Bought

"This one, sir?" the old man asks the newly arrived, black-clothed fellow. What is this old man doing? Of course, he means me. Just give me to him.

"Yes, how much is it?" the young man asks.

Like 4 silver, now hurry up.

"20 Silvers, sir," the old man says. The hell? Is this old man trying to scam this guy? I don't see any gullible looks on his face. Is this old man perhaps talented in recognizing customers? Ooh, this might be interesting to watch.

Hehe, let's see if this newcomer is smart enough to realize. Tsk, tsk, tsk. I hope you did some market research dude. Don't just trust what another person says.

The young man moves his eyes away from me. Huh? No way he's thinking of buying another one right? Oi bastard! Don't you dare look at something else.

"What's the price for the other ones?" the kid went on to ask as he looked around the basket. Sigh, this kid is an idiot. You can't do market research by asking the same vendor. Go ask a diff—

"4 Silvers, sir," the old man said, cutting me off mid-sentence. Dammit, let me think a whole sentence before you say something, okay? I lost my train of thought now.

Hmm… where was I? Right, asking the old man— wait, 4 silvers? Holy shit, is this old man an idiot too? That's not how you scam, dude. You have to name the same price for everything. Otherwise, they will obviously go for the cheaper one of course.

"I see, I see. You know your stuff, old man," the young man says with gleaming eyes.

"Thank you, kind sir," the old man replies.

Hmm, what's going on? What did I miss? Why are they acting like this was all part of the plan? Oi, you bastards, explain to me too.

The young man reaches into his... robes? Is that what this cloth is called? Whatever the young man reaches into his robes and brings out a pouch.

Hmm, that leathery brown pouch. That seems similar to the one the old man had. Now that I look at it, it is indeed small. The old man kept bringing out items from his bag and I thought it might have been an illusion, but it seems the pouch really is small.

The young man then pulls out 5 coins from his robes. 5? Wasn't he supposed to give 20? Is this young man perhaps about to show his superiority and steal from the old man?

The young man tosses the 5 silvery coins to the old man who takes it and watches it dully for a while. I can understand that, dude. You are about to be stolen from.

Grab your items and don't let him tak—

"You gave me one too many coins, sir," the old man says.

"Keep it. It's my thanks to you for finding such a great treasure," the young man said and picked me up before walking away.

Sigh, I'm not even going to bother wondering what the hell had just happened. The old man is happy with 5 coins? The young man somehow bought 20 coins worth of items with 5?

This world is a mess and I can't navigate it at all. These two are idiots, most likely. With just 5 coins… wait, maybe each coin counts as 5 silver coins. Then… the young man would have given 25 coins instead of 20, which made the old man happy.

Hahaha! I figured it out. This world is not hard to navig—

Suddenly, the young man kissed me mid-speech.

Yuck! I know he's just trying to play the flute, but you seriously don't have to put your lips so close to me, dude. Also, did you know that you indirectly kissed the old man?

Hehe, I can't wait to see your face when you learned that. Although will you ever learn.

The young man plays me… quite well surprisingly. These youngsters, I would've expected them to not respect anything, but it seems he knows how to play the flute at least.

A soothing tone escapes from me, causing me a sense of relaxation I haven't felt in a long time. Holy… what is this heavenly tone? Is it being played from me? Wow!

The young man has a satisfied look on his face. Does kissing me make you that happy? Well, if you can make such music again, then I will allow you to kiss me.

Go on, do it.

As I wait for the young man to kiss me, he does something weird. He brings out the same pouch from his robes. What is he going to do with that? Bring out some coins to buy something around here?

Or maybe he will bring out a pocket cloth to clean me. That will be very helpful actually. You see, you kissed me and that old man kissed me. Not to mention I've been walking around in this town buck naked, so there must be a lot of dirt on me.

Not to mention, I als—

The young man suddenly pushes me into the small pouch, and surprisingly, I go into it quite easily.

My horoscope says that I won't be able to finish my sentences today, doesn't it? Hell, man. Don't make a man stop mid-sentence. Now I don't know what I was talking about.

Anyway, where the hell am I even? It's so dark in here. Is it the small pouch perhaps? I knew there was something magical about it. I had been thinking about this from the very start.

Sigh, how long am I going to have to sit around in this darkness?

Anyway, at least I can see these other bamboos around me. My main body has no problem seeing at all.

That flute part of me can stay in that pouch for as long as it takes. I really won't be bored at all.

It's kind of impossible actually, with this freaking panda eating you every single day.