Upon hearing Wang An's words, Uncle Amba subconsciously glanced toward Grandpa Kuma.
However, Grandpa Kuma was smiling and looking at the surrounding horses, paying no attention to Uncle Amba's gaze at all.
Helplessly, Uncle Amba withdrew his gaze and immediately said with a smile
"Alright, young man. This is only the second time I've helped someone pick out horses."
Hearing this, Wang An replied cheerfully
"Mm-hmm. Anyway, we don't really know much about it, so I feel at ease leaving it to you, haha."
Although the Oroqen people were honest and straightforward and disliked playing games, that didn't mean they didn't understand the ways of the world, nor did it mean they were stupid.
One must realize that truly stupid people are actually very rare in this world.
When many people evaluate others, they call this person foolish or that person clumsy, unaware that the other person is simply kind or considers playing mind games beneath them.
And what you call "cleverness" is, in their eyes, nothing more than the antics of a clown.
Now, while Wang An was indeed playing a bit of a clever game, he would absolutely not make people feel repulsed.
This was because Wang An's attitude was: no matter what kind of horse you pick to sell me, I'll accept it! As long as everyone acts according to their conscience.
As he spoke, Uncle Amba picked up the halters and reins from the ground and stepped into the herd.
It was evident that although there were many horses, Uncle Amba had a general understanding of the condition of every single one.
After one circuit, Uncle Amba picked out six horses.
Immediately following that, Uncle Amba distributed two horses each to the three of them.
While handing over the reins, Uncle Amba added
"These six horses are all four or five years of age, and they are all broken."
"Years of age" (口) referred to the age of the horse.
Normally, determining a horse's age is done by looking at the teeth.
However, checking the teeth isn't about counting them, but rather observing the degree of wear on the cross-section of the tooth.
Simply put, the longer the tooth and the lighter the wear on the cross-section, the younger the horse.
Conversely, it meant the horse was older.
Of course, while the skill of determining age by checking the teeth sounded simple and wasn't hard to learn, pinpointing the exact age required a great deal of experience; it certainly couldn't be mastered in a short time.
Wang An took the reins, feeling genuinely quite good.
This was because the six horses they were now leading, although picked by Uncle Amba, were also among the six that Wang An had already set his sights on.
Wang An replied with a smile
"Mm-hmm, thank you, Uncle Amba."
Upon hearing Wang An's words, Mu Xueli and Wang Li also hurried to thank Uncle Amba.
To be honest, although these six horses were all very good, Wang An still felt a bit of regret.
This was because these six horses were all geldings; they could be used for work, but they could not breed offspring.
Wang An patted the horse's head and asked with a smile
"Uncle Amba, how much for these six horses?"
Before Uncle Amba could answer, Grandpa Kuma said with a serious expression
"Go back first. We'll talk when we get back. Don't discuss this here."
Wang An was momentarily stunned, but he didn't ask anything. Instead, he smiled and said
"Mm-hmm, we'll talk when we get back, we'll talk when we get back."
As the five people and six horses departed, Uncle Amba shouted a few more times toward the herd, and the horses dispersed.
Truthfully, this scene was quite shocking to witness.
When Uncle Amba whistled, the horses would gather around; this wasn't hard to achieve, as almost all domestic livestock or poultry can be trained into this habit. It was simply a matter of making a specific sound when feeding them.
But making all the horses disperse with just a few words was not a simple feat.
Most importantly, there were quite a few yearlings or two-year-olds in there, and they weren't particularly inclined to be obedient.
When the group returned to Uncle Amba's house, there were two more people there—two elderly men around the same age as Grandpa Kuma.
According to Grandpa Kuma's introduction, one was the clan leader, also known as the captain, and the other was the accountant.
In reality, there were basically no secrets in a small village; once someone knew something, it would take very little time for the entire village to find out.
It was clear that both the captain and the accountant were very happy that Wang An's group had come to buy horses.
Perhaps it was as Amba had said: they could no longer afford the feed required for the horses.
After the pleasantries, they finally brought up the price of the horses.
It was only then that Wang An realized that even among a crowd of good people, there are bad ones.
And no matter how honest and simple the people around them were, there would always be one or two who were extremely shrewd.
However, this kind of shrewdness was very repulsive!
Just as Wang An asked with a smile
"How much per horse?"
While the captain, Grandpa Kuma, and Uncle Amba remained silent, the accountant immediately spoke up
"Our horses are 800 yuan each. You have six in total, so that's 4,800 yuan."
Hearing this, the smile immediately froze on Wang An's face, and Mu Xueli and Wang Li were instantly bewildered.
Even Grandpa Kuma and Uncle Amba were stunned by the accountant's words.
800 yuan—this was an absolute sky-high price!
It had to be admitted that for mountain trekking, Oroqen horses were indeed very practical, as riding them not only saved effort but also significantly increased safety.
But safety has its limits.
Furthermore, even without Oroqen horses, the various tasks of mountain trekking hadn't been delayed.
Moreover, the best local horses were worth 500 yuan at most, and that price was already the ceiling.
And 800 yuan for a gelding! This price was simply too rigid.
Suddenly, Wang An's desire to buy horses and take them back wasn't so strong anymore.
Mainly, he already had a bunch of horses at home. Although those horses were a bit lacking for riding in the mountains, they were still usable and didn't hinder riding.
Thus, Wang An wiped the smile from his face and, showing no courtesy, bargained directly
"400 yuan. 800 is way too expensive. Where on earth is there a price of 800?"
Logically, a well-trained Oroqen horse could be worth 500 yuan at this time.
But even 500 yuan per horse would be considered the maximum price.
At this point, courtesy and sentiment had to be pushed aside.
It must be said that talking about feelings hurts the money, and talking about money hurts the feelings.
Hearing Wang An's disdainful tone, the captain hurried to smooth things over
"Batu, you've gone too far. How can you do this?"
Then, the captain said to Wang An
"Young man, Oroqen horses don't go for 400. How about 600?"
Hearing this, Wang An spoke in a calm voice, but his tone was extremely firm
"450. Not a penny more, or I'm not buying!"
(End of Chapter)