Border Soldiers: My granaries are full of grain and meat, and I guard this region.

Back at the Ye Family Restaurant, Qi Feng summoned Ye Zhiwan and instructed her to be vigilant at night. He also told Ye Ling Shuang and Yu You Rong to lock the doors and windows properly.

The three understood the meaning behind Qi Feng's words and became somewhat nervous.

"Husband, is something the matter?"

Yu Yourong nervously gripped Qi Feng's arm and asked.

Qi Feng shook his head, signaling the others to relax.

"It's nothing, just something to keep an eye on. I'll handle it, don't worry."

Having received Qi Feng's reply, the three women felt somewhat relieved.

Nothing much happened for the next three days; everything went smoothly.

Just after midnight tonight, Qi Feng was awakened by an extremely faint sound.

Qi Feng immediately got out of bed, grabbed the dagger from beside his pillow, and climbed out the window.

Qi Feng stood barefoot on the wooden board without making a sound.

After listening intently for a while, I realized that the noise was coming from the backyard.

He walked along the wall to the window, pushed it open a crack, and looked out. He found that the door to the small hut in the backyard where the wine vats and jars were kept was still locked, but the window next to it was open, and a figure was crouching down, trying to climb over the window.

Qi Feng remained silent, picked up his dagger, and quietly slipped past the side door.

The man's feet made no sound as he stepped into the mud. He had barely crawled halfway into the house when Qi Feng appeared behind him, grabbed his collar, and pulled him back.

Before the man could react, he was thrown to the ground, his head slamming heavily against the threshold, causing him to cry out in pain.

Qi Feng pressed one knee against his chest, the dagger against his neck, and finally saw the man's face clearly by the moonlight. He had a thin, long face and a scar on his nose. It was the man Ye Zhiwan had mentioned before.

Qi Feng narrowed his eyes and said in a deep voice, "Who are you? Who sent you?"

The man took a couple of breaths. The pain in the back of his head made him dizzy, but what bothered him more was the cold, sharp sensation on his neck.

"I am one of General Huang's men. Someone sent me to steal the recipe, to steal the recipe for Qi wine."

Qi Feng stared into his eyes for a while, confirming he wasn't lying, then asked, "General Huang's man? What's his name? Who came to make contact with you?"

"I don't know them. I don't recognize any of the people who come here. They just give me silver and tell me to come and steal the recipe."

Qi Feng remained silent for a moment before releasing his knee from Qi Feng's chest.

"Go back and tell your superiors that the recipe isn't in the restaurant. Coming back is pointless!"

The man scrambled over the courtyard wall and ran away without looking back.

Qi Feng stood in the courtyard, closed the window again, and stomped out the muddy footprints on the ground before going back inside.

Ye Ling Shuang had already woken up and was standing by the window holding her sword. She breathed a sigh of relief when she saw Qi Feng come in.

"Who is it?"

"It's that thin, long-faced guy, the one You Rong mentioned who came to ask about the recipe."

Ye Ling Shuang's heart skipped a beat upon hearing this: "Where is he?"

"Letting him go is pointless; there's no point in arresting him. He's just a gofer, and we don't even know who's in charge. But at least one thing is certain now: Huang Dingyuan is the one eyeing the Qi wine recipe."

Yu Yourong was also awakened at this moment. She came to Qi Feng's side and said somewhat uneasily:

"Huang Dingyuan is a veteran general of Longxi Prefecture, my husband, wouldn't this be...?"

Qi Feng shook his head.

"Don't worry, no matter how powerful Huang Dingyuan is, he wouldn't dare to directly come and snatch my prescription. Now that we have the Zhong family as our backers, we don't need to worry too much."

Yu Yourong pursed her lips and said nothing more.

Ye Ling Shuang also put down her sword and pulled the blanket over her.

"Go to sleep first, we'll talk about it tomorrow morning."

Qi Feng nodded, but after lying down, he tossed and turned and couldn't fall asleep.

Huang Dingyuan's men stayed in Fuxing County for seven or eight days before finally making their move, which shows that Huang Dingyuan's patience was even greater than he had imagined.

The more this is the case, the more it indicates that Huang Dingyuan's big move is yet to come.

......

The cellar in the north of the city was dug over three days. The old craftsman and several helpers tamped it down firmly, and the entrance was sealed with bluestone slabs, leaving only a small door for ventilation.

Qi Feng went to check on them several times. The first time he saw them digging the cellar, the second time he saw them erecting the beams. Now the ceiling has been laid, and the dry grass is thick and flat underfoot.

Ye Ling Shuang stood at the cellar entrance and looked down, then turned to Qi Feng and said, "Storing three or four hundred catties of wine in this cellar is no problem. Adding the old one in the backyard of the restaurant, our production capacity can double."

Qi Feng squatted down by the cellar entrance and did some calculations.

"Doubling the supply won't work either. Once the shops in Linzhao City open, the local supply in Fuxing County will have to be reduced. But it's still better than before when we couldn't even supply the local area."

"Let's just keep doing this for now. We'll expand production again once this batch of wine is shipped out. Taking too big a step isn't necessarily a good thing."

Ye Ling Shuang nodded.

On his way back, Qi Feng passed by the street corner and saw several unfamiliar faces squatting at the foot of the city wall, sunbathing. They were dressed in dirty clothes and had unkempt hair.

Qi Feng glanced at it a couple more times, but didn't pay it any mind.

Back at the restaurant, Ye Zhiwan was calculating accounts behind the counter when she saw Qi Feng come in and quickly went over to him.

"Brother-in-law, two more merchants came today asking if we could buy wine. I told them that our production volume hasn't increased yet, and we'll have to wait until the shop in Linzhao City opens before we can talk about it."

Qi Feng nodded.

"Let's put it this way. The Zhong family's shop hasn't opened yet, so we can't break the rules. Besides, we've already promised the Zhong family that they'll be in charge of the Linzhao City branch."

Yu Yourong brought out a teacup from the backyard and handed it to him, casually mentioning it.

"There are a few more strangers on the street today; they don't look like locals."

Qi Feng took a sip of tea, his brows furrowing slightly.

"You saw it too?"

"Yes, when I was buying groceries this afternoon, I saw a few people carrying bundles at the city gate. Their clothes weren't thick, and their accents didn't sound like people from our area."

Qi Feng drank the tea in one gulp and began to ponder.

The next morning, Qi Feng went to the shop in the north of the city to check the dryness of the cellar. On the way, he met the same faces as yesterday, but this time there were five or six more men, women, and children.

A group of people crowded in front of a porridge shop in the north of the city, each person squatting on the ground with a bowl of thin porridge, slurping it down.

An elderly woman was holding a child in her arms; the child was so thin that his cheekbones were protruding.

Qi Feng walked over and struck up a conversation with the old man selling porridge at the shop entrance.

"Business has been good these past few days; we've had quite a few unfamiliar faces."

The old man shook his head, ladling porridge as he said without looking up, "A group of six or seven arrived last night. They said they came from the west. Their village was robbed and they couldn't stay there, so they fled east."

Qi Feng's heart skipped a beat upon hearing this, and he quickly pressed for details.

Which direction is west?

"They said it was somewhere further west from Qing Shi Ao, but I didn't ask which village it was. People move east every year, it's not surprising at all."