Rebirth: Leading Families to Survive in the Apocalypse - Chapter 32

Chapter 32: Shopping at Mist Village

Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Since Nie Qing had removed the barrier and illusions around the village, even Lu Hao could find the way out. The three of them finally made it back to the main road, where their GPS kicked back into gear.

With the help of the GPS, they successfully made it to Mist Village. The village stood between the mountains and a lake, with beautiful scenery to boot. If they properly packaged it as a nostalgic farmland, Su Jin thought, they might be able to promote the place as a tourist destination.

Since the village was hard to find, it had its own market for the villagers. The three of them parked the car at an open clearing near the entrance and walked into the market.

While they were in the car, Su Jin had explained their motives for coming here to Nie Qing. When Nie Qing heard that Su Jin’s storage dimension could be used to rear livestock, he barely had the energy to be surprised anymore. The couple had surprised him so many times that he had to get used to it, or else he would be a failure of a quasi-immortal who had lived through centuries.

Since Nie Qing was still wearing his traditional Han-style clothing, Su Jin and Lu Hao first found a roadside clothing stall and bought Nie Qing some clothes that fit his size. They had no choice. Although the market here was decently sized, it was still the type to have everything displayed in stalls outside.

Nie Qing accepted the clothes from Lu Hao and quickly changed into them. He had to admit that modern clothing was truly convenient, sans the layers upon layers of wrappings. He just had to put on a single thin layer. When he turned to look at the old clothes he had taken off, he clicked his tongue and swept them into his storage bag.

Su Jin stood outside the car and looked at Nie Qing as he stepped out. The cheap clothes somehow looked high-class when he wore them. Rather than a grandfather several centuries old, Su Jin felt as though she could safely call him her uncle. Somehow, Nie Qing had made his long beard disappear, his long tied-up hair reduced to a head of short black cut.

“How do I look, lass? Handsome, right?” Nie Qing was quite happy with his new modern look too.

“Aren’t you going to call yourself ‘this old man’ anymore, Grandpa Nie?”

“Haha, this— I mean, I’m learning modern slang from you lot. When in Rome, right?” He nearly said “this old man” again.

“Grandpa Nie, should I call you Uncle Nie from now on? You look too young for me to call you Grandpa now.”

Uncle Nie? So he could literally make her call him uncle. Not bad, not bad.

Nie Qing agreed readily.

The three of them continued walking through the market. It was not very busy, with only a few people buying things in two’s and three’s.

Su Jin and Lu Hao found a store that sold live poultry. The place was barely decorated at all, with only a few chicken cages in the middle of the stall with some live chickens and ducks inside.

The owner was a middle-aged woman who hastily greeted them when the three of them walked in.

Business was extremely slow for her. This was a village, after all, so almost every household had their own poultry. Very few people would spend money to buy these things.

“Ma’am, did you raise these chickens and ducks yourself?” Su Jin asked.

“That’s right, missy. We have a farm and plenty of birds. We’re only selling a few of them here.”

“If we want to buy more, do you have more stock?” Su Jin wanted to buy more birds at once, since it was very difficult to buy live poultry in the city these days.

“What are you saying, missy? Of course we have enough. How many do you want?”

“Chickens and ducks, a hundred each,” Lu Hao said.

“What? That many?” The lady could barely believe what she was hearing. She had never sold this many birds at once before.

“You see, ma’am, we have a farm near the suburbs, and we plan to keep some free-range birds there.” Su Jin could lie without batting an eyelid.

“Oh, okay, okay! A farm’s nice. I’ll call my husband right now and have him prepare the stock.” The lady picked up her phone excitedly to make the call.

“No need to rush, ma’am. We want to buy some livestock first, so we’ll pay for your birds first and call you once we’re done buying the rest.”

“What else do you want to buy, missy? Why don’t you tell me? You don’t look like locals, so I can directly introduce you to some sellers if you like.” These people did not even try haggling with her, and she liked how straightforward they were. If she could make another transaction with them, she did not mind closing up shop for today.

“Sure, ma’am. We want to buy some piglets, goats, and cows. That includes milk cows and oxen too.” Rather than wandering around the village blindly, she did not mind spending a bit more if she could buy everything at once as long as the livestock were of good quality. After all, she had money to spare.

The lady looked visibly delighted to hear that. Livestock farmers like them tended to be well-connected. If she had poultry, there would be someone else selling pigs, cows, and goats nearby. However, most of them only sold butchered meat at the market. If they were looking for live animals, they had come to the right person. Besides, her younger brother was a pig farmer in the village.

Su Jin and Lu Hao talked it over and decided to buy twenty each of the pigs, cows, and goats.

Next to them, Nie Qing shuddered when he heard that. Holy grandmaster above, how big was the lass’ dimension exactly?!

After they told the lady how many they wanted, she excitedly called her brother’s family and asked them to prepare. They would be there soon enough, she said. Next, she called Zhao the butcher’s wife, whom she was closer with. The butcher’s wife was so ecstatic that she forgot to hang up the call.

Finally, the lady closed up her shop without hesitation and led her three wealthy patrons into the village.

The three of them attracted a ton of attention thanks to their bearing and clothing. Even though Nie Qing was wearing cheap market stall clothing, his otherworldly aura made him equally hard to ignore.

Soon, everyone in the village knew that some rich clients were in town looking to buy livestock.

Lu Hao and Su Jin were both exasperated. They did not want to draw this much attention. In contrast, Nie Qing trailed behind them, feeling quite at home in the limelight. He finally felt like a celebrity…

Thanks to the villagers’ enthusiastic welcome, the couple eventually bought thirty pigs, thirty goats, thirty cows, and five milk cows…

They did not have a suitable truck. The poultry lady had a large truck, but no matter how large the vehicle was, there was no way to load so many animals at once. Finally, they decided to have Lu Hao drive the truck to and fro a few times.

Since Lu Hao had to drive the truck, Su Jin had to take their car. The two vehicles stopped at the bottom of the mountain, where there was no one else around.

Once there, Su Jin and Lu Hao jumped out of their seats and into the truck. They looked at the birds in the cages and then Su Jin put them all into her dimension with a wave of her hand. The few pigs at the back disappeared as well.

“Why don’t we find somewhere to stay for the night and go back to get the rest tomorrow morning?” Lu Hao suggested when he saw how dark the sky had gotten.

They should not go back right now, anyway. No matter how they cut it, it should take them half a day to get from Mist Village to the suburbs. If they did not want to arouse the villagers’ suspicion, they had to go back tomorrow.

Hence, the three of them took their own car and followed the GPS to the nearest hotel.

“What? We’re staying at a hotel?” Nie Qing was rather excited. It was his first time ever staying at a hotel!

Lu Hao looked at his new master in the back seat. The old man was way too easily pleased. He did not behave with the gravitas of a master at all.

Lu Hao remembered his instructor back at the military academy. That man was cold as ice, and none of them had seen him smile even once. The impression he left on them was so deep that Lu Hao nearly ended up forgetting how to smile too. It was only after he met Su Jin that he regained some of his expressions.

Lu Hao snuck a look at Su Jin in the passenger seat, his heart feeling a little tingly with excitement.

He was staying at a hotel with his wife tonight!