Hundred Flowers Festival, New Birth

"These are spices we just harvested this year, Hundred Fragrance Grass Seeds ..." A local spice merchant was showing Lin Qi his most prized product.

He picked up a bag the size of an adult's fist and poured out some hexagonal, greenish-yellow seeds. As the seeds scattered in his hand, a peculiar fragrance wafted out, which Lin Qi seemed to have smelled somewhere before.

Of course, it's definitely not here, but in the Federal.

Hundred Fragrance Grass Seeds are not particularly precious, but they are not ordinary either. They have very strict requirements for their growing environment, and only a few countries in the world have this spice.

It is mainly used to process some meat products, such as roast meat and braised meat. Lin Qi felt that the taste was familiar because he had this spice in the grilled fish fillets he had eaten. Chefs also like to use it to season the fish.

Lin Qi fiddled with it a few times, and the fragrance began to change slightly, caused by its overpowering intensity. He stepped back a little, his nose feeling slightly itchy. "Do you have a price list?"

His question clearly hit the local businessman where it hurt. A brief look of confusion flashed in the businessman's eyes, and then he asked in a skeptical and uncertain tone, "What is that?"

It's not without reason that these local merchants have been exploited and oppressed by another group of merchants. In fact, this is also related to the level of social development. The local merchants were invaded by outside merchants before they had experienced strong competition.

Many things that are considered basic by many businessmen are things they haven't even mastered.

Lin Qi rephrased it, "A price list, a piece of paper, with the price of every item recorded on it. Do you understand?" Lin Qi looked at Asier, Asier explained it to the spice merchant in the local indigenous language. Seeing the merchant's enlightened expression, Lin Qi breathed a sigh of relief.

The businessman then quickly wrote out a price list. Lin Qi looked at the prices on the list, put it away without saying anything, and said, "I have never done the spice business before, but I don't mind giving it a try."

"I don't know if these prices are appropriate. I will Bayer Federation next week, and we can discuss the acquisition after I have figured out the prices."

"But before that..." Lin Qi reached into the spice merchant's hand and picked up a small Hundred Fragrance Grass Seeds, then crushed them vigorously. "It's too damp. If you want to do business with me, you'd better dry it out more!"

When he released his fingers, the dry outer shell of the Hundred Fragrance Grass Seeds had been crushed, but the center was still somewhat damp. Don't underestimate this seemingly imperceptible dampness; in the weight of a single Hundred Fragrance Grass Seeds, this moisture may account for more than half, or even 60 or 70 percent of its weight.

These spice merchants weren't very successful, but they were adept at cheating and swindling without needing to be taught. This shows that most merchants are essentially the same – they'll do anything for profit.

The spice merchant showed no embarrassment at the dampness of the spices he was displaying; his face remained unaffected, beaming with a smile. "Of course, Mr. Lin Qi, I'll have those lazy Lowly People dry them all right away!"

"You'd better do that..." Lin Qi nodded. "Label these spices and keep them. I'll take them with me as samples when I leave."

After leaving his contact information and labeling the spices, the spice merchant got up to leave, and then a second merchant came in with his samples.

An ivory merchant.

In this world, elephants and ivory are not considered rare species or luxuries. In places like Nagaril and closer to the equator, there are large herds of elephants.

The elephants here are larger, have longer tusks, and are more threatening. They have few natural predators in the grasslands or jungles, which has led to their populations growing larger and larger, even threatening human living space in some areas.

There are also many elephant herds in the grasslands and jungles of Nagaril. Ivory dealers mainly sell ivory from Prairie Elephant, which is longer, thicker, and stronger, with a slightly yellowish color, but not obvious.

The ivory merchant made a move by selling a pair of enormous tusks, each measuring 2.78 meters long and nearly 1.6 feet in diameter at the base! If these tusks were sent to the Federal for sale, they would be worth at least 100,000 to 200,000 Federal Sol, which is tens of millions of Galil.

But here, it's just an expensive and sincere gift.

"This is a gift for you, Mr. Lin Qi!" The man was a middle-aged man in his thirties with a Little Mustache. He looked somewhat cunning and treacherous, and his eyes held a fierce and ruthless glint.

Most hunters are not kind-hearted. From the first time they take the life of an animal in a hunt, most hunters will naturally develop a feeling that "life is nothing more than this" in subsequent hunts. They lose their awe of life and begin to disregard it.

Moreover, this attitude will ultimately lead them to have a similar attitude towards human life; they will also disregard human life as they do when dealing with animals.

Lin Qi watched as the ivory was being unloaded from the dilapidated truck, thanked the ivory dealer, and then the two went into the room to continue their business conversation.

This merchant not only possessed a large quantity of ivory, but also rarer rhinoceros horns and bones. These items could only be obtained deeper into the grasslands, where the environment was harsher and more dangerous, and fur traders like Hassana wouldn't easily venture there.

Lin Qi also asked him for a price list. The exact value of these items and the price he would pay for them would have to wait until he returned to the Federal.

Merchants flocked to visit him, mostly local natives who were exploited by the major trading companies and always felt that Lin Qi could buy their goods at a higher price.

This is actually a very wrong idea. Even if Lin Qi could do it, he wouldn't, because it would offend all the foreign businessmen in Nagaril and harm everyone's interests.

By then, he will be everyone's enemy, and even if the useless Central Government Nagaril steps in, it will be unable to stop Lin Qi from being targeted or even attacked.

But while he can reach these businessmen, he won't touch the interests of the majority, much less offer them a price that's only in their imagination.

Many businessmen came, and there were even middlemen who spontaneously wanted to help some girls obtain some genetic material from Lin Qi to modify their race, offering deals worth 200 million yuan right off the bat.

But the only ones Lin Qi wanted to see were not there—the human traffickers.

This is actually quite normal. The resistance of Nagaril's environment to the outside world makes people always think that the environment abroad is much worse than their own. Sometimes people are just that naive and... stupid.

Therefore, no one wants to work abroad. Coupled with religious brainwashing, foreign countries have become hellish abysses. They are people who are waiting to become superior after the Great Destruction. How could they give up such an opportunity to suffer abroad?

Lin Qi spent several days in this atmosphere. The sons of the Provincial Governor had not yet been able to persuade each other to reach a consensus, which gave Lin Qi a period of relief.

Taking this opportunity, he took a thorough tour of the city, gaining a deeper understanding of it, the Magulana Province, and the entire Nagaril.

On Tuesday of the second week, the High Priest's apostle came to greet Lin Qi so he could attend the event.

The third Tuesday of April is a local religious festival. Legend has it that on this day, a drop of blood from the gods, as flowing as gold, falls onto the barren earth, causing flowers to bloom and all things to flourish. This day is also known as the "Hundred Flowers Festival" or "New Birthday".

Actually, the festive atmosphere had already appeared two or three days ago, became even stronger yesterday, and reached its peak today.

It's hard to imagine that people would actually sweep the streets. These past few days, while strolling around, Lin Qi discovered that not only men were urinating and defecating in public, but many women were also doing so. It might sound a bit ridiculous, but that's the truth.

Especially those middle-aged women from the lower classes, they don't care about other people's opinions at all, and they can take care of their personal needs in a slightly back street, which is really eye-opening.

The streets were actually quite chaotic and dirty, but surprisingly, they were all cleaned up very well today.

Every household has a wreath made of flowers hanging above their door, and the ground in front of the door is covered with various flower petals. Both men and women have a red dot on their foreheads, surrounded by a circle of white petals to signify its meaning.

People adorn their temples, behind their ears, collars, chests, and wrists with fresh flowers. The persistent stench that lingered throughout the city seems to have disappeared considerably, and there is no stench at all in the city center.

Lin Qi was invited to participate in this religious event, which was actually a great honor. He was seated on the second Flower Car after the High Priest.

It was called Flower Car, but it was actually just an old bus that had been renovated and painted with some decorations. There were already seven or eight people on the bus, about half of whom were people Lin Qi knew. They had met before and were all businessmen.

Lin Qi hadn't met the other half, but he had learned a little about them through introductions from others. They were all representatives of some prominent local families.

Perhaps because Lin Qi was relatively young and it was his first time attending the Hundred Flowers Festival, a businessman who knew him explained the process in a low voice.

The purpose of this event is for people to express their gratitude to the gods for nourishing all things with their blood, and for the gods' representatives to give back to the people.

Thanks to the gods and their feedback, Lin Qi had a general idea of what was going on since almost all religions have similar festivals.