Su Li handed the brown horse's reins to Saina and slipped into a roadside stall.
The stall owner was a short goblin, pouring a basket of blackish beans onto a scale.
"How much?"
Without even looking up, the goblin said, "Three silver coins a bag, five silver coins for two."
Su Li glanced at the quality of the beans. They were shriveled, grayish, and bore traces of insect damage.
In his previous life, this price could have bought three bags.
"Two silver coins a bag. Three and a half silver coins for two."
The goblin jerked his head up, baring a mouthful of sharp teeth. "Customer, these are hard beans that can keep for half a year. Do you have any idea how high grain prices have risen?"
Su Li took out several silver coins from his Space Ring and rolled them across his fingertips.
The goblin's eyes followed the piece of silver as it turned.
"Two bags for three silver coins," Su Li repeated.
The goblin stared at the broken silver for three seconds, then snatched it away and fished two slightly better bags of beans out from beneath the basket, stuffing them into Su Li's hands.
"Deal. Seeing as you're an old customer, come again next time!"
Su Li took the beans without replying.
The moment he turned around, he sensed them.
Two gazes.
One came from his left, hidden among the crowd. It lingered only briefly before moving away—a professional observing posture, the habit of a black-market information broker.
The other came from his right, peering out from behind a wooden post at the ferry dock. It clung to the short blade at Su Li's waist for a long while.
Su Li pretended not to notice.
He returned to Elena's side and stuffed the beans into a