Chen Mo weighed the broken silver, estimating it to be less than half a tael, roughly equivalent to three hundred cents.
Don't be deceived by those heroes in movies and TV shows who casually hand out dozens or even hundreds of taels.
In the Great Song Dynasty, one tael of silver was worth a thousand wen coins.
In peaceful times, it could buy over two hundred pounds of rice.
If used sparingly, it could feed a person for a year or so.
Silver ingots are generally made in weights of one, five, or ten taels.
If you took ten taels of silver to eat out, most restaurants wouldn't be able to make change.
"Hiss..."
Chen Mo drew in a sharp breath, raising his hand to weigh the silver, which pulled on the injury on his back and burned with pain. When he touched it with his other hand, it came away sticky with blood.
Moreover, the bag in which he carried the millet had ripped, spilling its contents all over the ground.
Chen Mo's face darkened, a fierce glint flashing in his eyes.
"There will be a day..."
...
He could only go to the grain store to buy more millet and went to the pharmacy to get some hemostatic medicine.
Without lingering further, he headed towards the city gate.
As he was about to leave the city, Chen Mo happened to glance at two people squatting in a corner inside the city. He had noticed them sitting there when he entered, and now they were still there as he was leaving.
In this freezing weather, they weren't even afraid of the cold.
What he didn't know was that right after he left, a tall, skinny person approached the two, whispered a few words, and all three of them started chasing in the direction Chen Mo had gone.
There were vendors at the city gate who witnessed this, discussing it among themselves.
"Hey, Scar's gang has picked a target, that guy's in trouble now."
"Isn't it just, that guy even looks injured and he's carrying so much stuff, he's a perfect fat sheep."
"He's leaving the city now, so he probably isn't from around here. Even if he gets robbed, the government won't care."
"Come on, haven't you heard? If it weren't for the cold, the rebel army would be attacking Qingzhou already. But come spring next year, it's likely they'll fight. For now, they say the government office barely wants to deal with murder cases outside the city..."
...
"Someone's following!"
Since becoming a martial artist, Chen Mo's senses had all improved significantly.
Outside the city, all was silent, a vast expanse of white, with only the sound of the wind and snow in his ears, and the "thud" of footsteps in the snow.
Chen Mo glanced back from the corner of his eye and quickened his pace.
"Boss, that kid seems to have noticed us."
"Hurry up, don't let him get away."
Chen Mo left the main road, heading into a small path that led into the hills.
This place was far from the county town.
Chen Mo calmly put down his grains, took the chopping knife from his waist, attached a handle, and struck it into the ground to secure it.
Chen Mo worried about being targeted when buying this much grain.
But his home wasn't in the county town. He couldn't possibly come to town every time he needed something, the travel cost alone would be unbearable, so he could only stock up.
He wasn't worried about being targeted by someone stronger than him.
After all, those stronger than him wouldn't care about this amount of grain, and he hadn't provoked any enemies in town.
Seeing Chen Mo stop, the three slowly approached, surrounding him.
"You really know how to pick a good spot for yourself," said the leader, Scar, a veteran in brawls, who didn't rush to get close to Chen Mo. He took out a dagger from his belt and stopped a few paces away, sneering, "In this place, even if you scream your lungs out, no one will hear you."
The two accomplices also stopped, appearing quite accustomed to this kind of situation as they formed a triangle around Chen Mo.
"Kid, hand over everything you have on you. We only want your money, not your life. Be compliant, and you might avoid a..."
Before Scar could finish his sentence.
Chen Mo, a man of action more than words, turned around and took two steps toward them, swinging his knife at Scar.
"Not good..."
Scar hurriedly dodged, but then something terrifying happened. Although the chopping knife was still half a pace away from him, Scar felt an invisible force hit him.
Before he could say a word, he was split in half, blood spraying forth.
"Ah..."
The two accomplices were terrified.
They were used to robbing people, and occasionally showed their knives to intimidate the stubborn ones, but never had they encountered someone like Chen Mo, who would cut a person in half right away, scaring the soul out of them.
"Kill."
Chen Mo's eyes narrowed, without the slightest hesitation, as he chased after the nearest one.
Feeling the distance close enough, he swung again, aiming at the man's back.
This time, the blade went off-kilter, only slicing off half a shoulder.
But the result wasn't bad, as the man still died under his blade.
The lanky man, running the fastest, instinctively glanced back, and upon seeing his companions' gruesome fate, his soul completely vanished with fright.
The ground was covered with snow, if he didn't lift his feet high enough, he'd easily trip.
While he was looking back, his foot caught on something, sending him sprawling harshly to the ground.
But even without tripping, he wouldn't have escaped.
Chen Mo walked towards him, step by step.
He crawled backward, "Don't... don't kill me, I'm... sorry, spare me..."
"Don't be stupid."
Chen Mo, his stomach full of pent-up anger with nowhere to release it, had them walk right into his trap.
"No..."
Chen Mo's knife fell, the voice cutting off abruptly.
This time, killing someone, Chen Mo's eyes were extremely calm, just like slaughtering a chicken.
He even found it easier than killing a chicken.
He crouched down, using the lanky man's clothes to wipe the blood off his knife, then searched his body, finding a sewn-in inner pocket.
Inside the pocket was a certificate and twenty-one wen coins.
The certificate revealed the man's name as Yi Yong, someone from Yijia Manor.
Then, he rummaged through the other two bodies, finding two more certificates, a total of seventy wen coins, a piece of broken silver the size of a pinky nail, a pancake frozen as hard as a stone, and a dagger.
"Bunch of paupers."
Chen Mo tore all the certificates to shreds, tucked the dagger into his waistband, and put everything else into his front pocket. He dug a pit, disfigured their faces, tossed them into the pit, and covered it with dirt and snow.
After handling everything, Chen Mo shouldered his grains and headed back home quickly.
...
In winter, darkness fell especially fast.
When he returned to the village, the households hadn't gone to sleep yet. Some people seeing the bags of grain on Chen Mo's back looked on with envy.
But wary of Chen Mo, no one dared to entertain any crooked thoughts.
At the Chen Family residence, the doors and windows were tightly closed.
Thud, thud, thud!
Chen Mo knocked on the door.
"Who is it?" Han Anniang asked warily, taking a chopping knife from the side and standing by the door.
"Sister-in-law, it's me."
Upon hearing Chen Mo's voice, Han Anniang breathed a sigh of relief, hurried to open the door, let Chen Mo in, closed the door, and secured it from the inside.
"Uncle, you're back? Why so late, I was..." Han Anniang chattered away, helping Chen Mo remove the grain from his back. As she took a bag of coarse salt from him, it slipped to the ground with a thud, but fortunately, the bag was tightly tied.
"Uncle, your back injury..." Han Anniang covered her mouth, pointing at Chen Mo's back, her eyes welling up with tears.
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