Dao Of The Salted Fish (Salted Fish Cultivator)

46. In which Wen Zhihao solves many problems relating to the production of his "

The next day, it was time for Wen Zhihao’s usual weekly trip to the mortal towns to sell various glowing items. Because of the weather, he decided to offer some of the mortals in town to inscribe cooling talismans on their fans for one wen. It earned him a tidy little sum of money.

With this money in his new (!) spatial ring, Wen Zhihao confidently went to the bookstore in town to ask who made the brushes and then went to the house of the brush makers.
An older man with white wisps in his hair greeted Wen Zhihao politely. People liked to call him Old Third, as he was the third son of his family.

Old Third ushered Master Cultivator Wen inside and poured him a cup of warm water.

“How can this servant help Master Cultivator Wen?” While the youngsters spoke familiarly with the Master Cultivator, Old Third was not so casual. He was a little old-fashioned, so what?

Wen Zhihao pulled out two prototype brush pens. “I would like you to make more of these for me.”
Old Third glanced at the plain bamboo cylinders, holding back a confused frown.
“Let me demonstrate.” Wen Zhihao pulled out some paper. He uncapped the lid, revealing the brush tip, and began to write a number of simple talismans. The ink flowed easily and for much, much longer than a dip brush could maintain.
Old Third’s eyes widened as excitement bubbled in his chest. Don’t call him old-fashioned! This new kind of brush seemed amazing! “Master Cultivator Wen, is there a magical ink container inside that brush?”

Wen Zhihao grinned. “Not at all. Inside, there is a hollow tube that I have filled with ink. I will give you these two, you can take them apart to see what I’ve done. I’ve also drawn some diagrams.” Wen Zhihao took out some paper with a few rough sketches.

Old Third’s eyes roved across the diagrams. He had thought there would be just a simple tube according to Master Cultivator Wen’s words, but in fact, there were multiple other components… “How much is Master Cultivator Wen asking for? Fifty taels? No, no, Two hundred taels!”
He didn’t dare cheat such a powerful cultivator. And if he made even more money from it, Old Third planned to send it to Master Cultivator Wen too, lest he became angry...

Wen Zhihao blinked. “You mean it will cost me two hundred taels for you to make one for me?”

Old Third shook his head. “No, no, no! To buy this,” he clarified, pointing to the diagram.
Wen Zhihao: …
“As long as you can make a few for me for free, there is no charge.”
“Master Cultivator Wen, this cannot do. This kind of debt, I cannot afford to have!” Old Third protested. “If Master Cultivator Wen does not want a one-off payment, then I will split the profits—”
Wen Zhihao was only human, so the thought of many silver taels certainly sparkled and pulled at him. But he had to resist because with money comes responsibility a.k.a. work, and what would he do with some much mortal money?

Finally, Wen Zhihao suggested, “How about you use some of the profits to fund a school where all children, boys and girls included, can go for free to learn basic literacy and numeracy? Anyway, if there are more students, then more people will require brushes.”

Old Third quickly agreed. “As Master Cultivator Wen says, it will be done!”
“Don’t tell me the details,” Wen Zhihao pre-empted. “I trust you.” (That is, I’m sure it’ll be fine!) “Oh, and if you can enhance the prettiness of the pens, that would be good.”
“Of course!”

Wen Zhihao and Old Third both left the meeting with satisfaction.
Old Third had a new kind of brush he could make, which was more work he could do to make money!

And Wen Zhihao had someone to make the brushes for him, which was no more work for him! He didn’t even need to pay Old Third anything, which was even better.
On his way out of the town, he suddenly noticed a vaguely familiar person lurking at the outskirts.
Ah, their eyes just met. That meant Wen Zhihao couldn’t pretend they didn’t see each other.
So Wen Zhihao walked over to the black-robed man standing under the tree.
“Hello, it looks like you’ve healed.”
The black-robed man’s resting expression did not change. “I owe you.”

“Huh? For what? It was just on my way, don’t worry about it.” Erk, had Wen Zhihao accidentally picked up another debt-to-him? Debts were so troublesome!

The black-robed man narrowed his eyes slightly. “You are the one selling those glowing items.”

Wen Zhihao quickly slid into salesman mode and produced a flower from his spatial ring. “Yes, would you like one? Each one costs one wen, or I can make any item you own glow for one wen!”

The black-robe man thought to himself, ...How cheap! Is he so rich that he has no concept of money?! Or rather, was he so poor that he has to sell things to mortals? “You must be poor. I know what it’s like to be poor. I don’t do favours. Here are some spiritual stones as thanks.”

Wen Zhihao: ….WHAT was it WITH people offering to give him money today???!!!

He couldn’t in good conscience accept money for something he did casually.

“Anyone should have saved someone who was injured. I didn’t even heal you, that was through the help of the town doctor,” Wen Zhihao tried to coax. “...Wait, you’re a cultivator?” Not many mortals used spiritual stones since they were just like...stones to them.
The black-robed man: ...What the f*ck?
Wen Zhihao pursed his lips slightly. This man’s aura was actually hidden. The only way he could tell was that the qi going into him was less than the qi that came out, meaning that he was able to absorb ambient qi, a big sign of a cultivator.

“...Yes,” the black-robed man said reluctantly. He really wondered what was going on with the Golden Sun Sect these days! “Please take the spiritual stones.” So that I can leave...

Wen Zhihao’s mind raced. “No, how about you do something for me in return?”
“Hm.”
“Do you know any crafting cultivators? I need someone who can make a talisman or an object that will make a brush write or copy whatever symbols or shapes that one may want. Wait, it doesn’t have to be a cultivator, even a mortal craftsperson is good too.” Wen Zhihao’s eyes were bright and eager to “delegate” this task to someone else. “Even if you don’t know any such person, I won’t accept your spiritual stones.”
The black-robed man grudgingly nodded. “Very well. I can do that for you.”

Although Wen Zhihao still felt the emptiness of not having super many spiritual stones, he convinced himself that he was effectively paying this black-robed man back to do this task for him.

“Great, then you can find me in the Golden Sun Sect, or send me a letter. My name is Wen Zhihao, by the way. Since you’re a cultivator, you probably know where that is?”
The black-robed man said, “We can meet in this town again next week.” He had already known Wen Zhihao’s name from the townspeople a long time ago.
Wen Zhihao nodded. “Alright. Oh, what’s your name?”
“Zhou Sheng.” The black-robed man named Zhou Sheng watched Wen Zhihao’s expression carefully, but there was no recognition.

“Fellow Daoist Zhou, then I’ll see you here again next week. Walk slowly and be careful of getting injured again,” Wen Zhihao said in farewell.

“En.”
It was only after Wen Zhihao was halfway back to the sect that he realised he might have been a little abrupt in his departure...Next time, he’ll bring some talismans to help “bribe” Zhou Sheng some more.
Aiya, he felt so busy these days!
—Wen Zhihao thought to himself, as he “hurried” to take a nap before his weekly dinner with Sun Fuyu tonight.

A nap also meant that Wen Zhihao still hadn’t figured out his plan of action with Sun Fuyu.
However, Wen Zhihao didn’t feel a sense of urgency. He felt that their current days were already so good and that they would only slowly get better.