Chapter 24. Qin Ren went to bed around 8 PM...
Qin Ren went to bed around 8 p.m. and got up around 4 a.m. the next morning.
At this point, Liu Qingyue was so sleepy that she could barely keep her head and eyes open.
Qin Ren came out of the tent and carried Liu Qingyue into the tent.
It was warm inside the tent, and Qin Ren even put two hand warmers on him. Liu Qingyue fell asleep almost as soon as he crawled into his sleeping bag.
He slept for a very long time after that. If it weren't for the voices outside, he probably would have continued to sleep like that.
Liu Qingyue rubbed her eyes, reached out and pulled open the tent, only to find four people outside.
There were four people: two men, one woman, and a child.
They were talking to Qin Ren, but because Qin Ren couldn't understand what they were saying, the communication between the two sides was not going very smoothly.
Upon seeing this, Liu Qingyue quickly climbed out. He heard the woman inside say, "We don't mean anything by it, we just want to rest here for a while."
Liu Qingyue did not readily believe what he heard. Few people who could get this far were kind-hearted, and he would not let his guard down just because the other party was a woman.
Liu Qingyue: "If you want to rest, you can wait a while. You can come in after we've packed up our things."
He and Qin Ren had been resting here for quite some time, and it was time to pack up and continue their journey.
The woman couldn't help but breathe a slight sigh of relief when she saw that Liu Qingyue could understand her words.
She looked at the strange tent inside the thatched hut with a bit of curiosity.
She remembered that Liu Qingyue came out from there, and that strange tent seemed to be a place to rest.
The woman asked politely, "Um, young man, what is this...?"
It looks quite unique.
Upon hearing this, Liu Qingyue looked at her with some wariness. Could these people be planning to steal their tent?
Qin Ren said their tents were very useful; if they couldn't find a place to rest, the tents could be used temporarily to block the wind and rain.
Therefore, the tents cannot be given to just anyone; they must keep them for their own use.
Liu Qingyue: "I'm sorry, I can't tell you that."
Seeing this, the woman seemed to have guessed his wariness.
However, considering the recent bad weather, they didn't have many warm clothes.
Thinking of her young child, she brazenly continued, "Don't be afraid, we won't take your things. We can trade with you."
Liu Qingyue hesitated for a moment before asking, "What do you have to exchange?"
He didn't want to trade the tent, but... if the other party had something good, they could trade something else.
The woman glanced at a man behind her, who pulled out a few pieces of silver from his pocket.
Woman: "We have silver, as well as food and weapons. What do you need?"
Because the other party was too polite, and given their large number and the amount of belongings they carried, Liu Qingyue worried that there might be a trap.
So he ran to Qin Ren's side and whispered back to Qin Ren what the woman had just said.
Liu Qingyue asked softly, "Do we want to do business with her?"
Qin Ren wasn't too worried after hearing this. With both he and Liu Qingyue having stun guns, even if they were four adults, they wouldn't be a threat.
Qin Ren: "We don't need food or weapons. We can trade them for silver. Ask them what they want. We can sell everything except tents."
"How should the price be set?"
"You decide how to talk to them. Anyway, we need to make money; we can't do business at a loss."
Having made up her mind, Liu Qingyue turned to the group outside and asked, "What do you need?"
The woman's eyes lit up slightly when she saw an opportunity.
“We need warm clothes; we lost our things on the way. The weather in the mountains has been very cold these past few days, and my child is finding it hard to stand.”
Upon hearing this, Liu Qingyue glanced at the child behind her.
The other person's forehead was covered by hair, so Liu Qingyue couldn't tell if he was a boy or a male.
However, seeing the way the child was being protected by two men, he figured the other party was probably a young man.
Liu Qingyue: "We have a warm coat and some heat packs here. You can buy them from us with your money."
Woman: "What is a thermal patch?"
She understands what warm clothes are; they must be thicker garments.
But there was one thing she didn't quite understand about this heat patch.
Liu Qingyue, being a boy, was too embarrassed to take off his thermal pads from his clothes in public.
He was reluctant to open a new pack to show them, feeling that it would be too wasteful to do so.
He had no choice but to look at Qin Ren beside him and say, "Take off the thermal pads on your body and give them to me."
Upon hearing this, Qin Ren nonchalantly peeled a heat patch off his back.
Liu Qingyue took Qin Ren's heat patch and handed it to the woman.
"This stuff can be stuck to your clothes and it can keep you warm for about six hours. If you buy it, you can use it to keep warm while you're resting at night."
The woman found this thing amazing; it was warm to the touch even though there was no fire. It could even stick to clothes—it was so interesting and convenient!
Upon seeing this, the young man couldn't resist leaning over and carefully touching it.
The child looked on in surprise and whispered, "Mother, this is hot."
Hearing what the child said, the woman quickly smiled and said to him, "Then let your father buy you this, so our little Ruo won't feel cold at night."
One of the two men, who had been silent until now, suddenly spoke up when he heard the woman's words and asked Liu Qingyue, "How much silver does this cost?"
Liu Qingyue: "We didn't bring many of these with us. If you want to keep your child warm, it's better to buy thermal underwear."
As Liu Qingyue said this, she went to rummage through Qin Ren's backpack and pulled out a pair of thermal underwear that had never been worn.
Qin Ren prepared this thermal underwear for Liu Qingyue because he was worried that the weather here was unpredictable and that if their clothes got wet, Liu Qingyue would easily catch a cold.
Because it's worn underneath, it doesn't look very nice. But you can tell just by touching it that it's very warm.
The two men didn't understand these things, but the woman did.
After touching the clothes, the woman decided to buy them.
This garment is made with high-quality material; one piece is equivalent to several other garments.
With this dress, her child should be able to make it to the south.
Woman: "How much silver does this cost?"
Liu Qingyue: "Ten taels of silver."
A piece of clothing costs ten taels of silver, which is an astronomical price.
But these are chaotic times, and they are in the deep mountains and forests.
They were already quite lucky to find someone willing to sell their clothes.
So the woman didn't haggle over the price and readily agreed to buy it.
As for why we didn't try to steal it?
To be honest, they initially came to steal things.
Just as Liu Qingyue had thought, the fact that they had arrived here so far much faster than the main force meant they were no pushovers.
But upon seeing Liu Qingyue, the woman discovered that he was also a boy.
A guy, and a guy who's this handsome.
There were only two of them, yet they managed to get here.
Women know that they are definitely not as simple as they seem.
She had a child, and the child was a boy.
She didn't dare risk herself and her child for that little bit of money.
Now that they are very close to the south, it is precisely at this time that they cannot afford to take any risks.
The woman bought the clothes for ten taels of silver, then smiled and looked at Liu Qingyue, saying, "Could you sell us those thermal patches too?"
Liu Qingyue: "Do you still have any money?"
When the woman paid, she had scraped together ten taels of silver, and Liu Qingyue felt that they probably didn't have any more money.
The woman said, "I do not have any silver, but I still have a gold hairpin."
She didn't mention the gold hairpin just now because she was wary of Liu Qingyue and the others.
Now, after the transaction, she found that these two people were actually quite kind and honest.
Because in such deep mountains, it is obvious that warm clothing is much more important than money.
The other party didn't have any extra clothes on them, but they were still willing to sell their clothes to them.
On the surface, ten taels of silver seems expensive, but in reality, under such circumstances, ten taels of silver is actually very cheap.
Seeing that they were decent people, the woman dared to take out the gold hairpin she was wearing.
Liu Qingyue: "But...we don't have that many thermal pads."
The gold hairpin was far more valuable than ten taels of silver, and Liu Qingyue wasn't the kind of unscrupulous merchant. He was too embarrassed to ask for a gold hairpin when he had just used a few thermal pads.
Woman: "Then... could you sell us that thing in the room?"
The thing the woman was talking about was a tent. By this time, she could tell it was a tent, so she wanted to buy it even more.
Liu Qingyue really wanted her gold hairpin, but Qin Ren said he couldn't sell the tent, but he could sell her anything else.
Liu Qingyue rolled her eyes and then pulled their small cart over.
"We can't sell the tent; we only have one. But other items are fine. Do you want this?"
What is this?
"This is a small handcart, but it can't be used now because the road is wet. But once the weather clears up and the road dries, you can use it to pull your children."
After saying that, Liu Qingyue, like a solicitous salesperson, rummaged through her backpack and pulled out a bag of candy and a few eggs.
"Besides these, we also have candy and eggs."
Upon hearing that the child named Xiao Ruo was from Tangguo, she immediately craned her neck to look towards Liu Qingyue.
He didn't know what candy was, but he knew what sugar was.
That's just how kids are; they're naturally at an age where they tend to be quite greedy.
Now that we've encountered a year of famine and suffered a lot along the way, it's no wonder we start craving delicious food as soon as we hear about it.
Little Ruojiao called out timidly, "Father, I want to eat candy."
The man he called "father" turned his gaze to the candy in Liu Qingyue's hand.
That bag of candy looked delicious; it was wrapped in very pretty candy wrappers, and it didn't look cheap at all.
Liu Qingyue: "If you want to exchange for thermal pads with us, we have seven thermal pads, a bag of candy, six eggs, and a cart for you."
Woman: "We don't need the cart, do you have anything else?"
Since the seller wasn't willing to sell the tent, she could look at other items. If they had other valuable things, giving away the gold hairpin wouldn't be a loss.
A note from the author:
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