Chapter 66: Transaction 1

"Chief Lei."

Lin Yue wore a gentle smile on his face, as if unaware of the strange atmosphere in the air, he stepped forward and extended his hand.

"My name is Lin Yue, and this is Captain Gui Ying. We came here this time sincerely wanting to make a deal with you, with no ulterior motives."

Lei Shi's face, wrapped in a luxuriant beard, bore a hearty smile, and he also reached out to grip Lin Yue's hand firmly.

"Hahaha, I didn't know earlier that you were Lord Lin and Captain Gui Ying; please forgive any offense!"

Lin Yue gave a slight smile, as if he didn't care at all about what just happened.

"What Chief Lei says, if it were me, I'd probably do the same; who knows if the other side is really just here to trade? As the old saying goes: 'Never harbor ill intent, but never let your guard down.' And all the more so in the apocalypse!"

"Haha, Lord Lin is magnanimous; I've decided to befriend this friend of yours!"

Lei Shi slapped his chest boldly, then waved his big hand, leading the way for the few of them.

"Lord Lin, Captain Gui Ying, welcome to our Qing Shan Refuge. Of course, we certainly can't compare to an official refuge; it's a bit crude, so please make do."

His voice was loud, his manner bold; he indeed looked like a hearty mining foreman.

But Lin Yue keenly caught that, at the moment they shook hands, Lei Shi's gaze unconsciously flicked toward a certain cave.

Lin Yue smirked inwardly; this Qing Shan Refuge was far from as simple as it appeared on the surface, yet he kept his composure and said politely:

"Chief Lei, you're joking; to build such a refuge in the apocalypse and protect so many survivors, you're certainly no ordinary person."

Lei Shi seemed to enjoy the praise, his smile becoming a bit more genuine.

"Lord Lin, you flatter us! We're just a bunch of rough folk who only know how to mine; lucky to guard this salt mine, we barely scrape a living. Come, come, please come inside, those who have traveled far!"

Lei Shi warmly greeted everyone, heading toward the council hall at the bottom of the mine shaft, a large cavern converted from a huge rock cave.

Lin Yue's party followed behind him, their eyes quietly observing everything around.

At the bottom of the mine shaft lay a vast plain.

Crude shacks and caves dug directly into the rock walls made up the living area of this refuge.

The air was filled with a strange, mixed odor of sweat, machine oil, and rock salt.

It was nauseating.

Among the people coming and going, the vast majority were dressed in rags, sallow and thin-skinned, while only a few had a healthy complexion.

Clearly, a class system exists here, and it's quite severe!

Soon, both sides took their seats in the crude council hall.

So-called council hall was merely a slightly wider cavern, containing a few tables and chairs made of stone and planks, with torches planted on the walls, lighting the interior intermittently bright and dim.

The transaction proceeded surprisingly smoothly.

"Fifty tons of grain for eighty tons of rock salt."

After hearing Gui Ying's quoted price, Lei Shi almost without hesitation agreed, of course he also put forward a request.

"Deal! Captain Gui Ying, Lord Lin, this batch of grain is literally a lifeline for us!"

He split his mouth wide, revealing a mouthful of tobacco-stained yellow teeth, laughing uproariously,

"But I still have a small request."

"What request?"

Lin Yue was a bit curious, wondering what else they wanted besides grain.

Lei Shi rubbed his hands together, smiling broadly as he said:

"Lord Lin, I hope you can let your giant beast help us reinforce our defenses, and… clear out the mutant beasts around us?"

"Sure."

Lin Yue nodded, indicating no problem!

Upon hearing this, Lei Shi stood up and shouted loudly toward the outside:

"What the hell are you standing around for?! Didn't you hear?! Go, load our best salt, eighty tons for the guests! Whoever dares to shortchange, I'll skin him alive!"

No sooner had his words fallen than someone began organizing the transport of grain and edible salt.

Hundreds of miners immediately pushed their crude iron carts, silently heading toward the salt pile, loading the edible salt onto the area where the heavy trucks were parked.

The transaction, officially began.

But Lin Yue's inexplicable uneasy feeling grew stronger and stronger.

He noticed that, upon hearing Lei Shi's order, the miners' bodies involuntarily shuddered, and their faces revealed a fear that could hardly be concealed.

They kept their heads down, eyes darting, not daring to meet anyone's gaze, merely repeating their tasks mechanically.

"Little Lin, look..."

Foreman Wang also sensed something odd; he moved close to Lin Yue, lowered his voice, and jerked his chin toward a direction.

Following his gaze, Lin Yue saw a thin, weak young miner who, because the ground was slippery, accidentally fell, spilling the rock salt from the cart all over the ground.

The miner turned deathly pale, scrambling to pick up the spilled salt and reload it onto the cart.

But before he could touch it, a black shadow appeared before him like a ghost.

"Bang!"

"A muffled thud!"

The miner flew backward like a kite with its string cut, slamming heavily into the rock wall, spitting out a mouthful of blood, struggling a few times before losing consciousness.

"Trash! You can't even walk steadily! What the hell am I feeding you for!"

Lei Shi pointed at the miner and unleashed a torrent of abuse; his ferocious expression was a stark contrast to just moments before.

The other miners nearby, seeing this, all trembled with fear, heads bowed, silent as cicadas, not daring to take a breath.

"Chief Lei, why get angry over such a trivial matter?"

Lin Yue stepped forward, patted Lei Shi on the shoulder, and spoke in a gentle tone:

"This brother didn't do it on purpose; I think we should first find someone to treat his injury."

"What Lord Lin Yue says is correct! What he says is correct!"

The ferocity on Lei Shi's face vanished instantly, and he put on that hearty smile again, scratching his head embarrassedly, as if the person who had just flown into a rage and hurt someone was someone else.

"Sorry to have you see this, these guys get itchy if they aren't disciplined for a day; we've gotten used to it, used to it."

While saying that, he personally directed his subordinates to unload the fifty tons of grain from the heavy truck, and at the same time load bag after bag of heavy rock salt onto the vehicle.

The whole transaction process lasted nearly an hour.

"Lord Lin Yue, Captain Gui Ying, what's next, should we..."

Lei Shi rubbed his hands, looking at Lin Yue with eager anticipation, his eyes full of greed.

"Naturally."

Lin Yue nodded.

"Lord Lin Yue, please follow me! The defenses of our mine have always been a big problem; we're counting on you!"

He led Lin Yue and the others to a section of defensive wall at the mine entrance.

That wall was built from piled rubble and scrap steel; although it looks sturdy, in the face of a true mutant beast tide, it probably couldn't hold for more than ten minutes.