Rebirth: Making a Fortune in Ancient Times

After eating three steamed buns, Zhang Youtie finally felt a little full, unlike before when his stomach felt sticky. He whispered to Liu Shi...

“I asked Uncle Village Chief to come earlier, but he insisted on not coming. Why don’t you put a few buns in a basket and take them to his house?”

"Okay, I understand. You all eat, I'll be right there," Liu nodded in response.

She then got up and left the flower hall, instructing Green Cloud to go to Xia Yu's courtyard and call for Da Niu to go to the kitchen to find her. Then she went to the kitchen, picked up ten steamed buns, wrapped them in a clean steaming cloth, and went to the village chief's house with Da Niu, whom she had just found.

These days are not peaceful, and she is afraid of danger if she goes out alone at night. Taking the eldest daughter is safer than taking the other maids.

When the two arrived at the village chief's house, the lights were already off. Liu knocked on the door, and only spoke after someone answered.

"Auntie, it's me, Changyun's mother."

"Coming right now..." came the voice of the village chief's wife from inside.

Soon, the door was pulled open from the inside.

"Changyun's mother, what brings you here at this hour? Is there something you need to see your uncle about?" The village chief's wife asked after bringing the oil lamp closer to Liu Shi and seeing her face clearly.

“Auntie, I noticed Uncle didn’t come home, and it’s already past lunchtime. It would be too much trouble for you to start a fire and cook. Luckily, I made some steamed buns at home, so I brought some over to save you the trouble.” Liu handed the basket in her hand forward.

"No need, there's food left for him at home, he's already eaten and gone to bed. Take these buns back and eat them yourselves," the village chief's wife said, pushing the basket with her hand.

Liu had come to deliver the steamed buns, so naturally she refused to take them back. She then stuffed the basket into the village chief's wife's arms.

"There's still some at home, Auntie. It's getting dark, so I'll head back now." With that, she led Da Niu back quickly.

Before the village chief's wife could react, a basket was shoved into her arms, and the aroma of steamed buns instantly filled her nostrils. Watching Liu Shi walk further and further away, she shouted loudly...

"Oh, Changyun's mother, Changyun's mother."

She called out twice, but Liu Shi didn't pause for a second; she disappeared into the night in the blink of an eye. The village chief's wife looked at the basket in her arms and helplessly closed the door. Entering the house, she found the old man sitting on the kang (heated brick bed).

He handed the basket forward slightly.

"Look, Changyun's mother brought over these steamed buns again. You already had lunch at her house, so it's really embarrassing to eat and take more than you want. Sigh!"

“Since it’s been delivered, let’s eat it. They probably don’t lack food. It’s too hot to keep it out, so let’s wake the kids up and share it.”

Hearing him say that, the village chief's wife put the basket on the table and handed him one first.

"Eat up, you only ate two vegetable dumplings, how much can you go? I'll go call the children."

After saying that, the village chief's wife lifted the curtain and went out. She went to her two sons' windows and knocked on them. There was an immediate response from inside.

"Everyone, come up to the room."

Actually, both sons heard the commotion, but since their parents didn't call out, they pretended not to know. Now that they have, everyone understands what it means.

The two daughters-in-law quickly woke up the sleeping child.

The child was sleeping soundly when his mother suddenly shook him awake. He rubbed his eyes, his voice still heavy with sleepiness.

"Mom, what are you doing?"

"Get up quickly, your grandparents have something good for you." Dayong's wife said softly as she dressed the child.

The situation was the same in Eryong's house. Now, the two brothers each had two children, the youngest being just over a year old. Eryong hadn't wanted to bring the baby along, but his wife scolded him.

“Are you out of your mind? Xiao Bao isn’t eating. Now my breast milk is gone too. Although our mother cooks some noodle soup for the child every day, he’s still growing, how can that little bit of food help him?” Speaking of her child, Er Yong’s wife couldn’t stop crying.

"Alright, stop crying, or your parents will find out. Since you're going, hurry up and get the baby dressed." Eryong whispered to comfort his wife, afraid that if he spoke too loudly, his parents, brothers, and sisters-in-law would hear him.

Soon, everyone in the family had arrived. The village chief's wife lifted the steaming cloth covering the basket.

"These were just delivered by the Tie family. There are ten in total, one for each of us, regardless of age. Eat them quickly, they're still warm! They're meat-filled." As she spoke, she first handed one to each of her grandsons. Then she gave one to her son and daughter-in-law. Finally, there was only one left in the basket, which the village chief's wife picked up and put into the village chief's hand.

"I've already eaten one, you have this one." The village chief refused, insisting on putting it back in his wife's hand. He glanced at the children standing in the house and waved to them.

"Don't stand here anymore, go back home. If we can buy some grain this time, our family will make a meal of meat buns."

Dayong wanted to give his steamed buns to his father, but seeing that Dabao had lost a lot of weight because he wasn't getting enough to eat, he struggled with the decision for a long time before finally listening to his father and going back to his own room.

The village chief's wife closed the door again and stuffed the bun into his hand.

"I ate several vegetable dumplings for dinner, so I'm not hungry yet. You should eat them."

The village chief looked at the steamed bun that was handed to him again and sighed.

“Don’t do this in front of the children in the future, it makes things difficult for them. We’re arguing like this over a steamed bun, what about the child who has the bun – should he eat it or not? We’re not short of food, we’re just trying to save for the long term, so we’ve been eating frugally lately. If the third son can buy some food this time, we’ll have steamed buns for lunch every day from now on. We’ll also make dumplings once a month. Look how hungry our grandchildren are!”

After saying that, he sighed again and stuffed the steamed bun into his wife's hand.

“You eat, you care about me, and I care about you too! We still need to watch our grandson get married in the future, so you need to take good care of your health.”

"Oh, oh, I'll eat it." The village chief's wife thought about the scene of her grandson getting married in the future, and tears of joy welled up in her eyes. In the end, the village chief's wife still finished the bun, chewing it slowly and savoring the taste, as if she were eating a rare delicacy rather than a bun, and was reluctant to swallow it.

Early the next morning, before the sun had risen, the village chief took a basket and went to find Zhang Youtie.

"Third brother, have you finished calculating yesterday's figures? How many households need grain, and how many kilograms in total?" the village chief asked Zhang Youtie.

"I've calculated it. Every household in the village wants it, totaling about 470,000 jin. Some families with larger households want 7,000 to 8,000 jin, while even the smaller ones want over 1,000 jin. I just don't know if we can still buy that much," Zhang Youtie sighed.

"..." The village chief remained silent, because he didn't know if it would be possible to buy food at this time.