Rebirth: Making a Fortune in Ancient Times

For the next few days, Shen Luo stayed at Xia Yu's house, spending her days either studying with Chang Yun or being dragged out by Xia Yu to do various things.

Shen Luo felt that he had walked more in the past few days than he had in the past six months in Beijing. Five or six days passed by in the blink of an eye. He was so tired every day that he didn't care whether the food was oily or not. He was forced to exercise for half a day, and without Xia Yu's persuasion, he could drink a big bowl of clear seaweed soup.

On her first day, at least the soup she had contained a few shrimp. But in the following days, it was either seaweed soup or winter melon soup, and the most greasy dish was tomato and egg soup. Every day before meals, she would have a big bowl of soup to fill her stomach. So, without realizing it, Shen Luo's clothes started to become looser.

That day, Xia Yu and the others were having dinner in Liu's courtyard when they suddenly heard a deep voice outside.

"Xiaxia, Changyun, Daddy's back!"

"father"

"father"

Chang Yun and Xia Yu simultaneously shouted in surprise to Zhang Youtie, who was striding into the courtyard.

"Oh, Luo'er is here too." Zhang Youtie saw Shen Luo standing next to his children before he even entered the door.

"Uncle, I've been here for over ten days now," Shen Luo said politely to Zhang Youtie.

"Hmm, has your sister Xiaxia been cooking you something delicious lately? Your face looks quite chubby." Zhang Youtie looked Shen Luo up and down, pinched his chubby little face, and said with certainty.

Hearing Zhang Youtie say this, Shen Luo suddenly felt a little wronged. These past few days, Xia Xia had been feeding her like a rabbit, giving her only vegetables. The little bit of meat left on her body was from when her mother raised her.

The Liu family knew that Zhang Youtie had misunderstood, but they didn't explain. They just smiled and told him to go wash up and come over for dinner.

After listening to his wife, Zhang Youtie first went to the bathroom to wash his hands and face, then went to the bedroom to change into clean clothes before sitting down at the dining table.

Looking at the table full of lush greenery, Zhang Youtie was somewhat puzzled.

"Didn't Aunt Zhou go grocery shopping today? Why are all the vegetables vegetarian?" Zhang Youtie called out to the outside before anyone could answer.

"Ziyan, go tell Aunt Zhou to add another fish and another bowl of shrimp."

Ziyan, who was always by Liu's side, naturally knew why she ate such a vegetarian diet. Hearing Zhang Youtie's instructions, she didn't go immediately, but instead looked at Liu. Seeing Liu nod at her, she turned and went to find Zhou Sao.

Zhang Youtie, who was talking to his children and Shen Luo, naturally didn't see his wife's look.

Shen Luo was overjoyed with Zhang Youtie's instructions and put down his chopsticks, waiting for the fish and shrimp to be served. Xia Yu pretended not to notice his behavior. He had indeed been eating too much vegetarian food lately and needed some extra nutrition. After all, he was still a child, and the two boiled eggs he ate every morning weren't providing enough nutrition.

At the dinner table, Zhang Youtie recounted his experiences and observations from the journey, which the others found quite fascinating. When he got to the funny parts, he himself laughed until his stomach hurt.

"Guess what I ran into at the dock in the county town?" Zhang Youtie suddenly asked his family mysteriously.

"I can't believe it, Dad, just tell me already, stop with the charade!" Xia Yu was enjoying listening to his father talk about what was going on outside when he suddenly started talking about a lawsuit. He shook Zhang Youtie's arm impatiently, urging him to hurry up and tell the story.

"Okay, okay, I'll tell you, stop shaking me. You're going to shake Dad to pieces."

"Then tell me quickly!"

"When I was getting on and off the ship at the dock today, I saw an old man selling knives." Zhang Youtie stopped there to look at his family's reaction.

"What's so special about a knife seller? Is he selling some rare and precious sword?" Changyun wondered, not understanding what was so special about a knife seller.

"It's nothing special, just an ordinary kitchen knife. The problem is that the old man actually asked for two taels of silver for it. Isn't that ridiculous?"

"It's quite interesting. I doubt anyone will buy it," Liu asked, picking up where he left off.

"Yes, when I saw it, a large group of people were surrounding the old man wanting to buy the knife. The old man selling the knife said that he would not charge money today, but only needed to leave his home address, and he would come back to collect the money for the knife next year when the price of rice and flour rose to thirty coins per catty. As soon as people heard that they could buy on credit, there were naturally many people who wanted to buy it."

Xia Yu found it intriguing and was about to ask more questions when she heard Zi Yan's voice from outside.

"Master, Madam, Aunt Zhou has brought the vegetables."

"Come in quickly," Madam Liu instructed the person outside. Looking at Aunt Zhou who was carrying a tray, Madam Liu smiled.

"Sister Zhou, thank you for troubling me again."

“Madam, what are you saying? This is simply what I should do. What trouble is there? I’m happy to see you enjoying your meal with the master, young master, and young lady.”

At this moment, Xia Yu couldn't wait to know about the knife sale, so she pressed Zhang Youtie for details.

"Dad, did you buy a knife?"

"I was also thinking of joining in the fun, but when I gave them our address, the old man selling knives said someone had already bought one from our family, and each family could only buy one." At this point, Zhang Youtie suddenly turned to ask Zhou Sao.

"Sister Zhou, do you know that old man who sells knives at the county dock?"

"I know, I even bought one. I guess that's why the old man didn't sell the knife to you, sir." Aunt Zhou was happy to say a few words when she heard Zhang Youtie talking about this. She had been telling the rest of the family about it since she came back yesterday, saying that in her more than 30 years of life, this was the first time she had ever seen anything like it.

“Yesterday when I bought the knife, the old man said he would come back to collect the money for the knife when rice and flour prices rose to thirty coins a pound next year. Sir and Madam, what do you think? If rice and flour really rise to thirty coins a pound, how will we common people survive? And how could they possibly rise that high? I think the old man probably won’t get his money back for the knife.”

"I think the same way as Aunt Zhou. Even now, with flour costing six coins a pound, there are still so many people who can't afford it. If it really goes up to thirty coins a pound, our family won't be able to afford it either," Zhang Youtie said with great emotion.

Grain prices have been relatively stable in recent years. Although there have been fluctuations, they have remained within the acceptable range for ordinary people. Moreover, the current price of six coins per pound is already an increase. I really can't imagine what the world would be like if the price were to rise to thirty coins.

Everyone at the table thought what the old man selling knives had said was impossible, including seven-year-old Shen Luo. So after chatting and laughing for a while, they changed the subject and started talking about other things.