After offering incense to the Geo Lord, Xia Zhi indeed felt much more at peace.
This could be considered a form of paying respects to the local powers.
Coming down from Yujing Terrace, Xia Zhi arrived at Feiyun Slope.
Both sides of the street were lined with grand establishnts, their signboards decorated luxuriously and exquisitely.
As soone without much money, he didn't dare look too closely at the shops themselves, so he had to content himself with glimpsing at the beautiful ladies wearing qipao-like attire standing at the shop entrances.
This shop's ladies were fair. That shop's ladies were round. This other shop's ladies were tall. That last shop... no good!
After his critical observations along the way, Xia Zhi arrived at Liuli Pavilion and Xinyue Hall.
These two restaurants were famous—one served only Liuli cuisine, the other only Yue cuisine. They had been rivals for many years, even choosing their locations to face each other across the grand stairway connecting Feiyun Slope to the Harbor area.
On his map, both restaurants had received three stars from the shopkeeper, putting them in the sa league as Wanmin Restaurant in Chihu Rock.
Liuli Pavilion's sign showed a fan decorated with mountain scenes, clearly indicating their specialty in mountain delicacies. Xinyue Hall's sign displayed a large fish above waves, obviously showcasing their seafood specialties.
The hostesses standing at both restaurant entrances were quite beautiful.
Xia Zhi spent so extra ti critiquing, but actually dining there was out of the question—he needed to save money for now. Maybe in the future.
Across from these restaurants was Liyue's Ministry of Civil Affairs, responsible for public safety, imperial examinations, tax collection, mariti permits, and ship docking.
Simply put, while Yuehai Pavilion made decisions, the Ministry of Civil Affairs executed them—one was the brain, the other the limbs.
There was a notice board in front of the Ministry.
Xia Zhi walked over and looked curiously, his attention imdiately drawn to one particular notice:
[Notice: Citizens, if you witness a zombie child moving about at night, stretching their limbs and climbing mountains to gather herbs, please do not panic. Our Qiqi is Bubu Pharmacy's herb gatherer and dical apprentice, and ans no harm to anyone. —Bubu Pharmacy, Baizhu]
This was information about the herb-gathering girl he'd t this morning, ntioning the term "zombie child."
Xia Zhi was slightly stunned—so she really wasn't ordinary.
So she was a zombie—no wonder her walking seed sowhat stiff.
Yet such a cute girl had already died once... he wondered what she had been through.
The notice provided much useful information: Qiqi's usual activity ti was midnight, and she gathered herbs in the mountains outside the city. If Xia Zhi wanted, he could "accidentally" encounter Qiqi at midnight in the mountains, strike up a conversation, and interact with her to raise her progress bar.
If he were more ruthless, he could injure himself. Though Qiqi was a zombie, as a pharmacy apprentice, she would surely help him and bandage his wounds. This physical interaction would raise the progress bar faster.
If he were even more ruthless, he could knock Qiqi unconscious. As a zombie, she should be vulnerable to light-based magic—perhaps one [Holy Judgnt] would knock her out, allowing him to raise the progress bar however he wished. But this thod wasn't very safe. If Qiqi turned out to be immune to light magic and bit him instead, turning him into a zombie too, that would be troubleso.
Xia Zhi pondered briefly before looking at the next notice.
[Life and death are predetermined. Why struggle to keep those ant to pass in this world, forcefully extending their fate? Why not bring Qiqi to Wangsheng Funeral Parlor? With proper burial rites, she can rest peacefully and return to the cycle of elents. Wouldn't that be wonderful?]
This ntioned "Wangsheng Funeral Parlor" and "burial."
Xia Zhi had seen a promotional advertisent for Wangsheng Funeral Parlor at the city gate yesterday. At the ti, he hadn't known what kind of establishnt it was, but now he understood it was a funeral parlor.
For such a business to run promotional ads... their manager certainly had unique ideas.
However, this notice also provided useful information—it seed Wangsheng Funeral Parlor had their eye on Qiqi.
The next notice read:
[Please stop joking, Director Hu.]
Obviously, this Director Hu was the head of Wangsheng Funeral Parlor.
The tone... was most likely from Baizhu of Bubu Pharmacy.
He seed quite protective of Qiqi.
As for the other notices, aside from various shop advertisents and Ministry announcents, there wasn't anything useful.
Xia Zhi took out his map and looked—there were two other places in Feiyun Slope recomnded by the shopkeeper.
One was Wanwen Bookhouse, selling books. The other was Heyu Tea House, featuring opera performances.
Xia Zhi was interested in both, regardless of whether he could get in for free. He mainly wanted to learn more about Liyue's culture.
Both places were upstairs, requiring climbing steps to reach.
Xia Zhi followed the redwood stairs to Wanwen Bookhouse.
It was quite a large bookstore with multiple shelves filled with books.
A small notice at the entrance read: No running or loud noise, no playing around, do not handle books with dirty hands. Full reading requires purchase.
You could browse, but not read completely.
Xia Zhi shook his head, feeling Wanwen Bookhouse's policies were sowhat petty.
Walking in, he found the bestseller shelves at the front were filled with novels about gods, demons, and spirits. He pulled one out to look, but found the plot devices lagged behind his original world's literature by who knows how many years, imdiately losing interest.
Continuing deeper inside, after so ti, he finally found a useful set of books in a corner shelf.
The series was titled "Teyvat Travel Guide," with volus for Mondstadt, Liyue, Inazuma, Suru...
The author seed to be a traveler who had journeyed through all seven nations, recording their observations and eventually compiling this book.
Xia Zhi currently knew very little about this continent and needed exactly such a book to broaden his horizons.
The owner of Wanwen Bookhouse was nad Ji Fang, a woman with quite a bit of charm.
After so thought, Xia Zhi took just one book to the counter.
"Boss, how much is this book?"
"100 Mora."
"That expensive? Can it be cheaper? Look, it's all dusty—clearly no one reads it."
"Custor, any cheaper and I won't even recover the cost of paper."
"How about 20% off? If you agree, I'll buy the whole set."
"10% off at most."
Finally securing the whole set at a 10% discount but still at great expense, Xia Zhi left Wanwen Bookhouse with a thoughtful look in his eyes.
He realized that book prices in this world were ridiculously high.
It was mainly because of the high cost of paper, which led to high book prices.
Ultimately, it was because this world's papermaking technology was too backward.
With this thought, Xia Zhi opened the [Mall] and searched, finding an item on the panel:
[Modern Papermaking Process Detailed Guide]
Quality: Common
Type: Book
Properties: None
Effect: None
Hidden
Effect: None
Price: 1 point
Looking at this item, Xia Zhi felt that maybe, just maybe, he wouldn't need to work hard to earn money anymore.
----
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