Jay returned to his village and saw Ameno sitting on the porch of their house.
As if anticipating her return, Jay became happy and immediately walked over to her.
"Honey, were you waiting for me?" Jay asked softly, hugging Ameno.
"Yes, I was waiting for you to come home, honey," Ameno replied with a smile.
"It's truly a blessing to have a devoted wife like you, honey," Jay replied in praise.
"You have such a sweet mouth, Jay, but I like it," Ameno replied with a happy laugh.
Having a simple conversation with Jay like this felt like something Ameno had once dreamed of.
As a ninja living in one of the largest villages, she was always on missions and lived with vigilance.
After some time, she seemed to start enjoying the simple life of a rural farmer.
After working all day in the fields with her partner, Ameno would cook and take care of the house, while Jay would try to provide for them by hunting and doing some farm work.
The rest of the time, they spent joking around and enjoying the simple life they were currently experiencing.
It all felt so blissful, and Ameno felt like a dream.
"Where's everyone else?" Jay asked, noticing that the house seemed eerily quiet.
"Everyone's gone to Grandpa's for a meeting. I was asked to wait for you to inform them," Ameno replied.
"Since everyone's gone, let's go." Jay immediately realized that they were probably waiting for him.
So, he invited Ameno to follow him to his grandfather's house.
"Okay, let's go," Ameno agreed.
#####
At Jay's grandfather's house, Jay's father, Paul, and his mother, Senorita, were whispering to each other, their voices low, as if afraid of being overheard.
They did this for a reason: they were aware of the size of the food they were about to buy.
It would affect their family's future. Another thing they needed to consider was whether there was any jealousy between the families around them.
Although they were brothers, they each had families and were very close.
However, they also realized that their wives' relatives might come to them to seek refuge, given the current situation.
The food they purchased would certainly be affected, and as siblings who shared the same father and mother, Paul couldn't bear to see his brothers, Hendrik and Ricky, in distress.
So, they also had to consider ensuring enough food for their family and enough to help in an emergency.
They would discuss the rest with Jay and Ameno when they got home.
"Okay, tell us how much food you're going to order now, and remember, don't expect Jay to fulfill it completely.
After all, with the current shortage, many people are probably thinking the same as we are. The most important thing is to get food quickly," Grandpa Jay said.
"My father and I have decided to buy around 300-400 kg of food," Hendrik informed his father and the others.
"We've also ordered around 300-350 kg of food," Ricky added.
"As for us, Dad, we've ordered around 300 kg of food," Paul added.
"Then let me order 500 kg of food. It will be a reserve for all of us in case of an emergency," Grandpa Jay said.
"So, in total, we've ordered 1550 kg, or over 1.5 tons of food. That's quite a large amount, and hopefully, Jay can afford it," Grandpa Jay said.
"I hope so, Dad, but we need to find a backup plan, too, in case Jay can't afford the food," Hendrik said.
"Yes, we need to make a backup plan too. Big brother, we should see if we can buy additional food too," Ricky suggested.
Just as they were busy discussing, Jay's voice came from his grandfather's yard.
Jay, who went with Ameno to his grandfather's house, found Nining and several of her cousins happily playing jump rope.
After greeting them, Jay entered the house.
"Grandpa... I'm here," Jay opened the door and greeted them.
Upon entering, Jay found his entire extended family gathered. After greeting the others, Jay and Ameno sat down in chairs beside his father.
"Jay, I heard from your father that you have a good relationship with some of the food vendors at the local market."
"Lap, is that true?" his grandfather asked.
"Yes, Grandpa. Although I don't have a particularly close relationship with them, I have developed quite good relationships with some of them.
And from my last transaction, I was guaranteed the availability of some food supplies for trade," Jay replied.
"Good, then can you order a large amount of food from them?" Jay's grandfather asked again.
"Yes, Grandpa, but how much?" Jay asked again.
"About 1.5 tons, but if I can get more, that's even better. If not, I'll just get as much as they can sell," the grandfather replied.
Hearing this figure, Jay didn't immediately reply to his grandfather but instead calculated it in his mind.
After several harvests, Jay found that there were about 450 tons of food in his space, with sweet potatoes and potatoes accounting for the largest amounts, at over 100 tons and 200 tons, respectively.
The remaining amount was about a dozen tons of rice and about 7 tons of corn.
So, after reviewing his inventory in his space, Jay wasn't too worried about such a small order.
Jay could certainly get it easily, especially considering it was August 1, 1955 (another world time, my friend), and if everything went smoothly, he could harvest again about nine days later, meaning there would be dozens or even tens of tons of food on August 10th.
"Yes, Grandpa. I can get the amount of food you mentioned, but that's it." "Not in one category," Jay replied again.
"Okay, that's enough, but what kind of food can they sell?" the grandfather replied again.
"There's rice, potatoes, corn, and sweet potatoes. Those are the foods they can sell. However, there are purchase limits for rice and corn, while they can sell more potatoes and sweet potatoes," Jay replied again.
"Oh, they can still sell rice. It seems your friend has some skills," his grandfather said and continued.
"It's okay, let's just say we can buy more potatoes and sweet potatoes. The rest can be followed by corn and rice," the grandfather replied.
"So when should I buy all this food?" Jay asked again.
"Of course, the sooner the better, but we need a place for temporary storage before we finish building the underground warehouse," the grandfather replied again.
"Don't worry, Grandpa. I've saved a safe transit point near our village to temporarily store all the food until we finish building our underground warehouse," Jay replied again reassuringly.
"Where is it?" his grandfather asked immediately.