While the carpenter was repairing the door, Gan Fanren sat on a stone, deep in thought.
There would be a great drought for the next three years. It was far too conspicuous for their family to be living well in such a small village. Even with soot on their faces as a disguise, they couldn’t keep the charade up for long.
Once Hui Niang finished her month of postpartum confinement, their family would have to leave.
They would go to Wangdu, the capital.
That was the seat of the Emperor, a place with a massive, bustling population. It would surely be easier to hide his daughter’s secret there.
Since they still had to stay for another month, he needed to buy some grain so as not to arouse suspicion.
Moreover, he didn’t know if his daughter’s Golden Finger had any limitations. If the Divine Lady suddenly decided to take it back one day, they would need a surplus of food to survive.
Gan Fanren wasn’t the only one thinking of moving; many people in the village were having similar thoughts.
“A great plague always follows a great flood. We must leave as soon as possible.”
Several households in the village packed up and left.
Seeing them go, Wang Lishi chased after them and spat on the ground.
“A bunch of cowards! It was just a little flood, and look how scared they are.”
“Oh, my life is so bitter! My daughter-in-law is gone, and now so many people are leaving the village. My winery business is going to suffer.”
After she finished her cursing, she quietly sneaked over to the Gan family’s house to eavesdrop.
Inside the house, Gan Fanren opened his daughter’s swaddling clothes and took out some silver. He planned to buy grain while the town still had supplies.
Gan Tian was so scared that she pretended to be asleep, not daring to open her eyes.
However, her inner thoughts betrayed her.
【It’s finally happening. What should I do? How do I explain the missing money?】
【Wait, I’m a baby. I can’t talk. Why do I need to explain anything?】
【Right, right! I’m just a pure, innocent little baby. I don’t understand anything. None of this has anything to do with me.】
Listening to his daughter’s thoughts, Gan Fanren almost died of laughter.
He feigned surprise. “Oh, how is there less money?”
Hui Niang played along, saying, “The road must have been bumpy; it probably just fell out by accident.”
Gan Tian nodded slightly in her mind.
Exactly! That’s it!
Outside the house, Wang Lishi’s eyes widened.
Wasn’t this Gan Fanren just a poor Xiucai? How could he produce six taels of silver?
Looking at those six taels, a flicker of greed appeared on Wang Lishi’s face.
When Gan Fanren reached the town, the owner of the grain shop was frowning deeply.
With so much grain soaked by the floodwater, it couldn’t be sold at the regular price. He could only sell it off at a loss, tears in his eyes.
He had been trying to sell it all day without a single customer. When he saw Gan Fanren coming to buy grain, he grinned so wide his teeth showed.
Gan Fanren spent one tael of silver and bought twenty shi of rice.
He spent a little extra silver to ask the shopkeeper to deliver it to the village for him.
The shopkeeper readily agreed.
Seeing Gan Fanren buy a whole cart of water-soaked grain, the villagers couldn’t help but gossip.
“Has this Xiucai Gan studied so much that his brain has gone soft? Spending silver on water-soaked grain?”
“Exactly! Soaked grain tastes terrible and smells bad. With that money, he should have waited a few days for grain from other regions to arrive and bought more then.”
Wang Lishi had originally been jealous of Gan Fanren’s silver, but seeing him buy a heap of soaked grain, she only thought he was a fool. “They say scholars are useless, and his brain really isn’t right.”
“My family has money. We won’t follow his pathetic example and buy soaked grain.”
“If our family is going to eat, we’ll eat only the best refined rice.”
A villager flattered Wang Lishi. “That’s true. Who else is as wealthy as your family?”
Wang Lishi felt quite puffed up by the villagers’ flattery.
A short time later, however, the villagers regretted it.
And for no other reason than this: although the fresh rice was good, it was expensive.
Because all the surrounding villages had been hit by the disaster, the price of new rice was ridiculously high.
One shi of rice actually cost two taels of silver!
It was an astronomical price!
Facing the protests of the commoners, the grain shop owner didn’t even blink.
“Think it’s too expensive? Water-soaked rice is one tael per shi.”
“A few days ago, that Xiucai Gan bought twenty shi for one tael! Why is it one tael for just one shi now?”
“That was the old price. It’s not the same anymore. Buy it if you can afford it; if not, get lost.”
The villagers’ mention of Gan Fanren only made the shopkeeper’s heart ache.
At that time, he had felt that the soaked rice was as good as trash, so he might as well sell it cheap. How could he have known that grain would become so scarce?
If he had known, he wouldn’t have sold it no matter what.
Only then did Wang Lishi realize that Xiucai Gan wasn’t the fool—she was.
Because of the flood, the crops in the fields had been washed away. There would likely be no food to harvest for months.
The grain they had at home wouldn’t last long.
But she wasn’t willing to spend one tael of silver for a single shi of soaked grain either.
Her eyes darted around as she thought of the grain at Gan Fanren’s house.
In that Xiucai’s house, he was the only able-bodied man. The rest were just a woman and a child. How could they possibly eat all that grain?
They should give some to the Wang family.
Thinking this, Wang Lishi took her husband and her son to the Gan family’s house and began pounding on the door.
“Xiucai Gan! Xiucai Gan…”
Late at night, her voice dragged out long and eerie, like a ghost haunting the place.
Gan Tian, who was drinking milk, was so startled that she dropped her bottle.
Gan Fanren simply blew out the candle and didn’t go out.
Wang Lishi shouted outside for half the night, but no one opened the door. Instead, she fell ill from the heavy night dew and cold.
When she returned the next day, she had lost her momentum from the night before.
“Xiucai Gan, I was knocking on your door last night. Why didn’t you open it?”
Gan Fanren was chopping wood in the courtyard. Hearing Wang Lishi’s words, he lowered his axe and said calmly:
“In the middle of the night, I thought it was a ghost. I didn’t dare open the door.”
Since Wang Lishi had only recently “consumed” her daughter-in-law, her face paled in terror at Gan Fanren’s words.
“Pah, pah, pah! What kind of nonsense are you talking?”
“For a scholar, how can you believe in ghosts and spirits?”
“I’m here on serious business. Do you still have that water-soaked grain? Spare ten shi for me.”
Seeing Wang Lishi coming to act shamelessly, Gan Fanren raised an eyebrow. “Sure. I won’t ask for much. Auntie, just give me five hundred wen.”
“Five hundred wen? Why don’t you just rob me! That’s water-soaked grain. Aren’t you ashamed to sell it for so much?”
Wang Lishi pointed at Gan Fanren’s nose and cursed, as if he had committed some heinous crime.
When the grain shop owner charged one tael per shi, she hadn’t dared to utter a peep. Yet when Gan Fanren offered ten shi for five hundred wen, she screamed about him being “black-hearted.”
Gan Fanren glanced at her coldly. “You think the original price is too expensive? You don’t intend to take it for free, do you?”
“If I gave a bun to a beggar on the street, he would kowtow to me twice. You want to take away ten shi of rice just by flapping your gums? You’re far too shameless. If your ancestors underground heard this, they would be mortified.”
Inside the room, Gan Tian waved her little hands excitedly.
【Daddy is so cool! Daddy is mighty!】
【Scold this shameless old hag to death!】
A villager nearby remarked half-jokingly, “Wang Lishi, you’re being unfair. Twenty shi for one tael was the purchase price. To get the shopkeeper to deliver it to the village, Xiucai Gan even had to pay extra for the cart and horse.”