"Whimper... Master, it seems like I’ve been having nightmares these past few days. It scared me to death..."
Cai Wei held the haggard parrot, stroking its little head, filled with guilt and self-blame, comforting it continuously.
"Brother Parrot, I’m sorry, it’s my fault, I dragged you into this! I almost got you hurt."
"Master, I haven’t had a proper meal for days..."
"I’ll go out and make something delicious for you later!"
"Master, our space has become , seeing it in such state upsets me..."
"From now on, you can stay outside, just tell everyone you’re my pet!"
Brother Parrot seemed comforted, his crying gradually subsided, and he nestled his small head against Cai Wei’s chest, like a charming baby...
Cai Wei spent some time soothing the parrot and coaxed it with words before leaving it to check the space.
Outside the space, everything was bare, all the crops had disappeared, there was only a murky small stream left, hiding behind the run-down bamboo house.
Fortunately, the items inside the bamboo house were still there. However, the hot springs were no longer warm and the water was somewhat muddy. The rest of the space was much the same as before.
The wealth looted from the Lü Zhengma Family was still piled up in the warehouse as before. Cai Wei strolled over, opened a box of silver, and examined an ingot. Seeing the unique mark of the Lü Family on the silver ingot, she frowned and drew out her precious knife.
With a swift swing of her knife, the silver block with fine lines was chopped in half, the marked half was thrown back into the box, and she casually took out another piece.
Though not fully to blame for the disaster that befell Mu Family Village, she still bore some responsibility. Thus, she had to try to compensate them to soothe her conscience a bit.
There were over a hundred households in Mu Family Village, their houses had been damaged to varying degrees, posing serious safety risks. This was something Cai Wei couldn’t bear. She planned to rebuild one house made of green bricks for each family. Based on an estimate of eighty taels per household, it would cost eight thousand taels of silver. For families of the deceased, two hundred taels would be allocated per person, which totaled to more than a thousand taels. Adding compensation for those maimed, the total added up to ten thousand taels of silver.
Having calculated all this, Cai Wei started cutting the fifty-tael silver blocks in half. After a while, when she had enough to meet the ten thousand tael total, she was breathing heavily and couldn’t lift her arm anymore!
Dragging her arm, she returned to her bedroom and fell onto her little bed with a ’thump’.
Usually, when she was tired, she would take a nice bath in the hot spring, eat a couple of nourishing fruits, and then lie down on the bed for a sweet sleep.
But now, she didn’t have any of these. Cai Wei felt somewhat uncomfortable and a bit lost. But then when she thought about how they had gotten rid of Tianjizi, she could finally sleep soundly. After tossing and turning for a while, she gradually drifted off to sleep...
In the back office of ’Huo Ji Shen Xing’, Master Situ Qi and his son Situ Changge were standing quietly with their heads bowed.
On the case opposite of them, amidst the fragrance of tea, three to five thick account books were piled up. The boss, Huo Yuan, was seated at the case with a bead abacus in his hand, checking the accounts of the firm page by page.
After a meal’s time, he put down the account book, smiled and said, "I’ve checked everything, not a penny is missing. Thank you for your hard work, Master Situ!"
Situ Qi quickly responded with modesty: "Our generous boss, we dare not slack off!"