Chapter 9 What Makes Money?

  That man burst out laughing: "Want to learn Taoist magic? Come with me!" He said, taking the lead and walking ahead.

  Wen Fei hesitated for a moment, he wasn't the kind of kid who didn't care about worldly affairs. He was just infatuated with the pursuit of knowledge and followed that person away.

  After walking for several hundred meters, Wen Fei finally realized that he was not far from the market. It seemed that he had been misled by that broken fox, so he couldn't see it.

  In the distance, you can vaguely see the outline of houses. This market is quite simple and even during the day, there are no fixed houses in sight. It seems like they just used wooden boards to build a few simple shacks, it's unclear if anyone lives there or not.

  After walking a few more steps, I vaguely saw the outline of a house. As I got closer, I found that the house was very simple and looked more like a dilapidated hut.

  The big man walked in directly, and then there was the sound of "da da", which lasted for a few seconds. A oil lamp was lit up, and the dim light shone out from the gap under the door.

  Wen Fei carefully followed him in, and as soon as he entered the house, Wen Fei began to regret it. The smell was so bad that it almost made his nose crooked. Wen Fei was already sloppy enough, and it was normal for him not to clean the room for half a month or even a whole month.

  But this old brother's place probably hasn't been cleaned in ages, a stench of sweat and feet mixed with all sorts of smells that have fermented together, it's literally over a hundred times stronger than the smell of a university boy's dormitory!

  Wen Fei couldn't sit still, so he hastily retreated and took a few deep breaths of the cold night air in the countryside. Only then did he feel like he had come back to life. Even that man seemed to know that the smell in his house was overwhelming, and his face turned red, but under the dim light of the oil lamp, it was probably hard to notice.

  "That Daoist, you're carrying so many things, are you here to sell them at the Horse Market?" the man asked directly.

  He let out a sigh of relief, originally he had prepared a set of words to deceive the other person, but since the other person had already imagined it himself, that was even better. Actually, he wanted to ask what day it was today, and best of all, which dynasty and emperor were in power. However, he also knew that asking these things would probably be quite inappropriate!

  "When is the market tomorrow?" asked Wen Fei.

  That man looked at Wen Fei in surprise: "There's no tomorrow, it's the day after tomorrow, or even the day after that!"

  "What? No market tomorrow?" Wen Fei was shocked. In his memory, the market should be open for at least 17 or 18 hours a day, even if it's not 24 hours. Even in ancient times with poor conditions, shouldn't it be open every day? He was completely stunned by this news.

  "Five days for one collection, don't you know that, Daozhang?" The man looked at Wen Fei with surprise: "This is a rural area, five days for one collection. In some prosperous places, there are also two days for one collection..."

  Wen Fei cried with a sad face and didn't notice what the man was saying at all.

  "You don't even know this and you dare to come to Luoma Market? Aren't you afraid of being killed by the barbarians?"

  "Wen Fei asked: 'Barbarian? What barbarian?'"

  "Of course it's the Tanguts and the Tibetans, you don't even know that?" The Han man's tone began to take on a suspicious flavor.

  Wen Fei could only smile wryly and before he had a chance to speak, the man said: "This is under the jurisdiction of Lanzhou, you should know that!"

  Lanzhou? Wen Fei hastily nodded his head, Lanzhou roast cake, Lanzhou pulled noodles, that's naturally the most familiar!

  "Are you here to buy something or are you picking these things out to sell?"

  Wen Fei smiled wryly: "Our Taoist temple has too many kitchen knives that we can't use up, so we're picking some out to sell."

  "Oh," said the man with a sigh, "Master Dao, if you don't mind me saying so, these things of yours aren't worth much money!"

  Isn't it worthless? Wen Fei seemed to have been hit by a big stick again, and his two eyes almost sparkled with stars.

  "This is a fine steel knife!" Wen Fei exclaimed with some resentment.

  "These country folks, who can afford a good steel knife? An iron knife worth twenty or thirty cents is sufficient. One that costs ten cents can also be used."

  "How much is it?" Wen Fei almost cried upon hearing this, what can you buy with just over ten cents? On TV, it seems like a big bun costs at least one yuan, right? Calculating that way, a knife would only cost more than ten yuan? If I had known earlier, I would have bought those several-yuan knives from the supermarket to fool people!

  "It's just these pots..." The man picked up the things and took a look, then plucked them again: "Too thin... Afraid they won't be used for long? Country people buy something, they want to use it for a lifetime!"

  Wen Fei was completely speechless, it seemed that he really wasn't cut out for business, his first investment in his life had ended in failure.

  "How much does a chicken cost? And what about eggs?" Wen Fei kept thinking.

  "Oh, this isn't expensive either. It's only a few dozen cents...". The man said: "Eggs are even cheaper, one or two cents apiece."

  Wen Fei was completely speechless. It seemed that the prices of ancient times were indeed not cheap? In his mind, one coin was equal to one block.

  "Hmm, sell all these things and you can buy a chicken!" said the man.

  It's all done, I spent over 800 yuan and the things I bought are only enough to exchange for a chicken. Damn it! Although the price of rural free-range chicken is very high now, with each catty costing 23-30 yuan, but it shouldn't be as expensive as this, right? It works out that one catty of chicken meat costs over 100 yuan. What a rip-off!

  That man seemed to see Wen Fei's disappointment and smiled: "Country people can't afford your good knife, but those barbarians can. Those people won't smelt iron themselves, relying on trade with our Song Dynasty and Western Xia. Even the worst things are snapped up, maybe this knife can sell for a good price."

  Wen Fei let out an "oh" and felt a sense of balance in his heart. But then he heard the man say, "However, it's still spring now, and those nomadic tribes are following the water and grass to live elsewhere. They won't be around here until the weather gets hot, and they migrate back. You'll probably have to wait another two months before you can sell that knife!"

  It seems that the plan to come to ancient times to pick up cheap goods has completely gone bankrupt, Wen Fei was filled with despair. He didn't give up and asked: "Then what's good to sell here?"

  That man burst out laughing: "Of course, it's just a matter of whether you have the guts or not. Salt, tea, and wine are three things that every household can't do without, and they're very expensive too! However, these things are all sold exclusively by the government..."

  Wen Fei was initially interested, but when he heard the words "exclusive sale", his interest disappeared. If it were in the past, he might not have put the ancient government in his eyes. But after being taken advantage of last time, he had a lingering fear. The ancient government would not talk to you about human rights and rule of law, they would directly arrest you and throw you into prison without blinking an eye. You wouldn't even have a place to cry injustice.