Are you taking a bath?

Meng Zhixian crouched in front of her legs, resting against her knees. She looked down at him; fine beads of sweat still clung to his forehead, and his disheveled hair stuck to his temples.

"I carried so many sweet potatoes today. I'm not useless anymore."

Su Yuhe smoothed the damp hair at his temples, took a handkerchief from inside her robe, and wiped his sweat. "You earn money for the family and work hard for the family. You're not useless at all."

With looks like that, even if he did nothing, just looking at him would put me in a good mood.

"Wife, dinner's ready."

Su Yuhe's first instinct was to push Meng Zhixian away. Then she came to her senses and pulled him up from the floor, while she herself ground ink with her left hand and wrote with her right.

Lu Mingxi pushed the door open and came in, looking oddly at the two of them. "What's going on? Second Brother Meng got hot carrying sweet potatoes, but why are you so hot too, Wife?"

She said nothing. Meng Zhixian changed the subject. "Wife said she'd eat later, once it's cooled down a little. Let's go eat first."

Lu Mingxi looked at Su Yuhe. "Are you really not eating, Wife?"

"Mm, go ahead."

He said no more and pulled Meng Zhixian outside. "Your head's all sweaty, Second Brother Meng. Hurry and wipe it off."

Meng Zhixian tucked the handkerchief in his hand farther into his sleeve and pulled his arm free of Lu Mingxi's grasp. "Mm, go ahead. I'll wash my face in the bathing room."

"I'm so hot too. I'll wash my face as well. There's still plenty of hot water right now. Maybe I can even take a bath."

Lu Mingxi skipped after him, waving to Lu Mingyi as he passed. "Brother, I want to take a bath."

Lu Mingyi looked up and gave a quiet acknowledgment.

Before receiving his permission, Lu Mingxi cheered and headed to the bedroom to gather clothes for his bath.

A mocking smile curled Meng Zhixian's lips. He entered the bathing room, filled half a basin with cold water, and wiped his face. As he left, he ran into Lu Mingxi, who had gathered his clothes.

The young man's face brimmed with a happy smile, a particularly glaring sight to him.

Lu Mingxi smiled sweetly at him. "Second Brother Meng, are you taking a bath?"

Meng Zhixian stepped outside. Lu Mingyi was piling the sweet potatoes from his back basket beneath the grape arbor. Seeing him come out, he said, "Rest a while first."

He shook his head, went over to help take the sweet potatoes out of the back basket, and shouldered it. "Let's go. The sooner we finish carrying them, the sooner we can rest."

Lu Mingyi had no objection. He wanted to finish carrying them sooner too.

The two headed out with their back baskets, just as Li Yun was getting down from the ox cart.

Second Sister Li climbed down from the cart. "No need to go. They're all here."

She helped unload with brisk, deft movements. "Honestly, that husband of mine. He didn't even think to help deliver them. I only found out about this when I got back. Usually his mouth never stops chattering, but today he turned mute."

"I've brought all your sweet potatoes over. There are some sweet potato vines here too. They taste good stir-fried."

Li Yun helped carry them too, and before long, the four of them had moved all the sweet potatoes from the cart into the courtyard. Second Sister Li wiped the sweat from her forehead and looked at the bamboo sieves of all sizes laid out around the courtyard.

"You've dried so much. That'll keep you fed for a while."

Li Yun went into the kitchen, poured a bowl of water, and handed it to her. "Well, we heard about the great cold, didn't we? Better to prepare early. You should dry some more too."

Second Sister Li took the bowl and sat down at the wooden table in the courtyard, looking ready for a chat with him.

"We grow quite a lot at home. Every harvest, we dry plenty."

"Who can say for certain about this? Before the great cold even gets here, all these payments for this and that will have drained our savings dry. If the authorities could send word down this early, the great cold can't possibly be coming so soon."

Meng Zhixian and Lu Mingyi crouched in a corner, stacking the sweet potatoes neatly while pricking up their ears to listen.

Li Yun casually murmured his agreement a couple of times, and Second Sister Li continued pouring out her woes. "There are seven mouths in my family. The three young rascals below me haven't been matched with anyone yet, and my mother's too old to earn much. In the whole family, I'm the only one making a few coins driving the ox cart every day."

He smiled without responding. Second Sister Li tapped the tabletop with her fingers, growing more worked up as she spoke. "The authorities act on every whim, without sparing a thought for whether ordinary people live or die. Seven taels of silver-where are we supposed to scrape that together? They might as well let each household look after itself. Once they've warned everyone about the great cold, they should leave it at that. Granaries, what granaries? Who knows whether there'll even be any grain in them when the time comes?"

Listening from the study, Su Yuhe felt that if everyone really were left to look after their own households, Second Sister Li would have something else to say.

Still, it wasn't as though she had no point at all. The great cold was bad news. Judging it with her political awareness, she felt the authorities wouldn't let that news leak.

Yet the fact was that the authorities had not only announced the news but were also raising money to build granaries. It looked as though they intended to concern themselves with the people's survival and whether they went hungry.

Aside from the money levied for the granaries, there were many, many other expenses.

The laborers were numerous and came from all walks of life. The food, clothing, and lodging of the officials supervising the civilian workers would most likely be paid for by the state treasury.

Surely they couldn't collect more money from the people to maintain the granaries once they were built. With her brains, the only possibility she could think of was paying for it from the state treasury.

The question was, did the state treasury have that much money?

The conversation outside continued, and Su Yuhe's thoughts wandered despite herself.

If I were the emperor, what would I do if the state treasury ran out of money?

Based on my gaming experience, the best way to fill the state treasury is undoubtedly to confiscate estates!

Confiscate corrupt officials' estates!