Chapter 114: Market Auction
Was it surprising that the market resembled a night market festival? As soon as the sun was over, so was the moment of peacefulness. Workers returned to their pushcarts and started hollering at customers, pushing their lowest prices as the crowd jostled to get past one another. Gu Ying immediately carried Anji in her arms, shielding the girl from the rather violent crowd. Mingshen and Bai Dajin stood in the centre of the storm like the eye, unfazed.
Anji had seen people going crazy over limited-time offers and special discounts. However, she had never seen such an aggressive bargaining session at a marketplace before. It seemed as if a fistfight would break out at any moment with how heatedly these people were haggling at the store over a basket of green vegetables. If anything, it was weirder that they were haggling for a higher price than other buyers instead of trying to get it for a lower price from the store owner.
"Why are they trying to pay more money than other customers for a basket of vegetables?" Anji asked, confused by the strange behaviour.
Walking at a leisurely pace with his paper fan out, Mingshen swaggered his way past those people, and Gu Ying followed behind. Seeing a rich young master with a big, scary, scarred man behind, people naturally made way for them, parting immediately as if there was an invisible barrier surrounding them. Amazed by how different the townsfolk behaved around her brother, Anji wondered if this was the power of confidence or wealth.
Bai Dajin was a big man. He towered over other people easily most times. If anyone wanted to cause trouble, just one look at his multiple scars and bulging muscles would make them reconsider. Even without carrying his sabre, the man was terrifying to look at. Now, with his sabre rested casually on his shoulder, people instinctively avoided him out of concern for their well-being. Mingshen knew this and used it to his full advantage, not that Bai Dajin knew his intentions. However, even if the White Tiger Sect Leader found out, he would only feel mildly annoyed. After all, this was for Anji’s sake.
"That’s called auctioning," Mingshen explained when they finally left the busiest street in the Eternal Night Marketplace. "Remember when I said resources were rare here due to the lack of sunlight?"
Anji nodded. Apart from mushrooms and maybe some critters, it was difficult for people to grow or rear anything else in this valley. The tall stone peaks blocked out sunlight for most of the day, and it was also constantly cloudy. Vegetables required plenty of sunlight to grow well, and the vegetables sold here were mostly transported from other regions into the valley.
"What do you think would happen when plenty of people live in the Eternal Night Valley with no means to grow their own vegetables? Remember how long it took us to get here? The road is not easy to travel on because of the mountainous range. We took the longer route instead of the bamboo forest. If these merchants took the winding road we did, the vegetables would have rotted before they arrived here. Hence, they can only transport small batches of vegetables every trip through the bamboo forest."
Pondering over this, Anji realised how scarce green vegetables were in this valley. Not only vegetables, medicine, education, transportation and even clothes. The price hike was justified due to the risks involved. However, that also meant many people who needed these resources but could not afford to pay for them suffered. While it appeared that the merchants who made a lot of money by transporting these goods profited, they also took a huge risk by travelling through the dangerous bamboo forest. The situation benefited nobody. Yet, many chose to travel through the Eternal Night Valley because it was the only neutral zone allowing them to pass from one region to another without climbing mountains.
"Brother, would the situation here improve if there were more accessible roads travelling from the valley to different cities?"