had thought that the damage would only spread to around seventy million square meters after considering the Purcell clan's ability to combat the infestation.3
When they came to observe the Ica plains however, they found out that the infestation was uncontrollable. Since they didn’t dare to move closer, they couldn’t fully understand why the pests had not already been exterminated. But what they were certain of was that the Purcell clan probably did not have a good method to oppose the insects.
Seeing the situation, Zhao Hai did not dare to be negligent. He went back into the space and didn’t plant corn, but instead began planting bamboo rice.
Bamboo rice yields were higher than corn, but the problem was that bamboo rice could not be made into rice bran. Thus, their only output would be bamboo rice and some rice shells. The rice shells were not really useful either. Therefore, Zhao Hai hadn’t planted much bamboo rice. Now with the situation in the Ica plains, Zhao Hai started to plant bamboo rice on all fields in the space. Not even the Oil Nut trees were allowed to take up room.
The production speed of bamboo rice was very high. On a mu of land, over five thousand kilograms could be produced. Moreover, the space had unexpectedly given it a value of a level five crop and it matured in about ten hours. It was a single season crop. After maturing, you could only harvest it once and would need to plant another crop. In one day, you could harvest twice. In other words, Zhao Hai could get at least over ten thousand kilograms of bamboo rice per mu of land a day.
An ouput of ten thousand kilograms of food per mu was a lot, but Zhao Hai didn't intend to profit from it. This time, the situation in the Ica plains was all due to his actions. It had gotten out of hand, thus making his conscience feel restless.
Zhao Hai had saved around one million kilograms of corn and nearly half a million kilograms of bamboo rice. At this time, he made Green go to Casa City to handle the three matters. In additional, he was to observe the situation within Casa City.
Green, was currently rushing along with five scaled wildebeests pulling his carriages. Alongside him were several Zombies that drove the other carts. These Zombies really did look like any ordinary person. Only a high rank warrior or magician would be able to see through their presence. That was why Green dared to take them with him.
The carriage was full of nut oil that they would then sell to Laura. The nut oil Zhao Hai produced was much better than other nut oil, but Zhao haven't thought to increase its price. At least, now wasn’t the time.
Green was surprised when he saw the situation in Casa City. He thought that there would be people snatching away the grains, but that didn’t seem to be the case. Everybody were living their normal lives and there didn't appear to be any appearance of disorder.
Green also looked at the price list in the Higanbana firm and saw that the price hadn’t increased. This made him puzzled. Within his heart, he secretly thought, ‘Does the Purcell clan really have enough grains in their stores? How strange.’.
After Green revealed his identity and asked to see Laura, the servant did not dare to be neglectful. The servant immediately went to notify Laura, who then quickly invited Green to the backyard parlour room.
Green was guided by the servant and soon arrived at the door of the parlour. He found Laura, Quinn John, and Near already standing in the parlour, ready to greet him. Green didn’t put on any airs and stepped up to give his courtesies to Laura. “This one greets Miss Laura.”
Laura quickly smiled and said, “Sir is too polite. As sir has come to see me, I feel greatly honored. Sir, please come in.” As she said this, she directed Green to enter the parlour room.
After they sat in the parlour, Laura wasn’t polite and directly asked Green, “Sir, I don’t know what matter has made you come here to Casa City. Is there anything I can do to help?”
Green smiled and said, “Miss Laura is too polite. This time, we came to trouble you a bit. We had bought the oil press some time ago and have formally begun extraction. This time, I have with me ten thousand kilograms of oil and would like to ask Miss Laura to help sell them. I do not know if Miss Laura would agree?”
Laura was surprised for a moment and curiously said, “You have already begun producing! Sir’s movements really are fast. But please forgive me for being rude, I would like to check the quality of the nut oil first.”
Green smiled and said, “This is normal. The nut oil is something we have produced and I am very confident with it. Please, Miss Laura, go inspect the nut oil outside.” After he said this, he stood and directed them towards the outside.
Laura and Quinn John stood up and walked out the door with Green. By this time, Green had the undead move the carriages to the backyard and properly park them within the yard.
Laura looked at the coachmen zombies. She felt that they looked somewhat spiritless, but hadn’t felt anything unusual. Quinn John , on the other hand, identified them with just a glance. He knew that these warriors coachman that looked like ‘people’ were actually undead, and evidently zombies.
Laura was walking in front and Quinn John couldn't help but pull her hand. Laura looked puzzled at Quinn John, while Quinn John actually had a vigilant expression directed towards the zombies.
Quinn John, before seeing these zombies, knew that normal zombies weren't like these coachmen. Normal zombies had rotting bodies. On the other hand, these coachmen zombies looked like an average person, which meant that they were high ranked. High rank zombies were usually poisonous, and even just a little of this poison was very potent if it was touched by a human.
Quinn John definitely wasn't afraid of Green harming them, but he was worried that Laura might get infected by these zombies if she bumped into them. Since the corpse was poisonous, it made for a troublesome situation.
Green noticed their reaction, chuckled, and said, “Mister Quinn John doesn’t need to worry. They are my servants. They went through a special refinement, so their bodies won't release poison naturally. Only when they fight will they do so. Please don't worry.”
Quinn John relaxed, loosening his grip on Laura. Laura looked curiously at the coachmen. Then she turned her head towards Green and asked, “Sir, are you saying that these people are Mr. Zhao's servants? Are they undead?”
Green nodded his head and said, “They are. Master recently subdued them. With an arcane zombie refining method, they look just like a normal human being. In actuality, they are, in fact, undead.”
Laura didn’t have suspicions about what Green said. There were a lot of black magicians that used such mysterious black magic. There were even black magics that could refine undead. Although it couldn’t increase the rank of the undead, it could still make them easier to use.
In fact, black magicians on the continent have been seeking various ways to increase the rank of their undead. A lot of black magicians studied pharmacy and alchemy for this very reason, but without success. This undead refining method that could be used to enhance the level of undead through alchemy had, after so many failed products, made the many black magicians on the continent give up.
These zombies were not as scary as skeletons, so Laura couldn’t help herself in glancing at them curiously. Presently, these people were just standing there blankly after senselessly arriving with the carriage.
Green immediately brought down a big wooden barrel and placed it on the ground. Then he pried open the lid. Laura and Quinn John looked into the barrel and couldn’t help but nod.
Both of them were experts in this area. One look and they could see that the quality of the nut oil was great. Zhao Hai's nut oil was crystal clear, with no impurities and no odor. It clearly was a top quality oil.
Laura nodded and told Green, “Sir can place the lid back on the barrel. Please wait a little while as I get the payments ready. Please, come back inside the room.”
Green nodded, covered the barrel, and followed Laura back inside the room.
NOTES:
-This chapter was MTL'ed.
-For suggestions, please do drop a comment.
-Please give thanks to our editor for all his hardwork (specially on the footnotes).
1昆正 - Kun Zheng. Kun is not a nice western name so Quinn was a good western equivalent… Zheng means righteous, upright, good. I wanted to name him Good Quinn, but that’s… I assume the Zheng was supposed to show he’s someone with a good, upright status. Unfortunately, that’s near impossible for us to actually do… Esteemed Quinn… Zheng pronunciation can be found at Han Trainer Pro and we stretched it so it could be more western. His full name is always Kun Zheng so that’ll get annoying fast. So all you get is Quinn John… ↩
2 For you measurement nuts, the author switches between 3 different measurement systems. He uses Modern Chinese Units for weight and land space, Imperial and US Customary Measurement Systems for space's land space, and Metric System for length and height. I switched out the modern Chinese units for all Metric System, leaving the space’s land as mu… (Imperial System).The raw was 10,000 mu which is then converted to 6,666,666 square meters or 1650 acres. I chose square meters as it’s a far better form of measurement… Square Kilometers would just be 7 square kilometers… Since the raw revealed an “unsure” tone to the measurement, I could just round the number up to 7 million. Down with imperial measurements! ↩
3 "If you are confused about the economics, please leave a comment.↩
4 Some editor math. The current yield of Zhao Hai’s farm is done by mu, and a mu equals 666.67 square meters. When compared to the Ica Plains, Zhao Hai’s Space is speaking the tens for mu, while the Plains are in the thousands. He had initially used Cast Pest on 10,000 mu in the Ica Plains, so you can see the difference between the two lands. That being said, the space’s monstrous growth is unmatchable. While other land takes an entire season to grow a plot of Bamboo Rice, Zhao Hai can get around many times more than that. Why did I do different measurements? Zhao Hai’s space grows by the mu, but a better measurement for land, to me, is square meters.↩
5 妮儿 - is what we see as Ni'er. The pinyin in Ni Er. To make her name more western, like Quinn, Laura, Green, Meg and Meirin, we decided to change Nier/Ni’er to Near (the sound when pronouncing pinyin was the same as near).↩