Rebirth in a Courtyard: I Am a Little Hunter

Two nights later, the moonlight was dim.

Wei Chen waited until the light in his mother's room went out before sitting up from the bed. He changed into a set of dark old clothes, circulated his true energy, and his bones and muscles slowly moved, his face gradually changing back into that burly, rugged "Iron Tower".

He silently climbed over the wall, avoiding the watchful eyes of the night patrolmen, and walked south along a secluded alley for about an hour until he arrived at the outpost near the abandoned brick kiln outside the city.

This is a semi-underground warehouse hidden behind a slope. The entrance is covered by a thick wooden board with several stones on top, making it difficult to spot without careful observation.

Wei Chen stood at the entrance, closed his eyes for a moment, and his spiritual power spread out like ripples on water, covering an area of ​​about a hundred paces. No one was there. Silence reigned, broken only by the sound of the wind.

He lifted the wooden planks and slipped into the warehouse. The space inside wasn't large, about the size of two rooms. Several empty sacks were piled in the corner, and the floor was swept clean.

This is one of Tiger's designated locations for receiving goods, and only Tiger and Wei Chen have the keys. Wei Chen stood in the center of the warehouse, and with a thought, his spatial backpack silently unfolded—a thousand catties of apples appeared out of thin air on the ground, packed into twenty willow baskets, each containing fifty catties.

The apples are of the Ruby variety, uniform in size, with thin skin and crisp flesh, emitting a sweet aroma. Straw mats separate the baskets to prevent them from bumping into each other. He then waved his hand, and two slaughtered pigs appeared beside him—each weighing about 220-230 jin (approximately 160-165 kg), clean, white carcasses, tightly bound with hemp rope.

He crouched down, took out paper and pen from his pocket, wrote a few lines by the moonlight streaming through the window, and placed them on top of the apple crate. Then he straightened up, glanced at the warehouse one last time to make sure everything was in order, before turning to leave, covering it with the wooden planks again, weighing it down with stones, and disappearing into the night.

Tiger didn't come to check the goods until late at night; it was something they had agreed upon. They wouldn't meet during delivery or pickup! That way it was both safe and confidential! These days, everyone has their secrets!

The moment he lifted the wooden board, he was stunned for a long time before he came to his senses. A thousand catties of apples, twenty baskets, were neatly stacked and of excellent quality; two pigs, carcasses, were so clean that not a single hair was visible.

He squatted down in front of the apple basket, picked up an apple, wiped it on his clothes, and took a bite. Juice spilled out, and the sweetness made his eyes squint. He chewed a few times and swallowed, then looked down at the words on the note: "Besides antiques, get me some good wine and cigarettes every month from now on, deducted directly from the payment."

Tiger put the note in his pocket, picked up an apple, took a bite, and muttered to himself, "Iron Tower, Iron Tower, just how wild are you? You can even get apples..." He shook his head, stopped thinking about it, and called his men to start moving the goods.

For the next two weeks, the apples at the ghost market sold extremely well. Tiger sold them at five yuan per jin, and on the first day alone, he sold two hundred jin. On the second day, he sold three hundred jin. By the third day, there was no need to set up a stall for the remaining apples—Tiger had a stack of pre-order lists in his pocket, all from wealthy people in Beijing, who were lining up to buy them.

Apples that cost five yuan a pound could have bought three pounds of pork in previous years, but these days, while meat can be obtained through various means, apples are hard to find even if you have the money. Supply cannot meet demand.

Having tasted success, Tiger sent a message to Wei Chen, asking if he could get more. Wei Chen thought for a moment and replied: a maximum of 5,000 catties per week, for only one month. Apples are a seasonal fruit; once this period is over, they'll be gone, and he didn't want to expand the business too much and attract attention.

For the next two weeks, every single one of the 5,000 kilograms of apples sold out. Tiger made a fortune, and Wei Chen's cash reserves also grew thicker and thicker.

He told Tiger to exchange part of the payment for antiques, fine cigarettes, and good wine, and to keep the rest until the market was right.

Tiger was efficient; the first batch of antiques was quickly delivered to the secluded location designated by Wei Chen: a pair of mid-Qing Dynasty blue and white porcelain vases, an old painting, several Hetian jade pendants, and so on. Wei Chen didn't examine them closely and simply put them into his spatial backpack.

He doesn't understand antiques, but in the game world, they can display names and attributes! Authenticity is immediately apparent. In the hands of true experts, those old objects can be dated, their authenticity verified, and whether they're worth collecting. All he has to do is accept them, then keep them, waiting for time to reveal their true value.

As the days passed and autumn deepened, the food crisis worsened.

The wild vegetables in Beijing have long been dug up. The fields and wastelands outside the city that used to be full of lamb's quarters, purslane, and dandelions have now been turned upside down, and even the grass roots have been dug up, dried, ground into powder, and used to fill people's stomachs.

Leaves were scattered all over the ground; some people even picked poplar and elm leaves to boil and eat, their faces turning green with embarrassment. The wild grass and trees were withered and yellow, vegetables were scarce, and even the bark of the trees had been peeled off.

The situation wasn't much better in the city. Many families started growing vegetables in front of their houses and in the corners of their walls, filling broken wooden boxes, old basins, and enamel mugs with soil, scattering a few seeds, and planting some scallions or spinach. This was something that Director Wang from the neighborhood had heard about from Wei Chen and then promoted.

She was well-informed and knew that this year's harvest was not good, so she went door-to-door to encourage everyone to plant something in front of and behind their houses to be self-reliant. Even a scallion or a crop of chives could help in an emergency.

But growing vegetables is not so easy in years of famine. With poor soil, fertilizer shortages, and rampant pests, most people's vegetables grow sparsely, turn yellow and wither, and it's considered good if they can harvest a few chives.

The courtyard has about twenty households, and each family grows some vegetables. The vegetables in courtyard number 95 are growing very well, better than those in many other courtyards around here. Some people secretly say that the feng shui here is good! This has a lot to do with Wei Chen!

The chives in the corner of Zhang Dashan's front yard were growing very well. They were lush and green, and no matter how many times you cut them, they would grow back, seemingly endlessly. The spinach in Liu Erzhuang's backyard was also good; although not particularly large, the leaves were thick, dark green, and free of insect damage. The scallions growing in the broken basins on Grandma Li's windowsill were also growing straight and tall, sprouting new shoots even after you pinched off the tips. The cabbages under Aunt Liu's eaves, though not as robust as those sold in the market, at least weren't rotten or damaged by insects, standing out starkly against the backdrop of the withered yellow yard.

The reason these vegetables grew so well, besides their diligent watering, was another little-known reason: Wei Chen would pass by these corners every few nights, flick his finger lightly, and a barely perceptible green light would disappear into the soil. That was his life skill—planting.

He doesn't need to make it too obvious; he just needs to make these dishes a little better than others, not too eye-catching, but enough for these families to have a few bites of fresh food.

Grandma Li and Aunt Liu were people he had specifically looked after, while Zhang Dashan and Liu Erzhuang were just incidental additions. The households he chose were all honest and unassuming people in the courtyard who wouldn't go around boasting or cause trouble just because their vegetables were growing well.

Wei Chen would occasionally throw in a "planting technique" from the other families, since they all lived in the same courtyard! So the vegetables from each family in the courtyard grew quite well! Of course, the Jia family and the Yi family were exceptions!

But the most eye-catching thing was the vegetable garden in the southern half of Wei Chen's yard in the east wing. That piece of land was originally an empty space overgrown with weeds. After Wei Chen moved in, he spent several days turning the soil, preparing the land, making ridges, and planting various vegetables.

By autumn, the vegetable patch had become a lush oasis. Cabbage, green beans, radishes, and bok choy ripened one crop after another, densely filling the furrows.

The leaves were thick and glossy green, the green beans hung heavily on the trellis, and the radishes revealed half of their white bodies. There were no insect holes or rotten leaves; each vegetable looked as if it had grown out of a painting.

Of course, there were also pumpkins climbing all over the walls and trellises, which were grown from high-yield seeds obtained by Wei Chen and planted by Wang Xiulan's Xuanmen sect.

The people in the courtyard had long noticed. Yi Zhonghai had passed by the east courtyard gate several times, glancing at the vegetable garden without saying anything, but he was secretly amazed.

Liu Haizhong was even more envious. Once, he squatted at the gate of the yard and watched for a long time. He turned to his wife and said, "How come Wei Chen is so good at growing vegetables? Our vegetables in the corner look like they've been hit by frost, but his are all green and lush."

The woman with bangs curled her lip: "She's young and strong, she has the energy to take care of you. You lie around all day, no wonder the vegetables won't grow well."

Madam Jia, however, had a completely different attitude. Every time she passed by the entrance to the east courtyard and saw that lush green vegetable patch, she felt as if she were being scratched by a cat.

She wanted to plant some too, but there was only a narrow crack in the soil at the corner of the Jia family's wall, where a few scallions had been planted, and they looked like chopsticks. She wanted to ask Wei Chen for some vegetables, but when she thought about her usual attitude, she couldn't bring herself to do it.

One time, she couldn't resist any longer and stood at the entrance of the east courtyard, craning her neck to peek inside for a while, just as Wei Chen saw her. Wei Chen ignored her and turned to go inside. Madam Jia stood there for a while, then walked away sullenly, muttering, "What's so great about it? It's just a few vegetables..."

As night fell, Wei Chen sat in his room with an enamel basin in front of him, half-filled with washed dates. He picked one up, put it in his mouth, and chewed slowly. Sweet with a hint of sourness, the juice melted in his mouth—a taste of extreme luxury in these times. After finishing one, he picked up another, but his mind was preoccupied with other matters.

The apples have been selling for a month; it's time to stop. If they continue selling, the rumors will only grow louder. He needs to take a break and let Tiger handle the rest, then consider the next batch once things calm down. The tobacco, alcohol, and antique business is on track; Tiger is reliable, so he doesn't need to worry about it much.

What he really needed to worry about was winter. Autumn would be followed by winter, a time of freezing temperatures and desolation, the hardest to endure. He had to take advantage of the late autumn and early winter to harvest the last crop of vegetables from his garden and store them, pick all the dates from the jujube trees to dry, and fill the granary. When the heavy snow sealed the door, he needed to ensure that he and his mother could get through it safely.