Chaos

The first time venturing into the mountains to hunt, the harvest was abundant.

However, he also witnessed the various dangers within. Zhang Ze's carelessness nearly cost him his life, the ill intentions of the Li Family Fort hunters, and the ferocious beasts and venomous insects in the jungle were all potential threats.

Gu Sheng made up his mind to be extremely cautious when entering the mountains in the future.

Even with superior archery skills, one cannot afford to be complacent, or they wouldn't know how they died.

The four of them carried the wild boar back to the village.

This immediately drew gasps of admiration and envious glances.

"Erniu, you guys have too much luck! You managed to hunt a wild boar again!"

"Next time you go into the mountains, you have to take me with you!"

Some hunters, seeing their haul, were clearly green with envy.

Gu Erniu simply nodded and smiled with his usual simple honesty.

Upon returning home, the four began to divide the wild boar according to their agreed-upon shares.

The wild boar yielded a decent amount of meat; a boar weighing nearly three hundred jin could provide fifty to sixty percent usable meat.

Gu Sheng received twenty-five percent, which amounted to forty to fifty jin of wild boar meat, with the rest being scraps like bones and blood.

Seeing the generous spoils of their hunt, smiles finally returned to everyone's faces. Regardless of how the hunt had gone, the outcome was good.

One jin of wild boar meat could be exchanged for about three jin of millet.

With this meat, even if the others needed to support their families, they could manage comfortably for a long time. If they ate rice bran sparingly, they might not need to hunt for one to two months!

As for Gu Sheng, who lived alone and had no dependents, it was even more so.

However, Gu Sheng, in order to quickly strengthen his body, never scrimped on food. He ate meat at every meal and always had enough rice. His personal consumption was not small.

But no matter what, this was a very good harvest.

It was rare to have such a haul even once a year.

"If calculated at market price, this harvest is worth at least one tael of silver, truly high risk, high reward!"

Gu Sheng mused inwardly.

"If I sell some of this pork for money, combined with what I've saved, it will be enough for the one tael of silver tuition for martial arts training! But there's no rush for now. I need to satisfy my nutritional needs first. Since I can earn money through hunting now, there will be plenty of opportunities to make money in the future."

He was in a very good mood.

The speed of accumulating wealth through hunting was far faster than honest wood chopping; they were not on the same level.

"After a few more trips into the mountains with Erniu-ge and the others, I'll gain more experience, and when my archery reaches Great Accomplishment, I can try hunting alone."

"The tuition for martial arts is just the beginning; the subsequent expenses are the main part. I need to save money, the more the better!"

"But for now, I'll go exchange for some millet. I'm already tired of eating rice bran every day!"

If it were just the poor taste, Gu Sheng could have endured it. The key issue was the low nutritional value and that it didn't fill him up. Now that his conditions had improved, he naturally wanted to exchange for some millet.

Not to mention eating millet every meal in the future, at least he could have it mixed in.

Seeing Gu Youfu and Zhang Ze leave, Gu Sheng also bid farewell to Gu Erniu:

"Erniu-ge, I'm going to exchange for some millet. I'll leave this meat with you for now, and I'll pick it up later."

Gu Erniu quickly said:

"Wait, my family is also out of rice. I'll go with you."

The two walked together towards the trading market within the village.

Calling it a market was an exaggeration; it was actually just a small, established point.

After all, Gu Family Village only had about a thousand households.

This point was originally set up by the main family to purchase supplies, but it later gradually developed into a place where villagers would also trade goods, though on a very small scale. Most transactions were like exchanging a piece of meat for a jin of rice.

The world was chaotic, with bandits and vagrants everywhere, so ordinary villagers could only huddle within the village.

To go to Canghe County, one had to travel with the village's merchant caravan.

Periodically.

The village would dispatch martial artists to accompany the caravans to Canghe County to procure supplies for the villagers to exchange.

Although the prices were slightly higher than buying directly in the city, the increase was not significant, and the safety was a major advantage. Gu Family Village was quite conscientious.

Gu Erniu, familiar with the way, led Gu Sheng to the only official trading post and said with a smile:

"Steward Wang, I'm here to exchange for some millet."

The middle-aged steward, who had been squinting, immediately opened his eyes. Seeing that it was Gu Erniu, his smile deepened:

"Erniu, oh my, you've hunted a wild boar again? Amazing!"

"You kid, ever since you went into the mountains with Lord Gu Changming, you've been blessed with good fortune!"

Gu Erniu quickly replied humbly:

"It's all thanks to Lord Gu Changming's good fortune. I myself wouldn't have such luck."

Steward Wang smiled and nodded, taking out a scale.

"How much millet do you want to exchange?"

Gu Erniu handed over the wild boar meat in Gu Sheng's hand.

"This is a total of twenty jin of wild boar meat, how much can I get for it?"

"This pork looks pretty good. It's still one jin for three jin, so that's sixty jin of millet for you."

Gu Erniu thanked him repeatedly. Gu Sheng stood behind them, watching the two exchange pleasantries without saying a word.

Ever since Gu Erniu entered the mountains last time and formed a connection with Gu Changming, many people had shown him respect, especially the stewards of the main family. They all knew, more or less, that Gu Changming had promised Gu Erniu that he could come to him if he needed anything.

Seeing the two men bagging the rice, Steward Wang pondered for a moment, then pulled Gu Erniu over and whispered:

"If you want to exchange for rice, you'd better exchange for more."

Gu Erniu wasn't stupid and immediately grasped the hidden meaning. His eyes widened as he asked:

"Are you saying the grain prices are going to rise?"

"Keep your voice down. I heard it from Steward Gu Renxu, who is in charge of procurement. Yunzhou is suffering from a severe drought, with no harvest at all. It's terrible. A lot of grain from the surrounding prefectures has been transported there. I heard there's fighting going on over there..."

"Our Canghe County is a bit far away, so the impact is small, but rising grain prices are inevitable, it's just a matter of time. This world is in chaos..."

Steward Wang couldn't help but sigh, a worried expression on his face.

It was the general trend. Let alone him, a mere steward, even the entire Gu Family Village was just a drop in the ocean.

Gu Erniu's face turned pale.

In reality, he had no concept of Yunzhou, as the furthest he had ever traveled in his life was Canghe County.

But he knew what rising grain prices meant for the common people at the bottom.

Life would become even more difficult.

Gu Sheng, with his past life's wisdom, naturally surpassed Gu Erniu in knowledge. Hearing this sudden news, his heart tightened.

If it were just a drought, that would still be within the scope of natural disasters.

But if war followed the drought, it would mean that this dynasty had already lost order and was showing signs of chaos!

Natural disasters and man-made calamities, a chaotic dynasty, the difficulty of survival would increase severalfold!

Starvation for thousands of miles, cannibalism – these would no longer be mere records in books.

Gu Sheng couldn't help but ask:

"May I ask Steward Wang, what is the situation with the fighting in Yunzhou? Is it a refugee uprising or a rebel army's rebellion? Is the fighting still ongoing?"

Steward Wang looked at Gu Sheng in surprise and shook his head:

"I don't know the specifics. Steward Gu Renxu heard it from a storyteller. The news arrived about a month ago. It's probably over by now, but the aftermath there will definitely take some time to clean up. It's never wrong to stock up on more grain."

Gu Sheng breathed a sigh of relief.

The ability to suppress the unrest quickly indicated that the dynasty's foundation was still intact, so it wouldn't collapse so quickly.

What Gu Sheng feared most was widespread chaos in the world, as that would leave him with no choice but to drift with the current, completely defenseless.