When the news of the salt trade and population exchange came out, Shaman, holding a rabbit in his arms, smiled with his delicate and kind eyes. He would often stare blankly at the jars of salt in the tribe, as if they weren’t salt at all, but rather people being exchanged back.
In the past, Shaman had worried that the tribe’s food would run out because of the growing population. However, now that the skill of farming has been developed, with the population increase, the food supply of the Green Sparrow Tribe hasn’t just remained stable; it has actually increased compared to before.
In light of this fact, Shaman, an old food enthusiast, found it hard not to be enthusiastic about increasing the population.
But no matter how much Shaman wanted to use salt to exchange for people, this matter had to be put on hold for now. The food around the tribe had begun to turn yellow on a large scale, and the first batch of crops, according to previous experience, would be ready for harvest soon.
This year, the autumn harvest was tight due to the absence of the Third Senior Brother and his team stationed at the Copper Mountain settlement. Naturally, it was impossible to send the trade team out for transactions at this time.
However, before the grain harvest, the trade team still had to make a trip, not for trade, but to transport some food to the Copper Mountain settlement to support Sha and his team developing the Green Sparrow sub-tribe.
Since the new crops were almost ready to be harvested, this transport would help clear the old stock in the tribe’s grain storage, making room for the new harvest. Since storage conditions weren’t ideal, eating the old food before the new crops arrived was crucial.
With the autumn harvest approaching, there was no time to waste delivering the food. By noon, Han Cheng had already given the orders, and by evening, everything was prepared.
The next morning, the trade team set out early, packed with supplies. Besides food, the team mainly carried fish traps made from vines and bamboo strips.
Due to prolonged fishing, the fish in the small river in front of the Green Sparrow Tribe had become scarce. Additionally, with Han Cheng’s decision to implement periodic fishing bans, the tribe had been catching fewer fish.
As a result, many of the fish traps had become idle. Copper Mountain, with its streams, had fewer fish than the Green Sparrow Tribe’s small river, but it was still underdeveloped. The fish traps transported there could provide a decent food source.
Fish soup with millet porridge would be a good meal.
Along with the trade team was a stone mason named Mu Tou, who installed two water mills for pounding millet to make it easier for Sha and the others to eat millet.
Standing there, watching the trade team disappear into the morning mist, Han Cheng finally turned back to the tribe. At this moment, he remembered the trade team had gone out for a trade earlier, but he hadn’t had the chance to see what they had exchanged yet.
This wasn’t entirely Han Cheng’s fault. Upon his return, he had been busy with other matters, and over time, as salt, pottery, seeds, stones, and young animals were continuously traded, the things the trade team brought back became less surprising.
As expectations diminished, the excitement for these exchanges faded as well.
Thinking about this, Han Cheng walked to a room in the tribe where items from the trade team were stored. Upon entering, he saw some animal hides, but there was no food, probably because the tribe’s people had eaten it before it could spoil.
There were two types of stones, one of which looked somewhat pretty, and with Han Cheng’s unprofessional eye, it seemed to be jade.
Han Cheng’s expertise in jade was not exactly high.
Had he been an expert, he wouldn’t have once bought a jade item worth over 5,800 yuan for only 800 yuan, using a coupon he’d won by chance in a supermarket lottery. Han Cheng was thrilled at the time, thinking he had scored a big win.
However, Han Cheng repeatedly encountered similar “big wins” as time passed, slowly realizing the truth. To make matters worse, he learned from a classmate who had worked in a similar field that the cost price of those items was only 20 to 30 yuan.
“Who would buy such cheap stuff at such a high price?” Han Cheng thought to himself, still holding the jade piece he’d bought for 800 yuan, planning to make one last attempt at profit.
“The boss said, after all, there aren’t many people who truly understand jade…”
That casual remark shattered Han Cheng’s last shred of hope.
Recalling that painful experience, Han Cheng lost interest in the jade stone. He tossed it aside and looked at the other stone, but couldn’t discern anything remarkable.
He then turned to the seeds—there were three types, but with his limited knowledge, Han Cheng couldn’t identify them.
It seemed the only thing left to do was plant them in the ground and wait for them to sprout.
As Han Cheng had expected, nothing was too exciting to find. After rummaging through the items for a while, he prepared to leave, no longer paying much attention to these things.
Just as he reached the door, a sudden sound of something slipping and falling behind him made him turn back.
He saw a bundle of dry leaves, wrapped in animal pelts, falling from the pile. The leaves were half-open, and items spilled onto the ground.
Han Cheng hurried over to examine what had fallen. As he looked closely at the items scattered on the ground, his eyes widened in surprise.
After a stunned silence, he quickly rushed over, squatted down, and picked up a few to examine them closely.
They were dried, the size of green beans, and had a reddish-brown exterior. When Han Cheng pried one open with his fingernail, a small, black, round seed appeared.
It was Sichuan pepper!