However, Si Shuo's attention was soon captured by the goods being traded.
The wares sold by the tribe's Beastmen were quite conventional. However, the goods laid out by the traders, which sprawled across half the stall, were particularly captivating. They were a clear testament to the Traveling Merchant Team's strength and wealth!
Yimei kept tugging at her sleeve. "Si Shuo, what are you going to trade for? I recently gathered a lot of wild fruit and dried it, and our family has saved up a lot of Beast Skins. I want to trade them for some prettier colored skins to wear.
And look, aren't those bracelets and necklaces made of beads and bones beautiful? The weather's getting warmer, so I want to trade for some cotton cloth to make clothes. I'd even settle for fish skin or snake sheds…"
Si Shuo nodded along. 'Even though the Beast World Continent's technology and economy are underdeveloped, the central regions have already seen the beginnings of civilization. Things like pottery, textiles, agriculture, and animal husbandry exist, but they are treated as crucial, proprietary techniques for a tribe or family's prosperity and are far from common knowledge.'
'I can buy things from the shop, but I can't just pull them out in the open.'
'This summer, I want to wear absorbent, breathable cotton clothes, not these heavy beast-skin tube tops and short skirts!'
Besides, those bracelets and necklaces—a chaotic mix of beads and bones in bright colors and lovely shapes—were exactly the kind of little trinkets she had no resistance to.
"My Rongxing is already in line. Let's go back and get our things to sell and cut in line," Yimei said, pulling Si Shuo back to the cave.
Si Shuo's two-cubic-meter storage space was crammed full with eighteen rattan baskets. She moved some of the non-perishable dried goods into the adjacent room.
If there was one thing their home had in abundance, it was their freshwater catch.
Zhi Le set the shrimp traps once in the morning and again in the evening, always in a different spot. He had a rich harvest every time, typically fifty or sixty pounds!
The shelled shrimp and crabs took up too much space. So, in their spare time, the two of them marinated the catch in seasonings like salt, scallions, ginger, cooking wine, and soy sauce. Then they would simmer it until the liquid reduced, shell it, and dry the meat.
They didn't waste the shells, either. They dried and ground them into a powder, which made for a good flavor enhancer.
After being shelled and dried, fifty or sixty pounds of fresh catch would yield only about twenty-one or twenty-two pounds of dried meat. But the dried meat was dense and took up far less space.
She had one basket in her storage space, while two large baskets had accumulated outside!
Si Shuo took out the rattan basket she normally used for gathering and poured in half of the dried seafood. On top, she placed a bag of meatballs, two bags of dried fruit, twenty bamboo tubes of fruit jam, and ten bamboo tubes of shrimp shell powder.
She also rolled up some drab-colored Beast Skins she didn't have much use for and headed out of the cave.
Yimei was similarly laden, with a basket on her back and a bundle in her arms.
After tossing the Beast Skins down to the ground below, the two carefully climbed down the stone steps. They picked up the skins again and continued toward the square.
Rongxing was sharp; he had managed to get a spot near the front of the line.
After Yimei pulled Si Shuo over into the line, she started telling Rongxing what she wanted to trade for. Rongxing listened attentively, occasionally popping a piece of dried fruit into her mouth. The two were incredibly sweet and affectionate with each other.
Si Shuo couldn't help but lower her gaze slightly, gently stroking the Snow Leopard Beast Mark on the inside of her wrist. A faint dimple appeared at the corner of her lips.
Suddenly, a tall, burly male came to a stop beside her. His voice was slightly hoarse as he said with a smile:
"Hello there, little female. I'm Tao Yun, the third-in-command of our Dark Crow Trading Team. Level 6 Combat Power.
You're so beautiful and demure. May I have the honor of becoming your Beast Husband?"
The surrounding Beastmen fell silent at his words.
The Luoni Tribe was powerful, but even so, a Beastman with Level 6 Combat Power was considered one of the tribe's elites.
Every one of them was a first Beast Husband to a female with at least moderate fertility.
This third-in-command of the traders was truly living up to his reputation as a Rogue Beast, deciding on a partnership based on looks alone, without bothering to learn anything special about Si Shuo!
But Si Shuo, the subject of all this attention, still had her gaze lowered.
Yimei, growing anxious on her behalf, poked Si Shuo. Seeing Si Shuo look up blankly, she hastily repeated, "Si Shuo, this is Tao Yun, the third-in-command of the Traveling Merchant Team. He wants to be your Beast Husband!"
Si Shuo froze, then turned her head. Just as she did, Tao Yun, who had been admiring her fair and pretty profile, flicked out his tongue. Its dull, forked tip was mere inches from her face.
The color drained from her face as she jerked back, shaking her head frantically. "S-Sorry. I have Zhi Le. For now... I don't want... a partnership."
If she had been pretending to be deaf and speaking haltingly before, this time, her pale face, the cold sweat breaking out on her skin, and her stammering were all genuine!
'It was just... terrifying. She could even smell a faint, chilly, foul odor. And his eyes! Tao Yun's eyes were larger than a normal Beastman's, with slitted pupils that could swivel a full one hundred eighty degrees. It was far beyond what she could psychologically endure.'
'Hard pass!'
Ji Liang, who had been enjoying the show, was finding the little female's pale face and trembling body quite entertaining. But when he heard Zhi Le's name, he couldn't help but flick his tongue out. HISS.
He beckoned to the male the leader had assigned to attend to him. "Zhi Le formed a partnership?"
"Yes, Lord Ji Liang. With that blue-eyed, white-furred Mutated Cat female. She was born deaf and can't hear. She has to read lips to have any hope of understanding.
Zhi Le only has Third level Combat Power now, plus he's disfigured and has grown cold. No female was willing to form a partnership with him.
So the two of them just paired up…"
Ji Liang smiled. "I don't believe Zhi Le is the type to just settle."
'He had to admit, the little female was exceptionally beautiful and delicate. He'd traveled through so many tribes and seen countless females—he'd even met enough Female Saints to count on two hands—but none of them were as eye-catching as her.'
'Just standing there, she was like the purest patch of snow; it was impossible not to notice her.'
'What's more, her azure eyes held not a single trace of impurity, making any male want to be the reason an emotion finally colored them!'
"That little female is a real beauty. For her, Zhi Le captured a number of long tusked piglets alive and is raising them in a gully. He has one slaughtered every day or two, terrified that Si Shuo won't have fresh meat to eat..." the male attendant continued in a low voice. "It seems he's truly taken with her. When Si Shuo first arrived, she was thin, weak, and timid, looking like she wouldn't last more than a few days..."
Ji Liang raised an eyebrow. "Who did Zhi Le become Couple Brothers with?"
"No one. Si Shuo only has Zhi Le. Before Zhi Le left for the spring hunt, he asked several of his friends who were staying behind to look after Si Shuo for him. No one with eyes in their head would dare to go and bother her..."
'So he's really treating her like the apple of his eye,' Ji Liang thought, flicking his tongue with a hiss as his vertical pupils narrowed.
'Forget that blockhead Zhi Le; even he felt a little tempted after seeing the little female.'
Although Tao Yun was a Rogue Beast, his superior Combat Power was plain to see, and he was the third-in-command of a very popular Traveling Merchant Team.
He was the one who did the choosing; when had a female ever dared to refuse him?
His eyes bulged as he demanded in disbelief, "Little female, why? I know Zhi Le. His combat power is so low, yet he can be your partner. Why can't I?
Bring all your Beast Husbands over here. I'll challenge them one by one!"