Allure of a Country Maiden-Chapter 97 - 95: Overseas Timber Merchant

At dusk, there was only a hint of rosy afterglow remained in the western sky, everyone cheerfully returned home.

"Third brother is in a good mood today, go home and invite our siblings and Jingjie over for dinner. Let’s drink a toast!"

Shen Chengyao agreed with a smile and went home to fetch others. He was also happy for his third brother and thought it was time to celebrate properly.

Xiao’er laid out several contracts, and Mrs. Liu looked at so many white contracts and wondered, "Why are there so many?"

"We bought four shops and one hundred acres of fertile land."

"What are you buying so much for? How much silver would that cost? Didn’t you say that we were just buying a shop to open an ironmongery?"

"That was the initial plan, but later I saw some suitable ones and bought them all. I have an idea for these three shops. I’ll tell everyone about it once I have it all sorted out." Xiao’er felt excited thinking about those three contiguous shops. The place was big enough, the location was prime, and it was in the town center, they could do anything they wanted. It would be even better if it was in the county town.

"Which shops did you buy?" Mrs. Liu was familiar with the shops in the town, so as soon as they mentioned it, she would know.

Shen Chengyao described the location of each shop, as well as a general area of where the farmland is located.

"These shops and lands are good. I think we got a pretty good deal, considering that we only spent a total of 1900 taels?" He had estimated that, the cost to acquire the old grocery store alone would be five to six hundred taels.

With that, Shen Chengyao began to explain what had happened at the old grocery store.

"Xiao’er, who was that person? What were they asking you for help with?"

"She can be considered my younger martial arts sister. She was poisoned, and knew I had some medicine my master gave me. So, she asked me for help to get rid of the poison." With that explanation, Shen Chengyao and Mrs. Liu stopped asking questions. Given that Xiao’er’s master was such a mystery, Xiao’er didn’t disclose much about him, which implied that she couldn’t divulge much. As parents, as long as nothing harmed their daughter, they wouldn’t force her to spill everything.

Mrs. Liu remembered the message her elder brother had sent and said, "Oh, my elder brother sent a message this afternoon. There is a batch of high-quality wood, and he wants you to spare some time to look at them in the county town tomorrow."

The wood shop was in urgent need of high-quality wood, the more the better. They wouldn’t miss the opportunity and decided to take a look the next day.

Dinner time, Mrs. Lu said that Mrs. Shen had been cursing in her room for the whole day. The pearl she had previously hidden under a tree had apparently been stolen by someone. This had caused Mrs. Shen and Shen Yuzhu to cry and scold for the whole day. The old master was irritated and scolded them, and that was when they stopped.

Originally, Shen Chengzu wanted to invite his parents for dinner to celebrate the joyous occasion of their third brother buying shops and farmland. However, hearing this news, he dared not do so. In case their mother came to ask their third brother for the pearl, the joyous day would be ruined.

"Mother, why did you hide the pearl under the tree outside?" Mrs. Liu didn’t understand. Hiding it outside could easily lead to it being stolen. Even if they knew who had taken it, if they said they had picked it up, you couldn’t do anything about it!

"A while ago, weren’t you guys arrested? Father suspected that those pearls were stolen goods, and mother feared being implicated, so she threw them away by the river. Afterwards, I suppose she felt attached to them and hid them under a tree!" Mrs. Lu wasn’t impressed with Mrs. Shen’s action.

"Gosh..." Mrs. Liu didn’t know whether to laugh or cry after hearing this.

"It’s something that mother would do." Xiao’er felt it was normal. Mrs. Shen was a typical miser who feared death and was greedy for wealth at the same time!

"Managing money is as important to Jingjie’s grandmother as her own life. Now that she has lost such a valuable pearl, I think she can be angry for a long time before calming down. Luckily, she hid the pearls under the tree outside the house!" Mrs. Lu had deep disdain for Mrs. Shen’s behavior of treating money as her life.

"Absolutely, if they were hidden in the house, who knows who she would have suspected!" Mrs. Liu nodded in agreement.

"I can smell a medicinal scent on your body. Haven’t you finished the medicine yet?" Mrs. Liu didn’t want to bring up these frustrating matters and so, changed the topic.

"I’ve finished it, but Dr. Luo said it hasn’t had any effect yet." Mrs. Liu felt dejected thinking about this.

"Did something happen to Auntie Liu?" Xiao’er had also smelled the medicinal scent.

"Your Auntie Liu is recuperating."

Recuperating? Xiao’er understood instantly. Jingjie was already so big and it seemed that Auntie Liu was injured when she gave birth to him. At that time, Mrs. Shen was reluctant to spend money on prescribed herbs for her, but now they separated, she probably wanted to have another child. It was common for people at that time to want many children to bring more blessings. In that case, she could lend a hand. She could give the medicine to Mrs. Liu that night and ask her to find a reason to pass it on.

Early the next day, Xiao’er and Shen Chengyao went to the county town.

Liu Minhong was thrilled to see them, "I’ve been waiting for you! If you had not come, I would be worried that someone else would buy them!"

"Is the wood really that good? It seems to have made Uncle so anxious."

"These are all top-quality woods, imported from overseas. I went to see them twice already, and they are all good wood. But the price is high, and they’re not budging at all. Everyone is still watching, waiting for them to lower the price. After all, they can’t just stick around and not go home, right? And if they have to take the wood back with them, they will lose a lot. So, everyone is waiting for them to drop the price or start selling separately." He was genuinely concerned, because for a carpenter, the most exciting thing is to encounter good wood.

"They’re asking for a high price?"

"A thousand taels, not a coin less!"

A thousand taels, that was a hefty sum indeed!

"Let’s go and take a look first!" Xiao’er had to assess the quality of the wood. If it was good, then one thousand taels it was. She could earn it back later. Plus, this wood was really too expensive. She should start planting some in her space on the grassland.

The group arrived at the gate of a semi-ruined courtyard in the south of the town. Liu Minhong knocked on the door, "Is Mr. Singer in?"

"Come in!" A middle-aged man’s voice was heard from inside, his pronunciation was stiff, slow and out of tune. Shortly after, a flurry of footsteps approached, and the door was opened revealing a tall man with clear-cut facial features, dark skin.

"Ah, Lu, are you here to buy wood?" Mr. Singer spoke very slowly, pausing after each word, and his pronunciation wasn’t very accurate.

"Hello, Mr. Singer, we want to take a look at the batch of wood." Liu Minhong replied.

"Okay, please come in." Mr. Singer led the three of them into the yard where the wood was stored.

"These are all top-quality woods, absolutely no trickery. You see, this pile is rosewood, this pile is Phoebe zhennan wood, this one is yellow rosewood, these two piles are cheaper, but the wood is good, old enough. This is teak wood, this is beechwood. I won’t be selling them separately, if you want to buy, you’ll have to buy all of them, and I am not willing to bargain."

"Are you sure you didn’t mix fake wood with these gold-threaded woods, rosewoods, and the like?"

"Of course." The woods were carefully selected by him, and then shipped all the way here after numerous verifications. He planned to exchange them for silver, then export a few shiploads of tea, silk, and porcelain back.

"What if there are fakes in it? What if we find there are fakes in it, can Mr. Singer give us a bit off the price?"

"My goods are all genuine, and if you find any fakes in them, I’ll sell them to you at half price." Mr. Singer was quite confident in his ability to identify woods after being immersed in the wood industry for decades and having suffered quite a few losses.

"Alright, it’s a deal." Although Xiao’er couldn’t recognize at first glance whether those woods were fake, Tian Bai could!