Chapter 1428: Chapter 1266: Primeval Beast World 33
Because she wanted to leave early, as soon as Shuangshuang entered the gathering she immediately let the people following her go make their own preparations for trading; whether they set up a stall or went to trade with Beastmen from other tribes was up to them.
Shuangshuang herself headed straight for those stalls selling wild vegetables. To be honest, there really weren’t many stalls selling wild greens at this gathering; wild vegetables were everywhere, you just had to bend over to pick them, so not many people were willing to trade for them, let alone use more precious food to exchange for them.
So most of the sellers who brought wild greens were actually Beastmen selling other things, with the wild vegetables just thrown in as a free extra. If someone came just to buy wild vegetables, that was practically a byword for "stupid and rich."
As for getting tired of eating wild greens and wanting to change things up, that kind of extravagant thought was something Beastmen who were still struggling on the subsistence line would never even think of.
And right now, this stupid, rich, and extravagant Shuangshuang was charging straight at a wild-vegetable stall with eyes shining; she’d locked onto that wild green at a glance.
The wild vegetable was very large, with thick leaves that looked full of juice; it would absolutely work as a substitute for cabbage, the only question was how it tasted.
The Beastman selling wild vegetables at the stall looked like he was from a Great Tribe; laid out on his stall were all kinds of luxury items that ordinary Beastmen were reluctant to trade away.
There were more than a dozen big chunks of honey, not in jars but wrapped together with the honeycomb in clean leaves, very thick and substantial, the tender yellow color extremely appetizing, giving off a sweet fragrance.
Besides the honey, there were also many beautiful, finely polished stone tools on the stall, all made from hard sapphire; the handles were incredibly smooth, and they fit perfectly in the hand.
Beastmen relied on their sharp claws and fangs for hunting; because of their special ability to freely transform between human and beast forms, no weapon could compare with the innate weapons their bodies already came equipped with.
So the stone tools Beastmen used weren’t for fighting, but for daily life: stone hammers, Stone Axe, Stone Blade, and so on, all for everyday use.
These stone tools were well-made and easy to use, but you could make your own for free; even if they weren’t so handy, Beastmen didn’t care, so using food to trade for stone tools was a bit of a luxury.
The honey was the same; although honey tasted good, it wasn’t like you couldn’t go into the mountains and find some yourself, so it wasn’t worth spending grain to buy it.
The stall owner Beastman seemed to know this as well; he was sprawled lazily behind the stall, with no expectation at all that anyone would come and trade for his goods.
When he saw Shuangshuang walk over, he merely lifted his eyelids and said carelessly, "If you fancy something just take it yourself. I only need to tell you one thing: everything on my stall has to be exchanged for meat. If you can’t bear to part with it or think it’s not worth it, don’t waste your time."
Shuangshuang raised her eyebrows in surprise; this man was really straightforward. And from the way he looked, he clearly didn’t care whether the deal went through or whether he ended up taking everything back.
Still, Shuangshuang deliberately sized up this Beastman. He wasn’t exactly neat, but he wasn’t filthy either—especially his hands, which were washed very clean, with hardly any dirt under the nails.
After looking him over, Shuangshuang was a bit more satisfied. As long as he wasn’t too slovenly it was fine. "Don’t worry, I’ve got dried meat for you. I see you’ve got quite a few big, neatly wrapped leaf bundles behind you—are they all filled with honey? If they are, I’ll take them all."
The man saw that Shuangshuang really intended to buy and perked up; he got up directly, grabbed two neatly wrapped leaf bundles and brought them over. When he opened them, inside was honey of a very enticing color.
"These are all honey. If you take everything on my stall, I’ll count it as twenty strips of dried meat. It’s a bit pricey, but everything here is good stuff; you’ll definitely be getting a bargain."
Shuangshuang, naturally not short of food or dried meat, simply spent twenty strips of dried meat and bought everything, loading half her basket until it was heavy and full.
She made a point of tasting the bulk wild vegetable; although it carried a faint astringency and wasn’t as juicy and sweet as cabbage, it was still pretty decent. If they could cultivate it from seed for a couple of years, it should get close to cabbage.
After that Shuangshuang hurriedly made a round of all the stalls selling wild greens in the gathering, but didn’t find any more that suited her.
The smell of excrement at the gathering was everywhere, making Shuangshuang feel a bit nauseous; and the longer she stayed, the more she had the illusion that she herself had been fumigated into smelling bad. It was truly disgusting.
Because it stank so much, Shuangshuang couldn’t help wanting to find a spot that didn’t smell quite so bad. As she walked, she somehow ended up in a rather secluded corner.
There was a small stall here as well, selling some candied fruit. These fruit preserves seemed to have been specially prepared; little piles of them were placed on huge leaves, looking bright and shiny, incredibly appetizing.
The Beastman running the stall seemed to be very clean; all the excrement nearby had been cleared away. The air here was much fresher; although there was still some unavoidable stink, it was much less intense.
The stall was being watched by a young male Beastman. His looks were average, but he was unusually clean; his hair was very loose and clearly washed often, his body carried no strange odors, and even his Beast Skin skirt was clean.
This was a Beastman who liked cleanliness. Shuangshuang let out a breath of relief; she’d been worried he would also be a slovenly Beastman, in which case, no matter how tasty his candied fruit looked, she wouldn’t dare buy it.
Shuangshuang directly bought out all his candied fruit. Everything that had been laid out on the stall plus what he still had stored away and hadn’t put out filled the remaining half-empty space of her basket to the brim.
The candied fruit was actually quite expensive; Shuangshuang had already spent all the dried meat she had on hand. In her rush to leave, she didn’t notice that just as she was turning around, two people were walking over from another direction.
They were a male and a female Beastman, the man handsome and the woman beautiful. The man was carrying the woman on his back and strolling over very leisurely. That woman was Su Jinghao, and that man was one of Su Jinghao’s many men.
But Shuangshuang was walking fast and had her back to the two of them, so she didn’t see Su Jinghao and the man at all; they just brushed past each other.
Unwilling to endure the stink, none of them even rested at the tribal gathering. They hurriedly traded all the things they were carrying for what they wanted and then set off back on the road.
They had arrived at the tribal gathering in the morning, and by the time they finished exchanging goods and left, it was only afternoon.
Shuangshuang calculated that if everyone picked up the pace a bit, getting to a safe hiding spot she’d already scouted on her way there would be easy; even if they didn’t make it in time, they wouldn’t be too late.
The reason Shuangshuang was in such a hurry to leave was also because Yan Ming, not wanting to enter the gathering, had already planned to stay outside. Shuangshuang was a little worried about that, and on top of that she didn’t want to put up with the smell either, so she simply decided they might as well leave together.
