Chapter 55 : Prepare for a Rainy Day

To be cautious, Jiang Sui asked Mother Xiao: “Mom, what year is it this year?”

Mother Xiao was surprised by the question and looked at her in confusion: “Suisui, why are you asking something like that? It’s the eighteenth year of the Qingli Jingzhao period!”

When Jiang Sui heard those words, it felt like lightning had struck her. One of the chopsticks in her hand slipped and fell to the ground.

That was it. Could the place mentioned in the book actually be Jeju Prefecture?

What a coincidence, there hadn’t been any rain in Baima Town for two months, and the weather was scorching. There was a water shortage everywhere. Wasn’t that exactly the sign of a coming severe drought?

Seeing her shocked reaction, Mother Xiao looked at her with concern, and the rest of the Xiao family chimed in: “Suisui, what’s wrong?”

Jiang Sui snapped out of it, looked at her in-laws, forced a smile, and replied: “Dad, Mom, I’m fine. My hand just slipped, I didn’t hold the chopsticks properly.”

Although she tried to cover it up with a casual explanation, sharp-eyed Mother Xiao still sensed something was off.

So after dinner, she found a chance to pull Jiang Sui aside and gently sent Xiao Hechuan away.

“Suisui, tell me the truth. Are you hiding something from me? You were distracted during dinner. Don’t make me worry. No matter what it is, even if the sky falls, I’ll hold it up for you.”

Mother Xiao truly treated Jiang Sui like her own daughter, her voice was full of concern.

Jiang Sui felt a wave of warmth in her heart, her nose tingling from the emotion.

She had actually been looking for a chance to talk to Mother Xiao about the drought, but she knew she couldn’t make it sound like she could predict the future, she had to be careful.

“Mom, actually, when I heard Dad say it hasn’t rained in so long and the river’s almost dried up, I got worried. I keep thinking… if it doesn’t rain, the crops in the fields will die. And if there’s no harvest, won’t we have nothing to eat next year?”

Hearing this, Mother Xiao also started to feel worried. But she didn’t want to jump to the worst-case scenario.

“Suisui, it’s still early. The wheat harvest won’t be until September. There’s still three months left.”

She was holding onto hope, but in truth, if there wasn’t any rain for another month or so, the wheat in the fields would be completely ruined, and there’d barely be any harvest.

At the moment, every household was fighting over water. The rivers upstream and downstream had already been divided up among the villages, and now the riverbed was starting to show. It was likely that what little water was left wouldn’t last much longer.

“Mom, I get that. But I think our family should still prepare in advance, just in case. If there’s a serious drought and no harvest, the price of food will skyrocket, and the whole market will be thrown into chaos. After the autumn harvest comes the New Year. Every household will want to stock up for the winter.”

“If we can’t harvest anything, everyone will have to buy food. When the price rises, how will we afford it?”

“It’s better to use the silver we have now to prepare enough food for winter. I still have twenty taels of silver, right? Let’s use it to buy rice and flour, and raise a few chicks at home. Rice and flour won’t spoil within a year or two if we store them right. And if we keep the chicks, they’ll lay eggs in the future.”

Jiang Sui’s words made Mother Xiao, who had still been clinging to hope, suddenly nervous.

Suisui was right, it’s better safe than sorry. When was the last time Baima Town had a major drought? She couldn’t even remember.

Given the current situation, it wasn’t unreasonable for Jiang Sui to have these worries. And just as she’d said, rice and flour wouldn’t go bad in a year or two. Having that as backup was a real security blanket. Otherwise, if things really got worse, the whole family could be left with nothing to eat.

Mother Xiao was also a decisive woman. She gritted her teeth and made up her mind on the spot.

“Alright, I’ll listen to you. I’ll do whatever you say. You’re the lucky star of our family.”

Jiang Sui felt a little embarrassed, why bring up the “lucky star” thing again?

But this time, she didn’t argue. She knew it wouldn’t help, Mother Xiao had already made her decision.

Still, she needed to remind her: “Let’s not let anyone else in the family know about this. We should quietly buy the food in small batches and hide it well, so the news doesn’t spread. Otherwise, if things really take a turn for the worse and others find out we have food, people might do desperate things to survive. Who knows if it would be a blessing or a curse.”

Jiang Sui’s thorough thinking and careful planning always made Mother Xiao feel a bit inferior.

“My room is big, you can hide the food there. You can also keep some at Lanlan’s place. That kid’s really tight-lipped, she won’t tell anyone.”

Xiao Lanlan was indeed reliable, and Jiang Sui had no objections.

“Okay, Mom. Just make sure you explain everything to Lanlan.”

The mother and daughter-in-law discussed and finalized their plan to buy and store grain. Before leaving, Mother Xiao turned back and asked Jiang Sui: “Should we keep running the business?”

Jiang Sui had made the situation sound pretty serious, which made Mother Xiao lose some confidence. If there was really going to be a drought, would business still be good?

But Jiang Sui realized it wasn’t anything huge.

“It’s fine, Mom. Let’s keep running the business like usual. Things won’t go bad so quickly. For now, we should just hope the business thrives and we can earn more over the next few months.”

She had used the money from selling ganoderma and ginseng to buy food, so now she was counting on the hot and sour noodle business to bring in some income.

“Okay. Hearing you say that makes me feel at ease.”

With Jiang Sui’s reassurance, Mother Xiao returned to her room and slept peacefully.

When she got back, she didn’t say a word to Father Xiao. The next day, she quietly went out with the money, asked around the village, and found several households that had hatched chicks. She bought a few here and there, and eventually gathered twenty chicks to raise.

She’d suddenly bought so many chicks, but no one in the family thought much of it. Since a pregnant woman named Liu was staying at her parents’ home, they figured she was just preparing for Liu’s postpartum needs.

What the Xiao family didn’t know, though, was that something had happened at the Liu household and they had been keeping it a secret.

—

On the day they had chosen, Xiao Yi got up early and hitched the ox cart. He had also crafted two clay stoves for his mother to use at the stall, one for cooking noodles, the other for boiling soup.

Jiang Sui prepared sweet potato noodles, potato skins, homemade chili oil, and the meat sauce she had stir-fried that morning.

They brought two buckets to soak the vermicelli, along with pots, pans, a brand-new set of chopsticks, and four sets of chairs and benches, all of which had been delivered to town the day before. They had already set up a tarp canopy.

They didn’t need to bring the chairs and benches back every day, just leave them at the stall and cover them with the tarp after closing. That’s what everyone did, and no one would steal them.

Today was their first day setting up a stall in town, and they set out at dawn. Zhou and Lanlan stayed home to watch the house. Mother Xiao, Jiang Sui, Xiao Yi, and Xiao Hechuan, along with Father Xiao who was heading back to the county, all went together. Everyone was full of confidence.

Don’t ask why Xiao Hechuan went along, he had pestered and pleaded with Jiang Sui all night before she finally agreed to take him.