Lester Liew held his breath, staring at Ben in disbelief. This little runt had actually brought home a whole pouch of copper coins?
His own son, sure enough, was extraordinary!
"Ben," Lester stepped forward and gave his son a hearty pat on the shoulder, full of pride. "You've done well, son. Raising you hasn't been for nothing. You're growing up—you even know to bring money back home now."
But Ben didn't look the least bit happy at that. He frowned, shook off the big hand on his shoulder, scooped up the pile of coins and hunched protectively over them, glaring at Lester with fierce suspicion—don't even think about taking a single coin!
Lester awkwardly coughed twice and scratched his nose. "Well, I'll just go make dinner then."
Adam put down the wild bayberries and rolled up his sleeves. "Auntie, I'll go help. It will be faster."
"Go ahead," Clara nodded with a gentle smile, reminding the boy, "Be careful not to get splashed with oil."
Adam nodded. "Got it." Then followed Lester into the kitchen.
With the eyesores out of sight, Ben finally hopped down from the table, ready to hand over today's earnings.
But Clara didn't take the coins. She told them to keep it themselves.
After all, they'd earned it using their own pocket money. A little now, but over time it could build into something much bigger.
The three little ones looked a little disappointed when Clara refused, but they quickly dove into preparing for tomorrow's batch of bayberry juice. They picked through the fruit, tossing any that were rotten.
While Adam and Lester worked on dinner, Ben led his younger siblings in sorting bayberries under the eaves. The good ones were saved and rinsed clean for use.
Then Ben ran over to Peddler Liew's and bought 750g of rock sugar—fifteen coins per 500g, twenty-two coins in total.
This basin of wild bayberries could brew into two jars of juice, about forty bowls altogether.
Chad and Deb tried counting on their fingers and toes but still couldn't figure out how much forty bowls at two coins each came to.
Ben's eyes gleamed. He calculated it quickly in his head—Clara's multiplication tables had stuck with him the best, and now they were finally useful.
"Eighty coins minus twenty-two," he announced excitedly. "That's a profit of fifty-eight coins!"
Deb tilted her head. "Second Brother, how much is fifty-eight coins?"
"You could buy ten leather balls," Ben said.
The twin siblings gasped in awe. "So many!"
Ben shrugged. "Too bad we can only sell these for a few days a year. Otherwise, we'd earn way more."
How much more? The twins couldn't even imagine it, but it didn't affect their joy one bit.
Dinner was soon ready. Lester served it all to the table.
All 2kg of meat had been stir-fried, then glazed in a savory sauce—perfect with fluffy white rice.
There was also a bowl of egg drop soup and a plate of stir-fried seasonal greens.
Such a fragrant, colorful, and delicious meal—they hadn't eaten this well in a long time. As soon as Lester set everything down, the table exploded with the sound of chopsticks clattering.
The scene looked like a pack of refugees had stumbled on a feast, startling Lester so much he quickly grabbed his chopsticks and joined in.
Any slower, and there wouldn't be a single bite of meat left for him!
Clara devoured four bowls of rice and drank two bowls of soup before finally setting her chopsticks down in satisfaction. She rubbed her bloated belly, eyes half-closed, savoring every bite.
Adam and Ben immediately darted to the kitchen to start brewing the bayberry juice, while Chad and Deb cleared the table. But with such tiny hands, they couldn't carry the heavier dishes, so Lester ended up doing most of the cleaning.
By the time everything was done, it was already late. The village had long since gone quiet, cloaked in nighttime stillness.
Drowsiness soon hit, and everyone retired to their rooms.
Before bed, Clara told the children she'd left snacks in the low cabinet in the main hall. If they wanted any, they could help themselves.
The four siblings were both stunned and delighted. A house with snacks—and they could eat whenever they wanted? They'd never experienced anything like it.
Heck, even kids elsewhere in the village weren't spoiled like this.
Lester overheard from his room and froze. He figured Clara must have too much money to burn. Spending like this—didn't she know how to save?
Kids didn't understand how hard money was to earn. Just watch—those four would wolf down all the snacks in half a day.
But the slap to his face came swiftly. What he imagined never happened. Even without any adults stopping them, the four kids ate more than usual, sure—but over half the snacks still remained in the cabinet. It'd easily last two or three more days.
Adam even brought him two pieces. "Dad, these are really tasty—you should try them!"
And he gave Deb the two most perfect lotus cakes they'd sorted out, telling her to give them to their stepmother.
Clara nibbled on her pastry as she strolled through the village.
She was on her way to speak with the village head to finalize the site for the mill.
She'd already clarified the concerns from before, and now that those were out of the way, the site selection moved quickly.
Clara chose a weedy patch of land beside the road.
Nobody really used the place. In spring, village women might come by to pick wild greens, but the soil was too poor for proper farming. Since the land belonged to the clan as public property, Clara's request to rent it met no objections.
The rent was cheap too—just 800 coins a year.
Clara knew the villagers were giving her face by asking so little.
But once her water-powered mill factory was up and running, it would benefit the entire Liew Clan Village. Everyone would gain from it.
With the location chosen, all the paperwork was completed that very day, notarized by the clan elders.
With the lease in hand, Clara had taken the first solid step toward her plans.
And now she could turn her attention to the most important event of the year: the autumn harvest.
Ever since the beginning of the month, the whole village had been eyeing her ten acres of land.
The rice stalks, heavy and full, had been making everyone drool with envy.
Now they'd finally get hard numbers—and to say the whole village was anticipating it wouldn't be an exaggeration.
Thanks to their wheat harvest experience back in the second month, Clara and Lester didn't even find harvesting the rice particularly exhausting.
Especially when they saw the golden grains being threshed into the basket—any fatigue was immediately eclipsed by the joy of a bountiful harvest.
Clara, stronger than most, handled the threshing. Lester did the cutting.
The four kids weren't idle either. They only sold bayberry juice for two days, earning a hundred coins total.
After that, they all pitched in. The older ones helped carry bundles of rice; the younger ones used small cloth pouches to pick up any scattered grains.
Not a single grain was wasted.
When the first acre was done, the villagers immediately crowded around to watch Liam Liew weigh the harvest for Clara's family.
"Two Hundred and fifty kilograms!" Liam exclaimed, practically trembling with excitement. Those three words sent shockwaves through the crowd.
Two Hundred and fifty kilograms per acre—what did that even mean?
A well-tended, high-grade field, even with careful cultivation, typically yielded at most Two hundred kilograms a year.
But everyone knew the condition of Clara's land. At best, it got occasional watering and weeding. Fertilizer? Never even seen it. It was practically left to grow wild.
And yet it still produced 250kg?
How could they not be stunned?
Liam couldn't stop grinning. As the landlord leasing the land, the better the tenant's harvest, the more rent he'd get. Of course he was thrilled.
(End of Chapter)
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