— The Emperor's Imperial Record, Entry No. 39 —
By now, every eye had turned towards me, and I had laid out all my wares perfectly. Rice wine and rice buns were displayed right in front, so everyone could see. I sat back on my chair and looked to the side. Pretending to be completely disinterested.
I had learned a bit from all those interactions with Tarig and other merchants in the market. I even whistled a tune from my village as I sat.
Without even finishing the first note, someone walked up to me. He was scrawny but larger than a lot of the lads around here and looked older, by at least 3 years. I was sure he couldn't have been older than 20.
"What are you selling?" He quipped, but his hands were closed tight around his pouch, and he kept on stealing glances at the gourd of rice wine.
I waved my hand in front of me, like I was acting out a play, making sure I didn't direct my hand to the wine. In my mind, I had to push the price up, especially since Wan Cheng and his bodyguard had taken the other gourds.
"Rice buns." I waved my hand again, "Provisions... fresh bread."
He looked at my array of goods, excluding the wine and the buns, I had bug repellent powders, tiny gambling tokens, a few fire starting kits, and even some boar oil for blades and a couple of whetstones.
Big Randy had made sure to help me out when deciding what I would bring along.
The slightly scrawny man put his hands on the pair of woollen gloves, "And how much are these?"
Being that he was the first to come up, everyone else was looking at him, trying to figure out what was really happening, and that this was not some disciplinary trick played by one of the superiors.
I scoffed, a slight *heh* under my breath, low enough that I was sure he wouldn't hear it. I knew this trick. I had used it myself. Getting the staves and bowstrings to continually keep my bow and arrows up to shape, even to replace them, had forced me to interact with a lot of merchants in the past few months.
At that time, this was one of the most effective tricks I had learned. To pretend you wanted one thing when in truth, you really wanted something else. But how could I fall for my own tricks?
"10 coppers."
The man let out a hmmm, then an *aaah* sound. Pretending to think about his choice. But he couldn't stop himself from stealing glances at the rice wine. I, however, acted like I didn't notice.
He pointed to the wine, then looked away with his finger still touching the gourd. A blank look on his face.
'Was that how I looked when I was first learning to bargain?' I shook the thought off. I wanted silver, and this was the way I was planning to get it.
"...And what's this?"
"Rice wine."
*Aaah,* "...and how much would the price be?"
"50 coppers." A bit much, but I still wanted to make money, considering how hard it was to get here.
"Fifty is too much. I'll give you thirty and protection for whenever you come here again."
I uncorked the wine, swishing it around a bit and allowing for it to release its aroma in the air. "Here, sniff it, do you think it's worth just thirty coppers?"
He took it and sniffed, knees almost buckling the second the scent hit his nose. I took it back immediately. I couldn't risk having him drink everything right in front of me.
"Fine," he took a large inhale of the air and wiped his nose. "40. But that's all I'm giving you."
But that was not the reason why I had uncorked the wine. The soldiers around the campfire didn't seem to believe that this was all real yet, so I had opened it to let the scent waft over to them.
For a band of men, scared to die and racked with nerves, the best antidote was wine.
And now they knew I had it.
"Wait! I'll pay the 50."
The scrawny man looked back at who had said that, and cussed, "Damn you, Lucius, don't make this hard for me."
Another voice spoke up, "52 coppers and a favour from me the next time you come about."
"...wait…"
It kept on going like this till I was able to get 65 coppers for a simple gourd of rice wine that cost me only 15 to get.
I wanted to jump for joy, but I focused on selling my other wares. It wouldn't be wise to let them know that I had just hit a windfall, even if I was sure some of them could guess it.
By the end of the day, I had made a total profit of one silver! It wasn't a lot by the standards I was used to, but it was fine. This just meant the plan worked, now all I'd have to do is go around asking what else they would want if I came around again.
And get a bigger bag to hold all the goods. If I did this right, I could be making 3 or 4 silver per trip.
It was far less than hunting beavers, but they'd be far harder to catch as the weather was changing, not only that, I'd have to hunt at night, in the snow, for hours to see if I could get one of them, even my traps wouldn't work properly.
If they did, I'd practically be trapping and serving up a meal for another predator.
No, the best bet would be to do this and be able to talk to people who would be directly involved in the war. In my mind, there was no way that somewhere up the command line, at least one person didn't have access to a king or a noble, or even a cultivator. If I got them what they needed, maybe one day they'd catch the eye of some cultivator, and if they thought well of me, then they might also mention my name in passing.
It was unreasonable, but I was trying to become a cultivator with deformed ethereal bridges. Everything I did would have to be a long shot.
I put on my bag and started walking around the camp as all the people who had been at the campfire immediately left to their camps or tents when they bought something.
The one who bought the rice wine went with a group of 15 people and some gambling dice he had bargained for from me. I'd have to do some work to find out what the people of the camp wanted.
But first, I went to the commander of Camp Yi's tent. If I were going around asking his subordinates what they wanted and didn't talk to him, who knew? He might take it the wrong way.
I had learned my lesson from Wan Cheng.
There were no guards in front of the commander's tent. This place was far less organised than that of Wan Cheng, so I shouted my name and waited for an invitation inside.
He let me in without much fanfare and was the only one inside, poring over a map that wasn't illuminated well enough for me to see in the darkness. He put it away as soon as I walked in.
"Yes?"
I wasn't sure what to do, so I did that unusual salute I saw at Wan Cheng's camp, with my palm facing outward and everything.
He smiled, amused. "What do you want, courier?"
"I was able to bring some things from Lunis as I came. I sold them to your men after delivering the message. I wanted to know if you would like me to bring anything else if I come here next time."
"To bring anything for sale?"
I nodded in as serious a manner as I could manage.
He burst out into laughter that sounded like it came from deep bellows. "You're a sharp grubber, aren't you?" He leaned back, as the question wasn't meant to be answered, and thought for a while, "Lunis…get me some ointments." he leaned over his desk to write on some parchment paper.
"I assume you can read?"
"Yes, sir."
His eyes shot up a bit in surprise, but they quickly went back down. I assumed he must have expected it a little bit since I was delivering messages.
"Also, in Lunis, there's a very good winemaker." he tossed me a pouch, and it was filled with coins.
I caught it, and my hands fell by a few inches from the weight. My eyes shot open. If I didn't know better, I would have assumed they had been closed before. This was enough silver to equal one gold!
"Ask for his Cold Plum brew, say general Tie Bei sent you."
I was almost too stunned to speak. I didn't notice, but I had started staring at the silver pouch, and ignoring everything else.
"Boy!"
Startled, I blinked, then looked back at him. He tossed me a talisman, "Give this to Wan Cheng, tell him-message received. That is all."
I walked out and put the pouch in the bag, smothering it with all the wrapping I had previously used for my wares. Silver had a way of making trouble find you.
As I left, I talked to as many people as I saw. I hadn't forgotten the goal I had to find out what they wanted.
But I heard noises of a scuffle as I went on, then shouting, then a full-on fight, with a group of 3 people watching a tall, muscular, but by village standards, boy, beating up a thin, almost twig-like man.
He had long hair, reaching from his scalp to the middle of his back, and three whiskers that passed for a beard.
The tall, muscular man would pick him by the scruff of his hair or his shirt and throw him away, and each time the thin man would get back up and rush the muscular man.
His hair, which used to be brown, was now a dark, gutter red, matted like a wet dog's fur, with blood flowing out of his mouth and nose.
"Bastards! Take back what you said!"
The muscular man taunted him, not a care in the world, "What should I take back, little twig?" He looked back at those cheating him, then back at the twig, "When I said, I'd buy your sister back? Or is it the part where I did that thing with your mother?"
The skinny man rushed them again, this time with a rock in his hand, *Aahhhhh,*
The big man and his friends laughed it off, one of them even pulling his leg forward to trip the skinny man.
He punched the one closest to him as hard as he could.
It hit the other man right in the nose, kicking up a small cloud of dust. When it dissipated, he was barely injured.
But what hurt was the mockery immediately launched at him by his friends and the muscular man who seemed to be the leader of the group.
The punched man immediately turned red with fury and launched a kick at the head of the twig-like man.
He fell immediately and his face bounced off the ground, implanting a few tiny rocks and immediately breaking his nose.
The one who had kicked him gave a *humph* and walked back to his friends, who were already starting to walk away.