Chu Zhongtian wasn’t willing to give up just like that. “Brother Wang, is there any way to get some more salt permits?” he asked.

Wang Fu shook his head and forced a smile. “It wouldn’t have been an issue in the past, but brother Chu knows that we’ve already suffered serious losses from the plundering of our trade station by the foreign tribes. We were barely able to scrape together this batch of salt permits with what little grain we still had stored up. It is completely impossible to purchase another batch of them.”

Chu Zhongtian sank back into his chair. He felt as if he had aged a decade or more. “What can we do to make sure we can sell our salt this year?”

Deep down, he already knew that nothing could be done. He only asked this for the sake of it.

Wang Fu clenched his teeth and said, “Brother Chu, I might have a way.”

“What is it?” Chu Zhongtian asked hastily.

Wang Fu said, “I’ve already prevented any news pertaining to the theft of the salt permits from leaking out. I won’t ever admit it no matter what, so I’ll just pretend no salt permits were stolen. Let’s use next year’s salt...