Genshin Impact, I'm Slime

While the Traveller and Paimon were discussing their plan to deal with Pantalone at the Flying Cloud Merchant Guild.

Famas and Wendy, who had stolen the Pantalonne cloak from the Hall of Rebirth, had arrived at the still intact South Wharf.

The southern dock of Liyue Harbor seems to be the last well-preserved piece of the puzzle in this turbulent port city.

The faint smell of gunpowder still seemed to linger in the distance at Feiyunpo, but the air at the dock was filled with the vibrant atmosphere of daily life. The salty sea breeze carried the roar of unloading cargo, the rough and powerful shouts, the persistent hawking of vendors, and the sweltering heat of the crowds, all intertwining to create a bustling scene of life.

The lights are the soul of the dock. The dim yellow oil lamps hanging from the masts of fishing boats and the warm glow spilling from the portholes of merchant ships, along with countless lanterns that have just been carefully lit and released into the sky, illuminate the entire sea area and the shore in a bright and dazzling light.

The massive cargo ship resembled a crouching behemoth. The workers, their muscles bulging, their bronze skin gleaming with sweat and lamplight, chanted rhythmic work songs as they carried heavy containers from the ship's hull to the mountains of cargo piled up on the shore.

The vendors' carts and stalls skillfully squeezed through the gaps in the crowd:

"New rice and Mondstadt flour arrived! Payment will be made according to the work order! Bulk discounts available!"

"Catch! Just landed! The freshest! How many kilograms do you want? Show me your employee badge and I'll deduct the cost!"

"Ginger soup to ward off the cold! Liquor to warm you up! A bowl for every work point you earn! Relieve fatigue and give you energy!"

The vendors' shouts were lively and bustling, but the items being traded were not the Mora they were used to, but work points and work tickets that seemed to have come from nowhere.

Wendy peered out curiously, while FAMAS frowned slightly.

Whether in his past life or this one, FAMAS had seen this kind of point-based trading system before, but seeing it in Liyue now still struck him as quite strange.

The boy handed the stolen cloak to Wendy and walked to a stall piled high with rice sacks.

The stall owner was a lean, middle-aged man with a weathered face, but his eyes shone with the shrewdness of a businessman.

“Boss,” Famas pointed to the “Work Points Settlement” sign on the stall, his voice low and carrying just the right amount of outsider’s confusion, “what are these work points…? Does nobody use Mora anymore?”

When a customer inquired, the stall owner immediately became enthusiastic, deftly patting the dust kicked up by the rice bag as if showing off a treasure:

"Oh, sir from out of town, are you new to Liyue Harbor?"

"This work point system is a new rule created by our Lord Tianquan to accelerate the reconstruction of the port city!"

He lowered his voice, but couldn't hide the admiration in his words.

"Look, a lot of the port was destroyed recently, and there is a shortage of manpower and supplies. So Lady Ningguang encouraged everyone to contribute their labor and work, and for each day of work, they would be given work points according to their contribution."

"With work points, you can buy things at designated stalls and from me!"

He pointed to another bag of Mond flour next to him.

"Look at this powder, it's so chewy! Ten work points for a pound, I guarantee you'll want more after you eat it! This is even more convenient than Mora before the disaster. You can rebuild your home while exchanging it for food and daily necessities, it's killing two birds with one stone!"

He spoke eloquently about Lord Ningguang's wise decision, his words filled with the simple recognition of an ordinary person's effective policies, while his instinct to promote his own rice and flour was also evident.

The explanation is free, but the goal is to make a sale, even if the customer is a stranger who doesn't look very old.

Holding the cloak, Wendy approached the stall, her emerald eyes following the stall owner's excitedly raised eyebrows with great interest:

"Hey? Boss, if I accumulate a lot of work points, can I exchange them for anything other than rice, flour, oil, and salt?"

"Like... a good violin or something?"

The stall owner, facing Famas, paused slightly upon seeing Wendy, a bard-like figure, suddenly appear and seem to know this aloof stranger. He then gave a vague nod.

“Well… it’s not impossible, but everyone’s struggling to make ends meet, who has the time to…” He stopped mid-sentence when his gaze inadvertently swept over the folded, heavy cloak Wendy was holding.

As an experienced merchant who makes a living at the docks, the stall owner still has a good eye for quality goods.

Despite the dim lighting at night, the intricate silver embroidery peeking out from the edge of the cloak and the understated yet luxurious dark wool fabric were so exquisite and stylish that they were clearly not from Liyue; they were items that only the upper class in Winter could afford.

Take a closer look at the faintly visible emblem patterns.

The stall owner felt that the more he looked at it, the more familiar it seemed, as if he had seen similar patterns somewhere before.

In a flash, the enthusiasm on his face vanished completely, replaced by wariness and a vague unease. His brows furrowed, and his tone became somewhat guarded.
"You two... could it be that you came here during the winter?"

The stall owner asked tentatively, his gaze shifting between Wendy and FAMAS.

"Winter? Of course not!"

Wendy's voice was like a guitar string suddenly plucked, instantly rising in pitch, and she waved her hands exaggeratedly.

"Look at me! The bard's feather hat, the organ, and this cloak of freedom—Wendy, the finest bard in Teyvat, is here! In the freezing winter, only iceheads and debtors are produced; no spirits of poetry and song can be bred!"

The young poet straightened his chest, trying to appear more confident.

The stall owner was taken aback by his sudden reaction and Mondstadt-esque words. His tense expression relaxed slightly, and he carefully looked the two of them up and down.

Famas tilted his head, looking like a simple foreign boy, while Wendy was lively and playful. Although their clothing details were somewhat strange, their accents did not have the distinctive rolled "r" and cold tone of the Winterborn.

The stall owner's tense shoulders finally relaxed slightly, and he let out a long sigh of relief.
"It's not for Zhidong... That's good, that's good."

His tone softened, but the previous ease and casualness were gone, replaced by a serious tone.

"You two may not know this, but in the current situation, people from Winter are... really not well received in Liyue."

"I heard that in a fit of anger, Lord Ningguang cleared out all the diplomatic missions and post stations in Zhidong, and sent all the diplomats from Zhidong, along with their ships, back to their hometowns."

As the stall owner spoke, he subconsciously glanced around, as if afraid of being overheard. After a moment of silence, a hint of regret appeared on his face.
"Alas, as the old saying goes, fortune's wheel keeps turning."

"When the incident happened at the Layered Rock Abyss a few years ago, the people of Zhidong were very kind. They brought large drilling machines and sent a lot of people to help us investigate."

"Back then, the General Affairs Department also purchased large quantities of dry food and drinking water from us peddlers, sending truckloads of it deep into the abyss, saying that priority should be given to supporting the foreign aid teams..."

The stall owner shook his head, his tone full of sighs about the unpredictability of life.

"Who would have thought things would turn out like this? Those foolish soldiers trapped at the bottom of the rock formations, they were pitiful, I wonder if they're alive or dead now..."

The sigh was a mixture of nostalgia for a bygone era of alliance and regret for the foreign soldiers whose fates remained unknown.

In the midst of this complex silence, a calm and composed voice came from behind, gentle and refined yet each word clear:
"In relations between two countries, interests take precedence. When faced with matters of national importance, the highest principle for action is to safeguard one's own national interests."

The owner of the voice seemed to be nearby, calmly continuing the stall owner's words: "If we speak of sympathy, the deaths and lives of those who perished in winter are indeed fraught with misfortune. But for my Liyue, the soldiers and civilians who lost their lives in this battle, if not for the Emperor's merciful intervention..."

"How could their grief be any less than that of others? If we were to extend our sympathy to the enemy nation now, where would we place the countless Liyue beings who sacrificed their lives to protect their homeland?"

These calm yet slightly old-fashioned words inexplicably reminded Famas of that equally particular guest of the Hall of Rebirth.

The thought had barely crossed his mind when he and Wendy turned around in the direction of the sound.

The young man who came into view was thin, with a sleek, wide-brimmed white Fontainebleau hat perched on his head, almost completely obscuring his eyebrows and eyes. Only a pair of exquisite black-rimmed glasses and a wisp of casually styled bangs were visible beneath the brim. (End of Chapter)