Selling Salted Fish, Giving Away Salt

Over the next few days, Zhou Ye went to the nearby areas. Following the places he remembered, he gathered quite a few medicinal herbs. Whether they were valuable or not, he would pick them first and bring them home.

Meanwhile, he had finished reading the Illustrated Guide, and Zhou Ye had even gone through it carefully a second time. Unfortunately, there truly was not much content inside. In the end, it had only become—Basic Poison Technique (Mortal): Proficient (81/100)

This gave Zhou Ye something to consider. The next time he went to town, could he buy a few more medical books?

Then there were those Bamboo Green Snakes. Zhou Ye had slaughtered them all and cured them into salted snake meat as well. Now that the autumn winds had risen, the Bamboo Green Snakes had become much less active. Perhaps they would soon enter hibernation. He might as well deal with them all at once...

At last, it was time to set out for town.

This time, Zhou Ye had prepared quite a lot of goods.

There were two large sacks of medicinal herbs gathered over the past few days. There was a full sack of salted fish, with more than thirty fish inside. There were two salted chickens and two salted ducks, as well as two live geese. Over these past few days, Zhou Ye had also used fishing nets to catch birds, capturing some geese and swans.

There were also more than a hundred bamboo rat pelts. All the remaining snake skins numbered more than thirty as well.

Lastly, there were three machetes and three axes. These were all extra tools. Back when they had felled trees and burned charcoal, poor laborers like Zhou Ye had never lacked such tools for work.

The reason he had brought so many different kinds of goods was simply to test the market. Only through comparison could he find out what sold well. If he planned to trade in the future, he could forget about the low-value goods and specialize in selling the valuable ones. After all, a round trip took several days.

Thus, after Zhou Ye set out carrying his goods, he traveled for an entire day before reaching a prearranged campsite halfway there, a small hollow sheltered from the wind.

However, after lighting the campfire, Zhou Ye did not rush to eat or rest. Instead, he chopped down many nearby trees and built a lean-to with only four posts and a thatched roof. He also left plenty of lumber piled beside it.

This was preparation in advance. Whenever he stopped here on future trips, he would build a small wooden cabin, the sort of crude hunter's hut. No matter how crude it was, it would at least provide a place to shelter from wind and rain.

The next day, he reached a spot half an hour away from the mountain pass. Finding a well-hidden rock wall, he built another lean-to there and prepared plenty of felled timber as well.

This was at a normal traveling pace, so it would still take another two days. But if an emergency arose, Zhou Ye's high agility and proficiency in Basic Movement would allow him to reach this place within a day.

But he could rest here tonight. Early tomorrow morning, he would be able to reach the town market and trade with the merchants...

In the morning light, cooking smoke curled up from the town.

When the general store opened its doors, Shopkeeper Ding was delighted to find a youth waiting outside.

"Shopkeeper Ding, are you still buying furs here?"

"Yes, yes! Little Brother Zhou, come in quickly and have a cup of hot tea first."

"..."

As expected, after counting the furs, Shopkeeper Ding took all the bamboo rat pelts and snake skins. Zhou Ye received another twenty-four taels of silver and change.

But seeing several other bulging sacks, Shopkeeper Ding asked curiously, "Little Zhou, what's in these?"

"Oh! Medicinal herbs. And salted fish, salted chicken, things like that."

"I knew it! Buying that book was definitely worth it for you. But I don't buy medicinal herbs here. See those carts by the entrance to the market? They belong to a pharmacy from the prefectural city. They happen to be here purchasing herbs. They're an old-established business and quite honest in their dealings."

"Thanks."

Before his words had even faded, Shopkeeper Ding suddenly asked, "Wait, Little Zhou. Why do you have salted fish too? Can I take a look?"

Zhou Ye smiled faintly. He did not mind either way, so he said, "Shopkeeper Ding, if you like it, I'll give you two fish."

But as soon as the sack was opened, Shopkeeper Ding's eyes widened. "No, why did you use so much salt? There's nearly half a sack of salt in this bag of salted fish, isn't there?"

Zhou Ye truly did not care. To him, these things were worthless; they only cost some labor. So when packing them, he had simply added plenty of salt to keep the salted fish from rotting and spoiling along the way. "If you want it, I can give you another half jin of salt."

"How could I possibly accept that?" Shopkeeper Ding beamed as he said politely. Yet he bashfully accepted the salted fish and salt Zhou Ye had given him.

In truth, Zhou Ye had been reading his expression and had long noticed something was off. It seemed... salt was more popular than salted fish? In the original owner's memories, salt appeared to be something quite valuable.

"Shopkeeper Ding, this is my first time coming here for the market. In your opinion, how much should I sell my... salted fish for?"

Shopkeeper Ding immediately understood. Raising his brows, he said, "Little Zhou, you can decide for yourself. If you give away half a jin of salt with each salted fish, you can easily sell them for one hundred and fifty coins each."

The two of them chuckled, understanding everything without saying it aloud.

Without batting an eye, Zhou Ye changed the subject. "Shopkeeper Zhou, I still need medical books. Do you know where I can buy them?"

"Medical books? You'll have to ask at the bookstores in the prefectural city. Even bookstores in the county town probably have a hard time finding them. Only physicians need that kind of book, so ordinary bookstores do not stock them at all. Sorry, this is just a general store. I really don't have any. None of the other shops in town do either."

"It's fine. Sorry to bother you."

"Don't mention it. See you around!"

After bidding Shopkeeper Ding farewell, Zhou Ye headed toward those carts.

"Hold it! Little brother, what do you need?" Several burly men guarding the carts blocked his path.

"Excuse me. Are you buying medicinal herbs? I just picked these from the mountains."

"We are, we are. Please wait a moment. I'll fetch our Steward Wang."

"..."

Seeing business come to their door, Steward Wang and the others became very enthusiastic. When they saw the two large sacks packed full of medicinal herbs, they became even more enthusiastic.

After an inventory, the three most plentiful types of herbs were not worth much. Together, they sold for just over one tael of silver.

The other herbs, however, were sold one plant at a time, and their quality had to be assessed. Different herbs naturally fetched different prices.

Zhou Ye listened silently to their explanations from the side, memorizing every price Steward Wang mentioned so he could use them as references in the future. In the end, all the herbs together sold for more than ten taels.

Yet when he saw another sack by Zhou Ye's side, Steward Wang asked as well, "Little brother, do you have more medicinal herbs in there?"

"Not in this sack. It's all salted fish."

"Oh? How are you selling them?" Steward Wang asked casually.

"Each salted fish weighs nearly two jin. Plus half a jin of salt. One hundred and forty coins each?" Zhou Ye proactively lowered the price by ten coins, hoping to make up for thin profits through quick sales.

To his surprise, Steward Wang and the others exchanged glances in secret, and excitement immediately appeared on their faces...