As A Xuan spoke, a glint flashed in his eyes. It was almost exactly when the Pingyun army surrounded Liaozhou—by then, his injuries had already healed.
That night, Madam Hua made him a bowl of noodles with a poached egg. Then she asked him to search for her daughter, saying: if he found her, he should take the trouble to escort her back to Liujing; if not, he should find his own path and not return.
Madam Hua truly was a kind-hearted person. It was because of this that he went to great lengths to find Hua Le.
Murong Yun listened to all this, and her heart sank. That meant—both Hua Yan and Hua Wu were now missing.
The commander of Pingyun surely knew all this—that’s why he chose to surround the city without attacking, aiming to wear it down. By then, he could take it without lifting a finger.
What a vicious strategy. But by calculation, the siege has lasted less than ten days—why are the people of Liaozhou already starving like ghosts?
Logically speaking, even in this situation, the rice supplies from all the major grain shops shouldn’t have been depleted so quickly.
Murong Yun thought of this and looked puzzled. A'Xuan saw her confusion and understood what she was wondering about.
"Miss Lei probably doesn’t know—Liaozhou had barely any rice left even a month ago."
A'Xuan thought that waiting for the meal was boring, so he might as well chat with Murong Yun.
"What does that mean?"
Murong Yun was indeed drawn in by A'Xuan’s words. After she pressed him, he instead took a slow sip of tea, looking as though he was deliberately keeping her in suspense.
What’s so good about plain boiled water? There’s not even a snack to go with the tea—how could it have any flavor.
Murong Yun had no patience for his cryptic theatrics and turned instead to Cao Lingzhi, who sat quietly and obediently nearby.
“You’ve been in the city all along—you should know what’s going on, right?”
Seeing Murong Yun ask a question, Cao Lingzhi immediately straightened her back and quickly nodded, beginning to explain the situation to her.
It turns out that a month ago, a wealthy merchant came to Liaozhou to buy grain. At first, he simply offered prices higher than the market rate, and no one paid much attention.
After a few days of buying, the money-loving grain merchants had already sold off most of their stock. They even laughed behind the buyer’s back, thinking him foolish—after all, it was less than a hundred li to the next city, where they could easily restock with fresh rice.
It was practically a profit-without-cost deal. Father Cao's got involved too, even selling the newly acquired rice from outside the city. Thinking of this, Cao Lingzhi’s expression turned bitter.
Things started to spiral out of control. The price of rice kept rising—double, triple, five times… even tenfold!
Later on, the common people of Liaozhou couldn’t help but sell off the rice they had stored at home. At that time, the city hadn’t yet been surrounded, and people preferred to go to nearby villages to buy vegetables rather than eat a single grain of rice.
By the end, rice was more expensive than meat. Everyone had been eating vegetables for half a month, and nearly every person in Liao Prefecture looked pale and sickly.
It was only when the general returned from the camp outside the city that he realized something was wrong. He rushed to stop it and even sent soldiers to arrest the wealthy grain merchant—but the merchant had already fled with all the city’s grain. How could they catch him?
Later, the general transferred some military grain to the general’s residence just in case. Then, because villages outside the city were repeatedly looted, and upon learning that soldiers from Pingyun had openly raided them, he led part of his troops to suppress the unrest.
But unexpectedly, not long after, the young miss and third young master of the general’s household disappeared one after the other—and things slowly came to this point…
Murong Yun was utterly stunned after hearing all this. Who said the people of Pingyun were just barbarians who raised sheep and cattle? With tactics like these—economic and price-based sanctions—they seemed far too clever in her eyes.
But with such a big commotion, as far as she knew, every city had officials responsible for regulating prices.
“It’s gotten this strange—doesn’t the city lord of Liaozhou care?”
If the city lord had even a bit of sense, he wouldn’t have watched grain prices rise like this. As the saying goes—when something’s abnormal, there’s always something sinister behind it.
“Of course he was in charge, but unfortunately the city lord had been bedridden for days, and city affairs were temporarily handed over to his only son and a group of officials."
This time, it was A'Xuan who answered. Perhaps because Cao Lingzhi had previously jumped in with a detailed explanation, he hadn’t had a chance to speak—so now, he didn’t bother playing coy.
“What a pity—that only son is a greedy good-for-nothing!”
As A Xuan spoke, a trace of sarcasm curled at his lips. Perhaps it was an attempt to build a political achievement—or maybe Liaozhou was simply too poor.
“He actually took advantage of the city lord’s illness and coma to sell off all the rice from the official granary, claiming it was a small gamble for a big return—he’d just buy it back from elsewhere.”
Just listening to it made Murong Yun feel thoroughly vexed—this son was truly a headache, even more delusional than some of the useless ones in Liujing.
As for what happened next, Murong Yun didn’t even need to ask—things had clearly gone off the rails.
No wonder—Liaozhou had only been sealed off for less than ten days, and it had already fallen into such a miserable state.
They made quite a bit of money selling rice, but now—even with gold—you couldn’t buy a single grain.
The human heart is never satisfied—like a snake trying to swallow an elephant. Those who sold off everything back then are probably starving at home now.
In a way, this was simply reaping what they had sown…
Once Liaozhou was surrounded and turned into a dead city, and the army broke through the gates, all the money made from selling rice would be easily taken back.
Now that’s what you call a zero-cost trade—he managed to profit an entire city. Murong Yun had to admit, she was outmatched.
“So? Now you see how wise I am, don’t you?”
After speaking, A'Xuan tilted his chin at Murong Yun, a smug smile playing at his lips.
Murong Yun knew—he was talking about that cart of grain he’d brought with such effort.
“Yes, yes, yes—A Xuan, you really are wise.”
Murong Yun gave him a perfunctory compliment—clearly insincere to the naked eye. But A'Xuan, rarely praised by her, was already quite satisfied.
Just then, Wang Ru came back from arranging the meal, flanked by two old maids and carrying the food box herself.
The scent of warm food hit her, and her stomach growled right on cue. Murong Yun had endured real hardship—half a month gone, and she hadn’t had more than a handful of hot meals.
But it wasn’t as lavish as Murong Yun had imagined—just bowls of plain noodle soup, without even a single leaf of greens. If anything stood out, it was the fried egg on top.
Other than that, there wasn’t even a trace of oil.
Murong Yun took one look and understood why Wang Ru had wasted away. In a city like this, even a few bowls of plain noodle soup might spark a fight in the streets.
“Miss Lei, it’s just some coarse food—please don’t take offense."
Wang Ru personally placed a bowl of noodle soup in front of Murong Yun, her face tinged with embarrassment.
She was the one who had saved her beloved daughter’s life—yet now, the best food she could offer was plain noodle soup…
In addition to the noodle soup, she also brought out a plate of pickled vegetables.
A Xuan was quite fond of the plain noodle soup—he didn’t mind it at all, and even paired it thoughtfully with pickled vegetables.
“Not at all—you’ve gone to such trouble, Madam.”
Seeing this, Murong Yun certainly didn’t show any disdain. Instead, she picked up the noodles with her chopsticks and began to eat.
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