“Lu family boy, have you struck it rich? Didn’t you already buy quite a lot of things last time? How come you bought so much more?”
“Whoa! I see a lot of grain bags on the cart. The autumn harvest is less than two months away; why are you buying so much grain?”
“You bought plenty of things last time, where did you get so much silver to buy all this?”
“Your outfit looks really good. Just now, I thought a wealthy young master from the city had arrived; I almost didn’t dare to speak to you.”
The villagers were buzzing with too many questions. Lu Xuan had no patience to answer them one by one, only saying, “The silver came from selling a ginseng root I found in the mountains a few days ago.”
But that single sentence was enough to send the villagers into an uproar.
“Ginseng—!? You actually dug up ginseng?”
Many who had seen him go down the mountain only carrying a basket—and had assumed he hadn’t harvested much—couldn’t help but slap their thighs in regret.
They had been too careless!
Who said you had to catch large game to make money? Medicinal herbs of significant age dug up from the deep mountains were the most valuable items of all!
No wonder Lu Xuan had been away for several days this time; selling ginseng for a good price was naturally no easy task.
While the villagers were enlightened, they couldn’t help but feel envious.
Lu Xuan’s luck was simply too good!
Wu Cheng had been a hunter for decades and had never dug up an aged ginseng root, yet Lu Xuan had found one after only two or three trips into the mountains. Why didn’t they have that kind of luck?
Compared to the astonishing news of making money from ginseng, the fact that Lu Xuan had brought back a cart of supplies seemed like a minor matter.
An aged ginseng root could fetch at least several dozen taels; perhaps even over a hundred!
Never mind buying one cart of supplies—even adding eight or ten more wouldn’t be a problem!
Someone even asked Lu Xuan directly, “Lu boy, when are you planning to build a new house? There are plenty of free hands in the village after the autumn harvest; we can all help out then.”
In the village, the first reaction to earning money was always to build a new house; the Lu family would surely be no exception.
Others thought of this and chimed in, “We can all help when the time comes.” They might even get to enjoy a couple of oily, hearty meals in the process.
Lu Xuan waved his hand. “I have no such plans for the time being. If I have a need later, I will bring it up with the village.”
Saying that, he and the coachman moved all the goods into the house in a few quick motions. After settling the carriage fee, he promptly closed the courtyard gate.
The villagers still had plenty of questions, but seeing him shut the door, they could only leave with regret, gathering in twos and threes to find a place where they could continue gossiping about Lu Xuan selling ginseng to buy a cart of supplies.
At the Lu household.
Lu Qing brewed a cup of honey water for Lu Xuan and handed it to him, her expression softening. “If you hadn’t come back, I would have gone with your brother-in-law to find you. Was the trip smooth?”
Lu Xuan took the cup and gulped it down. He handed the empty cup to Lu Chen to refill, then replied, “Very smooth. The ginseng and ganoderma were both sold.”
Lu Qing asked curiously, “Didn’t you say before that a natural disaster would happen soon and we needed to prepare? Why did you only buy one cart of things?”
It couldn’t be that selling a century-old ginseng and ganoderma only brought enough to buy one cart of supplies, right? Even if she didn’t understand the market for medicinal herbs, she knew that was impossible.
She couldn’t help but guess, “A-Xuan, did you finally earn a large sum of money and are now reluctant to spend it?”
Lu Xuan: “?”
Live Stream Audience: “?”
【What nonsense is she talking about!?】
【Who is reluctant to spend money??? Does she have some sort of misunderstanding about her brother?】
【Thinking too much! The streamer isn’t reluctant at all; he’s incredibly generous!!!】
【He spends money so fast it even scares me to watch!】
Lu Xuan also felt that Lu Qing had a major misunderstanding of him.
“Did you forget how I took out the wild boar last time and then put it away? I’ve already stored the bulk of the supplies; these were just for the villagers to see. I’ve stored away so much that our house wouldn’t be able to hold it if I took it all out.”
Lu Qing suddenly realized.
She had spent these past few days worrying about his safety and the disaster that might descend, having forgotten that he could hide things at will!
At that moment, Lu Xuan took several heavy silver ingots and bits of loose silver from his space and piled them into a small heap on the table.
Lu Qing and Lu Chen stared, their eyes wide. The latter’s face flushed with excitement. “So much silver! Brother earned so much money!”
Lu Qing exclaimed, “This must be over a hundred taels, right? Didn’t you say the other things you bought were all stored away?” How could there still be so much silver left?
Lu Xuan: “The things that needed to be bought were indeed bought. This is the remaining silver.”
Lu Qing was stunned. “There’s this much left? Then how much did you earn in total?”
Lu Xuan thought for a moment and said, “Six or seven hundred taels, I suppose.”
The audience in the live stream immediately erupted in boos.
【Streamer, are you not playing fair!?】
【Have the guts to report the real number! How can you deceive people?】
【Is this for a secret stash? You’re hiding too much; you cut the number by a factor of ten, streamer, you’re not being honest!】
Lu Xuan replied calmly and steadily: “I was afraid that if I reported the real amount, I would scare them half to death.”
The people in the village might never have seen a hundred taels in their entire lives, let alone thousands—they wouldn’t even dare to imagine it.
Even though he had reported only a tenth of the actual amount, Lu Qing was still shaken. She clutched her chest with both hands, looking as if she were about to faint from fright. Lu Chen’s reaction wasn’t as exaggerated, but he was equally dizzy, as if intoxicated by the number his brother had reported.
Lu Xuan poked Lu Chen’s cheek in a good mood and asked deliberately, “Am I very amazing?”
Lu Chen, snapped back to reality by the poke, shouted without hesitation, “Brother is the most amazing! I want to earn lots of money like brother when I grow up!”
Lu Xuan nodded. “Ambitious.” But surpassing him would be impossible; with effort, maybe he could strive to reach his finger.
As they spoke, Lei Yan, who had been working in the fields, hurried back after hearing the news. He was also startled by the remaining silver and the grain and fabric in the main hall, but having had a few days to prepare himself with Lu Qing and being of a calm temperament, he soon regained his composure.
To reward Lu Xuan for his days of rushing around, Lu Qing prepared a lavish feast: scallion-braised venison, stir-fried pork with chili, braised ribs, chives with eggs, cold spinach, and finally, a mushroom and tofu soup.
Lu Xuan had wanted to help, but Lu Qing refused, telling him to rest well.
The live stream audience was incredibly sour, thinking: The streamer hasn’t been rushing around at all! He had people preparing his food and bath; even though it cost money, he certainly hadn’t been exhausted. He had been busy spending money and living it up every day!
But there is a kind of exhaustion that is only “real” because your family thinks you’re tired. Lu Xuan rarely had the chance to enjoy such care from his family, so naturally, he had no reason to refuse.
The live stream could only be sour and drool at the same time, daily urging him to open the “share” function.
During the meal, Lu Chen kept asking him what he had done over the past few days. Lu Xuan could see that it wasn’t just the little guy who was curious, so he started from selling the ginseng and gave a brief summary of his process for buying the various supplies.
He didn’t mention specific quantities or how much each item cost, but he still kept the three of them in constant awe, leaving them hungry for more even after he finished.
Lu Qing sighed. “With so much prepared, we won’t have to fear anything even if we truly face a natural disaster.”
Lu Xuan was noncommittal.
“In the next few days, try to organize everything in the house. Before the disaster strikes, I will store it all away. When the day comes, we will head straight for the mountains.”
Head for the mountains…
Lu Chen was filled with curiosity about the deep mountains and was eager to try, but Lu Qing and Lei Yan were hesitant.
Lu Qing hesitated, “Are we the only two families, the four of us, going into the mountains? The Zhang family has always taken good care of us, and there’s also the village head and the others…”
They were people who had watched them grow up. Even if some had bullied Lu Xuan when they were children or gossiped, there were no truly malicious people among them. For her to completely ignore them and only care for her own family’s safety…
Lu Xuan glanced at her and said, “Don’t worry. Even if you didn’t mention it, I intended to tell the village head tomorrow.”
The reason he hadn’t said anything before leaving was that he feared the news was too terrifying; the village head and the villagers might be overly shocked and act irrationally, harming the Lu family. Although the possibility was small, it still needed to be prevented. Otherwise, it would be a joke if he prepared a mountain of supplies only for the Lu family to fall victim to the villagers before the disaster even began.
Lu Xuan added: “I will tell the village about the disaster. After I tell them, whether they believe it or not, and whether they want to come into the mountains with us, is up to them. But I am definitely taking all of you into the mountains.”
As for the villagers knowing too late and not having enough time to prepare, there was no need to worry. The reason he needed so much time was that he was buying massive quantities; the others in the village didn’t have those conditions. For those willing to believe him, going to Baishong Town to buy some grain would be enough.
Lu Qing and Lei Yan let out a long sigh of relief.
Throughout history, people often fled into the mountains when facing natural disasters or man-made calamities; they weren’t resistant to the idea of going into the mountains themselves. As long as they could survive, where couldn’t they go? Entering the mountains was better than being forced to leave their homeland and dying in a foreign land.
At night.
After Lu Xuan finished the day’s stream, he opened the backend.
The data growth for these days of hoarding in the prefecture hadn’t been as large as when he was in the deep mountains, but he had gained quite a few followers when the blood-sucking vine flexed its muscles again.
The number of concurrent viewers had reached over 700,000, and he had over 200,000 followers.
There was still a long way to go before reaching the next achievement reward, so he only glanced at the numbers before turning his attention to the gifts.
In recent days, he had been receiving 40,000 to 50,000 star coins in gifts on average per day, which soared to over 100,000 when the blood-sucking vine made an appearance. Lu Xuan had already exchanged the gifts from previous days, so this time, he only exchanged the portion obtained during the return journey.
【Current Total Points: 48,570.】
With so many points, he had enough to buy another 1,000-cubic-meter space. However, the storage space he currently owned wasn’t even full, so there didn’t seem to be a need to buy a larger one.
He opened the mall and flipped to the page for space-related equipment, pondered for a moment, and instead purchased an inlaid bracelet that only cost 1,000 points.