Book 4 - Chapter 18: Solitude (2)

Uncle Zhou Replied, “It’s hard, to catch this fish you need a special bait.”

Zhou Xin had already carefully prepared the Bright fish and placed it in the boiling waters, covering the pot with a lid, he said happily, “Brother Lei, it’ll be ready soon, Bright fish is the best for cooking, I had asked great father to pluck a few shoots of Luse grass, xixi, bright fish soup needs Luse grass to truly be delicious.

XinFeng glanced at the small wooden bowl at his side, it contained a bundle of washed tender green plants, something he did not recognize. Neither the fish or the plant was something he had seen before, it was obviously a special produce of this place. He thanked once again, “Thanks, Little Xin.”

Zhou Xin replied, “No need for thanks, brother Lei, we don’t have any good things here, just some seafood.”

Once the water boiled, the bright fish had already melting in the water. Throwing away the bones, it became evident that the soup had nothing in it, it was just a pot of white soup that carried a thick, delicious smell of fish. Sprinkling the grass shoots, Zhou Xin stirred the soup with a wooden spoon before speaking, “Alright, Great Father, let’s eat.”

Uncle Zhou took off the lid of a small wooden bucket, revealing well steamed rice with a bowl in it filled with smoked fish.

The main dishes here were fish and rice, grain was abundant here.

Excluding the porridge he ate yesterday, this was the first time XinFeng ate fresh rice since coming to this world, it made him feel very moved. Although the grain here was very different from the rice in his previous world, like how it was bigger, green in color and much more delicious, carrying a fragrant scent.

This meal, XinFeng ate half of this bucket of rice, shocking both Uncle Zhou and Zhou xin, this fellow really could eat.

Not only was the rice delicious, the smoked fish was also extremely delicious, as for the soup, it almost caused XinFeng to eat the wooden bowl too, no matter this life or his previous life, he had never drunk such delicious fish soup.

According to XinFeng’s appetite, this bit of rice and fish could only fill half his stomach. One must know that in Tiger Cliff Castle, he ate meat most of the time, while he rarely ate grain, only the meat from wild beasts could fill him, after all practitioners were not normal humans.

Uncle Zhou could only smile bitterly looking at the rice bucket, his was the food for a day for them. Fish could be caught but rice must be bought at the market, normally fishermen used all sorts of fish to change for grain, it was extremely expensive and only with 7-8 Jin of fish could they exchange for a Jin of rice.

Zhou Xin laughed, “It’s alright Great father, I’ll catch more fish since brother Lei likes to eat rice, we’ll exchange for more grain.”

XinFeng asked, “There’s somewhere selling grain here?”

Uncle Zhou replied, “Yes, there’s a large market here, there’s a lot of fishermen there every day to trade.

XinFeng nodded, “Alright, let’s head to the market, I’ll buy some grain.”

Zhou Xin asked with disbelief, “Brother Xin, you don’t have money with you, how will you buy grain?” He was the one that saved XinFeng, other than a set of clothes on him, he didn’t have anything else. Furthermore, his clothes were even in pieces, what he was currently wearing was Great Father’s clothes.

XinFeng laughed, “Don’t worry, I have a way.”

Although Zhou Xin was probably only 13, with a small body, a simple normal human, but he wasn’t dumb. “What way would you have? I’ll just catch more fish for trading.” He was a good fisher.

XinFeng laughed, “Really, I have a way. Little Xin, you must believe me, I won’t lie.”

Uncle Zhou spoke, “Alright, we have to go to the market anyways, we need to trade for some salt, there isn’t much left.”

The fishermen here normally went to the market for trading, some for salt, some for grain and others for clothes or daily necessities. Their lives were very simple, they lived for survival, nothing else.

XinFeng asked, “Uncle Zhou, where is your house?”

Uncle Zhou replied, “Here, on the boat. Our house is this boat, during the rainy season we would gather at the market but we still sleep on a boat.”

Zhou Xin laughed, he felt that this question was too comical, a fisherman’s house was always his boat, there was rarely any land here anyways, it was all lakes and swamps, the fishermen here had their family on boats. Uncle Zhou was a special case, he lived alone with his nephew, who had lost his parents with Uncle Zhou as his only living relative.

XinFeng laughed, “I used to live in a mountainous area, this is my first time on a boat.”

Uncle Zhou muttered, “Impossible, within a hundred kilometers are lakes, there’s never been any mountains….”

However, Zhou Xin was very intrigued, “Mountainous areas? Is it fun there?”

XinFeng spoke, “It’s different from here, there’s a lot of beasts there, very powerful beasts and also barbarians.”

Zhou Xin asked, “Barbarians? What’s that? Are they human?”

XinFeng asked, “Don’t you have Barbarians here?”

Zhou Xin shook his head, “I’ve never heard of them…..”

XinFeng explained, “Then that’s not bad, not having barbarians. Hehe, barbarians can be counted as human, but they’re more wild and they eat anything, even humans.”

Zhou Xin widened his mouth and asked, shocked, “They eat humans? Woah, Great Father, you hear that? Barbarians eat humans.”

After conversing with Uncle Zhou and Zhou Xin, XinFeng found out that this was a more peaceful place without many conflicts or dangerous beasts. This place was very isolated and carried a very simple life.

Uncle Zhou was finally moved by XinFeng and returned to the rear of the boat, took the oars and started rowing.

Zhou Xin also started getting busy, he placed the dried lotuses into the cloth bags and took out the dried fishes to arrange them, it was something they could use for trading. There was also a small cloth bag that made ‘Ding Dang’ sounds, it was his precious, with a dozen copper rings inside, it was used to buy things that couldn’t be traded.

The second day’s afternoon, the small boat reached the market.

It was built on water and seemed to be very sturdy from afar, all sorts of uneven wooden houses were built on the water with thick wooden poles built beneath the waters. It wasn’t very deep here and was at most three to four meters deep. Each house was connected with wooden planks while the streets was simply water, with boats as the only mode of transportation.

As the temperature was hot here, the fishermen only wore short pants and had creels tied around their waists as they walked around barefoot. In their hands were normally harpoon like weapons and there were also little tattoos on their body.

As they reached the market, they saw countless little boats rowing towards the market from all four directions.

This place had an atmosphere of tranquility, a good place for practicing. He had already decided to stay here until he had reached the level of a True Milun master with one true ring body, at that time he’ll start traveling. After witnessing a true fight, he had learnt that it would be extremely dangerous for a Milun master to travel alone outside. Since he had a lot of resources now, it was enough for him to practice.

XinFeng also bared his upper body, similarly wearing a linen short, the only difference was that he didn’t have creels tied around his waist or a harpoon in his hands. He did have a cloth bag in his hands carrying dried lotuses, it was a sort of flavor medicine, something practitioners needed. This sort of lotuses was something different from his previous world, it’s color was a faint red, a special produce of this land, Fire lotus grew in the lakes, to be able to produce these few Jins of Fire lotuses were already not bad.

This bag of lotuses had used up a dozen days of hard work by Zhou Xin, and after peeling and drying it, there was only a few Jins left. According to Zhou Xin, these fire lotuses could trade for a few silver rings and because of XinFeng’s large appetite, Zhou Xin had no choice but to take out his precious to trade for grain, one Jin of fire lotuses could trade for a hundred Jin of grains, which was why he had XinFeng carry it.

Uncle Zhou carried a few hundred Jins of dried fish and walked aboard, Zhou xin’s creel and this dozen of Bright fishes were worth a lot.

The three of them walked aboard the wooden plank and quickly they reached a rice shop.

Almost everyone here liked bartering, gold rings. There were copper rings, silver rings and gold rings, fishermen mostly had copper rings and only a bit of sliver rings were in circulation while gold rings were practically nonexistent, only among shops were gold rings used.

Uncle Zhou placed the dried fish down and shouted, “Old shopkeeper! I’m here!”

An old man sat on a chair with a fan in his hands, gently fanning himself, he asked with a laugh, “Little Zhou, you’re here again to trade for grain?”

Uncle Zhou laughed, “That’s right, old shopkeeper, how’s your business recently?” The two of them seemed to be very close.

The old man sat straight and waved his fan, “It hasn’t been good recently, I have too many dried fishes, you know too, the rainy season is almost here, the dried fishes can’t last, it’s too damp and moldy and the boat crew wouldn’t come and take these, ai…” He sighed before continuing, “There isn’t much, dried fish can’t trade for a lot of grain.”

Zhou Xin spoke, “I have bright fish and a few Fire lotuses.”

XinFeng looked coldly at the side, noticing that the old shopkeeper’s eyes were rolling, he knew this fellow’s words couldn’t be trusted.

The old shopkeeper spoke, “En, fire lotuses are alright, how many do you have?”

Zhou Xin replied, “About 3-5 Jin.”

The old shopkeeper replied, “A Jin for 50 Jin, how’s that? Recently the prices for Fire lotuses have dropped too.”

Zhou Xin had a bitter expression. He had hoped to trade for a bit more but he didn’t expect the prices to drop by half.

XinFeng couldn’t watch this any longer and walked a step forward, “How much for a Jin?”

The old shopkeeper asked, “Money? You have money?” It wasn’t that he looked down on fishermen, but they really did rarely use money to buy rice.