At dusk, Chen Shouyi let his aunt and cousin know he was heading out, then walked out of the hotel with a backpack slung over his shoulders.
When he reached the roadside, he raised a hand and flagged down a tricycle.
"Where to?"
"To a cold weapons shop!" Chen Shouyi replied.
The tense atmosphere in Ningzhou had left him uneasy. He'd used up all his arrows, so he planned to replenish his supply in case of emergencies.
"It's a bit far. Ten yuan!" the tricycle driver said tentatively.
"Fine. Hurry up!" Chen Shouyi climbed aboard.
"Right away!"
A little over ten minutes later, Chen Shouyi stepped into an open cold weapons shop. It was quiet inside, with only a handful of customers.
He looked over the arrow display, his expression darkening.
After the Great Change, steel prices had surged wildly, and processing costs had skyrocketed. Ordinary arrows had gone from a dozen yuan apiece before the change to over forty, and now each one cost nearly a hundred. In only a few short months, the price had multiplied six or seven times.
But he hadn't expected arrows in Ningzhou to cost forty percent more than in Hedong. A single ordinary arrow went for as much as 140 yuan.
Still, no matter how expensive they were, he had to buy them.
Fortunately, he'd brought plenty of money with him this time. He could still afford it.
"Give me a hundred ordinary arrows and ten Armor-piercing Arrows."
Chen Shouyi put the arrows in his backpack. Just as he stepped out of the shop, he saw a squad of fully armed special police surrounding a five-story building nearby. A dense burst of gunfire soon rang out, followed by the blast of stun grenades.
A man leaped desperately from a fifth-floor window. He hit