[Bonus chapter] The Profiteering Young Man

"That's correct. If you want could you put your stuff down over here?" The attendant moved to the side slightly pointing to a spot under the counter."

"Alright."

Placing down his stuff and counting out five silver nuggets, Di Tou handed them over to the attendant, who skipped two silvers into his sleeves, while marking down the remaining purchase. Giving Di Tou a much brighter smile while handing him a key he explained, "If you head in through this door over here you'll reach the locker room. Err, there are towels by the entrance. Then after you pass through the locker room you'll enter the men's bathhouse."

"Hmm."

Heading into the locker room, grabbed a towel before looking around and quickly locating the locker that corresponded to his key. After disrobing and putting in his money pouches into the locker, Di Tou kept the key and the soap then entered the bathhouse.

The bathhouse was pretty simple, composing of two large basins, one for hot water and one for cold water. Every hour or so the attendants would come in to make sure that the basins were filled and at the correct temperature.

Then there were a collection of twenty or so isolated tubs that were meant to be used for bathing. At the moment the bathhouse seemed rather empty, with only two other people who were bathing.

Whistling a small tune, Di Tou went and grabbed one of buckets and ladles that were placed next to the two basis and collected a bucket and started filling up an empty tub to wash up in.

After he had the tub about half filled with hot water, Di Tou dipped a finger in to see how hot it was and finding it a bit too hot started filling it with cold water.

After a bit of playing around, Di Tou had the tub filled about 75% of the way up and was satisfied with the temperature.

Sinking himself into the hot water, Di Tou couldn't help but feel a sense of gratification. "Mmm, when was the last time I bothered to stop and take a bath?"

Thinking back, it seemed like it had been quite a few years. After all, coming from a family that didn't have that much wealth, the apartment they lived in didn't have a full sized bath.

Of course, there was a 'bath' but it was much too small for an adult to comfortably used, it was mainly there so the real estate agent could jack up the prices and claim there was a bath. So it was left unused the majority of the time. Besides, with how busy his parents were, when did they have time to take baths? Ignoring the time it took to wash up properly in a bath, if you used soap you still had to take a shower afterwards to wash off, so at some point it became more stressful and time wasting than relaxing.

Later on, after he moved out he was renting a place that was close to his work that happened to have a decently sized bath, but he had never bothered to use it.

Sinking into the water, Di Tou could feel tension seeping out of his bones.

"Mmm…" after soaking for another ten minutes or so, Di Tou pulled himself together and started properly washing himself.

Using the piece of soap he had gotten from the carpenter shop, which happened to smell of oranges, Di Tou soon found himself in a soapy mess, but at the same time felt significantly refreshed.

Then after spending another ten minutes or so to dump out the soapy water, replace it with clean water, and then wash off, Di Tou was about done.

Rinsing off one last time by simply pouring a basin of cool water over his head, Di Tou got out to dry himself.

While he had washing, one of the two fellows who were here before him had left and two had come to replace him.

Whistling a tune again, Di Tou returned the small tub and ladle to a 'used' pile, and headed over to the locker room and got dressed.

Heading out of the lockerroom and back into the lobby Di Tou saw the same attendant from earlier lazing behind the counter.

"Hey."

Jumping to attention and putting on a professional smile, the attendant looked back and forth before realizing it was Di Tou behind him. "Oh, did you have a nice bath? If you'd like you can purchase one of our towels for a spirit stone, and we also sell minor heating stones for a mid grade spirit stone, we also provide a personal locker service for the small fee of a spirit stone a month. As long as you're paying the locker will only belong to you."

As the attendant blabbered on, Di Tou focused in on one specific detail, "Heating stone?"'

Seeing that Di Tou was interested in something, the young man smiled, "Yes, yes, a heating stone." Pulling out a fist sized rock from under the counter the young man started his marketing pitch, "The minor heating stone can heat up a basin of water in about fifteen minutes, all you need to do is supply it with a little bit of Qi."

Demonstrating, the young man inserted a bit of Qi into the stone which caused it to glow a light red. "The stone will only emit heat if it's in water, so you don't have to worry about burning yourself! The stone will last about three months, after which you can come back and get it topped up for only three lower grade spirit stones…"

Taking another quick look around to see that his boss wasn't there, the young man said in a slightly quieter tone, "But if you come and ask for me, Bu Qiong, I'll help you refill it for only two lower grade spirit stones, but you have to remember to ask for me! If you ask anyone else, I can't help you, you'll have to pay the full fee."

His left eye twitching, Di Tou couldn't but help feel a little speechless. Bu Qiong? (Not poor?) Wasn't this a little too direct? Was the author, ahem, weren't his parents a little bit too lazy to come up with such a crude name?