In a market like this, many "rules" had long since vanished without a trace. Naturally, there was no such thing as fairness—just payment and goods exchanged, with both sides willing.
No, more accurately, even money had little meaning here. Among the crowds, things had instead returned more to the primitive process of "barter."
It all came down to having a sharp eye.
As Fang Yishu wandered along, she saw people crouched behind a load-bearing pillar, arguing in low but heated voices over the price of a strange beast bone whose surface glimmered with a faint blue light.
She also saw someone quickly complete a transaction in a corner, like secret agents making contact. One person handed over a small cloth pouch, while the other felt it over and stuffed a long object tightly wrapped in oilcloth into their hands.
The two immediately separated and vanished into the crowd.
With all sorts of people mixed together, no one could say what kind of characters lurked in a place like this. Fang Yishu had even seen quite a few foreigners.
But more likely, most of them were agents connected to those users, sent here to scour for goods and conduct trades.
As she looked around and wandered, Fang Yishu soon came upon a stall with a fairly dense cluster of customers.
Seeing a group gathered around it, mostly onlookers, she moved closer and took a look herself.
What was rather unusual was that the stall owner was a strange figure wrapped head to toe in black cloth, with almost nothing exposed except their eyes.
Even stranger were the goods before them: a jar still coated in frost, its mouth sealed tight, along with a paper sign bearing a line of brush-written characters.
[Spirit Water sold in quantities of at least one hundred