“Hmph, it better be true. After all, all your assets are in my hands now. If you ever wrong me, I’ll leave you penniless. Let’s see if any other woman would still want you then.” Bai Nianqing snorted coldly.
This wasn’t an empty threat from Bai Nianqing – she genuinely meant every word.
Having a modern soul, Bai Nianqing knew perfectly well how common divorce was in contemporary society when marriages turned sour.
“Darling, set your heart at ease. I’ve been devoted to you for so long – how could I ever betray you? If anything, I worry you might dislike me for having no family ties or support.” Shen Wenhe sounded somewhat aggrieved.
“I won’t, as long as you never do anything to betray me, I’ll never leave you.” Bai Nianqing made her promise too.
“And I’ll never give you any reason to leave me.” Shen Wenhe’s eyes shone with sincerity.
“Understood. Now that we’ve collected the grain, let’s go out.” Bai Nianqing suggested.
“Wait, we’re not done yet.” Shen Wenhe went over to where the grain had been stored.
With some manipulation, a section of the underground cellar’s wall slid aside by about one meter, revealing a small secret chamber behind it.
Shen Wenhe beckoned to Bai Nianqing: “Darling, come see. This is what truly makes this manor valuable.”
Bai Nianqing approached to find twenty chests neatly arranged in the secret chamber. Due to the limited space, the chests were stacked in pairs.
Shen Wenhe stepped forward and opened the outermost chest from the top layer.
Golden light glittered inside – the chest was filled with gold ingots.
Bai Nianqing hurried over, picked up a gold ingot and bit it.
Shen Wenhe couldn’t stop her in time: “Hey, what are you doing?”
Ignoring him, Bai Nianqing gazed at the tooth marks on the gold ingot with a beaming smile that crinkled her eyes.
Seeing her money-obsessed expression, Shen Wenhe felt both amused and exasperated.
“You… really now. Is this worth getting so excited about?” He asked with a helpless smile.
“Absolutely, completely worth it! I’ve never seen so much gold in my entire life!” One couldn’t blame Bai Nianqing for her lack of worldly experience.
Neither in her previous life nor current one had Bai Nianqing ever seen this much gold – even the original owner of this body hadn’t.
After playing with the ingot for a while longer, Bai Nianqing finally returned it to the chest.
“Husband, how much does one gold ingot weigh? And how many are in this chest?” Bai Nianqing still wasn’t very familiar with ancient weight measurements.
“Each gold ingot weighs two taels. There are two hundred in this chest, totaling forty catties. The top layer was specially prepared with smaller denominations for convenience. It contains not only gold but also silver ingots, each weighing two taels as well.” Shen Wenhe explained.
All this information had been passed down to Shen Wenhe by Master Shen.
Bai Nianqing couldn’t help but admire the foresight of Shen family ancestors.
The ancestors had thoughtfully considered that during times of disaster or illness when secret funds were needed, items like gold bars or gold bricks would draw too much attention. These smaller gold and silver ingots would be much more practical.
Shen Wenhe opened each chest to inspect them – there were eight chests of gold ingots and two chests of silver ingots in total.
“Darling, you can store the top layer first.” After completing his inspection, Shen Wenhe had a clear picture.
With a wave of Bai Nianqing’s hand, all the chests from the top layer disappeared.
Next came the lower layer – ten chests containing nothing but gold bars.
Bai Nianqing had already grown numb. One box weighed forty jin—how much would eighteen boxes amount to? Her sluggish mind could no longer calculate it.
In any case, it was a lot, a whole lot…
“Wife, shall we put everything away?” Shen Wenhe gazed at his wife’s dazed expression and gently patted her head.
Bai Nianqing also felt rather foolish. Sticking out her tongue, she waved her hand and stored the ten large boxes from the bottom layer into her Dimension.
Shen Wenhe restored the Secret chamber to its original state before finally leading Bai Nianqing out of the Underground cellar.
“Wife, let’s stay here for today and return to the city tomorrow. I’ll find a way to exchange all the banknotes for silver. As you said, who knows how the world will change in the future? Holding paper money doesn’t feel secure,” Shen Wenhe remarked.
“Alright. I’ll also go to the fabric shop to buy some cloth. Since we don’t know what lies ahead, it’s better to be overprepared than underprepared. And salt—we can make do without other things, but without salt, people will grow weak. Anything else we can stock up on, we should. Our household has several mouths to feed—we’ll need plenty of supplies,” Bai Nianqing replied.
“Understood. Tomorrow I’ll go to the general store and buy everything we might need. Wife, how about we also buy some pork? Our family isn’t short on money. Even if disasters strike someday, we needn’t live frugally.” Having never experienced hardship since childhood, Shen Wenhe believed that surviving calamities meant not just eating enough but eating well.
“Sure, if we’re buying, let’s get plenty. And don’t forget the Pig offal,” said Bai Nianqing, who wasn’t one to suffer unnecessarily. Given the means, she too preferred to eat and live well.
“Wife, Pig offal smells awful and tastes terrible. We have money—I’ll buy you proper pork,” Shen Wenhe argued. He had never eaten offal before. Truthfully, only impoverished families who craved meat but couldn’t afford it would buy a jin of offal. No one else touched the stuff.
“Ha! That’s because they don’t know how to cook it. Tomorrow, buy a set of Pig offal and have the butcher clean it thoroughly. I’ll prepare it for you once, and you’ll see,” Bai Nianqing insisted. She knew the recipe for braised meat—it could be delicious. However, while she was willing to cook it, she had no desire to handle the stinky offal herself. The butcher would have to clean it first.
“Alright, I understand. I’ll go tomorrow,” Shen Wenhe conceded. Though he doubted offal could taste good, if his wife said so, he would buy it. After all, it was cheap. Even if it turned out unpleasant, it didn’t matter—as long as it made his wife happy.
Unconsciously, Shen Wenhe had grasped the essence of pampering his wife. And he would only grow more devoted along this path.
As they chatted, the two returned to the house.
Changle and Xiaochun had already tidied the rooms. The bedding they had brought with them was laid out, and the curtains and door hangings were all in place.
“Miss, the young master has fallen asleep. Shall I start preparing the meal now?” Xiaochun was in the kitchen scrubbing bowls and chopsticks. Even though the utensils were new, they weren’t clean enough for direct use—they needed to be scalded with boiling water first.
“Alright. Everyone is tired today—just cook some noodles to make do,” Bai Nianqing said. With the exhaustion of moving, a simple meal would suffice. Though Xiaochun was a servant, the household only had a few people, and one shouldn’t work a person like an ox.
After all, Bai Nianqing was a modern person, and she wasn’t accustomed to treating servants like slaves the way ancient people did.
She could only regard Xiaochun as a nanny.