Upon leaving the Jeweler, Jin quickly knew that the prepared funds wouldn't last. They had gotten quite a sum for the exchange but the price of goods was very high. He had the Driver head further into town, whatever it was that Wu Hai needed, they would probably find it there.
"I would like to search for tools next. Jin, where would we go for tools and swords? Is there a smith nearby?" Jin kept his astonishment as he listened to his new friend. .
The phone verified that Xuan Kim Li was working at FROHK, that he was real. If Xuan Kim Li was real, then it was possible to figure out how to go back.
Wu Hai finally figured out a possible reason to his arrival and why he had missed Xuan Kim Li on his exit. He was very new to teleporting, not only was the first transit enough to send him far away but the place he was teleporting to had a lot of places he could have arrived. He felt that with the shape of the building, he could have easily arrived above Xuan Kim Li's position.
He shrugged it off in the moment. 'Either way, I didn't intend to come here..' Before they had left the Jeweler and while no one was looking, Wu Hai safely stored the bag of gems.
"Tools? Like a Hammer?" Jin was starting to understand how Wu Hai was thinking and wished to help as best he could.
Wu Hai had talked about coming from a place with no electricity when Jin first met, 'maybe he needs something simple.'
Jin knew his new friend's needs wouldn't be ordinary, everything that Wu Hai was doing sent him into a steamroll of confusion, followed by amazement.
"Panjiayuan is probably what you're more interested in. Anything sold there won't take electricity. Hand tools are very easy to find there." Jin thought he was sending Wu Hai to the right place. His pride started to swell, he knew all the good markets because he could get good money from the people who bought items there.
Directing the Cab Driver, Jin paid as they were leaving.
Most of the Shop Owners in Panjiayuan were tradesmen with outdated skill sets but the people who kept shops in Panjiayuan were use to high volume traffic and low sales, so the price of tools was varied wherever they went.
"I'll take everything in this shop." Wu Hai started pulling out nicely made shovels and hand augers.
"This saw is nice.. Oh, I like these carts.. I'll take them all." Wu Hai went from shop to shop and bought strange tool after strange tool. He had them box everything up and Jin gave them an address for delivery.
From planers to planters, he bought tons of tools. If he didn't understand what they were, he bought ten or more. He bought anything he saw that was of interest. Wu Hai didn't see a lot of metal forging equipment. In fact, it was almost impossible to find someone to forge within the City.
Passing through a section of clay art, Wu Hai saw a few very special pieces of artwork. They were not very big but the vases were beautiful and clean.
"My Mother would like some of these. Shop owner, how much for all of these?" Wu Hai couldn't forget about his Mother, she had lost everything in the Tea Shop when the King had tried to assassinate them.
'Tea Shop...' Wu Hai kept thinking about his mother and made a note to get tea as well.
The attack in Portano was Hell on their Family, they had barely made it out of the Capital with their lives. If it wasn't for Master Jiang's quick thinking, the entire Zao Family would have been wiped out except for Wu Hai. King Wang Wei was to blame for the townsfolk's assassination, his greed was immense.
"Fifty Thousand each," The attendant spoke up. 'This fucking idiot will buy anything..' The attendant was sure no one would buy them for such a markup but Wu Hai was unaware of vultures.
"Ahh, Jin, is that a lot?" Wu Hai gently asked Jin.
"Yes, Master Wu. There are a hundred vases, you would need a little more than we have remaining." Jin swallowed hard, spending millions, let alone confirming the price of something worth a million had left him with a dry mouth.
"How much did we get earlier from the Jeweler for that brick?" Wu Hai asked Jin very quietly.
Counting on his fingers like it meant something, Jin responded, "700k."
Wu Hai reached into a bag that was empty and materialized two more gold bars from storage and then set them on the counter. "Will this cover it?"
With a thudding noise, the bricks landed on the counter and the clerk was dazzled.
"Is this a prank?" She questioned Wu Hai about the gold before picking it up and noticing the weight. Her voice came to an abrupt stop and she grabbed a sharp object from behind the counter to scratch the bars.
"No, I just don't have the right currency. We sold a bar earlier, I think 2 bars should cover the price of these vases, right?" Wu Hai was about to ask Jin where to put them until he could store them into his ring when...
"Master Wu, you'll have to get a truck to move all these vases. They will have to deliver them." Jin tried to reason with Wu Hai.
The Clerk heard the word 'Master' and her ears perked up.
"Can't they send them to the Hotel?" Wu Hai asked.
"We can send them to your hotel, sure." Grabbing the Bars off the countertop in fear that Wu Hai would change his mind, she scratched at the top of the bar to check its authenticity and hid them from sight. The Bars were heavy. It was already unlikely that they were fake but after the scratch test, her eyes bulged out of her head.
"Esteemed Customer, Thank you for your patronage. Please give me the address to deliver the vases. I will personally see to it." The saleswoman was chipper, happier than when she first saw the pair. Their clothes were not expensive, she didn't expect them to buy even one of the items in her shop and he actually bought 100.
"What else can I help this young master find? Does this young master need a guide? My sister is free to show you around?" Pulling her unmarried and younger sister out from the back room and pushing her in front of Wu Hai, the mood quickly turned awkward.
"I would like to see books. Any topic would be fine as long as its useful." Passing a glance to Jin, Wu Hai gave a clear answer and ignored the Clerk's advancements.
"Bookstore? Okay.. The Wangfujing Bookstore is the largest in the area, it's been in operation for over a hundred years." Jin was confident that Wu Hai would be happy with the selection. He had no idea what to expect but every move that Wu Hai made was mezmerizing.
The Duo exited the building and hailed another Taxi.
"The Vases will be delivered tonight, the Shop Owners have already agreed to close up and head there to personally oversee the delivery." Jin felt important and to Wu Hai, he was, he closed the door behind him, "Wangfujing Bookstore."
It took twenty minutes to get to their next destination and when Wu Hai was stopping outside of the front doors to the Bookstore, the Driver asked to be paid.
Jin held the door for Wu Hai, "Master Wu, this way. I think you'll be very pleased." He motioned toward the entrance.
Wu Hai was use to people calling him all sorts of things, but 'Master Wu' was fairly nice. He did his best not to cringe at Titles but some of the ways people described him were downright awful.
The first thought that popped into Wu Hai's mind when they walked into the building was how he wished that the bookstores in his homeland were this large. Then, he thought about it some more and realized that his world's human population was far behind this World's ability to spread knowledge.
Wu Hai first saw cookbooks from the many nations of Earth, they were filled with pictures and exacting details on how to make foods from all over. None of the ingredients translated well but there were so many ideas and pictures.
"Mind-staggeringly impossible. If these look this good, I can only imagine how good they actually taste." Wu Hai was unabashed. He quickly started handing books in stacks to Jin.
The quantity of things he retrieving never mattered to Wu Hai, he had no problem clearing out the shelves entirely. Jin saw the angry looks of the people working the bookstore and found a better way.
"I'll put them in boxes, Master Wu." Jin did his best to keep up, it was his job to be the Liaison. Even if the position was self-appointed to some degree, Jin would never slouch on his promises.
Having Jin fill boxes with books, the Bookstore clerks were curious about what was going on. After the first few boxes were filled, they started to worry. "Excuse me, Sirs. What are you're doing?"
"I don't have enough hands, I'm using a box to store the books I intend to purchase." Jin rebuked the suspicion of the clerks almost instantly. He had been thrown out of enough buildings to know when he was under suspicion.
"We can have someone bring them to the counter, and if your order is large enough we can also deliver them." The Clerk was being polite but still had an ugly look on her face. She couldn't believe that someone would come to buy all of the cookbooks.
"What about my Hotel, can you deliver there?" Jin asked for Wu Hai, he was too busy selecting things to pay attention to the clerks.
"Yes, any order over 100 books can be delivered, Good hunting." Turning around the Clerk flipped her hair and acted as if they were just screwing with her to make extra work at the end of the day. She had seen it a few times and it almost always ended with the police arriving.
"Jin, are most Humans of this World so rude?" Getting berated every time they went somewhere was an annoyance. Wu Hai shrugged it off but their actions showed poor manners.
"Unfortunately, we've been in a downward spiral for almost a century. The worlds resources are dwindling and everyone needs water. All water is contaminated to some degree, in another 100 years there won't be water to drink. What a pity our world is.." Jin laughed and almost lost his balance between the stacks of books.
"This world is dying? If the water is contaminated, why don't people fix the problem?" Wu Hai didn't know what to say. He had come from a world where they didn't have this problem.
Wu Hai looked at Jin and said, "Before I leave, I'll make sure this world will live a bit longer. Perhaps they will find a way to save themselves in time."
Jin got misty eyed and started to revere Wu Hai in his heart. "Why would you be so kind to this world that has already tried to capture you? I don't see this from our people, we usually just fight and argue with each other over baseless reasoning." Jin was provoking an answer from Wu Hai but he didn't care of the consequence over the statement.
Wu Hai had been blowing Jin's mind with the amount of spending he'd done so far and that lightning bit from before had sold him on the idea that he was really from another world. He could only ask questions.
"Your people are just frightened, running out of water would be terrible." Wu Hai walked up to the section marked science.
"Science...What is science?" Wu Hai had a weird look on his face and then he opened book on solid materials.
Jin had several seen things in the last day that had blown his mind. One thing was certain, Wu Hai was not ordinary. 'Science was the foundation of everything, how could he possibly not understand.' "Science is the basics of everything, the rules that govern the world itself. Everything from how a rock falls to why water stays in a puddle or what exactly is the air we breathe made of. Science is also what cures disease and creates new ideas. Mathematics and science work together to answer the questions of the Universe." Jin repeated what he saw on a Television show while speaking. The dtatement really sold the idea of science to Wu Hai.
"Grab all of these, one... no, three of each. Old Man Jiang would want a copy." Wu Hai's attitude had a stark change. "Have everything sent to the Hotel. Jin, here is another bar. Please take care of the bill." Wu Hai felt enthusiasm, he had a thirst for knowledge.
"Master really doesn't understand, this bar can probably buy this whole store." Sighing inside and unsure of whether he should be crying or laughing, Jin continued to manage the situation.
Wu Hai collected what he could in the Science sections then found the Mathematics racks. Reading one of the titles, 'Basic Mathematics,' he picked it up and started to browse its contents. He could read what was written but understanding all of it was out of the question for the moment. "These will be good for Qu. Lets get a few of each, I don't want to miss anything."
After Jin was finished packing up the last few Math books, he saw that Wu Hai cleared a few other sections. He was standing in front of an Isle filled with colorful books.
In Wu Hai's hands, he had a book called 'Sword Empress of Diamond Island.' After picking it up, he started to read. The Book was filled with images and drawings. The artwork showed the actions of the Sword Empress fighting a Demon Emperor with a Rainbow Sword and a pet Lizard.
"Is this your History? It's nice to see pictures but why are their heads drawn so big? We have some scrolls detailing battle techniques but none are so full of color and strange language." Wu Hai pointed to a spot on the page, "What does, 'Buzz-zz-zap' mean?" Wu Hai spoke in earnest while reading some of the onomatopoeia. He believed that it was a genuine account of battle, there were fanastic scenes and techniques discussed at length in the story.
Looking further down the shelf he saw many books like the one he'd just looked through in the 'Manga Section'. Many of the books in that section caught his attention and made their way into the boxes.
'Leveling up for Fame' .., 'VRMMO: the Collapsing Gate' .., 'The Heavens Weep for Me' .., 'Reincarnated, My life as a Shadowdog' and 'Kraft King' were among the first pile of books.
When the box was full, he brought it to the counter. "I'd like to know if you have any more of these History books." Wu Hai said with a straight face to the clerk.
When she stopped laughing, she told him that the history books were in section 2.
Wu Hai didn't quite understand what she meant. In his world, they didn't write down stories that were not true. "I will thank you then," Walking up to the History section, he saw books on war, the development of modern machines, books on economics and government. There were a lot of them and some of the books were entirely the opinions of vicious people. He didn't feel like reading them but history from another world could tell them cautionary tales.
Back at the counter he decided to ask the clerk to do the work instead, "Could you please go box up one of each of the Books in your history section for me, I'll also want three of everything in the Manga section."
She choked on her soda and set it down to clear her throat. "Sir, that is quite a lot of books. Are you sure you can pay for all this? I don't want my boss getting angry with me for helping you if you're just fooling with me." The Clerk was about to continue when Jin placed a 500 ounce gold brick onto the counter.
"This should also cover delivery. I don't think we need the change, please send them directly to the hotel." Passing the address over to the clerk, she paused.
The Clerk looked at the brick. It was so heavy and almost crushed her fingers when she set it back down in front of her. She knew it was not only genuine, it was way more than the asking price of the books. Conflicted, she asked. "Sir, are you sure this is alright? This is a large sum of money." Making sure not to misunderstand things, the clerk asked one last time.
"Yes, just take it. I require a map of all the local water sources, where can I find that?" Wu Hai dismissed her precaution and asked.
"Maps have their own section but we don't have any maps that only show water sources, you'd have to talk to a Hydrologist or Scientist that studies those sorts of things." The Clerk was trying to be nice after being paid, she even apologized for her behavior.
It was unfortunate that the bookstore didn't have a map with that information, Jin frowned and grabbed a few world maps. He had overpaid and a few extra maps on the pile wouldn't affect anything to their bottom line.
"Jin, are you ready to go?" Picking up a book on human rights before tossing it aside, Wu Hai walked out the door. Everything had rights in the Prince's eyes, not just Humans. Khan Ni wasn't human, yet she was a dear friend of his.
"Yes, Master Wu. Where do you want to go now?" Jin had been attentive all day, they had spent millions in gold and Wu Hai hadn't batted an eye.
"Take me to a contaminated water source. You said all the water is contaminated so I'm sure you know of at least of one nearby." Wu Hai wanted to see first hand the damage that these 'Humans' had done to their World.