The term "daily chemical products" made it clear what they were selling.
Everyone in the RV stared curiously at the carriage. It was pulled by three magnificent black horses—exceptionally tall and powerfully built, the kind of fine steeds rarely seen anymore.
Two young men were bundled up tightly, with only their faces exposed. They had the look of northerners—tall and sturdy, as imposing as their horses.
They carried quite a few weapons, hanging openly from their bodies and glinting in the light. To have such fine horses in the apocalypse meant these two were anything but ordinary.
Bells hung from the carriage, their crisp chiming reminiscent of the knife-grinding peddlers who used to roam the streets before the apocalypse. The carriage also had a bronze gong. When passing through a village, they would strike it and loudly hawk their wares, "Scented soap, laundry soap, body wash! Chinese medicine, Western medicine, anti-frostbite cream..."
As the carriage passed the RV, one of the horses suddenly snorted. The two men on the carriage looked up, their eyes meeting those of the people inside. Perhaps it was because Quincy looked so non-threatening; upon seeing his smile, one of the men actually relaxed his grip on his gun.
"This job is so cool," Quincy said. "Traveling over mountains and through valleys to do business. It feels like being an old-school caravan guard."
Quincy suddenly raised a hand and waved a greeting to the two men outside.
"Whoa!" The men pulled on the reins, bringing the carriage to a halt.
Inside the RV, everyone looked at Quincy. "What are you doing, greeting them?"
Quincy gave them an enigmatic smile. "This is where I come in."
With that, he opened the door and got out.
"Quincy, that fucking idiot," Wyatt couldn’t help but curse. "They’re holding guns! We all agreed to keep a low profile, and he’s the first one to start something."
Evelyn patted Wyatt’s shoulder. "Calm down. He’s just going to gather some information. He’s right—he’s the best one for this kind of thing."
Quincy’s conversation with the men seemed to be going well. Except for Ronan, no one else could hear what they were saying.
Evelyn leaned over to Ronan and whispered, "What are they talking about?"
"Quincy is very interested in their work. They’ve already exchanged names and basic information."
Evelyn nodded. ’Quincy can never sit still. If he wanted to go out and trade for supplies in the future, it wouldn’t be a bad idea.’
Just then, Quincy hopped back into the RV. After giving everyone a series of winks and nudges, he walked straight up to Evelyn.
"Evelyn, they’ve got quite a bit of stuff. Should we trade for some supplies?"
Evelyn’s interest was genuinely piqued. She and Ronan followed Quincy out of the RV. The three of them walked up to the carriage, where Quincy introduced Evelyn to the two men.
"This is our leader."
The two young men were taken aback for a moment. Clearly, they hadn’t expected the leader of this group to be a young woman.
"We’ve got some other items here," one of them said. "We’re mainly trading for clothing and food. If you want anything, you’ll have to trade food or clothes."
Their carriage was huge—a modified truck bed, complete with truck wheels. Three fine horses could pull a single bed like that with ease. It probably had a capacity of two or three tons.
One of the men opened the carriage door and dragged out a box. When he opened it, Evelyn saw neatly stacked bars of scented soap.
"How do we trade for them?"
"Depends on the quality," the man explained. "We don’t use currency anymore, so we just negotiate. If both sides agree it’s a worthy trade, we exchange."
The soap was a bit coarse, with a strong osmanthus scent.
Evelyn smiled and looked at the man. "What about the Chinese and Western medicine?"
"We had very little medicine. It’s already sold out."
Evelyn sighed in disappointment. "That’s a shame. I was only looking to trade for medicine."
The two young men exchanged a glance, then both looked pointedly at the RV nearby.
"Actually... we do have two bottles of medicine left. If you really need it, we can trade it to you."
Evelyn’s eyes lit up. "Can I see it?"
When they carefully took out two bottles of safflower oil, Evelyn was a little surprised.
"What’s the trade for the safflower oil?"
"Thirty-three pounds of refined rice or flour per bottle. If you don’t have food, you can trade clothing, but it has to be a cotton-padded jacket weighing over six and a half pounds and in like-new condition."
Quincy’s eyes went wide. ’Before the apocalypse, a bottle of safflower oil was only about twenty bucks. Now it’s worth a heavy padded jacket weighing over six and a half pounds? This is basically robbery!’
In this cold weather, you’d freeze to death without a padded jacket.
But then again, safflower oil was practically a miracle drug.
After so many years of extreme cold, many people suffered from rheumatism. Safflower oil could treat rheumatism, bruises, sprains, migraines...
After the apocalypse, supplies were scarce, and medicinal ingredients even more so. In a way, medicine was more valuable than life itself.
"We’ll trade clothes. Are military greatcoats acceptable?" Evelyn had more than enough clothes—piles of them, in fact. ’But I don’t think I stockpiled any safflower oil,’ she thought. ’I’d really like to get some.’
The young man nodded. "We’ll need to inspect the goods."
Evelyn had no problem with that. The safflower oil was new and sealed. There was no production date, but four words were engraved on the bottle: Frelia Base Pharmaceutical Factory.
Ronan went back to the RV and brought out two military greatcoats that were in good condition. Both parties were satisfied after inspecting the goods. The two young men tried to push their other products, but Evelyn politely declined with a smile.
"In that case, take this box of matches as a bonus," one of them offered. "These two greatcoats are in great shape, no wear and tear, and very thick."
The young man took out a box of matches and handed it to Evelyn. The box was made of wood and contained about fifty matchsticks. Evelyn thanked him, and both parties returned to their respective vehicles.
"It’s hard to say whether they got the better deal or we did. Two greatcoats for just two bottles of medicine."
Evelyn raised an eyebrow. "It’s a win-win."
"We’re not short on clothes, but I really didn’t have any safflower oil. It might have been cheap before, but it’s incredibly versatile. The trade was well worth it."
Evelyn opened a bottle and took a sniff. The medicinal scent was potent. It seemed that even in the apocalypse, this pharmaceutical factory still had some integrity. The medicine wasn’t watered down.
Evelyn put the safflower oil away, pleased with her acquisition. ’When I have time,’ she thought, ’I’ll try to figure out the formula and make it myself.’
They drove the RV into a nearby patch of shadow and decided to rest there for the night.
At eight in the evening, another JINGLE-JANGLE sound echoed from outside. They figured it was another merchant looking to trade.
"Evelyn, where should we set up our new home?"
Evelyn looked at the others. "Let’s hear everyone’s thoughts. Should we settle in the remote mountains, or somewhere closer to a base or a town?"
Quincy suddenly raised his hand. "When I was gathering information earlier, I asked those two guys. They said you can travel and do business freely in Frelia. If you want to enter a town, you just have to go to an administrative office and get an ID card. Then you just show the ID at the town checkpoint."
"That advanced? Do they have photos?"
"Of course they do. The towns aren’t that backward; they even have electricity. If there’s no photo and your ID gets stolen or picked up by someone else, what’s to stop them from impersonating you? Even though it’s the apocalypse, Frelia still has administrators."
"So if we want to enter a town, we’ll have to get IDs. With an ID, we can go anywhere without any trouble. I asked earlier, and it’s even okay to carry guns into town, but you can’t rob or kill people there."