Surviving in the chaos of war begins in the wilderness.

Chapter 124 New Identity, New Home

Three days later, Zhou Ye had already purchased a large mansion in the outer city, with a shop in the front and a residence in the back, for 680 taels of silver.

This time, Zhou Ye didn't look for the same broker Wang from before. Instead, he randomly chose a stranger at an official brokerage shop in the outer city who charged a higher price.

This residence occupies a large area. In front is a shop with a facade that is three zhang long (approximately 10 meters). To one side of the shop is a large courtyard. It can park nearly 10 large carts, and there are also storage rooms such as stables and livestock sheds.

On the other side is a two-courtyard residence. The front courtyard has a reception room, kitchen, servants' quarters, etc., while the rear courtyard is where the master and his female relatives lived.

However, while the residence is quite spacious, its location is relatively poor, situated at the foot of the city wall and between the two city gates. Normally, very few customers wander around here.

However, it was precisely because it was at the foot of the city wall that Zhou Ye immediately fell in love with this place.

Because the city had not experienced any sieges or beast tides for many years, apart from soldiers stationed at the main city gates, the defenses on the city walls were practically non-existent. In case of any trouble, it would be easy to scale the walls and escape the city.

They were just like those three thieves back then. They probably also scaled the city walls and ended up at Zhou Ye's house outside the city, right?

Furthermore, Zhou Ye did not reveal his true identity during the home purchase process. He impersonated a wealthy young master who had fled to the city with six maids, intending to settle there, under the pretext of "escaping the war." He even adopted a new alias—Tian Zhong, a homophone for "farming."

At the same time as buying the house, Zhou Ye entrusted the broker to not only obtain a new identity certificate for himself, but also to obtain slave contracts for the six women.

After spending 80 taels of silver, all these identity documents and slave contracts had been issued and registered by the government. Copies of all the documents were also obtained. In reality, when it comes to financial power, the government is quite efficient.

Besides, with the city in such chaos, the authorities have no way of figuring out Zhou Ye's background. If this information is preserved long enough, even falsehoods will become truth!

Five days later, Zhou Ye and his group had moved out of the inn. He, along with Wenxiu, Sister Hui, and the others, all moved into their new home within the city walls.

And in the past few days, Zhou Ye has made many trips back and forth to the cave whenever he had free time; he has moved everything from there to his new home here.

On the day they moved into their new home, Zhou Ye and the six women—who were basically maids—gathered together for a celebratory meal, and they even slaughtered a sheep.

"Young Master, what should we do with all that stuff in the storeroom?"

"Uh—I've already asked around, and there are just a lot of things that can't be done right now. Take this shop, for example? Didn't they sell the house and the shop together? I heard they're planning to move to another city."

Upon returning to the county town, Zhou Ye learned that the entire county town had become completely unbalanced in terms of prices.

Due to the hoarding and speculation by powerful families, necessities such as grain are no longer priced in silver or copper coins; they are now directly bartered. Otherwise, one tael of silver could only buy a few kilograms of grain, which a family could not sustain for more than a few days, and few ordinary people could afford it.

Other items also include wages and salaries. Nowadays, money and other commodities are no longer used; most people receive food and other goods directly.

If they weren't distributed in this way, all those slaves and laborers would starve to death.

Then there's the issue of daily necessities. Leaving aside the business of selling daily necessities, even pawnshops wouldn't accept them, and they couldn't be sold on the black market. Because people needed to survive, they sold large quantities of their household goods to the market, leading to a complete collapse of market consumption and the overall breakdown of the daily necessities market.

In addition, there were scarce goods such as fabrics. Although Zhou Ye still had so many fabrics and silks, he dared not continue to do this kind of business.

So most of the things we brought back were actually daily necessities, which we couldn't sell at all.

Fortunately, Zhou Ye didn't rely on business. So he remained calm; since he couldn't make money, he'd just keep piling up inventory in the warehouse!

"Young master, I have an idea," Wenxiu suddenly said. "Since our family already has a shop, why can't we open it for business? Anyway, these things have no capital, so we can sell as many as we can."

"Uh-huh.

""

Zhou Ye remained noncommittal. "Since you want to do something, then go ahead and do it! Besides, that makes a lot of sense; these things are businesses with no capital involved."

Okay! The more I listen, the more it sounds like I've been double-crossed!

As mentioned before, these women came from relatively well-off families. Otherwise, they wouldn't have been able to flee to the county town with their entire families, and they wouldn't have been specifically chosen for such acts. If they were just ordinary, hardworking peasant women, these women wouldn't have survived at all.

Therefore, most of Hui-jie and the others were literate. Wen-xiu, in particular, had read quite a few books and studied courses on managing the household and other aspects of life typical of well-bred young ladies. Thus, they decided to open this shop—a kind of general store! Their abilities were certainly sufficient.

Anyway, these things have nothing to do with me. I'll just consider them as entertainment for them—right?

"It's settled then, I can help you if you need it. But I have my own things to do."

"Young Master, what is it you need? Oh, I forgot to ask, what kind of business did our family used to be in?"

"Hmm—I'm a traveling merchant, the kind who often goes into the mountains. If anyone outside asks about us, just say I made some money and finally decided to settle down in the county town. Don't forget, I'm a traveling merchant!"

"I know, I know, young master."

In fact, there are several types of itinerant merchants. Peddlers who travel from village to village are itinerant merchants, but those who travel to the mountains to do business are also itinerant merchants.

Because the customers in the mountains were mostly mountain people, even bandits, and there were threats from monsters and wild animals along the way, itinerant merchants were generally quite powerful and relatively wealthy.

This is also the new identity arranged for "Tian Zhong". He usually doesn't stay at home and needs to go into the mountains to do business.

"Xiuxiu, Sister Hui, I can't take care of things at the shop for now, so how about I leave it to you two?"

"How can this be?" Wenxiu refused outright. "Young master, how can a woman like me, confined to the inner quarters, show my face in public?"

""

"what?"

"Young master, you are actually the owner. You can hire a few managers and employees."

"What should we do?"

"That's easy. As long as you can afford the wages, you can find people anywhere."

"Oh, whatever you want!" Zhou Ye said indifferently. He didn't take the matter to heart at all.

But suddenly, Zhou Ye had a flash of inspiration and thought—this might not be so bad.

Whether it's Zhou Ye from the outer city, Xiao Zhou from the docks, Zhou Ye from the martial arts school, or Xiao Tian from the He or Gu families, no one would ever imagine that they actually have a home here. And with six maids? Or perhaps they're the mysterious owner behind some general store, someone who doesn't like to show their face in public?

Besides, living here is quite nice. There are people to do my laundry, cook for me, and even take care of me. I'll have fewer chores in daily life, allowing me to focus entirely on my martial arts training.

Unexpectedly, that very night, Wenxiu acted as if she were her personal maid, and she was all lovey-dovey as she prepared to crawl into bed.

Zhou Ye was utterly shocked. "Are you kidding me? Is this how you test young cadres?"

Good heavens! This perfectly good martial arts world is about to turn from a martial arts competition into a family-based system. Now, all that's missing is for them to sleep together.

Although Zhou Ye could understand Wenxiu and the others' thoughts, they were just a group of pitiful orphaned girls who wanted to find a man to rely on.

But that's not how it works. If you little vixens keep striking those poses, how can I possibly resist?

Anyway, when Zhou Ye woke up the next day, he realized he was indeed a hot-blooded young man. The question was, should he wash the wet underwear and bedding for Wenxiu and Sister Hui, or leave it for himself?

Putting aside Zhou Ye's troubles for now, he had already made a decision—he would simply have all six maids practice martial arts to temporarily distract them!

In fact, Zhou Ye had already examined Wenxiu and Sister Hui's innate talent, and it was basically around +2 or +3. At least among ordinary people, they were considered to have excellent talent!

Then again, it's not surprising.

Imagine, in this cold season, they are always naked and being ravaged day and night.

How could they maintain their good health? And after just a few days of rest, they fully recovered?

This is also a form of selection, which has already proven their innate talent. Even those who are a bit older, like Sister Hui, are not expected to become martial arts masters, but at least they have a certain ability to protect themselves.

With his own assistance, it's hard to say whether he will achieve the Ming Jin level in the future, but breaking through to the Jin level is definitely a certainty.

Once Wenxiu and Huijie become martial artists at the Energized Realm, they will have another option, whether they choose to stay by his side or leave to marry.

But if we want them to practice martial arts, then we'll definitely need to provide them with elixirs and nutritional supplements.

To be honest, I'm sure I have plenty of monster meat. But I really don't have any low-level Qi and Blood Powder or low-grade Qi and Blood Pills on me right now.

Since that's the case, let's patronize our junior sister's business!

That day, Zhou Ye arrived at the Fenglei Martial Arts School. Without saying a word, he went to the area where Du Juan handled official business. Soon, the three of them were chatting while cracking pine nuts.

"Huh? Senior Brother Aye, these pine nuts seem to be quite rare. They also seem to have the effect of replenishing qi and blood?"

"These are pine nuts picked from the demon pine tree. Just like demon beast meat, they can certainly replenish your qi and blood."

Although the qi and blood content of these pine nuts is not high, at most equivalent to the meat of an ordinary demon beast in the early stage of the cultivation realm, it's all about the rarity of them that Zhou Ye gave Du Juan a large bag of them this time.

"Senior Brother A-Ye, how come you've suddenly become so bold? Daring to pick pine cones from the demonic pine tree?"

"What's the big deal? Demonic plants are generally not aggressive. Besides, I'm just picking some pine nuts; I'm not cutting down trees, so there's no danger at all."

"Oh, I see? Hehehe." Du Juan laughed happily. "By the way, what did you want to see me about today?"