Baldy did things very fairly, giving Yuanyuan a wooden cradle, Dazhuang a wooden nine-linked ring, Shuangshuang a hidden arrow, Sanyuan a carved wooden ball, and Siwang a sheep.

He spoke confidently to Si Wang's bewildered gaze: "Your older brother said you like to eat, so I'm giving you a sheep so you can eat it however you want."

This is no ordinary wild goat; it's a goat specifically for officials and merchants. Baldy had to ask Zhixing to help him acquire it from several surrounding towns with great difficulty!

After thanking his older brothers and sisters, Siwang quickly finished his meal, said goodbye to Ye Wenxue, and ran off to check on the sheep.

Ye Wenxue's family naturally knew why he was so agitated.

Several of the older ones quickly followed, fearing another ewe might come along. Siwang, unable to bear the shock, squealed and cried out.

Seeing Ye Wenxue slowly put down her chopsticks, Zhiwang sensed something was off in the room and quickly pulled Zhiwu and Wang Chun, who were still eating another bowl, away.

Lan Qing was also pulled away by his bald mother and Madam Xu, who had retreated when they saw that things were not going well. Before leaving, they also cleared away the empty plates and bowls.

Only Ye Wenxue, Su Jiu, Baldy, and the Xu family father and son remained in the room.

Ye Wenxue took out five taels of silver and handed it to Su Jiu: "Take this, it's the rent."

Her casual tone was completely different from the cautious tone she had used when she handed over the rent money at Sanyuan earlier.

Su Jiuqi laughed and slammed his hand on the table.

Under the watchful eyes of the bald man and Old Master Xu, Su Jiu neatly accepted the money: "Not enough."

He had guessed it: Ye Wenxue was using his bamboo hut as a base to do business and make money. He should at least get a bigger share of the profits.

Ye Wenxue calmly explained, "I've only earned a little over a hundred taels of silver so far, and I'm currently selling charcoal in the county town, so I need working capital. The silver hasn't been distributed yet. This five taels of silver is from my own savings."

Su Jiu looked disgusted: "You're celebrating for earning such a small amount of money? This is just..."

The bald man interrupted him, looking at Ye Wenxue with a puzzled expression: "Where did you get so much wealth?"

"The big cut taken from your former and current elder brothers."

The former chieftain gave her fifty taels of silver to win her over, but he didn't take the silver back after she died. He also gave her a reward after she saved Suiye, emptying his pockets to pay her.

She earned all of these through her own hard work and talent.

Bald man: "......"

Su Jiu resisted the urge to look at the bald man's expression: "..."

That's great, there are people who are even more of a sucker than him.

Just before the atmosphere was about to become even more bizarre, Xu Lin interrupted out of the blue:

"I don't think it's necessary to study the fire basket that was mentioned before the meal. Those with plenty of money have hand warmers, and those who can't afford hand warmers have hot water bottles as a substitute. For ordinary people, even cooking with charcoal is a problem, so where would they get the spare money to buy a fire basket?"

"A brazier is something we could consider, but... we don't have anyone who knows how to forge iron, and iron is too expensive, so it's not worth it."

When it came to making money, the bald man instantly shook off his depressed mood, stroked his chin and pondered for a moment: "Anyway, it's not too much trouble, so we can try to make it all. The brothers who stayed behind in the mountain stronghold all complain that they have nothing to do and can't get a good meal every few days."

Those who do the work need a lot of food to maintain their strength, while others who are idle can only make do with vegetarian food and occasionally have an extra meal every three to five days.

When everyone was engaged in risk-free, highly profitable businesses, they could all afford to eat plenty of meat and fish.

It's understandable that some people feel dissatisfied in comparison.

Xu Lin told his father to fetch a pot of wine: "Whatever you like."

Su Jiu then noticed that Xu Lin's eyes were lifeless. After Old Master Xu left, he secretly gestured a few times in front of Xu Lin's eyes.

Seeing no reaction from Xu Lin, Su Jiu frowned and looked at Ye Wenxue, pointing at Xu Lin and mouthing: Are you blind?

Ye Wenxue's eyes darted around, she nodded, and gestured to Su Jiu to go up.

Su Jiu retorted, "You want him to do all this for nothing? No way!"

The bald man touched the hair growing on his head and widened his eyes: "What are you guys gesturing about?"

Ye Wenxue and Su Jiu paused at the same time, rolling their eyes at the bald man in perfect unison.

Xu Lin groped for the dumplings with his chopsticks: "Perhaps you're talking about my blindness."

She was afraid of embarrassing him by mentioning his painful memories, so she kept quiet and only gestured with her hands.

Ye Wenxue laid it all out: "We've only collected less than half of the herbs that Doctor Chen mentioned. It looks like he won't be fully recovered until next summer. I wonder if you could take a look at them for him, so as not to delay his work."

These past few days, Xu Lin has been applying the medicine given by Doctor Chen, but the effect has been mediocre. He doesn't know how effective those rare herbs are or whether they can cure Xu Lin's eyes.

Since Su Jiu is here, we might as well ask him to take a look.

Su Jiu frowned, asked in detail about the reasons before and after Xu Lin lost his sight, as well as his daily symptoms, and then pondered for a moment: "It's just a small matter, so why should I help him?"

Before Ye Wenxue and the others could speak, Old Master Xu, carrying a jar of wine, rushed in with red eyes. He placed the jar beside Xu Lin, faced Su Jiu, and silently knelt down, saying, "If the doctor can cure Xiao Lin, I will repay your great kindness by serving you like a cow or a horse!"

Sitting next to her, Ye Wenxue quickly pulled her back: "No, no, no, you..."

Su Jiu was startled and went to help Old Master Xu, saying, "Why are you doing this? I was just..."

He just wanted to make things difficult for Ye Wenxue as a way to resist the oppression someone was putting on him!

This stubborn old man is too honest.

Old Master Xu stubbornly refused to get up, and fearing that Xu Lin would find out he was going to kneel down, he bit his lower lip and kept shaking his head.

Xu Lin listened intently for a while, then suddenly spoke up: "Father, you don't need to beg him, I'll do it."

Old Master Xu closed his eyes tightly, quickly calmed down, wiped away his tears with his sleeve, and pushed away Ye Wenxue and Su Jiu's hands: "It was an old man who lost his composure, Doctor, you don't need to pay attention to what I said, I... I'll go check how the charcoal is burning."

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