Gianna had already prepared herself mentally for the second option—if Floyd didn't agree to switch the land, she'd find another way to do it on her own.
Floyd let out a sigh.
There was a trace of helplessness in his eyes.
"Since you insist, let's switch the land. After all, we found that wild boar, didn't we?"
In other words, they wouldn't feel bad about spending it.
Now that things were calm, Gianna felt the need to do some more "brainwashing" of Floyd.
"Hubby, in the future, when we face such important decisions, once we've made up our minds, we should stick with it. Trust your intuition, okay? Besides, didn't I say yesterday, even if we have to escape the famine next year, we'll eventually come back, so even if the land deed is in our hands, we're still profiting. There's no need to worry about it. We won't lose in any way."
Exchanging food for land was definitely not a loss. The land in Mud Nest Village was really good. Normally, a piece of land was worth at least twelve taels of silver.
How much was rough grain worth? She estimated that thirty pounds of grain would be enough to exchange for an acre of land.
After filtering the water for four buckets, it was already very late.
Gianna had already gone up to the cliff to take care of the children.
The campfire was lit, and the family of five sat around it.
Today, they only boiled some water and ate the coarse grain flatbreads she had baked at home earlier.
The night in the mountains was quiet.
Gianna heard nothing except for the wind.
It was easy to guess that there were no animals or insects left in the forest.
The next day, when they left the mountain, Floyd hid the water in the stove of a farm family's house in a deserted village.
To disguise it, he even sprinkled a lot of straw on top.
Once the disguise was done, he pushed the wild boar meat and the children to the county town.
Along the way, Gianna and the others saw many refugees. These people were all dragging their families, looking numb and anxious, their eyes filled with confusion about the unknown.
Seeing this scene, Gianna felt a little unsettled inside.
After about an hour of walking, they reached the county town.
As soon as they entered the county town, they found that there were even more refugees. Even the area under the city walls was filled with people. The officers at the city gate wouldn't let the refugees enter. Gianna and the others were let in because they didn't have any luggage on their cart.
Floyd immediately hung the wild boar meat around his neck and pushed the children into the city to find a shop.
Very few shops were still open in the county town.
Only a few shops selling grain and miscellaneous goods were open.
Floyd glanced at the sign next to him and said, "Let's go to this one. Lin's Trading House doesn't cheat the people."
Lin's Trading House? Gianna thought for a moment and remembered something from the book about Lin's Trading House.
After the disaster, Lin's Trading House had donated a lot of grain and helped many people.
Without any objections, Gianna followed Floyd to the door of Lin's Trading House.
Gianna still held one child in each hand, and Xeno was wrapped in cloth and carried on her back.
Floyd carried the wild boar meat into the shop.
Gianna wasn't at ease, so she immediately followed him inside.
The shopkeeper was slumped lazily on the counter. When he saw them, he lazily lifted his eyelids.
"Do you need something?"
Floyd placed the bundle containing the cured meat on the counter and said, "We're here to sell wild boar meat."
As soon as the shopkeeper heard the word "meat," he perked up.
It had been a long time since he'd eaten meat. There were no livestock anywhere, so where could meat come from?
He eagerly opened the bundle, and when he saw the wild boar meat inside, he was pleasantly surprised.
"Really meat."
After saying that, the shopkeeper hesitated for a moment and looked toward the door, then warily closed the door.
Soon, the family of five entered the backyard.
The shopkeeper was very generous and even offered tea to the children.
"Your wild boar meat should have been smoked after being killed, right? I'm really curious about where you found the wild boar."
Floyd always had a cold expression when dealing with outsiders.
He replied coldly, "Secret."
The shopkeeper was left speechless by these two words.
He quickly slapped his own mouth and said regretfully, "Look at me, how could I ask something like that so carelessly?"
Wild boars still being alive meant there was a water source nearby.
Water sources were the most valuable thing nowadays, so how could they easily reveal where they were?
Floyd's tone remained cold as he said, "I want to know how much rough grain I can exchange for this wild boar meat."
The shopkeeper smiled, "You can get a lot. To be honest, meat is very scarce nowadays, so one pound of boar meat can be exchanged for about sixty pounds of coarse grain."
Coarse grain wasn't worth much. At Liu's Trading Shop in Chihua County, the cost of both the mixed grain and regular grain was very low.
In comparison, meat was much more valuable.
Gianna didn't expect the exchange rate for meat to be so high.
Sixty pounds of coarse grain was a lot!
She had at least thirty to forty pounds of meat, so by this calculation, over two thousand pounds of grain was really a huge amount.
If they were to bring all that grain back to the village, everyone would go crazy.
How much land would they need to exchange for this?
Gianna quickly made up her mind, "We're willing to exchange thirty pounds of meat, but we want you to help us send it back to the village."
This was a huge deal.
The shopkeeper immediately arranged for people to escort the grain back to the village.
Gianna didn't act hastily to take out anything from her space to exchange for grain or money.
After all, this much grain was completely unexpected. She had thought she'd be lucky to exchange one or two hundred pounds of coarse grain.
This was a big surprise, and even Floyd didn't rush to take water, instead helping escort the grain back to the village.
When two carts of grain arrived at Floyd's house, many sharp-eyed villagers saw it and rushed over to see what was going on.
Bags of grain were unloaded from the carts, one after another.
The villagers were stunned. What kind of luck did Floyd have to be able to buy so much grain?
"Floyd, is this all grain?" Old Man Liu asked, unable to believe it. "This must be over two thousand pounds!"
Floyd didn't deny it.
When there was news or excitement in the village, it quickly spread from one person to the next.
Sure enough, in no time, the area outside the yard was packed with people.
Seeing everyone had arrived, Floyd spoke, "This grain is what I exchanged to buy land for everyone. I know many of you are planning to leave the village to avoid the disaster, and the future is uncertain. Having grain with you is one more chance to survive. So, anyone who wants to exchange land for grain, come forward. Forty pounds of coarse grain for one acre of land!"
What?
Forty pounds of coarse grain for one acre of land?
Old Man Liu frowned and said, "Forty pounds for one acre of land? Isn't that too little?"
On the way back, Gianna had repeatedly reminded Floyd not to act out of emotion. No matter how the villagers complained that it was too little, he had to stick to that amount.
Floyd remained calm and said, "Do you have money to buy more grain?"
His words immediately shut everyone up.
They didn't have money to buy grain anymore.
"Forty pounds of coarse grain for one acre of land is really too little."
Floyd looked at Gianna and signaled her to speak.