Complications

After moving to Valberry Street, getting to Sanborn's Fishing Tackle Shop took a little longer.

Eula had barely left when Li Qiuzhi strapped the Scimitar to his waist and headed out as well. His hunting arrows were mostly ruined, and since he had not taken a commission to clear monsters out in the wilderness, he had no need to bring them for now.

The weather was poor that day.

Walking through the streets and alleys, Li Qiuzhi looked up at the sky. It was hazy, with neither dark clouds nor sunshine.

To save time, Li Qiuzhi broke into a jog and passed a slow-moving horse-drawn cart loaded with goods, drawing a curious look from the driver in his hat.

Li Qiuzhi gave him a polite smile, then picked up his pace.

A little over ten minutes later, just as his body was warming up, he reached the Fishing Tackle Shop. Sanborn, his hair graying, was cleaning the storefront with a broom.

He did not seem to notice Li Qiuzhi's arrival.

"Hi, Mr. Sanborn," Li Qiuzhi called from behind him in an even tone.

Hearing his voice, Sanborn turned around with the broom, his eyes brightening slightly. "Oh, you're here, young Adventurer from Liyue."

"Yes. I promised to take your commission yesterday evening, after all. Hehe."

Li Qiuzhi smiled as he spoke.

"Ah..." At the mention of yesterday's events, Sanborn began sighing again. He leaned the broom against the wall by the door. "Come in, please. I'll explain everything."

The two went over to the counter inside the shop. Sanborn stepped behind it and asked Li Qiuzhi to wait a moment.

Sanborn took a stack of paper documents from a drawer beneath the counter. He opened the silver metal clip and removed the top two sheets.

He handed them to Li Qiuzhi. "Take a look at these first."

Puzzled, Li Qiuzhi reached out to take them. Unsure what this was about, he stood there and carefully read the words recorded on the paper.

Fruit Paste Bait: thirty jin, fifty thousand Mora;

Tarn Brand Basic Fishing Nets: five, forty-five thousand Mora;

Tarn Brand Sturdy Bamboo Fishing Rods: ten, thirty thousand Mora;

Besides those items, there were many others, such as fish baskets, rain hats, and raincoats. It was a purchase invoice totaling five hundred and fifty thousand Mora.

At first glance, nothing seemed unusual.

Li Qiuzhi looked at the second invoice. The goods were much the same, but the prices had risen by nearly twenty percent. For instance, thirty jin of Fruit Paste Bait had gone from fifty thousand Mora to sixty thousand.

The total had risen from five hundred and fifty thousand Mora to seven hundred thousand.

Yet the dates on the two invoices showed that the purchases had been made less than two weeks apart.

The fishing industry in Mondstadt, particularly Mondstadt City, was nowhere near as prosperous as those in Liyue and Inazuma. Cider Lake might have been large, but it still had its limits.

As such, fishing tackle prices would generally remain relatively stable. They should not have risen so much in such a short time.

"Could someone be pocketing the difference?" Li Qiuzhi asked in surprise.

"I think... yes." Sanborn fell quiet for a moment, then pushed the remaining stack of purchase invoices toward him and pointed to the top sheet. "These were the original prices."

At that, Li Qiuzhi could not help taking a look. For roughly the same quantities of much the same goods, the total cost had only been around four hundred thousand Mora.

"Could it be that old friend of yours, Mr. Sanborn?"

Li Qiuzhi remembered the person Sanborn had been sighing over the previous evening.

As he put away the invoices, Sanborn spoke as though recalling the past:

"I'd only recently retired back then. Seeing that I had nothing to do, my son suggested I open a Fishing Tackle Shop. I happily agreed.

"But my son was too busy, so I handled all the preparations myself. I didn't mind. In fact, I enjoyed the feeling of being busy again.

"I met my good friend Lucaer while looking for a supplier. He's one of the sales managers at the Tarn Fishing Tackle Factory. Our friendship grew over the course of more than ten years."

Then they really were close old friends. They'd known each other for over ten years, after all, Li Qiuzhi thought silently.

"The first time the prices went up, I asked him what was going on. He said monsters had raided a shipment of the factory's raw materials, and the increase was only temporary because of the shortage."

Sanborn continued:

"He was rather evasive at the time, but I didn't dwell on it. I believed him. He was my old friend, after all.

"The second time, I felt something was strange. Surely monsters couldn't have robbed them twice in a row? After learning their lesson, wouldn't they have hired a few capable Adventurers to guard the shipment?

"With those doubts in mind, I went to the Tarn factory and asked the workers there. They said there had been no recent price increases. That was when I knew the problem lay with my old friend Lucaer."

After listening, Li Qiuzhi nodded and ventured a straightforward guess:

"So, Mr. Sanborn, you want me to find evidence of Lucaer's wrongdoing?"

Sanborn patted his head, covered in graying hair, and said softly:

"No, of course not. After so many years of friendship, I know Lucaer very well. He certainly isn't that sort of despicable man. He must have run into an obstacle in his life that he can't overcome.

"I don't want to confront him and humiliate my old friend. Young Adventurer, all I need you to do is investigate what has happened to him recently. If possible, please help him. I'll pay you a reward you'll be happy with."

Li Qiuzhi was a little surprised. He had thought this would be a simple matter of finding evidence and having someone arrested, but it seemed rather more complicated.

A cool breeze blew in, stirring the tips of the hair over Li Qiuzhi's forehead. With the conversation having reached this point, he certainly had no reason to refuse.

"I see. Leave this to me, Mr. Sanborn. I'll try to get to the bottom of it for you."

A smile appeared on Li Qiuzhi's face as he patted his chest and agreed.

"Yes, sorry for the trouble. I really don't want anything to happen to Lucaer. He lives at 86 Dandelion Street. If you can't find him there, you can try the Tarn Fishing Tackle Factory."

Having explained the situation, Sanborn was visibly more relaxed, and his brow was no longer furrowed.

As Li Qiuzhi left Sanborn's Fishing Tackle Shop, he glanced at the clock inside. It was a quarter past nine in the morning.

He did not go straight to 86 Dandelion Street. At this time of day, Lucaer was probably at work, given that he was a sales manager at the Tarn Fishing Tackle Factory.

Ah... another twenty-odd minutes of walking ahead.

Horse-drawn carriages were about the only things in Mondstadt City that could be called transport. There was also the Wind Glider, but using one in public areas required a gliding license.

Getting a gliding license was not easy. Generally, only Adventurers had a pressing need for one.

Li Qiuzhi felt he needed to get his gliding license as soon as possible. Otherwise, getting around was far too much trouble. A Wind Glider could only glide, and he would have to climb a relatively tall building before taking flight.

Still, there was no denying its usefulness.

Only a few days after becoming an Adventurer, Li Qiuzhi was already feeling the pain of being unable to use Teleport Waypoints.

Thanks to "The Past Cannot Be Recalled" for the 100-coin tip!