Chapter Twenty-Five: The Marketplace

  The ironwork of the Wu family's ironware shop was not heavy, after all, in this ghost place, the sales of weapons were not prosperous. Each blacksmith had a fixed amount of work per month, as long as you could forge ten qualified weapons in a month, it would be fine. At the end of the month, they would collect the goods, and at other times, the ironware shop wouldn't bother you. Ten weapons, this was very easy for Xiao Baozi, basically only half a month's time was needed to finish them, and the quality was among the best of all the weapons.

  As for the time left over, it was his own, and in this way, he had a lot of time to practice martial arts.

  However, for the past six months, he still mainly focused his mind on understanding Tai Chi and purifying his inner energy. After all, his physical condition was there, too small, only nine years old after the New Year, he didn't want to hurt his body's foundation due to excessive training.

  "Alas, if only I could have a medicinal bath like the legendary ones in books!"

  In the past six months, apart from practicing his skills, what he did most was buying books, crazily buying books. Anyway, he is not short of money now and the price of books is not expensive either.

  His purpose in buying books was also very simple, just to understand as much as possible about this strange and mysterious world.

  A common saying goes: A scholar can know the affairs of the world without leaving his door.

  What is it relying on?

  Rely on books, knowledge gained from books.

  Qingyang Village is just a small place with few literate people, so no one wants to engage in such a loss-making business.

  His only chance to buy books was on the first and fifteenth of each month, when people from all around would come to Qingyang Market to trade, and he could buy books.

  Although it's not much, but it's enough to have a concrete understanding of this world.

  "Oh, isn't this Little Leopard? Buying books again?!"

  Today is the fifteenth, it's a market day. The streets on both sides of Qingyang Market are all stalls, and of course, this is also the day when Qingyang Prefecture and Heilonghui make a lot of money.

  "Ah, Big Brother Zhang, it's your turn today!" Seeing the smiling big man walking up to greet him, Xiao Bao also smiled. This big man was called Zhang Yong, a small leader of the Black Dragon Society. Almost every month at this time, he would come to the street to collect protection fees, just like the government collecting taxes. It was very natural. For several months now, whenever it was around this time, Xiao Bao had been running on this street, so they naturally knew each other.

  Zhang Yong also knew that although Xiao Bao was young, he was a promising disciple of the Wu family and the Wu family's ironware shop was one of the most powerful forces in Qingyang, second only to the government. So he didn't dare offend him either. When they met on the road, they nodded at each other and exchanged greetings, which could be considered as having some connection.

  Xiao Bao continued on his way, walking down a street, when he heard a familiar hawking cry. A warm smile spread across his face as he saw Wang Tianlei leading a group of hunters to the market. As their harvests increased, aside from selling their prey to merchants, each household also had some leftovers. Whenever they came to the market, the hunters would bring these leftover prey to sell. This was naturally led by Wang Tianlei, but it was different from doing business with merchant warehouses. Each family sold their own goods, and they just gathered together to avoid being taken advantage of. After selling their goods, the men would take the opportunity to stroll around the market and buy some thoughtful items for their wives. This was only human nature.

  Xiao Bao's elder brother was also among them, and for the past half year, every time Xiao Bao's wages were given to him through this method, letting him bring it back home to supplement the family expenses.

  "Is it really that much?! Dog egg, can you even afford it yourself?!"

  The big brother of the little leopard saw the money bag handed over by the little leopard, and then he was shocked, his face changed color, the weight of the money in it was enough to equal half a year's income.

  "It's enough for me here, this month has been lucky, I've made a few more deals and the rewards have increased too!" Xiao Bao said nonchalantly.

  "Haha, now Dog Egg is also the pillar of the family! " The several hunters on the side were doing well and their mood was naturally very relaxed. Hearing the two brothers asking and answering each other, they started to joke around.

  "Ah, ah, little leopard, you're the most promising one in our village, and you've even become a blacksmith. Why don't I help you find a match now? My uncle's family has a young girl about your age, and she's really pretty..."

  "It's not even your uncle's turn, and my little niece is not bad either!"

  For a moment, everyone spoke one after another, and the little leopard was talked about with a red face and ears.

  "That's enough! That's enough!" The crowd laughed and made a fuss, Wang Tianlei said, "You are all big shots, not young anymore, still making trouble with kids here!"

  "Big Brother Zhou, I'm just joking, but I'm also being serious. Little Leopard may be small, but he can get engaged too!"

  "Really? Really?!"

  The crowd echoed in agreement once again.

  "Alright, alright, big brother, sister's husband, all you guys, I won't disturb your business anymore!" Little Leopard helplessly cupped his hands to this group of men.

  "Dog egg, have you been free lately?!" Seeing the little leopard wanting to leave, the big dog hurriedly asked. The little leopard had been away from home for half a year, and his family members also missed him. As an apprentice, there were rules to follow, and he couldn't easily return home, even during holidays. Now that the little leopard had already shed his apprentice identity and had a lot of free time, it was still somewhat troublesome to leave the weapons shop.

  "Oh, let me see, maybe next month I'll have some free time, then I'll take a leave of absence, should be no problem!" Little Leopard said, and hastily left.

  Reborn in this world, although he had changed his identity and gained a new father and mother, the memories of his previous life still dominated. Although he had developed extremely deep feelings for this new family and new parents, he did not want to go back to playing the role of a little child again.

  After walking down this street and turning a corner, Xiao Bao arrived at a street corner where an old book stall was set up. The vendor was a middle-aged man. For half a year now, most of the books Xiao Bao bought were from him.

  Before he even got close, the little leopard heard a scolding voice, "You damned good-for-nothing, you dare to snatch my stall, don't you see whose territory this is!"

  "Huh?!" The little leopard's eyebrows slightly raised, no need to look, just listening to the voice knew it was that middle-aged man who sold books.

  "This... this place isn't yours either, you can set up shop, why can't I?!" A weak voice rang out, and a frail figure slowly got up from the ground. Only then did Little Leopard see clearly that it was a young man in his early twenties who had gotten up from the ground. The young man looked somewhat refined, but his face was covered with a layer of dirt and dust, and there was a bruise on one side of his face, probably from when he fell to the ground earlier. His originally clean white long gown was also stained with dirt and dust. Looking at his hands, he was holding onto a blue bundle, which seemed to contain books. Judging by his appearance, it seemed like he wanted to set up a stall here to sell books.

  He didn't know that although the market was bustling, every stall seemed to be in disarray. If each stall had an owner, each owner would pay a fee to the Black Dragon Society. The fee was divided into two parts: one part was protection money paid to the Black Dragon Society, and the other part was tax paid to the government, collected by the Black Dragon Society on its behalf. Even Wang Tianlei and his men were not exempt from this rule, which had become a convention in Qingyang Market.

  This young man obviously doesn't know the rules, took a few books and ran here to set up a stall, it's strange that he wasn't beaten up.

  Behind him, standing was Zhang Yong of the Black Dragon Society, who had just met the young leopard on the road. Zhang Yong's face was gloomy as he looked at the young man and heard what he said, suddenly becoming enraged. "Damn you, you son of a bitch! This isn't your place, is it? Tell me, this place belongs to me, it belongs to the Black Dragon Society! You little bastard, how dare you talk back!" As he spoke, he stepped forward, lifting his foot to kick him again.