The wicked mother-in-law doesn't try to whitewash herself; she only abuses her awful children.

"Father, Xu Yong asked me this morning whether our two families should arrange a marriage."

"As long as Ruinian marries into the Xu family, they are willing to give us five acres of fertile land. When Ruinian and Xinghua have a child, they will give us a son with the surname Gu so that we can raise him. Our family line will not be cut off."

Gu Youtian looked at Gu Ruinian's figure outside and discussed it with Old Master Gu.

He felt that the reason why Old Master Gu had concerns was because Gu Ruinian's marriage into the Xu family would mean the Gu family would lose one person to carry on the family line.

Now, just solve the problem of incense offerings.

The Xu family is willing to give him five acres of fertile land.

It's a good deal to get five acres of fertile land in exchange for the lame youngest son.

Grandpa Gu took a puff of his pipe, a look of hesitation on his face.

To be honest, he was somewhat tempted by the Xu family's promise to give the Gu family a son in the future.

Given the family's current circumstances, it would be very difficult to find a wife for Gu Ruinian.

When Gu Youtian mentioned the marriage between Gu Ruinian and Xu Xinghua, Jia looked towards Old Master Gu. His expression made her heart tighten. She was usually afraid of Gu Youtian, but she dared to fight for anything involving Gu Ruinian.

“No, even if we had ten grandsons, it wouldn’t be enough. Ruinian’s leg can still heal, and Ruinian still needs to go to school,” Jia said.

Grandma Gu snorted and said, "What a load of rubbish! Where would we get the money to send him to school?"

Jia retorted, "Ruinian has his own way of earning money. Didn't he earn cotton clothes, charcoal, and silver a few days ago?"

The cotton-padded clothes Gu Ruinian was wearing and the charcoal fire in the room were sent by the second young master Zheng. Gu Ruinian naturally kept it a secret from his family, only saying that he had taken on a copying job, and that he was copying for a wealthy young master in the city.

Lady Jia then rekindled her hope that her son would take the imperial examination again.

Grandma Gu's face darkened and she remained silent.

They all saw wealthy families sending people to deliver gifts to Gu Ruinian.

Gu Ruinian lifted the curtain, his clothes damp with the chill as he entered the room. He looked up at Grandpa Gu and Grandma Gu and said, "Grandpa and Grandma, give me a few more days. I'm sure I can earn a lot of money for the family before the New Year. If not, I'm willing to become a live-in son-in-law in the Xu family after the New Year."

After thinking about it, Grandpa Gu agreed.

Another blizzard has begun.

It snowed heavily for two days and two nights.

The temperature plummeted to the point described by Boss Qian: "If you poured a pot of boiling water out there, it would freeze before it even hit the ground."

The entire Pingchuan County was gripped by panic over a lack of charcoal.

Young Master Zheng stood under the corridor of Wanliu Academy, watching the swirling snowflakes, a smile spreading across his face.

The charcoal stockpiled by the Zheng family has begun to be sold on the market.

This batch of charcoal was not only sold in Ningcheng, the capital of Fucheng, but also had sales points set up in Pingchuan County and various towns and villages.

The news that charcoal was available for sale spread like wildfire throughout Ningcheng, and even the people of Qinghewan learned of it, with almost the entire village turning out to buy charcoal.

Actually, there is charcoal in every household at this time, but with the sudden drop in temperature, the amount of charcoal used in households is three times more than in previous years. Everyone is afraid that the charcoal fire will not last until the winter, so as soon as they hear that charcoal is available for sale, they all rush out.

Soon, everyone returned to the village, dejected.

The price of coal is higher than anyone imagined.

In the past, thirty coins could buy a load of charcoal, but now it costs five taels of silver to buy a load of charcoal.

People in the countryside toil for a living in the village, and it's considered good if they can save up five taels of silver a year. Who could afford to spend so much silver to buy charcoal?

Five taels of silver was no different from robbery to the villagers.

"Where did this unscrupulous merchant come from? He charges five taels of silver for a load of charcoal! This is ripping people off!"

"This charcoal merchant said that Xu Zaohua married into the Zheng family. No wonder their eldest son died young; it turns out he did too many immoral things."

"Merchants are greedy for profit, but they shouldn't be this greedy. I've lived to seventy and I've seen it all." The villagers returned to the village and began to curse the charcoal merchant.

Apart from the Xu family, who were wealthy in the village and bought some charcoal, everyone else returned empty-handed.

Five taels of silver for a load of charcoal—I really can't bring myself to do it.

"We really have to thank Pan Di. If it weren't for her getting two cartloads of charcoal, we'd probably all be freezing right now."

Seeing Tong Pandi come out of the pig farm, everyone thanked her for her righteous act and began to regret not stocking up on more charcoal.

Tong Pandi was worried because she had memories of her past life and knew that the charcoal she had stockpiled was enough to last through the winter.

What distressed her was that many people didn't have memories of their past lives and were unaware of the severity of this extreme weather event.

She originally thought that the villagers respected Master Su and that everyone would listen to him, so she used Master Su's words to tell everyone that it would be very cold this year. However, no one took it seriously at all.

They stood at the village entrance, exchanged a few words, and then left because it was too cold to bear.

Three days after the Zheng family started selling their charcoal, Tong Huaqiong, in conjunction with the Lu family, began to make her move.

Prefect Yao listened calmly to his subordinate's report.

The entire city of Ningcheng is in chaos over charcoal. Even with the arrival of extremely cold weather, charcoal should be available by now.

However, twenty days ago, all the charcoal fires in Ningcheng seemed to have vanished overnight.

Suddenly, a large batch of charcoal appeared again over the next three days and was sold for five taels of silver per load.

Someone must be deliberately hoarding charcoal, disregarding the lives of ordinary people, in order to make a fortune.

Magistrate Liu was just as overwhelmed as Magistrate Yao.

There was a severe shortage of charcoal in Pingchuan County, and charcoal merchants took the opportunity to raise prices to an exorbitant level.

If this continues, people might freeze to death.

Magistrate Liu was so angry he wanted to chop up the charcoal merchant, but even if he did, it wouldn't solve the problem, because even if he did, the merchant wouldn't be able to produce any more charcoal.

The Zheng family remained hidden behind the scenes, distributing the stockpiled charcoal to various charcoal shops and charging them uniformly according to the Zheng family's prices.

As for the consequences of charging five taels of silver for a load of charcoal, the Zheng family didn't care, nor were they afraid of being investigated by the government. They believed that business was based on mutual consent; if they set a high price, the buyer could choose not to buy.

Tong Huaqiong braved the cold wind to arrive in Pingchuan County. Passing by a charcoal shop, she heard a commotion.

"Go away, go away, this is the price, take it or leave it, if you don't buy it, there are plenty of others who will."

"Don't even mention five taels a load, even ten taels a load wouldn't be hard to sell. You poor bastards, just wait to freeze to death."

This shop was owned by one of the Zheng family's stewards, and the shop assistants, having the Zheng family as their backers, spoke rudely when haggling.

Hong, who came to Pingchuan with Tong Huaqiong, lifted the curtain and shook her head at the smug shop assistant facing the people, saying, "My husband would never have allowed this to happen when he was the steward of the Zheng family."

Just as Tong Huaqiong was about to reply, the waiter's loud voice rang out.

"I won't sell it for five taels of silver! From today onwards, it's ten taels of silver per load of charcoal. Don't you even bother to ask around? Not to mention the whole of Pingchuan, even the whole of Ningcheng, only our family has charcoal."

"Are you crazy?" Madam Hong gritted her teeth in anger.

Five taels of silver for a load of charcoal was already outrageous enough, but something even more outrageous happened.

Tong Huaqiong sneered, "If Heaven wants someone to perish, it first makes them go mad. Let them be smug for a few days first."

"Qingyou, turn the carriage around. We're not going to Jufu anymore; let's go to the county government first," Tong Huaqiong said to Qin Qingyou, who was driving the carriage.

Originally, Tong Huaqiong wanted to go to Jufulai to make some preparations first, and then go to see Magistrate Liu the next day.

Seeing the Zheng family's madness, she felt there was no need to drag this out any longer. (End of Chapter)