After giving some important instructions, Shen Qing didn’t stay but returned to her own home.

After all, it would take five to six hours for the fermentation, and after having lunch, it would be just in time to come back and boil it in the afternoon.

As soon as she got home, she saw the third and fourth brothers staring at her with shining eyes.

Shen Qing: …I don’t need to be told, they must have been dazzled by the silver.

When she entered the room and closed the door, even though Jiang Xiangnan’s voice was suppressed, his excitement was uncontrollable: “Mother! So much silver!”

Shen Qing: “Hmm.”

“I’ve never seen so much silver before. Mother, how could you let me and the fourth brother go? What if we lost it? What if it gets stolen or robbed?”

Over twenty taels of silver! If it were up to him, he’d bring the whole family just to feel safe carrying it.

Shen Qing looked at the two of them, dressed in patched hemp clothes, and shook her head: “Thieves have good eyes.”

These two poor, naive boys, dressed in torn clothes and looking like they hadn’t seen much of the world, who would steal or rob from them?

After all, they were poor but strong—if someone wasn’t careful, they might end up losing more than they bargained for!

Jiang Xiangbei, compared to his third brother, appeared much more composed.

After all, it was he who had gone with their mother last time. He knew the price of the brushes and how much this batch was worth.

But knowing didn’t stop his heart from racing when he actually received the twenty-plus taels of silver! Last time, they had only twelve taels; this time, it was double—twenty-four taels!

Jiang Xiangnan tugged at his patched clothes, grinning foolishly: “Mother, should I keep this dress? I’ll always wear it when we go to the city in the future!”

In the past, when they had no silver, he always wanted to wear better clothes, feeling embarrassed by the shabby ones.

But now, with over ten taels of silver in their pockets, wearing the same clothes no longer made him feel ashamed.

In fact, he even thought the shabby clothes were safer, as his mother had said. As long as the silver was safe, what did it matter if he wore torn clothes?

He truly didn’t mind anymore.

Shen Qing acknowledged this.

The third brother was smart, the fourth was steady.

She trusted them to work together to deliver and sell the goods.

After receiving the silver, and in Jiang Xiangnan’s reluctant gaze, Shen Qing decisively closed the door!

She knew what the third brother meant—he wanted to use the silver, but each of them would get their share, just not now.

Shen Qing looked at the heavy pile of silver—over twenty taels.

For buying the things needed for their escape, it wasn’t much.

In fact, it was quite far from enough, but for the first time, she felt a sense of peace.

With this twenty-four taels, plus the eight taels at home, their savings had exceeded thirty taels.

Thirty taels felt like a milestone, and now many things could be planned and prepared for the journey ahead.

Tomorrow, they would go to the city to buy some cloth to make summer clothes.

The cloth was light, quick-drying, and perfect for the hot, rainy summer.

The most important reason to make clothes in advance was that the silver could be sewn into the hems of the clothes—if they got separated in the chaos of fleeing, the silver would give them peace of mind.

For the eleven members of the family, two sets each would be enough, and for Guan Li and Guan Xiaoshan, two sets as well, so it would cost about three taels of silver.

Then, they would need to pre-order large knives, which would take at least a month and a half to arrive.

The oldest to the fourth brother would each need one, and Huo Bing, who was strong, brave, and meticulous, would need one too, for both defense and deterrence against villains.

As for her, since she had a kitchen knife for protection, Jiang Zhong, Jiang Shui, and Jiang Yu wouldn’t dare attack anyone, even with a knife.

If they lost it, things would become even more dangerous.

But they also had hoes and shovels at home—each person would take one.

Even if they had to swing blindly, the hoes would be more effective than the knives.

Knives weren’t cheap, especially the large ones—each costing one tael and a half.

For five, that would add up to seven taels and five qian.

Fortunately, they only needed to pay a deposit of one tael and a half for the custom order, with the balance due when they picked it up.

In a month and a half, paying the remaining six taels wouldn’t be a problem.

Shen Qing hesitated. With over a hundred people in their group, could they rely on just the five of them holding large knives?

Neither the deterrent force nor their strength was enough!

Jiang Yang and Xie Qingshan, who worked as bodyguards, of course had knives at home.

The Feng family knew martial arts, so even if they lacked knives and guns, they definitely wouldn’t lack clubs.

The Guan family had no strong laborers; the family of three was considered elderly and weak.

They would always need protection.

The Jiang family had many strong men. If they were given large knives, the safety of the Guan family would be greatly improved.

So, they would pre-order ten more knives—fifteen taels of silver might seem a lot now, but during a confrontation, it would be well worth it!

They couldn’t afford to buy oxen and donkeys this time. The remaining twenty-plus taels of silver seemed like a lot if stored elsewhere, but it wouldn’t be enough to buy large livestock.

They would have to wait for the next time, as the remaining silver had other uses.

---

In the village, only the Jiang and Shen families had three meals a day.

Later, when Zhao Mingyue’s family started making tofu, they also needed more energy and switched to three meals a day.

Seeing that she was making malt sugar today, in case her family got hungry and it affected their progress, Xu Hongmei gritted her teeth and also switched to three meals a day.

After lunch, the three families gathered again at Jiang’s house.

Not only did the Jiang family have a stove, but they also had two large iron pots, which allowed them to cook two batches at the same time.

Shen Qing lifted the cloth curtain on the large wooden barrel, checked the fermentation, and filtered out the juice with cheesecloth.

Jiang Dalang quickly grabbed the bucket filled with juice and went to the kitchen, following Shen Qing’s instructions to pour it into the large iron pot.

The stove was also lit.

“After bringing it to a boil over high heat, turn it down to medium heat. You need to stir slowly. Once the juice thickens, turn it to low heat and continue cooking. At this point, you must stir faster to prevent burning. The fire must be small, better small than big. Do you understand?”

The young boy stoking the fire immediately responded: “Understood!”

They would need to cook it for three to five hours. Shen Qing had everyone take turns stirring and watching.

As the liquid slowly reduced and turned a yellowish-brown color, clinging to the wooden spatula, Shen Qing quickly scooped it out and placed it on the prepared oil-coated tray.

Jiang Dalang and the other strong men took the hot malt sugar and pulled and folded it repeatedly, like pulling noodles. After dozens of pulls, the sugar turned from yellow-brown to silver-white.

Jiang Ying, Zhou Yan, and the others quickly used scissors to cut it into small ball shapes and tossed them in prepared glutinous rice flour to coat.

At this point, the silver-white sugar balls were finished!

Everyone in the kitchen couldn’t take their eyes off the process, watching in amazement. Even Jiang Erye and Jiang Wuye, at the back of the crowd, had satisfied expressions.

“Not good! Not good! Captain Sun and the officials are here!”