Chapter 37: How Old Is Considered Old?

Exchanging for some women of appropriate age in the tribe was one of Baifeng's main purposes for attending this gathering, because the tribe's population was too small; only with enough women could the tribe increase its natural population.

In the past, the tribe was poor, and during gatherings, they even had to take their own tribal women to trade for food; now that the Baifeng Tribe was wealthy, they could trade for many women to take back, and when the time came to distribute them as wives to the tribesmen who performed the best, he believed they would surely work even harder to contribute to the tribe.

There were men for sale too, but buying them back meant they could only be used as Slaves; Baifeng still had a great psychological burden regarding treating people like livestock, but if he treated them as ordinary tribesmen, the original tribesmen would certainly have objections, so Baifeng would no longer consider the matter of buying men.

Under the constant urging of the tribesmen, Baifeng traded for ten women for the tribe at the cost of five Salted Fish plus one jar per person; Xiong checked their teeth to confirm they were relatively young and not the kind of women who had already lost their fertility and were about to die.

Every one of them had a sturdy build, and in the eyes of the tribesmen, they were beauties of the first rank; there were over twenty more that had been left over after being picked, either too old or so thin due to malnutrition that no one wanted them.

Baifeng did not know what the concept of "old" was in their eyes, so he just asked how old that group of old women was; the person who looked like the Tribal Chief in charge said, "Basically, they have all just lived through thirty winters; you only need two Salted Fish to take them back. They can still work for the tribe for a few years before they die; you definitely won't lose out."

Baifeng was very shocked; having just passed thirty, they were very young—in later generations, there were plenty of people who hadn't even married yet, but in this era, they were people on the verge of death.

Baifeng felt that the short lifespan of primitive people was definitely a problem of a poor living environment, little food, and many accidents; it couldn't be that they were only capable of living for thirty-some years.

He went up to feel their pulses and look at their tongues; it was clearly just Qi and blood deficiency. It must be that they felt they were old and it wasn't necessary to give them much food, which was what caused their aging to accelerate. Their teeth weren't loose, their vision and hearing were fine, and their organs hadn't failed, which meant they were definitely still young and could live for many more years.

"One Salted Fish for two people; trade them to me, you won't lose out. If they stay in your tribe, they will only waste your food."

"Good!"

Baifeng hadn't expected him to be so straightforward; if he had known, he should have pressed the price down further. He handed over four Salted Fish and traded for the eight so-called dying old women.

That Tribal Chief of some unknown tribe happily tied four knots on a rope; he was very satisfied with the Baifeng Tribe's generous use of salt-cured Salted Fish.

Xiong did not know why Baifeng wanted to waste food to trade for a few old women; they wouldn't live long even after reaching the tribe, and this was a waste. Those women's eyes were also dim; it was normal to be abandoned when they were no longer useful to the tribe. If they couldn't be traded away at this gathering, they would also be left in the wilderness to fend for themselves.

Baifeng looked at Xiong: "How many winters have you lived through now?"

Xiong recalled: "I became Tribal Chief during my seventeenth winter."

He then counted on his fingers and muttered: "One, two, three, four; this year is the fourth winter since I became Tribal Chief."

This time, Baifeng was not just looking at Xiong, but at everyone in the tribe, asking: "How many winters do you think a person can live?"

"Thirty!"

"Twenty!"

"I don't know either, but after thirty winters, they definitely can't live much longer!"

The crowd chattered away; Baifeng pressed his hand to make them quiet and said solemnly: "People, as long as they aren't starved to death, frozen to death, sick to death, or eaten by wild beasts, they can live at least seventy winters. Like them, who have only lived through thirty winters, they are still very young."

"When we return to the tribe, I can make them indistinguishable from those who have lived twenty-some winters within half a year, and they will still be able to continue having children."

The tribesmen were shocked into speechlessness; there was no word for "bragging" now, otherwise they would have said it long ago. The group of women also only had a slight change in their eyes upon hearing this, not holding much hope.

Xiong leaned over and asked in a low voice: "Tribal Chief, can you extend people's lives?"

Baifeng smiled and did not answer. Baifeng had now discovered a very low-cost way to expand the population: their so-called old people were only thirty years old, their so-called ugly women could also become beauties if they ate enough, and most importantly, the cost required to trade for them was minimal.

Baifeng led the tribesmen to begin sweeping through the entire market; as long as it was an old woman, Baifeng would frantically haggle and trade for them at an extremely low cost.

Soon, a team of over sixty burly men leading over a hundred old women appeared on Shazhou. People from other tribes were curious and mocked them, feeling that this tribe's Tribal Chief must have a problem with his brain, otherwise why would he trade for such women.

Baifeng didn't care; let them curse, as long as he knew he had picked up a bargain. The tribesmen of the Baifeng Tribe were too ashamed to look directly at the people of other tribes, but their Tribal Chief's words were not to be questioned; if he could really extend the lives of this group of women, then they would have made a killing.

Baifeng felt there were enough women; if he traded for more, the food in the tribe might become tight, so when the beauties, ugly women, and old women added up to 120 people, he slowly turned to look at other goods.

Giant deer antlers? Useless. Iron Ore? He had plenty of his own. Agate? No use, ignore it directly.

Bronze ware? Golden and shiny, it certainly looked good, but this little Bronze Tripod should be a Ritual Vessel for sacrifices, right? Looking at the craftsmanship, it must have come from some large tribe, perhaps one with tens of thousands of people.

Baifeng looked at it and liked it too; his own tribe didn't have a Ritual Vessel yet. When he asked the price, it required two cows or five bags of Grass Seed to trade.

Baifeng exclaimed, "Oh my god," it was so expensive; a forty-centimeter-tall object would require trading away more than half a year's worth of rations for a person. Baifeng would definitely not do this kind of business.

But Xiong had many thoughts; after all, they were just a small, unranked tribe. Only by having a sacrificial Ritual Vessel could they be considered to have stepped into the true circle of civilization.

Except for Baifeng, they all took sacrifice very seriously, although the "God" of the Baifeng Tribe was still created by Baifeng.

Baifeng originally didn't want to trade, but his previous willfulness had already made the tribesmen a bit dissatisfied; they wanted to get this Ritual Vessel into their hands no matter what.

Baifeng was helpless, but he really couldn't bear to trade so much food for such a thing. Although in later generations it could not only sell for hundreds of millions but also come with an Establishment System, providing food, housing, and a regulated life, Baifeng really didn't care for it now.

Baifeng drew his Short Sword and asked if he could trade with this. The man looked at the size and refused. Baifeng found a stone and slashed down with the Knife; sparks flew everywhere, but the blade was not damaged, and the body of the Knife did not bend.

This was not something that soft-textured Bronze could compare to. The man took the Knife and looked at it carefully; after accidentally cutting his finger, he was very satisfied with Baifeng's Knife and immediately changed his mind, saying he could take the Bronze Tripod away.

Trading a Short Sword for a Bronze Tripod—the tribesmen were all happy. Baifeng only felt that it didn't waste food; it was just an Iron Knife, so he didn't lose out.

After pacifying the tribesmen, Baifeng continued to walk around; his biggest hope now was to find Hemp Cloth. If he could trade for someone who knew how to make Hemp Cloth, that would be best.

When Baifeng was looking around, suddenly, in his peripheral vision, a thin and weak girl with fair skin and delicate features appeared, squatting among a group of "ugly people."