Reborn as the Blissful Wife in the countryside
Chapter 48 - 048: Take the Fight to Their Doorstep?

Chapter 48: Chapter 048: Take the Fight to Their Doorstep?

Mrs. Chen understood the implications of Third Grandpa’s words, but she pretended to be confused and shook the old cotton clothes in her hand, exclaiming, "Back in our hometown, making a new set of cotton clothes would only cost a hundred or so large money, but why does it cost five hundred large money here in Yuchang Prefecture? Five hundred large money, Third Uncle, that’s equivalent to the harvest from one acre of our land, exchanging one acre’s harvest for an old cotton coat, isn’t that swindling people?"

These old cotton clothes had been washed several times already, the cotton inside had clumped together and were nowhere near as warm as new cotton clothes.

The more Mrs. Chen thought about it, the more pain she felt, the more indignant she became: "No, we can’t accept these old cotton clothes, we’ll take them back and exchange them for better ones. If they refuse to exchange, we’ll confront them about it."

"Confront them?" Third Grandpa laughed in anger. Did Mrs. Chen think this was the Gu Family Village, where she could make a fuss as she pleased? Being able to buy these old cotton clothes was due to their quick actions; those disaster victims who went later could only buy warm clothes made out of messy hemp and old wadding.

Gu Dagui snatched the three old cotton clothes out of Mrs. Chen’s hand and scolded, "When will you ever stop? You know very well that was back in our hometown, where are we now? We are in Yuchang Prefecture, thousands of miles away from home. Do you still think about causing trouble on someone else’s turf? I think you are tired of living."

Even a powerful dragon cannot suppress a local snake, and they were just disaster-stricken refugees, what resources did they have to confront others?

After being scolded by Gu Dagui, Mrs. Chen didn’t dare to shout out loud anymore, but she muttered softly, "This is too expensive... We don’t have much money left, Brother Wang is still sick, what if Brother Fa gets cold again, what then?"

As she spoke, she began to cry. While crying, she also said to Gu Dafu, "Uncle, our family hasn’t been split yet, you can’t just watch Brother Wang and Brother Fa freeze to death."

Hearing this, Gu Dagui, infuriated, raised his hand to hit Mrs. Chen. Mrs. Chen quickly dodged and ran to the side, pulling Brother Fa along and holding the still-fainted Brother Wang as she sobbed quietly.

"Da Gui, stop it," Gu Dafu scolded Gu Dagui, and after a silence, he said to Third Grandpa, "Third Uncle, we will add some money, please give us five old cotton clothes and two thick warm clothes."

Mrs. Chen was right, their family hadn’t split yet, he should be responsible for the well-being of the whole family.

Gu Dagui said, "Big brother, you don’t need to pay, we will pay ourselves. Although our family hasn’t been divided, each branch handles their own money; it’s unreasonable to ask you to pay for us."

The father had worried about them getting separated while fleeing the famine, and had already divided the family’s money among them; each branch received a share, and the eldest brother hadn’t received any extra copper coins, so there was no reason for him now to buy cotton clothes for their family.

After witnessing the murderous acts against the refugees by wicked people, Gu Dafu now valued kinship greatly, "Da Gui, if you still consider me as your elder brother, then say no more."

"Big brother..." Gu Dagui didn’t want it, but Gu Dafu directly took out three taels of silver and handed them to Third Grandpa.

While everyone was gathering money to buy things, Mrs. Chen had contributed half a tael of silver, he had contributed one tael, and now he gave another three taels, enough to buy five cotton clothes and two warm clothes.

"That’s too much, each warm cloth costs two hundred large money," after taking the silver, Third Grandpa took out his money bag and counted six hundred large money to give to Gu Dafu.

Seeing that Gu Dafu had provided the money, Mrs. Chen hurriedly ran over, picked two old cotton clothes from the basket, and pulled another cotton clothes from Gu Dagui’s hand, leaving with three old cotton clothes.

These three old cotton clothes were for her and her two sons; the remaining two cotton clothes would be divided between the brothers Gu Dafu and Gu Dagui, she was not going to be left out in the cold.

Gu Yumei wished she could tear Mrs. Chen apart. Mrs. Chen had only contributed half a tael of silver but took away three old cotton clothes. Her father had given four taels of silver, only to get two cotton clothes and two warm clothes, where was the justice in that?

She also blamed Gu Dafu for being foolish, spending silver in vain.

Knowing that there weren’t enough old cotton clothes to go around, Gu Yumei, unable to bear the cold any longer, dropped all pretense and ran over to grab a floral cotton clothes from Gu Dagui’s hand and immediately wore it on her body.

Gu Dexing, fearing he would not receive any cotton clothes, hurriedly snatched the last old cotton clothes from Gu Dagui’s hand.

Gu Dagui didn’t blame them, but simply selected two relatively thicker warm clothes and handed one to Gu Dafu.

Third Grandpa looked at the families in the straw shed and said, "The price of these items is higher than we expected. The silver coins you all gave can’t buy much. If you want the items, you need more money. If you don’t want them, I can return the silver coins to you."

The cost of items was several times more expensive than anticipated, causing heartache among the families. People like Ms. Yan and Aunt Tian thought about not buying and enduring the hardship instead, but Gu Damu and Uncle Tian insisted on making the purchases.

Gu Damu said, "Uncle, this isn’t your fault. We’ll add more money; we must survive somehow."

After adding more silver coins, Gu Damu bought used cotton clothes for the children in his family and for Old Mrs. Yan, while he, Ms. Yan, and Gu Dalin bought thick warm clothes.

Aunt Tian’s family was poor and could only afford warm clothes, not the used cotton ones.

After collecting the silver coins, Third Grandpa let them choose their cold-weather clothes first, and only picked for himself after they were done choosing.

With the silver coins provided by Qi Yi, Gu Jinli’s house had Father Luo buy extra cold-weather items specially for them. Among the batch of items Father Luo personally chose, most were for Gu Jinli’s family.

The items included not only used cotton clothes, warm clothes, old fabric, but also worn quilts, needles, and thread.

Gu Jinli picked up a few pieces of used cotton clothes and sent them to Gu Jinxiu, Third Grandma, Mrs. Cui, and Brother Cheng, saying, "Mother, big sister, wear these cotton clothes quickly, you mustn’t catch a cold."

Mrs. Cui and Gu Jinxiu received the used cotton clothes and first covered the unconscious Brother Cheng and Third Grandma with them before putting on their own clothes. Once they put on the used cotton clothes, they felt much warmer, no longer so cold that their lips turned purple and limbs stiffened.

In Gu Jinli’s hands was a gray cotton garment with a few small holes; she pulled away at a hole, tugged out some yellowish cotton, and after confirming that it was indeed cotton inside, sighed to herself: "This truly is a chaotic dynasty."

The Great Chu Dynasty had soybeans but lacked tofu, a food made from soybeans, which was one of the staple foods of the Great Chu citizens and was meant to be boiled for eating; they had Han Dynasty-style fortresses, but private armies were not allowed; even their clothing style resembled that of the Han Dynasty, which made her initially believe that the Great Chu Dynasty was the ancient Han Dynasty.

Yet, the Great Chu Dynasty had Troop Commander Centres, which resembled something from the Ming Dynasty.

Now, she knew that the Great Chu Dynasty also had cotton.

Cotton was something that appeared during the Song Dynasty; before that, ancient people used carded wool, reed flowers, and various types of down for warmth.

In essence, the Great Chu Dynasty resembled Hua Xia, yet it was distinct from Hua Xia, a combination of Han, Song, and Ming elements.

After putting on the used cotton clothes, Gu Jinli ran back to ask Third Grandpa, "Third Grandpa, have you bought the medicinal herbs?"

"They’re bought, in this basket here," Third Grandpa said, pointing to a basket by Qin San Lang’s feet.

This time, they didn’t just buy clothes to ward off the cold; they also bought some coarse grains and medicinal herbs.

Yuchang Prefecture was also hit by disaster, local farmers did not have much grain, only selling them some sweet potatoes and beans, but compared to eating grass and tree leaves, these coarse grains were quite tasty.

As for the medicinal herbs, Gu Jinli specifically requested to buy them.

The variety of medicinal herbs she could find was too limited; two important herbs for treating colds were completely unavailable, and buying medicine was necessary to help everyone recover from the colds faster.

Since they couldn’t enter Prefecture, Third Grandpa and others bought medicine from a barefoot doctor in a nearby village, but even then, they could not buy a lot of the herbs. Fortunately, they managed to buy the main herbs needed for treating colds.

Upon hearing Third Grandpa’s words, Qin San Lang took out bundles of medicinal herbs from the bottom of the basket and handed them to Gu Jinli: "Xiao Yu, hold these."

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