Refusing to Believe It

The constables were terrified and immediately wrote down the charges, signed and sealed them.

The Lord King Yan coldly shouted, "If you dare to oppress the people and bully the villagers of Liu Family Village again, don't blame me for being ruthless!"

After saying that, Lord King Yan left.

When the chief constable woke up, he trembled with fright and said, "What happened? How did I fall asleep? I must have had a nightmare."

The constables nearby gradually woke up, shuddered, and said, "Did you go to the King Yan? The King Yan is so scary!"

The chief constable was so frightened he stammered, "You mean what we experienced was real?"

Someone noticed the paper money nearby and said, "It's true... I've seen this kind of paper money down there before. We... we might have really been to the King Yan. We can't afford to offend the Liu Family Village."

A group of constables fled back as if their lives depended on it. Zhou Wanwan scoffed and said, "How boring. Alright, you guys clean up the scene. I'm exhausted after putting on this show. I'm going back to rest."

With an extra 120 taels of silver, plus all the other money she had before, Zhou Wanwan now had more than 200 taels of silver on her.

This would have been quite astonishing even in ancient times.

In ancient times, ordinary people were very poor and could barely afford to eat unless there was a famine.

But in years of famine, you can only rely on fate.

When she woke up, it was already evening. Liu Su'e smiled and said, "Wanwan, let's get up and eat. I made pork rib soup and lion's head meatballs, just like you said."

Zhou Wanwan jumped up. This pork rib soup was really delicious. There was no MSG in ancient times, but this soup tasted incredibly fresh, especially with the addition of mushrooms from the mountains.

The lion's head meatballs were also very delicious; Zhou Wanwan ate until she was stuffed.

After eating, we went for a walk up the mountain, treating it as a way to diet.

In the dead of night, the mountains around Liu Family Village were bustling with activity.

As expected, many hands make light work. Liu Dalang, seeing her excited face, said, "Wanwan, we've made a lot of charcoal! Come and see!"

They are currently producing large quantities of charcoal, totaling seventy or eighty baskets.

Zhou Wanwan nodded and said, "Take out ten baskets of black charcoal and three baskets of Silver Frost Charcoal. Let's go sell the charcoal and buy some more grain and cotton while we're at it."

Liu Dalang sighed and said, "But the price of grain has risen so much that it's not worth it at all!"

Zhou Wanwan looked at him and said:

"It's not cost-effective now, but in the future, it won't be a matter of cost-effectiveness anymore, it will be that you simply won't be able to buy it."

"Let's go to the city now. By the time we get there, it will be almost dark."

Zhou Wanwan went directly to find Lin Shouyi. She was originally going to the county government office last time, but something happened that delayed her.

Lin Shouyi looked at Zhou Wanwan and said, "The county government has recently seized a lot of weapons, many of which are usable, but they're a bit pricey. Let's go take a look later."

Zhou Wanwan looked at Lin Shouyi and said, "Uncle Lin, I want to buy more grain today, all coarse grains, about 100 taels."

Lin Shouyi looked at her and asked, "How... how much?"

"Over a hundred taels, do you have any connections?"

Lin Shouyi looked at her and asked, "Wanwan, where did you get all this money?"

When Zhou Wanwan left Zhou Family Village, she was penniless.

Zhou Wanwan smiled and said, "Uncle Lin, don't misunderstand. This money belongs to Liu Family Village. I'm just helping Liu Family Village buy some grain."

"Oh! I knew it. But Liu Family Village was smart; they sold their land in advance. But how did they end up selling it to the people from Jiang Family Village?"

The Jiang Family is no pushover; even our Wild Field Village wouldn't dare to confront them head-on.

Zhou Wanwan sighed and said, "They insisted on taking our land back then, and it's all clearly written in black and white. We can't just deny it!"

"They certainly won't deny it, but they'll try to pull some dirty tricks behind your back, so you'd better be careful."

Zhou Wanwan nodded and said, "I know what's going on. A lot of constables came to our village yesterday. Are they all from the city?"

"No, it's not from here. I asked my second uncle yesterday, and it's a constable from the manor."

Even my second uncle had to treat them with utmost respect.

I wanted to help yesterday, but given the situation, there was really nothing I could do.

"How did you escape yesterday?" Lin Shouyi was also scared half to death yesterday, and he didn't understand why the chief constable of the prefecture would appear here.

Zhou Wanwan chuckled and said, "I don't know! They probably thought I was cute, so they let the ones from our village go!"

So they're from the government office. Speaking of Jiang Family Village, they're really something; they've managed to get along well with people from the government office.

Lin Shouyi looked at her and said:

"Anyway, you absolutely must not offend anyone from Jiang Family Village."

I heard that they also have dealings with some high-ranking officials in the Upper Capital, and secretly do things for them.

Zhou Wanwan clicked her tongue twice and said, "That's really impressive."

Jiang Wu was also puzzled. "Chief Constable, what do you mean by that?"

The chief constable sighed and looked at him, saying:

"We can't afford to offend Liu Family Village, so you'd better not."

Otherwise... the consequences would be unimaginable.

What do you mean by "the consequences will be unimaginable"? Does this mean Liu Family Village has some powerful background?

"It's... it's huge, we can't afford to drive it."

"Hey! Chief Constable, just who are you from?" Jiang Wu really didn't believe it.

"It almost killed me, and now I'm too scared to sleep. Just don't offend me, and I can't say anything more." The problem is, even if he did say it, nobody would believe him!

Jiang Wu could only inexplicably escort him to the door.

Zhou Wanwan went directly to the county government office, where the warehouse was indeed filled with many new goods.

Lin Shouyi's second uncle said:

"These things aren't cheap these days. A good bow and arrow costs two taels of silver, though it's a bit cheaper than outside."

Look at this! Those machetes and such are all one or two taels of silver. This wood-chopping knife is also quite good, only 500 coins. It's always cheaper than outside."

Lin Shouyi asked softly, "Second Uncle, do we still have any food here?"

His second uncle looked at him and said, "You still want grain? Of course we have grain, but the price isn't what it used to be."

"If you want coarse grains, it'll cost over a hundred taels of silver..."

Uncle Er frowned and said, "Over a hundred taels of silver worth of grain? What are you trying to do with this? I do have some, I'll take you to the accountant."

One hundred and fifty taels of silver could previously be exchanged for more than fourteen hundred bags of grain, but now it can only be exchanged for more than three hundred bags, a difference of several times.

Zhou Wanwan sighed, paid the money directly, and the county government's carriage would deliver the goods to her door.

This way, they won't be targeted, which is a good thing.

Uncle smiled at them and said, "You bought so much stuff, I'll just give you a few weapons later. Anyway, those weapons won't be on the books."