The Legendary Janitor

After a brief moment, another compartment on the wall opened up a bit. Using a handkerchief, the shopkeep picked up a bundle of six or seven charcoal sticks that were as thick as a thumb and as long as a thumb that were binded together with a small piece of twine. Bringing them over to the table, he presented them before Di Tou.

"Do you mind if I try a stick first?"

Hesitating for a moment, and sighing again in his heart, the shopkeeper responded, "Of course."

Unwrapping the twine, Di Tou grabbed a charcoal stick and frowned a little at the residue that was left on his fingers. Holding the stick like he would a pencil, he tried writing on the paper and achieved a moderate success.

The stick was rather fat compared to a pencil, and wasn't sharped to a point, which lead to the characters becoming a bit messy to read, but all in all it worked.

"Alright this will work. Can you get me another bundle of these, and another two stacks of paper?"

The shopkeeper smiled, "Of course of course! Is there anything else you need."

"Ah, not in particular… actually do you have any bags big enough to carry…" Di Tou thought for a moment, "an adult male around here?"

Shopkeeper: WTF?

"Ahem, for storing leaves and rocks." Di Tou quickly amended, realizing that he had misspoken.

"Ah… We don't have anything particular like that here, although I can ask the people in the warehouse if they happen to have some large bags leftover from transport."

"Hmm, don't worry about it. I also need to get some candles, buckets, and a needle and thread do you know where I can get those nearby?" 𝐛𝐞𝐝𝗻𝐨𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝐜𝐨𝗺

Dazed, but keeping a professional smile the shopkeep replied, "Ah, there's a hardware store about a block down the street, I think it's called Ding Kun Hardware that might have what you're looking for."

"Good, good, that'll do, how much is everything I've gotten so far?"

Shopkeeper: Happy day! This weird ancestor is finally on the way out!

Doing some quick mental arithmetic, the shopkeeper came to a sum, "The total comes up to three lower spirit stones and two silver nuggets." Pausing for a second, the shopkeeper figured he should explain, "Although the paper isn't particularity popular, it's a bit expensive to procure on our end, so it's one spirit stone per stack, so that is the majority of the cost today senior."

Di Tou reached into his bag to grab three of the smaller spirit stones that he had found in Mu Di Bai's room, only for the shopkeeper to stop him after taking out just one.

"I see this senior wants to make a payment in mid-tier spirit stones. If you would like I can help you open a membership with our shop using the single middle tier spirit stone, that way you can collect the change in your membership."

"It'll give you 10% off on all future purchases in our shop, as well as membership rewards after certain accumulations of purchases…"

Di Tou: F*ck marketing has made it's way here already!?

"Ahem, to sum it up, it'll cost 10 lower tier spirit stones to get the membership card, and another three for your purchase. The silver can be waived, so you'll have a remaining sum of 87 lower tier spirit stones in your card, do you find this agreeable."

Dazed, Di Tou replied, "Ah, alright. We'll do it as you said."

With a sh*t eating smile, the shopkeeper took the mid-tier spirit stone out of Di Tou's hand and quickly processed the purchase. Stepping briefly out of the room, he returned shortly after with three stacks of paper and bound together with a piece of twine, alongside two bundles of charcoal sticks that were bundled up using a small piece of leather to prevent the sticks from staining everything around them.

Handing off the two packages to Di Tou, he then reached into a compartment that had opened in the back of the wall and took out a small stone pendant and handed it over to Di Tou. The pendant had the words "Fu Hai Calligraphy" inscribed on it.

"Thank you for your purchases. Is there anything else you need today..?"

"Err… No, I should get going."

"Of course of course," the shopkeeper gave out his first genuine smile of the day. "Right this way."

Standing in front of the store, Di Tou paused for a moment to remember the directions and then headed on over to the hardware store. Stepping inside, he found the store was much smaller, and was manned by a man who was sitting behind the counter carving a piece of wood with a knife.

This store was much more simple, in that the majority of the items were displayed here and there, and weren't difficult to find.

After a brief search, Di Tou found two buckets came in a set alongside a pole to carry them with, as well as a couple of candles he placed in the bucket for now. Heading over to the counter, Di Tou asked the man, "Do you have needle and threads here? As well as some large cloth bags?"

Pausing his carving, and gently putting down his knife and wooden figurine, the man said, "Give me a moment." Before getting up and walking towards a shelf behind the counter with a slight limp.

Shortly after he returned with a sewing kit that he placed on the counter. Inspecting the sewing kit Di Tou found that it had a bunch of needles, a variety of colored threads, small scissors to cut off the string, as well as a a thumb guard.

While Di Tou was inspecting the sewing kit, the man then walked into a backroom that Di Tou couldn't see into, and returned shortly after with a collection of folded bags.

Unfurling one, he revealed that it was about as big as a backpack.

"Do you have anything bigger?"

Nodding, the man walked back into the backroom, returning with a trash bag sized cloth bag this time.

"That's good. I'll take the things I'm holding, the sewing kit, and three of those bags."

"Alright." Walking into the backroom one more time to grab another two bags, the man returned and asked for 8 silver nuggets.

Putting his new purchases into one of the buckets, and putting his purchases from earlier into the other bucket, Di Tou found they about balanced out. Hoisting the pole over his shoulders, Di Tou started heading back.