The place Li Dashan assigned them was the livestock shed.
Naturally, a place meant for animals was free to stay in—no payment required.
The prisoners who had refused to pay were all dumbfounded.
As soon as Old Madam Lin smelled the foul stench wafting from inside, her stomach churned with nausea.
She couldn’t even tell whether it was cow dung, horse manure, or donkey droppings. All she knew was that every kind of unbearable smell was mixed together.
In some corners, the manure hadn’t even been cleaned up. Piles of it lay everywhere, with flies buzzing around and rats scurrying across the floor.
She turned to leave, but Li Dashan stepped in front of her.
“And where do you think you’re going?”
Forcing a flattering smile onto her weathered face, Old Madam Lin said, “Officer, surely you’re joking. How can we possibly stay here? Isn’t this a livestock shed?”
“That’s right—it is a livestock shed. You didn’t want to pay, yet you still expected decent rooms? Where do you think you’ll find such a bargain? I asked you over and over before, and you all insisted this was fine. So what, you’ve suddenly changed your minds?”
Old Madam Lin instantly regretted her decision.
She couldn’t bear the thought of spending the night in a stable. She had once been the matriarch of a noble household—how could she possibly sleep among livestock?
“Officer, I’ll pay! Please arrange another room for us.”
Li Dashan spat in disdain.
“You think you can toy with me?”
He raised his whip.
Remembering the searing pain of the last beating, Old Madam Lin cried out in terror.
“N-No! Please don’t hit me, Officer! We’ll stay here. We’ll stay here!”
“You refuse a toast only to drink a forfeit.”
Li Dashan snorted coldly before shouting at the prisoners.
“All of you behave yourselves, unless you want a taste of my whip!”
The prisoners had no choice.
Looking at the manure-covered stable, none of them could bring themselves to step inside.
But they had nowhere else to go.
No one dared provoke the guards again.
The members of the Second and Third Branches were on the verge of breaking down.
Lin Jingzhou suddenly screamed.
“Ah! What did I just step on?!”
Lin Jingxing’s face darkened.
“Second Brother… you stepped in dung.”
“Blech!”
Lin Jingzhou immediately vomited on the spot before hopping around in panic.
“Mother! Look at this! You refused to spend a little silver, and now we’re sleeping in a stable! It’s all your fault! If you’d just paid, would we have ended up here?”
“How can those guards treat us like animals? This place is for livestock!”
“How are we supposed to sleep with all this filth?”
Old Madam Lin closed her eyes wearily.
She was too exhausted to deal with her two sons, who were carrying on like monkeys.
Turning to the Second Madam, she ordered,
“Second Daughter-in-law, arrange for someone to clean out the manure. No matter what, we’ll have to spend the night here.”
Liu Shuying nodded obediently.
“Yes, Mother.”
She ordered Concubine Jiang to do the work, but the woman rolled her eyes. Lin Xingmian looked equally unwilling to move.
The Third Branch didn’t even have a proper legal wife—only a group of concubines.
Looking at them was enough to give anyone a headache.
Whenever there was something good to gain, they rushed forward faster than anyone.
But now that there was actual work to do, none of them would budge.
Left with no choice, Liu Shuying turned to Old Madam Lin for help.
“Mother, look at them…”
Old Madam Lin released the imposing authority she had cultivated over the years.
“None of you want to work? Fine. Then none of you will be eating dinner tonight.”
Only then did the concubines reluctantly cover their noses and begin cleaning the stable.
As they shoveled pile after pile of manure, every one of them gagged uncontrollably.
After clearing away the filth, they found some dry hay nearby.
They spread it across the floor, making a crude place to sleep.
After struggling for half the day, they finally had somewhere to spend the night.
Suppressing his disgust, Lin Jingzhou asked,
“Mother, didn’t you say we’d get a proper meal once we reached the city?”
“I’m starving. Mother, please have pity on your son.”
Although she was furious about not getting proper accommodations, Old Madam Lin knew there was nothing she could do.
Since they couldn’t have decent rooms, the least they could do was get something hot to eat.
Thinking of something, she turned her gaze toward Lin Shutong.
“Tong’er, look…”
A mocking smile curled across Lin Shutong’s lips.
This time, however, she didn’t refuse.
“I’ll go take a look.”
Seeing her obedience, Old Madam Lin smiled with satisfaction.
“Tong’er truly is Grandmother’s good granddaughter.”
How laughable.
Meanwhile, Jiang Wanyue and her family had also settled into their rooms.
When Jiang Wanyue saw that the so-called outrageously expensive private room was nothing more than a shabby little chamber with a single bed and one table, she could hardly believe her eyes.
This… was the private room that cost ten taels of silver for a single night?
It was unbelievably run-down.
The moment she pushed open the door, a wave of musty air hit her face, making her nose itch.
Li Dashan really was ruthless when it came to making money.
Still, knowing she finally had a room all to herself made her feel much better.
To reach the city before curfew, they had skipped lunch entirely.
The guards had simply eaten dry flatbread to fill their stomachs before continuing the journey.
She had very little luggage. After locating her room, she closed the door behind her and went to inspect the other two rooms.
When she discovered they were exactly the same, Jiang…
Jiang Wanyue’s expression remained unchanged.
A room worth no more than a hundred copper coins being rented out for such an outrageous price… she had to admire the audacity.
After checking out the rooms, Jiang Wanyue planned to see what food the mule inn had to offer.
One look was enough.
There were only coarse flour buns, mixed-grain porridge with wild vegetables, and boiled greens. Meat was practically nonexistent.
The vegetables weren’t even seasoned, let alone cooked with oil. They still had dirt clinging to them.
She simply couldn’t bring herself to eat it.
Others might manage, but she certainly couldn’t.
When she went downstairs, she spotted Li Dashan drinking tea in the lobby.
“Officer Li,” Jiang Wanyue said, “is there any way we could use a kitchen?
The food here is honestly hard to swallow. Would you even want to eat it?”
After having several meals cooked by Jiang Wanyue, Li Dashan had become spoiled.
The food the guards usually made was terrible to begin with.
Back then, whenever they stopped at an inn, simply getting a hot meal that wasn’t burnt or half-raw had felt like a blessing.
Now, the difference was impossible to ignore.
If you had something better to compare it to, the old meals suddenly seemed unbearable.
If he had the choice now, he really didn’t want to eat the inn’s food.
Li Dashan didn’t ask any questions.
“All right. Wait here. I’ll go ask.”
Before long, he returned. It was obvious he was a regular customer.
“The inn’s main kitchen is busy, so we can’t use that. But the owner’s private kitchen is available.
I checked. There’s rice, flour, cooking oil, and firewood. It looks like everything we need is there.
Come with me.”
“That’s wonderful.”
Following Li Dashan, Jiang Wanyue entered the kitchen and, sure enough, found sacks of rice and flour, cooking oil, and plenty of firewood.
There were also white radishes, napa cabbage, loofah gourds, cucumbers, and a slab of pork belly with the perfect balance of lean meat and fat.
“We’re really allowed to use all this?”
Li Dashan nodded, looking slightly pained.
“It cost me a whole tael of silver to arrange.”
Jiang Wanyue smiled without sincerity.
“Well, that was certainly generous of you.”
He had just earned dozens of taels by renting out a few shabby rooms, yet spending a single tael made him act as if someone had carved flesh off his body.
He really was black-hearted.
Just as Jiang Wanyue reached for some firewood, she noticed a large stone mill standing in the courtyard.
The courtyard itself was fairly spacious, and the stone mill immediately caught her attention.
“Huh? Is that a stone mill?”
“Of course,” Li Dashan replied. “Don’t tell me you’ve never seen one before. Shimo Town was named after these things.
They’re great for grinding wheat, sorghum, buckwheat, sesame seeds, and removing the husks from rice.”
Jiang Wanyue frowned thoughtfully.
According to the memories she had inherited, this era didn’t even have tofu.
Yet in her own knowledge, a stone mill was one of the essential tools for making tofu.
Of course, in modern times, machines had long replaced stone mills, and she herself had only seen one when she was a child.
Back then, stone mills were specifically used to grind soybeans into soybean pulp for making tofu.
With that thought, she suddenly knew exactly what she was going to make for dinner tonight.