While Zhi was walking towards his divining square, he realized he should probably find a new futon and blanket to replace the one he ruined. So he went back to the open air market and started to look around. It didn’t take him long to run into someone familiar though. A stocky young man was in the middle of talking with one of the vendors. He was young, but his face was rugged and a small dark brown beard was on his face. Zhi inspected him before a smile crossed his face and he walked closer to the man and the vendor.

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Name: Mu Zang

Age: 16

Karma: Good

Karma Score: 1,232

Dao Paths: None

Cultivation: Xiantian Stage 4[68%]/9

Cultivation Technique: None

Constitution: None

Bloodline: None

Occupation: jobless

Mood: frustrated

Talent: Deal finder [12%]

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The inspection on people changed, what is karma score buddha?

[Since you are now in Qi Distillation, your skill has improved a little. You will also find a few things unlocked in the store. As for the karma change, once someone is out of neutral karma, they acquire points. Whether they are good or bad and it climbs or decreases from there. If someone is good karma aligned and they do something bad, their karma will drop. It will actually drop slightly more than if say a person with bad karma did the same exact action.]

Because the person who has good karma is expected to act better then the person with bad karma?

[Amazing that you could deduce that with your inferior brain that only thinks about food.]

Thanks, speaking of which. How do you think karma would taste? Good karma is probably sweet and bad karma is sour?

[...]

Zhi waits for the young man to finish talking to the vendor. It doesn’t look like the conversation is going well by the way the young man was clenching his fists tighter by the moment. But his face was still happy as he talked with the man. After the young man finished and turned away to leave. Zhi started to follow the young man, he actually followed the young man out of the market area and to some outdoor food stalls. They were set up just outside of the food market area, and grouped in a small circle with some taller standing tables in between them. The man walked up to a stall, ordered something to eat and then took it to one of the empty tables. Zhi followed him, but didn’t order anything. Instead he just asked from behind the man, “Mind if I share your table?”

The man doesn't even look around to see if there were empty tables, he says “Sure, I don’t mind.” Before taking a bite of some type of meat kabob. Zhi walked around the table and smiles at the man and say’s while holding up an Iron coin. “Iron coin for your thoughts, Mu Zang? I saw you in the market and it looked like you were having issues.” Zhi places the coin down in the middle of the table. Before tipping back his hat to look at the man.

Mu Zang for his part continues to chew on his food while looking at coin, before looking back at Zhi. Recognition flashes in his eyes as he does and after swallowing his bite he says, “I don’t need your coin or help monk, go away.”

Zhi pats the table and says, “But you just offered to share your table with me, Zang. I was planning to eat something and chat with you for a bit.”

Zang just glares at Zhi a little and says, “If you were going to eat, you would already have food.”

Zhi smiles at the man and says, “ Oh, you are right. I completely forgot my food.” Zhi just stands there as a plate appears on the table between the two men. Zangs eyes go wide at that and get wider as the plate begins to fill up with a few items of food. All of them smell fresh like they were just made or have steam cooking off of them.

Zhi looks at Zang, the man is standing completely still and it looks like he has forgotten to breathe. His eyes are staring at the plate of food and items that appeared on it in front of his eyes. Zhi say’s “You don’t have to stare at my food. If you would like to try it, just ask me.”

Zang seems to have woken up at that statement and quickly inhales a breath, before looking at Zhi and saying, “Sir I am sorry, I didn’t mean any offense with my words. Please forgive me, I will always be respectful in the future.” He actually stepped back from the table and did a full 90 degree bow to Zhi and held it.

Zhi lets out a laugh and says, “Zang, I took no offense from your words. Come eat and talk with me for a while.” Zang releases his bow and stands up, Zhi is still at the table but the food is gone and so is the coin. Zhi points to his food and says, “Eat your food and then let's have a chat.”

Zang is nervous but he still eats his food as Zhi stands there quietly and looks around the area. Once finished, Zang is the first to speak. “You asked about my issue in the market. Is that what you wish to talk about sir?”

Zhi looks back at Zang and smiles while saying, “My name is Ming Zhi, you can just call me Zhi. And yes, I would like to know about your issue in the market.”

Zang stands there for a moment, his fist clenching slightly as he says “My issue was that every person I go to asking for a job, turns me away. Some offered me labor jobs, and two people actually offered me a job being a clerk. But they both wanted me to sign a contract, one would basically turn me into an indentured servant for the next 20 years. The other was slightly better, but I would have to work for them for 10 years with no chance of a pay increase until after my contract was up and I wouldn’t be able to make any money outside of work selling anything. I could work other jobs, but if I tried to sell stuff as a side job, it would break my contract and I would either be forced to pay them back all the salary they paid me plus interest or sign a new contract to become an indentured servant for 20 years.” He lets out a breath and his fists relax, his head hangs down slightly with his eyes downcast.

Zhi takes a few minutes to digest what he just heard, while he looks at Zang before he says. “So why don’t you just try to start your own business? You don't really need a store, just a small cart to carry goods. Then use your talent to find good deals and then turn around and sell it to someone else for a slightly better price than you paid.”

Zang doesn’t look up, but says back. “I was thinking about doing that, but I honestly don’t have the money to do that. Maybe if I pick up a couple of jobs and just work and save for a couple of years I might be able to pull it off.”

“What if I gave you a loan to start with, and you could pay me back when you are established? I will be here for a while, so you should have enough time.”

Zang looks up at Zhi, not really sure he heard the man correctly and says. “You would give me a loan to start? But how much would I have to pay back?”

“Let's just say the original investment. The money I would give you, really doesn’t matter much to me. So do we have a deal, Zang?” Zhi holds out his hand to the young man. Zang looks at it for a moment, before determination flashes in his eyes. He reaches out and gives Zhi a firm hand shake while looking him in the eyes and saying. “You have a deal Zhi, I will make sure to pay you back in full one day.”

They release their hand shake and Zhi says, “Come on, let's go find you a cart and anything else you might need to run a small trading business. I will let you handle everything and just pay for what you buy.” Zhi follows Zang, he takes his plate back to the vendor he ordered from, and the man gives him one iron bit back for it. Then Zang walked towards the middle market for trade goods with Zhi by his side.

It takes a good bit of the afternoon, but Zhi watches in fascination as Zang travels around the whole trade goods market and finds the best deal on everything he buys. He even talked people into a lower price most of the time. It wasn’t much, a few bits or iron coins here and there. But it added up to almost 15 iron coins when they were done. Zang now had some slightly better clothes for when he is trading. He has a pretty nice little cart he has no issue pushing around. A log book and some writing utensils for keeping track of his expenses. Plus a few other things that can be useful for him in his daily trading. When they were finished Zhi inspected him again and saw that his talent was at [19.53%].

“So I forgot to ask, but do you have a place to store your cart at night?”

Zang shakes his head and says, “Damn it. I knew I was forgetting something. The place I stay at doesn’t have anywhere I can store it and I don't even know if we can rent a place to store it. If it’s empty It might not be a big deal with that lock that you made me buy. But if it had anything in it, it might be an issue.”

“It’s fine, I didn’t think about that either. But I can probably get you a spot to store it, but I need to do something first. Follow me.”

Zang followed Zhi back to where they first met the other day, and watched as he divined talents for other people for a couple hours. It was interesting to him, because people had some of the most bizarre talents. Some of them he almost didn’t believe were true, like the one guy who Zhi told he had a talent for calligraphy. But the guy was illiterate. How can someone be talented in something they have never done before. Zhi didn’t give the guy his coin back, just told him to go learn how to read and write.

Once Zhi finished up for the day, he led Zang to the back of The Blue Jewel restaurant and told him to wait. He jumped over the back gate with ease and disappeared on the other side. A moment later he opened the gate and had Zang bring his cart inside for closing and locking the gate back up. Then said, “Hey I will be right back, just gotta check with Yongzheng. But he should be alright with letting you park your cart here at night.”

He stands next to his cart and waits as Zhi goes inside the back of the restaurant. A few minutes later he comes out followed by a well dressed man, with the most ridiculous mustache he has ever seen. They stand on the loading dock area of the restaurant and Zhi points over to Zang’s cart, then says something and points to one of the sheds in the yard. It’s a decent size almost three times the size of his cart in all directions. The man says something back to Zhi and shakes his head no. Zhi says something else and then pulls out a plate of food. The man looks at it and says something else before taking the plate and walking back inside.

Zhi comes back over to Zang and says, “Well good news, you can use the yard and that shed there to store your cart. You just need to make room in it. He wanted you to pay a rental fee, but I offered him that plate of food to waive the fee. He counter offered me, I just need to cook him a meal at least once a day as long as you store the cart here. Not a big deal, since I like to cook and I need to train Zhao.”

Zhi pats zang on the shoulder, “Come on, I will help you make room. Then I need to head home and cook dinner. You wanna join me?”

“Sure sounds good to me."