In Shang Ji’s eyes, the world is a huge store.

The store is filled with a dazzling array of goods, garlic, wheat, potatoes, soybeans, grapes, cotton, wood, iron, cows, sheep… they all have their own prices.

You grow wheat and exchange it for grapes; he makes wine and uses it to buy lamb; I cut wood and exchange the wood for potatoes… everyone is constantly trading.

So what about people?

Shang Ji has been thinking since he was a child, since good things all have prices, are people the same?

If people were turned into goods that could be placed directly in the store, would it create more profit?

Why not give it a try?

In fact, people do have a price.

Shang Ji patiently observed for many years.

He found through chatting and inquiring.

It’s not that everyone thinks people shouldn’t have a price, but once everyone has a fixed price, then people will be turned into high-quality goods, ordinary goods, and inferior people according to the price.

Apart from this, if people were turned into goods, then who would be the customers involved in the buying and selling?

The only ones qualified are the gods, because the great God Yao created the Yao Clan civilization and manages this world.

Shang Ji feels that the omnipresent gods don’t care about such trivial matters at all.

Everyone just thinks too highly of themselves.

God Yao can create lightning storms, earthquakes, and destroy other evil gods… He is too busy, the whole world needs to be looked down upon and taken care of by Him.

It’s like a giant and a group of ants at his feet.

The giant sometimes finds it interesting and looks a little more, but most of the time, it’s just a glance – he has more important things to do.

Giving this group of ants a leaf, or blocking a stream, is all easy for this incredibly huge giant. But the giant won’t continue to stare at a single ant.

The gods don’t care about the ants’ thoughts.

In the end, ants are still dealing with ants.

Shang Ji feels that as long as the transactions are clear and agreed upon by both buyers and sellers, why not?

How to set a price for a person?

He spent a lot of time and made a detailed set of pricing standards.

First, look at the person’s age, the younger, the more expensive, the older, the cheaper.

Then look at the physical condition, the stronger, the higher the price, the weaker, the lower.

Finally, judge the individual additional price, which is labor capacity.

Compared to people without skills, those who master skilled skills are more valuable.

…

Shang Ji feels that his set is very good. Let everyone know their own price, clear and transparent.

As long as it’s done in his own way, this kind of commodity, people, will definitely circulate better.

However, Mayor Yu Lian and the merchant leader Shang Li completely denied his proposal.

“Shang Ji, you need to learn one thing first. Treat people as people.”

Shang Li asked back, “According to your method, there is no difference between people and wild beasts, livestock. Then why do people gather together? Just to be bought and sold by others?”

“Once people are treated as livestock for trading, trust disappears completely.”

“Without basic trust, do you think merchants will still exist?”

“Will everyone still trade according to your methods and rules? Instead of directly looting and hunting?”

“You’re too focused on trading, you’re having a problem with your thinking.”

Although very unhappy, Shang Ji couldn’t find a reason to refute.

But he still feels that he is not wrong.

This is how business is.

If you don’t try, who knows if there’s a future?

Moreover, this is a business that has never been done before, full of opportunities.

So Shang Ji united some merchants, slowly reached a consensus, and prepared to try first with the islanders overseas. The indigenous islanders are not so taboo, and many islands already have the habit of trading people.

The overseas trial was very successful.

The indigenous islanders liked Shang Ji’s slave trade. Shang Ji and others also bought a large number of slaves at sea, but these slaves could only plant wheat, potatoes, soybeans, and grapes on the islands and could not enter the Western Continent.

After Mayor Yu Lian passed away, Shang Li succeeded as mayor.

At this time, Shang Li turned his attention to the sea, leaving Salt City, saying he was going to the northern islands to talk to a chieftain about cooperation.

But Shang Ji received inside information that Shang Li was going to rectify the overseas slave market. This time he was going to meet with several chieftains, which was a sign that he was going to take action officially.

Shang Ji decided to take the initiative.

He bribed sailors and fishermen, and in the deep sea without islands, he sank Shang Li’s sailboat, completely eliminating this last stumbling block. Only after confirming that the sunken ship was swallowed by a marine vortex did Shang Ji feel at ease.

In the past, Shang Li was like a mountain, but today he has become a piece of paper.

The next steps will be much easier.The merchants united with the previous merchants, persuading the vast majority of merchants in Salt City, promising a portion of the benefits to the Salt Clan…abolishing the mayor, establishing a citizen council, and collecting taxes…

Everything was for the ultimate goal.

Legalizing slave trade.

People were finally sent to the stores as commodities, displayed on the streets, each person was priced, and could be chosen at will.

This way, men could buy wives, women could buy the husbands they wanted, the elderly could buy young labor, and parents without children could also choose their desired child at will.

The merchants were very satisfied.

In Salt City, the slave trade quickly became popular.

Slave traders became the most sought-after profession, and slave owners became symbols of wealth. The number of slaves represented a person’s status, and those without slaves were considered poor.

Then the slaves began to change from labor to pets, and from pets to consumables…because slaves were property, not people, so even if they were killed on the street by their owners, there would be no problem.

The merchants gradually realized that the slave trade was out of control.

But they could no longer stop this huge vehicle. Despite being the nominal leader, he actually only represented the interests of the slave traders, the Salt Clan, and others.

Going against all the beneficiaries would not end well for him.

The merchant did not regret it.

He didn’t consider himself stubborn.

Doing business always involved gains and losses, but this time the cost was a bit too high, and it wasn’t just himself who lost, but also many other people in the city.

He was willing to admit defeat and start over.

After planning for a few years, the merchant suddenly received news that a group of pirates had quietly risen. This group of pirates called themselves the “Northern Temple Army,” and they continuously attacked the slave traders’ ships at sea, seizing slaves and killing the merchants.

The leader was a man named Copper Sea, who, because his wife was sold as a slave, rallied this group of people, claiming to shatter the slave system and liberate all slaves.

The merchant sent people to contact the “Northern Temple Army” and found that this group of people really did not belong to another group of merchants, but were truly declaring war on the entire slave system.

This made the merchant very happy.

Foreign forces would be a great help to him, and the pressure would help him regulate the slave market.

Then he realized he was wrong, the citizen council was not even willing to reinforce the stone wall.

Many merchants were even ecstatic.

“Now all kinds of goods can be directly raised in price! Because of the pirates, the transportation costs are higher.”

“Slaves too, will be worth more!”

“There are fewer ships now, so our business is better!”

The merchant couldn’t help but remember Merchant Li’s words.

——Too focused on trade.

The merchant finally began to understand the meaning of this sentence.

He was tired.

For the first time, doing business made the merchant feel weary and bored.

Let everything be destroyed, and start over.

Quickly.

So when Copper Sea led the “Northern Temple Army” to attack the city with great momentum, the city immediately responded and easily broke through the city. This was not only the result of their many years of arranging internal support, but also the merchant’s strong push behind the scenes.

After the city was breached, the merchant fled overseas.

Then he was captured by a group of islanders, robbed of all the valuable items on the ship, and the people on the ship were also sold as slaves to the leader of the islanders.

The elderly merchant was only worth three sheepskins.

Only then did he realize that he was not worth much.

During his thirteen years as a slave, the merchant had planted potatoes and grapes, raised walking birds, and now he was growing cotton.

He was bought and sold by the island slave owners, and now he had fallen into the hands of a young man.

This young slave owner was relatively kind to him, not beating him too much, giving him water to drink, and allowing him to wear clothes—this was already very good treatment for a slave.

During his time as a slave, the merchant discovered that there was a large insect on the island.

They had arched shells, with seven stars on their red backs, looking very beautiful. These insects emitted a strong fragrance, and the cannibal crabs would protect them.

The merchant spent all his time observing these insects, which made him feel happy and peaceful.

Smelling that fragrance made him feel like he had returned to Salt City, back to the normal order of city civilization.

He used charcoal to record the appearance of these insects on coconut shells, their flying posture, their scent, what they ate, what they did during the day and at night…

In the end, “The Ladybug Chronicles” was born on a large string of coconut shells.

When a rowing sailboat arrived on the island, the merchant handed the string of coconut shells to a scholar, asking him to take it back to Yao City or Salt City.

The scholar was very surprised to see the writing on the coconut shells.

“You are a very knowledgeable person. May I ask for your name?”

The merchant’s dark face wrinkled into a somewhat shy smile.The slave master tugged on the rope around Shang Ji’s neck and said in broken Yao Clan dialect, “His name is San Yang Pi! A slave, literate, a slave.”

The scholar looked at Shang Ji, “I will go back and raise money to restore your freedom. You should return to Yao City or Salt City.”

“Eight sheepskins.”

The slave master set his price, “He has eaten a lot of my food, I taught him how to pick cotton and plant potatoes.”

As the sailboat sailed into the ocean, Shang Ji silently prayed.

Great God Yao, I only hope that you can bless my writings to spread far and wide… I hope everyone can find that wondrous insect from this book, to gain the simplest joys and peace.

Half a year later, the scholar returned by boat and found the slave master: “I want to redeem Mr. ‘San Yang Pi’s’ freedom.”

“Oh, San Yang Pi, he’s dead.”

“Dead? How did he die?”

“Stomach pain, diarrhea, died from it.”

The scholar angrily said, “He was your slave, why didn’t you save him!”

“Herbs on the island are expensive, you merchants sell them for a high price.”

The slave master said matter-of-factly, “More expensive than San Yang Pi… no, eight sheepskins.”