Pei Xingzhou stood there in silence, lost in thought.
As the others continued arguing, Su Qingran tore up the engagement contract.
Standing to the side, Wen Yuyan was secretly overjoyed.
If Su Qingran didn’t marry Cousin Pei, then wouldn’t she…
But the Pei family was quite poor. If that dowry could stay with the family, then when she eventually married into the household…
Thinking of this, Wen Yuyan immediately moved closer to Pei Xingzhou and said,
“Cousin Pei, Miss Su no longer has the ability to protect such a large dowry. Giving it back to her would only put her in danger. Whether the two of you still marry or not, the Pei family shouldn’t become known for betraying its word. We ought to help Miss Su safeguard her dowry.”
Hearing that, Su Qingran almost laughed from anger.
Amazing. Truly amazing.
To describe embezzling her dowry in such a fresh and elegant way…
Sure enough, Pei Xingzhou nodded in agreement.
“I won’t allow the last thing my teacher left behind to be squandered by you.”
There it was.
A scumbag and a scheming woman—working together flawlessly.
In the end, they simply didn’t want to return the dowry that rightfully belonged to her.
Did they really think she couldn’t take it back herself?
“Then get out,” Su Qingran sneered. “Stop standing here and polluting my eyesight.”
When Pei Xingzhou and the others didn’t move, she pulled out her electric baton again.
“Leaving or not? Or would you like to experience what those servants went through earlier?”
These people had made the original owner’s life miserable.
Su Qingran didn’t want to look at them for another second.
The moment Li Qiuju saw the baton, her face changed dramatically.
She hurriedly grabbed Pei Xingzhou.
“Xingzhou, let’s go! Don’t bother with this lunatic named Su! I’m telling you right now, I will never agree to you marrying her. Look at this crazy woman—always waving that thing around and threatening people.”
Su Qingran couldn’t stand listening anymore.
Who was she calling crazy?
She slowly walked toward them.
Combined with the electric baton in her hand, she looked like a demon straight out of hell.
Li Qiuju’s eyes widened in terror.
Without another word, she dragged Pei Xingzhou and ran.
It was the first time in Pei Xingzhou’s life that he had looked so disheveled.
Before he knew it, he had been hauled out of Su Qingran’s courtyard by his mother.
Finally, the courtyard became quiet again.
Su Qingran put away the baton, clapped her hands, and declared the job finished.
Still, she felt as though she had forgotten something.
Only when her stomach growled loudly did she remember—
She hadn’t eaten all day.
There were plenty of nutrient solutions stored in her space.
But that stuff tasted awful and never made her feel full.
Now that she had transmigrated to this world, shouldn’t she treat herself to a proper meal?
She rummaged through her purse and discovered she had only one tael of silver left.
When the original owner had been forced to leave the Marquis’s estate and move into the Pei residence, she hadn’t brought much money with her.
All her wealth had been included in her dowry.
But as soon as the dowry arrived at the Pei residence, Pei Xingzhou had taken it away under the excuse that her daily expenses were excessive and that he would keep it safe for her.
What a shameless man.
The more Su Qingran thought about it, the more convinced she became that he had been after the dowry from the very beginning.
Scholars throughout history were often heartless.
But she hadn’t expected his heart to be quite this black.
As for Li Qiuju and Wen Yuyan…
Before leaving the Pei residence, Su Qingran planned to give both of them a special gift.
Although the servants tried desperately to stop her, the moment she displayed her electric baton, nobody dared block her way anymore.
So what if she only had one tael of silver?
That could still buy a lot of meat buns.
Back in the apocalypse, she hadn’t tasted buns in who knew how long.
Today, she intended to eat her fill.
Everything was fine except for the lack of transportation.
Without a carriage, it took her forever to reach the main street.
Following her excellent sense of smell, Su Qingran headed straight to a bun shop.
Looking at the plump, steaming meat buns, she couldn’t help swallowing.
“Boss, give me ten meat buns!”
She ordered ten in one breath.
“Coming right up!”
The owner wrapped the buns in large leaves and smiled.
“Miss, meat buns are three copper coins each. Ten buns come to thirty copper coins.”
Su Qingran smiled and handed over her last remaining tael of silver.
“Here.”
The owner’s smile immediately widened.
“Certainly, I’ll get your change.”
She watched as he brought out a scale, repeatedly weighing pieces of silver before counting out a pile of copper coins.
One tael of silver was roughly equal to one thousand copper coins.
Her ten buns had cost only thirty.
Suddenly, Su Qingran didn’t feel poor at all.
As long as she avoided extravagant spending, she could survive for several more days on this money.
While giving her change, the shop owner happened to notice the way she was eating.
He was startled.
This young woman looked like a noble lady from a wealthy household, yet she ate as though she had been starving for several lifetimes.
Those huge meat buns disappeared in two bites each.
“Miss, here’s your change.”
The owner handed over the silver fragments and copper coins.
After accepting them, Su Qingran left.
She wasn’t particularly happy, though.
After only two buns, she found herself completely full.
Her stomach felt stretched and uncomfortable.
In the end, she tossed the remaining buns into her storage space.
There was no greater misery in the world than wanting to eat but being unable to.
No wonder the original owner had been so weak.
Even her slaps had lacked strength.
Still…
The original owner seemed fairly pretty, didn’t she?
Su Qingran realized she hadn’t even taken a proper look at her new face.
Everything had happened too quickly.
As she wandered through the marketplace, she decided to buy some seeds to plant in her spirit fields and see whether they would grow.
She was fairly certain they would, but experimentation never hurt.
The market was bustling with activity.
It was planting season, so every kind of seed imaginable was available.
Su Qingran headed straight toward the seedling stalls.
Unfortunately, all the seedlings looked exactly the same to her.
She couldn’t identify a single one.
Before the apocalypse, she certainly hadn’t been a farmer.
How was she supposed to recognize any of these crops?
“Miss, what are you looking for? Would you like to see our millet seedlings?”
A woman noticed Su Qingran wandering around aimlessly and approached her enthusiastically.
“I’m looking for rice seedlings. Do you have any?”
The moment she asked, Su Qingran could practically taste rice in her imagination.
If rice grown in her spirit fields turned out as good as she hoped, she didn’t even dare imagine how fragrant it would be.
Just thinking about it made her crave a bowl of steaming white rice.
In the apocalypse, she had eaten plenty of meat.
But it was all from mutated beasts.
The meat was coarse and tough.
With no one producing seasonings anymore, everything tasted dry and terrible.
As a result, she wasn’t particularly obsessed with meat.
What she wanted most was plain white rice and fresh vegetables.
In the apocalypse, those weren’t merely luxuries.
They practically didn’t exist.
The woman looked Su Qingran up and down before speaking awkwardly.
“Oh my, rice is food for wealthy families. Ordinary folk like us don’t really have it. Besides, even if you grow it, the yield is very low. Nobody around here plants much of it.”
After thinking about it, Su Qingran realized the woman was right.
Rice was the closest thing to modern white rice.
Yet in ancient times, refined rice was something only nobles could afford.
Even when commoners grew rice, they usually ate brown rice with the husk still attached.
Since yields were low and the result wasn’t particularly tasty, few people bothered cultivating it.
“Then where can I buy rice seedlings?” Su Qingran asked.
Seeing that she was determined, the woman lowered her voice.
“I do have a little rice. But you know how it is around here. Rice is difficult to grow, and even when it survives, the harvest is poor. So the seedlings I’ve raised…”
She hesitated.
“They don’t look very good.”
Su Qingran raised an eyebrow.
“How bad can they be?”
The woman walked over to her stall and picked up a handful of yellowish weeds.
Then she laughed awkwardly.
“Miss… this is them. What do you think?”
Su Qingran: ?