Chapter 40

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For the next five or six days, everything passed quietly and uneventfully.

On the food supply line, Gong Sun Qiang and his uncle Wang Dinghai completed their tasks first. As a reward, Wang Shouzhe promised Gong Sun Qiang that the last batch of old grain could be transported back to the Gong Sun family. Of course, this would come at a cost, sold to the Gong Sun family at a fair price.

It turned out that the "cheap uncle" was also a "tough guy." He overloaded the carts and had the mine slaves carry the load on their shoulders, managing to bring back a total of three thousand units. The next day, he eagerly sent over two hundred gold coins for the grain purchase, as if he was afraid Wang Shouzhe would change his mind.

It's no wonder he was so tough; the disaster in Changning Garrison was becoming increasingly severe. The few powerful insect masters or those with the means to buy large amounts of insecticide from the Xuanwu family could still hold their ground.

However, most of the lesser families were not so fortunate. Their fields were ravaged by insect plagues. They could only rely on large amounts of wood ash solution to kill the insects, but with the increasing number of honey insects, the effect was limited, and a significant reduction in yield was inevitable.

Wang Shouzhe also heard some even worse news: the disaster was likely to spread beyond Longzuo County. This meant that holding onto grain would become even more "valuable."

Meanwhile, Wang Shouzhe was not idle.

Daily cultivation was essential. Due to the recent good diet, his internal qi and blood were abundant, and he could clearly feel his cultivation steadily advancing towards the seventh layer of the Qi Refinement stage.

Of course, the path of cultivation was not easy. It was a process of gradual transformation and strengthening of the body, requiring a step-by-step approach.

He wished he could be like the protagonists in those fantasy worlds, taking pills every day and easily advancing through cultivation levels. Or, he could go out with a sword, kill a few chickens or dogs, and watch his experience points soar.

But in his world, these were all fairy tales. Everyone's cultivation level was achieved through constant practice, like water wearing away stone.

In addition to cultivation, Wang Shouzhe was also working on his homemade system panel.

Since he didn't have a system when he transmigrated, he had to create his own rudimentary system panel.

First, he tackled the family expenses.

Before organizing the panel, Wang Shouzhe had a vague idea of the family expenses, but after verifying with his mother-in-law's ledger, he was truly shocked by the enormous scale of the family's expenditures.

Just taking the ordinary supplies Wang Shouzhe enjoyed as the clan head:

Annual allocation of ordinary supplies:

- 300 pounds of polished rice (24 large copper coins)

- 150 pounds of refined flour (15 large copper coins)

- 200 pounds of various vegetables (8 large copper coins)

- 400 pounds of fruits (48 large copper coins)

- 20 pounds of honeyed fruits (20 large copper coins)

- 250 pounds of pork (75 large copper coins)

- 150 pounds of ordinary beef and mutton (60 large copper coins)

- 100 chickens and ducks (60 large copper coins)

- 30 geese (45 large copper coins)

- 100 pounds of eggs (20 large copper coins)

- 20 pounds of lard (8 large copper coins)

- 20 pounds of refined bean oil (12 large copper coins)

- 10 pounds of premium soy sauce (20 large copper coins)

- 5 pounds of premium salt (20 large copper coins)

- 1 pound of snow salt (10 large copper coins)

- 10 pounds of snow sugar (20 large copper coins)

- 1 pound of seasoning (10 large copper coins)

- 5 pounds of incense (25 large copper coins)

- 500 pounds of fine charcoal (15 large copper coins)

- 30 loads of firewood (6 large copper coins)

- Allocation for clothing and bedding (100 large copper coins)

- Allocation for other living supplies (20 large copper coins)

Just the ordinary supplies for Wang Shouzhe alone amounted to 6 gold coins and 51 large copper coins annually. He looked at the list and felt it was quite a lot, but upon reflection, he realized he did have a large appetite.

He was about to reach the seventh layer of the Qi Refinement stage, and his appetite far exceeded that of an ordinary person. Cultivation was not just about sitting in meditation and refining qi; it also involved practicing Xuanwu martial techniques, body techniques, sword techniques, archery, and horsemanship, all of which consumed a lot of energy.

These ordinary foods barely met his current needs. His mother-in-law, Gong Sun Hui, often diverted some of her own rations to him.

Of course, this was just a small part. The larger part was the allocation of cultivation resources for Wang Shouzhe each year.

- 60 pounds of spirit rice (12 gold coins)

- 60 pounds of spirit fish (20 gold coins)

- 60 pounds of spirit meat (20 gold coins)

- 12 small Essence Cultivation Pills (120 gold coins)

A total of 172 gold coins worth of cultivation resources were allocated to him each year. As his cultivation level increased, this amount would need to increase further to keep up with his consumption.

This was why Wang Shouzhe, despite his young age, was about to reach the seventh layer of the Qi Refinement stage. It was not just because of his outstanding cultivation talent, but also because the family was pouring resources into him.

Consider that the family's spirit fish were caught by their own fishing team, which produced about 400 pounds annually, and Wang Shouzhe alone consumed 60 pounds.

As for the spirit meat, it came from various sources, usually hunting or purchasing, as the Wang family did not have the means to raise spirit cattle. The family organized an autumn and winter hunt each year after the harvest to train the young members and supplement their meat supply.

However, they rarely ventured deep into the wilds, so they rarely hunted fierce beasts. The Wang family had not killed a fierce beast during the autumn and winter hunt for five years. Therefore, most of their spirit meat was purchased, which was a significant expense.

Additionally, as the clan head, Wang Shouzhe received a monthly allowance of 5 gold coins, totaling 60 gold coins annually. This private fund could be used at his discretion, and as the clan head, he had many personal expenses.

Therefore, Wang Shouzhe's direct annual consumption alone amounted to about 240 gold coins. This did not include the family's expenses for house repairs, carriage and horse maintenance, and the expenses for his personal attendants, as these were categorized under other family expenses.

So, when the accounts were tallied, the total was astronomical.

If he were to marry a wife, the cultivation resources would be reduced to about one-third. However, the wife's living expenses and rations would be comparable to the clan head's, adding another 100 to 200 gold coins annually.

Moreover, the family's other expenses were also significant.

All bloodline members, including Wang Shouzhe, had an average annual expenditure of about 1800 gold coins. The nine guards and their families' expenses and benefits totaled nearly 350 gold coins.

There were seven young guards in training, costing about 80 gold coins annually. Additionally, there were over a hundred servants and slaves, divided into several ranks, with an annual total expenditure of about 170 gold coins.

Just the personnel in the main residence of the family consumed a total of 2400 gold coins annually. Of course, this 2400 gold coins was not all in gold coins; a significant portion was in resource supply, measured in gold coins.

For example, the white jade spirit rice produced in the family's "Prosperous Farm" would be recorded in the farm's income ledger when it entered the family, and when allocated to someone as a resource, it would be valued in gold coins.

Similarly, the live fish, fresh fish, and spirit fish caught by Uncle Wang Dinghai's fishing team would be recorded in the income ledger when they entered the family, and the family would record the expenditure.

Of course, these accounts only involved the transfer of resources, with no actual gold coins changing hands. Therefore, the fishing team's so-called profit was usually a book profit, not actual gold coins earned. This profit had already been converted into resource supply for the family.

However, for a large Xuanwu family, the enormous resource expenditure was inevitable. In fact, the Wang family of Changning was relatively poor, and their overall expenses were already quite low. The elders, including the Longyan ancestor and the Xiao generation, had already tightened their belts and tried to save as much as possible.

Fortunately, the family had three major industries.

The purely ordinary agricultural "Abundant Grain Farm" had the lowest book income among the industries, while the "Prosperous Farm" with 20 acres of spirit fields had a higher output.

The "Xinmao Silkworm Farm" mainly produced raw silk, supplying it to the Changning Xu family on a long-term basis, with most of the income in gold coins.

The other two family industries, the "Changning Wang Fish Market" and the "Fishing Team," were managed by the younger generation and had lower income in previous years compared to the three major industries.

However, this year, the fishing team and the Wang Fish Market, after Wang Shouzhe's efforts, were bound to take off, and it was not surprising if they surpassed the major industries.

More importantly, the "Abundant Grain Farm," the largest grain farm, would shine due to the insect plague.

Most importantly, Wang Shouzhe, with some intelligence about the insect plague, boldly made a big move. The pure profit of over ten thousand gold coins from that move was enough to bring a qualitative change to the Wang family's tight budget.

Thinking of the stack of gold coins and the pile of grain in the backyard, Wang Shouzhe felt a surge of ambition.

The Wang family of Changning would surely rise to new heights!

Gathering his thoughts, Wang Shouzhe focused on his homemade system panel.

First, the main interface.

- **Family Name**: Longzuo Changning Wang Family

- **Family Level**: 9th Rank

- **Family Prestige**: [Village Prestige (75) - Renowned] [County Prestige (21) - Somewhat Known] [County Prestige (00) - Unknown]

- **Family Industries**: 5 (Click to view details)

- **Family Members**: [Inside the Clan (35)] [Married Out (10)] (Click to view details)

- **Family Affiliates**: 6 (Click to view details)

- **Family Guards**: [Adult (9)] [Minor (7)] (Click to view details)

- **Family Servants**: [Adult (112)] [Minor (32)] (Click to view details)

- **Income and Expenditure List**: (Click to view details)

After setting this up, even Wang Shouzhe felt he had played too many games in his past life and seen too many systems. He felt uncomfortable if he didn't create a "system panel."

However, this system was relatively simple, made up of paper panels, and many templates still needed to be added.

"Click to view details." Wang Shouzhe pretended to click on the family industries, and the detailed page for the family industries appeared.

In reality, he just flipped through the small ledger of family industries... which he had bound himself...

...