The silence in the room was brittle, like old parchment ready to tear.
Su Wan now the Matriarch of the ruined Su family stared at her eldest son, Su Ren. In her previous life, she had dealt with predatory landlords and HR managers who tried to cheat her out of her overtime pay. She knew that glint in his eyes. It was the look of a man who didn't see a mother; he saw a hurdle between him and a bag of silver.
"Repeat that," she said. Her voice was thin and raspy, like dry leaves skittering over stone, but it carried an edge that made the room turn cold. "You want to sell the children... where?"
Su Ren flinched. He was used to his mother being a weeping willow, a woman who hid in her scriptures while the family fortune bled dry. This sudden, icy authority was like a slap.
"Mother, be realistic!" Su Ren recovered quickly, his eyes darting greedily to the cracked jade bracelet on her wrist. "The debt collectors from the Black Tiger Pavilion will be here by sunset. Three hundred gold pieces! If we don't pay, they won't just take the house; they'll take our lives. Selling the twins to the mines and the girl to the Blossom House is the only way to save the rest of us."
"The rest of us?" Su Wan leaned back against the hard wooden headboard. Her 50-year-old body felt like it was made of lead, but her 23-year-old mind was a razor. "You mean you and your gambling debts, Su Ren? Or perhaps your brother's collection of 'rare' calligraphy that he can't even read?"
The younger son, Su He, bristled from the corner. "Mother, don't be cruel. Brother is just trying to keep the Su name alive. Besides, you're half-dead anyway. What use do you have for that jade bracelet? Give it here before the debt collectors see it and take it for themselves."
He stepped forward, his fingers reaching out with a desperate, stained greed.
SLAP!
The sound of Su Wan's hand striking Su He's face echoed like a whip crack. The room went dead silent. The little boy clutching her sleeve, her grandson Xiao Chen, let out a tiny gasp of awe.
"You dare?" Su Wan hissed. She didn't feel like a dying old woman; she felt like a wolf defending her pack. "I am the head of this house. Until the dirt is shoveled over my face, you do not touch a single thread of this family's assets without my permission. Am I clear?"
"You... you crazy old hag!" Su He sputtered, clutching his reddening cheek. "Fine! Die with your jade! When the Black Tigers get here, we won't hide you. We'll tell them you're the one who signed the promissory notes!"
"I didn't sign them," Su Wan said calmly. She was bluffing she didn't know the full history yet but in any business negotiation, the one who flinches first loses. "And if you think those thugs will be satisfied with a few children and an old woman, you're more idiotic than you look. They want the Su Manor. They want the land. And once they have the deeds, they'll kill you both just to clear the paperwork."
The two sons went pale. They were greedy, but they were cowards at heart.
"Then what do we do?" Su Ren stammered. "We have no money! You spent the last of the family savings on that 'miracle medicine' that clearly did nothing but make you go mad!"
Su Wan looked at the side table. There sat the "medicine" a bowl of dark, pungent liquid. Beside it lay a small, discarded pouch of dried herbs. She leaned forward, sniffing the air.
Wait.
As a junior chemist in her past life, she had spent thousands of hours in a lab. She recognized that scent. It wasn't medicine. It was Xun-Lu, a rare root that, when fermented properly, acted as a powerful fixative for high-end perfumes. In this era, it was likely being sold as a useless sedative, but to a modern chemist, it was liquid gold.
In the book she had been reading, the Su family lived in the Great Zhou Dynasty. During this time, the Imperial Court was obsessed with "Celestial Scents."
"Xiao Chen," she whispered to the boy.
"Yes, Grandma?"
"Go to the kitchen. Bring me a bottle of the strongest rice wine, a piece of charcoal, and a clean muslin cloth. Quickly. Do not let your uncles see what you are doing."
The boy nodded, his eyes bright with a new hope, and scrambled away.
"What are you doing?" Su Ren sneered. "Drowning your sorrows before the Tigers arrive?"
"I'm saving this family," Su Wan said, her eyes narrowing as she looked at her reflection in the bronze mirror. "Since I lost my 300 million in one life, I suppose I'll just have to make it back in this one. Now, get out. All of you. Except for Ling'er."
She pointed to the trembling maid. As the sons retreated, muttering curses about "senile old women," Su Wan turned to the girl.
"Ling'er, tell me the truth. Who is the leader of the Black Tiger Pavilion? And why does he want this house so badly?"
"M-Madam," Ling'er whispered, checking the door. "It's Lord Wei. They say... they say he doesn't care about the gold. He wants the 'Dragon's Breath' map hidden in the foundation. The one your late husband supposedly left behind."
Su Wan's heart skipped. A map? This wasn't in the chapters she had read! The plot was already shifting.
Suddenly, a massive BOOM shook the front gates of the manor. The sound of splintering wood echoed through the courtyard, followed by the heavy boots of many men.
"SU FAMILY! TIME IS UP!" a voice roared a voice like gravel being crushed. "PAY THE THREE HUNDRED GOLD OR WE START BURNING THE HOUSE WITH YOU INSIDE!"
Su Wan stood up. Her legs wobbled, but she straightened her spine until she looked every bit the powerful Matriarch she was born to be.
"Ling'er, the wine is here," she said as Xiao Chen burst back into the room with the supplies. "Now, watch closely. I'm about to show these 'Tigers' the difference between a debt and an investment."
She took the bottle of rice wine and the Xun-Lu herbs. Her hands were wrinkled, but her movements were precise. She began the distillation process her own way, ignoring the screams of her sons in the courtyard.
If she couldn't win the lottery, she would create a monopoly.