26: Chapter 26 Fourth Life, All-in Failure? Watch Me Turn the Tide (Part 3)

The first thing he had to do was to take stock of all the savings the original owner had accumulated before he awakened his memories.

This was truly the most destitute and difficult situation he had been in across all his lifetimes.

Even in his first life, before he had awakened his Golden Finger, he still had his mother there to support him.

His nose stung slightly, and he missed his mother; once everything settled down, he would go back to Heishi Village to visit her.

Coming back to his senses, he followed the memories in his mind and slowly reached his hand into a crack in the corner of the woodpile, prying open a particularly dirty and loose floor tile in the corner.

A small parcel, wrapped tightly in three layers of oil paper, suddenly appeared before his eyes.

The moment he unwrapped the oil paper, Wang Shi could not help but feel a jolt in his heart.

Inside, neatly stacked, were eleven taels of gleaming silver, along with a string of three hundred copper coins tightly bound with hemp rope.

Good heavens, he really knew how to save.

As a low-ranking servant in the Tianhuang Princes Mansion, his monthly wage was only five hundred copper coins, but after the steward took his cut, he received less than seventy percent of that.

Furthermore, because he didn't know how to grease palms and had a sullen personality, he couldn't even manage a full meal on a daily basis.

Living like this—tightening his belt and scraping by for every bite—the original owner had endured for three years, saving up this sum that could be called a "huge fortune."

Wang Shi ran his fingertips over the cold silver ingots, unable to help but feel genuine admiration for his pre-awakened self.

Why hadn't he known before that he had such an ability to save money? If he had possessed this kind of resolve before transmigrating, he wouldn't have ended up...

Clutching this nest egg, Wang Shi felt a bit more confident, and quickly decided how to use this money.

First, he would take out three taels of silver to offer to Steward Liu Quan.

It wasn't that he was willing to be exploited, but right now, he was under someone else's roof and had to bow his head.

He had to first grease the palms of this tyrant who was always finding fault and skimming off his rations; at the very least, he needed to secure a stable life where he could eat his fill, build up his health, and only then would he have the energy to talk about anything else.

Once his body had recovered a little, he would take out another tael of silver to ask Liu Quan to do him a favor and take him to the martial arts hall of the Tianhuang Princes Mansion to test his aptitude.

When he started, he had added 50 points to Aptitude and 50 points to Comprehension, which was definitely a mid-grade aptitude.

Although it couldn't compare to the geniuses with top-grade aptitude, it was enough to be accepted by the martial arts hall and be taught basic martial arts.

As long as he could enter the martial arts hall to practice, and become a reserve guard for the Tianhuang Princes Mansion, he would have jumped out of this quagmire where he was at the mercy of others' abuse.

Not only would his monthly wage increase several times over, but the people and things he could come into contact with would be incomparable to this corner of the woodshed.

Only then would it be truly legitimate to gather information and plan his future path.

With his plan settled, Wang Shi didn't dare to delay; he quickly wrapped the remaining silver back in the oil paper as it was and stuffed it back into the secret compartment under the floor tile.

He only kept the three taels of silver for bribing Liu Quan close to his body, wrapping it tightly inside his coarse cloth undergarment.

Outside the window, the sky was already faintly turning the color of a fish's belly; there was less than an hour left before the morning work shift.

The woodshed was biting cold; he wrapped his patched, thin clothes tightly around himself and curled up in the straw pile, closing his eyes to doze off.

His mind kept going over what he would say when handing over the silver: he had to appear like a naive youth who had been worn down for three years and finally wised up, just wanting a full meal.

He couldn't act too timid either; after all, he had been a stubborn bone for three years, so he had to show some reluctance; only then would it seem reasonable.

After all, anyone who could become a steward in the Tianhuang Princes Mansion was a shrewd person; he must not let him see any flaws, and even more so, he must not let him see his ambition.

When the morning bell rang, Wang Shi scrambled up, grabbed a broom, and went to the front courtyard.

He finished the work that usually took all morning to complete quickly and neatly, even pulling out all the weeds in the corners of the courtyard, and waited quietly for Liu Quan to arrive.

Sure enough, just past noon, Liu Quan arrived at the secondary courtyard, strolling with his hands behind his back.

In the past, whenever he entered the door, he would always pick faults and scold him for half an hour; today, just as he frowned and was about to start picking faults, Wang Shi had already hurried up to meet him.

The moment he bowed to salute, he used the cover of his wide sleeves to slip the three taels of heavy silver into Liu Quan's hand.

Liu Quan's hand paused; he was stunned at first, but then he weighed the silver, and a flash of pleasant surprise instantly crossed his eyes.

Glancing sideways at Wang Shi, he lowered his voice and said, "You brat, in the past, you couldn't even squeeze a fart out of you with three sticks. What's going on today? Did the sun rise in the west?"

"Steward Liu, in the past, I was ignorant, stupid, and awkward, and I caused you a lot of trouble. You are a magnanimous person, please don't take it to heart."

Wang Shi bowed lower, his voice very respectful, "I just... I just really couldn't bear the hunger anymore."

"I don't ask for anything else, I just want a stable life where I can eat my fill. In the future, I will definitely work hard for you, Steward, and I would never dare to have any disloyal thoughts."

These words perfectly dispelled the doubts in Liu Quan's heart.

He thought about it and realized it made sense; this kid was just a naive youth, how could he have any other schemes? He immediately set his mind at ease.

He tucked the silver into his chest, deliberately cleared his throat, assumed a magnanimous air, and patted Wang Shi on the shoulder:

"If you had been this sensible earlier, why would you have suffered so much? Alright, let bygones be bygones. Work hard in the future, and you won't go hungry."

Once these words were spoken, the stone in Wang Shi's heart finally fell to the ground.

That evening's dinner was, as expected, a world of difference.

In the past, what he received was always a bowl of rice porridge so thin you could see your reflection in it, served with two rock-hard, even moldy, steamed buns.

Today, however, the kitchen servant handed him a full bowl of densely packed brown rice, topped with a ladle of stewed radish with oil droplets, and even two slices of fatty cured meat.

Wang Shi held the bowl, huddled in the corner of the woodshed, eating mouthful by mouthful.

The aroma of the rice, combined with the warmth of the oil, slid down his throat and into a stomach that had been empty for three years, warming him until his nose stung slightly.

This was the first full meal he had eaten since coming to this life.

It had been such a long time since he felt so happy just because of a bite of food.

He didn't dare to wolf it down, fearing that his stomach, which had been hungry for so long, wouldn't be able to handle it, so he chewed slowly, swallowing every grain of rice completely, and even licked the vegetable broth from the bottom of the bowl clean.

In the following months, life visibly became smoother.

Wang Shi remained diligent, doing his assigned chores flawlessly.

Whatever Steward Liu ordered, even small tasks like serving tea, pouring water, or running errands, he handled impeccably, without a single mistake.

He also became much sweeter-tongued; whenever he saw Steward Liu, he always greeted him respectfully. Occasionally, when Steward Liu was in a good mood, he would throw in a couple of flattering words, gauging the measure perfectly—neither appearing to be deliberately ingratiating nor making Steward Liu feel uncomfortable.

Steward Liu didn't pick on him anymore, and occasionally, when in a good mood, would even praise him a few times.

His body recovered day by day; his originally sallow and sunken cheeks gradually gained a bit of color, and his thin shoulders also filled out a bit.

He was no longer the type to fall over with a gust of wind, and the clarity and resilience in his eyes grew stronger and stronger.

That evening, just after Wang Shi finished chopping wood, he saw Steward Liu returning while humming a tune, his face full of joy.

Upon asking, he learned that the head steward from the Third Prince's courtyard had rewarded him with a string of cash, praising him for managing the secondary courtyard well.