259 Chapter 259. Adding More Months
Qiu Yongkang was very excited when he saw the gold that Ji Shuisheng had brought back. According to the current exchange rate between gold and silver, one tael of gold was equivalent to sixteen taels of silver, and one hundred taels of gold was equivalent to one thousand six hundred taels of silver. This was simply a huge sum of money. Even Qiu Yongkang, who had always been calm and collected, was overjoyed. He said excitedly to Ji Shuisheng,
"Shuisheng, the 100 gold you brought back is timely. I was just worrying about how to pay the rest of the money for Yang Zhi. Now that we have more people, the food is going down quickly. Even if we save on food for a day, we will still need dozens of stones of grain. The food we have won't last long. We have to hurry and buy food."
"It's fine. I just need to get through this. I've already opened up a way to earn money."
This trip to Tartan was worth it. Ji Shuisheng's starry eyes flashed with ambition. He obtained a pass allowing him to enter and exit Tartan to do business freely. This was his first step in earning money. With the money he earned, he could rebuild the Xiao Family Army bit by bit.
"That's great."
Qiu Yongkang laughed out loud. It was not easy for him to be a logistician. Even a clever housewife could not cook a meal without rice. In Peach Blossom Cove, he had never felt that money was so important.
Ji Shuisheng searched for Su Qing in Tartan for two days but could not find her. Although he knew that Su Qing was someone nobody could hurt easily, he was still worried. When he returned, he did not see Su Qing and implored Qiu Yongkang,
"Is Su Qing back?"
"She's back. She took people to dig for coal."
Seeing how concerned Ji Shuisheng was about Su Qing, Yongkang remembered that his sister had been infatuated with him, but she had ended up in a tragic death.
"Digging for coal? Ha, she thought of the same thing as me."
Ji Shuisheng didn't notice Qiu Yongkang's strange expression. He excitedly hit his palm with his fist and realized that Su Qing always thought the same as him. He had just opened the trade route to Tartan, and Su Qing had already gone to prepare the goods.
Was this telepathy?
Qiu Yongkang smiled perfunctorily,
"Yeah,"
"Yongkang, thank you for your hard work. You will be very busy in the future."
Ji Shuisheng patted Yong Kang's arm. When the business grew, it was difficult for Yongkang to manage the accounts and logistics.
"You still trust me?"
Qiu Yongkang looked up at Ji Shuisheng; his eyes were red and filled with mixed emotions.
Ji Shuisheng could feel Qiu Yongkang's emotional fluctuations and felt that the two brothers had to discuss things. He looked into Qiu Yongkang's eyes and said sincerely,
"Yongkang, I'm sorry about Qiu Yue. She was too extreme and endangered the lives of the entire village, so I had no choice but to let her die. But she is her, and you are you. Her mistakes have nothing to do with you. My trust in you has never changed, and I have always treated you as my best brother."
Ji Shuisheng touched Qiu Yongkang, and his eyes regained their confidence.
"Alright, I'll be your good logistics assistant. We'll share weal and woe."
The grudge between the two brothers was resolved, and Ji Shuisheng went to look for Yang Zhi.
Yang Zhi didn't want to eat for free, so he went to help strengthen the city's defense daily. The escorts were very touched when they saw that the soldiers guarding the city still did their duty to protect the people in the city under such difficult circumstances. If it weren't for the fact that they couldn't leave their families behind, they would also want to stay in Mo City to fight against the Tartan soldiers.
Ji Shuisheng found Yang Zhi on the city wall. He smiled and cupped his fists at Yang Zhi from afar.
"Brother Yang, you've worked hard."
"Brother Ji, you're back. "
Yang Zhi was pleased to see Ji Shuisheng. He walked over in giant strides.
"Brother Yang, I had some important matters to attend to the day before yesterday, so I'm here to welcome you today."
"You're welcome."
Yang Zhi hurriedly waved his hand to refuse. Now that the situation in the city was so difficult, how could he have the cheek to eat and drink?
"Of course, I still have something to discuss with Brother Yang.
Ji Shuisheng laughed loudly and invited Yang Zhi down the city wall.
While Ji Shuisheng entertained Yang Zhi and discussed matters with him, Su Qing was rushing to Five Deer Mountain with five carriages. They traveled under the stars, and it was already afternoon when they arrived at the Mountain.
Everyone was exhausted, especially Xiaoying and Jiang Yuyan, who had dark circles under their eyes from not sleeping all night. However, they were still in high spirits.
It was sweet for them to be able to accompany Sister Su Qing to do great things.
"Everyone, take a break. I'll go and hunt some wild game. We'll work after dinner."
Su Qing asked everyone to park their carriages in the woods to prevent passersby from discovering them. She told them to rest where they were while she went hunting.
"How can that do? We're men. Let's go."
Jiang Laoqi quickly stopped Su Qing. When they first came out to escape, the men did the work of finding food. Later on, Su Qing and the girls were the ones who did most of the work of finding food for everyone.
Everyone had worked hard for the entire night. How could they let Su Qing, a woman, go hunting and let the two old men rest?
"The two of you should take the time to rest. You will be the main force in the coal mining later."
Su Qing waved her hand. Digging coal was manual labor, and the girls couldn't do it.
Hearing Su Qin's words, Li Daniu and Jiang Laoqi no longer insisted. They unloaded the basket from the cart and lay on it to sleep.
Xiaoying and Jiang Yuyan looked at Su Qing with eager eyes. They both had crossbows with them to help Su Qing hunt.
Su Qing saw the two girls' expectant eyes and said with a straight face,
"You guys sleep too."
Xiaoying and Jiang Yuyan could only watch as Su Qing left. Like Li Daniu and the rest, they took the basket from the carriage and slept.
However, the weather was too cold. How could they sleep when they were lying in the carriage?
The two girls saw that Li Daniu and Jiang Laoqi were already snoring. They were afraid they would freeze, so they picked up firewood.
Su Qing rushed out to let Xiao Qi see where the prey was—saving time.
Xiao Qi looked around on the screen and saw two wild boars in the northeast, a group of wild goats and three silly roe deers in the south, a male and female black bear with a cub in the north, and wild rabbits and pheasants in the west. She was so conflicted. Which side should she tell her master?
"Xiao Qi?"
Su Qing didn't wait for Xiao Qi's reply and called out with a frown.
"Master, what do you want to eat?"
Xiao Qi had a phobia of choice, so she asked Su Qing carefully. If she knew what her master wanted to eat, she could tell her.
"Anything is fine. Pick the nearest one."
Su Qing didn't expect Xiao Qi to have a phobia of choice, so she gave her an order.
"The wild boar has been active recently. It's a hundred meters northeast."
Xiao Qi answered immediately with her master's explicit order. Su Qing walked northeast after hearing it.
The wild boar was not afraid of humans. When it heard the rustling of the grass and trees, it only raised its head to look. When it saw Su Qing, it stomped on the ground and made scary sounds.
Xiao Qi saw the two wild boars and was afraid that her master would be in danger, so she asked the system to let her fight side by side with her master.
"Xiao Qi wants to hunt with Master. Is that okay?"