Aries thought for a moment and felt that what the person said made sense. So, she put down the bench, took the silver, and got ready to leave.
All the thugs were already on the ground, so no one dared to stop her. As for Liu Zhao, who was still standing, she was also too scared to stop her and could only watch as Aries walked away with their gambling house's silver.
When Aries reached the doorway, she remembered something was missing.
She stopped, turned around, and looked at Liu Zhao.
Seeing her stop, Liu Zhao had a bad feeling. Was she coming back to beat her up again?
When Aries turned to look at her, Liu Zhao's heart jumped, and her eyes instinctively shifted to the bench lying on the ground.
It was long, wide, and thick!
It made a loud "bang bang" when hitting someone. Just thinking about it made her body ache.
Aries noticed her reaction and also looked at the bench, but she didn't seem interested in picking it up.
"Give me back the IOU."
She remembered that the original owner of the body had signed an IOU for twenty taels of silver and hadn't taken it back.
As soon as Liu Zhao heard this, her legs stopped shaking. She quickly ran to the back to fetch the IOU, saying as she ran, "Big Sister Aries, please wait a moment. I'll go get it right away."
Seeing her so cooperative, Aries didn't say anything more and just waited at the door.
The people who had gathered to watch finally came to their senses. They hadn't expected to witness something so satisfying today.
They had long wanted to beat those jerks, but they didn't have the skills and were afraid of revenge from the gambling house. Aries had helped them let out their anger.
Still, since they were inside the gambling house, no one dared to cheer or clap. They could only look at Aries with admiration.
Aries ignored them. When Liu Zhao came back hurriedly with the IOU, Aries asked, "Do I need to give you a receipt?"
Liu Zhao shook her head quickly, "No, no, you keep it."
Aries glanced at the IOU, saw there was nothing wrong with it, and then left.
Seeing Aries really walking away and not coming back, Liu Zhao finally let out a long sigh of relief.
Aries walked out of the gambling house with over three hundred taels of silver. She strolled along, thinking about what to buy.
The house was too run-down and poor, with nothing inside—not even decent bowls to eat with. So she had to buy all the daily items from scratch.
Also, the straw hut needed to be torn down and rebuilt. Winter was coming, and that leaking, drafty hut wasn't livable.
Thinking about this, Aries felt the money in her arms wasn't enough. It certainly wouldn't be enough to build a house.
So she needed to figure out how to get more silver.
Aries had considered selling something from the mustard seed space, but in such a small place, there probably weren't people who could afford it.
After some thought, she decided to go to the county or a more prosperous place. It would also help her get to know more about this matriarchal world.
Although she planned to stay in Gujia Village long-term, she couldn't just live in ignorance.
The capital was just a day's ride away by fast horse. Aries wondered if she should go check it out.
After all, the capital must be the most prosperous place, and it was the best spot to understand this world.
Having made up her mind, Aries stopped thinking about it and focused on what she needed to buy.
Because she needed too many things, she had no choice but to buy a horse carriage.
Although she had a space to store things, she couldn't always squeeze into Aunt Six's ox cart. Even if she didn't have much money, she could still afford a carriage.
Besides, she had come back to life to enjoy life, not to suffer.
In the end, Aries drove back to Gujia Village with a carriage full of goods.
As soon as she entered the village, she caught everyone's attention.
Of course, most of the attention was on the carriage, then the items inside, and lastly on Aries who was driving it.
In the whole village, only the village chief and Aunt Six's family had oxen, and everyone was already envious of that. Now that Aries came back with a horse-drawn carriage, everyone started talking.
"Aries, where did you strike it rich?"
"Where did you get this carriage?"
"Wow! This horse looks strong—it must've cost a lot of silver!"
"Aries, did you really get rich?"
"Hmph! Who knows if she stole or tricked someone?"
"That's right, isn't she always up to shady stuff?"
"Aries, where did you get all this? You didn't do anything illegal, did you?"
"Maybe even killed someone and robbed them!"
"Is there anything Aries wouldn't do?"
Meanwhile, Mawen had finished his lunch and took a nap. When he woke up, he saw Ning had obediently washed the clothes and was hanging them out to dry in the yard. Feeling like he should act like the elder, he went to scold Ning a bit, then happily went out to chat with people.
Mawen loved gossiping and couldn't go a day without it. He quickly found his way to the village square where a few other gossip-loving men were chatting.
Someone asked him, "Is your Aries really better now? I saw her go out this morning—did she go to town?"
"Your son-in-law is pretty useful. He came and suddenly Aries is all better!"
Mawen rolled his eyes proudly, "Of course! My Aries has a strong life. She was already up and about this morning!"
Then he changed his tone and pouted, "But Ning isn't Aries' husband. He's just a servant, so don't get it wrong. Aries still needs to marry a proper husband in the future!"
The others sneered silently—With someone like Aries, you really think she can marry a proper husband?
But no one said it out loud. Instead, they praised Aries.
Mawen had a fierce temper and a sharp tongue. Aries was his precious treasure—if anyone said something bad about her, he could scold them all day without repeating himself.
Because of this, no one except the elders would dare say anything bad about Aries in front of him.
As they were chatting, they heard the commotion at the village entrance. Gossip lovers like Mawen and his friends couldn't resist and rushed over to see what was going on.
Surrounded by villagers, Aries heard a loud, cheerful shout of "Aries!" from Mawen. She instantly felt relieved.
She wasn't good at dealing with crowds. Now that Mawen was here, she could step back.
The moment Mawen saw his daughter and realized she had come back in a carriage, his eyes lit up. He pushed through the crowd and tried to climb onto the carriage.
But the carriage was a bit high, and Mawen was so excited that he almost slipped. Luckily, Aries reacted quickly and pulled him up before he hit his head on the frame.