Before the house was raided, the maidservant of the Prime Minister's residence absconded with t

The village head thought to himself that this girl's bargaining skills were more sophisticated than those of the women in town who went to the market year-round; she was not at a disadvantage at all.

After buying the mule, Chen Shuigen had to head back home; he had a lot of things to do there.

Tao'er didn't let him leave empty-handed. She sent Liu Tiezhu to the butcher shop to buy a pound of good quality pork belly, which she then carried with a hemp rope and stuffed into Chen Shuigen's hand.

"Grandpa Chen, thank you for running around these past two days. Please take this meat home and stew it. Consider it a small token of our appreciation."

Chen Shuigen tried to refuse for a long time but couldn't, so he had to accept it, muttering, "This girl is too polite."

Before leaving, Chen Shuigen turned back and added, "Tao Yatou, if your new home is missing anything, just tell Grandpa Chen."

"I'm an old man, and I don't have any great abilities, but I can still say a few words about village affairs."

Tao'er smiled and replied, "Okay! Grandpa Chen, I'll definitely come to you if I need anything. Please don't think I'm a troublesome little girl."

"You silly girl, how could I find you troublesome? I'm just afraid you won't bother me."

Chen Shuigen said with a smile.

How wonderful it would be to have such a perceptive and open-minded granddaughter!

After saying that, he drove the oxcart towards Xinghua Village.

Tao'er stood by the roadside, squinting at the sky. The sun had climbed halfway up the sky, and there were even more people on the street.

She turned to Liu Tiezhu and said, "Brother, we still need to buy a lot of things, pots and pans, grain, bedding, we can't do without any of them."

"Brother, if there's anything you need to buy, remember to let me know, and I'll arrange it all today."

Liu Tiezhu scratched the back of his head, looking somewhat worried: "Little sister, buying so many things at once, what about our money..."

Is that enough?

"Don't worry about the money, brother. I know what I'm doing."

Let's go buy some tools first.

Tao patted his arm.

Liu Tiezhu said nothing more, and drove the mule along the main street.

The first stop was a general store.

Tao'er went inside and looked around. She picked out two iron pots, one large and one small, and also bought three or four earthenware basins, a clay pot for stewing soup, a stack of coarse porcelain bowls, more than a dozen pairs of bamboo chopsticks, an iron shovel, an iron spoon and a pickaxe.

The proprietress, seeing that she was a new face, wanted to raise the price, but Tao'er stopped her with a few words and in the end even gave her a whetstone as a bonus.

Liu Tiezhu moved the items one by one onto the cart, stacking them neatly.

The second stop was a grain shop.

Tao'er ordered fifty catties of coarse flour, twenty catties of fine flour, three dou of millet, and one dou of mung beans.

The grain shop owner was a chubby middle-aged man. Seeing that the young girl was making her purchases quickly, he gave her an extra small bag of Sichuan peppercorns.

Tao'er thanked him and asked her brother to properly place the grain sacks on the cart, ensuring they were balanced so they wouldn't fall apart on the road.

After leaving the grain store, Tao'er said to her elder brother, "Brother, go and buy some meat, eggs, and vegetables. Let's have a good celebration tonight."

Buy more, don't worry about not having enough money.

My second brother and sister-in-law helped us clean, so we should treat them to a meal.

And then there's Grandpa Chen, the village head. He put in a lot of effort in buying the house and dividing the family property, so we should treat him to a meal too.

Here's five taels of silver. Take it and buy some meat and vegetables. Don't be stingy.

"From now on, I'll lead our family to make money."

After saying that, Tao'er stuffed five taels of silver into her elder brother's hand.

Liu Tiezhu was dumbfounded as he watched his younger sister spend money so lavishly.

However, since his younger sister had made the arrangements, he could only do as she said, thinking that he would have to go up the mountain tomorrow to chop more firewood to sell for money.

He took the money and nodded. "Okay, I'll go buy the meat now. Little sister, there are a lot of people on the street, so don't wander around. Just stand here and wait for me to come back."

"Okay, big brother, I'll stand here and wait for you. I definitely won't wander off."

She deliberately sent her older brother away, otherwise she wouldn't have been able to take the things out of her spatial storage.

Seeing how well-behaved his younger sister was, Liu Tiezhu didn't suspect anything and went to the butcher shop to buy meat.

Tao'er then drove the mule into a small alley.

She looked around to make sure no one was watching, then quickly took out three bolts of cloth from her spatial storage.

Two bolts of dark blue coarse cotton cloth, one bolt of light gray fine cotton cloth, a few packets of brown sugar, and two canned goods.

He took out two more bags of salt and poured them into the earthenware jar.

Refined salt tastes much better than coarse salt.

These things were all stored in her space. She had planned it out beforehand: the dark-colored ones would be used to make clothes for her parents, and the light-colored ones would be used by her and her brother.

She then ran to the clothing store on the street corner and bought two sets of clothes for each of her two nephews.

The child grew quickly, and the clothes in the shop were all ready-made. She measured the size and picked out two sets of medium-sized cotton clothes.

You can't dress too nicely, or people will be jealous.

After finishing all that, she drove the mule out of the alley and waited for her older brother at the street corner.

When Liu Tiezhu returned and saw this, his eyes nearly popped out of their sockets.

The cart was piled up like a small mountain, with pots and pans stacked on top of each other, grain sacks piled on top of grain sacks, rolls of cloth leaning against one side, and brown sugar and canned goods wrapped in oil paper.

Luckily, the shed is big enough, otherwise there really wouldn't be enough room to pile them up.

"Little sister...how much did you spend?"

Liu Tiezhu lowered his voice, his throat tightening.

Tao'er stuffed the bundle of clothes into the gap in the cart, dusted off her hands, and laughed, "Big brother, don't worry about how much it cost, it's all necessary to buy anyway."

Our new house has an empty stove and empty cabinets. We can't just sleep on a bare bed and starve, can we?

Liu Tiezhu swallowed, wanting to say something but then swallowing it back.

He remembered that when his younger sister was little, she couldn't even bear to buy a new hair tie.

He felt both gratified and slightly uneasy about the generous offer.

If my grandparents find out, they'll definitely make a scene.

After hesitating for a while, he finally managed to say, "Well... there's still a long road ahead, so be careful with your money."

Tao'er knew what he was thinking, so she didn't say much. She just stood by the cart and pointed in the direction of the east of the county town: "Brother, let's go back."

"Oh, and later, drive the mule cart directly to the main house, don't go past the old house."

Liu Tiezhu was stunned for a moment, then realized what he meant and nodded heavily.

"Yes, let's go straight home."

He harnessed the mule, gave it a tug on the reins, and the bluish-gray mule started walking steadily.

The cart wheels rolled over the bluestone road, making a rumbling sound.

Tao'er sat on the edge of the cart, holding the roll of cloth in her hand. A gust of wind blew, lifting the stray hairs from her forehead.

As the county town receded into the distance, fields stretched out on both sides of the official road, the wheat seedlings lush and green, and wisps of smoke rose from the distant village chimneys.

Tao'er squinted at the road ahead, feeling particularly comfortable.

After the family separated, even the air felt so refreshing, and I felt completely invigorated.

Even if I go back to the village, I won't have to put up with the Liu family's nonsense anymore.

She can enjoy her idyllic rural life.

The famine and drought came without warning, and even in my dreams, there was no clear timeframe.

However, it will probably only take about two years; it won't be long.

She glanced at Liu Tiezhu beside her. The older brother's back was ramrod straight, and his hands holding the reins were large and thick.

Thinking that now that the family had separated, he realized that his two older brothers needed to start arranging for them to get married.

The mule walked at a moderate pace, and the pots and pans on the cart occasionally bumped together, making a tinkling sound that was quite lively.

Liu Tiezhu turned around and glanced at his younger sister. Seeing her smiling so brightly, he felt very happy too.

From now on, my little sister will no longer have to be schemed against by Grandma and the others, and can live a carefree life.

That's great!

The old locust tree at the village entrance was already in sight. Tao'er straightened up and glanced in the direction of the old house.

Smoke is billowing from that chimney over there; I wonder who's cooking.

She looked away, gently patted the mule's rump, and whispered, "Let's go home."

The mule cart turned onto a side road and steadily drove toward the blue-brick house at the east end of the village.