With this groundwork laid, it would be easy for Lin Ze to obtain legal status in this world later on.
Local officials welcomed mountain folk registering their household and paying taxes with open arms.
They would even send large armies into the mountains to capture wild mountain folk. Naturally, they wouldn't turn away someone like Lin Ze, who was willing to come down from the mountains of his own accord.
That meant the tax base of the Great Zhou Dynasty would grow, which was a very real achievement for local officials.
After hearing Lin Ze's words, the old man suddenly understood.
He had been successfully led in exactly the direction Lin Ze wanted.
Given Lin Ze's appearance, if he wasn't some noble young master, then he was most likely the disciple of a reclusive expert, now traveling the world after coming down from the mountain.
In the old man's decades of life, he had seen this sort of thing a few times.
"This old man is An Ye, the village chief of Two Rivers Village."
"Young man, how much are you asking for this sugar?"
The old man introduced himself without mentioning a courtesy name.
That was something for scholars and nobles. For a commoner like him, having a proper name at all was good enough.
He didn't mention selling medicinal herbs to Lin Ze, either. Instead, he first asked about the goods Lin Ze was selling.
After introducing himself, An Ye expressed interest in buying the sugar.
Just as Lin Ze had said, sugar was a good thing. Aside from satisfying one's sweet tooth,
during the busy farming season or when someone fell ill, eating sugar could quickly replenish one's strength. Sometimes, it could even save a life.
Usually, only nobles and wealthy households could enjoy sugar freely. Since they had a chance to buy some now, they naturally couldn't let it pass them by.
Of course, that was only if it wasn't too expensive.
"Allow me to inform you, sir: my sugar costs fifty wen per liang. It's called rock sugar. Please, have a taste."
Lin Ze took an oil-paper packet from the donkey cart. When he opened it, they could see many small chunks of transparent rock sugar.
He casually took a piece from the packet and ate it himself first, then took another piece and offered it to the village chief, whose name was An Ye.
He did this to show that the goods he was selling were safe and put his customers at ease.
Although An Ye hadn't read many books, he was shrewd with age and saw through Lin Ze's intentions.
He gave the young man a deep look, admiring his worldly experience, then accepted the rock sugar and ate it.
At once, sweetness spread through his mouth. The old village chief narrowed his eyes, looking rather pleased.
His family was fairly well off, with plenty of farmland, and his three sons were all renowned hunters. Otherwise, they wouldn't have been able to afford steamed rice and meat.
Yet even so, the rock sugar he had just tasted was one of the rare sweet treats in his life.
At first, he had thought fifty wen per liang of sugar was expensive. After all, a jin of rice cost only eight wen.
But now he felt the price wasn't merely reasonable—it was worth every penny.
This young man before him had come to do business in good faith!
"I'll take four liang of rock sugar."
An Ye spoke to Lin Ze with a generous air.
"Certainly. Just a moment."
Lin Ze smiled and took a scale from the cart, one specially made to match the units of measurement in this world.
He raised the scale's weight high and weighed out about four liang of rock sugar.
"Four liang and one qian of rock sugar. That'll be two hundred wen, thank you."
Once he had weighed it, Lin Ze wrapped the sugar and handed it to the old village chief.
An Ye looked at Lin Ze even more warmly now.
A young man who gave full measure without charging extra was truly honest. He had received a whole extra qian of sugar, worth five wen!
He'd made a killing!
"Here you go. This is two hundred wen."
An Ye took two small strings of copper coins from the son standing beside him. Each string held exactly one hundred wen. He handed them to Lin Ze.
While Lin Ze had been weighing the sugar, An Ye had sent his son home to fetch the money. Now it had arrived just in time.
Lin Ze took the coins and counted them quickly, a smile on his face.
He felt he'd made a killing, too.
He bought rock sugar from the wholesale market in the Main World, where a jin cost only four yuan.
If he converted using the simple price of rice, one jin of rock sugar in this world could buy about sixty-two jin of rice. At two yuan per jin of rice in the Main World, that was equivalent to 124 yuan.
It might look like Lin Ze hadn't earned much by selling just four liang of rock sugar, but the profit margin was a full thirty-one times.
If he sold more, making a fortune would be a piece of cake.
"Would anyone else like to buy some sugar?"
After finishing his deal with the old village chief, Lin Ze looked toward the other villagers gathered around to watch.
Quite a few villagers looked interested when they met Lin Ze's gaze.
Their families had varying means, but since they lived near the Cloud Mist Mountain Range, with the mountains and rivers providing abundant resources, they were generally not too badly off.
They could afford a little sugar to improve their lives.
And the deal Lin Ze had just made with the village chief had also built a measure of trust between them.
They had gained the first impression that Lin Ze was an honest peddler.
"I'll take one liang of rock sugar."
"I'll take two liang."
Voices rose one after another. Before long, quite a few villagers from Two Rivers Village had gathered around Lin Ze, paying for the amount of rock sugar they wanted.
Lin Ze collected the money and counted it.
As he weighed out sugar for the villagers, wrapped it in oil paper, and handed it to his customers,
he silently calculated the profit from this trip.
"Not bad. I sold three jin and eight liang of rock sugar in total, taking in 1,900 wen. Converted using the price of rice, that's 475 yuan, while my costs were only 15.2 yuan. Net profit comes to about 460 yuan."
Lin Ze was in a good mood once he had the result.
In the Main World, earning over four hundred yuan would take even a highly educated professional a full day of honest work. He had made that much in just a few minutes.
There was no denying it: trading between two worlds was wildly profitable!
"Then I'll take my leave. If any of you find precious medicinal herbs like ginseng or He Shou Wu while gathering in the mountains, please save them for me. I'll pay a high price."
After weighing sugar for all the villagers of Two Rivers Village who wanted to buy some, Lin Ze saw that no one seemed to have any rare medicinal herbs to sell, so he cupped his hands and prepared to take his leave.
Before going, he didn't forget to tell the villagers he would pay a high price for rare medicinal herbs.
"Of course, of course. Come again next time, Lin Lang Jun."
Since Lin Ze had given the villagers full measure while weighing out their sugar, they all had a good impression of him now.
They bade Lin Ze farewell one after another and said they welcomed him back.
"Is that Matsutake in your bowl?"
After bidding them farewell, Lin Ze directed his gaze toward a villager's bowl, as if by chance.
In the bowl, there was porridge made with mushrooms.
"Ah, yes, Lin Lang Jun."
The villager who had been asked, An Shi, confirmed it.
"Perfect. Some of my elders at home are especially fond of these. Do you have any more at home, good sir? I can pay eight wen per jin."
Lin Ze smiled as he spoke, revealing the main reason he had come here this time.
Matsutake was also known as pine mushroom in the Main World.
"That won't do, that won't do, Lin Lang Jun. Since your elders enjoy them, just take some as a gift."
"You already gave me an extra two qian of sugar. How could I charge you for some common mushrooms?"
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