Chapter 114: Hustling

Actually, Buguo really hit the nail on the head—this middle-aged man had indeed seen quite a few enchanted weapons before, but this was the first time he’d ever seen one with a Sharpness enchantment. That’s why he’d been so uncertain just now about whether Buguo was telling the truth or not.

Now that Buguo was letting them try it out, the middle-aged man thought for a moment, then beckoned someone over.

“You give it a try.”

While the other person was testing the weapon, Buguo’s mouth didn’t stop for a second—she just kept chattering away.

“When I was in Glacier City, I went to the black market with my companions. They didn’t have a weapon exactly like this, but there was a big iron broadsword with a Sharpness enchantment. A whole crowd was bidding on it, and the price got up to fifty gold coins, but the stall owner still wouldn’t sell!”

Even though the middle-aged man knew Buguo was probably making this up, he couldn’t help but feel a strange sense of… justification? Like, “If I buy this dagger for twenty gold coins, maybe I’m not getting ripped off after all?”

As soon as that thought popped up, the middle-aged man was startled. He pinched himself hard to snap out of Buguo’s persuasive spell.

But Buguo didn’t care whether he was listening or not, or what he was doing. Whether he listened was his business—her job was just to keep talking as hard as she could.

“…In the end, that broadsword sold for sixty-three gold coins! Sure, it was an iron broadsword, but both the blade and the body were iron. Our dagger here, the body is copper, but the blade is made from a wild boar’s tusk! Iron can’t compare to a wild boar’s tusk!”

“These days, just a wild boar’s tusk alone goes for over ten gold coins on the market. And this is a finished enchanted tusk weapon! Thirteen gold coins—is that a fair price? Can three gold coins even cover the labor to make this dagger? Do you think you could get such a good enchantment for just three gold coins?”

Middle-aged man: …

Yun Li: …

Damn, why does this sound more and more convincing the more I listen?

Seeing the little girl getting more and more enthusiastic, the middle-aged man was starting to feel dizzy. But the last bit of his rationality kept him from being completely taken in, even though he was already half-convinced.

Su You saw that he wanted to say something but was too embarrassed to interrupt, so she reached out and patted Buguo on the shoulder.

“Buguo.” Su You called her name. Buguo paused—she still had a lot more to say, but she stopped and decisively shut her mouth.

Finally, with a chance to speak, the middle-aged man was just about to open his mouth when the person who’d gone to test the dagger came back—looking not only excited, but almost thrilled.

“Uncle Feng!”

The tester’s name was Tong Lin. He was the one in the caravan who liked using daggers, and the one who’d called out “Uncle Feng.”

Since daggers were his specialty, Tong Lin was overjoyed as soon as he got his hands on this one. When he actually started testing it, he was even more surprised by how sharp it was. He played with the tusk dagger, growing more and more reluctant to let it go.

If it weren’t for the fact that his rational mind reminded him the dagger wasn’t theirs yet, he probably would’ve just slipped it into his pocket and walked off with it.

He came back with the dagger, his excitement and longing obvious in his voice.

And the “Uncle Feng” he called out to was, of course, the middle-aged man. Uncle Feng had a bad feeling as soon as he heard Tong Lin call him.

“Uncle Feng, this dagger—”

“Tong Lin!”

Tong Lin was just about to share his thoughts on the dagger, but Uncle Feng cut him off before he could finish his sentence.

Tong Lin froze, then seemed to realize something and immediately put on a calm, collected expression… but it was a little too late.

“Looks like this young man is pretty satisfied with the dagger,” Su You said with a smile.

Tong Lin wanted to cry but had no tears. He wanted to deny it, but couldn’t bring himself to lie, so he could only squeeze out two words—

“It’s okay…” (Actually, I’m not satisfied! Really not satisfied!)

Uncle Feng: …You might as well have kept your mouth shut!

…

…

Thanks to Tong Lin’s “help” and Buguo’s special persuasive skills, after some back-and-forth, the final selling price for the tusk dagger was seventeen gold coins and thirty silver coins.

At the start, Su You had told Buguo that her target price was fifteen gold coins. Anything above that, Buguo would get a cut as a bonus.

When Buguo heard the final price, she was clearly delighted—the smile never left her face after the deal was done.

Afterward, Su You and Buguo went on a shopping spree through the caravan’s goods.

The first batch they bought was seeds.

Su You bought a lot of seeds: wheat and rice, as well as potato and corn seeds.

There were ten bags of wheat seeds at twenty copper coins each, five bags of rice seeds at the same price, and three bags each of potato and corn seeds at thirty copper coins per bag.

After some haggling, Buguo managed to get the total price for seeds down from 480 copper coins to 433.

Buguo was a bit dissatisfied with this result. After all, not only could she earn money by selling Su You’s goods at a higher price, she could also get a cut by helping Su You buy things at a lower price.

But Buguo wasn’t discouraged—she just doubled down and started negotiating the price for the second batch of goods.

…

The second batch was basic materials.

Su You mainly bought cotton and some ready-made cloth, as well as a few miscellaneous materials.

Cotton was priced at one silver coin for a bundle of fifty tufts, and Su You bought seventeen bundles in total.

She’d wanted to round it up to twenty, but the seller only had seventeen in stock, so she bought them all.

Besides cotton, Su You also bought a batch of soft cloth.

Soft cloth was made from cotton, similar to fiber-based cloth, and the recipes were almost the same. The difference was that cotton-based soft cloth was softer and more comfortable, making it suitable for underwear or bedding.

Fiber-based linen cloth could be used in the early stages when there wasn’t enough cotton, but once conditions improved, it was mostly used for decorations—curtains, tablecloths, daily items, and so on.

Linen’s advantage was that it was easy to get in the early stages—the forest was full of fiber plants, and anyone willing to collect them could gather plenty.

Cotton was different. Although you could occasionally find cotton plants in the forest, there really weren’t that many.

(End of chapter)"