Chapter 44 The exploration team sets off! Should we buy a bio-suit on credit? ...
Lu Xuan disagreed, "Don't use the Star Alliance as a standard. It's your natural grain prices that are outrageous. Do you even know what a monopoly is? This is a one-of-a-kind business for me, and no matter how many I sell, it's not expensive."
[...That actually makes a lot of sense.]
Indeed, the streamer didn't steal or rob anything. The villagers already thought it was a good deal, so even if they doubled the price, people who don't lack supplies wouldn't care.
【That's true. Ordinary disaster victims can't afford that much food in the first place. I wholeheartedly support the streamer ruthlessly exploiting those privileged people who are still living lavishly during the disaster!】
[Food was so easy to make in ancient times! Ahhhh! I really want to climb over the screen to the streamer and get that much food!]
Putting aside the wild ideas in the comments, Lu Xuan's idea of a monopoly would not be possible for at least several months. Right now, he had only confirmed that the two of them wanted 10 cubic meters of space and then bought them two new spaces.
Before they bought it, I reminded them, "If you don't want a ring, you can choose other styles, such as pendants, earrings, or bracelets."
Xiong Mao immediately exclaimed, "I want the bracelet!"
In ancient times, apart from noble families who wore thumb rings, ordinary people did not have the habit of wearing rings. However, young women liked bracelets. It is obvious that Xiong Mao changed to a bracelet for Su Ying to wear.
Wu Cheng, however, still chose the ring, since the other ones weren't really suitable for him and Wu Yang.
The two of them brought plenty of food with them, and as soon as they got the supplies, they handed the food over to Lu Xuan.
They didn't show anything special during the transaction, but others felt particularly sorry for them.
Needless to say, Xiong Mao is not only competitive and always wants to be first, but Su Ying must have been behind it all. That woman is a woman who enjoys life. How could she not urge Xiong Mao to buy her something as good as a space ring (bracelet)?
But Wucheng...
Someone advised, "Isn't your Wuyang still unmarried? Aren't you planning to save your grain for his future wedding?"
Including the two biosuits, they've exchanged 300 jin of grain. If the father and son eat sparingly, it'll last them a year and a half or two years.
Wu Cheng calmly replied, "It's alright. My family stockpiled a lot of food before the earthquake, so we can afford to give some. Besides, the weather is unpredictable, and the disaster victims outside are definitely having a harder time than us. If we really need it, we can give a bag or two of food to other disaster victims and maybe we can find a good wife."
Families with children whose marriages had also been delayed due to the disaster immediately found inspiration upon hearing this.
Yes, how come they didn't think of that?
If no disaster had occurred, given the circumstances of these rural families, they could only find a family of similar social standing. They had little choice in terms of appearance or physique, as long as they could make a living together.
But things are different now; we can't look at things with the same perspective as in peacetime.
As viewers in the live stream watched Lu Xuan pack up more than a dozen bags of grain, they sighed and said, "Has anyone calculated how much grain the streamer earned today?"
It must weigh over 2,000 jin (1,000 kg), right?
Two thousand eight hundred jin!
How much would this much food cost if bought with star coins...?
Two or three million! Still, there's no market for it.
[Making a net profit of two to three million in a single day, the streamer is indeed as shrewd as ever.]
[Pfft, it seems the villagers didn't succumb to the catastrophe in the end, but were instead exploited by the streamer first.]
Lu Xuan said coldly, "What do you mean by exploitation? You put it so harshly. My things didn't fall from the sky. I spent 27,000 points in one go to buy all these bio-suits and two spatial rings. If I used those points to open blind boxes, it would be enough for you to do another 200 blind boxes. And the stuff you get would be worth far more than two or three thousand catties of grain."
The Covenant's highly effective medicines alone could be exchanged for an unimaginable amount of food, not to mention various kinds of sugar and luxury items like toilet paper that were luxuries for the wealthy.
Viewers in the live stream: That makes sense.
Lu Xuan: "Besides, do you really think they would go bankrupt to get these supplies?"
The villagers aren't that naive; they're very shrewd and won't easily trade something that's not worth it.
Those who didn't fully trust him during the major earthquake and therefore didn't bring all their food up the mountain only had a few hundred kilograms of grain. Most of the families who received the food didn't come to exchange it for anything else. A few individuals only exchanged a child's bio-suit.
Those who are truly willing to spend one or two hundred catties of grain are those whose families have one or two thousand catties of grain.
At first glance, it seems that one-tenth of the stored food has been used up at once, but the supplies in the deep mountains are much richer than imagined. Before long, they will be able to increase their supplies even more, and it will be even more painful if they cannot store and preserve them in time.
·
Inside the big cave.
"Dad, is this the bio-suit? It feels so comfortable!" The teenager happily spun around in place after putting on the bio-suit his elders had brought back.
The elders asked curiously, "Didn't you say that wearing these clothes would keep you cool? Don't you feel much cooler?"
The child nodded vigorously, "Yes! But it's not very hot in the cave anyway, I'll go for a walk outside." With that, he quickly ran out of the cave.
The other family members quickly followed.
Watching their child run and jump around in the Giant Wood Square for a while before returning to their side, their clothes were completely dry and their face was not sweaty at all, they exclaimed in surprise, "It really is that amazing!"
"Thirty catties of grain was well worth it! It was such a good deal."
The situation was similar in other households. The children's fevers subsided and their spirits returned quickly. They put on their bio-suits and ran around everywhere, making the cave noisy and bustling.
It wasn't just the children who were causing trouble; the adults weren't much better off. The families who had bought adult-sized bio-suits became the focus of everyone's attention.
Among them, Xiong Mao's family, who were particularly proud and eager to show off, had the largest crowd, with the women swarming around Su Ying and making sarcastic remarks.
"Xiong Mao's wife, I'm not trying to criticize you, but why did you encourage your man to buy a spatial ring? The village chief has already bought one for the whole village. You really don't know how to manage money."
After Xiong Dabao's fever subsided, Su Ying, who had regained her energy, fiddled with the pretty bracelet on her wrist and said with a smug smile, "The three of us in my family are all a bit picky eaters. We often want to try new things, but it's not good to keep going to the village chief to get a little bit every few days. It's too much trouble for the village chief. It's more convenient to have one at home."
Other women: The way you're saying that makes it sound like we really enjoy bothering the village chief.
Ultimately, it's all about saving food at home. Everyone lives like this, and the village chief doesn't mind the trouble they go through.
We're in a time of catastrophe, and we don't know if we'll be able to continue farming in the future, so we have to be careful with our food supplies.
Su Ying smiled and said, "Moreover, if we put away the things that we don't use often in the house, the house will be more spacious, and my Da Bao will have a larger range of activities. Otherwise, he'll always want to run outside to play, and it wouldn't be good if he got sunburned. Oh dear, I almost forgot, my husband has changed all three of us into bio-suits. Now I can take Da Bao out for a walk with us."
She paused deliberately before continuing, "Sisters, aunts, didn't your families buy you bio-suits? It must be because the men in your families don't want you to go out and work so hard. I really envy you."
The women: "!!!"
She clearly didn't mean it that way, yet she deliberately said such infuriating things! This woman is as annoying as ever.
The women noticed that Su Ying deliberately tugged at her collar, revealing the bio-suit she was wearing underneath, and they curled their lips in disgust.
She'll be smug to death!
They thought bitterly, "This little brat can only be smug now. If she keeps wasting food like this, she'll be crying sooner or later! Humph!"
They were all from the same village and interacted frequently; how could Su Ying not guess what they were thinking?
But she didn't take these mild, insignificant sores to heart at all.
Before the disaster, her family had stockpiled a full 1,500 jin of grain. Before the major earthquake, she strictly ordered Xiong Mao to carry all the grain up the mountain, which ultimately saved all their possessions.
With so much food, they could eat for at least five years even if they didn't eat sparingly. Spending one-fifth of it to get a space ring that could be passed down as a family heirloom and a bio-clothing that would eliminate their worries about scorching heat and freezing cold was incredibly worthwhile.
On the other hand, the stubborn few households in the village, because they did not believe Lu Xuan and the village chief, did not carry all the grain they bought with real money up the mountain because they were too lazy to carry it. In the end, they suffered a huge loss and only had three to five hundred catties of grain left, which was not enough for themselves, so they were naturally reluctant to spend money.
Having satisfied her ego by showing off, Su Ying didn't continue to annoy everyone. Instead, she thoughtfully reminded them, "While we have plenty of food now, you should change into your bio-suits as soon as possible. It's getting hotter and hotter, and you'll all eventually have to change them because you can't stand it. Since you're going to change them anyway, why suffer the heat now?"
The women remained silent; could they not understand such a simple truth?
Despite their thoughts, these people, accustomed to thrift, were still reluctant to spend so much food just to buy a new piece of clothing under the threat of disaster.
Let's take another look.
·
Everyone had been excitedly discussing the spatial ring and the bio-cloak for quite some time, and before they knew it, the whole morning had passed.
At noon, although most of the women didn't have any biological clothing to wear and were sweating profusely, they were still very energetic to prepare lunch, seeing the children running around in the square with great spirits.
Today's lunch wasn't as plentiful as yesterday's, but no one seemed to mind. After lunch, the members of the exploration team, who had been scheduled for yesterday, set off with their weapons and baskets, watched by their relatives and friends.
Once they left the area of Giant Wood Plaza, everyone could clearly feel that the temperature around them had risen considerably.
There are many trees in the deep mountains, and there is shade everywhere, but these shades are not as lush and thick as the branches of the giant trees, so the effect is naturally much worse. The group had already sweated a lot after walking only a dozen meters.
Compared to the disheveled state of the others, the half of the people wearing biosuits appeared exceptionally relaxed and at ease, their faces radiating excitement at the prospect of exploring the deep mountains.
The other able-bodied men who hadn't been willing to spend their food began to regret it.
It's just a few dozen kilograms of grain, it's not like we can't pay it back. Knowing we were going out in the afternoon, why didn't they give us a bio-suit?
Now that we're already out, it's too embarrassing to suggest going back to get more food.
Seeing their predicament, Lu Xuan offered, "Would you like me to lend you a bio-suit on credit?"
The sweating young men were overjoyed and eagerly asked, "Is it okay?"
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