Chapter 102

Chapter 102

Wang Ying gently set Yuanbao down, then rose to open the door.

"Qing Yun, why are you still awake at this late hour?"

Chen Qingyun hesitated, then drew a small pouch from her bosom and offered it to him. "This jade was a gift from my maternal grandfather. I hear it's quite valuable. Since we're away from home, my sister-in-law has to manage all our expenses. I can't be of much help, but if funds run low, you can pawn this jade."

"No need, we're not that desperate yet. Take it back for now. If we truly run out of money, your sister-in-law will ask you for it."

Still, Chen Qingyun pressed the pouch into his hand and hurried away.

Wang Ying opened the pouch. The jade pendant inside was translucent and clearly precious. He felt a surge of emotion; Qing Yun had considered everything so thoughtfully. The young girl had truly grown up.

Not daring to be careless with such a valuable item, Wang Ying quickly placed it in the Experimental Field.

Now that they were settled, he would find time tomorrow to write a few letters to their relatives. He wondered about the situation in the county. He also needed to send letters to Fourth Uncle and Uncle Qing Yan.

With such a devastating flood and their sudden departure, if they didn't inform their family, they might assume everyone had drowned.

Tomorrow, he also needed to search for shops. It was already mid-August. After harvesting all the wheat from the Experimental Field, they had planted seasonal vegetables. The first batch would be ready for market by October, so he needed to secure a good storefront in the meantime.

Extinguishing the candle, Wang Ying held his son close and slept soundly until dawn.

*

Meanwhile, Chen Rong and the others followed their son-in-law back to the county town.

Due to the severe devastation around Longquan County, there were surprisingly fewer refugees—most people had perished.

As their carriage approached the city gate, they saw that the corpses outside had mostly been cremated, leaving only piles of scorched earth.

Chen Rong asked, "What was burned outside the city?"

Lin Qiu whispered, "Dead people."

"Dead people?"

"When we left, the area outside the city walls was covered with bodies washed in by the flood. They were so densely packed it made your skin crawl."

Chen Rong was startled. She hadn't thought much of it before asking, but now a cold sweat broke out on her back.

Inside the city, the streets were sparsely populated. The few passersby they saw were all hurrying along. Compared to the days when they had left, the atmosphere felt entirely different. She wondered what had happened.

Cao Kun quickly drove the carriage home. As they reached the front gate, they saw two or three people loitering outside, acting suspiciously.

"What are you doing?!" he shouted, startling them into fleeing.

Lin Qiu leaned out and asked, "What were those people doing at our doorstep?"

"Nothing good, for sure," Cao Kun replied, taking out his keys to unlock the door. He noticed signs of tampering with the lock. Those people had likely been trying to break in and steal while they were away. Fortunately, they had returned in time to prevent it.

He quickly drove the carriage into the yard and went inside to inspect. There were no signs of the house being ransacked; it seemed they hadn’t succeeded.

"Qiu'er, take Mother and little brother to get settled. I'll return the horse and then stop by my mother's place."

"Go ahead, but be careful."

Cao Kun led the horse straight to the Porter Guild. When he arrived, the guild's gate was tightly shut. He knocked for a long time before it opened a crack. "Brother Cao?"

"Xiao Gao, where is everyone at the guild? Why is it closed?"

Xiao Gao glanced around, then opened the door wider. "Come in and talk."

Cao Kun led the horse inside and saw that the place was completely empty, not a soul in sight.

"The head manager took the brothers to Laizhou to transport grain. There's a severe grain shortage in the city now—a peck of rice has risen to over 400 wen. If this continues, everyone will starve!"

"400 wen?!" Cao Kun thought 300 wen per peck was already outrageous, but now it was even higher.

"The grain from several shops in the city has been hoarded by wealthy merchants. They're jacking up prices, and people can't afford it. Theft and robbery are rampant. The city has been unstable these past few days. Be careful when you go out."

"Isn't the government doing anything?"

"Doing what? The county magistrate is in cahoots with the wealthy merchants. Who knows how much profit he's skimmed from this? He won't lift a finger!"

Cao Kun cursed under his breath. "I'm going to check on my mother."

"Hey, Brother Cao..." Xiao Gao called out to him.

"What is it?"

"This horse... you should take it back and keep it for now. When the head manager left, he took almost all the fodder. I'm afraid if the horse stays here, it might starve..."

A horse was worth sixty or seventy taels of silver—far more than a mere worker like him could afford to compensate.

"Alright, I'll take it back for now. I'll return it when the manager comes back."

Leaving the Porter Guild, Cao Kun rode the horse straight to his mother's old residence. His mother lived there with a maidservant. What if some ruffians had their eyes on the place?

When he reached the doorstep, he saw the gate tightly shut. He knocked urgently, but after waiting for a while, no one answered. Just as he was about to climb over the wall, an angry shout came from inside.

"Knock, knock, knock! Are you trying to die? Don't you know my son is a manager at the Porter Guild? He's traveled far and wide, and his hands have seen blood! If you keep knocking, I'll have him kill you!"

Hearing his mother's vigorous cursing, Cao Kun finally relaxed. "Mother, open the door. It's me."

"Kun'er?" Mother Cao put down the stick in her hand and rushed over in surprise and delight, moving aside the objects blocking the gate one by one.

When the gate opened, both mother and son teared up at the sight of each other. "Mother, are you alright?"

"I'm fine. But did you pick up your in-laws? Are they alright?"

Cao Kun wiped the corner of his eye. "They're all fine. I brought them over—they're at the new house now."

"That's good, that's good."

"Earlier, you said someone was knocking on our gate?"

"Ah, since the second day after you left, people have been coming to borrow grain. I didn't dare lend any," Mother Cao paused. "At first, these people were polite, but later they started cursing. Yesterday, they even tried to break down the door to steal grain. It scared me to death."

Cao Kun's expression grew grim. "Where's Aunt Hui?"

"Aunt Hui left on the second day after you departed. She said she was going to seek refuge with her uncle. I didn't stop her and gave her two strings of cash before she left."

"I'm even more worried about you living here alone. Come with me to the new house right away!"

This time, Mother Cao didn't refuse. "Then let's take all we can carry. Otherwise, as soon as we leave, it'll all be stolen!"

The mother and son began packing. They took all the food and usable items. Behind the old house, there was also a vegetable garden. Since the land was elevated, it wasn't severely flooded, and many vegetables were still growing.

Mother Cao dug them up by the roots to replant them at the new house—that way, they wouldn't run out of vegetables later.

The mother and son packed two large traveling trunks, managing to fit everything in. They finally locked the door and had the horse carry the trunks back to the new house.

Just as they arrived at the new house, before even stepping inside, a neighbor came over to ask for a loan of grain.

Before Cao Kun could refuse, his mother began lamenting their own poverty. "Auntie, it's not that I don't want to lend you any, but we're out of grain ourselves. Look what's in these trunks!"

She opened the trunks, revealing freshly dug vegetable seedlings. "We're so hungry we've started eating grass. There's still a little one at home—maybe you could lend us some grain instead?"

The woman immediately retreated to her own yard, bolted the gate, and didn't say another word.

Cao's mother snorted. With people like that, you had to shut them down firmly, or else they'd get a taste of advantage and come begging every day—absolutely maddening.

Once inside the yard, Lin Qiu came out to greet them. "Mother, you're here."

"Ah, where's Xiaomai?"

"My mother is watching her. Please go inside—Brother Kun and I can handle things here."

Cao's mother hurried into the house. It had been days since she'd seen her grandson, and she missed him terribly.

Before the flood, Cao Kun and Lin Qiu would bring the child to visit her every few days. She hadn't seen Xiaomai since the disaster struck.

Inside, she saw Chen Rong. The two mothers-in-law held hands and spent a long while asking after each other's well-being. "I heard from Kun'er that the town was hit hard—houses washed away?"

"Absolutely! Countless people died. Only a few hundred survived in the whole town."

Cao's mother clicked her tongue in sympathy. How tragic to go through something like that.

"Sui'er and I will probably have to lodge here for a while. I hope you don't mind, dear in-law."

Cao's mother quickly replied, "How could you say such a thing? You're Qiu'er's mother. Even if this hadn't happened, it's only right for you to live near him! Stay as long as you need. If Cao Kun dares say a word against it, I'll box his ears!"

Chen Rong couldn't help but laugh. Back when Lin Qiu married Cao Kun, she had been a little worried, afraid that Cao's mother might be difficult to get along with. But now that she knew her better, she realized that although the old lady was blunt, she was extremely easy to deal with.

Cao's mother picked up her grandson and bounced him gently. "Xiaomai has lost weight. If I'd known things were like this outside, I wouldn't have let him go. In such heat, even adults suffer, let alone a child."

"Exactly. I was wondering why Lin Qiu brought the child along."

Fortunately, the little one hadn't fallen ill along the way and was still lively and adorable.

After chatting for a while, Lin Qiu and Cao Kun finished tidying up the rooms. The new house had five main rooms, with a kitchen and a storage room on the side—plenty of space for everyone.

Lin Sui and Chen Rong stayed in the two rooms on the west side, while Cao's mother lived with Cao Kun and Lin Qiu in the three rooms on the east.

Food was also sufficient. When they returned from town, Wang Ying had given them five bags of wheat, plus the two bags of millet they brought along. These supplies would last them until next spring.

To be safe, Cao Kun took two strings of cash and went to check out the grain store.

These days, grain prices in the county changed daily. Yesterday, millet was 450 wen per dou, but today it had risen to 500 wen. Wealthy families could still afford to eat, but those without money had started digging for wild vegetables and gnawing on tree bark.

Cao Kun went in to inquire. The shop assistant was an old acquaintance, and in the end, he gave him four and a half dou of grain for two strings of cash. Cao Kun loaded it into a cloth bag and carried it back.

From the moment he left the grain store, more than a dozen pairs of eyes stared fixedly at the bag of grain on his back.

Only because Cao Kun was tall, strong, and looked intimidating did no one dare try to snatch it.

But the person who came out after him wasn't so lucky. He had only taken a few steps before a crowd surrounded him, fighting over the millet in his arms.

"Stop, stop! My children and old mother are starving—let go!"

Yet incidents like this happened every day, and no one bothered to intervene. Even the constables were barely getting by themselves. The entire Longquan County was in chaos...

This situation continued until October when finally, the authorities sent soldiers with relief grain. Grain prices in the county gradually fell, but by then, many had already starved to death.

*

By October, the north had begun to cool down, and thick clothes were needed morning and night.

Early one morning, Wang Ying took Ma Qianzi out to look at shopfronts. When they arrived at the agreed-upon location, a property broker was already waiting.

"Please come in, sir. This shop is in a great location. The entrance may be narrow, but the inside is spacious—perfect for selling goods. What do you think?" the broker inquired.

Wang Ying shook his head. The interior was laid out like a tube with no windows, pitch dark inside where nothing could be seen clearly. Although the price wasn't high, you couldn't run a business relying on candles all day.

As they left the shop, Ma Qianzi hurried over. "How did it look, boss?"

"Not suitable. Let's check the next one."

Another shop was located at the intersection of Zhengyang Street and Zhenghe Street, a place bustling with all sorts of people.

Just as the two arrived, they ran into two groups brawling, heads bloodied. Before long, constables arrived and arrested them.

Wang Ying frowned deeply. Without even looking, he immediately dismissed that shopfront.

His fresh vegetables were mainly sold to wealthy families, and the procurers from big households wouldn't come to a place like this. Besides, without any backing, if they frequently ran into troublemakers, whatever they earned wouldn't be enough to pay them off.

They returned home empty-handed after a morning of searching.

Lately, Ma Qianzi had grown familiar with the prefectural city. He usually scouted out shopfronts first and then called Wang Ying over to take a look.

But suitable shops were few and far between. Any decent ones came with steep rents. With the vegetables from the experimental plot ready for harvest, if all else failed, they might have to use Qing Yun's jade...