It was a dark and windy night.
CREAK.
A wooden door opened. A figure glanced left and right before stepping out into the street. The person then crept quietly toward a street on the outer edge of the encampment:
Number 3, Number 4...
Number 4, 2nd Street!
This was the place.
An iron lock hung on the wooden door.
Tang Wen quietly unlocked it with a key and slipped inside.
The houses on this street had no courtyards; the wooden door he opened led directly into the house itself.
It was pitch black inside. He took out the flint and steel he had prepared earlier, blew on it gently, and a faint spark flickered to life.
The enhancement to his Constitution had also made his vision far superior to that of an ordinary person. Combined with the bird offal he regularly ate, Tang Wen hadn't developed the night blindness common among most people in the camp.
He lit the oil lamp in the room, but its dim, yellow light didn't illuminate much.
But to Tang Wen's eyes, everything in the room was perfectly clear.
The wall directly ahead drew his gaze. A large, black bow hung there. He casually pulled over a chair, stood on it, and took the bow down.
'Hmm, this is heavy.'
His strength was now so great that even a long saber felt light when he wielded it with one hand, yet this Iron-Clad Bow seemed heavier than three sabers combined.
Perfect. Just what I needed.
After his recent combat experience, he had grown dissatisfied with the range of his Flying Blades and Flying Stones.
He had just been thinking about hunting more game to trade the meat for a Bow and Arrow to practice with. He never expected to find one just like this.
After searching the room, Tang Wen also found a Short Sword. It was about half a meter long and solidly built.
'No question, I'm taking this with me.'
The room also contained a cabinet with a missing door that reeked of spoiled food; a wobbly-legged table covered in a layer of black grime; and a few stools of varying heights...
He shook his head and walked into the inner room, where the smell was even worse.
The inner room held a wooden bed and a rice vat.
Tang Wen picked up the Short Sword and, with a disgusted expression, lifted the blanket on the bed, whose original color was impossible to discern.
Nothing.
He then lifted the pillow. CLING CLANG. Something fell out from inside the straw-filled pillow.
'What's that sound?'
'Why does it sound like Copper Coins?'
Tang Wen crouched down, picked up the items from the floor, and a strange look appeared on his face. "Are these really Copper Coins?"
The Copper Coins were shaped like the Square-Holed Round Coins of ancient times.
He had heard Li Daniu mention before that the shops and stores in the city used Copper Coins, not barter.
The merchant caravans from outside also accepted Copper Coins, but they preferred to barter.
Aside from the Copper Coins, the Iron-Clad Bow, and the Short Sword, he didn't take anything else.
He quietly returned home.
Under his sister's expectant gaze,
Tang Wen took out the Iron-Clad Bow, the Short Sword, and a few dozen Copper Coins.
The smile on Tangtang's face slowly vanished. "That's it?"
"These are the most valuable items."
"What's the use of being valuable? Where's the food? The supplies? You should have brought it all!" Her voice involuntarily jumped three octaves.
"Huh? We were steal—er, taking things. Wouldn't it be bad to clear the place out?"
"What's bad about it?" His sister raised an eyebrow. "This is his compensation to us. You could even call it our spoils of war! Clear it out. Empty the whole place. I'll go with you."
An eager look appeared on her face.
Tang Wen was speechless.
Left with no choice, the two of them made another trip.
At Tangtang's insistence, they each slung a large wicker basket onto their backs before heading out.
They opened the other person's door once again.
Tangtang searched the place. Dozens of pounds of Maize in the rice vat? Take it.
A few stools, three dirty wooden buckets? Take them.
"You're so dense. There are two salted fish over there. Xiaowen, did you not see them?"
"He has so much firewood in his house..."
Tang Wen quickly grabbed her. "Let's leave the firewood, okay?"
"Leave it?" Tangtang looked at her brother. "This side room of his is half-filled with firewood. It's enough to last us until spring."
Now that she mentioned it, Tang Wen remembered that the woodshed in their own yard was indeed empty.
"So... we take it?"
"Take it! We'll move it together. If we have to, we'll spend a couple more nights moving it," Tangtang said with great determination.
"Yeah, that probably won't be necessary."
With Tang Wen's current stamina, he could carry two hundred pounds and still move as if he were flying.
Tangtang helped him tie the firewood into bundles with rope. Tang Wen shouldered a load,
and under his sister's "all that Maize rice wasn't wasted on you" gaze, he used the cover of darkness to make seven or eight rapid trips back and forth. Before dawn, their own woodshed was filled to the brim.
Based on their current consumption of a few pounds of firewood per day, it was more than enough to last until next spring, with some to spare.
The brother and sister stood side-by-side at the woodshed door, smiling as they admired their haul.
You have to admit, the feeling of getting something for nothing was pretty damn good!
The other things they had moved were piled haphazardly in the courtyard. Tangtang said with disdain, "Chop up the table and chairs for firewood. We don't need the buckets, salted fish, or Maize either. We'll trade them for other things..."
Exhausted after a busy night, the two went straight back inside to rest.
After lunch, Tang Wen slung the Iron-Clad Bow and Short Sword over his back and headed to the blacksmith's shop.
"This is a fine Short Sword. Making a Sword Scabbard for it would be perfect for your sister's self-defense." Li Daniu the blacksmith handed Tang Wen a Sharpening Stone, then turned his gaze to the Iron-Clad Bow the young man had brought.
"This bow?" He took it in his hands and tried to draw the string.
Heh!
Li Daniu's face turned beet red, but he could only manage a half-draw.
VWOOM!
The moment he let go, the steel string vibrated rapidly.
"Xiaotang, this bow is good, but it takes too much strength. It's even heavier than the bows I saw in the Guard Battalion! I bet it would take two burly men to draw it."
Li Daniu might look gruff, but he was sharp. Tang Wen didn't mention the bow's origin, and Li Daniu didn't ask.
Tang Wen said sincerely, "Yeah, it really is. It's too heavy."
'So heavy,' he thought, 'that even I can only draw it to its fullest twenty or thirty times in a row.'
"If you had the Copper Coins, Brother Tang, you could sell this bow in the city. If a Guard Captain took a liking to it, it could fetch a price of at least a few hundred pounds of Mutated Beast Meat, or enough grain to last for several years."
Li Daniu had mentioned in a previous chat that for people from the encampment to enter the Inner City—the city proper—they had to pay an entrance fee of 10 Copper Coins each time.
In the Inner City, 10 Copper Coins could buy 10 pounds of white flour or 20 pounds of Maize.
For those on the outskirts of the camp, this was an astronomical price. Almost no one ever went.
More importantly, ordinary people on the outskirts had no way to earn Copper Coins.
Tang Wen had no intention of selling the Iron-Clad Bow, but hearing this, he couldn't help but feel like he had struck it rich.
Forget a few hundred pounds of Mutated Beast Meat; Tang Wen didn't even have a few hundred pounds of regular meat.
'Crime really does pay!'
He said, "Brother Li, could you first make me two pairs of Finger Guards, and then some arrows? If I ever do decide to sell it, I can get a better price by offering a complete set."
"Say no more, leave it to me. I'll help you maintain this bow, too."
"How much meat will it cost?"
"No need, no need! That pigskin was more than enough. Brother, you're really something, managing to hunt a wild boar. But don't go any deeper into the woods. You never know if there are some Mutated Beasts that haven't been cleared out."
"Alright, I'll remember that."
While Li Daniu bustled about, Tang Wen went to the backyard to practice with his blade.
After yesterday's events, his desire for strength had grown even more intense.
[Wind-breaking Blade, Master (109/1000)]
He spent the entire half of the afternoon practicing, not wasting a single moment.
"Come on, brother, let's spar a bit. Don't go home tonight, just eat here at my place." Li Daniu, having finished his work at some point, was standing in the backyard watching Tang Wen's Sword Practice.
"Okay, let me just go back and tell my sister."
"Tell your sister to come too, the more the merrier! What's the big idea leaving her home all alone!"
"Alright!"
It was funny, really. The two of them were good neighbors and good friends.
Yet they had never once shared a meal at each other's homes.
After all, for the people in the camp, food was simply too precious.
When he got home and told her, Tangtang also agreed to go over for dinner.
"We can't go empty-handed, right?" A hesitant look appeared on his sister's face.
Tang Wen knew she was pained at the thought of giving something away.
Before he could speak, Tangtang continued, "Bringing Maize wouldn't be right, especially since he helped us clean. So... we bring meat?"
Tang Wen just smiled and said nothing.
Tangtang pouted, sliced off what looked like a pound of the braised pig's head meat they had prepared, and turned to ask:
"This should be enough, right?"
Tang Wen chuckled to himself. 'My sister hasn't changed a bit. Even after we struck it rich last night, she's still as stingy... er, as frugal as ever.'