Chapter 154: The First Loan

Wang Siniang, upon her return, displayed a “nouveau riche” air that was different from her past self. According to the villagers who had done odd jobs in her courtyard, the silkworm houses were all made of brick and tile, and the floors were paved with square bricks—most people in the village lived in houses with only rammed earth floors.

Duoduo Niang, Shen Kaibao’s next-door neighbor, was from the same village as Wang Siniang’s mother and had a relatively good relationship with her. As soon as Shen and his wife returned, she went over. Her family had many children and a heavy burden, so she started doing odd jobs at Wang Siniang’s house. According to her, the Shen family’s silkworm houses were exquisite in many ways—not just the square brick floors.

“—The windows in those silkworm houses are all covered with screen covers!” Duoduo Niang said, washing clothes by the stream, her face animated as she recounted what she had seen. “Such long silkworm houses, with large windows on both the front and back walls. Just the screen covers for these windows must have used so much gauze, it’s a real waste!”

Although she said it was a waste, her tone had no sense of “waste” at all. Instead, it was as if she was boasting with pride, as if even she, a temporary worker, had become “high-class” along with them.

Someone listening to her laughed, “Duoduo Niang, you’ve had a few bowls of Wang Siniang’s cold rice and pickled radishes, and now you’re even boasting about a silkworm room for them.”

“Cold rice?” Duoduo Niang’s eyes rolled upwards. “You can’t even get cold rice. The Shen family gives us dry rice at every meal.”

A chorus of envious “tsk-tsks” immediately arose by the stream. With the silkworm season approaching and the lean season at hand, most families were running out of their reserves. It was the norm for most people in the village to get by on thin porridge mixed with miscellaneous grains and rice bran. Some families had had to borrow rice from relatives in better-off villages since the beginning of the month. The Famine Relief Bureau had also distributed some relief rice, but the quality was very poor. In normal times, it was food that even pigs wouldn’t eat. Even when made into porridge, it couldn’t fill their stomachs.

Duoduo Niang seemed to be intoxicated by this atmosphere. She was rarely the protagonist of the “streamside chat,” and she continued to boast about what she had seen while working at Wang Siniang’s house.

The Shen family’s silkworm houses were actually built according to the same design philosophy as the breeding farm Li Yo’er had built at Phoenix Mountain Estate. Of course, the equipment was far from as exquisite as the one on the estate, and it was even worse than the silkworm rooms at the Cihui Hall at the foot of the mountain. There were no large glass windows, blinds, or other overly impactful things. The hatching room was not equipped with copper pipe heating and cooling. However, the other facilities were all built according to standard.

By the standards of the old timeline, these facilities could only be considered “substitutes,” but in this time and space, they were a “luxurious configuration” that the sericulturists could not even dream of.

Just then, Shen Kaibao passed by the stream. Seeing Duoduo Niang boasting about Shen’s wife again, he felt a burst of anger. He had no particular grudge against the couple, especially after their misfortune, he even felt a little sympathy. But since their glorious return, he had been feeling very uncomfortable, always feeling that the Shen couple “shouldn’t be like this.”

“Shouldn’t be like this,” Shen Kaibao himself didn’t know what they should be like. In short, whenever someone talked about the couple, he would get angry. Now, hearing Duoduo Niang boasting again, he couldn’t help but say:

“What’s the point of all these fancy things for raising silkworms? We’ve been raising them this way for so many years. Can that Wang Siniang, with her ‘new method,’ raise some kind of immortal silkworm? It’s a waste of things, there will be retribution!”

Shen Kaibao’s outburst, with his beard and eyes wide, surprised the women by the stream. Men had always ignored the women’s chats by the stream and would never interrupt. His “sudden attack” stunned all the women for a moment.

After his outburst, he also felt it was inappropriate—why should he stoop to the level of women? It would only lower his “status.” He turned and walked away in a huff.

“He can’t eat meat himself, and he can’t stand to see others eat meat either!” suddenly someone among the group of women cursed softly.

From the voice, it was probably Duoduo Niang. Shen Kaibao was so angry that his veins bulged, but he couldn’t do anything about it—he was over fifty, and if it got out that he had quarreled with women, the villagers would laugh him to death.

Suppressing his anger, he returned home. The women and children of his family were pasting “silkworm trays” under the eaves. His wife and Daqing’s wife were very skilled, and they pasted the newly bought “Guangdong paper” very smoothly. Shen Kaibao felt a little relieved. He had been afraid that the Guangdong paper he had bought on the cheap would not be suitable and would become a joke.

On the pasted “silkworm trays,” three small pieces of colored paper were pasted in a triangular pattern—they were bought together: one was printed with a “treasure basin,” and the other two were of people on horseback holding pointed flags, said to be the “Silkworm Flower Princes.”

The pasted “silkworm trays” were put out in the sun to dry. This was also an old rule that had been followed for many years. Following the old rules would never be wrong, Shen Kaibao thought. Daqing’s wife patted her hands on her work skirt and said:

“Father! There’s no rice left at home, and even the barley flour is almost gone…”

“What about the rice from the Famine Relief Bureau?”

“They only gave us thirty catties of rice in total, and almost half of it is ash and grain husks. How many days can a family eat on that?”

Shen Kaibao couldn’t think of a solution either. There was rice in the street, and it didn’t have ash and grain husks, but at a price of three mace per dou, it was something they absolutely couldn’t afford.

The few coins they had at home had to be saved for buying mulberry leaves when it was urgent.

In previous years at this time, they would borrow a little from the village, Daqing’s wife would borrow a little from her parents’ home, and they would buy a little on credit from a familiar shop in the street. They could get through this month somehow. As long as the spring silkworms were on their way, they would have made it through.

But last year’s drought had left every family destitute. There was nowhere to borrow from. The familiar shops in the street were also unwilling to give credit now. After a disaster, they had suffered too many bad debts. It was a great fortune that they could continue to operate, so how could they dare to give credit?

Of course, they could borrow from Master Cao’s family. But the debt that was already crushing him would only increase. The thought of his little bit of land that had already been mortgaged made Shen Kaibao’s heart panic.

“If there’s no rice to cook, do I have rice?” Shen’s father said angrily. He and his wife had already had a disagreement over whether to go to Wang Siniang’s house to do odd jobs.

Originally, Daqing’s wife wanted Shen Kaibao to use his relationship as a clan brother to introduce her to work at the Shen family’s house—many women wanted to work at the Shen family’s house. Daqing’s wife had thought of it too late and couldn’t get in, so she had to ask her father-in-law to use his old face.

Unexpectedly, Shen Kaibao was looking at Wang Siniang with displeasure and felt that it was a disgrace to ask Shen Da for help, so he was completely unwilling to open his mouth. The two of them often argued over this matter.

“I’ve said it before, this year is not like previous years. Everyone can only tighten their belts and be more frugal…”

“The porridge is already so thin you can see your reflection in it. How can we be more frugal? The adults can endure, but can the children?” Daqing’s wife retorted angrily. “I only know that if there is rice, we can cook. If there is no rice, we will starve!” At the end, she added, “Face can’t be eaten as food!”

Shen Kaibao’s face turned purple with anger. The two of them said no more.

The date for “receiving the silkworms” was approaching day by day. The preparations for raising silkworms in the village became more and more intense. But the predicament of having no rice to cook made everyone feel very miserable. The problem that Shen Kaibao’s family encountered was the same for almost every family in the village. Just at this time, Wang Siniang came out and said she could lend money to everyone to get through the difficult times.

The loan was in rice, recorded at the market price of three mace per dou. When repaying, they only needed to use cocoons to calculate the silver value at the market price to repay.

“This is a ‘good deed’ from my master, Master Zhao,” Wang Siniang said to a group of villagers who had come upon hearing the news. “The interest is only one percent. You can repay it when the cocoons are harvested!”

The whole process of raising silkworms takes a little over a month, which means the monthly interest rate is less than one percent. At a time when the market rate is generally over three percent, this is tantamount to doing a good deed.

More importantly, they could repay the debt with cocoons—if they had to repay in cash, they would inevitably be exploited by the silk and cocoon guilds. Repaying directly with cocoons saved them the labor of reeling the silk themselves.

The conditions were too favorable, almost too good to be true. But both Shen Da and Wang Siniang swore to it and expressed their willingness to sign a written agreement, with the terms clearly written in black and white.

The villagers hesitated for a few days, but finally, unable to bear the hunger, they all signed the agreement and borrowed rice from the Shen family. Not only people from their own village came to borrow, but also people from neighboring villages, who had heard the news, also sent people to borrow rice. The Shen family’s house was bustling with activity.

The loan procedure was very convenient. For people from the same village, no intermediary or guarantor was needed. For people from other villages, a villager from their own village had to act as a guarantor. The promissory notes were all pre-printed forms. The scribe would fill in the numbers with a bamboo pen with a sharp iron tip, and the borrower would press their handprint on two copies, one for each party.

After the promissory note was signed, the scribe would directly issue rice coupons according to the numbers, and the villagers could go to the rice shop in town to collect the rice themselves. It was convenient for everyone.

Shen Kaibao was originally unwilling to borrow. He had thought that he had to be tough no matter what, but his stomach could not be fooled. When Aqing’s wife angrily pushed all the children in front of Shen Kaibao, and he saw their pale, gray faces, he finally compromised.

Smoke rose from the chimneys of every household, and the long-lost aroma of cooked rice also wafted out. The villagers’ faces were smiling again. With food in their stomachs, they worked even harder. Now their only hope was the spring silkworms. All the temporary loans were specified to be repaid from the “spring silkworm harvest.”

The “Guyu” solar term was approaching day by day. The “silkworm eggs” in the villagers’ homes were faintly showing green. The sericulturists here all saved their own seeds every year. Only those who were unlucky and whose silkworms had not grown well that year would buy silkworm eggs from outside.

By saving their own seeds this way, the silkworm breeds had severely degenerated and were often infected with viruses, so the sericulture at that time was almost entirely dependent on luck. It was not surprising that the silkworm harvest was sometimes good and sometimes bad.