Chapter 319: The Peasant Girl’s Splendid Manor
Chapter 319: Do You Miss Me? (6)
Seeing his lack of objection, Xiao Ruiyuan cleared his throat and casually said, "Keep an eye on the Mo family in Liuyang Village. If they encounter any difficulties, try to solve them if you can. If not... find a way to help them!"
Liuyang Village's Mo family? That Mo family from Liuyang Village? Xiao Shiyi was somewhat puzzled. Why would his master issue such a strange command?
Xiao Ruiyuan's expression darkened, and he said coldly, "What? Is this task too difficult for you?"
"No, no, no, I obey your orders!" Xiao Shiyi's scalp tingled, and he didn't have time to think too much. He quickly agreed.
Xiao Ruiyuan nodded in satisfaction, waved his hand, and gestured for him to leave.
Even when Xiao Shiyi walked out of the study, he couldn't figure out why his master had given such an order. However, he couldn't ask anyone else about it. Fortunately, Liuyang Village wasn't a dangerous place, and it wasn't a particularly important matter. Assigning two ordinary guards would be enough.
In the study, only Xiao Ruiyuan remained. He gently opened the drawer beside the desk and took out a small square box about the size of a palm. Opening the box revealed a plain apricot-colored purse lying quietly inside. The purse was well-preserved, without a single wrinkle, looking as new as ever.
It was the same purse that Mo Yan had used as a makeshift envelope when sending a message through Xiao Hua.
Xiao Ruiyuan took out the purse and looked at the small black cat embroidered with black silk thread on it, a deep smile crossing his lips. Finally, he closed the box and threw it back into the drawer, carefully tucking the not-so-attractive purse into his pocket.
Meanwhile, Mo Yan, who was discussing whether to raise the price of grain with Li Zhong, was not particularly pleased to see nearly eight taels more silver in the account book compared to yesterday.
Li Zhong's expression wasn't great either. "I went to various grain shops today and found that most of them have raised prices by one or two wen, while a few have raised them by a whole ten wen. The ones with smaller increases still have some inventory left, while those with larger increases have just been transported from elsewhere, so their cost prices are much higher."
Mo Yan rubbed the ancient jade mark on her palm in silence for a moment. She roughly understood that as long as the war continued, the price of grain would continue to rise. Therefore, many people were hoarding grain while it was still cheap. Now, the grain shops were doing well, and it seemed that none of them were struggling.
If her shop didn't raise prices, it would definitely arouse suspicion from other grain shops, as they might think she had a cheaper source of grain. In the short term, it was fine, but if the war lasted too long, the price of grain would definitely rise again.
To maximize profits, those grain shops would surely target their "cheap grain source." In that case, her secret would be at risk of exposure, which was absolutely unacceptable!
However, the cost of their grain was almost negligible, so she couldn't take advantage of the situation to make a fortune.
"In that case, let's raise the prices. For glutinous rice, corn, and flour, we'll follow the prices of other grain shops. As for rice, we won't raise the price for now. We'll sell a limited amount each day, with each person limited to buying five catties."
"Limited?" Li Zhong frowned at Mo Yan, puzzled. The best-selling item in their shop was rice. It could be said that most of their daily income came from rice. If they didn't raise the price and limited sales, they would lose a lot of income every day.
Mo Yan nodded helplessly. "Let's do it for now! If other grain shops raise their prices again in the future, we'll raise the price of rice by another two wen and continue with the limited sales. This way, it won't be too conspicuous. Other shops will just think that the Mo Family's Fragrant Rice is taking advantage of the opportunity to build a reputation."
Li Zhong also thought so. Seeing that Mo Yan had made up her mind and was unlikely to change it, he didn't say anything more. After all, this matter would be beneficial to the reputation of their grain shop. Just like those well-established brands, who hadn't accumulated a good reputation over many years?
The next day, Mo Family's Fragrant Rice changed the price tags uniformly, and a signboard limiting sales was also hung at the entrance.
The customers didn't have any objections to the price increase of grain, but they were unhappy that the rice, which wasn't raised in price, could only be purchased in limited quantities every day. Five catties of rice were only enough for a family of five to eat for a day and a half. For a family of seven or eight, wouldn't they have to come here every day?
Those wealthier families actually hoped that the price of rice would increase instead of being limited in sales. Therefore, when buying rice, they kept complaining to Li Zhong. Helpless, Li Zhong could only explain with a smile repeatedly, hoping they would understand the intentions behind Mo Family's Fragrant Rice.
Families with ordinary incomes, however, thought that Mo Family's Fragrant Rice was very generous. They only needed to come here once a day, saving them ten wen. Over a month, they could buy a whole new set of clothes for their children! They felt that with such a generous boss, they wouldn't be cheated with inferior quality or spoiled grain. Therefore, they willingly came here every day.
When this matter reached the ears of other grain shop owners, many of them ridiculed the owner of Mo Family's Fragrant Rice for being a fool who didn't make money when he had the chance. However, they didn't suspect that the Mo family had another cheap source of grain. Therefore, for some time, Mo Yan continued to transfer grain from her space to the warehouse.
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