Chapter 3: Suddenly Striking It Rich

Ten minutes later, Bai Wei received a thick stack of red banknotes.

This broken wardrobe is truly a treasure!

Just as she was about to return to the farmhouse, Bai Wei stopped in her tracks, her brows knitting together.

That's right!

The greedy Aunt is coming to smash up the Farm tomorrow.

If she discovers the wardrobe can make money, she will definitely use any means necessary to snatch the wardrobe away!

No way!

She cannot let anyone discover the secret of the wardrobe.

Bai Wei looked up, her gaze locking onto a hardware and door-and-window shop across the street.

She must replace the Farm's broken wooden door!

Bai Wei lifted her foot and turned into the door-and-window shop.

"Boss, install the sturdiest security door for me—no, install two! The price is negotiable!"

With twelve thousand in her pocket, her voice grew louder and her back straightened.

"You want to install a door, right?" Seeing business arrive, the boss immediately grinned from ear to ear and stepped forward to introduce his wares.

Very quickly, Bai Wei finalized the plan for the main entrance.

The five-acre Farm was enclosed by a brick wall, but only the Farm gate was made of wood and was not very sturdy.

She wanted to install two gates: the inner one would be a thick security door worth five thousand yuan, and the outer one would be a stainless steel grille gate worth two thousand.

Double the insurance, as solid as a fortress!

Bai Wei slapped down seven thousand yuan on the spot, plus an additional five hundred yuan for an expedited service fee.

She was wealthy and bold; her only requirement was that the boss must install the security door within the day.

Twelve thousand had turned into seven thousand five in the blink of an eye, leaving only four thousand five hundred yuan.

But Bai Wei was not anxious at all; anyway, as long as she had Gui Dage, she didn't have to worry about lacking money.

With the wardrobe in hand, wealth is at her command!

Bai Wei had been afraid of ghosts since she was a child, but now it was different; she felt that even Zhenzi had become delicate and pretty.

Having earned so much money, she had to offer good things to Gui Dage.

Bai Wei arrived at the vegetable market and found a pork stall.

"Boss, I'm buying pork."

The pork stall boss was dozing off; he asked with his eyes closed, "How much?"

It was already noon, and there wasn't much meat left on the stall, though half a pig carcass still hung from an iron hook, bones and all. Bai Wei waved her hand grandly, "I'll take it all!"

"H-how much?"

This time, it was the boss's turn to be stunned, his voice cracking.

The pork stall boss, who had been dozing, shed his previous lethargy, sprang up as if injected with adrenaline, and ran over with a face full of smiles.

Bai Wei and the boss agreed on the price: twelve yuan per catty for the pork, and with the half-pig weighing one hundred and eighty catties, it came to a total of two thousand one hundred and sixty yuan.

Before she left, the boss even gave all the remaining ten or so pork leg bones to Bai Wei.

"Come to me for pork in the future, delivery included!"

Bai Wei asked the boss to tie the half-pig to the back seat of her bicycle, then pedaled hard, huffing and puffing, back to the village.

When she earns money next time, she'll upgrade from a bicycle to a motorcycle!

Bai Wei rode her bicycle along the small country road.

The sky in the countryside was very blue, the endless wheat fields on both sides of the road were lush and green, and the summer breeze carried the scent of crops and vegetation.

Just as she was nearing the farmhouse, Bai Wei passed by the Chen family's greenhouse vegetable garden.

Chen Yeye was chewing on a leaf-rolled cigarette, squatting by the side of the road selling vegetables with a worried look; two baskets of large radishes were set out in front of him, and it looked like they hadn't sold.

Bai Wei's heart stirred, and she jumped off her bike.

"Chen Yeye, I'll buy these two baskets of radishes."

"What?" Chen Yeye was startled. "Xiao Wei, your farmhouse hasn't had much business lately; if you buy so many radishes, can you finish them?"

Bai Wei smiled and told a lie, "My relatives love radishes, so I'm sending them over."

She couldn't finish them, but Gui Dage could.

Today, when she went to Pingle Town to sell the Jade Thumb Ring, she encountered several black-hearted merchants who all wanted to buy it at a low price; if Chen Yeye hadn't helped her estimate the value beforehand, she definitely would have suffered a loss.

Seeing that Bai Wei was going to buy the radishes, Chen Yeye became happy too.

This year's radishes were hard to sell, and if they didn't sell, they would all rot in the field.

Chen Yeye weighed the radishes.

"The two baskets total two hundred and thirty catties."

Bai Wei nimbly took out her wallet, "Just go by the market price, one yuan per catty."

Chen Yeye was taken aback and hurriedly pressed down on her hand, "The wholesale price is three jiao; don't give me too much."

"It's fine, I earned money today."

"We're all fellow villagers, how can I do that?"

The two of them began to tug back and forth on the side of the road.

In the end, Bai Wei still shoved the two hundred and thirty yuan firmly into Chen Yeye's hands.

"Chen Yeye, please just take it; I might buy your vegetables again in the future! We can use the wholesale price then!"

"This..." Chen Yeye felt bad about it. He looked up and saw the half-pig on the back of the bicycle, then hurriedly grabbed half a sack of old ginger and shoved it into Bai Wei's hands, "Take this back to stew with the meat. I'll call my grandson over to help you carry your things."

Chen Yeye's grandson was named Chen Ming; he was a nineteen-year-old chubby boy who had studied in a New Oriental chef class for a year, but because he suffered from a mild congenital intellectual disability, he had never been able to find a job and could only stay in the village.

Bai Wei and Chen Ming worked together to move half a side of pork, two baskets of radishes, and half a sack of old ginger into the room.

The old ginger weighed over twenty catties.

She pointed at the wardrobe, "Put them inside there."

"What?" Chen Ming looked blank, "Sister, putting... pork and radishes in the wardrobe, really, is that okay?"

Bai Wei hurriedly covered up, "The refrigerator is full, and this wardrobe is made of camphor wood, which can sterilize and keep things fresh."

"Oh." Chen Ming believed it to be true and, without another word, picked up the pork and put it into the empty wardrobe.

The empty, spacious wardrobe was stuffed full.

After putting them away, Bai Wei took a piece of chalk and wrote on the doors of the wardrobe.

"Gui Dage, if you need anything else in the future, just ask, we can trade—∩▽∩"

She added a fawning smiley face to show her sincerity.

She didn't know if Gui Dage could see it.

After finishing everything, Bai Wei stood in front of the wardrobe and let out a sigh of relief.

As long as she closed the doors, this pork and these radishes would vanish on the spot, accepted by the ghost inside the cabinet.

There were still many peaches in the orchard; she had to go pick another basket to take and please Gui Dage, as she might be able to trade for even more valuable treasures.

……

Outside Xuancheng, the snow was white and vast.

Amidst the howling cold wind, countless military tents were pitched in the snowy wilderness.

The soldiers were wrapped in tattered cotton-padded coats, each one looking sallow and shivering from the cold.

Xiao Moting sat upright in a military tent in his black battle robe, his face as calm as water, his sword-like brows tightly furrowed.

Below the tent, Li Junshi reported in a trembling voice, his tone laced with tears.

"Prince, the weather is becoming increasingly bitter, everyone has no food, let alone clothing to keep out the cold; thousands of soldiers have caught colds and are lying ill."

"Today, over a hundred more soldiers froze to death in the camp; if the Prefect of Xuancheng does not let us into the city, I fear these thirty thousand elite troops will all perish here..."

Xiao Moting looked up and saw the area outside the tent door crowded with ragged soldiers, their faces covered in frostbite, shivering in the cold wind, their eyes filled with anticipation.

A young soldier of twelve or thirteen years old spoke timidly.

"Prince, can we... live to return to the main camp?"

Xiao Moting felt bitter in his heart.

This young soldier's father and brother were his personal guards; all nine members of their family had died in battle, and he was the only one left in his entire clan.

This time, he had gone out to search for provisions, but not only did he fail to find any, he was intercepted and ambushed by a Death Squad of men in black; of the one hundred personal guards he took, only fifty-odd returned to camp alive, while the rest were all wrapped in horse hides and buried in the snowy plains.

He took out the Ham Sausage and peaches and handed them to the Military Advisor.

"These are meat sausages and fresh peaches, take them and distribute them to the old, weak, sick, and disabled soldiers."

Outside the tent, the sound of people swallowing saliva rose instantly.

"There's meat sausage!"

"It's actually fresh peaches!"

"That's great, the Prince brought food back."

Countless soldiers stared over in unison, their eyes filled with longing.

The Military Advisor also swallowed hard and spoke with pleasant surprise.

"Prince, you found food? How much is there?"

Xiao Moting looked at the pair after pair of eager eyes, and the words in his mouth simply could not be spoken.

Thirty thousand troops were starving and freezing, but he only had six meat sausages and three fresh peaches—a drop in the bucket.

He had led a small team of one hundred men out to find grain, only fifty returned alive, and they hadn't even found any grain; how could he explain this to his brothers?