The Big Landlord

Happy New Years Eve! (ﾉ^ヮ^)ﾉ*:・ﾟ✧

Chapter 54 - To Acquire Foodstuff

An Zi Ran's plan to stockpile provisions was passed down to his subordinates as an order. Manager Feng and the other shopkeepers were doubtful at first, but they still carried out their orders.

Manager Feng and the other managers have been immersed in the rice business for over two decades now. The least experienced shopkeeper that worked under An Chang Fu still had a minimum of five to six years of experience. An Chang Fu had once sent out disaster money and instructed his managers to make connections with a number of rice merchants. Now that An Chang Fu has passed away, those contacts remained in the managers' hands.

Buying large amounts of grain would definitely attract the attention of others, but in the case of the An family, there was no big problem.

A while ago, the An family had undergone some major reforms.

Not only did they waive the debts of the denizens of An Yuan County, but they also overhauled the interest system when it came to borrowing rice. In the past, it was so scary. Any farmer that borrowed rice would be deep in debt, but nowadays it wasn't even one-tenth as bad.

The farmers who couldn't eat rice because the rice paddies were not yet ready for harvest were very happy. So there was a frenzy of rice borrowing, and the specific amount of rice borrowed was only known to An Zi Ran himself.

However, the advantage was that many people knew that there was not much rice left in the An family's rice shops.

An Zi Ran had the managers use the excuse of restocking the rice shops to purchase grains for storage.

This move not only did not attract the attention of those rice merchants, but also got their understanding and sympathy. This result really surprised the managers.

Manager Feng could not help but think of the conversation he had that day with Boss Chen when he went to collect grains.

"Old Feng ah, since An Chang Fu's death, the reins of the An family changed hands to the young landlord and things went from bad to worse. Not much money is made; instead a lot of things were given away. I am really worried about you!" The owner of Da Guang Rice Shop, Chen, said to Manager Feng.

Manager Feng only smiled without speaking.

They had no right to interfere with the landlord's decision. As long as the landlord could pay their salaries on time, then they had no objections. The young landlord's actions did seem to harm the interests of the family, however, from the perspective of long-term development, his actions were not only not harmful to the family, but also beneficial.

Boss Chen thought that he was being considerate, and he advised, "Manager Feng, the An family is beginning to go downhill, and there is no future in staying there. Instead of being instructed by some wet behind the ears child, why not come here to help? You are a personal talent. I guarantee that you will never be treated badly."

"Thank you for your consideration, Boss Chen, but I have been working for the An family for over twenty years now, and I'm a bit reluctant to leave," Manager Feng said with a sense of pride.

Boss Chen laughed. "Manager Feng does not have to worry about it. You can think about my offer for a while. Da Guang Rice Shop will welcome you at any time."

"I will take your offer into careful consideration. Ah, that's right, how much rice can Boss Chen sell to me?" Manager Feng switched the topic, but he did not wait for Boss Chen to answer before letting out a sigh and putting on a face of worry. "The young landlord gave each of us a quota, if I cannot meet that goal in one trip then I will have to run around to other places."

Boss Chen hesitated and thought about it. "How much rice does Manager Feng need?"

Manager Feng lightly gave him the number.

Boss Chen narrowed his eyes until they nearly became invisible, and revealed the deceitfulness of an unscrupulous businessman. "The appetite of the young landlord is too great. Can he really swallow this number*?"

[*T/N: "Can he really pay for this much rice?"]

Manager Feng said helplessly, "To be honest, I can no longer guess what the young landlord is thinking. I can only carry out the orders that he gives."

Boss Chen did not think about it too much. An Zi Ran made a lot of decisions that seemed absurd in their eyes ever since he took over as landlord, and now he wanted to buy a large quantity of rice. He was still young and not very experience. He had no vision. Since Boss Chen did not know about the things happening in Chang Province, he naturally did not think about it.

"Very well, I will sell it to you for your sake Manager Feng."

If one is not willing to part with their child then they cannot lure the wolf. In order to move Manager Feng and have him come work for him, Boss Chen decided to help him reach his quota. Da Guang Rice Shop was one of the largest rice shops in Wan Shan County, and that amount of rice was still available.

Manager Feng's face showed a look of joy. "Thank you very much, Boss Chen."

Boss Chen smiled and said, "As long as Manager Feng thinks about my proposal."

Manager Feng nodded, "Yes, I will consider it."

Manager Feng paid for half of the rice as deposit. The money was taken from the An family's cellar. It was all real money and silver. It had accumulated for many years and was more than enough to buy food. Boss Chen also promised to send the rice to An Yuan County in ten days.

Manager Feng walked out of the rice shop, when he looked back at the shop the smile on his face had already disappeared.

Boss Chen's generosity was within his calculations. His mouth said that he admired Manager Feng's talent, but what he was really after was the contacts in his hands. Who didn't know that back in the day when An Chang Fu wanted to dredge up money, he went all over the place to clear the way? Now that he was dead, there were only a few left who still knew the way.

Manager Feng worked the longest for the An family. An Chang Fu rarely treated him badly. Although he didn't trust him as much as Steward Su, he trusted him almost as much, so he held quite the information in his hands, and it was some of the best.

Boss Chen knew how to calculate. Obtaining Manager Feng was the same as obtaining the knowledge in his hands.

Manager Feng could see the situation very clearly in his heart. If the young landlord was still that fat one of before, then he would definitely consider Da Guang Rice Shop, but now the young landlord was more far-sighted and more appealing than An Chang Fu. He wanted to follow him and see how things panned out. If problems arise in the future it wouldn't be too late to leave then.

The situations of the other managers did not go as well as his.

It wasn't that they couldn't get any rice at all, but there weren't many big rice shops like Da Guang Rice Shop.

When it came to the rice-selling business, no matter which rice seller it was, they would want to keep some grains in reservoir, so it was impossible to sell out all their stock. Therefore, several of the managers had no choice but to run around making several trips.

But these were all just postscripts.

After the conversation with Fu Wu Tian that day, Ge Qian An was ordered to go to Chang Province.

This trip wasn't for managing the disaster. It was only an investigative trip. In accordance with An Zi Ran's words, they only needed to send one person. Shao Fei was not a careful person, so he could only listen and stay behind.

After lunch, An Zi Ran took a break and prepared to go out.

Fu Wu Tian had completely turned into a leisurely person since he arrived at An Yuan County. He had not seen to any official business during this period, so Fang Jun Ping was more and more certain that he may be a businessman of some small business. However, ever since An Zi Ran laid down the law with them, they've temporarily settled down and behaved.

An Zi Ran did not pay too much attention to them. On the contrary, it was Wang Qing Lan that he must take note of. This woman was too clever. He suspected that the death of the original An Zi Ran might have to do with her, but there was no evidence, so he could only let Steward Su keep a better eye on her.

"Where are we going?"

Fu Wu Tian came up beside him. Following behind step for step was Shao Fei.

An Zi Ran straightened his sleeves, and then answered, "I'm going to patrol the An family's fields." In addition to renting farmland to farmers, there were still many fields belonging to the An family. Those fields were taken care of by hired help. A portion of it was Japonica rice while the rest were glutinous rice. The price of glutinous rice was generally higher, and more for the wealthy people to enjoy.

When An Chang Fu was still alive, he attached great importance to this piece of land and he went to the field two or three times a month. He was relived to see that the growth of rice was very good.

In the end, a line of one person became a line of three people.

Hey wonderful people! Good news for the Chinese BL community. I recently picked up a new translation project titled

It’s a fast transmigration story. I’ve been hooked on those ever since I finished FOD, and I MTL’ed a couple of stories on jjwxc even though it hurt my brain, but it was enough to understand the general contents of the story.

Some of the stories were okay. They had elements that I liked, but overall didn’t quite hit the spot for me. I might translate teasers for some of them if anyone is interested. Even if a certain story is not my exact cup of tea, it could still be someone else’s favorite.

Then I found stories that I liked. LMStB is one of them. I’ve only read two arcs so far, but I really like how doting and supportive the ML is. I’ve decided to pause in my MTL, and read the rest of the story as I translate, because as I am translating LMStB I’m picking up on details that made me go “ohh, so that’s what was happening.” I feel like knowing these little things made me appreciate the story that much more.

Chapter 1 of LMStB is now up. Chapter 2 will be up tomorrow in celebration of the new year. I hope next year will be a wonderful year. Cheers! 🍺

~ Muse