From Hoarding to Time-Travel: My Supplies Saved Him

Chapter 713: Chapter 715: Setting up a Stall

Lai San’s smile grew more genuine. This meant that Chief Chen did not look down on them and still wanted to associate with them. To them, this was an immense honor.

"Then I will thank you on behalf of the brothers. Whenever you have free time to visit the village, we will definitely host you well."

Chief Chen casually shoved the wild rabbit under the table before asking, "Have you planted all the seeds you received earlier?

"If you work diligently now, you should be able to harvest some vegetables before the New Year.

"Don’t just focus on hunting. You also need to busy yourselves with the composting method I taught you. When spring arrives, strive for a good harvest next year."

Lai San was now full of motivation for their future. "Besides setting up a few small traps on the mountain, we usually go up there to compost. The houses in the village are all built as well. You are welcome to visit anytime."

"That will be a long wait. I’m busy with this mess of affairs all day long.

"However, remember to tell Boss Wu when you get back. Have him help me notify the neighboring mountains when he is free. The available land nearby is becoming increasingly scarce. If they don’t act quickly, I really won’t be able to offer them the same preferential treatment as before."

Chief Chen actually wanted to save the good mountain land so he could recruit more mountain bandits. Unfortunately, the local commoners were as shrewd as foxes. The moment they marked out the mountain areas, these people had already gathered around to fish for information.

"It’s not just our boss; the brothers from the other mountains are all notifying each other too," Lai San said. After exchanging a few more words and noticing someone coming over to register, he took his leave and entered the city.

As Zeng Dawang stepped onto the city streets, he said, "Life is truly comfortable now. In the past, how would we ever dare to enter the city so openly?

"Being able to stand here with our feet planted firmly on the ground means we are truly alive."

Lai Dafu pushed him forward. "Why are you getting so sentimental here? Hurry up and get into the city to sell this game so we can exchange it for some coarse grains to take back. Otherwise, how are we going to survive the New Year?"

Even though they now had houses, land, and their household registrations, they still had to rely on their own hard work to make a real living. They didn’t have any marketable skills yet, so they could only rely on the traps they dug on the mountain to harvest some game every day.

"I’m just excited," Zeng Dawang replied. He never expected his mindset to undergo such a massive shift in just a few short days.

When his younger brother was injured before, he had been in absolute despair. Now that his brother’s injuries had healed and he could help with some light chores, Zeng Dawang was brimming with hope for the future.

"There will be even better days ahead," Lai Dafu said. "The pharmacy is just up ahead. Do you want to ask Doctor Qian if he needs to buy any game?"

Whenever they came into the city these days, they would always prioritize bringing their game to the pharmacy first. To them, Doctor Qian was truly a good man. Ever since he learned of their identities from Xiao Wang, he hadn’t discriminated against them. Knowing that they had just settled down, he had even taught them how to identify several types of medicinal herbs. Sometimes, if they stumbled upon them, they would pick the herbs to exchange for some silver. This served as another source of income for them. Although it wasn’t much, it was incredibly precious.

Lai San stood outside the pharmacy and peered in, finding only the attendant inside pounding medicine. "Young man, where is Doctor Qian?"

"Oh, it’s you," the attendant said, breaking into a smile upon seeing them. "My mentor has gone out for a house call. Do you have medicinal herbs? My mentor left instructions that you can just hand them over to me."

"No, we don’t have herbs today." Remembering that Doctor Qian had bought wild pheasants the last two times, Lai San lifted a chicken. "We just happened to catch some game on the mountain this time, so we wanted to ask if Doctor Qian wants any."

The attendant couldn’t make that decision. "I really wouldn’t know. How about you come back a bit later? The place my mentor is visiting today isn’t far, so he won’t be gone for long."

Lai San lowered his hand. "We’ll go set up our stall at the market first. If Doctor Zhen needs it, you can come get it from the market."

Lai San couldn’t leave the goods behind directly, as he didn’t have the sole authority to make decisions regarding these items.

Not long after they had set up their stall, the boss of another mountain faction—who had been allocated to their area—arrived at the market with his men. Based on the current zoning, they were now considered fellow villagers. The men greeted one another and positioned their stalls together. Seeing that there were no customers around, they began to chat.

"You guys had quite the haul," Lai San said, looking at them with a hint of envy. "Did you catch such a huge wild boar with a trap, or...?"

"We hunted this down together. We almost got injured fighting this beast; it was very thrilling," the other man said, looking up only after he had finished arranging the butchered meat.

"You guys are truly impressive. If we ran into wild game like this, running for our lives would be our only option." Lai San looked at their burly builds and then down at himself. They weren’t even on the same level.

Yu Laoda laughed. "Back then, we invited your Wu Xiaoliu to run with us, but he refused. Otherwise, I would have taught you all a few moves so you wouldn’t be stuck scrounging for these small game every day. It’s barely enough to make ends meet, right?"

Lai San’s smile faded slightly. "We are doing fine as we are. Once we farm more land in the future, we’ll be able to build a good life.

"It’s still too dangerous on the mountain, and we wouldn’t dare risk our lives fighting beasts."

Finding the conversation dull, Yu Laoda shouted to his lackey nearby, "Le Tian, hurry up and shave the bristles off those boar legs a bit cleaner! The people in the county town are picky buyers, unlike the villagers who are easy to deal with."

Gu Letian didn’t say a word, but his hands moved nimbly, picking up a blade to scrape the hair off the boar leg.

"Does he still dislike talking this much?" If Lai San hadn’t heard Gu Letian speak in the past, he would have assumed the man was mute.

Yu Laoda was quite protective of his own men. "He’s just not good with words. It doesn’t matter if he doesn’t speak.

"I actually like bringing him along. Unlike other people whose mouths never stop running—which can get quite annoying to listen to sometimes."

Lai San nodded. "That’s true. I heard his house is built right next to yours, so you guys can look out for each other in the future."

The area was only so big, and they had all heard of Gu Letian’s origins. Rumor had it that he was a refugee fleeing from famine from a faraway place. Disoriented, he had traveled in the exact opposite direction. He stumbled his way into their mountain village without a household registration on him, speaking a dialect that hardly anyone could understand. As fate would have it, Yu Laoda, who had gone down the mountain to barter for goods, picked him up.

Perhaps due to the language barrier, he rarely opened his mouth to speak. But what they found strange was that even after all these years of learning the local dialect, he still treated his words like gold.

When people asked about his hometown, he would simply stare blankly into the distance.

Later, when someone asked Yu Laoda about it, Yu Laoda retorted, "So what if he knows the address of his hometown? Penniless and all alone, how could he possibly survive that long journey? Besides, his whole family fled the famine, and their whereabouts are still unknown. Even if he goes back, there’s no guarantee he will find his family."