A fierce wife enters the house: She helps up a house full of spineless people.

Sure enough, a brand-new blue cloth carriage was parked at the gate of the courtyard. The driver was dressed in a decent short-sleeved shirt, and he looked like a servant of a wealthy family.

A middle-aged man dressed in a dark long gown, who looked like a manager, was standing by the car. When he saw Wang Jinzhu come out, he immediately greeted her with a smile.

"Is this Wang Jinzhu, Madam Wang?" The steward asked politely.

"That's me. And who are you?" Wang Jinzhu asked.

"I am the steward of the Liu family, surnamed Qian. I have come to collect the goods on the orders of our master." Steward Qian said, taking out a letter from his pocket. "This is a letter from our master to you."

Wang Jinzhu took the letter; the envelope was unsigned. She opened it and saw that the handwriting was Liu Mingyuan's. The content was simple: he was saying that he would take all the goods she currently had.

At the end of the letter, Liu Mingyuan specifically reminded everyone: the bandits from the north are advancing south with great momentum, and checkpoints everywhere are now strictly inspected, making the roads unsafe. Caravans transporting goods will likely have to stop for a while. If there is an opportunity, living in the prefectural city is not easy, but it is also the most stable place.

Wang Jinzhu's heart sank.

"The prefectural city is the most secure place." Combined with the previous sentence, doesn't it mean that places outside the prefectural city are probably not secure?

Will Yongning County be abandoned?

The moment the thought crossed Wang Jinzhu's mind, a cold sweat broke out on her back.

"Madam Wang?" Manager Qian called out softly when he noticed her pale face.

"Oh, it's nothing." Wang Jinzhu quickly came to her senses, put the letter away, and said, "Manager Qian, the goods are all in the workshop. I'll have someone move them out for you right away."

She turned around and called Chen Tianfang and Wang Xiaobao. Together, they quickly moved out all the hundreds of sets of lip balm and perfume stored in the warehouse.

After Manager Qian finished counting the goods, he unloaded a heavy box from the vehicle.

"Madam Wang, this is the payment for this shipment, a total of three thousand taels of silver. Please count it."

When the box was opened, it was filled with neatly stacked silver ingots, each weighing ten taels, which shimmered so brightly in the sunlight that they made one dizzy.

"Thank you for your trouble." Wang Jinzhu asked Chen Tianfang to carry the box into the house, and then said to Steward Qian, "Please thank Young Master Liu for me."

"I will definitely deliver it." Manager Qian cupped his hands in greeting, not lingering any longer. "Madam Wang, then we'll take our leave now. Until we meet again."

After he finished speaking, he turned around and got into the carriage. The driver cracked the whip, and the carriage quickly disappeared at the village entrance.

Wang Jinzhu stood at the gate of the courtyard, watching the direction the carriage had gone, and remained motionless for a long time.

"Jinzhu, what's wrong? What did that letter say?" Wang Tianfang sensed something was wrong with Wang Jinzhu.

Wang Jinzhu turned her head, looked at him, and then looked at the newly built blue-brick and tile house behind her, every brick and tile exuding a brand-new feel. Her heart was in turmoil.

She worked hard, making soap and lip balm, and finally saved up some money to build a new house and open a workshop. It seemed like her life was about to get better and better.

Now, someone has told her that all of this may soon vanish.

She took a deep breath and tried to make her voice sound calm.

"Tianfang," she said, "we might...have to move."

Chen Tianfang was stunned.

"Move? Where to?" he asked instinctively, his eyes full of confusion.

My home is right here. This house was just built. Why do I have to move now?

Wang Jinzhu pulled him back into the house and closed the door. Chen Yuxiang and Chen Shi, seeing that the couple's expressions were off, followed them in, while Wang Xiaobao curiously crowded around.

Wang Jinzhu didn't beat around the bush; she directly recounted the contents of Liu Mingyuan's letter, along with her own speculations.

"Young Master Liu sent people to collect all the goods, saying that he wouldn't be coming to pick up goods for a while because the roads were unsafe. He even wrote a letter to remind me that the prefectural city was the safest place. Thinking about it all, it means that other places are going to be unstable."

She paused, looking at her family's shocked faces, and continued, "You've all seen the group Chen Shuyan colluded with; they're refugees who fled from the north. The letter also said that the bandits in the north are very powerful. With more and more refugees and bandits coming, the world is bound to descend into chaos. Our Yongning County isn't far from the north, and it's not a major military stronghold. If things really get chaotic, the first place the government will probably abandon is a place like ours."

Chen Shi and Chen Yuxiang were dumbfounded. They were honest, hardworking farmers who spent their lives thinking only of their wife, children, a warm bed, and a good harvest. Bandits and wars were like stories told by storytellers, far removed from their lives.

Now, it seems like this terrible story is about to hit me on the head.

"No, no way..." Chen Yuxiang's voice trembled. "How could things suddenly fall apart like this?"

Wang Tianfang looked at Wang Jinzhu and asked in a deep voice, "Jinzhu, do you mean we should move to the prefectural city?"

"Yes." Wang Jinzhu nodded without the slightest hesitation. "We need to prepare now. While the checkpoints along the way are still strictly inspecting the area, and not completely blocked off, we still have a chance to leave. If we wait any longer, we won't be able to leave even if we want to."

"But...but our home, this house..." Chen Yuxiang looked at the spacious and bright new house, her eyes filled with reluctance. She had never lived in such a nice house in her life, and after only a few days, she had to abandon it? And the family's fields, those were their lifeline.

Wang Jinzhu was certainly reluctant to part with it.

This house, this workshop, is the first empire she built with her own hands after coming into this world. From bars of soap to bottles of lip balm, she put in so much effort to make her life what it is today.

But now, all of that has to be given up.

She felt as if a knife had been ripped from her heart, the pain was excruciating. But she knew even more clearly that compared to her life and fortune, these things were inanimate. A house could be rebuilt, land could be bought again, but if a person was gone, everything was gone.

"Mother," Wang Jinzhu looked at Chen Yuxiang, her voice softening, "I know you're reluctant. I'm reluctant too. But think about it, if the rebels really come, let alone the house, our whole family's lives will be lost. As long as we're alive, we can start over anywhere."

"Third brother, go back to Wangjia Village and tell our parents that we are moving. Tell them to pack their things and sell the land as soon as possible. Remember not to make a fuss about it."

"Tianfang, go and bring Tianrun back. He doesn't need to go to school for a while. I need to take care of things at the workshop. We need to be quick."

With the family dividing the work, the anxiety in their hearts finally subsided somewhat. In its place came a sense of urgency.