My game even includes ancient times

The sky outside the window soon brightened. He Yu hadn't slept all night, but she wasn't sleepy at all and was full of energy.

She glanced at He Shi, who was curled up asleep on the bed, took out a bag of taro toast from the storeroom, opened it, and started eating.

He heard the sound of paper rubbing against his ear, and He Shi's eyeballs trembled slightly as he slowly opened his eyes.

He stared blankly at the bed curtains for a while before slowly waking up from his dream.

I haven't dreamed about Lao He in a long time.

For some reason, that hunched-over, dirty little old man appeared in his dream again today.

An old man, wrapped in a tattered sheepskin coat and holding a bowl with a chipped corner, stood on a snowy street corner in Yuanshan County, smiling and calling him Stone.

Stone, stone, how have you been lately?

Are we well-fed and warmly dressed?

Are your chilblains on your hands and feet still painful and itchy?

do you remember me?

Suddenly, a blizzard swept down, and when visibility returned, the old man was nowhere to be seen at the street corner.

A tattered mat was rolled up and placed against the wall. His exceptionally good eyesight allowed him to spot strands of gray hair peeking out from under the mat—messy, dirty, and strangely familiar…

Seemingly forgetting to breathe, the suffocating feeling in his chest gradually became clearer, and the sound of paper rubbing against his ear seemed to be getting closer. He Shi's unfocused gaze slowly turned and landed on the man in black standing in front of the bed.

The woman in black wore a cone-shaped hat, obscuring her face. In her fair and beautiful hands, she held an oil paper package containing several nicely colored square cakes.

A gentle, soothing voice came from beneath the darkness: "You're awake. Want some?"

The sound was like a rope hanging down from the top of a deep well, pulling him back into the sunlight. The dampness and cold he had been covered in evaporated completely with the bright daylight.

He Shi felt the air that had been drawn away begin to flow again. He took a deep breath, and his muddled mind cleared up.

"eat."

He took a piece of cake from her hand and felt it was so light and soft that his fingers sank completely into it.

"what is this?"

Seeing that he was eating with relish, He Yu smiled and said, "This is called bread. Do you like it? You can have the rest."

He Shi didn't say anything, took the oil paper package with both hands, and quietly began to eat.

He Yu keenly noticed that he seemed a little down, so she asked, "What's wrong?"

He Shi, with bread stuffed in his mouth, paused for a moment upon hearing this, then laughed and mumbled, "Nothing, just a dream."

Seeing that he didn't want to say more, He Yu didn't press him further. She pulled up the clock to check the time: "The coachman will probably come back in about fifteen minutes. Hurry up and finish eating, I'll help you tie your hands."

He Shi nodded, quickened his eating pace, and finished the bread in no time. With his hands tied, he lay back on the bed, maintaining the same position as last night.

As expected, the coachman came right on time to feed He Shi his medicine.

After he left, He Yu went up to untie He Shi's ropes, saying as she did so, "I reckon the Chu family's people are coming soon, so you don't need to tie these ropes anymore. I'm going out to check the situation. You stay here quietly and don't make a sound."

He Shi nodded obediently, resting his head close to He Yu's chest. The room was quiet, and he suddenly realized that he seemed to have never heard He Yu's heartbeat before.

Whether they were riding horses or now, the two of them are very close together, there's no reason they wouldn't hear each other...

He tilted his head slightly, about to get closer to listen more carefully, when He Yu had already tied the rope and stepped back.

"I'm leaving now, be careful."

He Shi suppressed the inexplicable disappointment welling up in his heart and responded with a smile.

……

For the third time, Manager Chang raised his hand to wipe the cold sweat from his forehead, stood by the table with a forced smile, and didn't dare to lift his eyelids even slightly.

Xia Yuan, dressed in a red dress, leaned back in her chair with a languid yet dignified air. A gold hairpin inlaid with jade in her black hair fell perfectly into the sunlight, reflecting a dazzling brilliance.

Several thick ledgers were placed on the table in front of her, and Xia Yuan was casually flipping through one of them.

As the paper rustled, Manager Chang's unease grew stronger. He swallowed hard, wondering where his plan had gone wrong and how it had attracted such a great-grandmother.

After receiving the last batch of grain yesterday and seeing off the merchant team leader who kept thanking and praising the Chu family's good deeds, Manager Chang and Military Advisor Hou worked together to organize people to replace all the recently received grain with old and moldy grain from the warehouse. When the quantity was not enough, they even mixed in a lot of sand.

In addition, about 60% of the good medicinal herbs were selected and kept, while the rest were mixed with some branches and soil, packed up and loaded onto the truck.

As for the silver donated by some wealthy merchants, they kept half and divided it among themselves. The rest was packed into boxes and placed on the cart. They also prepared several empty boxes filled with stones to mix with the silver, intending to throw them away as soon as they left the city.

With too many things to do and too few trustworthy people, the four of them worked all night to finally get everything sorted out. Although exhausted, they were all very excited at the thought of the large sum of silver they were about to receive. After agreeing on their next move, they each returned to their residences.

Steward Chang rubbed his aching forehead, thinking that he should go back to the manor to rest well today and deal with He Shi. He would wait until the designated time tomorrow morning before setting off with the caravan, lest anything untoward happen.

The moment he entered the gate and saw the woman in red sitting in the main hall with her eyes closed, his plan shattered completely. His heart felt as if it had fallen into an icy lake, chilling him to the bone.

Xia Yuan, the eldest disciple of Master Chu, is in charge of all affairs of the manor, from business dealings and interpersonal relationships to kitchen procurement and personnel transfers. She can handle everything in an orderly manner. She is decisive and ruthless, and is a fearsome woman that everyone talks about.

Such a person appeared in his house without warning, and greeted him with a smile: "Good morning, Manager Chang. Where did you go last night? You look so tired."

Manager Chang immediately broke out in a cold sweat, his previously dazed mind instantly clearing. He barely managed to suppress his urge to lose control, and with a smile, he invited people to serve him some good tea.

Xia Yuan waved her hand gently and looked at him with a smile: "Manager Chang, there's no need to trouble yourself. I'm very busy. Please bring me all the accounts for this grain collection and disaster relief within a quarter of an hour. I want to take a look."

Manager Chang secretly groaned inwardly, but dared not disobey openly, so he could only send a servant to fetch the account books.

Unlike He Shi, a greenhorn who had only been in the manor for less than a year, even if Steward Chang had a hundred times more courage, he wouldn't dare to directly attack Xia Yuan.

He could only stand aside anxiously, secretly giving the servant behind him a wink, signaling him to inform the three men, including Advisor Hou, that the situation had changed and they should be prepared.

Xia Yuan noticed his little actions but did not stop him. She simply turned a page of the ledger slowly and quietly looked at it for more than an hour.

Just as Steward Chang felt he was about to collapse and faint on the spot, Xia Yuan finally closed the last ledger.