“Mom! Sis struck it rich! She bought tons of stuff!”
As soon as Gu Nian’an ran back, he excitedly dashed toward the back of the house.
Madam Liu was pulling weeds beside the vegetable patch, worried that rats hiding in the grass might come out and gnaw on their crops.
“What are you yelling about?” she scolded.
She hadn’t caught what her son said—only saw him charging toward her like a gust of wind.
“Big Sis made a fortune! She bought a lot of things!”
Hearing that, Madam Liu hurried back into the courtyard.
When she saw how much Gu Nianzhi was carrying, she trembled and asked,
“Nianzhi… did you steal everything from your grandmother’s house?”
Gu Nianzhi: …
She had only stolen scallions once. Why was her mother so fixated on that?!
“Mom, I earned this money hunting in the mountains.”
“Hunting?!”
“My heavens!”
Madam Liu grabbed Gu Nianzhi and examined her anxiously.
“The mountains are dangerous! Did you go into the deep mountains?”
Buying so many things must’ve cost a lot. Only prey from deep in the mountains could sell for that much—everything near the outskirts had already been hunted clean. Catching even a wild chicken there would count as good luck.
As Gu Nianzhi put the items down, bloodstains on her clothes became visible.
“You’re hurt? So much blood! Quick—An’an, go get a doctor!”
Seeing the blood, Gu Nian’an panicked and bolted for the door, but Gu Nianzhi stopped him.
“It’s not my blood. I killed a wild boar in the mountains.”
“A wild boar?!”
“A wild boar?!”
Two cries rang out at once.
Madam Liu clutched her chest in fright.
“That thing eats people! How could you dare?!”
Gu Nianzhi shrugged nonchalantly.
She’d originally planned something big, but who knew she’d run into a newly grown boar? She hadn’t even needed much effort to kill it.
Thinking of today’s earnings plus what she had left before—she now had over six taels of silver.
She placed the money in front of Madam Liu.
“Mom, now that we have money, we don’t have to worry about surviving the winter anymore. We won’t need to live on wild vegetables every day. As long as our family sticks together, things will only get better.”
Seeing so much silver, Madam Liu was still stunned.
People said hunters made good money—now she truly believed it.
“These six taels are enough for us to live on for years. From now on, don’t go into the mountains anymore. They’re dangerous. I don’t want you risking your life.”
A girl should stay home sewing, cooking, and doing laundry—how could she be running into the mountains every day?
Knowing her mother was worried, Gu Nianzhi nodded along for now.
Once Madam Liu finished speaking, Gu Nian’an sidled up to Gu Nianzhi with sparkling eyes.
“Sis, you’re amazing! I’ve never seen any girl kill a wild boar with a single stone!”
…Wait.
How did he know it was killed with a stone?
Seeing her expression, Gu Nian’an whispered smugly,
“Every time you hunt, you kill it with one stone. I’m used to it already!”
Gu Nianzhi was speechless.
Could he not remember that so clearly?
It was true—but if word got out that a young girl was smashing wild boars to death with rocks, how embarrassing would that be?!
The three happily carried everything into the house.
Gu Nian’an had never seen such a soft quilt before, and Madam Liu couldn’t stop stroking it either.
Since they didn’t even have beds, it would be a waste to lay the new bedding directly on the floor. Gu Nianzhi suggested buying two beds from the village carpenter.
Village beds were simple wooden frames with boards and straw underneath. Once the quilt and sheets were spread, they were incredibly comfortable.
Two bed frames cost 120 copper coins, and Madam Liu winced in pain at the price.
They placed both beds in the room they’d been sleeping in and started cooking dinner.
That night they made pan-fried tofu and cabbage stir-fried with pork.
There was quite a bit of meat, so Madam Liu carefully hung the rest indoors to air-dry and save for later.
Since they’d only recently moved out, the house had nothing but oil and salt—no other seasonings. The tofu was simply fried and sprinkled with salt, and the meat was cooked the same way. Yet to them, these were already lavish dishes.
Even during the New Year, the Gu family had never eaten this well!
The three of them ate until their bellies were round. That night, Madam Liu and Gu Nian’an shared one bed, while Gu Nianzhi slept on the other.
Lying in the soft quilts, everything felt blissful—and unreal.
“Mom, we should get someone to fix the roof,” Gu Nianzhi said. “Otherwise, it’ll leak when it rains.”
Looking at the pitted mud walls, she suppressed the urge to build a new house.
It wasn’t that she didn’t want to—next year they’d be fleeing famine anyway. As long as the house lasted through winter, spending extra money would be pointless.
Madam Liu agreed.
“I’ll hire people to repair the roof tomorrow. We can patch up the other rooms too.”
“Okay.”
They’d make do for now.
As long as they stored grain, saved money, and bought a small donkey before fleeing next year, that would be enough.
Household registration was strictly controlled in this era. Without an imperial order, relocating privately was a serious crime—even with papers. If discovered, one could be exiled to the frontier, where survival was unlikely.
Gu Nianzhi sighed.
“Repairs cost wages, and we need to provide a meal. How much should we pay?”
Madam Liu was worried.
They’d left the Gu household without a single copper coin. If they suddenly hired workers, the old house might come making trouble.
“How much does the village usually pay for labor per day?”
“Twenty-five copper coins, with lunch included.”
“Then we’ll follow village rules.”
No need to stand out. Pay what everyone else pays, feed what everyone else feeds. Sudden wealth only attracted trouble.
“As for the money, we’ll say I accidentally caught a wild chicken and dug out a rabbit nest. Selling them barely covered the repairs.”
Madam Liu nodded.
A wild chicken sold for two hundred coins, rabbits about the same. Even if they spent five hundred coins repairing the house, people would only sympathize with a widowed mother and her children—not cause trouble.
The next day, Madam Liu went to inform the village head, who helped arrange three households to assist with repairs: Uncle Daniu’s son Gu Lihe, Gu Qingshan and Gu Dajiang from the village entrance, and the village head’s eldest son, Gu Yingchuan.
They agreed to start work the next day, and Madam Liu hurried up the mountain to dig more wild vegetables.
Though serving wild vegetables while eating meat themselves felt stingy, they were a lone mother and children who’d left with nothing. Showing too much meat now would only invite attention. Following Gu Nianzhi’s suggestion, they’d prepare plenty of wild vegetables, buy large bones for soup, and make coarse-flour buns—filling but inconspicuous.
Once decided, they acted immediately.
Gu Nianzhi went alone to town to buy bones and coarse flour, while Madam Liu took Gu Nian’an to dig wild vegetables.
That night, they hid the polished rice and meat carefully—so no one would see them the next day.