Chapter 63: The Sixty-Third Day of Slacking Off
Although the plan to squander the seasonings had failed, Wen Ying still hadn’t given up on the idea of spending money like water.
Even though the mountain stronghold never seemed to lack spirit stones, any person, no matter how wealthy, would surely balk at such extravagance.
Before, Wen Ying hadn’t found a suitable target for her spending, but in recent days, she had finally found one.
Of course, to truly “squander,” one must buy a large quantity of luxuries, things that are completely useless in day-to-day life.
In this illusory Peace Town, items unrelated to maintaining one’s livelihood were indeed rare, but not nonexistent.
For instance—
Li Xiangyue’s newspaper.
Lately, perhaps because news like “Aunt Wu from the village gave birth to kittens” was truly uninteresting, Li Xiangyue’s newspaper had been seeing a dip in sales.
One newspaper was obviously too cheap, but if you bought enough of them, the cost would become substantial.
It would not only achieve the effect of spending money like water, but also perfectly fit the requirement of being absolutely useless.
And so, Wen Ying sought out Lin Ruge again to discuss her new plan.
After she entered the room, Wen Ying hadn’t even had a chance to speak when Lin Ruge started thanking her profusely.
“Miss Wen, I truly can’t thank you enough for what you did yesterday,” Lin Ruge said, his face full of gratitude. “I had no idea Mother valued those jars and bottles so much, that there was such a story behind them… It’s thanks to you that Mother was able to put her mind at ease.”
“…I didn’t mean to,” Wen Ying replied, speechless.
For a moment, she didn’t know whether to call Lin Ruge too filial or just overly sentimental.
“Huh?” Lin Ruge reacted to her words. “Oh, right… So our plan failed?”
“It’s fine, I have another way,” Wen Ying told him. “I recall you mentioning before that all the spirit stones in the stronghold come from your parents?”
“Basically… yes,” Lin Ruge said, furrowing his brow as he thought back, then slowly nodding.
“Then who is in charge of the accounts?” Wen Ying asked again.
“My mother,” Lin Ruge answered, confused. “Miss Wen, what are you trying to do this time?”
“Since squandering valuable items failed, we can only go back to the original idea,” Wen Ying said, looking at him and speaking slowly, word for word. “Squandering, money.”
Unlike his hesitation when she proposed squandering his mother’s valuables, this time Lin Ruge’s expression remained perfectly calm after hearing her words.
It seemed that money held no great significance for him.
That made sense; people who don’t manage money naturally have no real concept of it.
But for the person who handles the accounts, it would be a different story entirely.
After talking to Lin Ruge, Wen Ying went to his parents’ room and asked his mother for a full two hundred high-grade spirit stones.
She wanted to use this opportunity to test just how much wealth the mountain stronghold possessed.
Upon hearing Wen Ying’s request, Lin Ruge’s mother looked visibly hesitant.
“Yingying, my dear, why do you need so many spirit stones… What are you going to use them for?”
Wen Ying blinked. “I plan to use them to buy things sold in the town below. Lin Ruge has already agreed and told me to get the spirit stones from you, Madam.”
“But what could you possibly need to buy that costs so many spirit stones?” Lin Ruge’s mother asked, still confused.
“I’m using them to buy newspapers,” Wen Ying answered candidly.
“Newspapers… Is it that expensive? I remember, I think a single low-grade spirit stone is enough to buy one, isn’t it?” Lin Ruge’s mother’s brows furrowed slightly, looking even more perplexed.
Huh?
Wen Ying noticed a small clue.
From what she’d learned over the past few days, the people in the stronghold rarely went down the mountain. Besides Ah Niu and Ah Bao, no one else had gone down in recent years; all goods were brought up by merchants from town.
If that was the case, how did Lin Ruge’s mother know so much about the newspapers that Li Xiangyue, a new arrival in Peace Town, was selling?
Wen Ying remained composed and replied, “You may not know this, Madam, but I actually have a hobby. I love collecting newspapers.”
“Collecting newspapers? What does that mean?”
“Each issue of Li Xiangyue’s newspaper has a number at the bottom. And I am very passionate about collecting consecutive numbers,” Wen Ying said, lying through her teeth without a change in expression. “Plus, in my mind, they only have collection value if they’re in a sequence of at least five hundred.”
“Five hundred?” Lin Ruge’s mother looked a little shocked. “You mean, you want to buy five hundred newspapers?”
“Exactly,” Wen Ying smiled and nodded. “That’s why I need to ask you for so many spirit stones, Madam. Lin Ruge promised me that after I joined the Lin family, he would fulfill my daily need to buy newspapers, or else I wouldn’t have agreed to come here with him.”
“This…” Lin Ruge’s mother furrowed her brow and pondered for a moment before finally waving her hand. “Fine, go to the account office and get the spirit stones.”
Sure enough, even with plenty of money, no one could stand to see it squandered like this.
It was like how Wen Ying, even with more spirit stones than she knew what to do with, would still feel a pang of pain if she spent too much in one go.
And this was just the cost of a few days’ worth of newspapers.
If this went on, Lin Ruge’s mother would surely not be able to accept it.
For the next several days in a row, Wen Ying had the stronghold’s liaison officer inform Li Xiangyue that she was pre-ordering five hundred copies of tomorrow’s newspaper and that if there were any left over, they should all be bought and delivered up the mountain.
Wen Ying also specifically had the liaison officer report her name. She was buying these newspapers for Lin Ruge’s parents to see, so she had to waste the money openly and honestly.
Of course, Wen Ying had no intention of genuinely wasting the stronghold’s spirit stones. She had already decided that once her plan succeeded, she would return the spirit stones from her own private stash.
Although it would be a bit painful, she could always just earn them back.
Because she was in contact with the liaison officer every day, Wen Ying discovered something else.
Likely because the stronghold had so many people, their daily expenses for food, clothing, housing, and transportation were massive.
Regardless of why the stronghold had been living off its past wealth for so many years without ever running out of money, it was also strange from the perspective of the town below.
Because, if you calculated the number of spirit stones flowing from the stronghold down into the town…
It was possible that a large portion of the various merchants’ income in Peace Town came from this very mountain stronghold.
Since Peace Town was a dormant town, the currency inside—spirit stones—had always been in constant circulation. But if you thought about it carefully, something was amiss. If they were in circulation, why was the wealth of the Shen family, the richest in town, constantly growing? And it wasn’t just the Shen family.
Besides, even for currency to circulate, there had to be an initial source of funds.
Could it be…
Wen Ying arrived at a horrifying speculation.
If her hypothesis was correct, then this mountain stronghold was far more than just a bandit hideout.
Wen Ying went to Lin Ruge’s mother several more times to ask for spirit stones, and the newspapers in her room had piled up to the point where there was almost no space left.
Every time she went to ask for money, Lin Ruge’s mother had a look of wanting to say something but ultimately never refusing Wen Ying.
Looking at the room full of newspapers, Wen Ying really didn’t want to stuff all this useless paper into her spatial pocket and take up space.
Since she couldn’t deal with them alone, she would just have everyone deal with them together.
The best way to use up an item is to use it.
And if she was going to use up newspapers…
Wen Ying thought of a brilliant solution.
—Put them by the outhouse.
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