Chapter 40

"Qiqi is a zombie. No matter what I eat, there is no taste."

Qiqi must have noticed the confusion in Xia Zhi's silence, so she quietly explained.

Then, she stared silently at Xia Zhi, seemingly wanting to see what reaction would appear on the face of this kind Mr. Xia Zhi, who had invited her to sit and offered her tea and drinks, after learning that she was a non-human zombie.

Upon hearing this, Xia Zhi's face showed no signs of panic or disgust. He simply nodded in sudden understanding and said softly, "I see. I was actually worried that Miss Qiqi didn't like the drinks at my place."

This person seems different from others...

Qiqi shook her head and said quietly, "That's not it."

She looked down at the juice in her cup, its seven-colored appearance dreamlike and ethereal. With a slight movement, it created ripples of iridescent waves.

"The drink is very pretty. I like it."

Xia Zhi smiled and said, "Thank you for the compliment, Miss Qiqi."

He glanced at Zhu Zi beside him, who was squinting her eyes and taking small sips of the rainbow juice, seemingly still immersed in the world of hundred-fruit flavors.

Xia Zhi picked up his cup and took a small sip as well.

Even though this was his second time drinking the rainbow juice, the taste this time was completely different from the previous one.

The combination of countless fruit flavors created something truly ever-changing.

In a sense, every cup of rainbow juice he made would have a unique taste.

Even every sip would be unique.

Unfortunately, despite the thousand flavors before her, this innocent girl couldn't enjoy any of them...

After quietly drinking a few sips of juice, Xia Zhi asked, "Miss Qiqi, did you just return from gathering herbs?"

"Yes."

"You went to the mountains so early?"

"Went at night."

"You work at night too? Isn't that exhausting?"

"Daytime hot. Like nighttime."

"I see."

"Miss Qiqi, are you currently an apprentice herbalist at Bubu Pharmacy?"

"Yes."

"Do you have to go to the mountains every night to gather herbs?"

"Every few days."

"What does Miss Qiqi usually eat?"

"Coconut milk."

"But you can't taste it, right?"

"Mm, it's cool."

"I see, so Miss Qiqi likes cold things."

...

Xia Zhi chatted casually with Qiqi, both advancing her progress bar and gathering information about her.

Gradually, the incense on the table burned out.

Qiqi looked at the incense burner that no longer emitted smoke, her eyes showing some reluctance and confusion. She turned to look at Xia Zhi and said quietly, "It's gone."

Xia Zhi nodded and said, "Yes, it's finished burning."

"Finished burning?"

"Does Miss Qiqi like this incense so much?"

"Like it. Smells nice."

"Then Miss Qiqi can come back tomorrow, I'll light the incense again."

"Tomorrow..."

Qiqi thought carefully and nodded.

"Okay."

She hugged her cup and gulped down the remaining juice, put down the cup, and said quietly, "Thank you for the drink."

Then, she looked at the other cup of now-cold tea on the table and said softly, "Thank you for the tea."

Xia Zhi smiled and shook his head, saying, "No need to be polite."

Qiqi walked back to the wall, picked up her herb basket, and headed for the door.

Xia Zhi said to her, "Miss Qiqi, see you tomorrow."

Qiqi stopped, paused for a moment, and said quietly, "See you tomorrow."

After Qiqi left, Xia Zhi reached out and gently patted Zhu Zi, who was still holding her cup in a daze.

"Wake up."

"Eh? Boss? What is it?"

"How was the rainbow juice?"

"Delicious! I never imagined our shop's special drink would be so tasty! And it looks so beautiful too!"

"Do you think customers will like it?"

"Definitely!"

"In that case, how many Mora do you think we should charge per cup of rainbow juice in our shop?"

"Ah? Well..."

Zhu Zi's expression became somewhat troubled.

"Boss, I don't know, but such a delicious juice must have a high cost to make, right?"

"The cost... indeed quite high."

[Rainbow Fruit Concentrate] cost 3 points in the [Shop], while the Glaze Lily that Xia Zhi had previously sold at Mingxing Restaurant for one million Mora was worth 1 point. If converted this way, the [Rainbow Fruit Concentrate] would have a cost price of thirty million Mora.

However, his original intention in opening this small shop wasn't to make money, so he couldn't calculate it that way.

Xia Zhi thought for a moment and said, "Let me ask differently. Zhu Zi, if you were a tourist from Inazuma visiting Liyue, without having tasted it before, how much would you be willing to pay for a cup of this juice?"

Zhu Zi considered seriously and said, "I think... 100 Mora at most."

Xia Zhi nodded, "I understand. Then let's set the price of our rainbow juice at 100 Mora per cup for now."

"Boss, should we limit purchases?"

"Limit purchases..."

"If we don't limit it, people will definitely buy many cups at once and resell them outside!"

"You have a point. Then let's limit it to two cups per person for now."

"Okay."

"How about this - go buy a large red paper and write down the price and requirements. We'll post it on the wall when we open."

"Alright, Boss, I'll go right away!"

--

Qiqi returned to Bubu Pharmacy, put down her herb basket, and emptied out the herbs inside.

Different herbs had different properties.

Some could be used directly, some needed to be dried, some were more troublesome and required careful removal of toxic parts leaving only a small harmless portion, while others were the opposite, needing only the toxic parts...

Sorting was something that Qiqi easily made mistakes with.

Because she was a zombie, her memory was far inferior to normal people's. If she didn't constantly reinforce her impressions, she would completely forget people within three days, let alone herbs.

Usually, she could only roughly categorize herbs based on her herb-gathering instincts from when she was alive, then wait for others to do further processing.

But today was different. For some reason, Qiqi felt her mind was clearer than usual, and various memories about herbs clearly surfaced in her mind. She managed to sort the gathered herbs quite easily.

Qiqi looked at the neatly arranged herbs before her, thought for a while, and took out her notebook that she always carried with her.

Because of her poor memory, this notebook had become an essential item to ensure her daily life could proceed smoothly.

The text was written in a script from several hundred years ago, in elegant handwriting.

The first page described methods for flexibility exercises. Flipping through, there were descriptions of various herbs and some [Commands].

Qiqi turned to a blank page, took out her pen, and carefully wrote down new must-remember things.

"Mr. Xia Zhi... fragrant incense... remember to go every morning... by that wooden bridge..."

Qiqi stopped writing, thought for a moment, and added one more line.

"...is a good person..."