Chapter 8: Merchant
Chu Jiu quickly finished recording the video log for the day.
When recording the video yesterday, the system popped up a very strange prompt: [Do not record the specific situation of the spirit beast; do not mention the shape and actions of the spirit beast.]
So Chu Jiu could only generally mention that he had a new partner.
Today, Little Can helped him pick cotton sheep so cleverly and vigorously, but he couldn’t talk about it in too much detail, so he could only vaguely mention it.
Like the previous two days, the system’s final reward was still 30 pioneer points.
Including the rewards he received from completing villagers’ commissions before, Chu Jiu had accumulated a full 170 pioneer points.
170 points, converted into Chinese yuan, was a full 170,000 yuan!
Chu Jiu, who had never touched so much money, couldn’t help but roll around on the bed a few times, almost laughing out loud, even though he knew that these pioneer points might all be used up.
Late at night.
Chu Jiu slept soundly, hugging a few dry grasses.
In the cat nest, a small head stood up.
Its ice-blue eyes looked around vigilantly, and then it jumped out through the gap between the window frames.
Little Can ran straight to the edge of the forest.
It was here that the audacious human tried to make it farm.
Although it was still not interested in farming, since “vegetables that can be cooked with fish can grow in the ground,” it could barely try to grow some.
It tilted its head, recalling the field facility blueprints that the human had shown it.
The first step was to remove these trees by the roots.
It jumped under the tree, stretched out its small paws with meat pads, and tried to push—
The tree didn’t move.
Little Can “meowed” and arched its body forward—
The tree stood still.
Little Can got anxious, biting, pushing, and scratching, and after a long time, it only left a few claw marks on the tree.
How could this be?!
Shouldn’t these trees fall down at the sound of its claws?
It used to be very strong.
Little Can, who couldn’t push down a single tree in the end, could only sit under the tree blankly, lost in thought.
It seemed… it couldn’t farm on its own.
What should it do?
Little Can’s ice-blue eyes looked deep into the dense forest.
*
The next day was Saturday, which was also the bi-weekly “market day” in Bean Village.
The village chief had said that magical creatures occasionally appeared on the road to the town, and most of the villagers were elderly, women, and children with limited mobility, so they rarely left here on weekdays.
If they wanted to replenish necessities such as salt, sugar, and ironware, everyone relied on purchasing from merchants who traveled between towns and mountain villages.
This bi-weekly market naturally became a major event in Bean Village.
Chu Jiu got up early in the morning, steamed a potato fruit for himself, fed some dried fish to the sleepy Little Can, and went out with his backpack.
Bean Village was indeed more lively than usual today.
Many elderly people whom Chu Jiu had never seen before walked slowly towards the small square, carrying packages that looked heavy.
There were also a few children whom Chu Jiu had seen once, carrying large bags and rushing to the small square with smiles.
The usually quiet village suddenly became more lively, and even the insects in the mountains chirped more happily.
When Chu Jiu arrived at the small square, the empty stalls had been occupied.
However, the things that the villagers brought out for sale and exchange were still the usual things:
Soybeans, corn, rabbit legs, chicken legs…
Soybeans and corn were okay, but meat like rabbit legs and chicken legs had been dried under the eaves for a while. They were neither fresh meat nor well-preserved cured meat, and their appearance was not very good.
So not many people stopped in front of these stalls.
On the other hand, a group of people gathered outside the merchant Yaris’s tent, and a line had already formed before the tent curtain was lifted.
Chu Jiu stood at the end of the line.
He planned to buy quilts, iron pots, knives, salt, sugar, flour, rice…
There were quite a few things he needed.
Standing in front of Chu Jiu was Cheng Yue, with her younger brother Cheng Lin.
In addition to exchanging for some salt and oil, Cheng Yue also planned to get some wool from the merchant to spin thread.
They couldn’t cultivate much land with just the two of them, Cheng Yue and Cheng Lin, so they had to rely more on spinning and weaving to make a living.
Chu Jiu and Cheng Yue chatted for a while, and he learned about the “relationship” between Yaris and Bean Village.
It turned out that years ago, Yaris received a deposit from a wealthy master to purchase soybeans, but the soybean yield was very low that year, and he couldn’t buy them anywhere else. It was Bean Village that sold him the soybeans at the market price, helping the merchant through the difficult time.
At that time, Bean Village only had one condition: every half month in the future, the merchant had to bring goods to the village.
Over the years, Yaris did come every half month, but the price of the goods increased year by year.
While they were talking, the tent curtain was finally lifted—Yaris opened for business.
The first in line was Grandma Zhu, who had exchanged radishes for dull-headed fish.
Grandma Zhu placed a bag of soybeans on the scale that the merchant had set up, panting, and said, “Exchange for a bag of salt and half a bottle of oil.”
Yaris was a middle-aged man with a mustache and curly yellow-black hair.
He glanced at the count on the scale and shook his head, “This is not enough to exchange for so many things. I can only give you a small half bag of salt.”
Hearing the merchant’s words, Chu Jiu frowned and quickly calculated the price using the reference price given by the system:
This pile of soybeans was worth 30 copper coins, a bag of salt was 5 copper coins, and half a bottle of oil was 10 copper coins.
Grandma Zhu’s price was already very unfavorable, and the merchant asked to change it to exchange for a small half bag of salt, which meant that Grandma Zhu’s 30 copper coins worth of soybeans were only exchanged for 2 copper coins in the end.
This was not just a profiteer, it was almost daylight robbery.
Grandma Zhu was stunned and confused, “Yaris, this is not right, is it? You’ve raised the price too much.”
Yaris sat on the stool with his legs crossed, impatiently, “Exchange or not? If not, take your pile of trash and leave.”
Hearing that the soybeans she had worked so hard to grow were called “trash,” Grandma Zhu couldn’t take it. The old lady trembled with anger, but she couldn’t scold people, so she could only repeatedly say, “My soybeans are very good, what nonsense are you talking about!”
Behind Grandma Zhu, another gray-haired old man said, “Yaris, how can you raise the price on the spot! How can we exchange things like this!”
Yaris simply stood up, crossed his arms, and said, “Then I’ll make it clear!”
“From today on, your soybeans will be this price! The same goes for corn and radishes!”
“Exchange if you want, or get out!”
The villagers were stunned.
Everyone did a little calculation and understood: according to the price offered by Yaris, their soybeans and corn couldn’t be exchanged for anything, which was equivalent to giving them to Yaris for free.
The villagers naturally disagreed and wanted to bargain with Yaris. But Yaris simply said:
“This business ends today.”
“If you don’t want to exchange, I’ve long since stopped wanting to come.”
“What poor mountain village, except for corn and soybeans, there are only some rotten radishes and cabbages, nothing else. The money I earn from a trip is not enough to hire an ability-user as a bodyguard!”
In Yaris’s tent, there was indeed a burly gray-haired man standing—he was the ability-user he hired.
Merchants like them who didn’t have abilities usually spent money to hire ability-users to deal with the magical creatures on the road for safety.
Just as Yaris was about to pack up his tent and go to his carriage, someone shouted, “The village chief is here!” “It’s the village chief!”
Chu Jiu looked back and saw that it was indeed the village chief.
The old man walked to Yaris with a limp, leaning on his crutches, “Yaris, people should keep their promises! If you say you’re leaving, how will the people in the village exchange for salt and oil?”
Yaris spread his hands, “Village chief, we are businessmen—”
“What was the price of soybeans and corn before, and what is the price now!”
“I’m a merchant, I’m not doing charity to transport goods for you, I want to make money!”
The old man took out a piece of paper from his arms, “You signed an agreement in black and white back then! Don’t try to deny it!”
Yaris sneered, “Old cripple, take a good look at the end of the agreement!”
“It says, ‘The merchant has the right to propose prices’ ‘Either party can terminate the agreement if they disagree on the price’!”
“If you don’t accept my price, I can of course terminate the contract.”
The middle-aged man pointed at the village chief, and then at the blind Cheng Lin, “To be honest, I find it unlucky to do business with you a village of old, weak, sick, and disabled…”
“Enough!” Two muffled words interrupted Yaris’s words.
The speaker was actually the ability-user Yaris brought.
The man stared at Yaris and said, “Pack up your things and stop causing trouble.”
Yaris choked on the man’s words, and his yellow-black face turned red.
But he knew that although he was the one paying, the relationship between the ability-user and him was just a cooperative one, and there was no master-servant relationship at all.
Moreover, he was just an ordinary person, and he couldn’t easily provoke the other party, even if his ability-user level was low.
So he could only hold his breath and honestly carry his things to the carriage.
The ability-user turned his head and glanced at the villagers, and said two muffled words:
“There are other merchants in the town.”
“If you have any fresh goods, something with a special characteristic, you will definitely find a new merchant.”
*
After Yaris drove away in his carriage, the village chief found a stool to sit on, rested his hands on his crutches, and frowned.
The small square, which was still full of laughter just now, was now full of gloom.
The villagers were not in the mood to exchange things, and most of them gathered around the village chief, waiting to see if the village chief could come up with an idea.
They were unwilling to be tricked as fools by the black-hearted merchant, but rice, flour, grain, oil, these were things they couldn’t live without.
What would they do in the future?
Chu Jiu stood in the crowd, not in a hurry to speak.
When Yaris was shouting there just now, he felt something was wrong.
But he couldn’t figure out what was wrong for a while.
The old village chief on this side sighed deeply and said, “I still have a gun in my house. I’ll pack up and go to Emerald Town tomorrow to see if I can find a new merchant willing to come.”
The villagers looked at each other and showed hesitant expressions.
First of all, it’s unknown whether the village chief can walk to Emerald Town with his age and physical condition, relying on a gun from who knows how many years ago.
Besides, even if he gets to the town, can he really persuade the merchants to come here? After all, this village really has no specialties other than soybeans and corn.
The village chief seemed to see the villagers’ worries and said, “In this way, I’ll take that ‘key’ with me. If no one is willing to come, I’ll go a little further to the Sea Moon City and return the key to the city lord.”
Hearing this, the villagers were all either surprised or regretful. An old man said, “Do we really have to use the ‘key’? Maybe we can survive.”
Chu Jiu was confused and had no idea what the “key” they were talking about was.
Just then, there was a small whimper from the crowd.
It was Cheng Yue’s brother.
The blind child covered his stomach and cried in a low voice, “Sister, my stomach hurts.”
An aunt next to him said, “Oh, was Xiao Lin scared just now?”
Cheng Yue squatted down and rubbed her brother’s stomach, saying, “It shouldn’t be. It’s probably the soybean rice he ate in the morning. He ate too fast, and now his stomach is bloated.”
The aunt understood, “Oh, soybean rice. It’s easy to have a stomach ache if you eat too much. Rub it more for him, take him home to drink some hot water, and lie down for a while, he’ll be fine.”
Hearing this, Chu Jiu felt that something was even more wrong.
He recalled the villagers’ recipes he had seen and asked tentatively, “Excuse me… how do you usually eat soybeans?”
The aunt said, “Of course, we cook them and eat them.”
Chu Jiu: “…Is there any other way to eat them?”
The aunt asked puzzledly, “What else can you do?”
The other villagers on the small square also looked confused: Soybeans? Don’t you just cook soybeans and eat them? How else can you eat them?
Some people whispered, “I heard that soybeans can be made into something else… but those techniques have long been lost.”
Chu Jiu finally understood what was wrong.
He looked at the village chief and suggested, “Village chief, I have an idea.”
“The ability-user just said that if we have fresh goods, we can find new merchants.”
“I should… be able to make ‘fresh goods’.”
Thanks for the translation!