Chapter 19

There was water, which was a good thing, but if this kept happening, who could stand it?

After sending the letter, General Yves had thought he would receive a reply soon. He didn't expect the other side to be this patient.

This time, the water delivery was probably a test.

General Yves glanced at the excited General Ulric. "What's still in the storage room?"

Hearing that, General Ulric remembered why he had come in the first place.

"Commander, can you guess what surprising things I got this time?"

Only General Ulric dared to joke like that with General Yves.

General Yves gave him a cold look.

Ulric quickly became serious and said, "Those fat sheep really were hiding a lot. This time, they handed over one thousand three hundred shi of grain."

"Are there gold, silver, or jewels?"

Ulric didn't expect General Yves to care more about those.

"Yes, there are."

Then he led the way and took General Yves to the outer yard.

The grain hadn't been brought into the compound. The yard wasn't big enough to store that much. Soldiers in the army camp were still moving it and sending it straight to the camp.

As for the jewels and ornaments, those had been delivered to the residence.

"Sort them. Separate them by quality and value."

General Ulric wasn't good at this kind of thing. He had just grabbed everything like a bandit, not caring at all, and dumped all the jewelry into boxes randomly.

Now they had to open and sort them properly.

Both the inner and outer yards were busy. General Yves went back to the study and began writing another letter. On the outside, it still had the words "Prayer Document" to hide the truth, but inside, it contained private matters.

Not everyone needed to know the real situation.

They only needed to believe that he carried divine power and that all the blessings were brought by him.

General Yves didn't believe in divine fate, but he needed the benefits that came with that image.

The water kept running until around noon. General Yves placed the prayer letter on top of the treasure box, and in front of everyone, the box and the letter disappeared.

Sophia turned off the water and finished making the pig feed. Just as she was about to go out for breakfast, she noticed something different in the pig shed.

There were still six boxes of jewels in the room that she hadn't sorted, and now there were six more.

She opened one of them. The sunlight at that moment was just right, shining down and making the treasures inside sparkle brightly.

Sophia forced herself to look away and picked up the prayer document.

It said that recently, because of natural disasters, hundreds of people had died from drought and hunger. They were offering these treasures to the god, hoping for mercy on the suffering people.

Sophia felt emotional. What a good general. How could someone with so much ability and kindness die so young?

As for the water and food, now that she knew the treasures weren't coming out of the pig trough, and that the other side was using them to trade, she had to give them what they needed.

Sophia drove her pickup truck into town, leaving her water taps running at home.

She planned to give them about one hundred tons of water. Since she was raising pigs and building a pig farm, it made sense to use a lot of water.

Besides, the village was small and far from the city. No one really checked water usage. The water in the village was already privately managed. They actually wanted people to use more. The only problem was her house didn't have enough taps, just two. She needed to find someone to install more water pipes.

Before leaving, Sophia did some research. There was a large wholesale market in the south area. It was about an hour's drive away.

It was almost half the distance compared to going to the city.

She made a list this time.

First, staple food like rice, flour, sweet potatoes, and potatoes. Then vegetables, meat, and eggs. Lastly, common medicines for colds, fevers, bruises, bleeding, and disinfecting.

The most important ones were for fevers, colds, and cleaning wounds. In that time, even small illnesses could kill someone.

After a disaster, diseases often followed.

Sophia planned to buy five thousand jin of rice, flour, sweet potatoes, and potatoes.

The shop owner was shocked. Even though it was a wholesale market, he had never seen someone buy everything in one go.

It was a small place after all.

"That's a lot. I can't give you everything right away," the shop owner said, still trying to keep the deal. "This town is all like this. No one keeps that much in stock. How about you give me two days? I'll collect it for you."

The town's demand wasn't that high. Three thousand pounds of potatoes was okay. But three thousand of this and three thousand of that would need a lot of space.

Sophia nodded. "How much can you get by six tonight?"

The owner thought for a moment. "At least one thousand pounds of each. Is that alright?"

She thought it over. Sending some food first to help out was better than nothing.

"Okay. But the rest must be delivered to me within two days," Sophia said clearly.

After placing the order, she went to the next place.

She also needed meat. She went straight to the slaughterhouse.

She asked for one hundred pigs at once, but not all of them were ready. In the end, she bought fifty pigs.

Then the owner told her there was also a cattle slaughterhouse in town.

She got the contact number and went there right away.

After doing all this, everything was arranged, but she was extremely tired.

Doing it all by herself was too much.

Another problem came to her mind. After she bought all these things, there was not enough space at home to store them. She needed a place to keep them for now.

While eating, she picked up her phone.

She remembered passing a place earlier that looked like an old factory. It looked like no one had used it for a long time. She had taken a photo of the contact number.

Now she made a phone call. The person took a while to answer.

"Mr. Qiao? I wanted to ask if there is a warehouse for rent there?" Sophia asked.

The man paused. "You really want to rent it?"

The factory had been empty for a long time. He didn't expect anyone to call.

"I do. Let's make an appointment. I want to take a look. If it looks okay, we can sign the rental contract right away."

Sophia didn't care about the price.

They agreed on a time.

The next morning, the wholesale seller who had promised to bring the fruits and vegetables came as planned.

There were all kinds of fruits and vegetables. The land next to Sophia's house had been cleared. She laid a red and blue plastic sheet on the ground. The truck drove up and poured everything directly on the sheet.

At a time like this, she didn't care about clean or not, sanitary or not.

Once everything was poured out, the ground looked like it had little mountains of food.

Sophia paid the remaining amount on the spot.

She also asked about the next batch of fruits and vegetables.

"The fastest will be tomorrow night. The latest will be the night after tomorrow."

The seller promised this confidently.

Sophia nodded. She had also bought quite a bit from small local sellers, but that was still far from enough.

After the seller left, the sky was already completely dark.

Sophia dragged out the pig trough. She didn't turn on any light. She just began tossing feed into the trough in the dark.

Only one dog stayed next to her, keeping her company.