Before coming here, Li Du had thought that like the Amish, the Native Americans would want something non-electric or un-modernized, so he had thought the items in the back of his car were good enough.
But now, after comparing those things with the electric lights, television, and refrigerator found in the living room, Li Du felt annoyed.
F*cking sh*t, he thought, now I've become a ragman.
The big guy looked into the back of the car and couldn't find anything he wanted. The man next to him pointed at something that looked like a hand pump and said, "I want this."
"What is it for?" Li Du asked.
"It is a pesticide hand pump sprayer," Hans said. "Of course, it can only be used on smaller farms."
Li Du unloaded the pesticide sprayer and gave it to the guy. They then went into the car to drive somewhere else.
"So, what did you get from them?" Hans asked.
Li Du showed him the leather bag and said, "Only this. Can you recognize what it is?"
Hans stunned and burst into laughter, "Of course I know. This is a botas de vino, a very popular item back it the tenth century in Europe. It was said that it was made from human skin."
"Human skin?" Li Du asked, shocked.
"It was just a myth," Hans said, "no one would believe that, right? Look at the thickness of this bag, I bet it's made out of cow or lamb leather." He drained the water and examined the leather bag. "Thank goodness we can still make a profit off of it. It can be sold for a few thousand dollars if we fix it."
"Wow," Li Du said. "I'm surprised."
"Yeah. So you know anything about it?" Hans asked.
Li Du shook his head. "No, I just felt that it had some value in it, but didn't guess how much it could cost."
"Anyway, it is something with high profit," Hans said happily. "When I was in Phoenix, I saw someone find this in a storage unit. Later he sold it to a museum and got 4,000 dollars from it."
Li Du thought for a while and asked him to turn back to the big guy's cottage. When they arrived, Li Du took out his phone SIM card and passed the phone to the big guy. "It seems unfair since your leather bag has much more value than the sprayer. I'll give you my iPhone too."
The big guy smiled and said, "My grandfather got it from outside. So long hanging there, no use."
Li Du insisted on giving him the phone. "It's yours now."
The Native Americans had cell phones too, but many of them were older models, like Nokia phones. When the big guy saw the delicate iPhone, he couldn't resist and eventually took it from Li Du.
"How about I give you something to fill the water?" the big guy asked.
Li Du thought that this guy was totally unguarded toward him, thinking that he only needed something to fill the water.
Li Du felt better after handing him the phone; he refused his offer and said goodbye. There were other Native American Indians inside the cottage too and they caused a stir.
"Do you still need water? I have plenty in my house."
Needless to say, they wished to trade for an iPhone too. Li Du forced a smile and said, "I actually only wanted his leather bag, not the water. I used a phone to trade for his leather bag."
"Please go my house. I might have something you want." The natives warmly invited him to go over to their cottages.
Li Du had no choice but to visit each of their cottages.
When he was inside each house, the natives would take out so-called antique and let him see. Most of them had no value, but a few items had at least some time energy. However, he couldn't trade anything with them, because all they wanted were iPhones, and he'd traded his only one.
Furthermore, Li Du thought that these Native Americans were genuine and honest people. So whenever he saw something he was interested in, he would show how he felt about them. As a result, they were actually rather sly as well. When they noticed that Li Du was interested in something, they would ask for a cellphone in exchange
Li Du felt gloomy—he'd only had one phone.
After a while, Hans ran up to him and said, "Come on, let's go to the blacksmith's shop. Olly and the others found something."
The blacksmith in the village not only made farming tools, but also weapons and hunting tools. Olly and the others had traded with him for some hunting knives. Some of them were short and some were long. All of the blades shined brightly and came from good handwork too. It was obvious that the knives were good quality.
Turis showed off the long knife he'd gotten and said, "I love this knife so I won't be selling it. I'm keeping it for myself. I even have a name for it: it's called 'Ryūjin Jakka.'"
"Ryūjin Jakka?" Li Du asked, walking around. "Sounds great. Does the name have any meaning?"
"Oh, I don't know," Turis replied. "It's the name of a Zanpakutō in the comic Bleach."
The other treasure hunters were following Li Du into the blacksmith shop too. It was all thanks to him that they could enter the village and trade with the Hopi. If it weren't for the fight between Li Du and the Navajo, they probably wouldn't have had the possibility of getting the Feather of Love, which was rarer than the previous type of feathers they had been carrying with them.
Without the feathers, the natives wouldn't have wanted to trade with them. And their only option would have been to trade through Li Du alone. That would have meant more constraints and fewer things to trade.
In fact, the other treasure hunters appeared to have actually had more business opportunities than Li Du and Hans did because they had brought a lot of food. When they left for the trip that morning, they hadn't prepared much, so they had to buy the food and daily products available in the grocery store.
However, these things were more popular than the scrap metal Hans had brought. When they walked in, Li Du noticed that there were already a few boxes of bread, meat, chocolates and beverages in the shop. The treasure hunters must have traded all of this stuff.
The blacksmith shop in the village was bigger than Li Du's hometown. It was a large-scale workshop with more than twenty muscular natives working hard inside. Some of them were making bows and arrows, while some were making hunting knives, and some were even making shotguns and bullets. Of course, there were a few individual workshops inside as well.
Li Du was looking at a hunting knife with a crafted wolf handle. He liked it the moment he saw it. The knife was made out of solid birchwood, with a fine texture and high durability. The blade was made with three layers of steel, which made it not only sharp, but also sturdy.
He took the knife and swung it a few times. It was smooth. He asked the blacksmith, "Excuse me, what would you like in exchange for this?"
A muscular man twisting his beard came forward and said, "What do you have? Are you sure you want to have it? This is a high-quality knife, very precious."
He took out another knife with a long handle and a short blade. This handle was also made out of birchwood, and came with a scabbard, which was made with the same material as the handle. The texture was beautiful and natural, each line running along it smoothly. It was the perfect combination of human skill and nature.