At the other end of the street, three handcarts were being pushed forward, each loaded with herbs.

The herbs were bundled up high, taller than a person.

Each cart was pushed by one man, and all three were drenched in sweat, the weight of the herbs on their carts clearly considerable.

Feng Jiu’er didn’t move forward right away — she stopped at a street stall.

Before long, someone opened the pharmacy’s front door from inside.

The three carts stopped in front of the pharmacy, one after another.

The woman from the day before stepped out, glanced left and right, then turned and went back in.

After waiting for about the time it takes an incense stick to burn, Feng Jiu’er and Qiao Mu stepped forward together toward the pharmacy.

Inside, there was only one person — a face Feng Jiu’er hadn’t seen before.

The man wiped away his sweat, and upon seeing someone enter, turned his head to look at them.

He glanced at Feng Jiu’er and Qiao Mu, said nothing, and went back to wiping his sweat, as if their arrival had nothing to do with him.

Voices drifted out from inside — the pharmacy woman’s, along with two men’s voices.

“Why is the price we agreed on yesterday different from today’s?” one man asked.

“Yesterday’s goods were yesterday’s goods, today’s are today’s,” the woman’s voice came from inside.

“And besides, I never said I’d take this much. You’ve suddenly sent over so much today — this is the only price it can be.”

“If it’s too much, take half back — I really can’t handle this much.”

“Shopkeeper, you can’t do this,” another man said.

“We’ve been working together this long, and you keep squeezing us like this — what exactly do you mean by it?”

“What do I mean?” the woman said. “You’re saying I’m exploiting you?”

“That’s a joke! Do you have any idea how much I actually make on a trip like this? I still have to dry these herbs myself, don’t I? Once they’re dried, there’s hardly any weight left to them.”

“Fine, never mind that — drying the herbs takes manpower too, doesn’t it?”

“And you know perfectly well this town can’t use up much in the way of herbs. Once I’ve dried them, I still have to send my husband off to other towns, going door to door looking for buyers.”

“If they want them, I make money — if they don’t, I take the loss, and a heavy one at that, you understand?”

“I’m the one carrying the real risk here. Take it or leave it!”

The man outside wiping his sweat turned to look inside and shook his head repeatedly.

But he didn’t go in either, seeming to know there was nothing he could accomplish by doing so.

The argument inside carried on; the man outside pulled over a chair and sat down without a word, sighing silently.

Seeing this, Qiao Mu gave Feng Jiu’er a light nudge.

Feng Jiu’er turned her head, raised an eyebrow, then looked away and walked on inside.

“Are you people from Panlong Stronghold?”

Feng Jiu’er had noticed something written on the back of this man’s neck — a single character, “Dragon.”

The man turned his head and looked toward Feng Jiu’er again.

Everyone likes a beautiful woman, but she’s not someone he could ever hope for, and the man hadn’t given her more than a glance before.

Hearing Feng Jiu’er’s words, he stood up, glanced back inside, then turned his head back and pointed at himself.

“Me? Are you speaking to me?”

Feng Jiu’er was strikingly good-looking, dressed impeccably, with an extraordinary bearing about her — the man could tell at a glance she was no ordinary commoner.

“Yes,” Feng Jiu’er said, stopping in front of him. “You bring herbs out of Panlong Stronghold to sell?”

The man was stunned for a moment, and once he’d finally recovered from the sight of Feng Jiu’er’s beauty, he nodded.

He hadn’t failed to notice the woman as lovely as a celestial being a moment ago, but he hadn’t been in the mood to look closely.

Now, with this celestial beauty speaking to him directly, standing only a step away, the man suddenly felt entirely out of his depth.

“Y-yes, that’s right,” the man said.

“I noticed your herbs just now look quite good. I wonder if you’d be willing to discuss a partnership with us?” Feng Jiu’er got straight to the point.

“P-partnership?” The man slowly stood up straighter. “Miss, what… what do you mean by partnership?”

“Longying Pharmacy — I wonder if you’ve heard of it, sir?” Feng Jiu’er said with a faint smile.

The man’s eyes went wide, and without thinking he wiped his hands on his clothes.

He was just a rough, uneducated man — when had anyone ever called him “sir”? And to have such words come from the mouth of such a beautiful woman, no less.

The man had no intention of shaking Feng Jiu’er’s hand, but he still felt his own hands were dirty and wanted badly to clean them properly.

“L-Longying… Pharmacy, of course I’ve… heard of it. That’s the… the biggest pharmacy in Yue City, with several branch stores, I hear.”

The man got the words out in fits and starts.

Indeed, Longying Pharmacy’s reputation in Yue City had only been growing.

It just hadn’t opened any branches in the northwest yet.

“Longying Pharmacy wants to open a shop in this town, and our people are currently looking for a suitable location,” Feng Jiu’er said.

“We happened to run into you, saw that your herbs looked good, so we came in to ask around.”

“The northwest gate branch absolutely must open, and if there’s a good source of local herbs nearby, that would be the icing on the cake.”

Feng Jiu’er had asked one of her men about the town the night before — despite the town having plenty of people, for some reason there were only two pharmacies, and neither was very large.

What’s more, even so, not many people actually went to either pharmacy.

Her man’s answer had been that the local physicians simply weren’t very skilled, so most people had no choice but to travel to other towns to see a doctor.

Over time, the herb trade in this town had simply withered away.

So it wasn’t that there was no demand — it was only that the physicians lacked the skill, which had ended up pushing the common people toward other towns instead.

“You’re from Longying?” the man’s voice grew a little urgent. “You’re really from Longying?”

“Yes,” Feng Jiu’er nodded without hesitation. “Though our people at Longying always handle things carefully — this isn’t something that can be settled with just a few words.”

“We have herbs.” The man excitedly reached out his hand.

But he caught himself — a celestial being like her wasn’t something a mortal like him could touch.

“Miss, we have a great many herbs.” The man gestured broadly. “We’ve cleared a lot of hillside, turned good farmland over to growing herbs.”

“Actually, our chief has been meaning to seek out whoever’s in charge at Longying Pharmacy, to see if we might work out some kind of deal.”

The man seemed to recall something and let out a soft breath.

“We used to be bandits, but…” His eyes gleamed as he looked up.

“We’ve been changing — you could say we’re completely different from what we used to be. Unless it’s stolen goods, we don’t rob anyone anymore.”

“Our chief led everyone in farming, and everyone worked hard at it. What was left over, we’d bring into the city to sell, to trade for whatever else we needed for daily life.”

“Later, our chief realized herbs were worth more than grain, so we started growing herbs instead.”

“After two or three years of learning, the herbs we grow now fetch us more silver than grain ever did.”

“It’s just that relying on such scattered, piecemeal trading, we still can’t quite make ends meet.”

The man turned to glance back at the open door, from which the sound of arguing still drifted.

“Miss, forgive us for making a poor showing! It’s not as if hard work alone is enough to earn people’s recognition.”

“Sigh!”