Chapter 315

As Shopkeeper Qin spoke, he became excited himself.

Over nine hundred taels of silver! If it weren’t for Renji Pharmacy’s branches scattered across several places, where medicinal herbs could be transported to the main depot in Jinling, his own shop alone wouldn’t be able to handle such a large batch.

And let alone producing over nine hundred taels of silver in one go.

He looked at Ding Heli, who remained calm, and smiled, “Heli, did you calculate the total price accurately before bringing it here?”

He only had a thousand taels of ready silver; anything beyond that would either be owed or have to be collected later. Ding Heli’s lack of excitement over more than nine hundred taels of silver suggested that he had estimated the price correctly before sending it.

Ding Heli modestly replied, “Oh, it’s just a coincidence.”

It was because he had seen much more and more expensive items in the past that he didn’t get too excited.

After all, a ginseng plant over a hundred years old would fetch at least a thousand taels of silver. Even though dozens of them had worked hard for over a month, they had barely earned less than a thousand taels, which was quite ordinary.

However, hundred-year-old ginseng was rare, and the income for the herbal shop was solid and substantial!

It was only the first month, and the workers in the workshop were not yet very skilled, and the quantity of medicinal herbs was not very abundant. This meant there was still great potential for growth.

When the income from the herbal shop reached ten thousand taels per month in the future, it wouldn’t be impossible…

Ding Heli carefully wrapped up the more than nine hundred taels of silver, hiding them separately with Fan Jin. He only carried the fourteen taels of silver from selling kudzu root for the men from his village. Shopkeeper Qin and the pharmacy boys went busy in the front shop, while they waited in the open space behind the pharmacy.

After a while, Hu Wenhua arrived with a large group of men.

When the heavy bag of small silver pieces and copper coins was handed over, the men were ecstatic.

Li Wen’s hands trembled as he received the bag.

Whether it was raising rabbits or planting potatoes and kudzu roots, his family had the most in the village. Planting potatoes filled their stomachs, raising rabbits earned them silver, and now, unexpectedly, they were earning silver from the kudzu roots they had originally intended to eat!

Originally, there were more than twenty families in the village that planted kudzu roots, so the vast majority of the men present had brought kudzu roots to sell. However, there were also seven or eight families that hadn’t planted them in the first batch, and they now looked on with envy.

They regretted it deeply!

Why hadn’t they planted any? If they had, they would now be getting a share of the silver.

Next time Fan Jin’s family had something, they vowed to follow along; they absolutely couldn’t afford to miss out. With close to fifteen taels of silver, divided among more than twenty families, some got over a tael extra, while others got several hundred wen less. Those who got more were quite satisfied, and even those who got less were content compared to the seven or eight men who didn’t earn a single wen.

With the silver in hand, the group first went to buy cloth. Fine cotton cloth was too expensive, and only a few families bought coarse cotton cloth. Most people bought hemp cloth.

Hemp cloth was rough and stiff to wear compared to cotton cloth, but it was durable! Most importantly, it was cheap.

Making one garment of coarse cloth could make two sets of hemp cloth garments, which was most suitable for large families who had just managed to fill their stomachs. After all, being able to have new clothes made of hemp cloth was already quite difficult.

After buying the fabric, they also picked up some odds and ends on the way, and finally bought lime.

The lime was not available in the city; they had to take a detour on the way back to buy it, then return to the main road to head back to the village.

It was quite a detour.

As they returned to the main road with the lime, the men quickened their pace.

The carts were filled with goods, and they all just wanted to get back to the village quickly to see their families.

Originally at the front, Hu Wenhua gradually fell behind the group after buying the lime.

In no time, he began to warn the men from the back of the line with a solemn expression: “We’re being watched. Don’t look back, and don’t stop walking!”

The men who were cautioned immediately changed their expressions. They had just thought to turn their heads back but immediately stopped, feeling nervous. Those walking beside the carts put their hands on the frames, ready to draw their large knives at any moment.

Despite their nervousness and fear, the group remained calm. When they reached another intersection up ahead, the leader veered into it.

As the weather grew colder, the government neglected the disaster victims, who turned into refugees, which was only natural. With so many people and carts, they couldn’t hide, so being targeted was only a matter of time.

They had already anticipated this situation. The first priority was to not lead these people back to Shanshui Village!

They had to resolve the refugees on the road!

Fan and the other two trembled!

They couldn’t believe their bad luck encountering such a dangerous situation on only their second outing. It was all because of the villagers buying fabric and lime, drawing attention like this. Could they have avoided this misfortune? They were unfortunate, expecting safety in numbers, yet danger had been brought by these villagers!

Once they turned into the side road, the three of them relaxed a bit. “Where are we going?” they asked the others.

“You’re not thinking of confronting them head-on, are you?”

“No, we can’t beat those people!”

“Better to run quickly. Once we’re back in the village behind the walls, they won’t get in.”

Li Wen frowned tightly, gritting his teeth. “No! We can’t lead these people back to the village! Otherwise, if they target us next time we leave the village, how will we fight against them with just the old, weak, sick, and disabled left?”

Fan and the other two had initially planned not to follow next time, just to hide in the village where it was safest. However, upon hearing Li Wen’s words, they realized that if these men weren’t in the village, the village itself wouldn’t be safe. The complaints diminished.

Li Wen glanced at the three and added, “Besides, with a cart full of goods, how can they walk fast? We can only take a risk.”

Boss Xu tried to reassure them. “Don’t worry, we’re strong and numerous. We might not necessarily lose in a fight.”

Fan was not happy with Xu’s ironic humor. “You’re almost an old man; are you still thinking you’re young and strong?”

Boss Xu closed his mouth and silently drew a large knife from under the car, watching the road ahead.

The other men held their knives in hand, using the cart’s cargo to block them, patiently waiting.

Ding Heli carried a sack of lime and suddenly said, “Everyone, hold a knife in your right hand and grab a handful of lime in your left. When the time comes, throw it at their eyes, ears, nose, and mouth!”

As they approached Fan and the others, he changed his tone, “Since you don’t have knives, grab a couple more handfuls of lime. Otherwise, when the bandits charge at you later, you’ll only have to face death!”

Fan Erzhu and Sanzhu were determined to stay in the back and not rush forward. After hearing this, they reluctantly reached out and grabbed two large handfuls of lime.

Ding Heli knew these three couldn’t be relied upon. Looking around, everyone else had knives, except for him and Fan Jin. He immediately handed Fan Jin a bag full of lime, preparing to sow chaos in the confusion.

Large knives were effective one-on-one, but lime could affect many at once!

While it didn’t have the killing power of a knife, it could restrict the enemy’s movements and render them powerless!

With everything prepared, everyone tensely watched the intersection ahead.