Rebirth: Making a Fortune in Ancient Times

Seeing her father-in-law and two brothers-in-law enter, Liu quickly wiped her eyes with a handkerchief and led her daughter out of the main room.

"Third brother, what brings that elder from the Shen family to our house just now?"

"Nothing much, Dad. I just came to check on how our watermelons are growing."

"You really just came to see where the watermelons grow?" Old Master Zhang asked with some suspicion.

"Well, Lord Shen didn't mention anything else, but it seems he did give us those watermelons." As he spoke, Zhang Youtie mysteriously pointed to the sky.

"Is it really for the higher-ups?" Grandpa Zhang asked excitedly, never expecting that something he grew in his own yard could be accepted by the higher-ups.

"Shh... Dad, keep your voice down," Zhang Youtie nervously stopped the old man from speaking, as if it were really true.

"Then what happened to your forehead?" Zhang Youyin asked his younger brother, looking at the injury on his forehead.

"You mean this?" Zhang Youtie touched the wound on his forehead, hissing in pain as soon as he touched it.

"Just now, Lord Shen looked at the backyard of my house and said it was messy and not very clean. I was a little scared at the time, so I knelt down and kowtowed a few times."

"Oh, so that's how it is! It's good that you're alright, it's good that you're alright. We followed him all the way here, and when we saw that he brought so many guards with knives, we thought something bad was going to happen," said Old Master Zhang, still shaken.

"Dad, I'm sorry to have worried you. You should go back now, you're busy with your work. I need to go dig the pond too." Zhang Youtie wanted to send his father away as soon as possible, as he still had many questions for his daughter.

"Alright, we'll head back then. You go ahead with your work." Old Master Zhang tapped the ash from his pipe, tucked the pipe into his waistband, and stood up.

Seeing them come out of the main room, the mother and daughter who were talking in the kitchen quickly came out to see them off.

Watching the group walk away, Liu Shi, who had calmed down, showed no emotion on her face except for her reddened eyes.

"Sigh, let's go inside and talk." Zhang Youtie sighed helplessly.

Once inside, the three sat down on stools, and Zhang Youtie looked at his daughter.

"Xiaxia, what did you and Lord Shen say just now? Is this all over? You really won't kill us?" Zhang Youtie was very worried about this.

“Father, what good would killing us do for Lord Shen? Right now, he wants to be our protector, so we can do whatever we want. But if he needs anything, I have to help him grow things.” He finished speaking, looking at his father’s furrowed brows.

“Dad, at least he won’t do anything to us right now. If he really wanted to harm us, he wouldn’t have come to our house in person. He has a million ways to make our family disappear without a trace. There’s no need for him to say so much in front of us.”

"Alright then, we don't have any other options right now, let's just do what we have to do." Zhang Youtie listened to his daughter's advice, and after thinking about it, he felt that what his daughter said made sense.

Once he understood this, his mood brightened, and his furrowed brows relaxed.

"I'm going to dig the pond. Is today's mung bean soup ready? I'll bring it over with me." Zhang Youtie said he would put it down and he really did, and there was no trace of worry between his brows.

"Alright, they're all drying in the wooden tubs. But shouldn't we get a carpenter to make a few more tubs? We gave Steward Ding two last time, and he took one more today. We're out of water tubs now." Liu Shi had come to terms with it and started thinking about things at home.

"Changyun is taking a day off the day after tomorrow. I'll buy two more when I pick him up tomorrow afternoon." With that, he stood up to go to the kitchen to get two buckets of mung bean water. But as soon as he stepped out of the main room, he saw a person standing at the gate of the courtyard. Judging from his clothes, he was one of the people who had carried the water vat up earlier.

Upon seeing him, Zhang Youtie's heart clenched, but he still mustered his courage and stepped forward to ask, "Sir, what are Lord Shen's orders?"

"Open the door, I'll come in and say something." The man looked at Zhang Youtie expressionlessly and said only this one sentence.

Seeing the cold aura emanating from his face, Zhang Youtie felt a chill run down his spine. Had he sent someone to silence him? He hesitated, wondering whether to open the door.

Seeing Zhang Youtie standing there hesitating, the man grew impatient and leaped over the two-meter-high gate, walking step by step towards Zhang Youtie.

"You, you... what do you want to do? Don't come any closer." After saying that, she looked at the mother and daughter who were still standing at the door and shouted, "Run! Lord Shen has sent people to silence us!"

Xia Yu was also somewhat bewildered. She hadn't expected things to turn out this way. Lord Shen seemed so upright and kind, and he had promised to protect her family. How could he suddenly turn around and kill people?

Upon hearing Zhang Youtie's shout, the newcomer frowned, his thick, dark eyebrows furrowing. His already fierce-looking face now appeared even more menacing.

"What are you yelling about? My young master sent me to deliver something to you. You won't even open the gate, and you're slandering him like this."

"Huh? Sending...sending something." Zhang Youtie stammered, startled by the man's words behind him.

"Hmm, come inside and talk. My young master specifically instructed me that this matter should only be known to the three of you. Why don't you come in quickly?" The newcomer felt even more annoyed, thinking that this family seemed a bit dim-witted. Why did their young master have to silence them? Had they been watching too much drama?

Ignoring the three still stunned, the man walked straight into the main room and, looking at the group still standing outside, called out impatiently, "Can you guys hurry up? I need to go back and catch up with our young master's carriage later, don't waste time."

At this moment, Zhang Youtie, Liu Shi, and Xia Yu finally realized that this person probably didn't have any malicious intent, but just looked a bit fierce.

After the group entered the house, the man took out several silver notes from his pocket and placed them on the table.

"This is the money my young master used to buy water. He specifically instructed me to deliver it to you. Furthermore, he gave me a final instruction: 'Don't give this water away easily in the future, lest it bring trouble.'"

"Thank you, young master, this humble subject will remember." Zhang Youtie quickly spoke up for his daughter. After speaking, he looked up at the fierce-looking man and cautiously asked...

"Does the young master have any other instructions?"

"That's all, just this one sentence, remember it well." After saying that, he swaggered away, leaping out at the courtyard gate as before. He mounted the big black horse by the gate, cracked the whip, and rode off.

Xia Yu picked up a few silver notes on the table and checked them. Each note was worth one hundred taels, and there were five notes in total, totaling five hundred taels of silver.

"Father, Mother, this is a five hundred tael silver note given by Young Master Shen!"

The couple looked at each other, then at the banknote in their daughter's hand, and found it hard to believe.

"Just keep it, and remember not to tell anyone," Liu said to her daughter.

"Okay, I know, I won't tell anyone. Should I tell my brother?"

"Not telling"

"We won't tell," the couple said in unison.

"Don't tell your brother about the silver notes, lest he think the family is rich and get some ulterior motives. Just keep the money," Zhang Youtie said.

"Okay, fine." Xia Yu silently sympathized with her brother, but still obediently put away the silver notes. She was already planning when to rebuild her family's house. At the same time, she was grateful that the powerful figure her family had latched onto was generous enough.