Chapter 104: The Difficulty of Spending Money

Before long, the three brothers hurried to the central granary and found the staff inside, all unconscious.

As for the contents—there wasn’t even a single hair left!

Heavens! This was the savings accumulated by their entire household over many years!

The private vaults were gone, the central granary was emptied—it was too much for the three brothers to bear. They broke down, crying uncontrollably!

Meanwhile, Grand Preceptor Jia lay in bed, deeply contemplating what had happened. Their four courtyards were heavily guarded by sentries day and night, with patrol teams constantly making rounds. It was impossible for outsiders to have pulled off such a clean sweep. There had to be an inside job.

Grand Preceptor Jia’s eyes turned icy cold.

But even if there were insiders, how could everything have been stolen so thoroughly in just one night?

Unwilling to accept this, he sat up.

“Help me up. I need to see it for myself!”

He wanted to inspect the site and search for clues. However, before he could leave, his three sons came rushing back, wailing, “Father! It’s all gone!”

All three of his sons, high-ranking officials in the imperial court, were sobbing like children.

The Grand Preceptor fainted on the spot!

Generations’ worth of savings, gone in an instant.

Was their survival in jeopardy? Not quite. The Jia family owned numerous shops in the capital and across the nation, as well as estates in the countryside.

But to say it had no impact would be untrue. The household of over 300 mouths had nothing left for their next meal.

The worst part was that the Grand Preceptor dared not report the theft. First, he couldn’t let others know how much treasure had been stolen. Second, he suspected an insider.

Currently, the Ministry of Justice and the local yamen were controlled by the imperial family. Reporting the case would invite officials to investigate his manor thoroughly, exposing everything.

The more he thought about it, the angrier he became, spitting up another mouthful of blood.

He could only swallow his grievances and endure. The frustration was so intense it caused internal injuries.

The wives of the various branches were crying hysterically. Now even the concubines were wealthier than they were—after all, Tian Mi hadn’t had time to raid their courtyards.

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Tian Mi woke up around noon and went into her space to inspect her spoils of war.

Oh, heavens! The open ground was piled high with treasures of every kind. She glanced here, then there, her eyes dazzled.

There were rare medicinal herbs, such as thousand-year-old ginseng, large lingzhi mushrooms, and deer antlers—priceless items one couldn’t even buy with silver!

Stacks of cash and silver filled the space, along with a whole box of banknotes.

“My goodness!” Tian Mi exclaimed. “How can a family have so much wealth? How did they even earn it? I’d love to interview them and learn their secrets to making money!”

She checked the ordinary warehouse within the granary, which housed daily necessities like cloth, shoes, and various tools.

Then there was the grain—piles and piles of it, stacked like mountains.

“No wonder it’s the Jia family; they have everything,” Tian Mi thought. Remembering how many people outside were starving, she decided she couldn’t let the grain go to waste and needed to find a way to put it to use.

Faced with such an abundance, Tian Mi began to ponder.

Human joys and sorrows truly do not interconnect. While most people in this world worried about earning money, she was now burdened with the dilemma of how to spend it!

Yes, she needed to figure out how to use all this wealth to improve everyone’s lives.

“I need to become a big boss!”

But what business could she start to achieve that?

After freshening up, Tian Mi went to the courtyard, where Nanny Xiao brought her a meal.

Nanny Xiao wasn’t aware that Tian Mi had gone out the previous night. Seeing Bai Mucheng’s displeasure last night, she assumed the couple had argued.

This morning, she saw him leave the residence in high spirits.

Young couples—always bickering one moment and making up the next.

Tian Mi asked Nanny Xiao, “Nanny, what do common folks usually do during the winter?”

Nanny Xiao thought for a moment and replied, “If they can find work during winter, life is much easier. Women usually make clothes and shoes for their families, while men look for odd jobs outside.”

Tian Mi wanted to hire people to work and establish herself as a big boss, but she needed a business to manage first.

She couldn’t simply emulate Wang Duoyu and demand people address her as “President Tian” just for the title, right?

With these thoughts, Tian Mi turned to Nanny Xiao and said, “Have the overseer find someone to clear the abandoned garden behind us. When spring comes, I want to plant something.”

She then recalled the livestock she had acquired from the Jia family and added, “We also need to build some animal pens. We’ll raise some livestock.”

Clearing land and building houses would require labor.

Ah, speaking of land—Tian Mi immediately decided to buy up some wasteland outside the city to clear and cultivate. That would provide employment for many people.

This would make her a big boss in no time!

“I’m such a clever and kind-hearted little genius!” she thought, pleased with her plans.

Remembering the mountain fruits she had purchased the day before, Tian Mi realized she still needed to harvest them. Once she did, they would need to pick more, which could also generate income.

The chestnuts from this era were truly small, nothing like the plump, tempting ones from sugar-roasted chestnuts.

But they could still be put to good use—mountain ash, wild kiwi, and mountain grapes all had their uses. The seeds from the August fruit were abundant and eating them was a hassle, but the taste of the fruit couldn’t be denied.

Tian Mi had to figure out how to make use of everything.

She instructed Nanny Xiao to continue buying supplies.

Nanny Xiao nodded and agreed.

Tian Mi called for Chen Yu and gave him ten thousand taels in silver notes. “Go to the southern region, buy early rice and aged rice, and bring them back to the capital. Spend a bit more, but get it done as soon as possible.”

Chen Yu stood frozen for a moment, marveling at how casually Tian Mi handed over the ten thousand taels, as if it were no more than ten silver coins.

He agreed, then took the silver notes and headed to find Bai Mucheng, knowing he couldn’t make such a big decision on his own.

When Bai Mucheng learned that Tian Mi was spending such a large sum on rice—aged rice, no less, which was the cheapest kind of rice—he found it odd. In this region, wealthy families ate noodles, while the poor ate mixed grains. Who was she buying this rice for?

Bai Mucheng decided it was best to send someone else to make the purchase.

But Chen Yu had to stay at the manor, so Bai Mucheng assigned others to handle the transaction.

He still didn’t understand. Where had Tian Mi gotten all this silver? She had been hiding in the mountains after fleeing from the famine, and while her shop ventures had been successful, it hadn’t been long since she started and she had already bought so many stores. Her revenue was decent, but how could she afford to spend such large sums?

Had she secretly hidden away the loot from the bandit lairs, and now was using it?

It was a mystery that left Bai Mucheng scratching his head, but he decided to let it go for now.

Later that afternoon, officials from the Ministry of Rites came to request Tian Mi’s input on naming her children. Normally, Bai Mucheng would have chosen the names, but he left it to her.

Tian Mi named the boy “Bai Tianze,” which made the officials laugh. “A good name, this is the one His Highness the Crown Prince suggested.”

She named the girl “Bai Yunchu.”

With that, the names of her two children were settled.

Tian Mi took out some chicken feet that she had frozen overnight and asked Chun Er, Er Yi, Qiu San, and Er Wu to come and boil them until the bones could be removed.

Here’s a trick for those who want boneless chicken feet: freeze them first, then boil and rinse them in cold water. The bones come out with the meat intact—this technique was the result of real hands-on experience.

She also asked Qiu San and Qiu Wu to bring twenty pounds of wheat for sprouting.

There was simply too much mountain fruit that couldn’t be consumed without sugar.

The wild kiwi wasn’t ripe yet, but placing them in a dry clay jar for a few days would speed up the process.

She rinsed the mountain grapes, dried them out, and then added sugar to make grape wine, secretly adding some spring water to the mixture.

She also sliced the August fruit, removed the seeds, dried them, and planned to use them for making tea.

Tian Mi instructed Chun Er to gather a few more people to peel all the chestnuts and dry them.

With so much food in her space, especially wheat, she needed to find a way to process it. Making steamed buns or dumplings would be too embarrassing for a princess consort, so she thought of making Shaqima and bread. These would require a lot of flour, which she could substitute with malt syrup for sweetness.

The mountain ash, wild kiwi, and dried August fruit could all be coated with sugar to make candied fruits, which she could sell alongside meat-filled buns. The attractive and delicious products would diversify the business, making it more successful.

Not only would this allow her to continue clearing land, but she could also earn a little extra money on the side.

Sigh… How embarrassing! Here she was, a super-rich lady, still making small change.