"Is it already the end of the dynasty?"
Upon hearing this, Jiang Fan was instantly stunned.
After all, he hadn't yet awakened memories of his past life; he was just an ordinary villager living in Osmanthus Village.
How could he know what was happening in the outside world?
He didn't even take the initiative to pay attention.
Naturally, the news was not as well-informed as Uncle Fugui, Uncle Ziqiang, and other seasoned old hands.
Perhaps Father Jiang and Jiang's Mother also knew about this, but they hadn't told Jiang Fan.
However, according to the history books he had read, this indeed resembled the signs of the dynasty's end.
If some Righteous Army were to come to Yunmeng Lake, these small fishing villages might turn into scorched earth.
At that time, no one would know how many would die or be injured.
Leaving Osmanthus Village was also impossible.
To be honest, small fishing villages like Osmanthus Village were already quite good; at least there were countless big fish in Yunmeng Lake.
There was water, there were fish.
Surviving is relatively easy.
If you head to the northern lands, there is drought year after year, poor harvests, dried-up rivers; that is truly miserable.
It's possible you might encounter tragic scenes of cannibalism and using bones for firewood.
So even though the Dragon King Gang increased the monthly salary, making life very difficult, the fishermen had no plans to leave.
Thinking of this, Jiang Fan stopped watching.
Although Uncle Meng's family was very tragic, given his current situation, even if he wanted to help, he was powerless to do so.
After all, the grain for his family only lasted three days, how could he care about so much?
He returned home.
"Brother Jiang, Uncle Meng's family isn't in any trouble, right?"
At this moment, Su Weiwei also knew that the incident involved Meng Da's family, but she wasn't sure about their specific situation.
"It's nothing serious, just got beaten up, no life-threatening danger."
"But I guess it'll be at least half a month before they can get out of bed."
Jiang Fan shook his head.
For Meng Da's family, it was undoubtedly a disaster.
If they have to stay in bed for a month, then they can't go fishing, which means sitting idly and depleting resources.
If there is no leftover grain, they might starve to death next month.
This is the reality of being a fisherman in this era: one slight mistake leads to a catastrophe.
"Luckily, we also paid the monthly salary, otherwise, we might also follow Uncle Meng's family's footsteps."
Su Weiwei showed a fearful expression.
She hadn't expected the people from the Dragon King Gang to be so tyrannical.
Once you make the wrong choice, it's family destruction.
"Don't worry, as long as I'm here, everything will be alright."
Jiang Fan comforted her, reaching out to pat her small head.
"Mm."
Feeling his warm hand, Su Weiwei's face blushed, her beautiful eyes looked watery at Jiang Fan. For some reason, even knowing the outside was chaotic, she felt a lot more secure inside, having a man at home felt very safe.
Gurgle~~
At this moment, Jiang Fan's stomach suddenly made a noise.
Hearing the sound, Su Weiwei giggled, coquettishly said, "With that sound, Brother Jiang, you must be hungry too, let me make you something."
Then she ran to the kitchen, started getting busy.
"Let me help you."
Jiang Fan went over.
"No need, the kitchen is our women's territory, you're not allowed in."
Su Weiwei reached out and pushed Jiang Fan out of the kitchen.
Not much longer, she started busily on her own, lighting the fire and cooking.
Under the sunlight, her exquisite and pure face, proud figure, looked particularly enchanting.
Watching Su Weiwei busying herself, Jiang Fan felt a lot of emotion; if it were in his past life, he estimated that no matter what, he would not be able to marry such a woman.
Not long after, Su Weiwei finished her work.
On the black wooden table, there was a cooked snakehead, steaming and particularly fragrant.
Besides that were wild vegetable porridge and sorghum cakes; nothing more.
Luckily this was a fisherman's home, eating fish was rather easy.
For farmers, they could only eat wild vegetables and cakes, that is considered quite sumptuous.
"It really doesn't taste good."
Jiang Fan took a bite, aside from the snakehead, the other dishes were hard to swallow.
Even though Su Weiwei's cooking skills were quite good.
But the ingredients weren't good, so no matter how she cooked, it was hard to taste good.
Eating these, the wild vegetables choked his throat a bit, didn't have much flavor, it was just to keep hunger at bay.
For someone from a world rich in materials, this was indeed unpleasant.
When had he ever eaten such hard-to-swallow rice, which in his past life was typically used to feed chickens.
But in this era, it was the mainstream food for ordinary people.
However, humans are incredibly adaptable creatures.
He had gotten used to these foods several days after awakening memories of his past life.
After all, even if you're not used to it, there's no choice; this is the food for the poor, if you don't eat, you'll starve to death.
...
Time flew by, in the blink of an eye it was late at night, at the third watch.
Su Weiwei was already asleep.
The entire Osmanthus Village was like this, utterly silent, only the sound of insects and birds could be heard.
Everywhere was pitch black, you couldn't see your hand before your face.
In this era, there weren't electric bulbs, the poor couldn't afford candles.
Basically went to sleep around seven in the evening.
Jiang Fan got out of bed, picked up a spade, and carefully walked out from home.
Following the light point directions from the depths of his consciousness, he reached a spot a hundred meters from the village head of Osmanthus Village, where he quickly found a sweet osmanthus tree.
But this osmanthus tree wasn't different from others, it showed no signs of anything unusual.
Holding the spade, he began digging underneath.
Soon, Jiang Fan felt his spade hit something hard underground.
"Is there really a treasure beneath?"
Jiang Fan was immediately delighted; he was half-suspicious about the messages from his consciousness, but now he had found something concrete, which meant it was real.
Thinking this, he was filled with motivation, frantically digging through the soil.
In just a few breaths, he uncovered a rustic wooden box from beneath the soil.
Originally there was a lock on the box, but it had rusted over time.
With just a gentle tug, it came off.
Then he eagerly opened the rustic wooden box.
"No way, there's actually money inside? A full twenty taels of silver."
Jiang Fan instantly saw the silver inside the box and was utterly jubilant.
He knew what twenty taels of silver meant; it was a small fortune.
A fisherman's family wouldn't know how many years it would take to accumulate twenty taels.
If used only for daily expenses, twenty taels would be enough for two to three years, and they wouldn't need to fish in the lake personally.
If this amount was discovered by others, who knows how much trouble it could attract.
It might even lead to deadly peril, not an impossible situation.
Originally he wondered how to make money, but these twenty taels completely solved his urgent problem.
"Hmm? There's a book here?"
Jiang Fan immediately stored the twenty taels of silver, then noticed a book inside the wooden box, perhaps the true treasure within, with the silver merely an extra.