He would definitely become a laughingstock in the Hit-Plane Brotherhood. Zhang Tie wondered whether Doug, the unlucky guy, could wash off this stain for the rest of his life.
When Zhang Tie arrived, Donder was greeting the guests in the store. Zhang Tie just stood aside and watched him. After the guests left, Zhang Tie walked into the counter and cleaned the store with a broom, a rag, and a basin. After that, he started to use his abacus and check the account books. Since Zhang Tie came to the Sundry Goods Store, he had found that the owner, Donder, had become increasingly lazy. Every time he came here, it would take him about an hour to finish all the work.
Seeing Zhang Tie busy in the store, Donder lay back on his lounge chair and leisurely closed his eyes.
Thinking of the tea leaves in Barley's hand, Zhang Tie's heart raced. He then started to chat with Donder.
"Boss, do you know what tea leaves are?"
"Tea leaves!" Hearing this question, Donder curiously turned his head and glanced at Zhang Tie. "It's a very precious and rare beverage. Those rich and powerful men who want to pretend to be cultured and have a good taste like using it to show off their status!"
"No, it's not a beverage. I saw someone put it in his mouth. Does he eat his saliva?"
"Idiot, tea leaves are soaked in water. There are many rules!" Donder scolded. "Putting tea leaves in their mouth is a method used by some nouveau riche to freshen their breath!"
"Oh, you mean this is very expensive?"
"Not very expensive, but very expensive. The lowest grade is in Blackhot City. It costs this much for a bag of 0.5 kg!" Donder stretched out his hand. "As for the higher grade, you can forget about it for the rest of your life!"
"Five silver coins!" In Zhang Tie's eyes, this was already an exaggeration.
"Five silver coins …" Donder sneered. "You can only smell it. It's five gold coins. Sometimes, it's even more expensive!"
Zhang Tie was shocked inside. "No wonder Barley had carefully wrapped it with several layers of paper. It turns out that it's very expensive. It's not something that commoners could afford."
"So expensive. If I could plant it in Blackhot City, I would be rich!"
"Even if I wanted to, it would not be you. It can only be found in the East Continent. You can't plant it in other places. Only big business groups and chambers of commerce can do this business!"
"East Continent, it's said that there are many human countries and powerful countries. Some countries even have thousands of cities like Blackhot City. The teachers at school have told me about it …!"
"Bumpkin, Blackhot City is nothing. There are cities that are dozens of times larger than Blackhot City. When you have a chance to travel in the East Continent, you will know that there are human countries mainly composed of Chinese people. When I was young …" Donder's face revealed a yearning and reminiscence expression as he started to talk. Zhang Tie listened carefully. It was true that Donder had been to the East Continent when he was young, and his knowledge was reliable. As for other things, such as swearing brotherhood with powerful human fighters in the East Continent according to the customs there and killing foreign races who wanted to exterminate humans on the battlefield, discovering valuable relics with pioneers, exploring the underground with big-breasted beauties and almost being raped by them, and seeing a lot of head-sized diamonds and house-sized gold nuggets, Zhang Tie concluded that they had been written too much in knight novels and were automatically filtered out by Zhang Tie.
When Donder was talking about how the big-breasted beauties who had gone to the underground with him cried and wanted to marry him, two guests entered the store. They were both at their 30s and looked weathered and unshaven. They were wearing leather boots, copper buckle belts, riveted half-body armors, a long sword hanging on their waists, a steel crossbow case on their backs, and a wind-proof hooded cloak hanging on the shoulder armor of the riveted half-body armors. After staying in the grocery store for one year, Zhang Tie's eyesight had become sharper. Although the two were pioneers, they had not been pioneers for a long time. From the quality of their equipment, Zhang Tie could tell that they had been pioneers for one or two years. All the newbies who had joined the industry for one or two years were like them. They were afraid that others wouldn't know that they were pioneers. Therefore, their equipment was like that of regular soldiers.
"What can I do for you?" Zhang Tie asked in a professional and courteous way.
After glancing at Zhang Tie, the two looked around the store and nodded at each other. The taller one walked over and lowered his body. He lowered his voice and asked, "Is the boss here? We want to talk business with him!"
Donder's grocery store not only sold goods, but also received goods. Seeing the two cautious pioneers wanting to talk business with the boss, Donder picked himself up from the lounge chair. Rubbing his hands and bending his waist, he walked towards them.
"I'm the boss. I have the final say in this store!"
The two pioneers glanced at Donder for a while before exchanging glances with each other. After that, they nodded.
"Do you accept goods here?"
"Yes, as long as it's valuable, I'll accept it. If your goods are too expensive for this store, I can introduce you to other places. If you're satisfied, you'll have to pay me 5% of the intermediary fee! "Donder's experience and straightforwardness made the two pioneers determined at once. After glancing outside the store carefully and confirming that nobody was paying attention to this store, one of the pioneers moved his body to block the view of the people outside the store. The other one took out a fist-sized metal ore from his leather bag and put it on the counter.
The surface of that ore was glittering like gold. It seemed to be very expensive and scary. Zhang Tie had thought that the two pioneers would take out some treasures to broaden his horizon. He had not imagined that the two pioneers would take out such an item. Zhang Tie opened his mouth out of amazement. However, he didn't say anything and just shook his head.
"That's it?" Donder gasped as if he had a toothache.
"That's it …" One of the pioneers stared at Donder with a solemn look. "Name your price. As long as it's reasonable, we can cooperate with you for a long time!"
"5 kg for 1 copper coin!" Donder quoted the price.
"What? Say it again! Did I mishear it … "The two pioneers widely opened their eyes and glared at Donder.
"It's the same even if I repeat it ten thousand times. 5 kg for 1 copper coin!" Donder said slowly, ignoring the two pioneers' flushed faces. The one who was blocking the wind had already put his hand on the sword hilt on his waist impulsively.
"You must think that this is a gold mine. It's so similar in color and purity." Hearing Donder's words, the two pioneers became stunned for a second before nodding. The one who put his hand on the sword hilt also slightly loosened his hand.
"Hoho, some gold mines indeed look similar to this one. But pitifully, this is not a gold mine, but a pyrite. 5 kg for 1 copper coin is very suitable for it!"
"Pyrite?" One of the pioneers raised the shiny, beautiful ore in his hand. It seemed that he didn't believe that this thing that they had spent so much effort to get was even worse than scrap iron. The other one was a bit suspicious and didn't believe in Donder's words. Seeing the two pioneers' expressions, Donder didn't say anything more. Instead, he directly told Zhang Tie, "Take out the sample of pyrite from our store!"
Zhang Tie turned around and rummaged in a corner of the grocery store for a while before coming back with a dusty, broken bag. He directly put the bag on the ground, revealing the contents inside. Shaking the bag, which weighed more than ten kgs, Zhang Tie found that it was exactly the same as that piece of ore on the counter. The two pioneers squatted down and picked up two pieces of common pyrite and compared them with the one in their hands. With various expressions, they finally stepped down like deflated balloons.
"There's a canyon in the red highland over 100 km southwest of Blackhot City. You might have gotten this from there. It's really similar to a gold mine. Previously, some pioneers also treated it as a gold mine, which caused some jokes. Don't worry about it too much. We're pioneers, so we can see all sorts of strange things. Nobody knows everything!"
Donder's words completely shattered the last bit of hope in the hearts of the two pioneers. They picked themselves up from the ground and thanked Donder in low spirits. Feeling a bit shameful, they didn't want to stay in the store any longer and left in dejection. When they reached the gate of the store, one of the pioneers remembered that he was still holding the precious piece of pyrite in his hand. After swearing furiously, he forcefully threw it onto the street.
"Pyrite, idiot's gold, what a well-deserved reputation. Two more idiots have been fooled..." Seeing the two people leaving, Donder sighed while shaking his head. He then lay back on the lounge chair.
Later on, several more batches of customers came to the grocery store and sold items worth more than 10 silver coins. When Donder said, "... as usual, I will not keep you for supper today!", Zhang Tie knew that it was time for him to leave.
"I wonder what Doug and Barley are doing now." Zhang Tie thought to himself as he walked out of the grocery store.
The sky started to darken as the lamplighters started to light up the streets. After walking less than 10 steps, Zhang Tie suddenly stopped. With the help of the newly lit lamplighters, he saw something faintly flashing at the corner of the wall in front of him...
Oh, it was the pyrite that the two idiots had thrown away. At this moment, the pyrite had rolled into a corner of the street and broken into two halves. Zhang Tie continued to walk forward...
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