Chapter 12: Counting the ‘Spoils of War’

Entering the room, the flames grew larger, and the room wasn’t as dark.

Xu Sangluo finally came back to her senses, then she couldn’t help but laugh.

She turned around to look outside, she couldn’t see anything in the dark, so she raised her hand to close the door.

After putting her things away, she quickly ran to the bed and pulled up the covers.

The quilt was not only thin but also heavy, with a strange smell, and it was hard and stiff, making her uncomfortable.

She thought for a moment, then simply closed her eyes and entered her space.

She already had a small villa in her space.

It was a movable villa that she had specially customized for over a million yuan.

Now she also had a farmhouse.

There was also her office and rest room in the farmhouse, and everything was complete.

But there was no one in the farmhouse now, she felt a little creepy, so she went to sleep in the villa.

After lying down on the soft bed, she finally let out a sigh of relief.

“Comfortable~”

“It seems I need to improve my life soon, I can’t keep living like this.”

It’s hard to go from luxury to frugality.

Although she had suffered, she had also enjoyed luxury for so long.

It wasn’t easy to adapt to such a difficult environment again.

It seems she was bragging before, overestimating herself.

But after lying down for a while, she thought of something and sat up.

She hadn’t finished counting her ‘spoils of war’ today.

She quickly got out of bed and took the things she had collected from the Xie family today.

The most obvious thing was the stacks of red envelopes scattered on the plush carpet.

She sat down cross-legged and started to open the red envelopes.

Soon, a small pile of money appeared on the carpet.

Xu Sangluo counted it.

There were 2689 yuan in Chinese currency, and the rest were US dollars, a total of twelve thousand.

The US dollars were obviously sent back by her grandfather.

At this time, the exchange rate between US dollars and Chinese yuan was about 1:1.9.

That was equivalent to over twenty thousand Chinese yuan.

At a time when there were not many people with ten thousand yuan, this amount of money was terrifying.

It was also fortunate that Xie Huai had never used the US dollars, otherwise, they would have been spent long ago.

She folded the US dollars and put them aside.

Then she took out Liu Xiuhui’s private money.

This private money was neatly organized, all hundred-yuan bills.

It wasn’t difficult to count.

But the amount was also…

It was quite a considerable amount, a total of 4,500 yuan.

Over the years, Liu Xiuhui had enjoyed the life of an official’s wife after working in a factory in her early years.

As for Xie Huai, she had never worked.

Therefore, the Xie family’s income basically relied on Xie Feng.

The mother and daughter, excluding the red envelopes given by Xu’s grandfather, had easily accumulated six or seven thousand yuan in private money.

Plus the two thousand yuan they received today.

It was clear that Xie Feng had earned a lot over the years.

Unfortunately, his study was always locked, otherwise, she might have found some ‘good’ things there today.

She looked down at the stacks of banknotes at her feet and curled her lips.

Adding the two thousand yuan Liu Xiuhui gave her.

She now had over nine thousand yuan in Chinese currency.

Nine thousand yuan, at this time, was enough for her to do a lot of things.

“Not bad, but it’s a shame that the time was too short.”

Otherwise, she could have found more private money.

After counting the money, she felt refreshed.

She simply went to rummage through the warehouse to see if there was anything suitable for her current use.

The villa had two warehouses.

One stored the fruits and vegetables grown in her space.

The other stored some of her miscellaneous items.

She just threw things in there, she hadn’t organized them.

She lost patience after rummaging for a while, and only pulled out a large box of seeds.

Then she remembered that there were also several warehouses at the farmhouse.

After all, they also provided accommodation, and they were going for a high-quality service route, so they needed to prepare everything in advance.

Even though the farmhouse mainly focused on freshness, the meat and vegetables were slaughtered and picked fresh, they wouldn’t be stored in a cold storage.

But there were still many other ingredients and materials in the food warehouse.

For example, instant noodles, self-heating meals, and various snacks.

These were all to be sold in the small supermarket in the farmhouse.

The farmhouse didn’t completely go for a high-end route, the rooms were all in high demand.

But the food and accommodation at the farmhouse were not cheap.

Especially the dishes in the restaurant, a plate of sour and spicy cabbage cost dozens of yuan.

Those with limited financial means could buy affordable food in the supermarket.

However, many foods were not suitable to be taken out now.

She weighed the heavy seeds in her hand.

There seemed to be a lot of seeds stored in the farmhouse’s warehouse.

They were perfect for this time of year.

Currently, they mainly used the…

The country has implemented the household responsibility system and land contracting system.

Farmers no longer need to be led by the production brigade for unified farming.

If possible, she plans to contract land to grow vegetables.

However, farming requires a small cycle, and it’s winter now.

It will be at least mid-next year before she can sell vegetables.

Besides, she doesn’t plan to settle here for a long time.

After the Qin family returns to Kyoto, she will also leave and find a new place to develop.

Contracting land now wouldn’t be worthwhile.

After all, contracting land now is calculated in terms of ten years or more, and it will be extended to thirty years in a few years.

But there are still two years before the Qin family leaves.

It would be a waste to do nothing in these two years.

Although she could also take vegetables to the agricultural market to sell.

But the journey is too far, and transportation is inconvenient.

Unless she lives in the city.

But then she wouldn’t have an excuse to stay at the Qin family’s, and she wouldn’t be able to help them naturally.

After much thought, she decided to find a suitable job for the Qin family to increase their income.

It just so happens that private businesses are fully open this year.

She can start by setting up a stall.

But what should she sell?

The initial cost can’t be too high, and it must have a market.

She lay back on the bed, tossing and turning, thinking.

Suddenly, her eyes lit up.

“I got it!”

——

The next day, as soon as dawn broke, Xu Sangluo yawned and walked out of the door with a washbasin in her arms.

The cold wind outside made her shiver, instantly waking her up.

She had thought about too many things last night, and she didn’t fall asleep until the middle of the night.

Then, fearing that she would be discovered in the morning, she set an alarm clock and got out of her space at five o’clock.

But she couldn’t sleep in the cold bed.

After making pancakes for an hour, she simply got up.

“Sister Sangluo, good morning.”

Qin Zhishu’s gentle voice suddenly sounded.

Xu Sangluo was startled, she lowered her hand that was covering her mouth as she yawned, and looked up.

She realized that Qin Zhishu was sitting under the eaves, reading a book.

“Good morning.” Xu Sangluo was surprised for a moment, then she also smiled and greeted him softly.

Then she turned her head and saw smoke coming from the kitchen.

Was someone inside? Who was it?

She thought she had gotten up early enough…

I got up early, but it seems there are still many people who got up earlier than me.

Walking to the entrance of the kitchen, I saw a tall figure busy in the swirling smoke.

It was Qin Zhiyi.

“Good morning,” I greeted him.

The smoke was a bit thick, I couldn’t help but cover my mouth and nose.

Qin Zhiyi replied, “Good morning. The smoke is thick, don’t come in, I’ll take the hot water out for you.”

He said and walked out with a tightly covered wooden bucket.

I thanked him, then asked in confusion, “What are you doing? Why is there so much smoke?”

“I burned some mugwort to smoke out the mosquitoes. It’ll be done soon.”

The weather was cold, but not completely cold yet, so the mosquitoes would hide together.

Places like the kitchen, which were dark and crowded, were the easiest to hide all kinds of mosquitoes and insects.

So in the past, Qin’s mother would always smoke some mugwort before making breakfast every morning.

I nodded knowingly, then started to fetch water to brush my teeth and wash my face.

I was a little embarrassed to brush my teeth by the small ditch next to the wall.

But after I finished brushing, I calmed down.

After putting my things away, I rolled up my sleeves and walked into the kitchen.

“Do you need any help? What are you making for breakfast?”

“I’m making some cabbage porridge, you can eat it with the braised meat.”

Yesterday, Xu Sangluo braised a large pot of meat.

Although the boys ate happily, they didn’t really eat their fill.

So I guess the pot of braised meat could last for three days.

I nodded and looked at Qin Zhiyi.

He was rolling up his pants, and there were mud stains and grass clippings on his clothes.

He must have gone to the fields before dawn.

I don’t know how much land the Qin family has now.

But they only planted two mu.

Two mu of land is not much.

Each household in the brigade still has to pay a fixed amount of public grain and purchase grain every year.

The former is paid without compensation, while the latter is sold to the commune at a low price.

Each household will set a quota based on their situation.

If it’s not enough, they have to buy price-negotiated grain to make up for it.

Two mu of wheat, according to the current yield, can produce at most 600-700 jin.

They have to pay over 100 jin of public grain, and also pay about one-fifth of the purchase grain.

The purchase price of purchase grain should be about 1 mao now, which can be sold for about 20 yuan.

The remaining 300-400 jin of grain, although it seems like a lot, is actually not much.