Jiang Wan leaned forward slightly, peering into the mouth of the sack.
Under the dim yellow sunset, the layers upon layers of dried, brownish shells were indeed cicada sloughs without a doubt.
She reached in and stirred them with her hand, her fingertips touching the brittle shells—they were in excellent condition. Aside from a few crumbs at the bottom where they'd been pressed down, there were hardly any major flaws.
She straightened up and dusted the dirt off her hands. "I'll take them. This batch is good."
The moment those words left her mouth, the faces of the children gathered around her burst into smiles, their tense bodies visibly relaxing.
The villagers who had been watching on the sidelines joined in with laughter, teasing and chattering all at once.
"That peddler Wang from Black Temple Village over yonder just announced he'd buy Yin-Lady Shells, and these little rascals actually took it to heart?"
"So that's why they've been running off every day lately, not a trace of them to be found—turns out they've been scouring the mountains for this stuff."
"Hey, guess what—will it be Zhou's wife who pays more, or will Peddler Wang's offer be higher?"
"…"
The cicada sloughs went on the scale, the big full sack pressing the beam down slightly.
Jiang Wan lifted the scale by its cord, squinting to read it. "A pound and eight ounces, sack included."
She deliberately held up the markings on the beam, turning it around so everyone could see clearly, before setting the scale down steadily.
Opening the Mall, Jiang Wan rapidly searched her mind for the market price of cicada sloughs.
That search alone nearly made her lose her composure—the price that popped up almost broke her on the spot.
[Cicada Slough 250g / ¥85.9]
She knew the stuff wasn't cheap, but she never expected half a pound to cost nearly ninety yuan!
She suppressed the shock that was about to slip out, cleared her throat, and asked the children, "I've never bought this in my shop before, so think of it as a favor—I'll take it back with me along the way. You tell me, how much per pound?"
These kinds of medicinal mountain goods were usually supplied to apothecaries and rarely circulated through general stores.
So Jiang Wan had no idea what the going rate for cicada sloughs was.
The lead child answered in a loud voice: "Peddler Wang said if he buys cicada sloughs, he pays eighty wen a pound."
His tone started high, but the tail end came out weak, clearly lacking confidence.
Jiang Wan raised an eyebrow, looking at him with a half-smile. "Eighty wen whether they're good or bad?"
"Th-That's not quite it…" The child stumbled over his words for a moment.
He turned his head and muttered with his companions for a good while, then finally threw up his hands with a gritted-teeth resolve. "Seventy wen a pound, no sorting between good and bad. Deal or not?"
Jiang Wan pressed her lips together.
She was just about to agree when five skinny, small figures suddenly burst out from behind the slope nearby.
They charged in with the wind, no words spoken, and lunged straight at the children of Lijia Hollow, raining down punches and kicks.
"Aiya! Ma! Save me! These mad dogs are biting!"
"How did these little bastards get down here? Big brother, gouge his eyes out!"
"Daring to chase us onto our turf—you've got a death wish!"
"…"
Children's brawls often end in an instant.
No technique whatsoever, yet vicious beyond measure.
The wives of Lijia Hollow couldn't possibly hold back these half-grown boys, wild as bulls. Amid the screams, quite a few of them even got caught in the crossfire and hurt.
In the end, it was the men gathering grain on the threshing ground who couldn't stand it anymore. With a roar, they charged over.
Each one grabbed a kid, and only then was the free-for-all barely brought to a stop.
A man was holding a struggling child by the scruff, shaking him a couple of times before looking down and barking harshly, "Hey! What's a brat from Old Python Forest doing down here? It's this late and you're still not home—what are you up to!?"
"None of your damn business!"
The child was short and stocky, with dark skin and eyes as fierce as a little wolf cub's, radiating a ruthless edge.
He clung desperately to the man's arm, clamped both legs around his waist, and sank his teeth into his forearm.
"Hiss!" The man winced in pain and instinctively hurled the child away like a sack, clutching his arm and yelping, "Ow, ow, ow!"
That bite was vicious—deep tooth marks, blood beads welling up almost instantly. Just looking at it hurt!
The kid was tough too. Tossed like that, he landed fine, rolled over, and charged straight at Jiang Wan, his target being the cicada-shell sack in her hand.
"Hey, hey, hey!"
Startled by the sudden rush, Jiang Wan quickly raised her hand, trying to stop the child's advance.
The kid didn't seem to bear any real malice toward Jiang Wan—he just shot her a fierce glare and hopped up, straining with all his might to reach the sack in her hand.
Jiang Wan let out a long breath, steadied herself, and held the sack higher.
She softened her voice, trying to sound as calm as possible. "Are you all trying to sell cicada shells too?"
Her gaze settled on the child, and Zhou Xianggui's little notebook surfaced in her mind.
In it, scrawled in crooked handwriting, was written:
In the old forest less than twenty li from Lijia'ao lurked a stockade village that barely communicated with the outside world.
The people there were suspicious by nature, deeply distrustful of outsiders, tightly knit, and quick to retaliate for the slightest grievance.
They lived by hunting and had plenty of good wares in their hands.
Zhou Xianggui had spent years in the trade and could only just manage a few words with them—anything more was out of the question.
But even that thin thread of acquaintance had let him ferret out quite a few treasures from the village.
The child stopped his reaching, planted his hands on his hips, and gave Jiang Wan a sidelong glance. In halting, heavily accented Southwestern Mandarin, he shot back stiffly, "These are ours to begin with. We're selling them—at your old price. Give me the money!"
He spread both hands, palms up, demanding payment outright.
Jiang Wan, of course, didn't hand it over.
Her mind raced. On the threshing ground of Lijia'ao, if she helped an outsider bully one of the village's own children, she'd never be able to show her face here again.
She looked up, sizing up the child before her.
He wore a black, collarless, left-lapelled short jacket and loose trousers, with strips of cloth tightly binding his calves, and went barefoot.
He looked only six or seven years old, yet already carried a fierce, menacing air.
Jiang Wan didn't dare provoke a child like that, nor did she want to offend the villagers of Lijia'ao.
So she simply took out the last of the brown sugar and dates from her basket and held them out to the little boy.
"Alright, it's getting late, and everyone's eager to get home." She spoke gently. "Go back and gather more Yin-Lady Shells. In a couple of days, I'll come to your village to buy them. Take these—consider it a gift from me, a way of making friends. How about that?"
The child stared at the bright red dates and the sweet brown sugar, and the ferocity in his eyes finally began to soften.
He swallowed hard and hesitated as he reached out, but the voice of his companion behind him made him stop.
"Liaoya!"
A slightly taller boy twisted his body with force, slipping out of the man's grasp like a slippery loach.
He dashed over in a few steps, grabbing Liaoya's hand and pulling him back, "Don't be fooled by her! You can't eat things from outsiders!"
His warning to his companion was shouted at the top of his lungs.
Jiang Wan couldn't pretend she hadn't heard it even if she wanted to.
She twitched the corner of her mouth and let out a helpless sigh, "I'm just a goods carrier. What would I gain from tricking you?"
"You'd trick me into being sold! For silver!" The child called Liaoya seemed to snap awake suddenly, shouting in a shrill voice.
He tugged at Yagu, who stood protectively in front of him, his young face etched with a seriousness that belied his age, and declared his stance with all due solemnity, "Yagu! Don't worry, I won't be fooled by her!"
Jiang Wan rolled her eyes.
"I'm from Zhou's." She pointed at the basket on her back, stating the objective fact in a calm tone, "If I were a trafficker, this basket couldn't even fit you."
"Zhou's?" Yagu, who was shielding Liaoya, had a flicker of hesitation in his eyes, and the guard in his voice loosened slightly.
Shougen's Wife saw that he had calmed down, slapped her thigh, and walked over to Jiang Wan's side, "Oh my, you little brats sure are vicious! We're all fellow villagers here, decades now—how come you can't change your ways?"
She pointed at Jiang Wan, "If Wan girl were a trafficker, wouldn't it be just as easy for her to snatch kids from our Lijia'ao? Honestly… it's just unreasonable!"
With that, the villagers of Lijia'ao seemed to find an outlet, venting their anger toward Old Python Forest one after another.
The two villages had a long-standing grudge, and no matter how simple and honest the folk of Lijia'ao were, they couldn't withstand Old Python Forest's repeated provocations, time and again.
But then again, Old Python Forest didn't just target Lijia'ao alone.
The people of that stockade seemed possessed by some evil spirit—they wanted to take down everyone equally, showing no kindness even to neighboring Black Temple, and would kick any dog they came across.
With that thought, everyone felt a bit more at ease.
By the end of the conversation, most of the complaints about Old Python Forest had faded, replaced more by confusion and sighs.
They couldn't understand why a perfectly good stockade would choose to live like savages.
The authorities had even allocated flat land for them to farm and grow crops, but they insisted on rolling around in the deep mountains…
Once the conversation opened up, the five children were all released from their restraints.
They quickly huddled together like a pack of wounded black civets, using fierce glares and bared little teeth to warn the villagers of Lijia'ao, trying to uphold the dignity of their stockade.
The adults naturally didn't buy it, only feeling pity.
But the children of Lijia'ao weren't having it, rolling up their sleeves with a look of determination that said "let's go again."
Jiang Wan saw that the sun was tilting, that time was truly running short, and that the matter couldn't be sorted out in a moment, so she said no more.
She swiftly gathered the cicada shells, counted out one hundred and five copper coins, and handed them to Shougen's Wife, who was standing guard nearby, "The sack's clasp weighs three liang, these cicada shells are one and a half jin, totaling one hundred and five wen. Could you help the kids count them? I need to hurry back."
With that, she handed the brown sugar and red dates to the taller boy in front of her.
Seeing that he wouldn't take it, she simply set it down on the ground.
"If you don't trust me, you can go back and ask the elders in your village. In the future, if you want to trade for anything, just send someone to Zhou's Shop to pass along the word. I won't cheat you."
With that, she hoisted her basket onto her back and turned to leave.
"You're really a good person?" Yagu suddenly spoke up.
Jiang Wan paused mid-step, turned around, and let out a heavy sigh. "Even if I were a bad person, do you think I could take on all of you?"
That remark successfully made the little brats of Old Python Ridge drop their guard, and they even straightened their backs with more confidence!
What kid wouldn't be thrilled to hear that an adult couldn't beat them?
They all raised their chins in unison, their eyes brimming with pride at having their strength acknowledged.
Jiang Wan left.
Her figure grew smaller and smaller along the winding mountain path, until she was finally swallowed up by the twilight and the shadows of the forest.
Shougen's wife counted those one hundred and five copper coins carefully three times, then wiped them with the corner of her clothes before solemnly handing them to the children.
The villagers of Lijia'ao dispersed in twos and threes.
The children were called home by their parents for dinner, dividing up the copper coins while replaying the "battle" from just now.
Yagu lowered his head, staring blankly at the package of brown sugar and red dates on the ground.
Liaoya sidled up and nudged him with his elbow: "You really don't want it? Smells pretty sweet." He bent down to pick it up, saying happily, "Let's take it back for Grandma to try."
The children walked in silence toward Old Python Ridge.
They knew the path through the woods like the backs of their hands—could find their way back even with their eyes closed—but today they walked especially slowly.
Yagu led the way, his mind in complete turmoil.
Everyone in Old Python Ridge said that none of the townsfolk were any good—all of them were "smooth-talking, smiling assassins" and swindlers!
But Grandma also said that the shopkeeper of Zhou's Shop was a kind person, never shortchanged anyone, and never cheated the country folk.
"She… is she really a good person?" Liaoya asked in a small voice, uncertainty creeping into his tone.
Yagu shook his head. "We'll find out when we get back tonight. If she really is a good person, we'll go to town tomorrow to find her…"