"These are freshly harvested spices this year, hundred-flower herb seeds..." a local spice rchant was showcasing his proudest product to Lynch.
Only to see him lift a bag the size of an adult’s fist and pour out so hexagonal greenish-yellow seeds. When the seeds scattered in his hand, a peculiar fragrance wafted out, and Lynch seed to have slled it sowhere before.
Of course, it certainly wasn’t here, but in the Federation.
Hundred-flower herb seeds aren’t too precious, but they’re not ordinary goods either. They have very strict requirents for their growing environnt, and only a few countries in the world have this spice.
It’s primarily used for handling certain at dishes, like roast at and grilled ats. Lynch found this scent familiar because it was used in grilled fish fillets he’d eaten. Cooks also like to use it to enhance the flavor of fish.
Lynch fiddled with them a bit, and the fragrance started to change slightly. This was due to the strong scent. He backed away a bit, his nose itching. "Do you have a price list?"
His question obviously hit the local rchant’s sore spot. A brief mix of confusion flashed in the rchant’s eyes, and then he asked in a doubtful and uncertain voice, "What is that?"
This is why the native rchants have always been exploited and oppressed by another group of rchants. It actually relates to the level of societal developnt. The local indigenous rchants were invaded by foreign traders without having undergone fierce competition.
Many things that seem basic to most rchants, they’re not familiar with.
Lynch rephrased, "A price list, a piece of paper with the prices of each item recorded on it, do you understand?" Lynch looked at Asir, who explained it to the spice rchant in the local indigenous language. Seeing the rchant have an epiphany relieved Lynch a bit.
Then, the rchant quickly wrote up a price list. Lynch looked at the prices on the list and put it away without comnting, "I haven’t dealt in spices before, but I don’t mind trying it."
"I don’t know if these prices are appropriate. I’ll be going back to the Bail Federal next week, and we can discuss the purchase after I figure out the pricing."
"But before that..." Lynch pinched a small amount of hundred-flower herb seeds from the spice rchant’s palm, crushed them forcefully, "they’re too damp. If you want to do business with , you’d better dry them out more!"
When he released his fingers, the dry shell of the hundred-flower herb seeds had been crushed, but the core was still sowhat damp. Don’t underestimate this undetectable moisture; in the weight of a single hundred-flower herb seed, this moisture might make up more than half, even sixty to seventy percent of its weight.
These spice rchants aren’t doing great business, but they didn’t need anyone to teach them how to be cunning, showing that most rchants are fundantally similar—they’ll go to any lengths for profit.
The spice rchant wasn’t embarrassed at all by the dampness of the spice he demonstrated and remained all smiles, "Of course, Mr. Lynch, I’ll imdiately have those lazy folks dry them thoroughly!"
"You’d better do that..." Lynch nodded, "Label these spices and keep them, I’ll take them as samples when I leave."
After leaving contact information and labeling the spices, the spice rchant took his leave, and the second rchant, bringing his samples, entered.
An ivory rchant.
In this world, elephants and ivory don’t count as rare species or luxury items. In places like Nagariel and those closer to the Equator, there are nurous elephant herds.
The elephants here are larger, have longer tusks, and are more threatening. On the savannah or in the jungle, they have few natural enemies. This has allowed their populations to grow larger, even threatening human living spaces in so areas.
Many elephant herds also exist on the savannahs and in the jungles of Nagariel. The ivory sold by the rchants mostly cos from savannah elephants—longer, thicker, tougher, and slightly yellowish in color, but not prominently so.
The ivory rchant, right off the bat, presented a pair of giant tusks over two ters seven or eight long, with a base diater close to a foot and six inches!
If sent to the Federation for sale, they would be worth at least ten to twenty thousand Federation Sol, which is tens of millions of Galalier.
But here, it’s just an expensive and sincere greeting gift.
"This is my gift to you, Mr. Lynch!" said a middle-aged man in his thirties, with a small mustache, looking sowhat shrewd and crafty, with a sinister and ruthless glint deep in his eyes.
Most hunters aren’t benevolent. From the mont they take an animal’s life in their first hunt, in the subsequent hunting process, most hunters naturally develop an attitude of ’life is no more than this.’ They lose their reverence for life and begin to disregard it.
And this attitude eventually makes them have a similar regard for human life as well. They will disdain human life, just as they do when facing animals.
Lynch watched as the ivory was being moved off an old truck, thanked the ivory rchant, and then the two went into the room to continue their business discussions.
This rchant not only had a large stock of ivory but also rare rhino horns and rhino bones. These items can only be obtained deeper in the savannah, where the environnt is harsher and scarier. Even Hassana fur traders wouldn’t venture in easily.
Lynch also asked him for a price list. How much these items were worth specifically, and what price he should buy them at, would have to wait until he returned to the Federation.
rchants ca to visit in an endless stream, all local native rchants, heavily exploited by major corporations, always thinking Lynch could purchase their goods at higher prices.
In fact, this is a very mistaken concept. Even if Lynch could do this, he wouldn’t, because it would offend all the foreign rchants in Nagariel and harm everyone’s interests.
At that ti, he’d be an enemy to all. Even if Nagariel’s useless Central Governnt stood up, they wouldn’t be able to prevent Lynch from being targeted, or even attacked.
But he can engage with these rchants. He won’t touch most people’s interests, nor will he offer the rchants an imaginary price list.
Many rchants ca, and there were even interdiaries hoping to help so girls acquire genetic material from Lynch to modify the race, which started at a two billion dollar business.
But the rchants Lynch wanted to et, the human traffickers, were the only ones that didn’t show up.
This is actually quite normal. Nagariel’s general environnt is very resistant to the outside world, making people always think that foreign environnts are harsher, worse than their own. Sotis people can be so simple-minded and... foolish.
Therefore, no one is really eager to go abroad to work, and combined with religious brainwashing, the outside world has been equated with the Hell Abyss. How could they possibly give up such an opportunity to suffer abroad when they’re waiting to beco elites after the great destruction?
Lynch spent several days in this atmosphere, and the Provincial Governor’s sons were still unable to convince each other to reach a consensus, which also gave Lynch so respite.
Seizing this opportunity, he had a serious look around the city, gaining deeper insights into the city, Magulana Province, and all of Nagariel.
On the second Tuesday of the following week, the Apostle of the High Priest ca to escort Lynch to the event.
The third Tuesday of April is a festival of the native religion. Legend has it that on this day, a drop of blood, like flowing gold, fell from the deity onto the barren land, making flowers bloom and everything flourish. This day is also called the "Flower Festival," also known as "New Birth."
Actually, the festival’s atmosphere had been noticeable two or three days prior, becoming even more intense yesterday, and reaching its peak today.
It’s hard to imagine people would actually clean the streets. These days, when Lynch was wandering, he noticed not only n but also many won relieving themselves anywhere they pleased. It’s sowhat amusing to say, but it’s the truth.
Especially those middle-aged won from the lower echelons of society. They didn’t care about others’ eyes, finding a slightly off-street spot to solve personal issues, which was quite eye-opening.
The entire street was actually very chaotic and dirty, but surprisingly, today it was all cleaned up spotlessly.
Every household had wreaths made of flowers hanging over their doors, flower petals scattered across the ground in front of their hos. Both n and won had a red dot on their foreheads, with a circle of white petals around it to signify its aning.
They had flowers decorating their temples, behind their ears, at their collars, chests, and wrists. The lingering stench in the city seed to have lessened, even disappearing in the city center.
Lynch was invited to this religious event, which was actually a great honor. He was arranged to be on the second floral float, right after the High Priest.
Saying it was a floral float, it was actually an old bus repurposed and painted with so added decorations. There were already seven or eight people on the bus, about half of whom Lynch knew; they had t before, and they were all rchants.
The other half of the people Lynch hadn’t t before, but after so introductions from others, he got to know them a little; they were representatives of so local notable families.
Maybe seeing Lynch was relatively young and participating in the Flower Festival for the first ti, a rchant familiar with Lynch gave a quiet explanation of the process.
The purpose of this event is for people to thank the deities for nourishing all things with divine blood, by offering gratitude in various ways, and in return, the deity’s representative would provide feedback to the people.
Thanking the divine and receiving divine feedback—a concept present in almost all religions. Lynch sowhat understood the idea.
User Comments
0 comments from readers