Chaos

Their first hunting trip into the mountains had yielded a bountiful harvest.

But they had also witnessed all kinds of dangers: Zhang Ze's carelessness had nearly cost him his life, the Li Family Fort hunters' sinister intentions, and the savage beasts and venomous insects in the forest—all were potential threats.

Gu Sheng became even more determined that he had to be extremely cautious whenever he entered the mountains in the future.

No matter how skilled he became with a bow, he could not grow complacent. Otherwise, he would not even know how he died.

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

It immediately drew waves of astonished and envious looks.

"Erniu, your luck is just too good! You got another wild boar this time!"

"You have to take me along next time you go into the mountains!"

Seeing their haul, several hunters turned green with envy.

Gu Erniu merely nodded and smiled honestly.

Once they returned home, the four began dividing up the wild boar according to the shares they had agreed upon.

The boar had yielded a fair amount of meat. A nearly three-hundred-pound wild boar could produce fifty to sixty percent of its weight in meat.

Gu Sheng received twenty-five percent, amounting to some forty or fifty pounds of boar meat, along with scraps like bones and blood.

Seeing the generous spoils, smiles finally returned to everyone's faces. No matter how perilous the hunt had been, the outcome was good.

A pound of wild boar meat could be exchanged for roughly three pounds of millet.

With this meat, even the others, who had families to support, could live comfortably for quite a while. If they ate frugally and mixed in some rice bran, they might not even need to enter the mountains to hunt for one or two months.

As for Gu Sheng, who only had himself to feed, this was even more true.

However, Gu Sheng was now trying to strengthen his body as quickly as possible, so he never scrimped on food. He ate meat with every meal and had as much grain as he wanted. His personal consumption was considerable as well.

Still, this had been an exceptionally good harvest.

It was difficult to get a haul like this even once in an entire year of hunting.

At market prices, this haul is worth at least one or two taels of silver. High risk really does bring high returns!

Gu Sheng sighed inwardly.

If I sell part of the pork, then add the money I've saved before, I'll have enough for the one or two taels of silver needed to study martial arts! But there's no rush. I need to meet my nutritional needs first. Now that I can make money through hunting, there will be plenty of chances to earn more later.

He was in an excellent mood.

Hunting accumulated wealth far faster than honestly chopping wood. The two were not even in the same league.

After going into the mountains with Brother Erniu and the others a few more times to gain experience, once my archery reaches mastery, I can try entering the mountains alone.

The tuition for martial arts is only one part of it. The expenses afterward will be the real burden. I need to save money—as much as possible!

But for now, I'll trade for some millet. I'm sick of eating rice bran every day!

If it merely tasted bad, Gu Sheng could have endured it. The key was that it had little nutritional value and did not keep him full. Now that his circumstances had improved, he naturally wanted to trade for some millet.

He did not need to eat millet at every meal in the future, but he could at least eat it from time to time.

Seeing Gu Youfu and Zhang Ze leave, Gu Sheng also took his leave of Gu Erniu.

"Brother Erniu, I'm going to trade for some millet. Leave this meat with you for now; I'll come back for it later."

Gu Erniu hurriedly said,

"Wait. My family is out of grain too. I'll go with you."

The two set off together toward the village's trading market.

Though it was called a market, it was really just a small trading post.

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

Originally, the post had merely been a place set up by the main family to purchase supplies. Over time, it developed into a place where villagers also traded goods with each other, though the scale remained small. Most transactions were things like exchanging a piece of meat for a pound of grain.

The world was in chaos, with bandits and roving outlaws everywhere. Ordinary villagers could only huddle within the village.

If they wanted to go to Canghe County, they had to travel with the village's merchant caravan.

Every so often,

the village would send martial artists along to Canghe County to purchase supplies for the villagers to exchange for.

Though the prices were somewhat higher than buying in the county themselves, the difference was not great. The safety was worth it, and Gu Family Village was fairly conscientious.

Gu Erniu led Gu Sheng familiarly toward the only legitimate trading point and said with a cheerful grin,

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

The middle-aged steward, who had been squinting with his eyes half-closed, immediately opened them. Seeing that it was Gu Erniu, his smile grew warmer.

"Erniu! Oh, you caught another wild boar? Impressive!"

"You brat, ever since you went into the mountains with Lord Gu Changming, fortune has been smiling on you!"

Gu Erniu quickly replied humbly,

"It's all thanks to Lord Gu Changming's blessings. How could I have such luck on my own?"

Steward Wang smiled and nodded, taking out a scale.

"How much millet do you want to trade for?"

Gu Erniu handed over the wild boar meat Gu Sheng was holding as well.

"There are twenty pounds of wild boar meat here altogether. How much can we exchange it for?"

"This pork looks quite good. Three pounds of millet for one pound of meat, as usual. I'll give you sixty pounds of millet."

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

Ever since Gu Erniu had formed some connection with Gu Changming after entering the mountains with him last time, many people had given him some face. This was especially true of the main family's stewards, who more or less knew that Gu Changming had promised Gu Erniu he could seek him out if he encountered trouble.

Seeing the two loading up the grain, Steward Wang hesitated briefly before pulling Gu Erniu aside and speaking in a low voice.

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

Gu Erniu was no fool. He immediately understood the implication and widened his eyes.

"You mean grain prices are going up?"

"Keep your voice down. I heard it from Steward Gu Renxu, who handles procurement. Yunzhou is suffering from a severe drought, with not a single grain harvested. It's terrible. Much of the grain from the surrounding provinces has been transported there, and I heard there's fighting over there..."

"Canghe County is farther away, so we've been affected less. But rising grain prices are inevitable. It's only a matter of time. The world is in turmoil..."

Steward Wang could not help sighing, his face filled with worry.

This was the trend of the times. Let alone a mere steward like him, even the entire Gu Family Village was but a drop in the ocean.

Gu Erniu's face turned pale.

In truth, he had no real concept of Yunzhou. The farthest place he had ever been in his life was Canghe County.

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

Life would become even harder.

Gu Sheng possessed the memories and wisdom of a previous life, so his breadth of knowledge was naturally beyond Gu Erniu's. Hearing this sudden news, his heart tightened.

If it were only a severe drought, it would still fall within the realm of natural disaster.

But if war followed the drought, it meant that this dynasty had already fallen out of order, and the first signs of chaos had appeared!

Natural disasters, man-made calamities, a dynasty in troubled times—the difficulty of survival would increase severalfold!

Starving corpses stretching for miles and people exchanging children to eat would no longer be merely records in books.

Gu Sheng could not help asking,

"May I ask, Steward Wang, what is the situation with the fighting in Yunzhou? Is it an uprising by refugees, or a rebellion by rogue troops? Is the war still ongoing?"

Steward Wang glanced at Gu Sheng in surprise and shook his head.

"I don't know the specifics either. Steward Gu Renxu heard it from a storyteller. The news arrived more than a month ago, so it has probably ended by now. But the aftermath there certainly cannot be cleaned up in a short time. You can't go wrong stockpiling more grain."

Gu Sheng finally let out a breath.

Being able to swiftly suppress the unrest showed that the dynasty's foundations still remained. It would not collapse so quickly.

What Gu Sheng feared most was the entire realm descending into chaos now. Then he truly would be left drifting with the tide, without the slightest power to protect himself.