The shop owner picked up her abacus and clicked away for a while before saying, “Little lady, the ready-made clothes and shoes come to 2 taels 50 wen, the fabric is 1 tael 300 wen, and the quilts are 2 taels 700 wen. Altogether, that’s 6 taels 50 wen.”
Li Wanting couldn’t help but be shocked at the total. No wonder people in the past were so poor—fabric is so expensive. That was why poor families rarely bought new clothes. Adults patched up their old ones, and children wore hand-me-downs, mended for years on end.
“Shop owner, since I’m buying so many things, could you give me a little discount? I’ll come back to buy more next time,” Li Wanting suggested.
“Hmm, I could, but I run a small business, so I don’t make much profit. But since you asked, little lady, I’ll deduct the 50 wen—you can pay an even 6 taels,” the shop owner said with a sincere smile.
“All right.” Li Wanting pulled six taels of silver from her space and handed it over.
The owner accepted it, then leaned close and whispered, “Little lady, since you’re buying so much, I’ll tell you something. My brother works at the county office—he says there’s a war coming from the north. Rich families in the county and town are already taking their families, servants, and maids and fleeing. And lately, many refugees have arrived in town. Today’s my last day here—I’m leaving tomorrow. If you have enough silver, you should hurry and buy more food to prepare for escape. Prices are already skyrocketing.”
Li Wanting felt a chill run down her spine. War in the north? Where would we even escape to? I have to hurry and buy supplies.
Looking at the piles of quilts, fabric, clothes, and shoes she had just bought, Li Wanting said to the shop owner, “Thank you for the warning. I’ll leave these things here for now—I need to buy some grain. I’ll pick them up when I leave. Is that okay?”
“Of course, go ahead without worry,” the owner said readily.
Li Wanting slung the basket over her back and led her two children out of the shop.
At first, she hadn’t noticed, but now she saw it clearly: many refugees were wandering the streets, dressed in rags, faces drawn and hollow. Some were sitting, some lying down, some begging—eyes vacant, desperate, or greedy.
As they walked, Li Wanting noticed two refugees quietly following them. She pretended not to see and led the children into a deserted alley.
“Big brother, that lady with two kids just came into this alley. They must have money from that fabric shop.”
“Mm, let’s go check it out,” said the other.
Li Wanting positioned her children behind her and watched as two shabby, filthy men—one tall, one short—entered the alley. They looked like seasoned troublemakers.
“Whoa, this little lady is quite delicate-looking. Come on, hand over the silver and let me have some fun, then I’ll let you go,” the tall one said.
“See, big brother? I wasn’t lying—the little lady is really cute.”
“All right, kid, once I’m done, it’s your turn,” the tall man said.
“Hehe, thanks, big brother,” the short one said.
Hearing their lewd talk made Li Wanting feel nauseous.
She acted first. Using her space’s teleportation function, she instantly appeared behind the tall man. With a military-style shovel in her hand, she slammed it onto his head, while simultaneously delivering a sweeping kick to the short man’s groin.
Bang!
“Ah!” The tall man went down stiffly.
“Ah… ooh…” The short man fell, clutching himself in pain and wailing.
Bang!
Li Wanting stood upright and brought the shovel down hard on the short man’s head again. This time he stopped screaming and lay still.
Hmph, dare to rob me? Out of luck.
“Mom, are you okay?” Zhou Zimo ran over with his sister, holding her arm in concern.
“I’m fine, just a little thing. This military shovel is quite handy,” Li Wanting said, reassuring her children.
Handy? Any normal person hit with this iron thing would be dead or at least seriously injured, Zhou Zimo thought to himself.
“You’re amazing, Mom! You beat up the bad guys!” Zhou Zimeng’s eyes sparkled with admiration.
“See? Later, I’ll teach you some self-defense,” Li Wanting said with a smile.
She had learned self-defense in the modern world, mostly for self-protection since she often lived alone. She hadn’t needed it back then, but now, in this chaotic ancient world, it was necessary to teach the children how to protect themselves.
“Yay! Then I won’t be scared of bad guys anymore!” Zhou Zimeng said happily.
Zhou Zimo was even more excited—he could protect Mom and his sister. Dad had always said a real man protects his family, and now he felt he was a real man.
Li Wanting smiled helplessly, stored the shovel back in her space, and didn’t care about the two dead men on the ground. She led her children out of the alley.
They arrived at a grain shop, where a long line of people was waiting. Li Wanting and her children joined the queue.
Though she had plenty of high-quality grain in her space, these were all fine rice. If they had to flee, she needed some coarse grains to make it look normal.
“Whoa, fine rice and white flour are 38 wen per jin, coarse rice and sorghum flour 25 wen per jin?”
“What? So expensive! Sorghum flour isn’t normally 4 or 5 wen per jin?”
“Yes, haven’t you heard? There’s war and famine, so food is scarce,” someone explained.
Hearing the chatter, Li Wanting widened her eyes. Grain prices are this high?
“Ma’am, do you want some? If not, let the next person buy,” a young clerk said to an elderly woman.
“Young man, can you give me a discount? I have a large family,” the woman pleaded.
“Ma’am, the prices are set by the owner. Grain prices change daily, and tomorrow you might not even get this price. Plus, there’s not much left,” the clerk said helplessly.
“I see… crops failed, and grain is so expensive. Heaven’s really giving us a hard time,” the woman said, wiping her tears.
“Do you still want the coarse rice?” the clerk asked patiently.
“Yes, yes! Give me two jin,” she said.
“All right,” he replied.
Hearing that food was scarce and prices were rising, everyone bought as much as they could.
Li Wanting bought ten jin of coarse rice, ten jin of sorghum flour, and two jin of salt. Salt was essential, and though she had white refined salt in her space, it wouldn’t pass as ordinary coarse salt in the outside world. The total came to 700 wen.