Chapter 79: House Made of Cloth

Chapter 79: Chapter 79: House Made of Cloth

After a careful calculation, Yun Zhen realized that after deducting the cost of the tents and the stoves, she had exactly one hundred and ten yuan left.

She planned to spend it all on coal. Combined with the two hundred catties the owner was giving her for free, she would have a total of three hundred and ten catties—enough to last the entire village for quite a while. The coal would be used to bank the fire at night, ensuring the embers remained alive so they wouldn’t need to reignite a fire from scratch the next morning. During the rest of the day, they could just use firewood for heating.

"I’ll take one hundred and ten catties of coal!

"Mr. Owner, could you please move the stoves and the coal to the alley from the other day? My family will come by later to pick them up."

Only then did the store owner recognize the young woman before him as the customer who had previously bought two large stoves from his shop. A returning customer! His expression grew even friendlier. He figured her family must run a shop of their own and that she was here to stock up on inventory.

Eager to keep her business, the owner waved his hand generously. "Since you’re a returning customer, and I’m an honest businessman, I’ll throw in thirty sets of stove accessories on top of the two hundred catties of coal. Each set comes with fire tongs, a fire hook, and a coal shovel."

Yun Zhen was pleasantly surprised. "Thank you! You are so generous!"

To be honest, she wasn’t entirely sure what "fire tongs" were used for, but she clearly understood that he was giving her thirty more freebies. Every little bit helped, not to mention that the store owners in the Immortal Realm were exceptionally generous, and their free gifts were always top-tier goods.

She pulled out a wad of cash and handed it to the owner. Payment upon delivery! This time, she truly didn’t have a single cent left to her name. But it was money well spent!

The stove store owner helped Yun Zhen transport the stoves and the three hundred and ten catties of coal into the alley. Seeing the quilt store owner there, he asked, "You bought this many quilts too?"

"The quilts are free gifts," the quilt store owner told him. "She bought sixty small tents and three medium ones from my shop!"

The stove store owner clicked his tongue in amazement. He thought to himself that this young woman’s family business must be quite large. Thankfully, he had been astute enough to give her a lot of complimentary items. This way, she would consider stocking up at his store in the future, and he would continue to make money.

"Thank you for the trouble. You two can head back to your shops now," Yun Zhen said, a bright smile on her face as she looked at the mountain of supplies piled on the ground. With her pressing concerns resolved, she felt completely at ease.

"When is your family coming?" the quilt store owner offered. "I can help you load the goods onto your cart."

"I can help out too," the stove store owner nodded.

Feeling a twinge of guilt, Yun Zhen quickly waved her hands and smiled. "That won’t be necessary, but thank you both for the kind offer. My family still has some unfinished business and isn’t sure when they’ll arrive. I shouldn’t hold you up from running your shops."

"I see," the quilt store owner said thoughtfully. "Alright then. If you can’t move it all later, just come find me at the shop."

"You can come find me for help too," the stove store owner added.

With that, the two men took their leave.

Yun Zhen let out a massive sigh of relief.

"Return!" she chanted silently.

This time, she arrived inside the room at Grandpa Zhang’s house where her parents and daughter were settling in.

THUD! THUD! THUD!

BANG! BANG! BANG!

The tent storage bags hit the floor with a series of dull, heavy thuds. A pile of small stoves crashed onto the ground, leaving numerous small craters in the dirt floor, while the bags of coal slammed down with loud bangs, stamping deep black marks into the earth.

Yun Zhen felt a flash of worry, wondering if such a massive commotion would bring the house crashing down.

"The Goddess has returned!"

Grandpa Zhang’s house was much more spacious than her own collapsed thatched cottage. The room was pleasantly warm, and the floor was lined with straw. Everyone sat on the straw, sipping from bowls of hot water. Before the Goddess returned, their hearts had been heavy, knowing just how thorny their current predicament was.

If they lacked food and clothing, they could buy grain and clothes. But what could they do if their houses collapsed? Could they really transport entire houses from the Immortal Realm? That was impossible! Where in the world were there movable houses? At the very least, they had never seen one. Even if the Immortal Realm had them, they surely wouldn’t be cheap—likely costing hundreds of taels of Silver. At hundreds of taels per house, with twenty-three households in the village, they would need at least twenty-three houses. Heavens! They didn’t even dare to imagine the cost.

Therefore, a grim mood had settled over the crowd, persisting right up until the moment the Goddess descended. Items rained down continuously from thin air. A holy white light bathed the entire room, and at its center, the Goddess materialized.

"Goddess!"

Upon seeing her, the hands holding their bowls of hot water began to tremble. They looked like a flock of fledgling birds crying out to be fed.

Yun Zhen’s first instinct was to check the house, finding it completely intact. "Thank goodness, the house didn’t collapse!" she remarked, feeling incredibly fortunate.

Everyone stared at the goods she had brought back. It was an entire mountain of supplies! There were large bundles, one after another, filled with unknown contents. The small black chunks peeking out of the green bags were coal, which they had already seen the day before yesterday. There was also a pile of iron lumps shaped exactly like stoves, along with various iron rods—some resembling scissors, some with hooks, and others looking like oversized spatulas. The only thing they could identify with absolute certainty was that the Goddess had bought another ten massive bales of bedding!

Yun Zhen didn’t let them guess for long. She got straight to the point. "Father, Mother, Uncle Village Chief, and everyone else—I found houses in the Immortal Realm that can shelter us from the wind and rain. Just hold on for one more night. Tomorrow, you won’t have to squeeze into dangerous homes that could collapse at any second!"

"What!"

The crowd was stunned! They simultaneously fixed their gazes upon Yun Zhen.

Yun Zhen nodded solemnly, a smile playing on her lips. "I’m not deceiving you all!"

Yun Xiu, Yun Old Lady, and the Village Chief clearly saw her calm, composed expression and the relieved smile on her face. Yun Xiu knew his daughter’s temperament all too well; she would never fool everyone with empty promises.

"The Goddess just said she found houses to shelter us from the wind and rain! We can move into them tomorrow!" Zhou Dashan said, his eyes welling with hot tears.

Tian Ergou nodded vigorously. "We heard it right! The Goddess told us to hold on for one more night, and tomorrow we won’t have to live in houses riddled with cracks."

Speaking with utter reverence, Li Cuilan asked, "Goddess, may I ask if the houses you found are made of mud or thatch? Or are they stone and wooden houses? These... these houses are built into the ground. How will you bring them over tomorrow?"

The villagers also looked forward to the Goddess’s answer. In truth, they simply lacked the worldly experience to understand! They couldn’t fathom moving into a new house in just a single day. Whether it was mud, thatch, stone, or wood, a house certainly couldn’t be built in a day. Had the Goddess learned an Immortal Technique to conjure houses out of thin air with a swish of her hand?

Even Yun Xiu couldn’t quite believe it. "Zhen Niang, can you really have everyone move into new houses tomorrow?"

Yun Zhen’s gaze was candid. She nodded at her father before addressing Li Cuilan and the rest of the villagers. "Rest assured, I would never joke about our predicament. I truly did find a type of house in the Immortal Realm. However, it isn’t made of mud or thatch, nor is it made of stone or wood. It is a house made of cloth."

"What? A house made of cloth?" The Village Chief had just taken a sip of hot water and nearly spat it out.

Could cloth be used to make a house? Was that even possible? Cloth was soft and flimsy; how could it stand on its own? Furthermore, cloth wasn’t waterproof. With sleet forecasted for the coming days, wouldn’t they all end up drenched like drowned rats?

Let alone the Village Chief and the simple-minded villagers, even Yun Xiu—the only one in the village who possessed the scholarly title of Tongsheng—couldn’t picture it. For a moment, everyone’s doubts only deepened.