In years of famine and drought, their village even rejected fatty meat.

Chapter 78 Summer Country Dog

After Chen Dao left, the shopkeeper's smile slowly faded, and a glint of light appeared in his eyes as he looked in the direction Chen Dao had gone.

The boy was dressed plainly and looked young, appearing to be just a teenager, yet he could easily pull out 100 taels of silver to buy so many medicinal herbs used by martial artists…

"Should we report this to the master?"

Greed gradually spread across the shopkeeper's face. In this world, having wealth but lacking the power to protect it is like being a fat sheep waiting to be slaughtered. And Chen Dao looks very much like that fat sheep!

…………

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After leaving the pharmacy, Chen Dao placed the cloth bag containing the medicinal herbs on the donkey cart and then said to Chen Si, who was driving the cart, "Go to the East Market."

"okay."

When the donkey cart arrived at the East Market, Chen Dao got off and wandered around the market.

His trip to the East Market wasn't to find Wu Han, of course. In fact, Wu Han had long since stopped setting up a stall in the East Market and was now solely focused on trading white-feathered chickens with Chen Dao and Chen Da.

Chen Dao came to Dongshi this time intending to buy some new livestock to raise.

Now that he has more money in his hands and his yellow-feathered chickens have achieved stable breeding, it's time to consider raising new livestock.

"Boss, what breed of duck is this?"

Chen Dao stopped in front of a stall selling ducks and looked at the ducks in the cages. He noticed that these ducks were very different in size from the breeds he had seen in his previous life. Not only were they smaller, but their feathers were also grayish and not very attractive.

"This is a Grey Heron Duck."

When the peddler standing in front of the stall saw someone asking about the price, he hurriedly said, "Sir, don't be fooled by how ugly these grey ducks are. They lay a lot of eggs and are easy to raise. You definitely won't regret buying them."

"Is it?"

Chen Dao, of course, did not believe the peddler's words, but he had come here to buy new livestock, and ducks were one of his targets.

So Chen Dao asked, "Boss, how much is one of these grey ducks?"

Upon hearing that Chen Dao was interested in buying, the shopkeeper's eyes lit up: "The males are 200 coins each, and the females are 250 coins each. How many do you need, sir?"

“This price…”

Chen Dao couldn't help but sigh. As grain prices rose, livestock prices also continued to increase. Whether it was chickens or ducks, the prices of live poultry had risen considerably.

After a moment's hesitation, Chen Dao took out 200 copper coins and handed them to the shopkeeper: "Give me a grey duck first."

"okay."

The boss deftly took a gray duck out of the cage and handed it to Chen Dao. From that moment on, the gray duck completely belonged to Chen Dao. At the same time, the gray duck's advanced information appeared in Chen Dao's eyes.

Grey Heron Duck: Characteristics: Small size, high egg production, and tolerant of roughage.

[Grey Muscovy Duck Advancement Path 1: Mating a Grey Muscovy Duck with a Red-tailed Duck will hatch a Mallard.]

[Characteristics of mallard ducks: medium-sized, early maturity, and high egg production.]

[Grey Heron Duck Advancement Route Two: Feeding it sweet licorice for three consecutive days will advance it to a Ruddy Shelduck.]

[Characteristics of Ruddy Shelduck: Early maturity, relatively large size, and high meat yield.]

"Mallards and Greyhounds..."

A thoughtful look appeared in Chen Dao's eyes. These two advanced breeds of ducks were clearly much better than the Grey Heron, but...

There's basically no need to consider mallards in Chendao anymore, because red-tailed ducks are almost impossible to find, and even if you do find them, breeding them takes a lot of time.

On the contrary, the second advanced route is worth considering. I have heard of licorice root, which is a common medicinal herb. It is available in ordinary pharmacies such as Baicaotang and is not expensive.

Having made up his mind, Chen Dao immediately said to the stall owner, "I'll take all the ducks from your stall. Can you give me a discount?"

Upon hearing this, the stall owner's eyes lit up, and he hurriedly said, "If you want to buy all the ducks, the price of each duck can be reduced by 10 coins."

"Alright, let's make the deal!"

Chen Dao paid 2 taels and 390 copper coins to buy all 6 female grey ducks and 5 male grey ducks from the stall. He then put the cages containing the ducks on the donkey cart and continued to other stalls to buy more ducks.

In no time, Chen Dao bought a full 30 grey ducks, half male and half female, which were perfect for breeding at home.

"Wang Wang."

Just as Chen Dao was about to leave the East Market after buying enough ducks, he heard a dog barking nearby. Turning his head, he saw two dogs that looked like adults barking at a stall. The dogs had ropes tied around their necks, and the stall owner was holding the other end of the ropes to prevent the dogs from escaping.

Chen Dao stared intently at the two dogs, only to find that they were very similar to the country dogs from his previous life. They had yellow feathers, round and small heads, and tails held high, making them look adorable.

"Sir, would you like to buy a dog?"

The dog vendor seemed to notice Chen Dao's gaze and hurriedly asked a question.

Chen Dao thought for a moment and said, "How much is your dog?"

"500 coins each."

"So expensive?"

Chen Dao seemed slightly surprised.

The stall owner said, "Don't worry about the price, sir. This dog is quite big, and it yields far more meat than chickens or ducks. It also tastes better than chicken or duck meat, so naturally it's more expensive."

"..."

Chen Dao paused for a moment. He had thought the dog was being sold to someone to guard their home, but he never imagined... it was being sold to people to eat.

However, after thinking about it carefully, Chen Dao felt relieved.

In these times of year, there are very few families that can afford to eat their fill. Let alone dogs, if a giant panda stood in front of people, they would probably kill it and eat it.

Animals' cuteness is only an advantage when people are well-fed and clothed. When people are starving, even the cutest animals will become meat in people's stomachs.

Although Chen Dao rarely ate dog meat in his previous life, and even enjoyed virtually petting dogs and cats, he did not condemn others for eating dog meat.

Therefore, he didn't dislike the dog vendor, and simply said, "I'll take both dogs, how about 800 coins?"

"You want them all?"

The stall owner was overjoyed and quickly said, "Alright! I'll charge you 800 coins!"

As he spoke, the stall owner handed the ends of the ropes that held the two dogs to Chen Dao, and Chen Dao also took out 800 copper coins and gave them to the stall owner. In this way, the ownership of the two dogs belonged to Chen Dao.

The two dogs seemed reluctant to leave their original owner, barking softly at the stall owner, but being gentle by nature, they did not resist in any way.

At this moment, Chen Dao's gaze fell on the two dogs, checking their advancement information.

[Summer Dog, characteristics: loyal, with a keen sense of smell.]

[Xia Guotu Dog Advancement Route 1: Mating Xia Guotu Dog with Cangshan Dog can produce Red-haired Dog.]

Red-haired dog characteristics: keen sense of smell, large size, and high meat yield.

[Summer Territory Dog Advancement Route Two: Feed it dog tail flowers for three consecutive days to advance it to a guard dog.]

[Characteristics of the park guard dog: Loyal, territorial, and formidable in combat, comparable to a ninth-rank martial artist.]