Plane Supermarket Plane 1: Da Liang Dynasty C12
A blue disposable medical mask was worn on Lin You’s face, accompanied by his white linen robe. When he entered the supermarket, it gave Ye Zhou a sense of space-time confusion.
Ye Zhou was still sitting in the surveillance room. He didn’t want to interact with the locals, not only to maintain his image but also because he was a compulsive talker. He belonged to the group of people with Social Chatter Syndrome.
Even when taking a taxi, he could talk with the driver from beginning to end.
He was worried that if he interacted with the locals, he would end up talking about himself for hours within no time.
During this period, to relieve his desire to express himself, Ye Zhou would write a diary entry on his phone every day.
— Who is a serious person who writes in a diary? It can be seen that he is on the verge of going crazy.
Ye Zhou looked at Lin You through the surveillance cameras and realized for the first time that the ancient class distinctions could be reflected in one’s appearance.
Lin You had slender limbs, a taller stature, and although he appeared thin due to illness, his gaze was clear, and his posture upright.
On the other hand, Zhao Er and the others had large and rough hands and feet, short and thick fingers, and a relatively short stature of about 1.6 meters. Even Zheng Ge, who appeared to be the tallest, seemed to be less than 1.7 meters. They always seemed restless in their movements, and their backs never seemed to straighten up.
Ye Zhou sighed. The class distinctions in ancient times were not only about social status and identity.
In modern times, even if the family conditions were not good, as long as one had the opportunity to study and go to university, they could start from a higher starting point. Even if their academic performance was not good, as long as they were willing to work hard, their monthly wages from working on a construction site would not be lower than those of ordinary white-collar workers.
Everyone had the opportunity to change their destiny and their social class. Even if they didn’t change, they wouldn’t consider themselves lower or inferior to wealthy people. They were not considered lower-class individuals.
But here, the social class divides people into distinct categories. The upper class is born with the privilege of being well-fed, well-clothed, and educated. They lack the motivation to change their destiny.
On the other hand, the lower class, despite exhausting their efforts throughout their lives, find it difficult to reach a level of abundance and even more so to pursue education and literacy.
They have to work to make a living, so their fingers are short and thick, their feet large and flat. The primary thoughts in their minds revolve around what they will eat for their next meal and whether they will have enough to eat tomorrow. They have no means of changing their destiny.
In times of turmoil, they are the ones who suffer the most.
Ye Zhou felt that he had gained some understanding.
Previously, he didn’t have a clear perception of social class. Although his family had some wealth, he never felt any difference between himself and classmates from less privileged families.
They attended the same school, received teachings from the same teachers, answered the same exam questions, and applied for the same universities.
He never felt superior to them, without any sense of superiority derived from his family background.
However, here, he could distinctly feel the class difference, something that couldn’t be changed by personal efforts or family background.
It was like a colossal entity, tightly suppressing the people working at the bottom.
The more they worked, the poorer they became.
·
Although Lin You felt a bit suffocated wearing the “mask,” he could still accept it. He was very cautious, afraid of accidentally knocking over something.
Everything here was novel to him. Whether it was the trolleys with wheels or the peculiar-shaped shelves made of unique materials, it all opened his eyes. He walked leisurely through the supermarket, but didn’t actually touch anything.
Ye Zhou noticed that Lin You didn’t pay much attention to the shelves filled with food, unlike Zhao Er and the others.
Lin You’s focus remained on steel and iron products. He stood by the thermos flask shelf for a long time, to the point where Ye Zhou was losing patience and about to shift his attention to playing a game, when Lin You finally picked up a thermos flask.
He gently tapped the outer casing, furrowing his brows. After a while, he relaxed.
He was also interested in glassware, but had no interest in porcelain.
Although Ye Zhou had never seen the porcelain of this era, he could imagine that its patterns and quality would not be worse than the mass-produced porcelain in his supermarket.
Lin You wandered from morning till night and ended up not buying anything.
Ye Zhou, who was hoping to earn some profit from him, “…”
Carrying a walkie-talkie, Cao’er Niang put on her mask after receiving instructions from Ye Zhou. She walked straight towards Lin You and stopped at a distance of two meters. She didn’t look at Lin You’s face. She used to dare to look at him when he was sitting, but now that he was standing, she didn’t dare to meet his gaze directly.
Cao’er Niang asked, “Why doesn’t the Young Master pick something?”
She learned to address him as “Young Master.” Previously, she had never seen someone like Lin You and privately referred to him as a nobleman.
Lin You smiled and said, “Lin has nothing to offer.”
He didn’t have much to give to the immortal. The only thing he had was his life, but his life had other arrangements, and he didn’t dare to give it away lightly.
Cao’er Niang looked at the crown on Lin You’s head and asked, “Young Master is unwilling to offer the crown to the immortal?”
Lin You paused for a moment.
Cao’er Niang wondered, “Young Master has never experienced poverty?”
Lin You clasped his hands and said, “It was my fault, Lin has misunderstood.”
He took off the crown and handed it to Cao’er Niang. He let his long black hair down, revealing a smile on his face.
Cao’er Niang accepted the crown. She had never seen such an item before and didn’t know its value, but she could tell from its exquisite craftsmanship that it must be valuable.
But now that she was in this “otherworldly” place, she no longer regarded such things as precious. After all, she could even drink water from a “crystal cup”! The emperor himself hadn’t seen such nice things!
After handing over the crown, Lin You first took a headband and casually tied up his hair in a high ponytail.
He didn’t have fleas on him, probably because during the journey, he mostly stayed alone in the carriage. After Cao’er Niang checked, she didn’t insist on him wearing a shower cap.
He didn’t bring fragile items, knowing they wouldn’t survive the journey. Instead, he brought some small handicrafts and plastic products.
He also had a whole box of sewing needles—this little item he brought the most.
Ye Zhou didn’t quite understand and specifically asked Cao’er Niang about it.
Cao’er Niang explained to Ye Zhou in the monitoring room, “Immortal, needles are not easy to come by. Before the famine, my family didn’t have any needles, so we had to borrow them from others, and it cost us food!”
“Just think about it, to make an iron needle, it needs to go through many hammerings. It takes a lot of wasted materials to make a single needle.”
“Only the ladies from wealthy families can learn embroidery!”
Silk thread is not easy to come by, and neither are needles. The smaller the item, the more difficult it is to make, and the higher the rate of being wasted.
Cao’er Niang whispered, “To exchange the eggs we saved at home for copper coins, it takes several months to buy a single needle.”
“That young gentleman, Lin, chose a needle. He has better taste than those rough people.”
Ye Zhou didn’t expect the scarcity of resources in ancient times to be to this extent. He was curious and asked, “Don’t you go to the market?”
Cao’er Niang’s eyes lit up. She didn’t expect the immortal to know about going to the market. She replied excitedly, “Yes, we do go to the market, but not every time. There are not many people in my village, and the merchants don’t like to come here. Even if they do come, we can’t afford to buy much.”
“What can you find at the market?” Ye Zhou asked, resting his chin on his hand.
Now, Ye Zhou feels much more comfortable in front of Cao’er Niang. Perhaps it’s because he knows that whenever Cao’er Niang looks at him, she always wears a thick filter that prevents her from seeing through him.
Cao’er Niang thought for a moment and said, “It’s nothing more than things like oil, salt, soy sauce, and vinegar. There are also homemade fabrics available, but not many people buy them. Unless their clothes are completely worn out, nobody wants to spend money on buying fabric. There are also meat sellers! But you have to go early, otherwise, all the fatty meat will be sold out, and only lean meat with little fat will be left.”
Nowadays, Cao’er Niang doesn’t lack meat and fat anymore, so when she mentions fatty meat, she no longer drools uncontrollably like before.
Ye Zhou asked, “Are there no valuable items like jewelry or cosmetics?”
Cao’er Niang smiled a little embarrassed and said, “The head of the family has bought me jewelry before.”
Ye Zhou looked at her.
Grass Nanny: “The red headband, it became popular.”
Ye Zhou: “…”
Cao’er Niang continued, “In my place, anyone who gets married and can wear a red outfit, even if it’s slightly old, is considered from a respectable family in the surrounding ten miles and eight villages!”
Her biggest regret in life was not being able to wear a red dress on her wedding day.
At that time, she was just a sixteen-year-old girl, dressed in a new blue dress outfit, holding a small bundle in her arms. Her parents sent her out the door to follow her husband who was waiting at the gate.
There were no wedding banquets or ceremonies, so having a new outfit was already the grandest thing for her.
Ye Zhou chuckled, “No wonder you love wearing red dresses.”
Cao’er Niang had chosen mostly red beach dresses.
If someone else said something like this, Cao’er Niang would have felt embarrassed, but when it came from the Immortal, she didn’t feel any shame.
Cao’er Niang lowered her head, and Ye Zhou said to her, “Go and rest.”
He had to go collect the money.
Lin You, who had chosen his items, pushed the cart and followed the employees’ guidance to the cashier counter.
He looked at the iron knots on the table, unable to understand what they were for, but that didn’t stop him from staring at them intently.
When Ye Zhou came out, Lin You finally averted his gaze.
Lin You had imagined what the Immortal would look like—a Daoist appearance with flowing silver hair, a white beard, holding a feather duster, exuding an aloof and indifferent air, seeing everything in the world as insignificant.
But he never expected that the Immortal would appear as a young man!
No long hair, no white beard. He stood tall and straight, his eyes shining brightly, his skin fair as jade, exuding an extraordinary temperament.
He was as refined as a noble-born gentleman.
Yet, he was completely different from the gentlemen of noble families.
Lin You couldn’t pinpoint exactly what made him different, but as soon as he saw him, he knew he was not of this world.
However, the Immortal’s short hair… It really made him somewhat uncomfortable.
This time, Lin You knelt down cleanly.
He had knelt before his parents, his master, the gods and Buddhas. His knees were not so precious.
Ye Zhou was accustomed to it. He lowered his eyes and softly said, “No need to kneel, please rise.”
After speaking, he walked towards the cashier counter.
Lin You waited for a while before slowly standing up.
The Immortal possessed Immortal techniques, clearly capable of eternal youth. Although he had a youthful and somewhat immature face, he might have already lived for thousands of years and didn’t care much about mortal formalities.
This was the proper character of an Immortal, not like those Daoist masters who pretended to be Immortals, using the guise of immortality to enjoy earthly pleasures.
Ye Zhou, who didn’t consider himself to possess the character of an Immortal, was happily scanning the QR codes.
This crown is worth quite a bit of money!
This time, Ye Zhou didn’t immediately exchange the crown for money. Instead, he stored it in the warehouse.
The system was still flexible. The items he acquired could be exchanged for money based on the local prices or stored in the warehouse for future transactions in other realms.
If he hadn’t been forcefully brought here, this trading system would be considered fair.
If only this young gentleman could take off his clothes as well.
Author’s Note:
Lin You: “That’s the character of an Immortal!”
Ye “Unscrupulous Bussinessman” Zhou: “Make money, hehe, make money!”
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