Shitou said fiercely, "Honored customers, you aren't here to make a fool of me, are you? This much Mora isn't nearly enough!"
Zhong Baiye and Lumine were puzzled by Shitou's words.
They had clearly calculated the price when choosing the Uncut Stones earlier. The bag of Mora Childe had given them should have been more than enough, so what was going on now?
Zhong Baiye voiced his confusion to Shitou.
"This Mora should be enough to pay for those Uncut Stones, shouldn't it?"
Shitou explained with a sly grin, "If it were just those Uncut Stones, this Mora would be more than enough. But..."
Shitou pointed at himself and his heirloom Artifact before continuing.
"But you'll also have to cover the materials for crafting this Artifact and my fee! You've supplied the noctilucous jade as the main material, but I'll have to provide all the other materials."
Shitou continued with a pitiful lament, "I'm running a business here. If everyone tried to get things for free like you, how would I survive?"
Zhong Baiye and Lumine were speechless. Shitou had volunteered to craft the Artifact, yet now he was foisting all these expenses onto them.
"Isn't this forcing a sale on us? I know the Liyue Qixing, you know. Watch it, or I'll report you to the Millelith."
Unable to listen any longer, Zhong Baiye threatened Shitou.
But Shitou was a seasoned operator. There was no way he would give up such a lucrative deal over a single remark from Zhong Baiye. He smiled at him and said,
"Honored customer, I'm not boasting, but you could count the people in all of Liyue who can craft Artifacts on one hand. Rather than spending a fortune in Mora and wasting your time looking for someone else, why not let me do it?"
Zhong Baiye fell silent at his words. Shitou was right. He was the only person they knew who could craft Artifacts, and there was no telling how much effort it would take to find someone else.
More importantly, they urgently needed Artifacts to improve their combat strength. Once they helped Childe find the Exuvia of the Geo Archon, the Demon God would be revived immediately.
They had no time to waste on something like this.
"Brother, we can always earn more Mora, but opportunities like this are rare. Why don't we hear the shopkeeper's price first?"
Lumine tried to persuade Zhong Baiye as well.
Shitou, meanwhile, was in no hurry at all. He looked as though everything was under his control as he waited for Zhong Baiye to make his decision.
After some thought, Zhong Baiye said to Shitou,
"But I refuse. We have another option."
Although Shitou could not understand what Zhong Baiye was saying, he could tell he was rejecting him. Shitou was rather shocked.
Zhong Baiye pointed at Zhongli beside them and explained,
"There may not be many people in Liyue who can craft Artifacts, but Zhongli is definitely one of them. Why would I spend Mora hiring you?"
Lumine also realized the crucial point, but she still wondered whether Zhongli really could craft Artifacts.
Shitou was sizing Zhongli up as well. He had never heard of anyone like him in the circles he knew.
Zhong Baiye walked straight up to Zhongli and asked,
"Mr. Zhongli, could you help me craft an Artifact with this piece of noctilucous jade?"
Zhongli opened his eyes and glanced around. He immediately understood the situation and answered calmly,
"I can. However..."
When Zhong Baiye heard Zhongli say he could, he thought he would be getting a fine Artifact for free. But the moment he heard that "however," he felt something was wrong.
Bringing him back to reality, Zhongli continued,
"However, to gain something, you must give something up. The same applies to Artifacts. How could you craft one without paying a price?"
From Zhongli's words, Zhong Baiye understood that he would have to pay something after all.
At this point, Shitou could no longer stand idly by. He immediately said to Zhong Baiye,
"I can give you a ninety-percent discount. You'll get the genuine article at a fair price."
But the moment Zhong Baiye recalled Shitou's earlier sly expression, he rejected him outright.
Zhongli was Rex Lapis. If the Artifacts Shitou crafted were merely blue-tier Artifacts from the game, then Zhongli's would be gold-tier.
Anyone who had played the game knew just how much help a gold-tier Artifact could provide.
Blue-tier Artifacts? Even dogs would turn their noses up at them.
Even if Zhongli demanded ten million Mora, Zhong Baiye was determined to get his hands on one.
Seeing this, Shitou could only sigh helplessly. He had spent his life outwitting others, only to be outwitted himself.
Now that the Artifact issue was settled, it was time to attend to their real business.
"Hold on, shopkeeper. We still have a teeny-tiny mountain of requests."
Zhong Baiye immediately called out to Shitou, who was about to open the door.
As a merchant, Shitou would never pass up a chance to do business. He stopped without a second thought.
Looking at the raw ore around them, Zhong Baiye said,
"Shopkeeper, we also need a crate of top-quality noctilucous jade. Do you have any in stock?"
Zhong Baiye asked because he had not seen any raw noctilucous jade in the basement.
Understanding what Zhong Baiye meant, Shitou answered with a smile, "Noctilucous jade isn't exactly rare. The raw ores here are genuinely rare goods, so of course I wouldn't keep noctilucous jade down here."
Shitou then opened the door and gave a shop assistant some instructions.
Before long, several burly shop assistants came in carrying three large crates.
Shitou pointed at the crates with a broad smile and said,
"These are all prized goods from the Jade Mystery, and someone has already reserved them. If you hadn't helped advertise my shop for free earlier, I wouldn't have brought out this noctilucous jade no matter what."
As he spoke, he rubbed his fingers together in a money gesture, hinting at Zhong Baiye and Lumine.
Zhong Baiye and Lumine pretended not to notice his little gesture and went straight to inspecting the quality of the noctilucous jade.
"This noctilucous jade all looks pretty good."
Zhong Baiye picked up a piece at random and checked its brightness.
"Yes, it looks good from every angle."
Lumine shaded the light with her hand to examine the jade's brightness, making for a rather cute sight.
Even after their inspection, Zhong Baiye and Lumine had no idea which of the three crates contained the best noctilucous jade. In the end, they could only bring out their trump card-Zhongli.
Zhongli lost interest after a single glance at the noctilucous jade, but he offered them a way to test it.
"High-quality noctilucous jade has a greater affinity for pyro. In other words, the brighter and bluer an ore's glow under high heat, the better its quality. While applying intense heat, protect it with elemental water power to keep the sample from burning up instantly."
Upon hearing this method, Zhong Baiye and Lumine immediately came up with an idea.
"Shitou, could you take out a few samples of noctilucous jade for us?"
Contrary to what they had expected, Shitou neither became angry nor refused Zhong Baiye's request. Instead, he smiled and said,
Before you continue