Chapter 9: Not Satisfied With Us, Are You?

Fortunately, Lu Chuan wasn’t all that clever.

He had accidentally revealed his own thoughts, which meant there was still room to maneuver.

“Hmph, consider yourself lucky!”
“I’d love to see how you plan to escape when you fail to deliver the tax grain!”

With those words, Zhou Tong gave Lu Chuan a patronizing pat on the shoulder.

“Even if you manage to pay it, so what? I can still call you a Turkic spy.”
“I want to see how you plan to get yourself out of that!”

Lu Chuan smiled faintly. “A Turkic spy? Just because you say so?”

“If I say so, then it is so! Let’s see if the county magistrate believes you or me, you dumb peasant!”

With that, Zhou Tong swaggered off.

Lu Chuan narrowed his eyes slightly.
It looked like he would have to come up with a way to get rid of Zhou Tong first.

Zhou Tong might not be able to bring him real trouble, but if he actually got thrown into jail, that would still be a serious headache.

“Dealing with the king of hell is easy, it’s the little devils that are hard to shake…”
A flicker of warmth passed through Lu Chuan’s eyes, though his mind was already working quickly on how to eliminate Zhou Tong.

He had a rough plan forming.

More importantly, it had to be done before the tax deadline!

Just then—

The shopkeeper of Cui’s Grain Store came hurrying out.
“Wait a moment, good sir!”

Lu Chuan looked up calmly. “Is there something else?”

“If you really need grain, and in large quantities, I can make the call and offer you 45 copper per jin. But just so you know, that’s still mixed grain—new and old.”

“But don’t worry,” the shopkeeper smiled, “given this year’s market, you won’t find anyone in the whole of Hongtu County offering a better price.”

Lu Chuan paused.
Then he immediately understood.

Heh, this shopkeeper really was a sly old fox.

After overhearing his conversation with Zhou Tong, he had figured out that Lu Chuan urgently needed grain—possibly 300 jin or more. That’s why he had suddenly gone from indifferent to eager, now wanting to strike a deal.

“That price is still a bit high.”
Lu Chuan shook his head. “I’ll think about it.”

With that, he turned and walked away.

The shopkeeper watched Lu Chuan’s retreating figure, shook his head, and returned to his seat.

“Ah, life is full of uncertainties…”
“I wonder if that man will even make it through all this alive.”
“No one that Zhou Tong’s had his eye on has ever come to a good end…”

—

After leaving Cui’s Grain Store, Lu Chuan first visited a fabric shop and bought ten bolts of cloth, along with some small textile tools.

As for the blacksmith’s shop—he didn’t even consider it.

In this era, iron was a strictly regulated material. Even making farming tools required registration with the local authorities.

If you were caught hoarding iron tools illegally, you could end up in jail.

That’s why Lu Chuan still used a wooden bow and wooden arrows.

Still, even his simple bow had a decent range.

—

Back at home, Su Ruan stared longingly at the bow hanging by the door.

“You like it?”
Bai Siyu noticed her gaze and smiled helplessly. “If you do, I’ll ask the master to make one just for you someday. Judging by the look of it, the construction doesn’t seem that complicated.”

“You don’t understand.”
Su Ruan gently shook her head.

It seemed she had made up her mind. She took the bow from behind the door, and after carefully running her fingers over it, she said:

“This bow may look simple, but it’s not so easily made.”
“If you have a quality bow body, good materials, and a fine bowstring, then crafting a good bow isn’t all that difficult.”
“But the hardest thing in this world is turning something ordinary into something extraordinary.”

“This is just plain wood, even strung with the lowest-quality grass rope. But to make a bow like this with such simple materials—there must be techniques behind it that we can’t even imagine.”

Su Ruan, after all, came from a military family.
Naturally, she had an instinctive appreciation for weapons and knew a thing or two about them.

Bai Siyu nodded slowly as he listened, surprise flashing in his eyes.

“I think I understand now, after hearing you say that.”

Thrum—
Su Ruan gently pulled the bowstring, and a crisp sound rang out.

“It seems we really are lucky—to come across someone like him in a place like this. It’s just a pity we met him now. Otherwise, I would have found a way to bring him into the army.”

—

Meanwhile, Lu Chuan had finished buying some household essentials.

At the moment, his home was practically bare, with cold winds blowing through every wall.
In the middle of winter, he needed to buy some things to keep warm—or it’d be hard to survive the season.

With a heavy heart, Lu Chuan bought three quilts.

“Damn, prices are insane. One quilt costs 500 coins?”

Just those three quilts had cost him 1,500 coins—and that was after haggling.

And they were nothing like the thick, cozy quilts of modern times—thin as paper, but at least warm enough to get by.

Altogether, including the other household items, he’d spent nearly 2,000 coins.

Once everything was packed and ready, Lu Chuan headed home.

Earlier, Su Ruan had misjudged the market price for grain.
He planned to head back into the mountains tomorrow and try to hunt more. Most importantly, if he could get some badgers, that would solve a lot of problems.

“You’re back, husband?”
As Lu Chuan returned home, Su Ruan and Bai Siyu both came out to greet him.

Who knows what they had been talking about just now, but Bai Siyu’s cheeks were flushed red.
She glanced shyly at Lu Chuan, then quickly looked down.

“Mm.”
Lu Chuan took the quilts from his shoulder and handed them to the two women.

“These two are for you. When I get some free time, I’ll fix up our house a bit.”
“The conditions here aren’t great—I’m sorry to make you live like this.”

As he spoke, both Su Ruan and Bai Siyu were instantly moved to tears.

Bai Siyu hurried forward. “Husband, if it weren’t for you, we… we probably wouldn’t even be alive now.”
“You saved us!”
“And now we’re just a burden to you…”

Her voice trembled with emotion.

Then, after summoning her courage, she asked softly:
“Husband… are you… not satisfied with us?”