Moved the six boxes one by one back to her room.
There was not much left on the table. When Sophia came back, she saw next to where the six boxes had been placed, there was a ginseng root and two lingzhi mushrooms.
Sophia picked them up and smelled them. The ginseng had a red thread tied around it.
She had heard before that when you find ginseng, you must tie a red thread to it quickly. This way, the ginseng won't run away.
But Sophia looked at the ginseng carefully and thought, "This ginseng looks like it was dug up just a few days ago."
She then picked up the lingzhi mushrooms. Both were quite big and looked very fresh.
Sophia did not know much about medicine materials, but she knew the value of ginseng and lingzhi. She just didn't know if these were wild or grown by people.
She didn't have any friends who were experts in Chinese medicine.
Also, if these things stayed out for too long, their effects might slowly disappear.
Sophia searched on her phone how to keep the medicinal power of wild ginseng.
The result showed that wild ginseng is a national first-class protected plant!
Great! They all wanted to cause her trouble!
She searched about lingzhi too, and it was not protected.
Sophia sadly put the ginseng back.
Now the table was empty. Sophia noticed a nice smell from the table.
"Could this be made of yellow pear wood?"
She said quietly.
Good, she decided to take the table apart and carried it with effort to the storage room.
After finishing these chores, she put the pig trough back in the pigpen.
Looking around the yard, she thought the house really needed cleaning or maybe even an expansion.
With so many treasures in the house and only her living there, security needed to improve.
Without realizing it, evening had come. After feeding the pigs, Sophia heated up the dishes she had brought and ate.
Then she took the gifts and went to the village chief's house.
The village chief's family had just finished dinner. They were surprised to see Sophia.
The chief's house was the only one in the village with a small three-story building. It looked very bright and spacious.
But the house had many children. When Sophia arrived, two grandchildren were fighting loudly.
"Have you eaten?" the village chief politely asked.
Sophia nodded quickly and put the gifts on the tea table.
"It has been a while since I moved to the village. I wanted to thank you now that things are stable."
Seeing the cigarettes and alcohol on the table, the chief's family still smiled but spoke more kindly.
"No need to be so polite! Your parents lived here for decades. Everyone in the village knows them. You disappeared for so many years, and your parents didn't even know before they died. Fate is cruel!" The chief sighed with true feeling.
Sophia fell silent for a moment, then said, "Village chief, can you find some time to take me to see my parents?"
"Yes, yes, you should go."
The chief immediately agreed.
They arranged to go in two days.
Sophia did not stay long. After a few polite words about the gifts, she finally left.
Back home, after washing up and drying her hair, she saw the six boxes in the corner.
She opened the boxes and felt around inside, picking up a gold ingot and biting it slightly.
No wonder she felt like something was missing. Now she remembered the step she forgot.
Sophia looked at the box again and saw a tooth mark on it, which proved it was real!
Her eyes curved into a smile. Anyone who suddenly owned so much treasure would be smiling in their sleep.
She carried the box to the table and took out the gold ingots inside, wanting to count how many there were.
There were twelve on each layer. After taking the ones at the bottom, there were four layers in total, making forty-eight gold ingots.
After taking them all, Sophia noticed there was a letter at the bottom. She made a small surprised sound.
The envelope smelled like sandalwood.
On it were the words "Qiwen," written in traditional Chinese characters.
The handwriting flowed like a swimming dragon, but the strokes had a sharp, cutting feeling.
But the writing didn't look like that of an ordinary person.
Before opening it, Sophia didn't think it had anything to do with her.
But when she opened the envelope and read the content, her mind shook.
The letter was from General Yves. He wrote about the things he had received over the days: at first, hot sweet potatoes and potatoes, then two piglets, and later grains, rice, oil, and tasty fruits.
Sophia's heart trembled. This was not what she had thought. It seemed the things she fed into the pig trough had actually gone to other people.
If that was true, then the pig trough was not swallowing the items; it was a bridge linking two different worlds?
Her thoughts became confused for a moment.
Sophia slowly digested the information in the letter. It was all written in traditional Chinese, so it was a bit hard for her to read.
General Yves first thanked the gods for their blessings, then explained that the gold, silver, and other offerings were to show gratitude.
Then he described their current situation. The people were suffering from drought, life was hard, and if possible, they asked for more food and water.
Sophia's face grew serious.
This was more complicated than she had thought. At first, she just thought the pig trough could spit out treasures, so she fed it more food to keep it balanced.
But now, on the other side of the pig trough, tens of thousands of people were waiting for help. The pressure suddenly became heavy. She was not really a goddess.
She thought to herself and started writing a few sentences, but then crossed them out.
"I'll think about it some more!"
The one hundred pigs and one hundred sheep she ordered would arrive soon, right? She could use them to help for now and take a few days to decide whether to take on this heavy responsibility.
Sophia put the gold ingots back into the box.
Then she picked up her phone and started calculating how much money was in the six boxes.
Just the gold ingots in four boxes could be worth forty to fifty million dollars. The things in the other two boxes seemed like antiques.
She couldn't estimate their value, so she left those out.
With forty to fifty million dollars, she could buy over ten thousand tons of food and water.
But the problem was sourcing the supplies. She never thought about going through wholesalers or learned how to buy supplies. How did she suddenly end up on this path?
Sophia could not figure it out. She tossed and turned all night, barely able to sleep.
Meanwhile, General Yves walked among the offerings, thinking only about sending these items through, then disappearing.
After the offerings were made, others dealt with the fresh fruit, sending some to the military camp and some to the rich merchants forced to donate.
General Yves waited for a reply. After one or two days, he finally received another package.