Chapter 39: Transactions
Their hands had started without calluses, but as blood blisters formed and burst, a thick layer grew in their place. After several days of mowing, everyone's palms were tough and hardened.
By the time their hands had stopped blistering, the grass was cut. Chen Jian looked at the swathes lying on the ground, estimating they would be dry enough to burn in a few days.
The best of it could be stored as fodder for the sheep in winter; the hunters had recently brought back several live ones.
Sheep weren't picky. If you gave them a bundle of hay, they might ignore it, choosing instead to gnaw on tough grass roots or trample the good fodder to pieces, so it was always necessary to prepare more than enough.
As Chen Jian looked down at the grass, someone tugged his arm. "Someone is coming."
He looked up. A few people were emerging from the tall grass in the distance, and they were clearly not members of his clan.
But his people were merely curious, not nervous or vigilant. The distant figures wore their hair in buns just as they did, and though the knots were messy, the basic shape was there.
"It's people from another tribe."
"Yes, it seems we're about to welcome our first guests."
"Guests?"
The clansmen vaguely understood the word, but they had rarely communicated with outsiders in the past. It was safe to say they had almost never had guests before.
"Go on, go meet them," Chen Jian said to Song. "I'll go back and prepare."
Song led a few others to meet the approaching party, letting out a greeting call. The other side returned it with a series of their own calls.
Chen Jian headed back to the village first. Several women were cooking, and Yu Qian'er was dividing up the fish that the two clans had caught that day.
They had also noticed the figures at the foot of the mountain and were looking on with curiosity. Except for the spring gathering on the mountaintop, they rarely saw people from other clans and were very excited.
"Where is the old grandmother? And Aunt Shitou?"
"Washing vegetables by the water," Yu Qian'er answered. "Brother, are those people here to trade things?"
"Yes. Come with me, let's find the old grandmother."
The two of them arrived at the stream and explained the situation. Chen Jian said, "Many more people will surely come. We need to arrange for them to stay the night. Our tribe has two vacant rooms, and you should have one vacant over there as well. Grandma, this is a big event. Please go make the arrangements and prepare some food."
The old grandmother also sensed this was something unusual. She had never encountered such a situation before. Occasionally, hunters might meet in the wilderness, exchange a few words, and then go their separate ways.
The two matriarchs put down their things and went to work. Chen Jian turned to Yu Qian'er. "Count the things we have available for trade. Get a piece of bark and follow me to keep a record. When we trade, we must clearly distinguish between what is ours and what belongs to the Shitou clan. Don't make a mistake."
It was the first time she had heard her brother speak so solemnly. Yu Qian'er nodded, then smiled. "I won't get it wrong. They don't have many things to trade, and I always tell Aunt Shitou whenever I divide our things."
"Good."
This was the first formal transaction, and Chen Jian didn't want any mistakes. He gave a few more instructions and hurried back to the front of the village.
The newcomers, carrying wicker baskets, were sweating from exhaustion. They should have rested after setting their burdens down, but their eyes were fixed on the village, reluctant to even blink.
The dried fish and cured meat hanging from the walls, the straight rows of the vegetable beds, the pottery pots the women had set on the ground—in their eyes, these were all treasures, and they couldn't help but sigh in amazement.
Among the first group was a familiar face: the man who had competed with Wolfpi in the stone-throwing contest. Chen Jian remembered his name was Hua, because the piece of malachite he had used had left a deep impression.
Hua's tribe lived to the west, on the upper reaches of the Grass River. They had probably followed the river, which saved them from having to cut through the wilderness, allowing them to arrive earlier than other tribes.
After the competition on the mountain, he hadn't used his sling much. Instead, he had tried to make his own bow and arrows, but unfortunately, his aim was poor.
Along the way, he had tried his best to imagine what life was like here, but seeing it with his own eyes, he realized just how poor his imagination was.
The neat rows of houses alone were more than he could take in, to say nothing of the people walking about holding all sorts of utensils.
He swallowed hard and asked, "These… these houses, did you make them all?"
"Of course," Song replied. "Jian built them with us."
Hua found it hard to believe they were made by human hands. He even wondered if the spirits had placed these houses by the river and Chen Jian's people had simply discovered them.
Song said proudly, "When Jian brought us here, there was nothing by the river. He said we could live in houses, so we built them. When we arrived, the apricots were still green. Now they have all fallen. It has been over a month."
When the topic turned to Chen Jian, Song became effusive. Back with his own tribe, everyone saw the same things he did, so he never had the chance to explain. It would be like telling someone the sun is round—just nonsense.
Now, with an outsider to talk to, it wasn't just Song. The rest of the clan chattered about all the changes they had seen. Hua listened, dazed and a little intimidated, not understanding many of the things they mentioned. What was a month? What was a net?
He had heard the story of the guidance from the black and white bear ancestor. Seeing all this now, he was convinced this tribe was protected by their ancestors, and the person named Jian was someone he could hardly comprehend.
He recalled seeing Jian on the mountaintop. He had looked no different from himself, with two eyes and two hands.
Yet such a person had created a place like this in the short time it took for apricots to ripen. It was more terrifying than thunder—thunder could only break trees, but this group of people had changed the very face of the earth!
Ask about the clay pots—Jian. Ask about the fishing nets—Jian. Ask about the houses—Jian. Hua felt a shiver of fear and asked tremblingly, "Is there anything that has nothing to do with him?"
Wolfpi had been waiting for this opportunity. He wasn't about to let it pass. He rushed up to Hua, shouting, "The arrow! The arrow! I came up with the fletching for the arrow! Really, I'm not bragging, you can ask the others!"
Yu Qian'er also shouted from a distance, "And I discovered there are twenty-nine days in a month!"
The clansmen burst into laughter. But after laughing, they too began to recall their own discoveries and were surprised to realize that they hadn't been useless either.
For instance, one person had found that boiled hides produced a sticky substance, like pine resin, that could be used as an adhesive. Another discovered that when mowing grass, it was less tiring to use your waist for power instead of just your arms. Someone else had learned that when forging bone tools, it was best to have two bone blanks to work on, so when one got too hot, you could switch to the other and let the first one cool.
Just as Yu Qian'er had asked *why* the potter's wheel turned when she first saw it, the rest of the tribe had unconsciously learned another way of thinking. They were learning to ask "why" based on experience, and then, from that "why," to imagine new experiences that might be possible. For example, if boiled pigskin makes glue, would boiled sheepskin work too? If the moon becomes full in twenty-nine days, how many days does it take for the sun to rise again in the exact same place?
It had started as a simple question, but after the laughter died down, there was silence. What Chen Jian had brought them was more than just a new way of life. Because they were well-fed, they had time to think about *why*. It often seemed that Chen Jian already knew the answers, but he would only reveal a little, prompting them to think for themselves.
Hua hadn't expected his one question to lead to such a long silence. The quiet was broken only when Chen Jian hurried over carrying a few pieces of charcoal.
He extended a hand to Hua in a gesture of friendship and had someone bring over a jar of boiled apricots.
Hospitality was a virtue. Guests should be welcomed with good wine, but unfortunately, they had drunk it all, so they had to make do with fruit.
Almonds, honey, apricots, lotus root, reed tips… several simple dishes were served. Hua and his tribesmen were a little embarrassed, but they couldn't resist eating.
Chen Jian smiled, his eyes on the contents of their baskets. The piece of malachite was sitting right on top. It seemed there was a copper mine near Hua's tribe.
The visitors devoured their food. One of the clansmen advised them, "Eat slowly. We'll have another meal after the sun goes down."
Hua pointed at the lotus roots and apricots in amazement. "This isn't your main food?"
"Of course not."
The clansmen sniffed the air appreciatively. The aroma of shallot leaves stir-fried in lard was already wafting over. Hua had never smelled anything so delicious. Resisting the urge to eat his fill, he swallowed and said, "Then let's trade for the clay pots first."
People gathered around, watching the first transaction with curiosity. Chen Jian brought some leftover clay and shaped it into a small table, then had Yu Qian'er spread a piece of bark on it for recording.
Hua took a piece of malachite the size of a gourd from his basket. "This one is beautiful. It's green, like the feathers of a teal. I want to trade it for two pots."
"Done."
Chen Jian took the malachite, and Yu Qian'er drew a symbol on the bark, followed by two marks.
All kinds of strange stones were taken out: granite, limestone, soapstone… and some that Chen Jian didn't recognize at all.
In fact, he didn't recognize most of them; the ones he knew were only those with obvious characteristics.
After all the various stones were counted, they could be exchanged for a total of more than thirty clay pots and bowls. After Hua and his men painstakingly confirmed the number, Chen Jian had someone bring a string of ceramic rings from Acorn and handed it to Hua.
Hua asked, puzzled, "Shouldn't we just trade for the clay pots directly?"
"Our goods can only be exchanged for these pottery rings."
Hua took the rings, still confused, then handed them back. "Then I want to trade for pottery pots now."
"Of course."
Soon, a tribesman brought dozens of pottery pots and bowls in wicker baskets. Including the rings given to them at the last gathering, the number of pots and bowls was now basically enough for all of Hua's people.
Hua felt the extra step was unnecessary. Why did he have to trade for a pottery ring first?
He thought for a moment, then opened several other baskets. Inside were two lambs, a roe deer fawn, some sheepskins, and a dozen deer scapulae.
"I don't want to trade these for clay pots. Can I trade for dried fish or apricots instead?"
"Of course. But you have to exchange them for pottery rings first. With pottery rings, you can trade for anything you want, as long as we have it."
Hua pointed to the snakeskin-wrapped longbow in Wolfpi's hand. "Can I trade for that?"
Wolfpi was about to refuse, but then he heard Chen Jian say, "Yes! But you can only trade for it with a pottery ring."
Wolfpi, who had been ready to shake his head, subconsciously agreed and echoed, "Yes."
Hua looked at the clay pots piled on the ground and realized he probably couldn't carry them all back this time. Trading them for pottery rings was a good idea; he could come back and trade for what he needed later.
He stared at the bow, recalling a discussion his tribe had before leaving. He asked, a little embarrassed, "Can we live here for a few days? We are strong enough to hunt, and we can eat what we catch."
He expected them to refuse, but they immediately agreed. "You don't need to hunt for yourselves. As long as you work with us, you can stay as long as you want."
A man from the Shitou tribe subconsciously touched the callus on his palm, looked at the cut grass in the distance, and thought to himself, *Stay! You can stay as long as you want. As long as you work, you don't need to hunt, and you can eat your fill!*
Hua hadn't expected them to agree so readily. He exchanged a joyful look with his clansmen, saying they absolutely had to see how these people lived.
Chen Jian's people looked at the jubilant Hua, then thought about their own exhaustion from mowing grass a few days ago. A sudden understanding dawned on them. So, that was the deal.
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