As we are shown around the city by Wanjing, one of the first things I noticed was how similar the layout of the Shiping is to Sujing. Both have a grid-like layout with all the government related facilities in the centre. On the outskirts of the city are military facilities to maintain order around the walls. Following that are the residential districts, then the commercial districts, and finally leading to the city centre. There are law enforcement facilities located in several locations within the residential and commercial districts, I make special note of these locations just in case I find myself in trouble.
During our tour of the city we never really came across any deserted areas or back ally slums, despite my enthusiasm towards them. Apparently, the high profile cities like the Provincial Capitals don't have many areas like this if at all, but they are far more common in small cities and frontier areas. According to Wanjing, this is due to the inspections carried out by the central government. Areas that see high traffic and places the imperial family are likely to visit are regularly overseen by an inspector for the purpose of public safety.
"That about concludes the tour of the city, well, with the exception of the streets my family does business on, but there isn't anything of importance there so it should be fine. That took longer than I thought it would though, we don't even have half an hour until we're supposed to meet up with Aunt Jiang."
"If I remember correctly we are meeting at the Shiping Pavilion, I believe we already passed it on this little tour. It's in the city centre, right?" Aurelia asks.
"Yeah, it's not too far from here so if we go now we will only be a few minutes early," Wanjing says.
"Then let's go, I've already gotten tired of the street food here. They've got nothing on the old man's skewers."
"Teacher... you've done nothing but eat since we left the Treasury and you're still hungry?"
"So long as I'm not taking in Elemental Energy from my surroundings I can eat as much as I please and I purposely halted my intake so I can try all the food around here. They aren't bad, but they aren't great either."
Turning to Lia, Wanjing asks, "is she for real?"
"Yes, but you should just be glad I stopped her from drinking any alcohol today. Otherwise, I'm not sure your wallet could hold on for much longer," Lia says.
"Alright, I've decided, I'm going to do everything in my power to make sure Aunt Jiang pays for dinner tonight."
As we arrive at the Shiping Pavilion we find Dai Jiang waiting outside the entrance with another person. Wanjing makes some strange sound and from the looks of it she recognises this guy, but he looks kind of shady. He is wearing a dark blue outfit and kind of looks like a ninja, the only visible part of him are his eyes as he shows no skin at all. Hold on... ninja looking person, someone both Dai Jiang and Wanjing know... could he be?
"Hey there, Grave Robber, been a while since I last saw you, though I guess this is our first time meeting in person."
"I take it you people are the ones Dai Jiang said wanted to speak with me. Seems like you know me, but I don't believe we've met," the ninja? says.
If we are going off their build I would say this is a guy but he speaks in a muffled voice that makes it hard to tell whether they're male or female. Even with my strong hearing, I can't get a clear grip on their voice.
"Yeah, well, we've never met in person before, although you have bought stuff I put up for auction before. You would know me as the Smuggler."
*mhm* Dai Jiang fakes out a cough, getting the attention of the two, "why don't we have a chat inside, I've arranged a private room for us. I highly suggest we don't continue this conversation in the city centre."
Seeing that this conversation has the potential to drip into not so legal territory, Dai Jiang leads our group inside and we are soon brought to a small private dining room. Although it's not as fancy as the Interdimensional Restaraunt, this place isn't too bad and reminds me of the restaurant we ate at when we first met Aurelia.
"Don't worry about the food, it's on me tonight," Dai Jiang says, as a look of relief washes over Wanjing's face.
"Alright for starters, I'll have two of everything and some of your finest wine."
Listening to my order, both the waitress who brought us here and Dai Jiang look at me like I'm some strange creature.
Perhaps because she feels sorry for her, Wanjing says, "don't worry Aunt Jiang, I'll only order one of the expensive dishes," nevermind seems like I taught her well.
"You really don't need to worry with me, I'll opt for a cheap salad, unlike the shameless student-teacher pair," Aurelia says.
"I'll have--" Lia says, but one glare from Aurelia stops her as she pauses before continuing in a low voice, "I'll also have some cheap... one order of the rice bowl."
"And what about you two?" the waitress asks, looking towards the Grave Robber and Dai Jiang.
"I will simply have a cup of water," the Grave Robber says.
"Just give me some pork dumplings and beer," Dai Jiang says.
"Alright, your orders will be here shortly. Uhh... most of them that is," the waitress says while looking at me before leaving.
Just as she said, shortly after leaving the waitress returns bringing both our drinks and food. From the looks of it though, it clearly doesn't take more than a few sips for Dai Jiang to get drunk.
"I'm sorry everyone, Aunt Jiang is a super lightweight when it comes to alcohol."
"I should have said that everyone has to pay for their own meal. Saaay, little Wan, do your Auntie a favour and help pay for at least half of your Teacher's meal."
"Nope, you reap what you sow. Besides, I already paid for all the food she ate when I was showing them around the city. Teacher stopped at every single street vendor selling food and because they don't have any money I end up paying for all of it."
"And she still wants to eat!? Sure, she's tall, but where in the world does all that food go!? And why did you have to get two of everything, isn't one enough!? Are all outsiders like this... clearly not since you two got significantly smaller meals, from the bottom of my heart, thank you for being kind to my wallet."
"She's all over the place isn't she, one moment these asking for money, the next she yelling, and now she's thanking us. Well, it's far better than dealing with Cordelia when she's drunk," Aurelia says.
"I would like to think most of the world population is better than Cory when she's drunk, and it doesn't help that she never remembers anything afterwards. It's a real good thing that her alcohol tolerance rivals the Dwarves, especially with her fondness for it."
"I kind of want to see Teacher when she's drunk but at the same time, your descriptions kind of scare me. But I am curious, how does she manage to eat all that food?" Wanjing asks.
"Now that I think about it, you've never seen Cordelia's true form, have you?" Aurelia asks.
"You've all mentioned that she's a Dragon but as far as I can tell she is just a strange looking Dragonoid."
"You're a Dragon!?" Dai Jiang and even the Grave Robber call out in surprise.
"You've been having an entire conversation about me this whole time and I've kept quiet since I've got a lot of food to eat, but isn't it a little rude to keep on shouting while we're eating."
"You are the last person I want to hear talking about manners..." Aurelia says, turning back to Wanjing, Aurelia continues, "her true form is probably amongst the largest land creatures alive, in terms of pure size at least. There are some heavier ones out there like Lord Gaoh, Cordelia is rather heavy herself, but being the lady she is, she puts a lot of effort into hiding her weight."
*ack*, I begin coughing and almost choke on my food as I listen to the conversation. As soon as I am able I yell out, "h-how did you even know that!? Not even Lia knew I was hiding my weight!"
"Did you forget what kind of being I am, you can't hide things like manipulating the air to assist your movements and using your abilities to stabilise wooden buildings that would normally collapse if it had to support your weight, or even--"
"Stop, please just stop talking about this, I'll even pay for my own food, just stop talking about my weight!"
"Alight, I know what you have in mind, so make sure to pay our fox friend back once you get the money. Anyways, putting the matter of her weight aside for a moment, just because she appears in a smaller humanoid form, doesn't mean that the energy she needs to operate is any less. Isn't that right? You finished the food here right now so why don't you explain since your done eating," Aurelia says.
"Yeah, what you said is pretty much right. Normally I would get the nutrients and energy I need from the Elements, food only being supplementary. But today I had chosen not to absorb the elements in favour of eating. This also means I have to eat a lot to compensate for the loss of energy I would normally be getting."
"Please tell me that there was another reason other than you wanting to just eat food that made you do this. You really put a dent into my wallet today, Teacher."
"I actually do have another reason, I am close to having enough biomatter for a new mutation I want, so I need to eat a lot of organic material to achieve the desired amount. Once I finish the rest of the food that has yet to arrive I should have enough. But that's enough about me, I want to ask the Grave Robber a few things."
"Go ahead, although rude of me I did end up listening to some of your personal details despite only having just met."
"What can you tell us about the ruins here in the Ji province, the restricted one?"
"Unfortunately, not much. Even for me, that place was to difficult to sneak into. I only managed to swipe a few of the things the imperial excavators had dugout. The official name is the Qinglong Tomb. There was a barrier array that had kept it hidden, but a few years ago there was an earthquake and opened a small path to the tomb. The only way in is through the Lan Shu forest but actually entering the tomb would be near impossible without being spotted. One a got the artefacts from there, I had only stolen them from a caravan taking them out, and even then I just barely got away with my life. As a word of advice, you should try your luck there."
Hearing what the Grave Robber said, the room went silent for a moment until we heard someone knocking on the door as it slides open.
"Sorry for the wait, the last set of your meal has arrived, I hope you enjoy," the waitress says as she sets down plate after plate in front of me before leaving.
The room soon devolves back to silence, save for the sounds of my chewing. But as I finish one of the plates, I say, "thanks for the advice, but I don't need to try my luck, no matter what I do it's going to end poorly, this I can confidently say as one of the unluckiest people around. But I came here in search of a few things, and I'm not afraid to get myself into a bit of trouble for the sake of completing my objective, moreover, I'm really good at running away. But lets forget about this for now, before that we need to talk about tomorrows auction."