The day of the others, however, was not spent lurking around an unnatural lot. Perlmut for one was looking for cooking ingredients.
Perlmut: "Onion, onions, and more onions."
Shop keep: "Yes, madam. Onions are our specialty here. A master chef once came by and praised us for our onions. Before that, we were blind to their might. But now we sell them as merchandise so we can eat rice instead. This lucky charm here will increase your chance to find a suiter. Your grandchildren will love it." He holds up a necklace of onion rings.
Perlmut: "Oho, my grandchildren? For how young do you take me for? What flatery."
Shop keep: "???.."
Perlmut: "My grandchildren's grandchildren would love them." *With this mystic belief going around about roasted onion necklaces, I can pull one over Hyang again, kekekeke.* "I'll take one, aswell as fresh ones for cooking."
Shop keep: "Cooking? Is Madam trying to have it smell like she is a master chef when cooking? Or just cooking it alongside rice? hahahaha"
Perlmut: "What a cheeky young lad we have here. Your dad ought to teach you a thing or two about customer service."
Shop keep: "I'm already my own man... But please don't tell him."
And so Perlmut bought preserved meat slices, dried vegetables, onions, flour, pomelo, milk and longan fruit from the market. The onions, though, were the cheepest.
Perlmut *It's a shame the storage rings do not preserve things. The fruits will have to be used soon.*
On Qiong's side of the day, on the other hand, he is starting a conversation with a farmer.
Qiong: "Hello there, my name is Qiong. May I interest you in- sorry, bad habit of mine."
Farmer: "Heyon, what weather do I have to thankes foe seeing such a scruppy looking orgball on this otherwise fine day?"
Qiong: "Word goes around that the one called King of the Food Chain has died in a fire. And also, have you had an encounter with a special kind of rain, perhaps?"
Farmer: "So tats what me lunchtime has been interupted fo? Rain? Yes, it rains. It aint a drought now, lucky lilly aint it? But special rain? Like what? Piss on me field? Ey, just so you know. If I catch ye pissen on me field, I'll make yo wish yo mummy taught you an inch of a fork better on common sense. And also the rumours ring sense in the cows bell ya hear me, the food market has been somewhat of a mess recently. Fellas have started selling their goods on they own again, like old times. No more organased efficancy, hear me."
Qiong: "I have had never the intention of releasing me upon this field, as so I am uncivilized. I meant genuine special rain that may have affected your crops and perhaps created special crops."
Farmer: "Aight, I hope yo wein't lying abot the no field pissen." 'suspicious look towards Qiong' "I sure ain't wantin none of those "special" crops yo was talking n'bout."
Qiong: "...beside that, mind to sell me your goods, I represent Osch'n Hosch."
Farmer: "Aah, Osch'n Hosch, must be my lucky day than. heart a lot, heart a lot.(...)"
And thus the day of Qiong goes by with him figuring out the current infrastructure that the farmers have to deal with. Of course he already has ideas on how to handle their worries. After all, he represents Osch'n Hosch. He once again successfully completes business interactions, and this time it allows for infrastructure business in farm regions. While he might be the for runner of Osch'n Hosch, he is not going to be the sole person who has to complete all business interactions with farmers himself, also he is good at it.
And at the end of the day for Qiong, within his pricy inn, in his luxurious apartment, he goes to rest thinking about food prices and seed prices and ends up sleep talking: "Nngen rain nn variable nggnn mysterious hm pfzz opportunity zzzz."
Perlmuts Day ends in an average Inn. "It's a nice sleeping place." she says, petting Rex's head before and then during sleep. Sleep cultivating like that with Rex Unustuse cozyli covered in her hair until the morning arrives.
On the morning of the next day, Hyang tells them about his findings.
Hyang: "I've heard a rumour of a burnt down Pagoda Siechuan, the death of Spangurtos, the very merchant we once saved before from fire cultivators. A remarkable person who did his best to have the people ruled over by our Emperor fed. And apparently, rumour of the rumour is that there were vile bug creatures involved in it, and since that part makes it even more interesting, let's investigate it."
Qiong: *Great opportunity that I'm already making use of.* "I'm already involved in filling the hole in the market that was left with his demise. The foot chain cannot be allowed to collapse after all."
Perlmut: "If so, you wish, Master Yi."
Hyang: "..."
Qiong: "Wait, are you his royal highness??"
Hyang: "..."
Perlmut: "Ahahahhaha"
Qiong: "So it was a joke, was it?" A disapproving look has formed on his face. "You should not joke about our royalty❕ Such things can be seen as treason with the death penalty as punishment."
Perlmut+Hyang: "I didn't know that."
Perlmut's head slowly turns towards Hyang with a smirk forming on her face. Looking at him in Perlmut fashion.
Hyang: "…just… Let's move on then and forget about her mistake."
Moving on, Qiong looks at Hyang and Perlmut with suspicion as well as with visible upsetness, for probably haven fallen for Perlmut's joke. He is even more upset because he now isn't absolutely sure about Perlmut really just having told a joke or not. Qiong thinks *But if Hyang really is royalty… he is a strong cultivator, so that possibility isn't 0 after all.* Knowing that Perlmut filled him with uncertainty about such a ridiculous proposition fills him with utmost agitation. A Qiong filled with tremendous annoyance now walks upset alongside the three of them.