The group of female fighters immediately slipped into a guarded stance.
At the roadside, Gao Labba was happily digging up a chunk of yellow clay — planning to take it home and mold it into a jar. He was the closest villager to the newcomers, so he lifted his head and flashed a friendly grin at the woman in the lead.
"Selling illicit salt? Sister, you've come to the wrong place. If anything, we should be selling you salt."
The woman's hand tightened around her sword hilt. "What do you mean?"
"Ah? Heroine, don't get mad!" Gao Labba waved his muddy hand. "I'm not mocking you. It's just… our Gao Village doesn't lack salt. In fact, we've got extra salt lying around. So selling salt here? Wrong spot."
The woman stared at him, expression frozen.
She had followed her father across rivers and mountains selling black-market salt since childhood. After his death, she inherited the salt gang, becoming a seasoned leader with routes all over the realm. And in all those years, she had never heard of a village that "doesn't lack salt." Villages that couldn't afford salt? Sure. Villages with so much salt they didn't need merchants?
Impossible.
She narrowed her eyes and examined the village again, suspicious.
Right then, the gates of Gao Fortress creaked open. The old village chief waddled out, cheerful as spring sunshine, holding a small, dirt-brown round ball in his hand. He approached her unhurriedly.
"Heroine, you're in the salt trade, yes?"
The woman nodded. "On the jianghu they call me Xing Honglang. I sell salt. Elder—what guidance do you have?"
The old chief extended his hand, offering her the round dirt-colored sphere.
"Heroine, here — something delicious."
Xing Honglang eyed the strange ball, unsure if it was even food. Years on the road had taught her to treat unfamiliar food like poison. One careless bite and you'd be out cold, robbed blind, or worse.
Seeing her hesitation, the chief shrugged and offered it to one of her men.
"Here, hero, try it. I'll stand right here, unmoving. If it upsets your stomach, go ahead and chop me down."
Her subordinate glanced at her. She gave a slight nod.
He accepted the ball, sniffed it cautiously… then stuck out his tongue for a tiny lick.
And that was enough.
His eyes flew wide. His whole face transformed into "I just ascended."
"Boss… this thing… it's delicious… so delicious… I've never tasted anything like this!"
Xing Honglang: "???"
He tore off the part he'd licked and stuffed it into his own mouth, then offered the remaining sphere to her. Xing Honglang pinched off the smallest possible morsel, tossed it into her mouth—
—then her face shifted into pure wonder.
The chief chuckled proudly.
"This is called chocolate, a divine treat from the heavens. How is it? I can sell it to you cheap. If you take some and resell it, I guarantee you'll earn more than you ever did with salt."
Turns out Dao Xuan Tianzun had gifted him more chocolate than he could ever eat. Every time he finished one bar, he received another. Eventually he had so much that he'd started treating it like a side hustle.
"How much per jin?" she asked.
"Half a tael of silver."
"And bulk discount?"
"If you buy over ten jin, I'll give you ten percent off."
"Good!" Xing Honglang flicked her sleeve. "Then give me a hundred jin — and seventy percent of the price."
The chief's eyes almost burst with joy.
"Deal! You heroes wait here. I'll run home and weigh out a hundred jin right away!"
He swaggered back toward the village, hips swaying like he'd just won a lifetime pension. Sure, chocolate was great, but a man still had to save up enough silver for his future coffin.
Li Daoxuan watched the old man's gleeful trot and couldn't help laughing to himself.
That one sale set off a chain reaction.
Another villager sprinted home and returned with a small clay jar.
"Heroine, I've got top-grade sugar here! Want some? I guarantee it's cheaper than any wholesaler you've dealt with."
"???" Xing Honglang stared.
The villager opened the jar. Inside were glistening, crystalline, snow-white sugar crystals — the sort only nobles or wealthy merchants would touch.
Xing Honglang's voice lowered.
"How much for this… cargo?"
"I'll sell it to you at twenty percent below the price of ordinary sugar."
Xing Honglang almost bit her own tongue.
This is premium-grade sugar… and he's selling it cheaper than low-grade?
If she bought this here and sold it in the cities as top-tier sugar, the profit margin would explode. At least double.
"I'll take the whole jar. Do you have more?"
"Yes!" Another villager rushed up. "I've got some too!"
"And me!"
"And me!"
Within minutes, villagers scurried back and forth with jars of sugar, like squirrels hauling winter stores.
Xing Honglang finished paying for the sugar right as the village chief returned with a massive slab of chocolate. She paid for that too.
Just as she caught her breath, yet another villager approached with a small wine vessel.
"Heroine, want some liquor? This one is called 'Five-Grain Nectar.' A heavenly brew! One sip and you'll think you're ascending."
"What era is this… and you people still have wine?" She was stunned.
The villagers grinned. "A gift from Dao Xuan Tianzun."
She didn't know who or what that was, but wine — she understood.
She poured a drop to taste. The aroma alone shocked her. Then she took a careful sip—
—fifty-two degrees.
Her soul left her body for two seconds.
"Good! Excellent wine!" she exclaimed. "How much—"
"Boss… boss…" whispered a subordinate behind her. "We're out of silver."
"What?" She froze. "Impossible. I brought so much silver!"
"Uh… we bought that shipment of salt earlier. And now you bought all this sugar and chocolate and…" The man's voice trailed off.
"…"
Her soul left her body a second time.
She had come here to make money. She had planned to sell salt to the villagers and bleed them nicely.
Instead—
Her own purse was empty.
Something had gone terribly, horribly wrong.
Hello? Heaven? I'd like to report a scam?
As she stood in the wind, spiritually disassembled, the Sun-Cart No. 2 rolled back into the village — Gao Chuwu, Zheng Daniu, and two young apprentices who were still learning to drive.
They'd just taken the cart out for a joyride.
Seeing the commotion, Gao Chuwu trotted over. He took one look at Xing Honglang and said brightly:
"Oh? This woman… she's really pretty!"
The surrounding villagers stared at him, stunned.
Pretty? Her? The scary salt-gang lady built like a heroic bandit general?
…
Footnotes
Historical Note: The real Xing Honglang is a hazy figure in late-Ming rebel records. Many such bandit-leaders appear briefly in documents and vanish just as fast. Gender confusion was common — partly because scribes didn't care, and partly because rebels often used unisex aliases. Fiction writers have been filling in the blanks ever since.