Although she tried her best to imitate the way people from the big tribe speak, her accent was still a bit strange, which made the stall owner look at Qiao Yu carefully.
When Qiao Yu's heart was in his throat, the man smiled and said, "This young man is quite good. He actually learned our language. I say you should do this. Otherwise, the transaction will be impossible. It's very tiring to gesture all the time."
Obviously, he mistook Qiao Yu for someone from the small tribe whose language he couldn't speak.
Qiao Yu smiled shyly, then pointed at something on his stall and asked, "What is this? How do I exchange it?"
"This is millet," the man said. "One coin or a bowl of dried meat in exchange for a bowl of millet."
He then quickly explained, "But I'm not switching to the shelled ones, I'm switching to the unshelled ones. Shelling isn't difficult though. Just rub them with your hands and the shells will come off. Then blow on them and they'll look like the ones in my bowl."
Qiao Yu touched his nose.
Millet and sorghum were terms she'd seen in history books. As for what they actually were, she truly had no idea. Whether before or after the apocalypse, she'd only ever grown flowers, never grain. When she ate, she'd only cared about what tasted good and what didn't.
So when she spotted something drooping like a rice ear near a valley tribe, the word "millet" immediately came to her mind, so she called it "millet." Later, she discovered that it thrives in water, so she figured it must be rice. As for whether rice was historically called millet, she didn't have Baidu to ask, so she couldn't find out.
But now she was certain that the millet in front of her was millet. After all, the small, golden grains looked similar to the millet she had eaten before making porridge. She felt that this time she would not be mistaken.
"Can you eat this millet? Is it poisonous?" Qiao Yu asked with a worried look.
Hearing her words, not only the stall owner, but also the stall owner next to him and the people who were picking things at the stall laughed.
"Kid, people in my tribe usually eat corn, and we've never seen anyone poisoned." The man picking things looked at Qiao Yu with disdain. "Only people from small tribes like you eat meat all day long."
Qiao Yu didn't care about his contempt. She pretended to be surprised, staring at the man with wide eyes and asked, "Do you usually eat this? Do you have so much corn growing in the mountains here?"
Hearing this, everyone burst into laughter as if they had heard a big joke.
"Hey, you kid!" The millet vendor looked at him, not knowing whether to laugh or cry. He shook his head and said, "Which tribe are you from? If you were from the Jiangyuan tribe, you wouldn't be so backward, relying on gathering in the mountains to survive, right? Your tribe also grows millet."
Qiao Yu's heart skipped a beat, but he didn't show it on his face. He scratched the back of his head with his hand, looking honest and shy, with a red face and a smile, not saying a word.
The stall owner didn't seem to care and asked him, "Do you want to change it?"
"Change, change." Qiao Yu was not willing to give up this opportunity.
These millet seeds are more important to her than salt.
The tribe still had salt in stock, enough to last until next year, so they could figure out a way to get it back. But for her, who relied on rice and flour as her staple food, millet was incredibly important.
Even if I could change it back, it would be past the farming season this year and I'd have to wait until next spring to plant. But who knows when this market will actually be held? What if I don't get to see it later? Wouldn't I regret it so much?
So let’s change it first.
As for salt, if that doesn't work, then we can steal or rob the Sun Tribe. Compared to this large tribe, the Sun Tribe is easier to deal with. At least the Sun Tribe only has a thousand people, while this large tribe has thousands, if not tens of thousands.
Qiao Yu put down his wicker basket and said to the man, "I'll exchange it for ten bowls."
The man first looked at the dried meat in the wicker basket, then tasted one, chewing it while saying with disgust, "Why don't you put some ginger in when you marinate the meat? If that doesn't work, just add more salt. Look at what kind of dried meat this is, it's disgusting."
Qiao Yu smiled bitterly.
She wanted to add ginger and salt, but she couldn't bear to do so.
Not to mention ginger, salt is still in short supply for the Dragon Tribe right now, as they're unsure whether they can exchange it for salt in the Sun Tribe anymore. Therefore, everyone should try to eat bland foods and add just a little salt when cooking soup or grilling meat, just enough to meet the body's needs and avoid salt deficiency symptoms.
Therefore, this meat jerky is both bland and has a strong fishy smell. If the griller is not skilled, it will be really unpalatable.
The stall owner was so disgusted that he spit out the dried meat with a "puff" sound after chewing it. He said to Qiao Yu, "Your dried meat is really disgusting. You have to exchange one and a half bowls for a bowl of corn."
"No, no matter how bad it tastes, it's still meat, and it's more filling than what you have." Qiao Yu shook his head and picked out a piece of dried meat from his wicker basket and handed it over. "How about you try this? My mom usually grills meat in our house. The one you just tasted was probably grilled by my sister. She's young and not very good at grilling, so my mom usually doesn't let her do it."
The stall owner was unwilling to taste it, and waved his hand and said, "Alright, alright, four bowls for three. If you don't want to exchange, forget it."
"Okay then." Qiao Yu scooped out eight bowls with a painful look on his face and said to the stall owner, "Six bowls in exchange."
After saying that, she poured all the dried meat in the animal-skin bag on her back into the wicker basket, and pulled the bag's opening to signal the stall owner to pour the millet into the animal-skin bag.
The stall owner quickly poured her six bowls of rice, which was quite generous, and each bowl was topped with rice.
Qiao Yu scooped out another bowl of dried meat and said to the stall owner, "Can I exchange it for a dollar?"
The stall owner hesitated for a moment, then nodded and said, "Okay, for your straightforwardness."
As he spoke, he took out a sack from his arms, took out a shell and handed it to Qiao Yu.
Qiao Yu took a look and found that it was indeed a shell from the seaside.
After Qiao Yu put the seashells in her arms, carried the animal skin bag and the wicker basket and left, she walked for a distance. With her excellent hearing, she heard the stall owners burst into laughter.
Someone said, "You are such a ruthless person! You can't even say four bowls for three. That's the price of shelled corn."
"Haha, I finally found a fool. Who else should I cheat if not him? But his meat jerky is really bad. I'm trading four bowls for three, which is a fair price. I can't exchange this bad meat jerky for anything else, right?"
After hearing this, Qiao Yu was not annoyed, nor did he feel that he was at a disadvantage.
Since they grew their own millet, it couldn't be that valuable. But for her, just seeing the familiar grain from her past life was a rare treat. Prey could be hunted again, but the chance to obtain millet seeds was fleeting. Even if it was more expensive, it was just a goat for her. For someone with her immense martial prowess, a goat was a simple matter of raising her hand.
So whether it's worth it depends on the individual. She wouldn't even accept the shelled corn. Besides, she didn't get much in return, so even if she lost money, it wouldn't be a big loss.
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