Chapter 42: A Good Business Deal Is One Where Both Sides Benefit

Baoxi still wanted to ask if there were any other stories, but Baifeng acted mysterious and said to Baoxi, "We are currently living in an age of myths; perhaps everyone is a god, and you will surely hear stories about them in the future."

As a guest, it was now time to leave the host's home, but Baifeng had brought several knives this time, and if he didn't trade them for things to take back, it would be too uneconomical; after all, for him, iron was just a matter of time, but there were some things he couldn't obtain even if he spent the time.

He untied the last knife from his waist and proposed to trade with Baoxi for some cloth, as his own tribe hadn't collected much hemp this year, and to have enough to weave cloth, they would have to plant it.

Having people who could weave was useless without raw materials, and the quality of the cloth here at Baoxi's place was excellent; Baifeng finally had hope of wearing underpants.

Baoxi gave a price of six bundles of cloth for one knife; although a knife didn't mean much to Baoxi himself, in this era where the metallurgical industry was extremely backward, all metal products were extremely expensive.

Six bundles of cloth—there was no unified system of weights and measures now, so Baifeng could only estimate roughly; one bundle of cloth was about a meter wide and eight meters long, which was very cost-effective.

The goods were exchanged, and Baifeng took the eleven women he had traded for, let them hold the cloth, and left their camp while laughing and chatting with Baoxi.

Once out of Baoxi's sight, Baifeng's smile immediately vanished, and he shouted for everyone to speed up and head back to his tribe's stall.

Sui's entire state was clearly much better, perhaps because that jar of honey water had brought her a sense of happiness she had never experienced before. The eleven women had once belonged to the Suiren Tribe, but now that the exchange was over, they were already people of the Baifeng Tribe; normally, they would no longer have any connection with the Suiren Tribe, but Baifeng could not rule out the possibility that there were spies planted among them.

More than half of the pottery at the tribe's stall had already been traded away; it was much more popular than the pottery of other tribes that didn't know how to innovate, but unfortunately, he hadn't traded for cloth, only for grass seeds.

There were many people crowding the stall, and Xiong and the others seemed to be arguing about something; Baifeng ran over in two or three steps, pushed aside the wild people watching the excitement on the periphery, and entered the inner circle, only then realizing that it was the knife that had caused the trouble.

A man with a very imposing manner was pointing at the knife and talking incessantly; the general meaning was that he wanted this knife and wanted to name a price. Xiong was a good hand at hunting and fighting, as was Chi, but they were clumsy with their words.

The main thing was that when Baifeng left, he hadn't told them approximately how much the knife was worth, so they just said to that anxious wild person, "Let me think, let me think."

That imposing wild person was a bit angry; he felt that Xiong and the others were making fun of him. Seeing that a conflict was about to break out, Baifeng rushed in to stop it.

"I am the Tribal Chief of the Baifeng Tribe. This knife is our tribe's most important treasure. I only brought it out to trade now because I had just been a guest at the Suiren Tribe, and they couldn't make the decision, so I neglected you."

"I hope you are not angry. May I ask your name, and what price can you offer to trade for my knife?"

By bringing up the name of the Suiren Tribe, he was their guest, and no matter what, these wild people had to show some respect and wouldn't resort to violence.

Seeing that someone who could make decisions had arrived, the man did not lower his imposing manner: "I am Jian of the Taijia Tribe. I want that knife, and I can trade two cows for it."

The price of two cows was indeed not low; Baifeng even felt it was too high, and one would have been enough, but the Baifeng Tribe still had plenty of cows, so there was no need to trade for more. Cloth, furs, and grass seeds were what he needed. If his tribespeople wanted to survive the winter without cloth to make clothes, they would need a lot of furs.

Baifeng shook his head: "Our tribe is not short of cows. I need grass seeds, cloth, or furs to trade."

Jian laughed when he heard this and wanted to reach out and pat Baifeng on the shoulder, but Baifeng dodged it without a trace.

"My tribe has plenty of furs. If you wanted cows, I would have to think about it for a long time, but you can have as many furs as you want."

Since he had encountered a big spender, Baifeng wanted to complete the transaction quickly. He was feeling a bit panicked inside now, especially after hearing Baoxi say there were hundreds of soldiers lying in ambush around them. If they were to charge in, no tribe here had as many people as the Suiren Tribe brought, and everyone would surely flee for their lives rather than unite to resist.

"Then let's calculate it based on the price of two cows. See how much fur it's worth; as long as you can provide it, we'll trade. If the furs aren't enough, use grass seeds and cloth to make up the difference."

Jian immediately had his tribespeople go get the furs: "Our Taijia Tribe has nothing else, but we have many cows and many cowhides. Two cows are equivalent to thirty-five cowhides. See if that is acceptable."

Baifeng didn't know the conversion rules between cows and cowhides, but he felt that trading one knife for thirty-five cowhides was not a loss at all, so he nodded in agreement.

Jian was happily pacing back and forth next to the stall, just waiting for his tribespeople to bring back the cowhides to trade for the knife. Metal smelting was a skill of large tribes, and they could only smelt relatively soft bronze, which was also expensive as hell; their own tribe didn't have much of it.

This silver-colored, hard, and sharp knife was definitely not something the Baifeng Tribe could make; they probably just got lucky and found it, which was why they were selling it so cheaply to him.

Both the buyer and the seller felt they had taken advantage; this was a good business deal.

Seeing that they were quite wealthy, Baifeng tentatively said, "Does your tribe still lack pottery? Look at our pottery—it's light yet sturdy, and the patterns and styles are beautiful. Listen to this sound; how pleasant it is."

Baifeng picked up a pottery basin and tapped it with his finger; the sound was very crisp.

"If you want them, you only need ten cowhides, and I will pack up all the pottery here for you. How about it?"

Jian felt he had taken advantage and was smug. Hearing Baifeng's suggestion and seeing that the quality of the pottery was indeed good, he thought about his own tribe, which lived by herding wild cows on the grassland; they really couldn't make these things and were very lacking. Trading the least valuable cowhides for them was not a loss at all.

He happily nodded in agreement and arranged for a tribesperson to go get another ten cowhides.

Baifeng was very happy to have met a big customer. He smiled and packed up all the pottery with his tribespeople, waiting for the cowhides to arrive so he could finish the trade and close the stall.

The Baifeng tribespeople didn't know that business could be done this way—trading things they didn't have much use for so easily for scarce cowhides—and suddenly felt that their Tribal Chief was truly amazing. The wild people watching the scene, seeing this method of exchange, also felt that their own practice of having to lick a piece of salt to taste it before trading was extremely backward.

The cowhides were brought over. Baifeng opened them one by one to look; they were all hides from large cows, and they had been cut from the neck, with no wounds on the bodies, unlike the cowhides of Baifeng's people, which were full of holes. This showed that this Taijia Tribe had a way to capture cows alive, but looking at the quantity, it was more likely they were a pastoral tribe.

This was much stronger than the average gathering and hunting tribe; at least they had a stable food source.

It was a pity Baifeng had nothing left, otherwise he would have really traded for a few cows to raise himself. However, he already had one Xiaoniu now, and next year, he would see if he could try to capture a herd of cows and start animal husbandry as well.

As for now, the goods were cleared, both sides were smiling, saying things like "see you next year," and Baifeng turned around to leave Shazhou, wanting to quickly get away from this gathering place.