Chapter 64: Seeds
Xia Lu Nong and his brother weaved through the crowd, heading towards the maltose candy stall.
People turned to look at them, curiosity in their eyes. They didn’t understand why they came back after leaving.
Under the gaze of onlookers, Xia Lu Nong reached the stall and asked, “I’d like to trade for some maltose candy. What’s your trade rate?”
The stall owner, who had done business with them from a distance all night, was surprised to see Xia Lu Nong at his stall. He sat up straight and said, “One pound of rice for one ounce of candy. How much do you want?”
Xia Lu Nong handed him a bag of rice, “Start with one ounce. Let’s try it.”
The stall owner was slightly disappointed by the small trade, but as he measured the rice, he said, “This candy is fresh, made from high-quality malt. You’ll taste the malty aroma.”
Xia Lu Nong nodded.
Xia Huo Qu, knowing his brother well, could tell from his expression that the maltose candy didn’t trigger the feeling Xia Lu Nong had earlier.
Xia Huo Qu scanned the surroundings, but there wasn’t much else. He wondered what exactly his brother had sensed.
The “special item” hadn’t appeared, but the candy was indeed good. Xia Lu Nong cut off a small piece and tasted it. A mild, pleasant sweetness filled his mouth, not too strong, with a subtle malt aroma. It was delicious, and in a place where sweets were scarce, this candy was almost a treasure.
He smiled softly, his eyes curving with contentment.
The stall owner beamed, “Told you it’s good, right? It’s made from top-quality malt, freshly prepared this morning. I’ve traded over ten pounds of it today, and not a single customer has complained.”
Xia Lu Nong nodded in agreement.
The stall owner continued eagerly, “I’m about to close up soon, and I’ve got just over a pound left. How about you take the whole lot? I’ll give you a deal: nine ounces of rice for one ounce of candy. How’s that sound?”
Xia Lu Nong asked, “That’s a pretty generous offer. Will you still make a profit?”
Xia Huo Qu gently nudged his brother, signaling him to look at the cart under the stall.
Xia Lu Nong’s gaze fell on a bucket beneath the cart, which seemed to contain wheat.
The stall owner, unaware of their exchange, smiled, “I’m not trying to make a huge profit. I just want to trade for some food. So, how about it? You’re from another base, right? You can take some maltose back and trade it for other goods.”
Xia Lu Nong and his brother exchanged a glance, then nodded. “Alright, let’s trade.”
“Great! I’ll measure it for you. Two pounds and one and a half ounces. I’ll round it to two pounds and one ounce. You owe me eighteen pounds and nine ounces of rice.”
Xia Lu Nong nodded, watching the stall owner measure the rice and candy. Casually, he asked, “Do you sell this wheat too? I’m thinking of buying some.”
“Huh?” The stall owner was startled, looking between Xia Lu Nong and the wheat. “This wheat is just ordinary wheat. I’ve already sorted through it. You could probably find better quality elsewhere.”
Xia Lu Nong replied, “My animal form is a cat, so I don’t usually care much. But today, seeing your wheat, I suddenly had the idea to grow some cat grass. Your wheat looks especially good, really full.”
“Hahaha, of course! I carefully selected these seeds. They’re plump. How much do you want?”
“How much do you have?” Xia Lu Nong asked.
“I’ve got about twenty pounds.”
“That’s not too much. I’ll take it all. Your wheat looks great. How about we trade it pound for pound, but I’ll add an extra ounce of rice for every pound of wheat? My rice is freshly harvested tonight—smell it, it’s fragrant.”
Since wheat typically traded for slightly less than rice, the stall owner hadn’t expected Xia Lu Nong to offer one pound and an extra ounce of rice for every pound of wheat. Delighted, he lifted the bucket from under the cart. “Alright, I’ll measure it out for you.”
As the bucket was raised, Xia Lu Nong had a gut feeling that the special item he’d sensed earlier was hidden within the wheat.
The stall owner weighed it, “It’s twenty-three pounds and seven ounces. I’ll round it to twenty-three pounds. The wheat is a bit damp, so just give me twenty-five pounds of rice.”
Xia Lu Nong agreed, trading rice for the wheat. Casually, he asked, “Do you often come here to sell? I like this wheat. If I end up loving the cat grass it grows, how can I find you?”
“I usually set up shop here, but if I’m not around, just ask for Xiong Lao Liu. The locals know where I live,” the stall owner, Xiong Lao Liu, said with a broad smile. “Thanks for the trade! If you like it, come back anytime.”
Xia Lu Nong nodded, and he and his brother carried the wheat and candy back to the truck.
Yan Xi Nian, waiting for them, smiled and asked, “You were gone for a while. Did you find the special item you sensed?”
“I’m not sure,” Xia Lu Nong replied, looking at the bucket in his hand and frowning slightly. “I feel like the item is in this wheat, but we won’t know for sure until we go back and check carefully.”
“Then let’s wait until we get back. We collected so much today. We’ll need to sort through everything carefully,” Yan Xi Nian said happily. “I was hoping we’d get two or three hundred pounds of rice, but we’ve gathered twenty times that amount!”
Xia Huo Qu casually remarked, “Xia Lu Nong’s luck is always great.”
“That’s true,” Yan Xi Nian gave Xia Lu Nong a thumbs-up. “When it comes to luck, no one can compare to you.”
“Focus on driving,” Xia Huo Qu said with a frown.
“I’m definitely focused. I’m driving so slow, I couldn’t even run over a turtle.”
The two bantered on the way back.
Xia Lu Nong squeezed into the front seat, so tired that he could barely keep his eyes open. His head bobbed up and down as he leaned against Kong Zhi’s shoulder.
Kong Zhi, being taller, made it uncomfortable for Xia Lu Nong, whose head kept bumping against him, causing a bit of irritation.
Kong Zhi glanced at him and asked in a low voice, “Why don’t you turn back into your animal form and sleep?”
Xia Lu Nong’s beast form was smaller than his human form. When he transformed, it was quite convenient—he didn’t even need to remove his clothes. He could just slip out from the pile of clothes.
Xia Huo Qu glanced at Kong Zhi and said, somewhat helplessly, “We’re not far from the inn, Kong Zhi. You don’t have to spoil him all the time.”
“It’s fine,” Kong Zhi replied. “He worked the hardest tonight at the night market. He deserves some rest.”
Xia Lu Nong felt a bit embarrassed when he heard his brother’s words, but after hearing Kong Zhi’s reasoning, he immediately felt justified. He nodded and said, “Exactly. I’ll take a nap now, and you can wake me up when you start sorting the supplies.”
Yan Xi Nian chimed in, “Go ahead and sleep. It’s late anyway. We’ll check the warehouse at Lao Mo’s place and lock everything up before we rest.”
With three votes in favor and one against, Xia Lu Nong happily looked at his brother and said, “Alright, I’m transforming now.”
“Go ahead,” his brother replied.
As soon as he heard this, Xia Lu Nong immediately transformed into a cat. He stretched out his four paws and happily jumped onto Kong Zhi’s lap.
Kong Zhi placed a cushion on his lap to make sure it was comfortable for the cat to sleep on, as his legs might not have been the most even surface.
In return, Xia Lu Nong, now a cat, flipped over on the cushion and exposed his soft, white belly to Kong Zhi, meowing to signal that he could give him a belly rub.
Kong Zhi didn’t hesitate and gently stroked his warm, soft belly with his long fingers, a smile forming on his face.
The belly rub felt so good that Xia Lu Nong quickly drifted off to sleep.
Once asleep, the cat seemed to melt into a liquid, sprawled across the cushion like a puddle of flowing water.
Seeing his brother like this, Xia Huo Qu couldn’t resist rubbing his belly as well.
Before long, they arrived at Lao Mo’s inn.
Lao Mo had his own squad that would go out to gather supplies. Next to the inn was a warehouse where they could store their goods, and now it was filled to the brim.
When Lao Mo saw them return, he teased, “You’re finally back. You left all those goods with me and didn’t worry about them at all?”
Yan Xi Nian casually replied, “What’s there to worry about? We’ve been friends for years. If we can’t trust you, who can we trust?”
Lao Mo, pleased, gave him a friendly punch to the chest, “Alright, cut the flattery. Even among friends, you still have to pay the storage fee—thirty pounds of rice per day, don’t forget.”
“No problem. Fair business between brothers,” Yan Xi Nian said with a yawn. “We’re staying for another two days. With all this rice, we can’t take it back in one trip. We’ll need your help to broker some trades for other things.”
Lao Mo agreed, “No problem. I’ll help you out tomorrow. For now, all the grain like rice and corn is in the warehouse, and the chickens, ducks, and geese are in the kitchen. Once you check everything, I’ll lock up.”
“Sounds good. Let’s check the inventory,” Yan Xi Nian said, still yawning. “Actually, we don’t need to check too carefully. Huo Qu kept track of everything tonight, so we can just compare it with the ledger tomorrow.”
Lao Mo breathed a sigh of relief, “That’s even better.”
Yan Xi Nian and Lao Mo went to inspect the goods, while Kong Zhi held the cat and Xia Huo Qu handled their clothing in the hotel lobby.
By the time they returned, both were nearly asleep.
It was Lao Mo’s first time seeing Xia Lu Nong’s beast form. At first glance, his heart skipped a beat, and he couldn’t take his eyes off him. “My gosh, Xia Lu Nong’s beast form is so cute!”
Xia Huo Qu said, “If you like cats so much, why don’t you adopt one yourself?”
“Yeah, right. The mutant cats out there are all fierce, clawing and biting. I wouldn’t dare adopt one,” Lao Mo said, reaching out his large hand to pet the cat, but Kong Zhi dodged, leaving him disappointed. “Come on, just one pet.”
Kong Zhi stared at him expressionlessly, and Lao Mo had no choice but to withdraw his hand.
That night, they booked two double rooms. Xia Lu Nong, in his cat form, slept with his brother. It wasn’t just to save on the cost of the room; it was also safer, so they could assist each other if anything happened.
The scent of his brother nearby reassured Xia Lu Nong, and he slept soundly until the sun was high in the sky the next morning.
He transformed back into his human form, got dressed, and went to the bathroom to wash up.
His brother was in the room, going over the ledger.
When Xia Lu Nong came back, yawning, he greeted his brother, “Morning, brother.”
“Morning,” his brother replied, briefly glancing up before returning to the ledger.
Xia Lu Nong flopped down on the soft bed, staring up at the ceiling. “This place is so comfortable. There’s running water and electricity, and even the beds are so soft. If only our base could reach this level of comfort.”
His brother paused for a moment, then said, “One day, it will.”
Xia Lu Nong happily lounged on the bed for a while before joining his brother for breakfast once he had finished reviewing the ledger.
After breakfast, he finally saw the goods they had traded for.
“Oh my god, this is so much! We couldn’t gather this much in a whole year of work at the base!” Xia Lu Nong was almost stunned, seeing the piles of supplies stacked to the ceiling. “Now I understand why everyone wants to be a hunter.”
Kong Zhi said, “Wanting to be one isn’t enough. Most people don’t have the sharp eye or the luck.”
Hearing the compliment, Xia Lu Nong laughed heartily, “Exactly! Even if you have the eye and the luck, you need the strength. It’s hard to catch so many things out there.”
Yan Xi Nian added, “You deserve the most credit for getting us so much this time.”
Xia Lu Nong modestly replied, “I did okay. You all contributed a lot too.”
“Not as much as you. Alright, enough with the compliments,” Yan Xi Nian said, wrapping his arm around Xia Lu Nong’s shoulder. “I’ve got something to tell you.”
Xia Lu Nong nodded, “Brother Xi Nian, what did you say before?”
“There’s too much material here for us to transport back in one trip, and it’s quite far from our base. It would be hard to return for a second trip anytime soon. I plan to exchange some of it for lighter items to take back. What do you think?”
“Sure, if my brother and Kong Zhi have no objections, then I don’t either.” After nodding, Xia Lu Nong asked curiously, “Brother Xi Nian, what do you plan to exchange?”
Yan Xi Nian smiled and lowered his voice, “Weapons.”
Xia Lu Nong nodded, half understanding, and didn’t think much of it.
With so many dangers outside, exchanging for weapons seemed reasonable.
Xia Lu Nong thought about it, but never expected that by the afternoon, 80% of the grain in the warehouse would be gone, replaced by boxes of bullets and… two shells?
It was the first time Xia Lu Nong had encountered such items since waking up. He stared at Yan Xi Nian in shock, swallowing nervously. He lowered his voice, “Brother Xi Nian, will Yacheng really let us take these things back?”
Yan Xi Nian, already prepared for questions, didn’t expect this one. He laughed, “Kong Zhi can fly, right? Once it’s dark, he can quietly fly them out. Who will know we smuggled out contraband?”
Xia Lu Nong swallowed hard and looked at Yan Xi Nian. “Brother Xi Nian, did you plan all of this before we came to Yacheng?”
“Not exactly. Who knew we’d come across crabs and bullfrogs on the way?” Yan Xi Nian said. “Originally, I just wanted to gather information, but things turned out better than expected. By the way, sometimes Yacheng doesn’t like it when seeds are transported out. Make sure Kong Zhi quietly takes those wheat seeds too.”
Xia Lu Nong quickly nodded, shifting focus to the wheat seeds. “Got it! When we get back to the base, I’ll sort through the seeds again. Some of them might be mutated.”
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Thanks for the chapter! Insta fluffiness on demand, sigh….