"That's the sweet talk every crooked merchant gives his customers."
Paimon stood with her hands on her hips, eyeing the plump merchant suspiciously.
"Hey, I'm certainly not like those people." Shitou waved a hand. "If you don't believe me, ask the granny buying kites across the street. She'll know that no customer has ever come back to my Jade Mystery with a complaint."
"Hmph, then trot out your goods and let us see how good they are. We want a batch of top-quality Noctilucous Jade."
Paimon had clearly misused another saying, but she had made her meaning perfectly clear.
"All right, you certainly won't be disappointed!"
Shitou immediately brought out a batch of stone he had only recently acquired.
"This is a sample from a batch of Noctilucous Jade freshly mined near Mingyun Village. Have a look, everyone. It's large and intact."
The plump merchant Shitou placed the piece of Noctilucous Jade on a cloth-covered counter and moved it in front of Li Qiuzhi and the others.
"Size and completeness don't seem all that important for Noctilucous Jade. Could you shave off a small piece for us to test?"
Li Qiuzhi picked up the Noctilucous Jade and examined it carefully a couple of times, but found nothing, so he decided to try the method Zhongli had recommended.
"Oh? You seem to know your stuff." Shitou gave the two before him a somewhat surprised look. "Of course."
In his own experience, this Noctilucous Jade was of very good quality. He did not think these youngsters would find anything wrong with it.
So he shaved off only a tiny sliver for them.
That would prevent too much waste. After all, Noctilucous Jade was a special stone that could provide light at night and was quite valuable. He certainly would not admit he