Chapter 74 Frost Descends

The villagers, who had gathered to watch the commotion, were surprised to learn that the grains Chen Youtian and his companions were carrying on their shoulders were not theirs, but were bought by the Sang family to pay rent and taxes.

Upon closer inspection, they realized that the amount of grain Sang Luo had purchased was far from enough to cover the taxes, even less than what they themselves had. Their sense of superiority instantly swelled.

Looking at the grain Chen Youtian and his group were carrying in their hands, it was at most just a dozen kilograms of grain. This was probably the so-called expensive grain they bought to stockpile. It wasn’t much, yet they acted as if it was a big deal to go to the county every day, as if they were doing something important.

The envy in this group of people’s eyes suddenly diminished, turning into a more respectable interest in watching the excitement.

On the other hand, when Mrs. Li saw Sang Luo walking with a group of men who could be considered her uncles, and several of them even offering to lend her grain to pay taxes, she gritted her teeth and couldn’t help but spit lightly.

Although she wanted to curse, she remembered the previous quarrel with Sang Luo and forcibly held back her words.

When Sang Luo was formidable, she didn’t give her any face. Even the term “sly fox” could only be muttered in Mrs. Li’s heart.

Sang Luo had no idea that Mrs. Li would think so dirty when she saw her walking with Chen Youtian and others who could be considered her uncles. Since crossing over, she had almost no contact with Shen San and his wife. They didn’t even greet each other when they met on the road. Therefore, she didn’t give Mrs. Li a second glance and naturally didn’t see Mrs. Li’s gnashing teeth at the moment.

She led a few people to carry the grain back, thanked them, sent them away, and then tightened the three not-quite-full bags of grain, carrying them into the house with the two children.

Seeing two more bags of grain brought back, Shen An knew that the crystal fruit had made money again. He was as happy as a squirrel hoarding grain for winter. “Big sister-in-law, did you sell all the crystal fruit you brought today?”

“Sold out. From now on, our family will cooperate with Yongfeng Zhai. We’ll make the crystal fruit and send it over for them to sell in their shop.”

“Does Yongfeng Zhai know? It’s the best pastry shop in the county.”

Both siblings were overjoyed. Shen Ning asked, “How much will they sell our crystal fruit for?”

Sang Luo shook her head. “I don’t know. It’s definitely much more expensive than what we sell to them.”

Everything from Yongfeng Zhai was beautifully packaged, and each item sold in boxes was not cheap at all. This amount of money could only be earned by others.

Shen An said, “If we can sell one piece for one cent, it will be profitable. Big sister-in-law, shall we go back into the mountains later?”

Sang Luo nodded. “We have to go into the mountains. I promised to deliver the goods in about four days, but first we need to cut some bamboo to make three makeshift drying racks.”

With the twenty boards of molds provided by Yongfeng Zhai, Sang Luo could save four bamboo trays. The konjac could also be cut into thick slices and dried to be stored for later use when there was no konjac available.

Sang Luo planned to make four simple drying boards to place Yongfeng Zhai’s molds. Instead of meticulously weaving thin bamboo strips like a sieve, she only needed to use relatively wide bamboo strips to make a large, relatively flat board that could fit into a drying rack and hold the molds on top.

The saved bamboo trays would be specifically used to dry the konjac slices. Since konjac also had a harvesting period, if she wanted to continue selling vegetarian tripe after the harvesting period, she could only desperately stockpile the raw materials now.

Cutting bamboo and making things had become familiar to Sang Luo, and even Chen Youtian’s few tools were placed here. These makeshift drying racks weren’t difficult to make either, and after some effort, they were done by mid-afternoon.

Afterwards, the busy hustle and bustle goes without saying.

…

In the blink of an eye, it was the seventh day of September, the day when the tax collectors came to Shili Village to collect taxes.

Early in the morning, each household had already prepared and transported their grains to the village’s drying field to wait.

Naturally, Sang Luo didn’t go. There were no men in her family, and she didn’t want to attract attention from the villagers. Pretending to be poor, she planned to buy a few more batches of grain and wait until around the thirteenth or fourteenth of September before going to the county to pay, attracting less attention.

Although she didn’t pay the grain, it didn’t prevent Sang Luo from going to see the scene.

Upon seeing it, Sang Luo realized the harshness of the tax collectors and the difficulties faced by the common people. It turned out that when paying taxes, they also had to show a smiling face to the tax collectors and discreetly slip them a few coins.

The measuring utensil brought by the tax collector for weighing the grains was a wooden measure. Whether it was more or less depended entirely on the mood of the tax collector. If one gave a bribe, the measuring would be plain and straightforward. But if one didn’t, the tax collector could kick the grain measure several times, causing the grains, which were already piled up, to significantly decrease in volume.

At this point, even if one offered a bribe, the tax collector wouldn’t accept it. If it wasn’t enough, it wasn’t enough. Adding more grains wouldn’t help, and crying wouldn’t change anything.

Only one such incident occurred, and everyone in the village witnessed it. After that, no one dared to show disrespect. However, everyone’s expression was unsightly, yet they still had to wear a smiling face and be cautious in front of the tax collector.

Feeling extremely wronged, Sang Luo led Shen Ning back home.

On the ninth day of September, Sang Luo went to the county again and delivered the first batch of crystal fruits made with molds to Yongfeng Zhai. The goods were indeed good. After the shopkeeper verified the goods, he smiled broadly and quickly settled Sang Luo’s account with four hundred cents.

This time, Chen Youtian and Zhou Cunzheng still came to buy grains. The price of grains in the county had risen to ninety-two cents per dou.

Indeed, in just a few days, the price of grains had increased by several cents. The people on the main street of the county wore expressions of apprehension, and the line outside the grain store grew even longer. Chen Youtian and the others had to enter the city as soon as the gates opened. Otherwise, if they entered at the usual time, they wouldn’t even have a chance to buy grain before it sold out for the day.

If Chen’s family, Lu’s family, and Shi’s family initially came out to buy grain because they listened to Sang Luo and Zhou Cunzheng’s advice to stockpile, then in the past few days, watching the price of grains rise and hearing various worries and discussions among the people lining up in the county to buy grain, their determination to stockpile became even stronger.

Actually, how much could they save by buying one or two dou of grain every day?

Helpless, even if they wanted to buy more, they couldn’t afford it. The price of grain increased every day. By the time they bought it, they could only afford seven or eight liters. They had to queue up every day, and they didn’t even dare to skip a few days for fear that the price of grain would rise again in a few days.

This time, Sang Luo brought out almost all the money she had accumulated from selling tofu over the past few days. Gathering it together, she could only afford one shi and four dou of grain.

However, thinking that the weather might turn cold at any time, Sang Luo still held onto some money in her hand and only bought one shi of grain.

As for Zhou Cunzheng’s family, they now had not only Zhou Cunzheng himself but also his two sons who had successfully passed the exams and were out buying grain with Zhou Cunzheng. There were also two young men accompanying them, rumored to be Zhou Cunzheng’s sons.

The real-time price of grain gradually spread to various villages around Shili Village. People who had previously ignored it gradually became anxious.

Those who could communicate with Chen’s family, Lu’s family, and Shi’s family went to inquire about their situation. Most people began to run to Zhou Cunzheng’s house.

“Isn’t it just a disaster? Our Great Gan is so big, there’s a disaster in one or two places every year, right? In the past, grain prices would rise, but they wouldn’t rise this much, would they?”

What could Zhou Cunzheng say? In this era, most people had never been to places farther than their own county town, and some had never even been to the county town in their lifetime because the journey was far, and entering the city required spending money everywhere and various restrictions.

Because of this, it wasn’t easy for news to spread across one province or county, let alone to more distant places. He had already told everyone what he knew.

That night, nearly half of the households in Shili Village couldn’t sleep well.

However, Sang Luo, who had already stored enough grain to last until next autumn with the money lent by Shopkeeper Xu, continued to organize her grain stockpiling methodically. She felt stable inside and out. After making the jujube cakes and fairy tofu for the day, she washed up and went to bed early with the two children.

She was awakened in the middle of the night by the cold. Shrinking into a ball, she felt cold for a long time before finally waking up. Sitting up, she rubbed her ice-cold arms and body. With a little moonlight shining in from outside, she found that the two siblings were curled up like shrimp, squeezed into a ball.

Without hesitation, Sang Luo picked up her thin quilt and squeezed onto Shen An’s new bed. With three people squeezing together and two quilts covering them, it was finally better.

Sang Luo pinched the thin quilt, which was nothing more than two layers of linen at most, barely qualifying as a bedsheet. She was grateful that she had over four hundred cents left in her hand from staying in the county during the day, and this afternoon she had earned over two hundred and sixty more cents. Now she had seven hundred cents in hand.

Sang Luo thought that after she received the money from selling tofu and sour jujube cakes again, she couldn’t buy grain anymore. She needed to save up to buy clothes and quilts. Once September passed and October arrived, winter would be here.

Although it was in the south, this was still the mountains, and the temperature was generally lower than outside.

Getting up at four in the morning to make tofu was indeed much colder than usual.

At that moment, she didn’t notice, but when Chen Youtian and the others came to pick up the tofu with torches, Sang Luo saw that the wild grass outside her courtyard was covered with a layer of white frost by the light of the torches.

“So it’s already frosty,” Sang Luo remarked.

Qin Fangniang nodded. “Indeed, the mountain road is already slippery to walk on.”

She then asked Sang Luo, “Have you prepared clothes and quilts for your family yet?”

Sang Luo nodded. They were rushing to buy grain with the money they earned from the tofu business, so there wasn’t much difference between summer and autumn clothes for rural people. They only started adding layers when winter came.

“If Aunties have any cloth at home, let’s use it to pay for the tofu we ordered this afternoon. If not, I’ll make another trip to the county.”

Qin Fangniang nodded repeatedly, “Yes, we have it.”

Mrs. Gan and Feng Liuniang also chimed in, both confirming that they had cloth. Mrs. Gan said, “Don’t wait for us to come back. If you need it, just come to our house later. We buy tofu from you every day anyway. You can deduct the cost of the cloth directly when we come to buy tofu.”

Sang Luo had the same plan and nodded with a smile.

After seeing the guests off and having breakfast with her two children, it was already dawn. Sang Luo took Shen An and went directly down the mountain to three households to collect the cloth.

They were told that the cloth was for making autumn and winter clothes, and all three households provided thick and sturdy autumn cloth. Sang Luo brought enough cloth for herself and her two children to make three sets of autumn clothes each before returning home.

As autumn deepened and winter approached, Sang Luo thought ahead. She and her children could only afford one set of clothes for each season because they were poor.

However, Sang Luo hadn’t planned to make her and her children wear clothes padded with cotton or grass through the winter. Even though cotton was expensive, clothes, pants, and quilts made of cotton had to be saved up for.