To be on the safe side, Jiang Sui asked Xiao's mother:

"Mother, what year is it tonight?"

Mother Xiao was taken aback by her question and looked at her blankly:

"Girl, why are you asking this? It's the eighteenth year of the Qingli Jingzhao period!"

Boom boom...

When Jiang Sui heard the eighteenth year of Jingzhao in the Qingli period, he felt as if struck by lightning, and one of the chopsticks in his hand fell to the ground.

Oh no, could the place mentioned in the book be Jeju Prefecture?

What a coincidence! It hasn't rained in Baima Town for two months, and the weather is hot, with water shortage everywhere. Isn't this a sign of a severe drought?

Seeing Jiang Sui's big reaction, Xiao's mother looked at her worriedly, and everyone in the Xiao family also said:

"Sui girl, what's wrong with you?"

Jiang Sui came back to his senses, looked at his father-in-law, forced a smile on his face, and replied:

"Dad, Mom, I'm fine. My hands just shook for a moment and I didn't hold the chopsticks firmly."

Although she tried to fool people with this explanation, the attentive mother Xiao still felt that she had something on her mind.

So after dinner, she came to find Jiang Sui and sent Xiao Hechuan away:

"Sui Sui, tell me the truth. Are you hiding something from me? I noticed that you were absent-minded when you were eating. Tell me, don't let me worry. Even if the sky falls, I will still be there to support you."

Xiao's mother really treats Jiang Sui as her own daughter, that's why she is so anxious.

Jiang Sui felt warm in his heart and his nose felt sore.

It just so happened that she also wanted to find an opportunity to talk to Xiao's mother about the drought, but she had to be subtle and not show off her ability to predict the future.

"Mom, actually, I heard from Dad that it hasn't rained for a long time and the water in the river is almost dry. I feel uneasy, so I think, if it doesn't rain, the crops in the fields will die of drought. Then won't we have no food to fill our stomachs next year?"

After hearing this, Xiao's mother also began to ponder, but she didn't want to think of the worst:

"Sui Sui, this is just the beginning. The wheat harvest will not start until September. There are still three months left. It has to rain, right?"

Xiao's mother was just hoping for a lucky break, but in reality, if it didn't rain for another month or so, the wheat in the field would be just fine and not much food would grow.

Now every household is scrambling for water. The water from the upstream and downstream of the river has been divided up by several villages, and the riverbed is almost exposed. I'm afraid that little bit of water will not last long.

"Mom, having said that, I think our family still needs to prepare for a rainy day. If there is a severe drought and the crops are completely destroyed, the price of grain on the market will double, and prices will be in chaos. After the autumn harvest comes the New Year, and who wouldn't want to fill up their warehouses?

If there is no harvest, everyone will have to spend money to buy food. When that happens, the price of food will skyrocket. How can we afford it?

We might as well prepare enough food for the winter while we still have silver. I still have twenty taels of silver, right? Use it to buy rice and flour, and feed a few chicks at home. After all, rice and flour will not go bad in a year or two if stored properly, and the chicks can lay eggs in the future if they are kept there."

After Jiang Sui's words, Xiao's mother, who had originally been holding on to a lucky mentality, suddenly became nervous.

Sui Sui was right. It was better to be safe than sorry. How many years had it been since Baima Town had experienced a severe drought? She couldn't remember clearly.

In the current situation, it is normal for Jiang Sui to have these concerns. Just like she said, the rice and flour will not go bad after one or two years of purchase. It is always a guarantee. Otherwise, the whole family will really have nothing to eat.

Mother Xiao was also a decisive woman. She gritted her teeth and decided immediately:

"Okay, I'll listen to you. I'll do whatever you say. After all, you are the lucky star of our family."

Jiang Sui was embarrassed. Why did he bring up Fuxing again?

She did not refute this time because she knew it was useless to say anything as Xiao's mother had already made up her mind.

But she still had to remind Xiao's mother:

"Let's not let anyone else in the family know about this. We should quietly buy the food in batches and hide it well so that the news doesn't leak out. Otherwise, if the situation really comes to a head and others know that we have food, once people have evil thoughts in order to survive, we don't know whether it will be a blessing or a curse."

Jiang Sui thinks about things comprehensively and considers everything, which makes Xiao's mother feel inferior to him.

"My room is big, so you can just hide the food in my room. You can also put it at Lanlan's place. This kid is very tight-lipped, she won't tell anyone."

Xiao Lanlan was indeed trustworthy, and Jiang Sui had no objection to this.

"Okay, Mom, just watch and explain to Lanlan."

The mother and daughter discussed and finalized the matter of buying the stored grain. Before leaving, Xiao's mother came back and asked Jiang Sui:

"Should we continue our business?"

Jiang Sui made the matter sound so serious that Xiao's mother lost confidence. If there really was a drought, would business still be good?

Jiang Sui thought it was something else, it turned out to be this.

"It's okay, mother. We will do our business as we should. It won't be messed up for a while. Now we just hope that our business will be more prosperous and we can make more money in the next few months."

She had used the money she earned from selling Ganoderma lucidum and ginseng to buy food, so she was counting on the hot and sour noodle business to make some money.

"Okay, I feel relieved when I hear you say that."

After getting the confirmation, Xiao's mother went back to her room and went to sleep peacefully.

After she came back, she didn't say a word to Xiao's father. The next day, she went out with the money, asked around the village, and found families that had hatched chicks. She bought a few here and there, and got twenty chicks to raise.

When she suddenly bought so many chicks, her family members did not suspect anything. After all, there was a pregnant Liu at her parents' home, so they just thought that she was preparing for Liu's future confinement period.

But what the Xiao family didn't know was that something had happened at the Liu family's side, and they had been keeping it a secret.

…

According to the chosen day, Xiao Yi got up early in the morning and harnessed the ox cart. He had also made two clay stoves beforehand, specially for his mother and her friends to use for setting up stalls, one for cooking noodles and the other for making soup stock.

Jiang Sui prepared sweet potato vermicelli, potato skins, homemade chili oil, and meat sauce that he had fried early in the morning.

I took two buckets of water, which will be used to soak the sweet potato flour, as well as pots, pans, and a new pair of chopsticks. I made four sets of chairs and benches and sent them to the town yesterday. The oilcloth shed has also been set up.

You don't have to bring chairs and benches back every day. Just put them at your stall and take down the oilcloth to cover them when you close the stall. Everyone does this and no one will steal them.

Today is the first day to set up a stall in the town, and they set out at dawn. Zhou and Lanlan stayed at home to look after the house, while Xiao's mother and Jiang Sui, as well as Xiao Yi, Xiao Hechuan, and Xiao's father who was going back to the county, went out together. Everyone was full of confidence.

Don’t ask why Xiao Hechuan also went. The reason is that he coaxed and begged Jiang Sui for a whole night before Jiang Sui agreed to take him along.