Rebirth: Making a Fortune in Ancient Times

Finally, Xia Yu added the shredded chili peppers and minced garlic to the pan and stir-fried them. She then added some soy sauce for color and sprinkled in salt, stir-frying briefly. Watching her daughter's actions, Liu Shi couldn't believe that the stinky pig intestines were cooked so easily, and they even smelled quite delicious. Xia Yu picked up a piece and offered it to Liu Shi: "Mother, would you like to try it? Is it good?"

The slightly pungent smell made Liu involuntarily sneeze, covering her mouth. A little embarrassed, she wiped her hands and mouth with a handkerchief. This time, without hesitation, she opened her mouth and, taking her daughter's hand, ate the fatty intestine directly, afraid that smelling it for too long would trigger another sneeze. The outer skin was crispy, the inside juicy, and there was no strange taste at all; the only flavor was fragrant and spicy.

"Hiss...hiss...delicious, so fragrant! But it's too spicy; you have to eat it with steamed buns. Changyun, do you want to try it?" Liu kept inhaling the spiciness, hoping the cool air would alleviate the burning sensation in her mouth. At the same time, she gestured for her son to come and eat as well.

Changyun, who had been waiting impatiently, couldn't help but swallow hard after hearing his mother's words. Only then did he dare to open his mouth to eat the fatty intestines his sister had picked up with her chopsticks. After a few bites, Changyun and Liu's expressions were exactly the same. It was delicious, but it was also really spicy. Like Liu, he was hissing from the spiciness, but the crispy outside and tender inside made him want to eat more. Combined with the stimulation of the spiciness, it was truly irresistible.

"Xiaxia... hiss... hiss... ha... this is delicious, next time I see it... ha... I'll buy more pig intestines... hiss... ha... I'll wash them, they're cheap and delicious." Changyun's words were broken by the spiciness, but Liu Shi and Xia Yu both understood what he meant. Liu Shi, who had just drunk some cold water, was much better now. She hadn't expected pig intestines to taste so good. They were even more fragrant than meat. Pork couldn't be eaten often, but pig intestines were something the family could afford.

There was still one dish left to cook. Xia Yu put the prepared pig intestines into her spatial storage, and then took out a bunch of chives. Liu Shi took them outside to wash. Xia Yu took six eggs from the cupboard, cracked them into a bowl, added a suitable amount of salt, and then whisked them with chopsticks. Liu Shi brought in the washed chives and chopped them. The wok was cleaned, heated, and oil was added. When the oil was hot, the chives were added and stir-fried until they turned green and softened. Then the whisked eggs were poured in, and the dish was done when the eggs were completely set. The dish was then placed on a plate and stored in the spatial storage, to be served on the table after the millet porridge was cooked.

Zhang Youtie returned everything he owed, and when he got home, his mother and children had just set out the meal. Changyun enthusiastically recommended his sister's braised pork intestines to his father, hoping to see his father, like him, speechless from the spiciness. Surprisingly, Zhang Youtie could handle the spiciness quite well. Like Xia Yu, he found the spiciness exhilarating, even though he was sweating profusely, he felt completely comfortable. He even ate four large steamed buns with the plate of pork intestines and finished a bowl of thick millet porridge.

The family enjoyed the meal immensely, especially the plate of pork intestines, which received high praise from everyone. No one had expected pig intestines to be cooked so deliciously. "My dear daughter, next time we buy pig intestines, Dad will clean them for you, and you just need to cook them," Zhang Youtie said, happily promising to take on the responsibility of cleaning pig intestines from now on. Xia Yu was delighted; she liked to eat them too, but she couldn't stand the stench from cleaning them. Thinking of this, she quickly shook her head, trying to banish the scene of cleaning intestines from her mind. She couldn't think about it, she couldn't think about it; if she kept thinking about it, she would throw up everything she had just eaten.

After the meal, the table was wiped clean, and the gates to the courtyard and main room were bolted. The moment the family had been waiting for all day had arrived—counting the money.

Xia Yu poured out all the copper coins she had collected from her spatial storage while selling shrimp that day, piling them all over the table. The whole family was stunned; even Xia Yu herself hadn't expected to have so much money. She had collected all the money from individual customers today, and although it appeared to be in the box she was sitting in, she had actually stored it all in her spatial storage, so she had no idea exactly how much she had collected. Liu Shi gave everyone a bundle of hemp rope and began stringing the coins together, one hundred coins per small string. After they were strung, they were handed to her, and she would then string ten small strings together onto a larger string, making it easier to count at the end.

Xia Yu finally understood what it felt like to count money until her hands were sore. Looking at the stacks of coins, she suddenly felt dizzy. After more than an hour of counting, the family finally figured out their income for the day: five strings and one small bundle of copper coins, plus thirty-six copper coins. Zhang Youtie also had two one-tael silver coins on him, one from the manager of the first order, and the other from the restaurant. Therefore, their family's income for the day was seven thousand one hundred and thirty-six copper coins.

When Xia Yu gave them the final figure, the family was stunned. Changyun might not know, but Liu Shi and Zhang Youtie did. In good years, their family's annual income was only about that much. In the past two years, the weather had been bad, and they had hardly any money left over, barely making two taels of silver a year. But today, they had actually sold their entire year's income in just one day. How could they not be astonished?

Finally, Xia Yu spoke first, "Dad, Mom, do we have enough money to buy an oxcart?"

Upon hearing his daughter's question, Zhang Youtie looked at Liu Shi.

"Wait a moment, I'll go get the money!" Madam Liu said, then went into her room. She quickly returned carrying a wooden box with a copper lock, placing it on the table. She then took out a copper key secured with a tassel from her sleeve, unlocked the box, and took out all the loose silver and copper coins inside. After counting, there were fifteen taels of loose silver and seven hundred and sixty-five copper coins in the box—this was the family's entire fortune. This included the money earned from selling shrimp last time, though she didn't know when her father had exchanged the copper coins for loose silver at the money exchange. Adding the seven taels of silver she had sold today, there were over twenty taels in total.

"That's enough. We shouldn't need it all. I heard from Uncle Village Chief that their ox and cart together cost twelve taels of silver. We have more money than we can spend. There's a big market in town the day after tomorrow. I'll go to the livestock market first and see if they have any oxen for sale. We can't rush this; it's not a small amount of money. We must choose a good one," Zhang Youtie said to his family.

After everything was planned, the family washed up and went back to their room to sleep. This was probably the only thing Xia Yu wasn't used to. It was only a little past eight o'clock in the evening, but there was nothing to do after eating here, so they could only go back to their room to sleep. However, she remembered that when she was harvesting vegetables in her space today, she noticed that the trees in the space seemed to have changed. She was in a hurry to cook at the time and didn't look closely. Tonight, she would go into the space herself to take a closer look.