Qiao Yu's voice was a typical girl's. Although she looked smaller and thinner than Shu and the others, she was tall, the size of a slender boy of fourteen or fifteen. Boys of that age would have already reached voice change, and her voice would have made it obvious that something was wrong.
Furthermore, it was very strange that she, a little kid, kept interrupting in such an important matter as trading with other tribes, while the other adults acted as if she had the final say.
So she tried not to speak in front of others if possible, leaving everything to Man and Liushui to bargain, and finally Shu to make the decision.
Everyone looked at Mitsuru.
"How dare our small tribe offer you something poisonous? Do you think your life is too long?" he said with a smile. "If we still can't eat it and still feel full, we still have to stay here for a few days. You can just give it back to us. Alternatively, you can only exchange half a basket, take it home and eat it, and then come back to trade again. But by then, we don't know if it will be left. Everyone wants good things, right?"
He pointed at the wicker baskets stacked together and said, "We only brought these twenty or so baskets of yams. Once we exchange them, they'll be gone. If you want more after you've eaten them, you'll have to wait until next snow season."
There were only about twenty of them attending the trade fair, and they had to bring their own hides, dried meat, and wild fruits. If Qiao Yu hadn't come up with a clever way to get them to carry their loads, they wouldn't have been able to bring many potatoes to trade with their original method.
Seeing that Man refused to give in, the man looked at the basket helplessly and said, "Pour it out and let me see how many hairy potatoes there are in the basket."
Hearing this, Man couldn't help but admire Qiao Yu.
The yams they dug up were of varying sizes, and he had suggested taking only the large ones. The large yams were so large that they left a lot of space in the wicker baskets, so only a few could fit in one basket. They were a good bargain when traded.
Qiao Yu rejected his proposal.
She explained that if no one could find the hairy yams growing in the ground, they would be their tribe's main product at the trade fair. And everyone knew whether they were good or not. If they said they were bad, then they were definitely good, at least filling and tasty. But if they said they were good, that wasn't always the case. That was just the way it was.
If everyone finds it's not worth it, then that's a one-time deal, and they won't change it again. Furthermore, their valley tribe's reputation will be ruined, and others will think they're dishonest.
So she picked out the medium-sized ones and put them in the basket, filling it up completely. The more they were, the more hairy potatoes looked when they were poured out, which was a great deal.
Now, in response to the man's request, a basket of raw potatoes was poured on the ground. It looked like a small pile, and the potatoes were well-balanced, which made people feel good.
The man was satisfied after seeing it and said, "It's still too expensive, too expensive. I have so much dried meat, why don't I just eat the dried meat? Why should I eat this thing you don't know what it is?"
"Yeah. It's cheaper." Others echoed.
Manju looked at the tree with an embarrassed look on his face.
The tree seemed to be thinking, and after hesitating for a while, it said, "Since everyone is sincere about the exchange, let's do this. The price cannot be reduced, but we can give you a basket. For two baskets of raw potatoes, we will give you one basket. You can use the basket to carry other things later. We also want half a bowl of dried meat for the exchange alone."
He said to everyone sincerely, "The dried potatoes are enough to keep us full, but life is tough during the snowy season. If it weren't for the lack of salt, I wouldn't be trading them. If the dried meat you give me is too little, I'd rather take it back to the tribe and eat it myself, so the tribe can save some. We can trade the saved dried meat for salt and barely survive. But if the dried meat you give me is too little, it's not worth it, so it's better not to trade."
When an honest person tells a lie, it is easy to gain people's trust. Regardless of whether these passers-by believe it or not, the man opposite believed it anyway.
We are in similar situations and can understand each other best.
Those people kept talking, but Shu insisted on the price of ten bowls and refused to give in.
"Okay, then I'll take two baskets. I'll go back and eat them today. If they're really filling, I'll come back to exchange them tomorrow." said the man who was the best at bargaining.
He had originally wanted to exchange for a basket, after all, he wasn't sure if the yams were as filling as they said. But exchanging one basket for nothing seemed like a bad deal, so he decided to exchange for two.
He also wanted to take the basket back to see how it was woven.
The Sun Tribe had a salt well, so salt was naturally not as expensive for the people of the tribe as it was for the people of other smaller tribes. However, for the people of smaller tribes, salt was the most precious thing.
So when the people of the Sun Tribe came out to exchange things, they all brought salt with them.
The man pulled out a bag from the animal hide and poured the salt from the bag into a wooden bowl, filling it up flat.
Seeing that they could exchange two baskets of raw potatoes for two bowls of salt, and considering how easy it was to get raw potatoes, compared to the dried meat they had to hunt in the mountains after a tiring and dangerous journey, it was a much better deal. The Shu and his companions were overjoyed. Fortunately, they were considerate of outsiders and tried their best to keep their smiles on.
Qiao Yu's eyes were fixed on the man's bag.
Hemp! She had searched all over the mountains and couldn't find the hemp!
"Uncle," she said, not caring whether to attract attention or not. She walked over and pointed at the bag the man was about to put back into his arms and asked, "What is your bag made of? It's very beautiful. Do you know where I can get a replacement?"
The man took a look at his bag and smiled at Qiao Yu: "Hey, you have a good eye. This is a sack. I bought it with a lot of dried meat."
He pointed in the direction ahead and said, "Here, go ahead and there's a bag like this next to where the salt is exchanged."
Shu and Man knew it was something special when they saw Qiao Yu was interested in it. They asked in unison, "How much dried meat do you want in this bag?"
The man sighed, "I guess you are reluctant to exchange it. This sack is worth thirty bowls of dried meat from your wooden bowl." He pointed to the wooden bowls of the valley tribe.
Shu and Man were both shocked.
It's just a small bag the size of a palm, but it costs almost as much as a pottery jar.
Qiao Yu was not surprised.
Although it was not surprising, she still grinned.
Such a small sack is so expensive, it must be very difficult to get hemp seeds.
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