Chapter 663 - Looking to the future (1/2)

The young man rode slowly on his horse with Su Lei following beside him. After a full five kilometers, the young man finally saw the goods Su Lei and the others had piled up in the dip of a hill.

However, the young man frowned. “Is that all?”

He got down from his horse and circled the goods. They were mostly vegetables while the medicine was pitifully little. There were also not many ironware items to be seen but a lot of seasonings like scallions, ginger, and garlic.

In conclusion, most of the items were not valuable at all.

Nearby, Su Lei explained, “We were a little rushed, so we only managed to get these items. You live in the grasslands and have never been to the south before, so you might not know that the supplies in the south are not as readily available as you think. It was very difficult to even get ahold of these things.”

The young man looked at Su Lei with a half-smile. He grasped what was going on. “I’m guessing that you didn’t have the money to buy what I asked for?”

Su Lei immediately felt embarrassed. “How could that be? I’m telling the truth.”

“Alright then.” The young man did not expose him further. Instead, he said bluntly, “We don’t have any shared currency between us, so let’s just barter instead. How do you propose to trade?”

Su Lei thought for a moment and said, “As you can see, the people in the south are actually also very poor. Even if you give me your stock of fur hides, I can’t sell them for a good price. In this day and age, food is still the most valuable of all.”

On the way here, Su Lei had thought of how to bargain. It would be nothing more than bullying the northern nomads for not knowing the situation in the Central Plains and making them think their fur hides were worthless. Then he would jack up the value of the tea leaves, medicine, ironware, and vegetables he was holding. With that, he would make a killing for sure!

The young man did not refute him. Instead, he continued listening to Su Lei’s nonsense with great interest. “It’s not like the Central Plains is cold, so there’s no point in wearing a fur coat like that. But ironware is really hard to find around here. Do you know how much this pot is worth?”

The young man said with a smile, “900 yuan?”

Su Lei was taken aback, as the young man had accurately stated the value of the iron pot.

Of course, the price he had said was still not accurate enough. Although the availability of iron goods was quite scarce these days, after Fortress 178 took over the Zong Consortium’s territory, many of the daily necessities previously controlled by the Zong Consortium had started dropping in price. Currently, the price of an iron pot was just 800 yuan.

But a month ago, an iron pot was still selling for over 900 yuan.

Su Lei suddenly realized the young man in front of him probably had knowledge of the south!

Su Lei stayed silent for a moment before saying, “Let’s forget about this iron pot for now. You should also know that as long as a person is alive, they definitely need to take medicine at some point, right? Who doesn’t suffer from headaches and fevers? Many people end up dying after running a fever, so the price of medicine has always been very high. Guess how much an antibiotic pill like this costs?”

The young man said with a smile again, “200 yuan?”

Su Lei was speechless. It might have been a coincidence the young man got the price right the first time, but getting it correct a second time was definitely not.

“How do you know the prices of these items?” Su Lei was puzzled. Could it be that a traitor had defected from the South to the grasslands?

Who could have leaked the info?!

However, the young man said with a smile, “OK, the most expensive items you have here are these few dozen antibiotic tablets and ironware. I can tell that you must’ve spent a lot of money to purchase them. As for the vegetables, they aren’t worth much. Although the strongholds regulate the distribution of grain, they don’t do so for vegetables. The refugees themselves are allowed to grow vegetables in the wilderness. I’m guessing that these vegetables were also planted by you guys.”