Chapter 20: 020 He Dong County (Four)

After the young cultivator left, Wang Wu immediately turned and walked toward the passage.

As he stepped out of the passage, he, like the people ahead, prepared to go over and have his items inspected.

However, the soldier in charge of the inspection shook his head at him and said, "No need; the immortal master has already checked your things, just go ahead."

"Thanks," Wang Wu said, and then walked straight ahead.

He Dong Xian—he didn't know what rank of county it was—but just by seeing the spacious stone‑paved avenue, he could already feel its prosperity.

The road was bustling with traffic, and people crowded everywhere.

It wasn't a crush of shoulders, but there were certainly many.

This county was huge, very huge. Wang Wu guessed its population was probably not less than one hundred thousand.

That was already his upper‑bound guess based on ancient town scales; after all, in ancient societies, a city of over a million was an international megacity, while a hundred thousand clearly qualified as a large city.

Of course, given this world's productivity and the existence of extraordinary forces, its cities might have even more people than ordinary ancient societies back home.

He walked further into the county; although there were inns and shops right at the gate, Wang Wu still intended to take a tour of the town first.

After all, having just arrived in a human city of this world, he was curious about everything and wouldn't just buy what he wanted and leave.

Moreover, he now had to consider how to bring the goods he bought back.

Clearly, a single person couldn't carry a large amount of grain; he'd need a cart. He didn't know how to ride a horse, let alone drive a cart.

Those are skills to learn, but Wang Wu thought it wouldn't take long—maybe two or three days at most.

Also, while queuing outside the city, he noticed something: cultivators in this world seemed to possess a kind of pocket‑space ability.

He remembered clearly how that young cultivator produced a one‑person‑high mirror:

He simply shook his sleeve, and a huge mirror flew out of it and stood on the ground. Such a skill, Wang Wu had no doubt, was something he desperately wanted.

If he had that ability, why would he need a cart? A single sweep could pack everything inside and take it back—far more convenient than any cart.

So Wang Wu planned to find an inn tonight, stay over, and ask that Sha Shou Ge whether his hometown had such a technique.

But the two worlds differ, so he wasn't sure whether a skill that even a weaker cultivator here could have would exist in that world's power system.

Still, he thought it was possible. After all, the world where that Sha Shou Ge lived seemed far more advanced; such a skill should be common there.

Wang Wu wandered the streets of He Dong Xian, occasionally hearing low murmurs about him and constantly feeling eyes falling on him.

At first it might have seemed interesting, but over time it became uncomfortable, especially when the gossip included some…

Wang Wu couldn't figure it out; he wasn't the kind of person who looked feminine, so why were men…

Never mind, it didn't matter.

He couldn't do anything about it anyway; after all, they were just whispering with their friends, and theoretically others shouldn't hear.

"Selling rice cakes! Selling rice cakes! Selling rice cakes! Selling rice cakes!"

At that moment, a voice reached Wang Wu's ears, making him turn his head toward its source.

Mainly that "selling rice cakes" shout made him feel as if he'd been thrown back to his hometown, to the short‑stout Wu Dalang from the Water Margin story.

Though the accent differed, the voice, the tone, were exactly the same.

So Wang Wu immediately looked at the other side, and when he saw the person, he was stunned.

"What the hell, could that really be Wu Dalang?"

A dwarf, under one and a half meters tall, truly matched the novel's description: "short, ugly, long torso, short legs, three‑inch‑thick bark."

"Brother, I'd like to buy a few rice cakes."

Wang Wu walked over and addressed the man who, though not looking exactly like the TV version of Wu Dalang, matched the novel's description perfectly.

"Sure!" Wu Dalang looked at Wang Wu coming over, replied very attentively, and also praised Wang Wu's looks:

"Young hero, you're truly handsome!"

"Haha." Wang Wu laughed and nodded, "How much per cake?"

"Ten wen each, how many do you want?" Wu Dalang swiftly opened the cake box, and instantly a fragrant aroma rushed toward Wang Wu's nose.

The cakes, though he didn't know the flavor, smelled undeniably good.

"Give me ten," Wang Wu said, then pulled a broken silver coin from his chest pocket and placed it on the lid of another box belonging to Wu Dalang.

That broken silver was worth about two hundred wen, and ten wen's purchasing power was roughly equivalent to one piece back home. Regarding this world's prices, Wang Wu had already gotten a rough idea while in Ma Wang Village.

One tael of silver fetched three thousand wen, and three thousand wen equaled about three hundred pieces.

Wang Wu didn't know how much a tael of silver weighed, as he had no home‑world measure, but in terms of purchasing power, one tael equaled three hundred pieces, ten taels three thousand, a hundred taels thirty thousand.

The silver ingot he held didn't even reach fifty taels; it was about thirty taels, which he had weighed. So that ingot equaled nine thousand pieces back home.

In this bag, he had more than fifty silver ingots, totaling about 450,000 pieces.

And that amount was still less than half of the box's contents.

Wang Wu remembered the big pit contained three boxes; converting, each box held over a million taels, so the three boxes together were worth four to five million.

That's four to five million; in this world, a house shouldn't even be that expensive.

"Owner, how much does a house cost here?" Wang Wu asked the quick‑handed owner who was packing the cakes.

"A house?" Wu Dalang paused, lifted his head, thought for a moment, then said to Wang Wu:

"Depends on the location."

"Cheap ones are a little over a hundred taels, pricey ones four or five hundred, and the most expensive run into the thousands or tens of thousands," Wu Dalang replied.

Then he smiled and asked, "Young hero, are you planning to settle in our He Dong Xian?"

"Not really." Wang Wu shook his head, took the cakes Wu Dalang handed him, but didn't keep the change, "Owner, do you know where the Wang Clan Trading House's headquarters is in this city?"

"Headquarters?" Wu Dalang was startled, then recovered, "You mean the main shop, right?"

"Exactly." Wang Wu nodded repeatedly, "Do you know where it is? If you're willing to take me there, the remaining change is just a tip."

"Ha! That's easy!" Wu Dalang laughed heartily, handed the change back, "But the money still needs to be given, you don't have to be so polite."

"No need, your cakes taste great, consider it a tip." Wang Wu pushed the money back again.

"Well…" Wu Dalang's face showed an embarrassed smile, he scratched the back of his head, "Then it's more respectful to obey, young hero. Come with me."

He closed the lid, lifted the shoulder pole, Wu Dalang walked ahead, signaling Wang Wu to follow, and the two walked toward the Wang Clan Trading House headquarters.

Since learning that those silver pieces bore the Wang Clan's mark, Wang Wu changed his mind and came up with a new idea.

(End of chapter)