Premonition

Li Qi led Shen Shuibi and Old Ma into the village.

There was nothing unusual inside. It was an ordinary village, with only one ox in the entire place. But... Li Qi felt that it probably was not an ordinary ox.

Then again, this world seemed to have no ordinary oxen.

Just as most horses were spirit horses, oxen had their own unique strengths.

Li Qi knew that his Ox-Strength Technique granted him "the strength of one ox."

That was to say, under normal circumstances, an ox possessed a tremendous force of six thousand jin.

What kind of concept was six thousand jin? It was no joke.

As a researcher, Li Qi knew that in his own world, one horsepower equaled seventy-five kilograms, or one hundred and fifty jin. In other words, it meant a horse could drag a one-hundred-and-fifty-jin object at a speed of one meter per second.

That meant this ox had forty horsepower. A forty-horsepower tractor could pull a trailer loaded with fifteen tons of cargo without much effort.

During World War II, the Soviet T-37 tank only had forty horsepower.

This ox was, in all honesty, a little tank.

After entering the village, Li Qi set down his basket and began trading goods with the villagers who gathered around him.

Old Ma stayed beside Shen Shuibi. She seemed somewhat afraid of strangers, so she leaned against him, trying to hide herself away in a corner.

How strange... Why had she not been afraid of strangers when she met him?

Oh, she had seemed afraid then too. He had apparently scared her half to death at the time, but when they met again, he had bluffed his way through the first encounter. After that, she seemed to have grown used to him and stopped being afraid.

Then he had been pretty lucky not to run into this rabbit when she was wary of strangers.

Old Ma simply stayed with her. Though he was weak and old, as a Dragon Steed, it was unlikely that ordinary people who had merely cultivated techniques would dare approach him.

Meanwhile, Li Qi went off to trade.

The villagers had mountain goods and grain, but they lacked money. When traveling merchants came to the village, they usually traded for mountain goods, then took those goods to shops in the city for money. They would use that money to buy supplies and bring them back into the mountains.

Li Qi had originally intended to do the same, but it was no longer suitable.

"Folks, I'm not trading for mountain goods. Do you have any beans? I'd like to trade for some beans and dried meat," Li Qi said to the villagers.

There were more than ten villagers around him, all carrying mountain goods such as wood ear mushrooms, shiitake mushrooms, wild mountain peppers, wild chestnuts, and the like.

"Beans? Don't you all want mountain goods? What do you want beans for?" a farm woman asked doubtfully.

"We're not going to trade them for money. We're gathering food for the road!" Li Qi called out to those around him.

"Oh, no wonder you brought a horse and a young wife with you. So you're not a proper merchant. Fine then, I'll go get you some beans." One farm woman gathered up her family's mountain goods and went back for beans.

"My family slaughtered a pig this year, and we have some preserved meat. But how will we settle the price? Don't cheat me," another farm woman asked suspiciously, watching Li Qi carefully.

"Don't worry, I won't let you lose out! We'll calculate it in money! We'll price mine and price yours, then trade once the amounts match!" Li Qi called out.

"Then what are you trading beans for?" another villager asked.

"The horse is sick. It needs something good to eat," Li Qi explained.

"My goodness, the horse eats better than people! How precious!" another villager clicked his tongue, having seen that Li Qi's basket was filled with rice cakes.

Clearly, he himself ate rice cakes, yet he fed beans to his horse.

Beans were no cheap thing. They cost far more than rice!

"Can't be helped. If the horse eats them, it runs faster. If I eat them, I'll only fart!" Li Qi cracked a joke.

The villagers around him burst into laughter. After chatting for a while, they seemed to have grown familiar with Li Qi.

And so, he chatted with the villagers as he traded goods, exchanging away his extra salt, farm tools, cloth, pots and spatulas, as well as medicine for headaches and fevers.

He traded for several bags of dried beans, perhaps fifty or sixty jin in all, along with some yams and sweet potatoes to make up the difference where the beans were insufficient.

There were also some mountain goods.

One farm woman had someone sick at home and urgently needed medicine, but she had no beans and could not afford meat. She begged Li Qi to trade for mountain goods instead, and his heart softened, so he traded for a whole bag of shiitake and wood ear mushrooms.

That woman knew how to repay kindness, so she gave Li Qi a great deal extra. Li Qi had probably made a profit, though he had no use for them at the moment.

Still... he could eat them on the road, right? He could treat it as improving his meals and being a little kinder to himself.

He could not distinguish mountain goods himself, so he usually did not dare pick them at random. If he ate something poisonous and died, no one would be responsible.

Who knew whether something merely looked like a shiitake mushroom?

Better to be honest and careful. Do not covet a small gain only to suffer a great loss.

There was also some dried meat. That was the big expense; those few pieces of dried meat cost Li Qi two hoes and a small bottle of coarse salt.

Meat truly was expensive.

After the trading was done, everything in Li Qi's basket had been replaced with a new batch of goods.

Yet he did not rest. Instead, he helped the villagers move a stone.

He saw it while packing up his basket, preparing to leave.

It seemed to be a stone in the fields that was hindering the clearing of new land. But the stone was far too heavy and too large, embedded firmly in the earth. Even that ox could not drag it out.

A group of villagers pulled on hemp ropes while others pried from behind with wooden poles, but the stone would not budge an inch.

Seeing this, Li Qi decisively stepped forward to direct them.

"That's not how you pull heavy things." He walked over. "Come here, put it on your shoulders, and copy my posture. That's how you put your strength into it!"

Li Qi was an old boat tracker. He could haul great ships; what was a single stone?

With his help and that of the ox, along with the rhythmic cries of boat trackers urging the farmers to pull together, they dragged the stone out of the ground.

Such stones were good things. Once pulled out, they not only freed up another patch of land, but could also be smashed apart and made into millstones or other things. They were very useful resources.

Li Qi said his farewells, lending a hand whenever there was work to do along the way.

By the time he returned, it was already noon, when the sun had begun its descent.

His easygoing manner while trading, coupled with his help for the villagers, had allowed him to mingle with everyone in just half a day. Some had already begun calling him little brother.

As for the other side...

Shen Shuibi and Old Ma were huddled against the wall.

She looked exactly like someone with social anxiety.

Perhaps that was simply what rabbits were like.

They waited there until Li Qi finished his work in the afternoon and returned with his basket.

"What are you doing? What are you doing? Why are you curled up like this?" Li Qi asked the two of them, carrying the large basket.

"You're finally back!" Shen Shuibi, who had been tense the whole time, hurriedly rushed out and grabbed Li Qi's sleeve. "Have you finished trading? Then let's go!"

"Yes, I've finished trading, but why are you in such a hurry to leave?" Li Qi found it strange.

Social anxiety could not be this severe, could it?

"I have a premonition that something bad is about to happen!" Shen Shuibi said in panic.