The Secret of Thundering Peaks (1)

Next morning Li Ming woke up early as she had one more matter to solve before her departure for the Thundering Peaks.

The crops and vegetables were already ready for harvesting and Li Ming needed to find a market place for selling them.

At sunrise, Li Ming visited the fields. She tested the vegetables & the crops and as she had predicted, they had high amount of spiritual energy in them.

Li Ming gave Sir Liu orders for starting the harvesting of the crops and plucking the veggies.

The fruit trees were too almost ready for bearing fruits. Li Ming added a new potion in the soil to give them a boost.

After her morning visit to the fields, Li Ming left the Dongji village and went straight to the Black Jade Inn.

She had received a message from Elder Fu that Wei Rong and his group of friends were going to visit the Black Jade Inn.

After she appeared in the inn, she went through the inn's business, which was becoming stronger and firmer by the passing days.

During noon, Li Ming received her group of friends at the entrance of the inn.

After all of them settled in the main room, Li Ming took out two cartons of beer and passed the cans around the ground.

"So, anything special you guys wanted from me?" Li Ming asked as she opened her can of beer.

"Ming! Don't insult us like this! We just want to spend some time with our friend who keep disappearing from the black market every now and then." Bai Liang said with a sad face.

Listening to Bai Liang's words, Li Ming felt bad in her heart. This group was the only ones whom she could call her friends. In past five months, they had never treated her badly even though all of them were from noble families and far more rich than her.

"It's not like that!" Li Ming tried to defend herself. But in reality she didn't have much to say in her defense.

"Hey! It's alright. We're not blaming you. Just remember to try to appreciate it when we give our special and precious time to you." Wei Rong said in a soft voice as he lightly ruffled her hair.

"Alright, Alright! Stop making me feel bad. I'm really thankful to all of you for including me in your friend circle." Li Ming said with real appreciation in her voice as she sipped her beer.

"Hey! All of you. Stop making little Ming upset!" Wei Min said to all his friends as he looked at the sad face of Li Ming.

The group continued to talk as they all drank their beers. After half an hour and having a nice and warm lunch, everyone decided to play a few rounds.

This time Li Ming decided to continue the Snakes and Ladders game. Wei Rong was already somewhat familiar with this one.

And it was not that hard to understand the game of snakes and ladders.

Just in within an hour, every single person in the group was engrossed deeply in the game.

It was already evening by the time they all finally decided to wrap up for the day.

"Before leaving, I have an important matter to discuss with you guys!" Li Ming said as she put the game board aside.

"What's that?" Yan Jhong asked as he sipped his tea.

"From where do you guys buy raw food materials?" Li Ming asked as she looked seriously at the boys.

The boys looked at each other and then at Li Ming.

"We never paid attention to that. All the things related to kitchen is taken care by the Head maid or our mothers." Wei Rong finally answered.

Li Ming sighed deeply and shook her head. "Whatever! Forget about my question!"

"But why did you ask?" Bai Liang asked.

A small smile appeared on her face as she looked at the boys. Though they couldn't see her smile because of the veil but the look in her eyes was telling them that they were again going to get robbed.

(A/n : These guys have great instincts)

After an hour, the group left the Black Jade Inn. Li Ming looked at the papers in her hand and smiled.

Having rich Young Masters as friends was really nice. She no more needed to worry about finding a market for her crops and vegetables.

Now, she had contracts from eight noble families who were now her permanent dealers.

She had made the Young Masters to agree to buy the fresh raw food from her fields in twice the market rate and not only that but the cost of transportation was also not her headache, since the buyers would bear that on their own.

After leaving the Black Jade Inn, Li Ming visited the Fourth Prince's manor at the outskirts of the imperial city and made another contract with the head servant of the manor. But this time the price was four times more than the normal market price.

But it was not a problem for the Prince manor. The servants were already familiar with Li Ming and they all treated her with respect.

The steward agreed to all her demands without even asking a single question. All of this barely took her about half an hour.

By the time Li Ming teleported herself and Ruoshan to the Thundering Peaks, it was already getting dark. She had teleported them to the same location where they had stopped their search for herbs on their previous visit.

"So, what's the plan?" Ruoshan asked as he looked around the dark forest.

"Wait."

"Huh?" Ruoshan looked at Li Ming with confusion.

"We are going to wait." Li Ming said as she sat down on a large rock with crossed legs.

Ruoshan sighed softly as he took his seat on the rock beside her.