Chapter 88: Exchanging Handguns
Gu Qingyue and his brother went out with Xu Sa. All three were quite cautious. They walked around the trading market and were just about to hire someone to do the promotion when they saw Little Liu. They simply gave Little Liu a profit of two or three pounds per item and made him the contractor.
When Ning Yuan left, he gave Gu Qingyue a price. On the way to the market, Xu Sa raised the prices of some things, especially items he thought were temporarily useless like clothes and mats. Even so, there were still quite a few people coming to exchange.
Initially, most of those who came were exchanging vegetables and fruits. For people going out to find supplies, these weren’t scarce; a quick trip around the surrounding villages could yield a lot. Although plentiful, they couldn’t be the main food source, and compared to other items, the price was high – twenty pounds could be exchanged for a bottle of water, and a bottle of water could be exchanged for over twenty pounds of flour, enough for one person to eat for quite a few days. Next were wheat and corn cobs. Anyone who had been to the villages would have collected these. With the lack of water and electricity, they couldn’t be cooked and couldn’t be eaten directly, so it was better to exchange them for water and then exchange the water for other food.
Although the prices of the traded goods were set high, many of them were considered useless by others, such as seeds and clothing. They couldn’t be eaten or drunk, and whether one could survive until later was uncertain. People with few supplies wouldn’t keep them, so quite a few people came to trade. Some who didn’t have enough to exchange even pooled their resources with others to get a bottle of water.
Initially, there weren’t many people, but after batches of successful exchangers went out and spread the word, people from the entire trading market began to flock here. The people staying at home became quite busy, so Xu Sa simply hired a few more people to help count the supplies.
Around five o’clock in the afternoon, the people who had gone out returned, still driving two cars, with some supplies in them, but not obviously a lot. There were too many people crowded outside the villa for the cars to pass, so the group parked the cars not far away, left one person to watch the cars, and the rest each carried a backpack and walked towards the house.
“How was it?” Xu Sa, who was tallying goods at the door, immediately asked when he saw the group, his gaze sweeping over Liu Rui who was behind. Seeing that he wasn’t injured, he breathed a sigh of relief.
“Not bad,” Li Zhuang, who was walking in front, carried a bulging backpack and a snakeskin bag in his hand, which jingled as he walked.
“What about you?” He had just asked when he saw the courtyard, which was piled so high that only a narrow path remained. He answered himself, “Looks like it was good too.”
Gu Qingyue smiled and nodded, “Quickly go back and rest for a while.”
As soon as the group entered the house, they discovered that not only the courtyard but also the living room of the villa was piled high. Where the sofas and coffee table had been, there were now stacks of bags, some new and some old, containing flour, rice, and even some with fertilizer brand names written on them. Except for Zhuang Mingxu’s room, only the kitchen and bathroom on the first floor were still accessible through their doors. The other places were completely filled.
“So many things, can we carry them all?” Xiong Jie asked, drinking a bottle of water handed to him by Xi Shi.
Li Zhuang shrugged, indicating he didn’t know, called out “Little friend,” and handed his backpack and the bag in his hand over.
“Definitely can,” Antonio said with absolute confidence, also taking off his backpack.
Lu Weiyi came out of the bedroom, opened everyone’s backpacks and glanced at them. The jade quality varied, some good and some bad. He gave everyone an OK sign, put away the backpacks, and returned to his room. As soon as he entered, he carried them directly into the space.
With a clatter, the pile landed. As soon as it touched the well water, a clear stinging pain immediately came from below his navel. This time it lasted for about seven or eight minutes. The itchy feeling made Lu Weiyi unable to resist the urge to scratch. After finally enduring it, he turned his head to look and saw that the surrounding area had clearly expanded by about double. Lu Weiyi happily left the space.
Zhuang Mingxu glanced at his expression and felt relieved. After all, there were so many supplies outside. If the jade pendant couldn’t expand the space, they wouldn’t be able to take so many things if they wanted to leave. “How much did it expand?”
“About double. Should I put everything away now?” The supplies exchanged today had already filled the space after he only put away a portion of the initial vegetables. Now that the space had expanded, Lu Weiyi wanted to put everything in.
“…Don’t.”
“Hmm?”
Having just taken away the jade, the full space could now hold things again. Anyone could guess that his space expanded because of the jade. Zhuang Mingxu hadn’t spent much time with the people outside and wasn’t sure about their character, so he didn’t want Lu Weiyi to reveal this too early.
“Not yet. Someone will definitely ask later how we’re going to take these things. Just say the space is about to upgrade, and we were busy catching people last night so we were delayed. It should be almost done tonight.” Zhuang Mingxu didn’t understand the upgrade of abilities, so he could only roughly explain based on Lu Weiyi’s previous introduction. “By the way, ask how everyone else’s abilities are, if they feel like they’re about to upgrade, and mention that your wood-based ability has upgraded.”
“Wood-based ability upgrade?” Lu Weiyi wasn’t a wood-based ability user. The small green branches could let him pretend, but he really didn’t know what it would look like after an upgrade.
“Length,” Zhuang Mingxu said, “Try again.” If, as Lu Weiyi said, the jade pendant could expand the space, then the increased range of the small green branches could also be considered an upgrade.
Lu Weiyi controlled the small green branches. The original seventy or eighty meters in length had clearly reached over a hundred, able to circle a small half of the room. Lu Weiyi said happily, “It’s longer?”
“Yes, remember these things, try not to let people think your space is upgrading because of the jade,” Zhuang Mingxu instructed again.
“Okay, I understand,” Lu Weiyi replied.
While the exchange of supplies was in full swing on their side, the three forces in the base each had their own thoughts. Zhang Xun was intentionally probing how much water Lu Weiyi had, secretly having people pay attention, but hadn’t taken action yet. Liu Qiang had people searching for a day but couldn’t find his subordinates and was discussing what to do with the others. As for Lin Jun, at this moment, Lin Jun had already brought the newly found core and the jade pendant and was visiting again.
Lu Weiyi had just told everyone to stop exchanging supplies and take a break to prepare for dinner. The people outside hadn’t all left yet when Lin Jun, Wang Ning, and Lin Fei walked to the door, followed by seven or eight people, each carrying a box.
Everyone knew what Lin Jun was there for, so no one asked any extra questions. Xu Sa let them into the courtyard, said “Just a moment,” and then told Lu Xi to go inside and call Lu Weiyi, “Tell him Director Lin from Longteng is here.”
Lu Xi responded and trotted inside. After a moment, he came out with Lu Weiyi.
“How many did you gather?” According to Zhuang Mingxu’s calculations, people from Zhang Xun and Liu Qiang might both come, so Lu Weiyi didn’t bother with pleasantries with Lin Jun and went straight to the point.
Lin Jun had the person beside him hand over the box containing the cores first. Lu Weiyi opened it and looked. There were twenty-five cores in total, a real bargain, but he wouldn’t say so.
“Want one?” Lu Weiyi calmly closed the box and asked Lin Jun. He believed that someone like Lin Jun could definitely get jade.
Lin Jun didn’t say anything and had his men open all the other boxes. The boxes were filled with various high-quality jade ornaments, cabbages, pixiu, and safety buckles, everything imaginable. The quality was worlds apart from what Li Zhuang and the others had brought back. Before the apocalypse, just these things would have been worth hundreds of millions.
“Adding these, can we exchange for three?” Lin Jun asked Lu Weiyi.
Countless “exchange, exchange, exchange” rolled through Lu Weiyi’s mind, but his face remained calm. “Two. I just like jade. It’s fine if I have it, and I won’t force it if I don’t. My interest in it isn’t even as great as a few cores.”
“These things are worth hundreds of millions!” Lin Jun felt a pang of heartache, but also some unwillingness.
“But now they’re not even worth a piece of bread,” Lu Weiyi said directly.
Lin Jun knew this was also true. He was silent for a moment, then waved at the people behind him, signaling them to give the things. Xu Sa, standing behind Lu Weiyi, told someone to move the boxes back and said to Li Zhuang and Antonio behind him, “You two are skilled, give me the guns.”
Antonio made an OK sign.
He took out the gun he had prepared beforehand from his back waist and handed it to Lu Weiyi. At the same time, Li Zhuang also took out one.
“I still want the other six. What price for exchanging with supplies?” Lin Jun didn’t take the gun Lu Weiyi offered and asked.
“Two won’t be exchanged.” His was given by Li Zhuang, and Dean’s clearly looked like something Antonio carried with him before the apocalypse. Lu Weiyi had no authority over them. “For the others, one thousand pounds of vegetables, fruits, eggs, and meat, twelve hundred pounds of instant food, and fifteen hundred pounds of rice and flour.”
Lin Jun was able to have a place in the base because he had a lot of supplies. Hearing Lu Weiyi’s offer was still within his acceptable range, and he felt a slight relief, only to hear him add, “One.”
“Why don’t you just rob us?” Lin Fei had been lectured by his father after returning last time, who roughly explained the situation they were facing and had decided to absolutely not go against Lu Weiyi. But he still couldn’t help but speak at this moment.
“You don’t have to take it. I didn’t beg you,” Lu Weiyi felt particularly speechless every time he saw him. He threw the two handguns in his hand towards the people opposite and said coldly, “See them out.”
Lin Jun and Wang Ning hurriedly caught the two guns and put them away. Lin Jun glared at Lin Fei and quickly stepped forward to chase after Lu Weiyi, “Young Master Lu, let’s discuss it again…”
“There’s no room for discussion.” Lu Weiyi originally had a good impression of Lin Jun, but after hearing Zhuang Mingxu’s implication last night that this person might also be secretly planning to attack them, that bit of goodwill was gone. He turned to look at Lin Jun. “Later, the police station will also exchange water with supplies. Once their supplies arrive, I might not need your things anymore.”
“…Exchange.” Lin Jun almost gritted his teeth to say the word. Lu Weiyi could even see his body tremble after he said it. “Four, fully equipped.”
“Okay, you guys move the things over,” Lu Weiyi said, then remembering Zhuang Mingxu’s words, added, “If you can’t bear to part with them, you can continue to look for cores to exchange tomorrow.”
“You’re not leaving tomorrow?” Lin Jun asked in surprise.
“Mingxu’s medicine is used up, and his leg is still bad. We’re going to the pharmacy to find medicine tomorrow, and we’ll leave the day after,” Lu Weiyi said with a calm expression, his true intentions indiscernible.
I wonder how much Jade will be needed to upgrade the space to ten fold