In the small courtyard.

Liu Wende sighed and said no more.

Leaving the side room, Chen Li asked, "When did his symptoms begin?"

Liu Wende sighed. "It started about a year ago. The spring before last, I saw that he was well-versed in the Four Books and Five Classics, so I let him travel the surrounding areas with his classmates. But last year, he snuck back, took the house and land deeds, stole our silver taels, and disappeared.

I was so furious I had him tracked down and dragged back. Only then did I learn he’d been bewitched by a woman named Ban Xia from a brothel in the Commandery City. After he returned, he became dazed and absent-minded, losing all appetite for food and drink.

At first, the symptoms weren’t so severe. The physician said it was just excessive internal fire from lovesickness and prescribed some medicine to nourish his yin and calm his spirit, but it didn’t work at all. Later, he started having violent fits in the middle of the night. He’d become frighteningly strong, so we had no choice but to tie him up."

Chen Li nodded. ’How similar this is to what happened to my predecessor’s father.’

’The brothels in the Commandery City are most likely involved with demonic and unorthodox practices!’

After a few sips of tea, Chen Li stood up to leave. "Uncle, I’ve imposed for too long today, so I won’t stay any longer. I will visit again another day."

Liu Wende saw him to the door, thanking him profusely.

...

「Two days later.」

Chen Li returned to the County Magistrate’s Office with all the necessary documents.

Thanks to the help of Liu Wende, the Chief of the Criminal Division, the transfer process went exceptionally smoothly.

The clerk in the Household Department didn’t even ask a single question before deftly stamping the documents with the bright red Official Seal.

Just as Chen Li arrived at his gate, driving his ox-cart, he saw a little boy of about three or four sitting in the main courtyard, playing with a bamboo stick.

’Who is this child?’

As he wondered, a woman in her thirties walked in from the back courtyard.

"Hey, Li Zi, you’re finally back!" The woman’s face broke into a happy smile upon seeing Chen Li.

"Sis, what are you doing back...?"

It dawned on Chen Li. He glanced at the boy; this must be the young son his second sister, Chen Yao, had given birth to a few years ago.

Chen Yao sighed, walked to the center of the courtyard, and stroked her young son’s head. Her eyes revealed a trace of helplessness and exhaustion. "Li Zi, because of the drought last year, your brother-in-law’s family had no harvest. We can barely keep the pot boiling now. I came back to ask if I could borrow some grain."

Chen Li froze.

Chen Yao had married out long ago. Since Chen Li had transmigrated, the two of them hadn’t met very often.

But he remembered that his second sister had married into a merchant family that was in the tea business.

While not fabulously wealthy, they were quite well-off. How could they have no grain? And even if they had no grain, how could they have no money to buy any?

However, Chen Li didn’t press the issue. "Sis, you’re making us sound like strangers. The family can certainly spare a bit of grain. How much do you need?"

"Eight hundred shi."

Chen Yao’s gaze was evasive and she didn’t dare to meet Chen Li’s eyes.

Hearing this, Chen Li’s expression changed.

A few dozen shi of grain, he could have just lent her. She was his sister, after all.

But eight hundred shi? That was just absurd.

An ordinary adult, even eating rice every day, would consume seven or eight shi of grain a year at most. With about ten people in his sister’s family, one hundred shi would be more than enough.

Besides, it was already the second month. Planting would begin soon, and the new harvest would come in half a year.

Her asking for eight hundred shi of grain definitely wasn’t just for an emergency.

"Sis, it’s not that I won’t help you..."

Chen Li’s face was grim as he said slowly, "But there’s something you don’t know. At the end of last year, I traded some of our family’s grain for new fields. We don’t have that much surplus grain left."

Chen Yao grew anxious and said bluntly, "Li Zi, don’t lie to me. I just went and checked the granary; there’s enough grain. Eight hundred shi isn’t that much. Just help your sister this one time."

When Chen Li heard that Chen Yao had secretly checked the granary, his face turned cold, and his tone became sharp and decisive. "Sis, it’s not that I won’t help you. It’s that I truly cannot lend you this grain.

His gaze was sharp as he looked directly at Chen Yao. "The family does have grain. We could produce eight hundred shi, even a thousand shi, but I cannot lend it to you. It’s not that I don’t want to lend it; it’s that the family’s situation doesn’t allow me to.

Shouheng and Shouye just enrolled in a martial arts school, and their monthly expenses are over one hundred silver taels. If you take eight hundred shi, what will our family eat? We can’t let our own family go hungry just to help yours."

Chen Li’s voice grew lower, laced with a hint of coldness. "Besides, when Father racked up all those debts back then, I don’t recall your husband’s family offering us any help."

Seeing Chen Li’s unyielding attitude, Chen Yao’s eyes instantly reddened, and tears rolled down her cheeks like broken strands of pearls. "Li Zi, if you don’t lend it to us, my husband and I... we’ll have no way to survive."

"There’s always a place for you at our table. If you truly can’t go on, then just come back." Chen Li remained unmoved.

Seeing Chen Yao weeping, her face tear-streaked and pitiful, Chen Li sighed inwardly, his brows knitted. "Sis, tell me the truth. What’s really going on? Why do you suddenly need so much grain?"

Chen Yao bit her lip, refusing to speak. Suddenly, she turned and ran into their mother’s room.

Chen Li started to follow but stopped at the door when he heard suppressed sobs from within. He ended up sighing and waiting outside.

A little while later, Mrs. Chen came to find Chen Li and coaxed him gently, "Li’er, we have plenty of grain. Just lend some to your sister."

Chen Li’s stance was firm. "Mother, if she wanted a few dozen shi, she wouldn’t need to borrow it; she could just take it. But eight hundred shi is absolutely impossible. If she must have it, fine. She can buy it with silver."

"I’ll go talk to your sister again," Mrs. Chen said, shaking her head helplessly before turning back into the room.

Under the combined questioning of Mrs. Chen and Chen Li, Chen Yao finally cracked under the pressure and told them the truth.

It turned out that a couple of years ago, her husband’s family, the Bai Family, had been traveling by boat on a waterway to purchase tea when they were plundered by Water Bandits. These bandits didn’t rob just anything; they specifically targeted boats carrying medicinal herbs.

Upon inquiry, they learned these Water Bandits operated in the Yunze area. They had grown stronger over the past few years, robbing more and more medicinal herbs.

The Bai Family saw this as a business opportunity. Jiangzhou was a plains region, so most medicinal herbs had to be shipped in from other areas.

The more rampant the Water Bandits became, the more expensive the herbs would be.

So, they gave up their tea business and used all their family’s silver to buy medicinal herbs.

Seeing the price of herbs climbing daily, the Bai Family didn’t sell in time. Instead, they chose to borrow more silver to continue hoarding their stock.

However, the heavens are unpredictable, and fortune is fickle.

Last spring, the Imperial Court suddenly dispatched a large military force to suppress them. The Water Bandits who had plagued Yunze for years vanished without a trace.

With the waterways clear, a massive influx of medicinal herbs poured into Jiangzhou and other places, causing prices to plummet.

The medicinal herbs the Bai Family had been hoarding were now stuck in their hands; they couldn’t even sell them at a loss.

Seeing the prices crash, the creditors who had lent them money began to worry they wouldn’t get their principal back and came knocking to demand repayment. The Bai Family tried to pay their debts with the herbs, but the creditors refused to take them.

Their grain, livestock, and everything of value in their home was taken, and even that wasn’t enough to cover the debt.

The Bai Family had no choice but to rob Peter to pay Paul, mortgaging their ancestral home and fields to borrow more silver taels and grain.

Part of it was used to repay the initial loans, and the rest was kept for daily expenses.

They had been counting on last year’s autumn harvest to get some breathing room and turn things around.

Unexpectedly, a drought led to a poor harvest, and they never managed to recover.

This time, when the creditors came calling, they didn’t want silver; they only wanted grain. They demanded repayment in grain, the exact amount that was originally borrowed.

If they couldn’t pay, the creditors would seize the house and the fields directly.