There is An Apocalyptic Man in the Village

Chapter 12- Zhao Haisheng

    Although he was already vaguely aware of what was going on, Wu Qingyuan confirmed the problem from the words of several aunts, that is, there is a difference over the passage of time between the modern age where he lives and the ancient time here, so the matter of helping Old Man Zhou find his younger brother would have to be a long term plan. 

While listening to the arguments of several aunts, everyone walked for about two hours and finally arrived at the town.

    “Brother Wu, I won’t accompany you when go shopping, our town is not so big, you can take your time, don’t worry, I’ll wait for you at the pharmacy after I get the medicine, come to me after you finish shopping, we’ll catch up with Uncle Li later after the ox cart comes back.” 

    Lin Amo carefully explained to him before leaving and hurriedly heading to the pharmacy to do errands. His flexible back made Wu Qingyuan smile before turning around and strolling on the street.

    Although he learned a lot of information about this world from Old Man Zhou, it was only some basic precautions. Old Man Zhou could not tell him everything. Since he is going to settle down near Shiqiao Town, he must know more about it. He must take a look at the environment, customs, prices, and taboos here.

    As Lin Amo said, the whole of Shiqiao Town is not big, and Wu Qingyuan finished visiting the whole town in less than an hour.

    However, although the town is small, it is very prosperous, even if it is not a market day, because of the convenient transportation, Shiqiao Town is the place where most merchants travel from south to north, so the streets in the town are crowded and lively. 

    After careful observation, Wu Qingyuan determined that this Xia Kingdom was a good place to live. Although it was a backward ancient time, it was still very different from the ancient times he imagined. In addition to the existence of the gers, because it was an overhead dynasty, both the politics and the life of the people here were very different from the ancient world he was familiar with. The rule of law and the customs of the court were very chaotic. The whole society has both the prosperity and opening of the Tang Dynasty and the backwardness and strictness of the Qin and Han Dynasties for thousands of years. Even the appearance of various crops is very chaotic. Things that only appeared in the later period such as corn, potatoes, and tomatoes already exist here, but not so rare but not common.

    But no matter how chaotic, the relationship between the countries here is still harmonious for the time being. There is no war, and the living standard is low, but people will not starve to death. For him, this world is a paradise!

    After learning more about it, Wu Qingyuan became more determined to live in Shiqiao Town. He doesn’t need to worry about the situation and local customs. The last thing that is left for concern is the price. If he wants to live here, he must understand the prices, otherwise, he will be scammed by others without knowing it was a scam.

    Therefore, after walking around the town, he found a grocery store at random, went in, and slowly picked things up and asked for prices on the pretext of buying things.

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

    Ca atlr wbwfca, atf yerlcfrr bo atf ugbmfgs rabgf lr nfgs ubbv, jcv atf ybrr tjr cb alwf ab afii tlw wbgf. Vfflcu atja tf tjr jrxfv obg rbwf atlcur, yea atja tf vbfrc’a rffw ab kjca ab yes, rb tlr jaalaevf lr bcf bo cfuifma, jcv tf vbfrc’a mjgf ab ugffa tlw ilxf batfg merabwfgr.

    Wu Qingyuan didn’t hold the boss to continue to ask but just watched the people in the grocery store while extracting the information he wanted from the people around him asking for prices and bargaining.

    After a while, he had almost understood the prices of the goods in the grocery store. He was about to leave when a young man and woman suddenly entered the door.

    Because the store is not large, it is full of goods, and the space for action is very crowded. The young men and women walked side by side. The boss greeted them and surrounded them. The three people almost blocked the entire passage. Wu Qingyuan did not continue to head out as he can only wait.

    Anyway, he was not in a hurry, he simply stood inside, ready to go out after the boss greeted the two and left.

    The man and woman- he doesn’t know what the relationship is, it doesn’t look like they were husband and wife, but the two of them spoke and behaved very intimately, flirting with one another, and they acted like a couple.

    Although the Xia Kingdom is open, two unmarried men and women walking together in broad daylight is not forbidden, but gossip will inevitably spread, and the two of them are quite courageous. At this moment, the woman seemed angry, and the man was very flattering. He pointed to the pastry in a ceramic jar on the opposite side and prepared to buy some delicious snacks to please the girl.

    Wu Qingyuan had no interest in listening to the couple’s quarrel, but the next words of the two suddenly caught his attention.

    “Baozhu, don’t be angry, I don’t like Lin Amo, how can I like him when his face and attitude are like that? But he is a ger, he can work very well, if I can marry him, we will go home in the future with you as the boss and he the slave, and with him- you don’t have to do any of the housework, it’s so good to be like a young master…” 

    “I don’t believe it! That Lin-ger is not a fool, I heard that that the Lin family is not poor in your village. They are willing to marry their ger as a helper? I have never seen a man in that village marry two wives. Besides, your family is still so poor- how can you provide for me when you marry a woman and a ger, I still want to look pretty.”

    The girl in the floral dress is not easy to coax, she doesn’t believe it at all and is not polite when speaking of her grievances. 

The man’s expression was a little unsightly, and he felt that he couldn’t hold his face, but he held back and continued to please the girl and explain it.

    “Baozhu, believe me, what I said is true, that Lin-ger is ugly, and he shows the wrong attitude all day and makes people gossip. After the new year, he will be nineteen, and no one has gone to his house to propose marriage. If I marry him, he might run to the temple to burn incense and worship Buddha to thank him! Don’t be angry, my pearl, I want to marry him because I want you to be more comfortable in the future, eat a piece of biscuit to calm yourself down. These crispy biscuits are from Su Xiangyuan, the most famous snack shop in the county…” 

    “You’re good at thinking…”

    The girl seemed relieved after hearing this. She rolled her eyes and said angrily that she would not continue to chase this topic and began to choose things in the store. In the end, she bought a lot of sweets and things that caught her eye as a woman and spent half a silver coin. 

    Don’t look down at this half silver coin that doesn’t sound like much, according to the income level of the town, halved silver coin is most people’s wages for a month, and the man looks like he is dressed in clothes and a roughly made jacket. Not to mention his heart bleeding when taking out that much money- however, just like how the girl talked to him just now, he still endured it and paid the money to please the girl, and the two left with their things.

_____ 

    After the two of them left, Wu Qingyuan asked the boss to wrap a few cakes while smiling.

    “You said the one who left just now? Zhao Haisheng- you don’t know the shopkeeper of the Qianji Grain Store? We all pay for the grains we buy in this town. Haven’t you seen him? Are you from out of town?” 

    Since the previous two bought a lot of things and now this man buys a few cakes from him- the owner of the grocery store is in a good mood, and finally changed his previous negligent attitude and talks to him.

    Shiqiao Town is not such a big place, and everyone who lives in the town knows him. As soon as he asks, he knows that he is from out of town. 

    “Yeah, I just moved here, I didn’t know…”

    Wu Qingyuan nodded without denying, smiled, took the wrapped cake, and left. 

____

    After leaving this grocery store, he went to hang out at several other grocery stores. After a few comparisons, Wu Qingyuan had formed some ideas in his mind, so he walked into the bank and took out a few gold bars, and exchanged them for silver 

    Fortunately, he still had foresight. In the beginning, he replaced all the remaining useless money with gold. The amount was not large, but according to the living standard here, the gold was enough for him to live comfortably for a lifetime.

    It was okay to take a few out in an emergency but he didn’t plan to rely on these golds for a lifetime. When he settles down, he still has to find something to do. He can’t sit still. 

    The gold he brought from modern times was the weight of a standard gold bar. According to the unit of measurement here, a gold bar was about 3 taels.

    According to the price exchange, he just learned, that one tael of gold equals 10 taels of silver. However, due to industrial reasons, the purity of modern gold is much higher than that of ancient times. Therefore, after talking to the shopkeeper of the bank, one gold bar can be exchanged for him for 35 taels. silver. 

    In the end, Wu Qingyuan exchanged three gold bars for a total of 105 taels before walking out.

    After that, he went back to the grocery store to buy some personal daily necessities and then went to the pharmacy he had arranged to meet with Lin Amo. He had these in his space, but living in Lin’s house was not convenient for taking out many things. 

    His memory is also very good, and the town is not big, so he is familiar with the roads in the town, and there is only one medical pharmacy in the entire Shiqiao Town, so he quickly found the place and saw that there was already someone waiting for him in the pharmacy of the town. Lin Amo, who had been waiting for a while at the door of the drugstore.

    Just as he was about to walk quickly, he suddenly saw a strange man approaching Lin Amo one step ahead of him to say hello. 

    He was tall and thin, with a roughly made jacket, dark skin, an ordinary appearance, and smooth eyes. It was the man he had just met at the grocery store- Zhao Haisheng