Chapter 44: The Mysterious Merchant

Five days later.

Chu Jiu arrived at the edge of the Sunny Plateau once again.

Just as he steered his dodo bird charging into the boundless curtain of rain, he heard a crisp, bright voice calling out, "Teacher Chu Jiu!"

That voice, and that form of address...

Chu Jiu reined in the dodo bird and stood still for a moment.

Sure enough, a few fuzzy little chestnut spirits peeked out from behind a giant banana leaf: "Teacher Chu Jiu! It really is Teacher Chu Jiu!"

The brownish little chestnut spirit at the front gave its matchstick-like legs a vigorous push, spun in the air a few times, and then landed steadily on top of the dodo bird's head, its voice trembling with excitement: "Teacher Chu Jiu!"

Chu Jiu had always found it impossible to tell the chestnut spirits apart by their appearance.

The only reason he had been able to recognize Sheldon at a glance previously was because the latter had transformed from a brown chestnut into a green-furred walnut.

Yet the one before him now was clearly brown...

Little Canned softly whispered in his ear: "This is Sheldon."

Only then did Chu Jiu exclaim in pleasant surprise: "Sheldon! You've changed color!"

Seeing that Chu Jiu had recognized him, Sheldon wobbled back and forth happily, shouting in response: "Yeah, yeah!"

"Mom says I've been very brave, so I can turn from green to brown now!"

"But... but my chestnut thorns haven't grown back yet."

Although the chestnut spirits were entirely self-sufficient in their daily lives, they remained curious about items like cloth and pottery, and longed to try using them.

As Chu Jiu had intended to visit these chestnut spirits anyway, he followed Sheldon toward the campsite.

"Before the Heavenly Fire descended, we and humans, as well as other races, seemed to have similar ways of exchanging goods."

Chu Jiu was momentarily stunned, thinking to himself that doing business with sprite creatures could actually increase exploration progress, and by quite a lot at that! It was even faster than opening up the map and farming materials.

After a brief moment of thought, Chu Jiu said, "That shouldn't be too difficult to resolve."

As it turned out, ever since Chu Jiu taught them the basics of cooking last time and left behind several [Fireproof Aprons], the chestnut spirits had become obsessed with preparing food. They were either outside gathering ingredients or studying in the kitchen how to make their meals more delicious.

Before his eyes lay nothing but grayness and desolation.

Little Canned: "Meow, meow-meow."

He heaped lavish praises on Sheldon, who kept giggling foolishly: "Good, good, the child is making progress!"

Looking at the dejected, flattened chestnut, Chu Jiu said, "Don't be sad. As it happens, I have all these seasonings in my backpack. Let me give you some."

Sheldon began to explain once more.

After hammering out a general plan, Eleanor sat down to catch her breath.

In the valley, only one place was quite distinctive:

"I don't remember."

"I stewed it! Teacher Chu Jiu, I stewed this! I used porcini mushrooms, absolutely zero poison!"

[Congratulations to the host for triggering the hidden condition "Mysterious Merchant Trading with Non-Human Beings"!]

"For us, first of all, the volume of soybeans is simply too large. It's hard to imagine what kind of containers and space we would need to store enough soybeans for fermentation."

Eleanor nodded continuously, immediately summoning several other chestnut spirits over to discuss the details of the trade with Chu Jiu. She even used a leaf to record exchange rates such as "one nutshell of soy sauce for 10 almonds."

Where the "River of Yesteryear" meandered, there was a lush wetland. There, plants and animals enjoyed abundant sunlight and moisture, growing freely.

In Chu Jiu's view, the chestnut spirits could also use this method to regularly trade for condiments, fabric, pottery, or other items from him.

*

That was the edge of the "Sheltered Valley."

Chili peppers went without saying; they were gathered from the very top of the Sunny Plateau. Imitating Chu Jiu's method, the chestnut spirits would cut the peppers into small pieces and skewer them with diced meat and mushrooms for roasting.

Hearing this, Sheldon's bean-like eyes radiated brilliance, instantly transforming him back into a lively, bouncing chestnut.

Eleanor once again shook her head in bewilderment:

Chu Jiu took two seconds to process this, thinking to himself: Isn't this a cafeteria? A rather standard school cafeteria at that.

"These plants are so hard to find..."

Two days later.

Yet no matter how hard they racked their brains to combine and match these various materials to expand their culinary horizons, their dishes still tasted far too bland compared to the grand feast Chu Jiu had prepared for them.

"If we learn how, cooking will taste even better."

Not only soy sauce, but other sauces requiring fermentation technology, as well as the various seasonings derived from them, were exceptionally difficult for the little chestnut spirits to produce.

Watching this scene, Chu Jiu felt an inexplicable sense of déjà vu.

Before long, neat rows of little chestnut spirits marched over, balancing nuts roughly the size of their own bodies on their heads.

This time, however, Sheldon did not feel sad about his unusual thorns; instead, he puffed out his chest proudly: "I'll soon become a true, brave, and mature adult chestnut!"

As for the rest of the miniature pottery, Chu Jiu did not have clay available for firing in his backpack, nor was there a suitable brick kiln in this area. He promised the chestnut spirits that he would commission some from human craftsmen upon his return and leave them near the Pathfinder's Cabin for the chestnut spirits to trade for whenever they pleased.

Eleanor smiled and said, "Indeed. Not only for meals, but whenever everyone wants to sing and dance at night, they gather here and light a campfire. During the day, if we want to discuss something, we sit by the table and take turns speaking."

Judging by the voice, this was likely a chestnut spirit roughly the same size as Sheldon.

Hearing Eleanor clarify the reasoning, Sheldon's little eyebrows drooped downward, his stick-figure face plastered with an expression of pure disappointment.

Before Sheldon could grasp the main point, Eleanor gently shook her head:

Then, the little chestnut spirit led Chu Jiu to the end of the long table and reached out to peel away a traveler's banana leaf covering it—

Considering that the chestnut spirits did not possess infinite backpacks, Chu Jiu dared not give them too much. Items like ginger and garlic, if not consumed in time, would gradually shrivel, sprout, or rot.

Chu Jiu squatted down: "Hello there?"

Chu Jiu took a spoonful of the soup into his mouth, his eyebrows twitching upward in admiration as he praised, "Very nice!"

Although the salt content was slightly on the high side, the overall flavor remained savory and fragrant—a thoroughly acceptable bowl of soup!

*

"Actually, I vaguely remember hearing our grandmothers talk about it..."

By now, they had mastered the skills of rubbing salt onto meat, dicing mushrooms, and repeatedly searing them on a stone griddle so that the animal fats coaxed out the unique fragrance of the mushrooms. They also knew that by placing meat and mushrooms into a stone pot with a pinch of salt and pure water, and simmering it over a fire, they could boil up a mushroom and meat soup so fragrant it would soften a chestnut shell.

Eleanor said with a hint of uncertainty:

She hesitated with an "actually" for quite a while without finishing her sentence.

They remembered Chu Jiu mentioning that ginger, scallions, and garlic could be found in the Forgotten Forest.

We'll cross that bridge when we come to it!

Sheldon and his clansmen nimbly packed away their "treasure" while asking curiously:

Compared to the dodo bird they had given Chu Jiu, this one was a size smaller. It still possessed blue-gray feathers, except its beak was not bright yellow but leaned more toward an orange hue.

Chu Jiu praised the soft, fluffy chestnut spirit and asked curiously, "What are you all doing here? Your campsite isn't located on the first layer, is it?"

According to the instructions on the illustration card, the [Sugarcane] Chu Jiu was looking for was hidden right along this river basin.

This was precisely what Chu Jiu had been worried about moments ago.

Upon spotting Chu Jiu's yellow-beaked dodo bird, the orange-beaked dodo bird happily flapped its wings twice, presumably in greeting; the yellow-beaked dodo bird bent its neck in return, acknowledging the courtesy.

Completely unlike the rainy, plant-dense Sunny Plateau, the vast majority of the Sheltered Valley was arid and received very little rain.

"It will take a while longer before these soft fuzzes turn into hard thorns."

Actually, Chu Jiu had considered this matter. But he knew that for the chestnut spirits, it was simply too difficult.

[Regional exploration progress increased to 9.5%.]

"Anyway... ever since we dared to use fire, our lives have changed drastically compared to before."

Previously, he had merely built the simplest stove for them in the cave and left behind basic cooking utensils.

Little Chestnut Spirit: "Teacher Chu Jiu, the thing tied around your neck is so pretty! What kind of tree leaf is that?"

Chu Jiu: ......

He walked over to Eleanor and asked, "Pardon me, aside from seasonings, do the clansmen have any other needs for things they cannot manufacture themselves?"

"Ah, I really can't remember."

Eleanor reminded him from the side: "What about the nuts we prepared earlier? Have someone bring them over quickly."

Although he had already heard about the "changes at the camp," seeing it with his own eyes still took Chu Jiu by surprise:

An older chestnut spirit nearby hurried to inform him, "Ah, those are things only humans have. We make clothes out of traveler's banana leaves, while they use cloth to make clothes. The purpose is the same, though."

Chu Jiu paid his respects to the chieftain and praised, "This place is truly wonderful! The entire clan can eat together!"

And so, the chestnut spirits—who had not stepped foot outside the Sunny Plateau for ages upon ages—valiantly rode their dodo birds straight into the Forgotten Forest in search of delicious seasonings!

In truth, the only seasonings currently available to them were salt and chili peppers.

Yet from their current vantage point, this patch of greenery was completely invisible.

"This is difficult."

Chu Jiu knew that given Eleanor's personality and conduct, she would certainly not accept these condiments for free and would insist on exchanging them with their cherished nuts.

Aside from the ginger-scallion-garlic trio, he could also share a portion of his homemade soy sauce, stir-fried chili paste, and handcrafted honey glaze with the chestnut spirits.

Eleanor's eyes lit up at first, remarking that if that were the case, it would be simply wonderful, but then she hesitated somewhat:

Thus, Sheldon and his group had waited eagerly at the first layer of the Sunny Plateau so they could be the very first to see Teacher Chu Jiu!

"Furthermore, and more crucially—aside from the topmost layer, there is not enough sunlight here for us to dry our soybeans."

"N-no, not really..."

Sheldon: "Eh? Did we use to have that before? How did we trade in the past, then?"

At that moment, the little chestnut spirit at the front of the line looked up at Chu Jiu, its bean-like eyes curving into two crescent lines: "Teacher Chu Jiu!"

He explained the merchant-traveler model of Bean Village to Eleanor.

Eleanor smiled and said, "This is reserved specifically for you."

Eleanor shook her head and replied: