Money Flowing Like Water

Good grief! He had only just settled down, and the gang and the authorities came one after another, already starting to collect all kinds of exorbitant taxes and levies.

As for paying money in place of labor service—hadn't Zhou Ye previously performed corvée labor? In fact, one could also spend money to hire someone else to serve in one's stead, which counted as another way out, didn't it? That was also another source of revenue for the authorities. After all, there were plenty of people; it was merely a matter of replacing one commoner with another for the corvée.

No wonder life was so hard for common folk at the bottom. With just these few exorbitant taxes and levies combined, they came to nearly two taels a year. That way, the common people could maintain their basic survival, but every last bit of extra money was practically squeezed dry, making it difficult to save anything.

Don't think two taels of silver was a small amount. Zhou Ye had only gotten that impression from selling goods before, where it seemed like he was dealing in more than ten taels at every turn.

In truth, silver was very valuable. Take this courtyard, for instance—it had only cost a hundred-odd taels to buy. If ordinary people occasionally ate meat, even a bachelor would not spend a tael of silver in a month.

At that moment, Zhou Ye was speechless. He had utterly despaired of this cruel otherworld. I still wanted to bring my talent to the commandery city!

He still had to hurry up and make money. Zhou Ye immediately set off and returned to the Little Homestead in the mountains...

By the great river, Zhou Ye drew his bow to the full. "Whoosh—!"

Fifty paces away, an otter was struck right in a vital spot, its entire body convulsing as it struggled in its death throes.

The surrounding group of otters had long since panicked, plunging into the river one after another. Zhou Ye drew his bow again, only to hear a snap as the bowstring suddenly broke.

Zhou Ye frowned helplessly. Strength +3 had its drawbacks too. This bow's draw weight was no longer sufficient; he needed to replace it with a heavy bow of eight stone or more.

Still, the past few days of hunting had been a great success. Aside from catching fish and trapping birds, he had discovered several groups of otters and shot three of them in succession.

After returning, he skinned this otter as well. Its layer of fat was quite thick, so he cut it off and rendered it into otter oil. The previous two had already been salted, so he would bring along the remaining otter meat this time!

He also packed all the furs here, along with the two leather armors. Tomorrow, he would set out for his home in the commandery city...

Two days later.

Zhou Ye first went to Sun the Blacksmith and bought an eight-stone heavy bow. He also had the old bow fitted with a new string so he could keep it as a spare. However, bows were quite expensive; the total cost came to eighteen taels of silver.

Once he had finished with all that, Zhou Ye brought all the furs and leather armor to the largest fur shop in the outer city.

In the inner hall, Zhou Ye silently sipped tea as he watched the shopkeeper inspect the furs.

"Honored guest, these furs have all been handled well." Smiling pleasantly, the shopkeeper began naming prices. "Wolf pelts, four taels two; this largest one, six taels five. Otter pelts, three taels. Deer hides, five taels... And this fire fox pelt—you are very fortunate. A noble young lady in the inner city specially ordered one, so I'll count it at seventy taels!"

Zhou Ye was delighted inside. He had never expected that little fox pelt to be the most expensive one. It far exceeded what he had imagined.

Yet outwardly, Zhou Ye kept his expression calm. "Shopkeeper, isn't that too low? It seems you lack sincerity."

"I truly am being sincere. If you don't believe me, you can ask around. Our fur business has always offered the highest purchase prices. Otherwise... how about I raise it a little more for you?"

"Then I have some other requests."

"Please, go ahead."

"Take this rather worn leather armor off my hands. Repair the better leather armor for me."

"Certainly."

"Keep one wolf pelt and make me a wolfskin overcoat. Don't use the best one; choose an ordinary one."

"No problem."

"Then calculate it again and give me a fair price."

"Alright!"

Taking advantage of the opportunity, Zhou Ye simply had his leather armor repaired. As for the wolfskin overcoat, he did not choose the alpha wolf's pelt, but an ordinary wild wolf's.

He made that choice for the sake of keeping a low profile as well. At the very least, the leather armor had patches, making it look rather unimpressive.

A wolfskin overcoat was highly practical. It could be worn for warmth, and when camping in the wild, it could serve as either bedding or a blanket. It was quite convenient.

After a round of haggling, the shopkeeper agreed to nearly all of Zhou Ye's requests and finally rounded the sum up, counting it directly as one hundred taels.

When Zhou Ye saw the one-hundred-tael banknote from Golden Exchange Bank, he could not help feeling both amused and helpless. This was already the second time he had seen a banknote, and both had been from this Golden Exchange Bank.

"Shopkeeper, pardon my presumption, but what are the advantages of these banknotes?"

"There are far too many advantages. They can be used in every major city, and carrying large sums of silver is extremely convenient. It's just that once you leave the major cities, many rural places cannot exchange them for physical silver. I have also heard that Golden Exchange Bank has an immensely powerful background. They do not even pay much heed to the imperial court and keep their clients' affairs completely confidential. That is why officials and wealthy merchants alike enjoy depositing their money with Golden Exchange Bank. That includes the powerful and influential people in our inner city as well. In any case, carry a banknote with you, and you can travel without obstruction anywhere in the Great Yin Kingdom."

Zhou Ye had never expected there to be a colossal bank that stood above even the imperial court. But that was a good thing—wasn't this exactly what he needed?

If he ever needed to flee, all he had to do was take the banknotes with him. It truly was exceptionally convenient.

Taking this opportunity, Zhou Ye simply asked about this so-called Great Yin Kingdom.

According to the shopkeeper's introduction—the Great Yin Kingdom spanned ten thousand li and possessed thirty-six provinces, each with populations in the hundreds of millions. Its national strength was also quite formidable.

Below the provinces were commanderies, and below commanderies were counties. The commandery city where Zhou Ye currently lived was actually located in some remote corner of the Great Yin Kingdom and was not considered especially prosperous.

Fine then! A commandery city with several million people gathered in it was actually not considered prosperous?

But the halls of power were far too distant. Zhou Ye was merely satisfying his curiosity.

When he left the fur shop, Zhou Ye had an extra banknote in his pocket. He suddenly realized that it was best not to use this banknote, but the physical silver at his side seemed about to run out again?

Why was he so unlucky? He had been planning to enter the next stage of the mission as soon as he had money.

Nothing more to say—keep saving money!

Over the following month or so, Zhou Ye traveled constantly between the commandery city and the Little Homestead. He transported over a thousand jin of salted fish in several batches and sold it for more than seventy taels of silver. He also hauled over a thousand jin of charcoal to the courtyard in the commandery city, preparing to slowly sell it to the Woodcutter Gang...

That day, Zhou Ye carried over a hundred jin of charcoal on a shoulder pole to the Woodcutter Gang's charcoal shop and received more than four hundred copper coins.

But just as he was about to leave, he happened to run into Big Dog.

"Brother Big Dog."

"Huh? A-Ye, you're here to sell things?"

"Yes! I sold some charcoal. Let's not talk about that—this is a perfect chance to thank you. My treat. Let's go to a restaurant together."

"This...?" Big Dog looked at several of his subordinates nearby.

"Don't stand on ceremony. Shall all the brothers come too? Today, magpies have been calling at my door. This little brother is fortunate indeed to have the honor of meeting such heroes as you."