Chapter 893 - 266: [Guiding Technique of the Six Ding and Six Jia] (6200)
Chapter 266 [Six Ding Six Jia Guiding Technique] (6200)
Regrettably, the friendly and savvy general store owner Shen Shiqi mentioned, Chen Yan never met.
The current operator of the general store near the Pili River at the village’s entrance is a young man—or not that young, he looks in his thirties.
The previous general store owner has already passed away.
"At the beginning of the year, during a boat transport run, he fell into the water and drowned. The current was too fast at that stretch, and no one dared to dive in to save him. Later, when the body was found downstream, it was already bloated and beyond saving."
The current owner spoke with a tone of regret.
The current general store owner, reportedly a nephew of the previous owner, had fortunately been away, working at a construction site in the city for two years. After breaking his leg, he couldn’t make it in the city and returned to the village.
After the former owner died, he took over the general store and the business of transporting goods by boat.
Similarly, he also took over the two wooden houses behind the shop, which served as the "inn" for temporary lodging by the boatmen.
"Each bed is three bucks a night, meals included add two bucks more. Meals mean unlimited rice, one meat dish and one vegetarian—dried fish is the meat, and fried peppers the veg."
Chen Yan slapped down ten bucks straightaway: "Two beds, include meals."
After a pause, he smiled, "Stir-fry the peppers with the dried fish; don’t separate them, it saves fuel."
The owner glanced at Chen Yan, smiled, "You know the ropes, young man."
After maybe spending two years in the city, this owner’s Mandarin was good enough for Chen Yan to understand.
Chen Yan took a look around the general store—it was quite barebones actually.
There were a few shelves placed like in city shops, but not much was stocked on them.
As for the kind of supermarket shelves packed with snacks in cities, there was none of that here.
Displayed were some everyday items like towels, toothbrushes, and toiletries.
Snacks were limited to a few cheap candies and dried fruits next to the counter.
Inside were staples like rice and flour, various condiments, oil, salt, sauces, vinegar, tea, and sugar...
Some dried mountain products and dried vegetables were also on display.
Chen Yan found it interesting and bought a pack of dried vegetables, filling a whole bag.
Thinking it over, he grabbed a handful and gave them to the owner, "Add these to the pot with the vegetables tonight."
The owner glanced at Chen Yan and nodded.
Evidently, this village had no road connection to the outside world, relying solely on Pili River’s water transport. The village’s supplies were very limited.
With some time before dinner, Chen Yan and Shen Shiqi returned to the temporary "inn" behind.
Once inside the room, Chen Yan sighed.
This house... how to say, only slightly better than a large common dorm.
Because it’s close to the mountain and by Pili River, the room had an unrelenting damp air.
The bedding on the bed looked suspiciously colored—neither black nor yellow—and carried a indescribable sweaty smell.
Touching it, it felt a bit damp.
Chen Yan looked helplessly at Shen Shiqi, meaning, is this what you said was a livable place?
He’s no stranger to hardship; he grew up with his grandmother in the countryside, but that place was clearly much more affluent than this one.
He’s been in Domain Realm, outside Snow Cliff Pass, experiencing windswept days and nights, even sleeping in snow caves.
Chen Yan doesn’t fear hardship.
He fears filth.
Just one look at the sweat-stained and oily bedding, and he made up his mind: even if Venerable held a knife to his neck, he’d never crawl into this bedding to sleep!
But turning around, he found that Shen Shiqi had already lain on a bed, closed his eyes, and was Nourishing the Spirit.
Chen Yan couldn’t help admiring this kid.
Hmm, perhaps it’s just seasickness making him too weak?
Chen Yan turned and walked out of the room.
The owner was outside, bringing a water bottle to the door, "You’re lucky, no boatmen have come by in recent days, so the room is empty.
You have two beds, which is like having a whole room to yourselves, quite a bargain."
Chen Yan smiled, dug out a pack of Fortune cigarettes from his pocket, and offered one.
The owner casually accepted, lighting it, chatted a bit with Chen Yan, "Young man, bringing a lad to the mountains for what?"
"We’re here to paint, doing some fieldwork." Chen Yan casually smiled, "The kid inside is my student."
"Young man, so young and already a teacher," the owner praised with respect.
He casually took a puff, laughed, "Hearing you say so, I got it. Otherwise, I thought you were kidnapping kids. You look so clean, like a scholar.
I’ve seen artists before, a few came in summer saying they were going into the mountains to paint, to do some fieldwork, stayed here a few days. Oh dear... picky they were, couldn’t get used to the food or sleep, talking all sorts of nonsense.
I told them, with money, you won’t find a city hotel here!
Don’t want to stay? Go sleep in the mountains!"
Chen Yan chuckled at the remark but didn’t continue the topic, instead inquired about the route into the mountains with the owner.
"It’s tough to get into the mountains," the owner shook his head, "there are no roads through the mountains here, we can’t afford to build one. There’re two small paths, trodden out.
Leaving the village, just keep going, go along the mountain on the left. Further in, there’s a water pond; people came to paint it before, but a few years ago, the mountain collapsed there, filled up the pond, and no one goes there anymore.