Li Xiuxiu and Liu Congming looked at Liu Xiaoman in confusion.
The gravity on her face—far beyond her years—seemed to make the already chilly air inside the hut drop several more degrees.
Liu Xiaoman said nothing. She bent down, picked up a half-burnt piece of charcoal from the cold stove, and crouched on the uneven dirt floor.
With force, she drew a large, crooked circle.
“This is our cave,” she said in a low voice, yet filled with unquestionable authority.
She tapped the inside of the circle with the charcoal, then looked up at the mother and son, who were filled with uncertainty, and spoke slowly and clearly:
“We’re going to fill this place—with food, and everything we need.”
The atmosphere in the hut instantly turned solemn.
Li Xiuxiu’s lips moved as if she wanted to ask something, but the determination in her daughter’s eyes stopped her.
Liu Xiaoman knew she needed to give them a reason they could understand.
“Mother, do you remember what Grandma used to say? When ants move house and snakes cross the path, heavy rain is coming?”
Li Xiuxiu nodded instinctively.
It was common knowledge passed down through generations in the countryside.
“But recently, I’ve noticed that the ants in the back mountain aren’t moving upward—they’re desperately burrowing deeper underground. The streams in the ravine have shrunk, and even the rocks at the bottom are exposed. And at night, there are fewer bird calls in the forest.”
Liu Xiaoman wove her explanation with half-truths. These were observations gathered from the system’s environmental scans, but phrased this way, they were far more convincing.
“These are not good signs. I’m afraid… I’m afraid a great drought is coming. Not just for a month or two—maybe for a very, very long time.”
Li Xiuxiu’s face turned deathly pale in an instant, as if all strength had been drained from her body.
A drought.
For a family barely surviving day to day, those two words were more terrifying than any ghost.
“A drought?!” Her voice trembled. “Our harvest… it won’t even last a month. If it lasts for years…”
She couldn’t continue. Her eyes reddened immediately.
Liu Congming, though young, could feel the suffocating fear.
Clutching his sister’s sleeve, he asked softly, “Sister… does that mean we won’t have water to drink anymore?”
“Don’t be afraid.”
Liu Xiaoman reached out and held both her mother’s and brother’s cold hands in her warm palms. Her hands were small, yet steady and strong.
“We know about this before anyone else. That’s our greatest advantage.”
She looked at them, her gaze carrying a calming strength.
“As long as we prepare well, when other families can’t even cook and are forced to chew tree bark, we’ll be eating fragrant white rice in our new home behind the waterfall, drinking rich cured meat soup.”
The vivid image of a better future shone like a beam of light, temporarily dispelling their fear.
Li Xiuxiu held back her tears, and a spark returned to Liu Congming’s eyes.
Seeing them calm down, Liu Xiaoman seized the moment. She pulled out a piece of oil paper from the corner, flattened it, and began writing rapidly with the charcoal.
List:
5,000 jin of coarse grains (sweet potatoes, corn, sorghum)1,000 jin of refined rice and flour300 jin of cured meat, 50 jin of dried salted fish100 jin of coarse salt, 50 jin of sugarVarious drought-resistant seeds (millet, beans, potatoes)Cotton, coarse cloth, winter clothes, quiltsCommon medicinal herbs (for bleeding, inflammation, colds)Iron tools (kitchen knives, hoes, axes, iron pots)…
With every item she wrote, Li Xiuxiu’s heart sank further.
Each word on that list represented a fortune in silver—wealth she couldn’t even dream of.
Even Liu Xiaoman felt immense pressure.
Her points were already zero. All her coins were spent. She was truly penniless now.
She paused, calculating desperately in her mind.
To fulfill even half of this list would require at least a hundred taels of silver. To complete it all—several hundred.
That was enough money to buy a large estate in Qingshi Town.
“Xiaoman… we… we don’t have money,” Li Xiuxiu finally said, her voice trembling.
The four taels they earned from selling herbs had once seemed like a fortune—but compared to this list, it wasn’t even a fraction.
“Money can be earned.”
A fierce light burned in Liu Xiaoman’s eyes, like wildfire in the night.
“And we have to earn it fast—earn a lot of it!”
Her voice wasn’t loud, but it carried weight.
Her thoughts raced.
Farming step by step? Too slow. By the time crops grew, it would be too late.
Doing needlework or selling small goods in town? Barely a drop in the bucket.
The only way out was to use her knowledge beyond this era—and the system—to find something of extremely high value and constant demand.
Her gaze slowly fell on the new set of herb-gathering tools in the corner.
Then she pulled out the smooth wooden token engraved with the words “Huichun” from her clothes.
This was her only leverage to pry open a fortune.
She had to find Shopkeeper Qian.
But she couldn’t go like before, carrying ordinary herbs.
She needed a powerful bargaining chip—something so valuable that even a cunning man like him couldn’t refuse… something that would make him willingly offer a large advance payment.
Just then, voices from neighbors drifted in from outside.
“Have you heard? Liu Dabao was taken to town by his mother to see a doctor. Strange thing—he’s itching like he’s possessed, scratched himself full of bloody wounds!”
“Exactly! Spent a lot of money, but the doctor couldn’t figure it out. Said it’s some kind of miasma from the mountains—bad luck!”
A faint smile curled at Liu Xiaoman’s lips.
That was good news.
The Liu family would be too occupied for now to trouble them.
She stood up, the urgency in her heart growing stronger under the looming threat of disaster.
Less than thirty days remained before the drought fully struck.
Grain prices were still stable—for now.
But she knew better than anyone: once the signs became obvious, prices would skyrocket day by day.
Time was money.
Time was life.
Liu Xiaoman made her decision.
She would act immediately—use the system to conduct a thorough scan of the entire back mountain and find the most valuable rare herbs or special plants—something valuable enough to shake even Shopkeeper Qian.
She gripped the Huichun Hall token tightly.
Its edges pressed painfully into her palm, but the pain only sharpened her mind.
It felt as though she was holding her family’s future.
Her gaze passed through the broken door, toward the distant direction of Qingshi Town.
Only one thought echoed in her heart:
“Startup capital—I’m coming!”