We live deep in the mountains, and we have excellent martial arts skills to protect us; ordinary people can't find us there.
“Yes, Uncle Zhang, we appreciate your kindness, but we really can’t go with you. You can consider the Taoist priest’s suggestion.” Xu Han also advised.
"Even if there is no drought later, you can take advantage of the current water shortage in the city to move to another place to live. At worst, you can come back when it rains here later."
"It's better than fleeing the famine with others later on. Besides, the most unpredictable thing on the road is people's hearts. You certainly don't want to risk your family, do you?" Xu Han continued to persuade her.
“Okay, I’ll listen to you. Xiao Chuan, Xiao Han, Uncle Zhang knows you’re good kids. Uncle Zhang trusts you. At worst, you can come back later. It’s not a big deal.”
Hearing Uncle Zhang say this, Lu Chuan and Xu Han both breathed a sigh of relief.
If we can persuade Uncle Zhang, that would be best. If we can't persuade him, at least we can give him a heads-up and plant a seed in his mind so that he can make a quick decision when the situation becomes urgent.
After the helper finished packing the medicine, the three said their goodbyes. They didn't know if they would ever have the chance to meet again in this lifetime, and they were all very reluctant to part.
"Take care, Uncle Zhang, and have a safe journey," Lu Chuan said.
"You too, take good care of yourselves."
Before leaving, Lu Chuan hesitated for a long time before finally saying, "Uncle Zhang, we came in a bit of a hurry today, and there are still some things we haven't taken care of! Please pass on a message to the Li family for me, and as for how to choose, that's their business."
"Okay, don't worry! I'll go to the Li family right away," Uncle Zhang replied.
After the three of them had walked a distance, Xu Han asked the Daoist Master in confusion, "Daoist Master, didn't you say before that we shouldn't get involved in these things? Why are you saying it out loud today?"
"If it weren't for how good your Uncle Zhang is to you, I wouldn't have bothered to say anything! Besides, this only brought it forward by three or four months."
If it still doesn't rain after the New Year, then if we want to survive, we'll have to flee the famine, because that's the only option we have.
Xu Han thought about it and realized that made sense. If it didn't rain after the New Year, people wouldn't be able to plant crops in the spring, and without spring planting, there would be no food.
Moreover, by then all the stored food will be gone, and if they want to survive, they will have to leave and find a new way to live.
"Well! It's really hard to live a good life in this world," Xu Han sighed.
The group fell silent and headed out of the city gate towards the north gate, where brick and tile shops were located. They needed to buy bricks and tiles there.
When the three arrived at the kiln, it was unusually quiet. In those days, people couldn't even get enough to eat, let alone have money to build houses.
In the past, you had to pre-order bricks and tiles, but now you don't need to at all; you can just buy ready-made bricks and tiles.
Lu Chuan found the manager of the kiln and inquired about the price.
"Manager, what's the price now?"
"To be honest, they used to be two or three coins, but now the drought is severe, and nobody's willing to spend money to buy bricks and tiles to build houses. They're all piling up here and can't be sold. How about this? I'll give you one coin per piece. What do you think, Chengming?"
Lu Chuan knew from the manager's words that bricks and tiles were definitely hard to buy right now, but the manager's tone implied there was still a profit to be made, so he started to bargain.
"Could you lower the price a bit? You can't sell it here, so you might as well sell it to me at a lower price!"
The kiln manager looked at the mountain of bricks and tiles and thought that instead of leaving them there, it would be better to sell them at a low price!
After all, there's no sign of rain right now, and who knows what the future holds! It's better to exchange some money and keep it on hand for peace of mind!
So he gritted his teeth and said, "Okay, this is negotiable."
After arguing for a while and agreeing on a price, Lu Chuan first had the manager count out the bricks and tiles, stack them neatly on oilcloth, and explained that someone would come to pick them up that evening.
After the agreement was made, in order to make things easier that night, Lu Chuan made up an excuse to stay here and count the bricks and tiles.
Xu Han and the Taoist priest returned to the inn in the county town first.
After arriving at the inn, I went to sleep for a while to get enough rest so I could collect the bricks and tiles that evening.
Xu Han slept until 10 p.m., but the Taoist priest had not yet come. Afraid of disturbing the priest's rest, she lay on the bed and waited.
It wasn't until 3 a.m. that the Taoist priest came to call Xu Han, as this was when people were sleeping soundly, making it easier to carry out the plan.
The Taoist priest led Xu Han straight towards the north gate, but the gate was already closed at that time. So the Taoist priest simply grabbed Xu Han and flew out of the county town, and the two headed straight for the kiln.
When Xu Han and the Taoist priest arrived, Lu Chuan had already prepared the bricks and tiles.
"I've let the person in charge sleep first; there's no one else living here," Lu Chuan said.
The Taoist priest insisted one more time, and only after confirming that no one was around did he allow Xu Han to make the move.
Xu Han directly stored all the bricks and tiles into her spatial storage.
After leaving Lu Chuan some food and water, the Taoist priest took Xu Han and rushed back, leaving Lu Chuan here to discuss the final payment with the manager the next day.
After all, it wouldn't make sense for Lu Chuan to just leave like that, with so many bricks and tiles! Even loading them onto trucks would take some time, so it certainly wouldn't be finished so quickly.
The next day, Lu Chuan handed over the work to the manager. "It's all done, but I didn't hear a sound!" the manager asked in confusion.
"Maybe you were tired during the day and slept soundly at night!" Lu Chuan casually told a lie.
The foreman of the kiln thought about it and realized it made sense. He hadn't worked in a long time, and seeing people count so many bricks and tiles yesterday was exhausting. So he stopped worrying about it.
After settling the final payment, Lu Chuan headed straight for the county town. Instead of returning directly to the inn, he went to the carriage shop and rented an oxcart, as he needed to buy other building materials later.
After renting the oxcart, they rushed back to the inn. After having a meal together, the three of them went to other places to buy things needed for building the house.
After buying the food, it was already quite late, so the three of them went to a restaurant to have lunch.
It has to be said that there are very few restaurants nowadays. There are only a handful open in the entire county, and almost none of them have any business.
Most importantly, the food sold in restaurants is now extremely expensive, ten times the price of what it used to be.
The three of them only ordered three bowls of noodles for the meal. And that still cost quite a bit!
Of course, the food was also very unpleasant, and I felt it wasn't worth it at all. But that's just how prices are these days! There's nothing I can do about it.
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