Walking the Ten Thousand Daos

Chapter 14: The Tea Stall

“Huff… huff.” Li Qi panted heavily, staggering forward.

This place was over a hundred li from Li Prefecture City. Though still within its jurisdiction, the population had already become sparse.

To be honest, this was the first time Li Qi had ever traveled so far in this world.

In this world, most people never left their hometowns in their entire lives. At least, that was how it was in Li Prefecture.

Villagers’ farthest travels were probably only as far as the county town; county town residents might go as far as the prefecture city; and those living in the prefecture city might never leave it in their lifetime.

Li Qi himself had never left the prefecture city in over three years, not once. At most, he helped pull boats upstream in shallow areas within the city, returning once they reached smooth-flowing waters near the outskirts.

This time, fleeing after killing, if not pressed to the edge, he wouldn’t have wanted to leave the city at all.

He worked at the dock, hauling and navigating boats, overhearing chats from various canal gangs and merchant guilds, and knew the dangers of the wilderness.

There were water monsters: if luck was good, carp spirits or turtle demons that merely played tricks and didn’t harm people; if luck was bad, water monkeys and then the whole boat’s crew would die inside, unless protected by a high-level cultivator.

Avoiding water meant taking mountain paths, but the mountains were filled with dense forests and swamps, full of snakes, insects, rats, and fierce beasts and birds of prey.The only truly safe places were human settlements.

Going out meant danger.

He had been away for a day, had slept poorly in a tree, but fortunately had no trouble. He ate some wild fruits. According to plan, he was heading to Feng County, three hundred li away.

It was said Feng County was a relatively stable small county town. Li Qi planned to hide there, wait out the trouble for a year or so, then return to Li Prefecture City. That way, he wouldn’t get caught.

Traveling a hundred li a day, all on rugged mountain paths, wearing straw sandals, was exhausting even with his current physical condition.

The only good thing was it was still winter so the beasts were hibernating and insects had not yet appeared. Other than fatigue, there was no other torment on the road.

“Even without taking a wrong path, it’s still three hundred li… really.” Li Qi walked along a wild trail, glancing around for any roadside tea stalls or water shops. He had been walking for a full day.

After looking around for a while, luck was on his side. He actually found a tea stall by the road.

He quickened his pace and reached into his pack for two copper coins.

The currency of the Great Lu Kingdom was called the “Great Lu Five Zhu,” purple in color, with a decent weight but somewhat thin. One coin weighed about half a qian(a Qian is about 5g). He currently had about a thousand qian on him, equivalent to one string of coins.

The Great Lu Five Zhu was the official currency of the Great Lu Kingdom, mostly issued by the river authorities, but it wasn’t very valuable. The more commonly used and valuable coin was called the “Deyuan Tongbao,” which contained more copper and circulated widely. It seemed to be Tang Kingdom’s coin. One Deyuan Tongbao was worth five Great Lu Five Zhu.

In fact, the unit “one qian” in this world referred to the weight of a Deyuan Tongbao coin.

Even the weight unit came from another country’s currency. Just from this, Li Qi already knew how powerful the Tang Kingdom was in this world.

Though this Tang Kingdom was likely nothing like the Tang in his original world.

This world was different in another way. Though there was official coinage, silver was not circulated; economic activity was almost entirely conducted with copper coins, with gold used only in very rare cases.

Even banknotes and such were recorded in copper coins, with gold notes used only for very large transactions.

Silver seemed to have been pushed out of the economy entirely. Li Qi didn’t fully understand the reason.

The thousand Great Lu Five Zhu on him, equal to a thousand qian, actually had decent purchasing power in the Great Lu Kingdom, enough to buy almost half a pig, or three to four hundred jin of meat.

Generally, one jin of meat cost two or three qian. Two copper coins could buy a pot of tea at a stall, plus two plates of complimentary snacks.

However, Li Qi never normally spent two or three qian so freely.

Two or three qian could buy two or three jin of rice. People in this world generally ate a lot; it was common to eat ten jin of rice in one meal. Two or three jin of rice steamed would only yield about ten jin cooked.

Besides, pork was cheap, but pricier beef or mutton cost two to three times more, it was not something he could afford. After all, hauling was manual labor, and without full stomachs, there was no strength.

So most of the time, he ate plain rice until full, and if lucky, some salted vegetables; if none, then water plants with salt made do.

Occasionally, he’d get some fish as a treat, but fish without seasoning, just eating raw river fish was torture. If it weren’t for nutrition, Li Qi would rather just eat plain rice.

Fortunately, rice was always sufficient.

He often prayed for the farmer who had cultivated spirit rice. Without him, this world might starve countless people. At least cultivation methods wouldn’t have been so widespread.

No matter the cultivation method, it depended on food. Without enough nutrition, all talk was nonsense.

Oh, except for spell techniques. Up until now, Li Qi still didn’t know what powered the Bull Strength Art.

Spirit rice’s existence prevented a laborer like him from starving or collapsing. The inventor, Li Qi didn’t know or had never heard of, but he often prayed for that elderly farmer.

Such merit surely deserved reverence.

With respect in his heart, Li Qi walked toward the tea stall.

Now that he had a spell technique, maybe he could try to find some other way to make money.

The knowledge in his head said… it came from Qi.

But what the hell was Qi?

He didn’t understand, would learn slowly later. Divine will inheritances weren’t ordinary things; to have another spell technique like Bull Strength would probably take a very long time.

Clutching two copper coins tightly, Li Qi reached the roadside tea stall.

“Tea master, one pot of tea!” Li Qi slapped down two copper coins and called loudly.

Around him, many people gathered. Though it was winter, traveling merchants didn’t stop, and they too gathered at this tea stall to drink tea and rest before setting off with their large backpacks between villages.

But merchants were clearly divided, different backpack groups sat together, obviously from different gangs. Li Qi sat alone, isolated between two merchant groups, looking out of place.

“All right! Coming right up!” The tea master called as he swiftly came over, warmly wiped the table for Li Qi, then brought a pot of tea along with two plates of pastries.

They were rice cakes made from spirit rice.

Since these were freebies, they couldn’t be too expensive; rice cakes were already quite good.

Li Qi took a piece and chewed it heartily. Although the main ingredient was rice, it tasted better than plain rice, and with an empty stomach, it was satisfying.

After eating a piece of rice cake, he gulped a cup of warm tea.

The tea wasn’t hot, just warm. After all, the customers here were hardworking travelers who wouldn’t wait for hot tea to cool. The tea was steeped all day, almost without fragrance, only barely tasting of tea leaves.

“Huff…” Li Qi felt content. At this pace, he should reach Feng County by tomorrow night.

Just then, someone suddenly spoke up from behind Li Qi:

“Hey big brother, traveling alone on a long journey?”

(Chapter End)