On the Difficulties of Escape in Ancient Times

Before Xiao Xiao could even open her mouth to speak, Wu rolled her eyes and said quickly, "Didn't you hear my third daughter say she was going to build a new house? It's only going to take ten days or half a month, how can there be no room?"

He even muttered: "If you had known that the house here was so dilapidated, you wouldn't have repaired it or built a few new houses."

Although the Xiao family always called Xiao Xiao "San'er" in the past, they would call her Grandma or Third Girl in front of outsiders.

The housekeeper could only pretend she didn't hear anything, and continued with a smile, "Grandma, while we have the ox cart, I will accompany this old sister to the other two places to pick up the people."

Xiao Xiao said, "Don't worry, wait until everything is unloaded and weighed, then you can sign and seal your name before you do anything else."

Anyway, the donation process must not be messed up, so as to avoid being caught by others.

The housekeeper appeared to be smiling but was worried inside.

I didn't expect that this lady from a poor family could resist such a great temptation and go through the process with me.

Thinking of the plans of his wife and grandmother, they all thought that Xiao would be blinded by money and would embezzle some money.

They will definitely play dumb and pretend to be unfamiliar with the process.

Anyway, if she doesn't get a receipt, then the lady will have something on Xiao.

But now that the Xiao family has followed all the rules, his wife's plan has been in vain.

Unloading, weighing, accounting, and signing.

After confirmation, three delivery notes were written. After the three parties signed and sealed, one was given to the housekeeper of the Gu Mansion, one was kept by the accountant, and the other was kept by Xiao Xiao.

Xiao Xiao felt that the procedures were complete and that if they followed the process, there would be no chance of corruption.

Unless she is like Grandma Gu San who embezzled money from the company.

The warehouse had just been tidied out, and now all the brown rice and cloth were stored.

Xiao Xiao only kept 200 taels of the silver and took the rest back home.

Otherwise, the temptation of ten thousand taels of silver is too great, and I am afraid that this charity hall will become a gathering place for scoundrels and desperate criminals.

Fortunately, Hou Er brought four guards to bring her here today, otherwise she would have been worried about being robbed on the road.

Even though there were a lot of guards, Xiao Xiao didn't dare to take the small road today.

After returning to Li's Mansion, Xiao Xiao asked Hou Er to call the guards to deliver all the silver to the warehouse in her yard.

She went to pay her respects to her stepmother-in-law first.

It’s not that Xiao Xiao is filial, but this is the current rule. Not only her, but also Xiao Zhou has to pay her respects to Madam Li first after going out.

It just so happened that Xiao Zhou was also helping Madam Li.

Li Ren's wedding day is approaching, and he has to write invitations, buy all kinds of long-lasting fruits, dried fruits, candied fruits, etc. There are many trivial things to do.

Xiao Xiao told them everything that happened today.

This matter was not a secret. Xiao Xiao always felt that she had overlooked something, so she took the opportunity to explain it in more detail, hoping that they could notice something.

Xiao Zhou sighed: "The Gu family is really calculating. I think they deliberately hired a bullock cart to deliver the things."

"This ox cart moves slowly, there must be a lot of people watching. Now the reputation of the Gu Mansion will be good."

Mrs. Li was very excited after hearing this, and said to Xiao Xiao, "Why don't you stop going to the granary to get grain, and let me pay for it at the grain store?"

Most people are vain, and she is no exception: "When the time comes, I will have thirty ox carts come to pull it, so that everyone knows that our family also supports the queen." After saying this, she looked at her two daughters-in-law and said, "Don't you agree?"

Xiao Xiao didn’t care whether she wanted to buy food or pull it from the granary. As long as the mother-in-law was willing to give food, she was a good mother-in-law.

So she nodded immediately: "Mother, what you said makes sense. This way, others will not think that our Minister of War's Mansion is inferior to the Gu Mansion."

She was trying to provoke Mrs. Li, who was very proud, to pull a few more carts of grain.

She had no choice. When she thought about more than two thousand mouths waiting to be fed, it was really too difficult for her.

For the sake of food, even when her mother-in-law said the moon was square, Xiao Xiao agreed without changing her expression.

Xiao Zhou was also very excited after hearing this, and said: "I will also pay a little money to buy an extra 10,000 kilograms of brown rice, so that the caravan will be longer."

She thought ahead: "We donated so much, there must be people who want to follow suit. We are embarrassed to give away thousands of kilograms of food."

After hearing this, Xiao Xiao couldn't help but give a thumbs up: "You are really thoughtful, sister-in-law. You are killing two birds with one stone. I admire you."

Mrs. Li was also very satisfied: "Then it's settled."

Then he looked at Mother Liang beside him and said, "Remember to remind me at the end of the month. There is so much food. I need to go to the grain store a few days in advance to let them know."

She prefers to donate food rather than silver.

Nowadays, inferior brown rice costs only five or six cents per pound, and ten thousand pounds costs only five or six hundred taels of silver, so you have to hire ten ox carts to transport it.

But if you donate 10,000 taels of silver, you can only fill four boxes, not even a whole car.

Mrs. Li, who was very proud, immediately decided that she would not donate silver anymore, but would exchange it all for food. She would donate four or five times a year. How long could she donate ten thousand taels of silver for four or five years?

Xiao Xiao's heart moved, and she asked Liang's mother: "If I don't inform you in advance, how many kilograms of brown rice can I buy at the grain store?"

Mrs. Liang, who assisted the housekeeper, actually knew: "Reporting to Grandma, there are many kinds of grain in the grain store. If we can put a thousand pounds of each kind of rice and flour, the warehouse will be full."

“Even if ordinary people buy a lot of brown rice, there’s no way that there would be tens of thousands of kilograms of it piled up in the shop.”

Thinking that her master was treating Xiao well, Liang said in more detail: "The grain store's large granary is outside. We told them in advance that the grain store will be able to deliver it from the outside granary in one or two days."

"We don't have to worry about the carriages and horses carrying grain, or the loading and unloading of goods."

After listening to this, Xiao Xiao finally understood why she felt something was wrong.

The food for the Gu family was delivered too quickly.

Before taking over the charity hall, Li Yan had someone secretly investigate and found out that the Gu family's obvious sources of income included two farms, a hilltop, a tea shop and a teahouse.

The mother of the Gu family also said before that she went to the grain store specifically to buy the food.

Could that be the Gu family’s own grain shop?
After Xiao Xiao went back, she told Li Yan her guess as soon as he came back.

After hearing this, Li Yan also thought it was possible: "Then I will ask someone to check it out now."

"It just so happens that the people from the Gu Mansion are delivering food in a big way today. We can definitely find out which shop the food was bought from."

Xiao Xiao also reminded him: "You can also check the fabric shop, maybe you can find something unexpected there."

Before Li Yan left, he said to Xiao Xiao, "At the court this morning, the emperor really ordered Shuntian Prefecture to thoroughly investigate those assassins."

"I think there will be some rewards from the palace in the next two days, or the Queen will ask you to go to the palace." (End of this chapter)