The women of the village, though prone to finding fault and making sarcastic remarks, were also capable of empathy.
It wasn't easy for women in these times.
They might be passive-aggressive and throw tantrums outside, but once they got home, they had to obediently serve their husbands.
If one day her husband was displeased with her service, she could expect a hard slap across the face.
The moment Aunt Li brought this up,
everyone started to recall their own past experiences and, for some reason, began to feel a little sympathy for Su Liyan.
Besides, they had been watching all morning.
Su Liyan had been toiling away with her head down, not at all like the affected, coquettish seductress they had imagined her to be, relying on her pretty face to entice men.
"Isn't that the truth? Just you wait and see. When it's time for her to eat, it'll be rotten sweet potatoes again.
"In our village, we feed that stuff to dogs."
Aunt Li said with a pout, spooning stew from her own bowl.
The others gathered around, their faces full of curiosity.
"That's not right. Everyone saw it yesterday.
"That guy, he had rice, flour, and half a pig. Why would she be eating that stuff?"
Aunt Li rolled her eyes and said,
"What other reason could there be? Of course, all that good stuff is only for that little bastard Lu Yuan to eat.
"Lu Yuan eats the good food, and Su Liyan eats the dog food.
"Tell me, isn't that Lu Yuan just the most shameless bastard?
"No wonder he married a Snake Woman. If he'd married a woman from a respectable family, would she let him get away with treating her so horribly?
"It's only because of Su Liyan's poor status that she has to stay with him.
"These scholars, their hearts are truly wicked!
"Always scheming and plotting!"
Hearing this, the women were instantly reminded of their own past experiences—of being bullied by their husbands and scolded by their mothers-in-law.
They immediately started cursing Lu Yuan.
"Pah! That Lu Yuan is really a piece of work. He really knows how to ruin someone's life!"
Someone else chimed in from the side,
"That's not right, though. Wasn't Lu Yuan pretty quiet and honest before? You couldn't get a peep out of him if you hit him three times with a stick."
Aunt Li thought for a moment and said,
"Maybe that run-in with the evil spirit changed his personality?
"Or maybe Lu Yuan was always a bad seed, the quiet, sneaky kind you just couldn't see before.
"Anyway, stay far away from that bad seed from now on!"
Hearing this, everyone nodded in agreement.
「Meanwhile.」
Lu Yuan had already arrived in Taiping City by horse-drawn carriage.
Of course, Lu Yuan had no idea that the people in the village had practically finished writing a whole drama about him.
Right now, Lu Yuan was sitting in the carriage, munching on peanuts and sipping some wine, enjoying the scenery outside the window.
To be honest, in Lu Yuan's eyes, while this place resembled the Great Ming, it was different in many ways.
Setting aside the demons, monsters, and evil spirits,
even the cornmeal that people here often ate was made from maize.
And then there were sweet potatoes and such.
'Where would you find such things in the Great Ming?'
'If they really had these things, the Great Ming wouldn't have fallen.'
The lifestyle here, the food, drink, and housing, was actually a bit more like the Republic period.
Soon, the driver brought Lu Yuan to the marketplace district of Taiping City.
There was a Marketplace Government Office here.
Here, one could buy and sell the shops in the marketplace.
After buying a shop, you could run a business yourself, or you could entrust the government office—this exchange—to list it for rent on your behalf.
Lu Yuan went into the Government Office to inquire and found that there were still many shops for sale.
As for the prices, none of them were cheap.
All things considered, buying a shop right now was not a very good deal.
A shop in a good location cost no less than eight hundred taels, and that didn't even include the various miscellaneous fees.
And the rent you'd receive from such a shop would only be about five taels of silver a month.
'You do the math.'
'How many years would it take to recoup the cost?'
'In these chaotic times of war, wouldn't it be better to use that money for something else?'
However, the point of buying something like this was for its appreciation value and security.
Although some of the minor details here were different from the proper Great Ming,
the general direction of development was the same.
If that was truly the case, then the current era should be roughly equivalent to the Early Hongwu Period.
Once the wars in the Northern regions ended and the Empire stabilized, a golden age would surely follow.
By then, the prices of these shops would skyrocket.
'So, it's still worth buying.'
Lu Yuan took the silver out of his System Space in advance.
He bought three shops in good locations.
Including management fees and other miscellaneous costs, the total came to over three thousand taels of silver.
'Why not buy more?'
'I'm afraid of attracting too much attention and inviting disaster.'
'Three is about right.'
After paying the money and receiving the deeds, the matter was settled.
Lu Yuan didn't even have to find tenants himself.
Once they were rented out, the Marketplace Government Office would collect the rent on his behalf, and Lu Yuan just needed to come and collect the money each month.
After taking care of all this, Lu Yuan began to wander around Taiping City to look into getting a government position.
If worst came to worst, spending a little money would be fine too.
However, after wandering around for an entire afternoon, Lu Yuan discovered he had been too naive.
'What I can think of, others can think of too.'
'In this day and age, who doesn't want a government job?'
Those wealthy masters were even more eager to get their own family members into the system.
Besides, even if you were willing to offer bribes to get things done, you still needed connections.
'You don't know anyone, yet you want to just shove money at them?'
'They'd be afraid of getting into trouble.'
After making a full circuit, he realized there was no easy way.
However, this trip wasn't a complete waste.
Lu Yuan was starting to understand how his system's Multiplication Factor worked.
The Multiplication Factor probably represented the amount of benefit he could gain from associating with someone.
For example, when Lu Yuan went to the Marketplace Government Office just now.
The clerks inside were almost all a uniform Multiplication Factor of 3.
These people were all legitimate government employees.
They were a cut above the common folk.
Associating with them would naturally bring far more benefits than associating with ordinary people.
But it wasn't quite that simple.
For instance, there was a squad leader in the Marketplace Government Office, a minor official.
Lu Yuan saw that this squad leader's Multiplication Factor was only 2, even lower than an ordinary clerk's.
Logically, that shouldn't be the case. After all, he was a minor official; his factor should be higher.
At first, Lu Yuan didn't quite get it.
But he understood just as he was about to leave.
As he was leaving, Lu Yuan overheard someone outside muttering that this minor official was a real piece of work.
He had taken their money but hadn't done what he promised.
With that, Lu Yuan understood. The man had poor character. If Lu Yuan were to get involved with someone like that, he would probably just be taken advantage of and cheated.
That's why even though the man held a higher office, his Multiplication Factor was low.
'Now that's interesting.'
'My wife's Multiplication Factor of 9...'
'What's the deal with that?'
'First of all, her being virtuous and all goes without saying.'
'That's a given.'
'But is that alone enough to warrant a Multiplication Factor of 9?'
Lu Yuan really couldn't figure it out.
'Then again, maybe it's possible.'
'After all, getting married and taking a wife is a major life event.'
'Marrying a good wife can bring a lifetime of happiness. Based on that alone, a Multiplication Factor of 9 might be worth it.'
In the end, after wandering around Taiping City for a while with nothing to show for it,
Lu Yuan decided to head back for now and think of another plan later.
In this world, if you didn't have some sort of status and were just a commoner, life really wouldn't be easy.
Even with a lot of money, you'd live in constant fear.
Before heading back, Lu Yuan bought a few trinkets that weren't available in their town and also picked up some nice little pieces of jewelry for Su Liyan.
When night fell, around six or seven in the evening,
Lu Yuan returned to the town by carriage.
After paying the driver, Lu Yuan took his things and leisurely strolled back to the village.
Seeing the light shining from the houses in the distant village and thinking of his beautiful wife, Lu Yuan couldn't help but quicken his pace.
As he neared the stone bridge,
Lu Yuan considered for a moment. Although he had the Holy Body now, and his wife had helped by talking to whatever was there yesterday...
'But...'
'it's better to go around if I can. No need to risk it, right?'
So, Lu Yuan immediately took a small path, preparing to enter the village from another direction.
However, just as Lu Yuan was about to enter the village,
a gust of chilling wind suddenly blew past him from behind.
It was followed by an extremely strange, eerie laugh that echoed above Lu Yuan's head...
KIKIKIKIKIKI
The hair on Lu Yuan's body stood on end. On the fork of a large tree branch nearby, a deathly pale face that was all too familiar to Lu Yuan appeared.
Lu Yuan froze...
'Why the hell is it back again!!'