The wicked female is extremely fierce, but she's pampered by her seven beast husbands.

Chapter 213 Deep Thinking and Long-Term Planning

Su Weihua looked bewildered by the question. After thinking for a moment, she cautiously asked, "Lotus root, what is that?"

Ling Chengen gave him a general description of lotus leaves. After confirming with him that the round-leaved aquatic plant was indeed a lotus leaf, he explained, "The root below the stem of the round-leaved aquatic plant you mentioned is called lotus root."

"The lotus roots are buried under the mud at the bottom of the lake, so it's not surprising that you didn't find them."

Su Weihua asked curiously, "Are the roots of the round-leaved aquatic plant edible?"

"Yes, and it tastes very good."

Su Weihua thought for a moment and said, "Since you say so, then there's nothing to doubt. I can take some people to dig some up tomorrow, but most of the warriors we brought aren't very good swimmers, so it will be a bit difficult to get the roots of the round-leaved aquatic plants from the bottom of the lake."

"We could try enclosing the shallow water near the shore, draining the water, so we can dig directly down there..."

Ling Chengen also realized this problem.

She hadn't personally visited the Thousand Lakes region in the far north, so letting them dig for lotus roots at the bottom of the lakes without knowing their size and depth was extremely dangerous.

"Let's put this matter aside for now, and talk about it after we've gone to see the situation in Qianhu District together."

“If the silt at the bottom of the lake is too deep, even if the small lake is enclosed and the water is drained, it is still very dangerous to go down to dig lotus roots.”

Su Weihua nodded, held the bamboo cup and drank half a cup of hot water that was no longer too hot to drink. Her complexion gradually became rosy, no longer as pale as when she first returned.

Perhaps the further north they went, the drier the weather became, which is why Su Weihua's lips were quite chapped. After drinking some water to moisten his lips, he touched the chapped wounds on his lower lip directly, then looked up at Ling Chengen, whose lips were also chapped, and was slightly taken aback.

"We'll stay for one more day at most tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow we'll set off for Amber Bay in the far north."

Bai Qingyu took a couple of bites of the roasted meat, then quickly stopped, put the meat back on the plate, touched her cheek, frowned for a moment, and then looked up to talk to the two of them about serious business.

Ling Chengen lifted the copper kettle containing the boiling water onto the small wooden table in front of him and took out several jars from his spatial storage.

These jars were filled with supplies collected along the way, including dried chrysanthemum buds and some cassia seeds. I used bamboo tweezers to pick up some of each and put them directly into the kettle, then added a few spoonfuls of honey... and set them aside to wait for the tea to brew.

She didn't know much about the etiquette of tea brewing, but she just went through the motions in a very conventional way. The whole process wasn't exactly elegant, but because it was so orderly, it was quite pleasing to the eye in that environment.

Su Weihua and Bai Qingyu remained silent, watching her brew tea. After she finished, they asked, "We need to discuss the matter of participating in Hai City beforehand."

Ling Chengen rested his chin on his hand and asked, "The trade of goods at the sea market?"

"More or less." Bai Qingyu took out a scroll of paper from the animal skin bag at his waist. It was only the size of a palm and had densely packed small characters written on it with charcoal.

After confirming the text on it, he handed the rather pitiful roll of paper to Ling Chengen: "This is a list of all our supplies so far."

"I think a large portion of it is available for trading."

The main reason is that, led by Ling Chengen, they not only hunted along the way, but also climbed trees on mountains and dug soil in the ground, collecting a lot of supplies that they had never paid attention to before.

Through Ling Chengen's hands, these supplies were transformed into mouthwatering delicacies by cooking with fire and seasonings.

Therefore, although they hunted far fewer prey than other teams, the scale of their stockpiling of other supplies was comparable to that of some medium-sized tribal hunting teams.

Ling Chengen tilted his head slightly, using the firelight beside him to look at the small characters on the scroll.

"We didn't hunt many prey, so we won't trade them; we'll take them all back with us."

"Those supplies that are not easy to store, especially those that cannot be kept for another month or two, can be taken out first to exchange for other supplies."

"Freshwater fish, shrimp, and crabs caught tonight can be traded directly at the seafood market."

Su Weihua asked doubtfully, "The mirage starts in Amber Bay, which is close to the sea and has no shortage of seafood."

"These fish and shrimp we caught probably aren't worth much at the seafood market, right? We can't exchange them for anything good."

Ling Chengen nodded and said, "I didn't say I would just take it out for trading like that."

"These were captured with great effort by our people, so we should try to sell them for a good price."

Bai Qingyu's mind worked quickly: "Sell cooked food?"

Ling Chengen nodded and said, "That's what I was thinking too. However, cooking food requires a lot of skill. In our team, almost everyone has learned to cook, but the skills vary. We should select a few skilled cooks to cook food on the spot at the market and win over big customers with the taste."

Bai Qingyu frowned and pondered for a moment before reminding him, "In this way, our skills in making cooked food will be directly learned."

"What if they learn it by watching and then stop buying it?"

Su Weihua held the cup, her fingertips lightly touching the inside of the cup: "Not in the short term."

"We'll only be in the mirage for a month at most, and we might even have to leave the far north before the mirage completely ends."

"Making cooked food is not something that is easy to learn."

“Our people were taught by the young clan leader, but their skill levels still vary.”

"In just ten or twenty days, without any guidance, how can you learn it so easily by simply looking at pictures?"

Ling Chengen shook his head and said, "Making cooked food is not difficult, but making it taste good is difficult."

"The secret to our delicious food is the many spices we've collected."

"This is something we've accumulated little by little as we traveled from the central region all the way north. Some of the seasonings are simply not available in the north... So we're not worried about them imitating us. They may be able to learn the form, but they won't be able to learn our soul."

Ling Chengen suddenly lifted his eyelids and said with a smile, "Besides, it's good that they can learn more by observing more this year."

"By next year, we will be able to do all kinds of spice business with them."

Upon hearing this, Bai Qingyu and Su Weihua both looked up at her bright eyes.

Ling Chengen already has some initial ideas and plans for this.

“If they are very accepting of cooked food and are willing to learn, this spice business definitely has great potential.”

"Moreover, spices are not like other supplies, which take up a lot of space and are laborious to transport. As long as they are kept dry, that's enough. A fire-type warrior can do that, and the requirements for supernatural abilities are not high."

“A small amount of spices can be sold for a high price. As long as we can collect enough spices, this business will definitely be very profitable.”

Su Weihua leaned against the stone wall, pondering her words in her heart. After a while, she asked, "Is the spice we've collected along the way enough?"

His gaze unconsciously drifted toward Bai Qingyu. Bai Qingyu was mainly in charge of managing and compiling the supplies, but since most of the supplies were stored in Ling Chengen's space, the latter was also fully aware of the situation.

Bai Qingyu gave a definite answer: "More than enough."

"After all, we're not doing the spice business this year, but we can sell a little bit to let them taste some sweetness."

"I'll make the arrangements in a bit. These fish we caught today will definitely go bad if left overnight, so we need to get rid of them as soon as possible."

"As for what exactly to do, well... you decide. You'll guide them while they operate."

Ling Chengen nodded: "The portions of cooked food are small, and many orcs will only try it once in a while. Because it cannot be kept for a long time, I estimate that there won't be many things that can be exchanged for it."

"So cooked food stalls are mainly used to collect some rare supplies, such as certain herbs, or things like rainbow fruit, which may seem useless at first glance, but are actually valuable."

Bai Qingyu felt somewhat helpless upon hearing this and raised her concerns: "It's hard to judge. You're the only one in the whole team who knows the most, but do you want to be guarding the stall all day long?"

Ling Chengen spread his hands and said frankly, "That's definitely not possible. I can't sit still."

"Let's try our luck."

"It would be even better if we could find out where they were harvested. If needed, we can go and harvest some on our way back."

Bai Qingyu knew her well and hadn't really expected her to watch the stall. He quickly came up with a solution.

"We have already collected a wide variety of supplies."

“Take one sample of each type, place it in front of the stall, and indicate the amount to be exchanged.”

"If we leave two more people who can tell the difference to take turns keeping an eye on things, there shouldn't be any problems."

Ling Chengen clasped his hands together and laughed, "Then it's decided."

Bai Qingyu looked at her face, which quickly regained its radiance, raised an eyebrow, and said with a smile, "Then let's talk about the next issue."

Ling Chengen: "..."

Bai Qingyu reached out and gently patted her head, asking, "Do you still have the batch of cloud-patterned fabric that I asked you to put in your space before we set off?"

"Yes, I am." Ling Chengen lifted the lid of the teapot, glanced at the chrysanthemums that had already unfurled in the hot water, and the cassia seeds floating and sinking, poured Bai Qingyu a cup of hot tea, and said unhurriedly, "Are you planning to sell Yunyi now?"

“Hmm.” Bai Qingyu nodded. “Although the cold season is coming soon, and this kind of light material may not be in season, the market only opens once a year. We don’t come here during the rainy season or the dry season.”

"In addition, the method of making cloud-patterned fabric was brought over by Yuheng from Nanyuan."

"Before our tribe started producing cloud-cloth fabric in large quantities, I had never heard of any other tribe selling cloud-cloth fabric at the trade market, so this should be the first of its kind in the maritime market, and there is definitely a market for it."

After all, snake skins and molted snakes from the Snake Mountain tribe are highly sought after in the market.

Cloud-patterned fabric is lighter and cheaper.

Aside from being less wear-resistant, it's not as durable as hides made from animal skins.

But its advantages more than make up for its shortcomings.

Even expensive snakeskin has its flaws.

Snakeskin clothing is more complicated to maintain and care for.

If the maintenance steps are even slightly wrong, the material will shrink significantly.

If I want to squeeze myself in the second year, I'll have to find a way to lose weight, otherwise I'll just be left standing there.

The three of them went through the list of items one last time and also made a list of all the goods to be sold.

Food supplies are basically not being sold.

On their journey north, they found a lot of beets that were considered weeds. They dug them up whenever they saw them and collected a lot of seeds.

At first, people looked down on this wild vegetable.

Because they usually eat a lot of wild vegetables.

All the soldiers could eat this leafy vegetable, but they weren't particularly interested in it.

But when these beets turned into brown sugar, the soldiers in the ranks drooled, lined up to watch, and marveled at the sight.

When they watched as the brown sugar was decolorized by the yellow mud and turned into fine, white granulated sugar... everyone's jaws dropped to the ground. They genuinely wanted to kneel down in awe of their mighty, domineering, adorable, and most, most, greatest young clan leader.

The next day, the weather cleared up completely.

Ling Chengen got up very early and went for a stroll in Qianhu District with Su Weihua.

The Thousand Lakes area was much larger than she had imagined, almost boundless, like an inland sea.

Scattered around the vast, boundless lake are numerous smaller lakes.

The round-leaved aquatic plant that Su Weihua described is a variant of the lotus leaf.

Because orcs are not interested in lotus leaves and lotus roots, the lotus root growing area in the Thousand Lakes region is quite spectacular.

They could dig a small pond, but it would need to be drained...

It would be better to cooperate with orcs who can stay underwater for extended periods.

Ling Chengen casually picked some lotus leaves that hadn't yet withered, as well as some lotus pods, and then went back with Su Weihua.

When the two returned to their encampment, it was just getting light.

In the far north, the days are short and the nights are long during this season.

Sunrise is late, sunset is early.

Around four o'clock in the afternoon, it got dark.

It was completely dark before five o'clock.

So Ling Chengen has been thinking about how to solve the lighting problem recently.

While sedge can hold out for a while, the number of potted plants is limited.

Moreover, the climate in the North is not suitable for the growth of Light Grass. Even though the Wood-type warriors nurtured the Light Grass potted plants she brought withered along the way.

Therefore, she has been considering making candles recently.

But it's unclear whether it was due to the route they chose, or whether there were simply no white ash trees or white ash insects in the Northern Wilderness...

Therefore, the matter of making the candle remained unresolved for a long time.

Compared to the spice business, candles were actually her first choice.

Starting from the end of October, the far north will enter a period of polar night that lasts for more than three months.

Under the polar night.

It is the time it takes for the mixture to solidify.

It is eternal loneliness.

It is also a fatal form of depression.

and so……

The appearance of light is extremely precious.

Unfortunately, we couldn't find any ash trees!
Ling Chengen pondered for a moment, then planned to inquire with the person guarding the market stalls and in charge of exchanging supplies, asking if any of the other hunting teams had encountered trees with snow-white trunks on their way north.

Candles are both necessities and consumables.

Not only does the far north need it, but the Stone Forest will also need it in the future.

After all, not everyone knows how to grow succulents.

During the cold season, when it's impossible to go out hunting, staying at home and fattening up isn't a good idea either.

We still need to plan ahead.

Just as she came to her senses and her gaze fell on the open space in front of the cave, she vaguely caught a glimpse of a somewhat familiar figure from behind.

She narrowed her eyes slightly, sat up straight, and lowered the corners of her mouth slightly.