Di-ding The bell on the door jingled as more people came pouring through. The previously barren shop had now had a line that extend a long distance from the entrance composed of people who desperately wanted to try the newest innovation in their daily lives since the wheel.
To no one's surprise tea was a staple of every household within Tianchi Kingdom, and now that younger people had a chance to drink tea that wasn't completely bitter they were going to take it. Not to mention the pretty waitresses they got to talk to.
"Manager Zu we're almost out of milk, I'm afraid we will have to close shop early." an unfamiliar young lady said in a concerned tone.
Zu struck a pose trying to stick out his chest nonchalantly and responded "worry not dear, I have contacted boss Wu he will soon be here with our milk."
The girl looked upon him with a weirded out expression and made a quick excuse to get out of the situation "Ok, I'm going to go see if the customers need anything." and practically vanished.
"Zu you better not scare away these girls, they weren't easy to find." Secretary Lan chimed in from the background.
Zu looked at secretary Lan with a shocked expression "What??? Mrs.Lan you see me all the time so you are somewhat immune to my charms but I assure you the girl just now was embarrassed by my good looks and her shyness made her fall back."
Secretary Lan was unsure about how to dispel Zu's misconception the problem wasn't his personality but rather he actually believed what he had said just now.
"Maybe he suffers from some sort of mental disease?" she thought to herself.
While secretary Lan was figuring out how to correctly diagnose Zu, the door opened once more.
"The milk is here." Zhishi Wu said as he walked into the door "go grab it Zu."
"Right away Boss." Zu rushed out the door to grab the newly brought supplies.
"So Secretary Lan, how goes business?"
Zhishi Wu said this as he smirked, he knew that business was booming he just wanted to see Secretary Lan admit it.
"I don't want to say this but if the current trend continues we might be looking at over 1000 silver coins as revenue per month, many times more if we expand."
Secretary Lan managed to say reluctantly, she was over 30 years old and apprentice to Boss Zhang an incredibly accomplished merchant. Yet she had never had this sort of overnight success in business.
Zhishi Wu didn't say anything but had an incredibly smug expression on his face.
His incessant bragging was disturbed when the door was suddenly opened and a loud announcement was heard within the shop.
"The second prince has arrived!"
Just as everyone went to bow a soothing voice followed.
"No need to bow friends, please raise your heads. I have merely come here to sample a delicacy I heard of."
Zhishi Wu was surprised, putting aside his ability to run into royals randomly, the kingdom's situation didn't seem like the prince would have free time to enjoy pleasantries.
The prince walked and sat on a table while his guards stood against the wall, since this was a prince Zhishi Wu personally went up to take the order.
"Just one of those milk tea's I've been hearing about."
Zhishi Wu went back and personally prepared his tea. The prince slowly took a sip and an uncharacteristically large smile appeared on his face.
"My my, when I heard about this place I thought it was all just hot air. May I meet with the man who invented this fine drink?"
Zhishi Wu took a slight bow and introduced himself "I am known as Zhishi Wu."
The prince had a moment of silence, he wasn't sure how to react to said information.
"To think that such a young child could bring about such an innovation within an art that is millennia old. That old man Zhang might not be completely blind after all."
"Many thanks for your kind word's prince."
The prince had another moment of thought before he reached into his robe and removed a pill.
"This is known as a body invigoration pill, this will help you step into the initial stages of body refining and nourish your body."
Body refining was a term Zhishi Wu had read about, to him it seemed like it was some form of performance enhancing drug, except it was permanent, the example given was that an individual in early body tempering could fight 20 adult men by himself.
"I don't dare to take this prince just the thought is enough" Zhishi Wu wasn't just being courteous he knew that behind every action of politicians and in this case royals, there was some kind of hidden motive.
"Come, come little one, this is not merely a gift from me, treat it as an investment, I trust that you may be able to do good for this country."
Zhishi Wu contemplated declining again but he wasn't sure of the prince's personality and how he may act if repeated denied.
"Then I shall try to live up to the prince's expectations." Zhishi Wu reluctantly took the pill, although there was a voice in the back of his head that was super excited to see what this new thing was like a child given a book for the first time, but he of course suppressed it.
"Haha treat it as nothing, the next time we meet feel free to call me prince Zumo." The prince got up and signaled the guards to leave.
"Until next time secretary Lan." the prince winked at her as he walked towards the door, secretary Lan merely had a slight shiver up her spine as a reaction.
"I was hoping he wouldn't notice me." She thought to herself, she was well aware of his flirtatious personality as she had to deal with it whenever he came to meet with boss Zhang.
"To a long lasting friendship little friend Zhishi Wu." the prince said his last parting words as he left the shop.
The moment the prince left the shop Secretary Lan sighed.
"Why the sudden sigh Secretary Lan." Zhishi Wu said as a slight smirk.
"I'm relieved he didn't stay to chat with me. Every time he comes to visit boss Wu he finds an excuse to talk to me for hours, it just drives me insane."
Zhishi Wu could see Zumo Tian doing that, from his mannerisms it seemed like he was a classic silkpants far to relaxed and easy going, then again you can only tell so much from this short meeting.
"Body tempering." Zhishi Wu thought to himself as he held the pill in his hand, he wanted to be cautious and conduct some research before consuming it.
….
"It's not here either." Zhishi Wu sighed as he read through multiple texts trying to figure out what cultivation was.
"If I can't figure that out I might as well read up on body refining." Zhishi Wu grabbed a book that was labeled The complete guide to body refining.
The book had a plethora of information, the term for people who had underwent the process was body refiners. It talked about the stages of body tempering which was divided between the initial, middle, and peak. What's more is that each stage carried a quantitative difference, in normal circumstance an initial body refiner would never be able to compete with a middle stage body refiner.
Zhishi Wu completely zoned out and was immersed within the text he was reading, a sense of wonder that he had not had since he was a child was beginning to emerge.
"Amazing." he thought to himself as he continued reading, the book mentioned that when a body tempering pill is taken it must be taken alongside a great portion of food or the pill taker may starve to death. In addition, the price of one initial realm pill was 1000 silver coins, an amount an average family would never see in their lives the higher level pills were many times more expensive.
"A financial superiority as well as a physical, the hierarchy in this world is even more constricting than in my original earth. Regardless it's a good thing I decided to read up on it more before I took the pill." this already weak body starving would be a recipe for disaster.
"Now, I wonder if it mentions the recipe for these pills." Zhishi Wu flipped through the pages at extreme speeds, as he ran out of pages he went through many books but even while the pile of books on his table started to form a wall around him he never found the information he was looking for.
"Not here, not here, not here." he subconsciously said out loud as he ran through the texts.
"Hush child, this is a public space." A girl sitting beside him spoke.
Zhishi Wu broke out of the trance he was in as he heard this he immediately turned his head to apologize.
"My apologies seni-" just as he was about to say senior he saw that the girl sitting beside him seemed no older than 16 and felt his eyebrow twitch.
"Did a child just call me a child?" he thought to himself as he examined the girl, she seemed to be a little odd her head was covered by the hooded part of her robe but her face was clearly visible. Zhishi Wu was not one to speak empty words nor think them but when he saw her face all he could think was.
"Beautiful." being in such a daze was unlike him, he had seen his fair share of beautiful women on earth as well, although he had spent most of his time researching one thing or another he had many projects in which he attempted to objectively measure beauty and this girl broke all his scales.
Eyes that glowed a golden color and were so deep that they threatened to drown him, a face so symmetrical that it surpassed the composition of even snowflakes and skin that was practically perfect to the greatest degree, a golden ratio.
"This one is not pleased with your apology, do so again." the girl spoke once again snapping him out of his daze.
Zhishi Wu was someone who had achieved the pinnacle of knowledge he was ashamed that a pretty face had managed to lower his guard. He once again paid attention to her surroundings and saw that she was reading a book, it was titled The tale of two kingdoms.
"..." he was speechless for another reason now, when he got hushed he expected it might be some stuck up academic like his colleagues in his previous life but it was just some random girl reading a story book.
"Enough of your stalling start by explaining what you were blabbering about." She said.
"Calm down, calm down, she's probably some rich noble's daughter you need to be patient with her." Zhishi Wu thought to himself as he formulated a response.
"I was looking for recipes for crafting body tempering pills miss, would you happen to know?" Zhishi Wu wanted to wrap this up so he asked her a question she would definitely say no to.
"Was that all? You made it seem like it was complicated, the initial pill involves 2 dusk flame lilies and 3 golden eyed toad livers. Now hush or leave." the girl said as she turned her attention back on to her book.
"..... I see." Zhishi Wu had not expected an actual answer and quickly wrote it down in a notebook he carried around.
"And about the recipes for the later stage pills?" there was no way he would let go of information that had walked down his front door he needed it all.
The girl slowly turned her head and looked at him with a questioning gaze.
"Why?"
"Why what?" he responded
"Why should this one assist you? What have you to offer?" she said with a blank expression on her face.
"Mone-" Zhishi Wu was about to compensate her with money when she turned her head and returned to her book. It seemed like the only thing he had to offer was something she didn't care about.
Zhishi Wu thought about the situation and offered the only other thing he could think of in the moment.
"Stories! I'll give you stories you've never read before."
The girl turned her head in an instant and replied.
"If they are not satisfactory I'll wipe your memory of my information."
Zhishi Wu was concerned about this girl's delusions but didn't say anything, maybe this was some sort of chnubiyo disorder.
"I guess we have a deal then. Come see me tomorrow Lan's Café"