Chapter 103

Natural disasters—no matter which kind—make food a desperately needed resource, and the prices skyrocket. At that time, forget about brewing wine; it might not even be possible to buy food to eat.

As for calligraphy brushes, even if one dared to risk going to the city, during chaotic times, the imperial exams can’t be held normally, and academies can’t operate normally either. Who would be willing to buy brushes?

Next year’s situation is unpredictable, so we have to earn as much as possible this winter!

Shuiqing took out the wooden box containing the silver.

She counted it carefully.

Originally, they had 177 taels of silver. Buying blue bricks and tiles, paying wages for helpers, masons, and carpenters, and covering twenty-odd days of food expenses… all together used up 98 taels.

However, over these twenty-some days, they sold calligraphy brushes three times, and with the daily earnings from rice wine, their silver savings didn’t decrease. In fact, they increased quite a bit.

They now had over 360 taels of silver!

Before today, Shuiqing felt incredibly wealthy.

Living in a large courtyard house, with fields, land, and three small hills, and having over 170,000 in the shopping mall balance, and more than 300 taels of silver in hand.

They had food in storage, fresh vegetables in the garden every day, and were raising forty to fifty chickens, a dozen rabbits, five or six sheep, and three piglets.

Isn’t this a winning life?

Dealing with next year’s flood should be more than enough, right?

But upon hearing the news about the possibility of war, she immediately felt it wasn’t enough, not nearly enough—nothing was enough!

Besides vegetables, they didn’t have enough money, food, or meat!

The warehouse must be stocked full of food. Chickens, rabbits, sheep, and pigs can be raised in greater numbers. If there’s chaos outside for the next four years and they can’t go out often, they need to ensure the family’s food supply doesn’t run out.

Although they had the shopping mall, they needed a cover story for what they took out, right?

They couldn’t not have rabbits or sheep and still eat rabbit and sheep meat frequently, right?

Fan Jin looked at the broken silver in the wooden box, his eyebrows furrowed in worry, “If things become unstable, keeping silver at home won’t be safe.”

Shuiqing understood too.

Even without future instability, she was already worried about going out with over 300 taels of silver, which was a huge amount.

She really wanted to buy a storage cabinet. Not only would it keep the silver safe, but it could also store the garden’s vegetable harvests, excess brewed wine, and any leftover meat from slaughtering pigs next year.

It could also store essential self-defense weapons!

But at the price of 100,000 per cubic meter, Shuiqing quickly gave up the idea. “We can’t just keep it at home, but we have no other place to store it. Our balance isn’t enough to justify buying a storage cabinet.”

Spending 100,000 to buy a storage cabinet just to store 300 taels of silver?

That’s like using a six-figure password to protect a two-figure bank account.

At least passwords are free.

“I didn’t mean buying a storage cabinet; I meant we shouldn’t keep all the silver in our house,” Fan Jin explained gently, realizing Shuiqing had misunderstood him.

Shuiqing understood. Wasn’t this like not putting all eggs in one basket?

Indeed, this was all their wealth. If it was all stolen, that wouldn’t do!

“How about distributing it among the five children? And maybe Lingran too?”

Fan Jin pondered, “We should give him some too. If we get separated or something happens, having silver will give him a better chance of survival.”

In chaotic times, one must prepare for the worst.

Shuiqing remembered that even in the 1970s, people often hid money in their socks or underwear when traveling far. Back then, underwear often had a small pocket for this purpose.

But those were paper bills, and this was silver. Socks and underwear wouldn’t work.

She recalled from novels how people hid silver when escaping or doing business.

That’s it!

“Tomorrow, take 200 taels of silver to the silversmith and have it all made into thin, long strips!”

Fan Jin was momentarily stunned but quickly caught on and asked, “Are you planning to hide them in our clothes?”

Shuiqing nodded, “I was thinking we can’t make them into silver hairpins or bracelets. If any disaster victims or bandits come, it would be like advertising that we’re easy targets.

We’ll unseam the hems of our inner garments, carefully sew the thin silver strips inside, and they won’t be noticeable. This silver won’t be touched easily and might become our lifesaving money!”

Fan Jin added, “Besides buying some essential items that the mall doesn’t carry, we should keep the remaining silver.”

Shuiqing’s eyes showed confusion.

“The unstable situation will make food extremely expensive and scarce, even if we can go out. We can’t reasonably trade food for bamboo fungus, skirt fungus, and Euryale seeds.

We’ll need to use silver to buy them. We can say we’re drying and storing them to send out when the situation stabilizes,” Fan Jin quickly explained, not letting Shuiqing remain puzzled.

They must ensure they have a substantial balance in the mall account. The more, the better!

With the mall, they have security wherever they are. This is the true lifesaver.

Shuiqing agreed.

The mall business must continue!

She hadn’t thought of this initially, but now, with Fan Jin’s reminder, she realized that the 300-plus taels of silver were far too little.

The amount of usable silver was even less!

She sighed wistfully, “If only we had another large sum of silver coming in.”

Fan Jin chuckled; how could they expect a sudden windfall?

The income from rice wine was clear and steady, and the calligraphy brush business was straightforward.

However, “Rest assured, the new emperor has only recently taken the throne and won’t be able to eliminate the feudal lords so quickly. Even if he starts, there are so many lords; even at one per month, it would take ten months or more.

By the time it reaches the Yan King, it could be a year or two later. By then, we might have accumulated a substantial amount of silver from selling brushes and rice wine.”

Lingran had mentioned that the late emperor had over twenty sons. After accounting for those who had passed away, there were still more than twenty, including the royal family members who were enfeoffed as lords.

Among these, nine were powerful feudal lords with significant military strength, and they were the new emperor’s main targets.

If Shuiqing hadn’t studied history, she might have believed this.

But their new emperor’s downfall was due to his impatience. Instead of a gradual approach, he hastily deposed three lords in one month!

Subsequently, many died or were demoted, leading to inevitable rebellion.

Just as Lingran said, the new emperor’s path had been too smooth, making him reckless and overconfident, believing he could do whatever he wanted and that it would always be right.

Shuiqing could only hope the plot deviated from its original course.

If it did, perhaps the lords wouldn’t rebel…

It’s a nice thought, but unrealistic.

In their current situation, they had to prepare for the worst. If that day came, they wouldn’t even have a place to cry.

With elderly and young family members, they couldn’t afford to take risks or fight battles they couldn’t win.

Suddenly, the door was banged on loudly, and Fan Jiang’s excited and joyful voice boomed:

“Mom, Dad, come out quickly.”

“Look who has arrived!”