"What with the racket over there? Can't even shop in peace. Is your pharmacy always like this?"

Bagai huffed as he wandered through the store.

"Attendant?"

He turned around, only to find she had already snuck away at some point.

Bagai shrugged before walking off on his own. It didn't exactly take a genius to figure out what was expensive, when there were price tags. His pillowcase in hand, he haphazard reached for nearby shelves, swiping the pill jars into it as the glass made violent crashing sounds. It was a good thing ordinary glass wasn't used to contain the pills.

The sight of a well dressed man using a pillowcase as a bag in such a deranged manner was enough to make the eyes of bystanders turn, but they decided not to engage and simply backed away.

As the pillowcase became heavier and heavier, the sound of glass clacking together echoing, Bagai came to the realisation he had already forgotten what the price of each of the pill jars were. Not to mention, it was getting rather heavy.

He scratched his head, furrowing his eyebrows. Quite troubling. The last thing he wanted was to reach the counter, but not have the jade to pay for it! Despite initial price of the Frigid Qi pills, it seemed most of the pills Baiwan sold weren't all that expensive. And it seemed he had bought the last of them, to begin with.

Bagai decided to shove all the cheap pills into a random empty shelf, keeping only the Frigid pills. It was then when from the corner of his eye, something caught his attention. Pillows?!

Why was there an entire section dedicated to pillows in a pharmacy? He squinted as he drew closer, staring at the various signs attached.

"Anyuan Herbal Pillow. The cure to insomnia. Sleep like a baby with the power of the Mistflower's fragrant scent. Golden Ginseng beads help circulate blood and qi, ensuring... blah blah blah."

Bagai could hardly be assed to read through all the descriptions. He was sure all their claims were nonsense anyway. Who ever heard of pillows improving health? What was important, however, was how comfortable they were! After spending a few good minutes lying on every single pillows, Bagai's expression hardened.

Except for the stupid herb and grain pillows... these were way too dangerous If he let his guard down, he might have fallen asleep right there.

The cheapest of them was the Earth Chicken Down Pillow. It was only 5 jade.

...

Now with a second pillow under his armpit, he walked off. The cultivator already spent 35 jade on his clothes anyway, 36 if he counted the jade she gave him, so he was sure she wouldn't mind!

As he wandered further in, to his surprise, he came across a painting with a price tag on it.

...was this even a pharmacy any more?

Looking closely, hundreds of medicinal herbs were painstaking drawn, realistic enough that he felt he could pluck them out if he just reached for it. Below, a sign explained something about how it was drawn by a famous alchemist from Tiangou, detailing the records of various herbs. Such knowledge was already commonplace in alchemy manuals by now however, and with detailed texts accompanying them at that. This painting's sole value came from history behind it.

Bagai however, did not pay attention to the sign.

He was more concerned about the price tag, which displayed: 219 Jade. What type of painting was worth so much? Well, if the price was that high, surely it was quite valuable! Bagai took it off the wall as he hummed, stuffing it into his new pillow. Since Mei Xiu had given him 500 Jade, adding onto the 89 Jade of the Frigid pill, he now had... um...

Probably around 200 jade. Bagai looked around a little more before seeing a pill selling for 170 and stuffed it into his bag.

There, task complete. It was almost a shame to put a stop to his aimless wandering with how he enjoyed touring such a fancy place, but he didn't want the cultivator to get mad. Actually, with how long they lived, maybe she wouldn't mind even if he spent several days wandering the shop?

"Bagai! Where were you!"

"Huh? I was in the pharmacy?"

The beggar stared at the exhausted Mei in confusion. Unbeknownst to him, she had been running all over the entire store in search of him, but had gotten lost in the furniture section for almost an hour.

"So... what did you buy?" she asked.

"Oh, I bought this painting for 224 jade, this blue pill for 89 jade and also this white pill for 170 jade." Bagai said proudly, passing her a pouch. "So here's your 17 jade change!"

"A painting? What type of pharmacy sells paintings?" Mei scrunched her face.

"I thought the same thing!"

"Then why'd you buy it? Urgh..."

She put her hand to her face, questioning her decisions... Okay... maybe it was one of those things where there was a huge secret hidden in the painting, and Baiwan was selling it only because they couldn't unravel it?

In that case, what if she visited the sect master to appraise it? Wait... he was in secluded cultivation.

Still, she had the "coordinates" to teleport to his palace. Maybe she could take a peek. What the worst that could happen, a scolding?

"Big Mei..." a voice suddenly spoke to her, snapping her out of her thoughts.

"What?"

"I think that white pill is a White Lotus Focus Pill. Which I resold for 160 Jade."

Mei: ...

A smacking sound could be heard as someone was slapped in the back.

"OW! What'd you do that for?" Bagai protested.

"Nothing." Mei said as she stomped off angrily, walking away from the beggar.

Suddenly, she turned right back, and grabbed him by the clothes, seemingly having thought of something.

"I'm taking the fancy clothes back!"

"Nooo!"

Bagai was glad he hid his new pillow behind a trash can preemptively.