Chapter 32: Reversing the Celestial Order

Ning Xin was not entirely sure if the price was steep, but she loved it.

When she reached out to pet it, she was met with a spray of saliva right in her face.

"Hey!" Ning Xin laughed.

Because of her family's poverty, she was incredibly frugal with herself. She could not bear to waste a single copper coin, yet she gave her all for her family. She believed her mother’s words implicitly, and she possessed a bit of native wit. Due to her impoverished background and lack of worldly experience, there was nothing she particularly craved. Even after making money from selling wild boars and deer, she hadn't spent a single coin solely on herself.

But at this moment, she desperately wanted this mule.

"Shopkeeper, what does it usually eat?"

"Grass, corn, wheat, and soybeans—it eats them all. But keeping it fed for a year costs a fair amount of silver."

An average family certainly wouldn't be able to afford it. However, the poor have their ways of getting by, and the rich have theirs; it wouldn't be impossible to feed it just grass.

Ning Xin hesitated slightly. Looking at its build, it would surely eat a lot throughout the year. She would have to save more money so it wouldn't go hungry.

"How much corn does it eat in a month?"

"Two hundred pounds or so is plenty."

Ning Xin gasped. Two hundred pounds—that was far too much.

Seeing her hesitation, Shopkeeper Yuan quickly added, "You can feed it more grass; once its belly is full of grass, it will naturally eat less grain."

He then urged the mule farm owner not to be stingy, suggesting he throw in some extra grain today. After some haggling and appeals to mutual goodwill, the farm owner finally agreed to include six hundred pounds of corn, one hundred pounds of dried wheat straw, a wooden cart, and a harness.

Once the harness was fitted, the cart secured, and the corn loaded on, it looked like a massive pile.

Ning Xin thought it through: she would feed the mule more grass, take it out to graze daily, and stretch the corn to last the whole year. She would just have to work harder and save more money; she couldn't let it starve.

She handed over eighteen taels of silver. Both sides were satisfied with the deal. Ning Xin was happy to finally own a mule, and the farm owner was pleased to have sold off such a stubborn creature.

The mule’s strength was genuine; it pulled seven hundred pounds of cargo with ease. Ning Xin became even more satisfied and fond of it.

Shopkeeper Yuan offered some praise: "Miss Ning, you’ve bought a fine mule. To keep it well-fed, I imagine you’ll be bringing more wild game to my Drunken Immortal Restaurant in the future."

Ning Xin nodded with a smile. "Don't worry, Shopkeeper Yuan. I will work hard. Whatever I catch, I’ll bring to you. I’ll try to come by every day, though once I start clearing land and repairing the house, I might have to come every other day. Regardless, I’ll do my best to make the trip daily..."

Ning Xin figured that at her pace, she could manage the trip every day. At worst, she could just take an hour-long nap at noon. She was naturally energetic, and an hour of rest would be more than enough.

"Then it’s settled, Miss Ning. Any game you catch, you sell only to the Drunken Immortal Restaurant."

Ning Xin nodded vigorously.

Shopkeeper Yuan then brought up the mule again. "This mule has quite an appetite. If you need to buy large quantities of grain in the future, I can put in a word for you; I can probably get you a discount of half a copper or a copper per pound."

A copper off per pound meant ten coppers for ten pounds, or a hundred for a hundred. Even half a copper off per pound saved fifty coppers for every hundred pounds.

Ning Xin was overjoyed. "Shopkeeper Yuan, then it’s a deal. Once my new house is finished, I’ll count on you to help me with that."

"It’s a simple matter, no trouble at all."

Shopkeeper Yuan had made this trip personally just to ensure Ning Xin felt grateful and to secure a verbal agreement that she would sell her game exclusively to his restaurant. With the grain discount as a lure, there was little chance of anyone else interfering. The trip had been well worth it.

At the crossroads, Ning Xin parted ways with Shopkeeper Yuan. She led the mule, pulling the cart full of corn and straw, toward Ning Village.

As luck would have it, Widow Lin spotted her. She watched in disbelief as Ning Xin sauntered past, mule and cart in tow. It didn't take much to guess that the cart was loaded with grain.

Widow Lin squinted. At first, the mule had been eager to show off, pulling the load at a brisk pace. But Ning Xin kept up with it effortlessly, not even breaking a sweat.

The mule: "..."

It stopped, twisted its body, and actually managed to shake off the harness.

"..."

Ning Xin wasn't sure if other people's mules were this clever, but the one she bought seemed remarkably intelligent and full of its own ideas. Since the mule refused to pull the load, she decided to pull it herself. Seven hundred pounds didn't seem that heavy. Ning Xin tried it and found she could move it just fine.

Seeing this, the mule started to trot. When Ning Xin noticed it running, she hurried to catch up with the cart. Thus, a bizarre scene unfolded on the country path: the mule was running fast, and the person pulling the cart was running just as fast.

The mule: "..."

The mule couldn't speak, but the way it kept huffing through its nostrils showed it was unhappy. Very unhappy. It couldn't outrun Ning Xin while pulling the cart, but Ning Xin could catch up to it while doing the pulling herself. Thinking of this, the mule huffed even more aggressively.

When the villagers of Ning Village saw Ning Xin pulling the cart with a mule walking alongside her, they were struck dumb with astonishment.

"Is that Ning Xin?"

"A mule? Did Ning Xin buy that?"

"Just how much money can she make?"

"If she can hunt wild boars, she can surely hunt other things."

Many villagers were envious, while the clever ones had already started plotting other things—such as marrying Ning Xin off to their sons or nephews. In short, they were looking for ways to transplant this "money tree" into their own homes.

Ning Xin was unaware that she had become the object of so much attention. She was too busy racing the mule. Pulling the seven hundred pounds wasn't tiring, but trying to keep the mule from running off while multitasking left her slightly breathless.

As she neared home, she picked up her pace, and the mule followed suit. Just as they reached her doorstep, Ning Xin slammed on the brakes.

"Whoa..."

"Whoa..."

The mule tried to stop too, but it was moving with such momentum that it couldn't halt in time, stumbling and landing face-first in the dirt.

A series of mule brays rang out.

"..."

Ning Xin burst into laughter.

Ning Wen, Ning Wu, and Ning Qi, who were playing in the courtyard, heard the noise and shouted happily, "Mother, Mother, big sister is back!"

Madam Meng was busy in the kitchen, planning to steam some corn buns for lunch and stir-fry some vegetables to go with them. Hearing her sons, she wiped her hands on her apron and went to open the courtyard gate.

"..."

What was she seeing? Madam Meng rubbed her eyes. Her daughter was pulling a cart piled high with large sacks. Beside her daughter, a tall, imposing mule was spitting at her, and she was laughing while shielding her face.

"Haha, I'll stop laughing," Ning Xin said, though her laughter didn't subside in the slightest. She truly couldn't help it.

Ning Wen, Ning Wu, and Ning Qi didn't dare blink. What were they seeing? What had their big sister brought home... Could this be the mule she mentioned last night? But it looked even more majestic and handsome than the one she had described!

"Ah Xin..." Madam Meng’s voice trembled. This child, this child—she said she’d buy a mule, and she actually did it. How could she be so bold? How much grain would this mule consume in a year? And most importantly, who buys livestock if not to do work? Her Ah Xin was something else—pulling the cart herself while the mule walked along empty.