Records of Mysterious Things in the Southern Dynasties

Chapter 403 Rice Elephant Lady and General Lushu
"This process is very efficient and reasonable," Ren Yuan said with a smile, tucking the ledger into his pocket.

"That's right, we've done it many times, we've all gained experience." The shopkeeper didn't see anything wrong with it. It was perfectly reasonable for the owner to want to take the accounts back to review them.

"Is there any old grain in the warehouse that needs to be delivered?" Ren Yuan asked again.

"Yes, they're loading the ship right now," the foreman said, pointing to the busy workers.

Ren Yuan beckoned, and the supervisor quickly called over a worker who placed a heavy bag of grain in front of Ren Yuan.

The brand-new burlap sack was clearly printed with the two red characters 'Military Rations,' exactly the same as the one Ren Yuan had seen at the dock. However, even without supernatural powers, one could smell the pungent, stale odor, completely unlike the fresh grain aroma he had smelled at the dock.

Ren Yuan then waved his hand and cut open a bag, and the yellow rice flowed out with a gurgling sound. Much of it was moldy, and the grains had turned bluish-gray.

“This will kill people,” he said, frowning.

"It's alright, just rinse it a few more times, and it'll taste the same once it's cooked." The manager said nonchalantly, "Don't our men always eat this?"

"..." Ren Yuan's face flushed red, and then he remembered that he was an imposter, and his conscience stopped hurting.

"Besides, if officials aren't afraid, why should we care?" The person in charge maintained a nonchalant attitude throughout.

"We've been doing this for a year now, and I haven't heard of any problems with the food. The employer can rest assured."

"Sigh." Ren Yuan sighed. He looked at the dead fish floating on the river; they must have gotten there from eating the spilled, moldy grain. How could people possibly be okay after eating so much of that?
~~
As dusk fell, Ren Yuan returned to the inn where he had stayed. Chen Baxian and Yang Zhong had already returned.

"How is it?" Ren Yuan asked while wiping his face with a damp towel.

"I infiltrated the grain ship and checked; it was indeed all new rice from last year, not a single bag of old rice," Chen Baxian replied.

"The transport commissioner is very strict. He won't accept rice that isn't new, and the rice that is sent to the granary is naturally new rice."

“But what I saw over there was quite the opposite.” Yang Zhong nodded and said, “There were two groups of people transporting grain to the military depot today. The ships were full of old millet, and the smell was really strong.”

"That's strange. How come the rice that was supposed to be new turned into old millet when it arrived?" Chen Baxian said, stroking his chin.

"The secret is with me." Ren Yuan then recounted what he had seen and heard at the rice shop to the two of them.

"So this should be a corruption case involving the military supply line?" Chen Baxian suddenly realized.

"More or less," Ren Yuan nodded.

"How can these bastards be so reckless?" Yang Zhong frowned, thinking to himself that they were really disgracing their peers.

“Then you should ask them,” Ren Yuan said coldly. “Go and take another look at the military granary.”

"I'll lead the way." Yang Zhong hurriedly led the way, bringing the three of them to the southwest corner of the city, outside a huge warehouse.

"This used to be the state's granary, but it was later requisitioned by the military to be used as a grain depot," Yang Zhong explained softly.

"Wait here, I'll go in and take a look." Ren Yuan said and disappeared before their eyes, and A Yao naturally disappeared as well.

Yang Zhong and Chen Baxian couldn't help but secretly admire it; this ability to shift stars was just too cool.

As for A Yao, she doesn't teleport; she's just so fast you can't see her...

~~
The night was as still as water, and the granary was deathly silent.

The soldiers in charge of the warehouse had already locked the warehouse door and gone to eat in the front.

Ren Yuan walked straight through the wall and entered the granary.

Upon entering, they disturbed the Rice Elephant Lady and the Granary Rat General who were enshrined in the granary. The Rice Elephant Lady was depicted as a woman in green, the mother of countless rice weevils. If she was not worshipped, the grain in the granary would be ruined by the rice weevils.

General Linshu is a giant humanoid rat wearing golden armor, riding a horse made of rotten grass, and commanding three thousand rat soldiers. Worshiping him is not only to prevent rat infestations, but also because rats can warn of fires, thus having a fire prevention function.

In addition, the two local deities would also guard their own small plot of land to prevent anyone from stealing from the granary.

"Hey! Where did this petty thief come from?!" General Linshu rode his horse down from the beam and raised his hammer to strike, but Ren Yuan stuck a freezing talisman on his face, and with a splat, he fell stiffly to the ground.

Rice Elephant Lady hurriedly spread her wide sleeves, releasing thousands of rice elephant insects. A Yao struck out with her palm, and the resulting gust of wind swept all the rice elephant insects back onto her.

With a series of splattering sounds, Rice Elephant Lady was instantly covered in sticky fluid, feeling as if she wanted to vomit.

"Immortal, spare our lives!" General Linshu quickly begged for mercy. "We received offerings from others, so we had to put on a show. We didn't mean to actually fight against you, Immortal."

“That’s right, we’re just a rat and a rice weevil, who can we hurt?” Rice Elephant Lady said pitifully, “At most, we’ll just disgust people. Ugh…”

"I'll ask you a few questions. Answer them truthfully and you'll live," Ren Yuan said in a deep voice.

"Please ask, Immortal?" The two minor deities nodded hurriedly.

"Are you clear about the condition of the grain in the warehouse?" Ren Yuan asked.

"Of course." Lady Rice Elephant and General Granary Rat nodded and said, "The condition of the grain cannot be hidden from Rice Weevils and Granary Rat."

"How much old grain is in this warehouse?" Ren Yuan asked.

"This warehouse contains eight thousand shi of grain, three thousand shi of old grain, and five thousand shi of new grain." General Linshu knew exactly what was going on.

"There's still so much new grain?" Ren Yuan asked, somewhat surprised. "How much of the grain recently distributed to the soldiers was new, and how much was old?"

“It’s mostly old grain,” Rice Elephant Lady replied.

Has it always been like this?

“It was fine before. At first, it was three parts old and seven parts new. Later, it became half new and half old. Then it became three parts new and seven parts old again. The only time it was truly all old was this month,” the two gods replied.

~~
Guided by the two gods, Ren Yuan inspected the military rations in the granary and found that most of them were new grain, while a small portion was old grain. However, the two demon gods only knew about the changes in the quality of the grain and were unaware of its whereabouts.

Ren Yuan then froze the two demon gods, put them into his sleeve, and then flashed to the front yard to investigate the night watch room.

He could smell the aroma of wine and meat wafting from the room from afar, and he could also hear a woman's coquettish laughter.

Ren Yuan concealed himself and went into the room. Good heavens, the banquet had already begun.

Inside the room were six men and six women. The women were all dressed in very revealing clothes, some with seductive glances and others with a demure, feminine air; they were likely girls summoned from a brothel. Among the men, two were dressed as merchants, and four wore military robes from the Liang Dynasty, but with black headscarves; they were probably warehouse clerks.

The table was laden with chicken, duck, fish, crab, fine wine, and other delicacies—a truly sumptuous feast. The four storehouse clerks, served by the young ladies, ate tofu and drank wine, radiating pure bliss.

"I wouldn't trade this life for even a god's blessing..." Big Tooth took a sip of the 'skin cup wine' fed to him by the girl, and happily shook his head.

"Master Liu is too kind," a merchant with a mustache said with a smile. "It is really impolite to entertain such an important guest here."

"Yes, yes, we had already booked a private room at Qianfeng Restaurant, but the four gentlemen insisted on having their staff stay on duty, so we had to have them bring it over." Another round-faced businessman also said with a smile, "This is not a banquet, just a casual meal."

"Yes, yes, it's just a simple meal." The man with the mustache nodded quickly.

(End of this chapter)