Chapter 9: After Scaling Many Mountains, One Finally Encounters a Tiger

Jiang Cheng locked the tricycle, followed the crowd, and arrived at the entrance.

Upon entering the shop, as usual he was given a hard stare by the burly man at the door.

Jiang Cheng, like everyone else, quickly lowered his head and pretended nothing was happening.

After all, when one is weak one must read the situation and cannot act like those overpowered heroes, glaring back and saying "What are you looking at?".

The interior of the shop was not small, easily over a hundred square meters.

It resembled a small supermarket.

Inside, half‑person‑high shelves filled the space, each divided into small compartments stocked with all kinds of grain.

Rice, millet, flour, red beans, green beans, corn, sesame, and so on—everything was present.

Prices were marked below.

At the same time, shop staff patrolled the aisles to prevent theft or trouble.

Jiang Cheng's gaze fell on the rice.

There wasn't much rice left at home, and before leaving, Grandma had asked him to buy a dozen or so jin.

"Three yuan five per jin?"

Seeing the price below, Jiang Cheng's pupils widened slightly.

It was more than three times the price before he transmigrated.

Moreover, according to the original body's memory, before the Horned People Clan arrived, rice was even cheaper—under five mao per jin.

That had been an era of great material abundance.

Unfortunately, that era was gone.

Likely only those still under the control of the Flame Nation's planets still enjoy that life; for wanderers, merely surviving is a fortune.

Jiang Cheng walked over, took a bag, and weighed about ten jin.

Then he went to the sweet potatoes.

Fresh sweet potatoes were not cheap either; there were several varieties.

The lowest price was three yuan per jin.

The highest was a kind called "smoked sweet potato," twelve yuan per jin.

Almost every street vendor selling Roasted Sweet Potato used the cheapest variety—not because they were unwilling to buy the expensive one, but because customers buying Roasted Sweet Potato wouldn't spend that much.

Jiang Cheng grabbed a large bag and began selecting sweet potatoes.

His Proficient level in roasting sweet potatoes had already reached the Mastery level, so he had his own insights for picking good‑looking tubers.

Fresh, smooth skin, oval shape, and not too large.

Because Roasted Sweet Potato is sold by piece—six yuan each—if it's too big the profit drops, but it can't be too small; no one is a fool.

So a weight of six or seven liang was just right.

From time to time a staff member passed by, Sweep a glance at Jiang Cheng, then moved on.

After a round of selection, Jiang Cheng bought a little over a hundred jin of fresh sweet potatoes; together with ten jin of rice, the total was nearly 350 yuan, almost all the money he earned from Roasted Sweet Potato these two days.

Those hundred‑plus jin of sweet potatoes would be sold in about three days, and fresh sweet potatoes keep for roughly three days; if kept longer they roast poorly.

At that time, the next batch of buyers would arrive.

This also matched the original body's ten‑plus‑year experience.

A kind staff member helped Jiang Cheng move several bags of sweet potatoes onto the cart.

"Thank you."

Jiang Cheng looked at the man in front of him and expressed his thanks.

The man shook his head, turned, and walked back into the shop.

His expression seemed cold, but his actions were indeed warm‑hearted.

Jiang Cheng opened the iron bucket, which held the spot for lighting charcoal; since there was no roasting now, he could place the sweet potatoes inside.

Of course, space was limited.

Two or three bags still had to be left outside.

To be safe, he covered the sweet potatoes with the clothes he had brought, even though it looked a bit like the "pretending there's no silver when there's three hundred taels" trick.

But it was better than leaving them uncovered.

"It's just…"

A memory of the original body floated in Jiang Cheng's mind.

He hoped this time luck would be enough and he wouldn't run into those guys.

Along the way, indeed many eyes were drawn to him.

Fortunately, nothing untoward happened.

Until halfway, two voices came from behind. "Kid, stop!"

"Stop! Hear me?"

Jiang Cheng subconsciously felt the voices were aimed at him.

So he quickened his pace.

As a result, the two people behind him ran straight toward him.

Jiang Cheng had no choice but to turn his head; the two figures behind him were already within two meters.

The leader was a head taller than Jiang Cheng, with triangular eyes that made one feel uneasy.

The other was shorter, with a buzz cut, and eyes that seemed glued to the back of the tricycle.

"Kid, didn't you hear me call you? Why are you running?"

The tall one's face was grim.

Jiang Cheng's heart immediately started racing.

In the original owner's memory, daytime in the Poor District wasn't very safe; there was also a small chance of a robbery occurring.

It was just that the frequency and intensity were much lighter compared to at night.

In this vicinity, there were two or three groups who would specifically extort some money on the route home after the original owner bought raw sweet potatoes.

The original owner often changed routes, even walking a bit farther to buy sweet potatoes on another street, hoping to avoid them; but if luck was bad and they ran into this, they could only give in.

His luck wasn't good; he encountered them on his first supply run back.

"Sorry, I really didn't hear you just now. What do you want?"

Jiang Cheng feigned ignorance.

"Feigning, keep pretending?"

The tall guy sneered, "You think pretending not to know me will let you walk away?"

The commotion here quickly drew the attention of the people around.

Many people looked over here, chatting and speculating.

"That looks like the Li Family's son, right? What is he doing?"

"Could it be that he's trying to rob someone?"

"This kid, I've long heard he goes out at night to steal others' things; I never believed it, but I didn't expect it to actually be true."

"Good thing Old Li died early; otherwise, if he saw this scene, he'd surely be angered to death."

Most people in the Poor District are honest folk; seeing robbery, even if they don't dare to speak out to stop it, they hate it intensely in their hearts.

Because of nervousness, adrenaline surged, and Jiang Cheng felt his whole body trembling.

"What do you want to do?"

"What do you want?"

The buzz-cut man gave a strange laugh and said, "Brothers, we've been short on cash lately, can't even afford a meal, we want to borrow some money from you for spending, or give us a few dozen jin of sweet potatoes would also work."

Hearing that, Jiang Cheng's anger grew even stronger.

"A few dozen jin of sweet potatoes? They really dare to ask for that?"

It's a pity; if his proficiency with the short staff had reached Proficient or Mastery, he could just smash them with a stick now and not panic even facing two opponents.

It's a pity, he's only just at Entry.

He took a few deep breaths, suppressing the anger in his chest.

Jiang Cheng slowly opened his mouth and said:

"Sorry, I don't have any money on me either; plus, a couple of days ago I had a fever and went to the clinic, racking up a lot of debt. These sweet potatoes are meant to pay that off, but if you really have nothing to eat, I can also give you a few jin to fill your stomach."

He really is short on money right now.

Not only what he owes Chen Sao, but also the stall fee and protection fee paid to the Wild Wolf Gang are still unsettled.

So whenever the original owner was caught, he'd usually hand over a few hundred or a thousand yuan to avoid disaster, but he can't do that and lacks the means.

"What, a few jin?"

The buzz-cut man's voice suddenly rose, with an expression that said he hadn't misheard.

"Do you think we're beggars? A few jin of sweet potatoes—do we even have to say thanks?"

After saying that, he reached into his pants pocket, pulled out a spring knife, and glared at Jiang Cheng menacingly.

He decided in his heart that this time he would definitely extort a good sum from this kid; the guy had been unseen for a few days, his courage had grown, and he actually didn't take the two of them seriously.

Many of the people around, upon seeing this scene, were scared away.

Some people actually wanted to speak up to help, but since they lived here with their whole families, they feared retaliation later on; Jiang Cheng's eyes narrowed slightly.

He reached behind his clothes, pulled out a rolling pin the length of his arm, held it in front of him, and said, "So you're saying you're dead set on robbing my stuff?"

(End of chapter)