A Debt?

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***

To his knowledge, Zhongli just shoplifted and left the area, leaving him to be the one to pay for all of the stuff he took with him as he was leaving...

(Are you joking with me!? How can he just leave like this!?)

Seeing his angry face, the woman with glasses sighed quietly, as if she could guess his feelings from his outward appearance, "If you don't have any currency on you, do you want me to put it on the Wangsheng Funeral Parlor's tab as usual?"

"Huh?"

"I could do that, however, the debt will keep getting piled up at this rate. You guys really need to stop wasting so much money..." she scolded Yomite somewhat tactlessly, while looking straight at him from under her glasses.

"What do you mean? Debt? What debt?" Yomite narrowed his eyes in disbelief.

"Eh? Didn't you know? The Wangsheng Funeral parlor is 30 million Mora in debt at the moment. The Tianquan of the Liyue Qixing, Lady Ningguang gave them an ultimatum. Well, they deserve it in a sense."

The woman with glasses remarked, not seeming in the least a bit apologetic about her words.

"What!?" Yomite blurted out with a sharp intake of breath.

"I thought you were an employee of the Wangsheng Funeral parlor when you arrived with Mr. Zhongli, but I guess I was wrong...To fill you in, the Wangsheng Funeral Parlor has a history of screw ups...Recently it got better and they managed to pay off 5 million Mora, but there is still a lot left to pay...I'm afraid they won't make it in time, there's only a few months left till the deadline. After that, the Parlor would be closed down."

"...How do you know so much about it?" He inquired as his thoughts were spinning, unable to calm down.

Why did Hu Tao not mention something so important to him?

The glasses lady threw an indifferent glance his way before continuing, "Most people are aware of it. Just the fact that you don't know about it, means you're a traveler from afar. Lady Ningguang released the official statement on the main billboard a couple of months ago."

"Billboards, huh... What's the reason they're in debt? I'm quite interested in that."

"The reason...well, we don't know that. There's only speculation regarding the way they spend money for advertisement and decorations to attract customers. The funerals themselves are often grand and more than 500k Mora is used in the process, but..."

"..."

"Well, I am pretty sure the reason why they're in debt is because the funerals and ceremonies they plan out are too expensive, and the common folk can't afford it."

The woman had quite a decent understanding of business matters, especially wealth. Even when she was just an employee with minimal wage, her observation abilities were absolutely brilliant.

"The problem is, that people running the Wangsheng Funeral Parlor are understanding, therefore they lower the prices for their dear customers. The sympathy and care they express towards their clients is immense...For a funeral ceremony, they usually bring the price down to 100k Mora so that the people can afford to bury their beloved, even if the whole ceremony costs around 500k. This way, they suffer major loses...but this isn't how a business should operate. They kept on losing funds and now they're in a massive debt."

"...In other words, their kindess is bringing them downfall."

Yomite nodded quietly, his jaw clenched tight. This was a serious problem.

"Exactly. Then there is Mr. Zhongli who should also keep it in check...he spent more than two million Mora in the past month in our shop, all of which went into the Wangsheng Funeral Parlor's debt..."

"Zhongli did?" He squinted his eyes and frowned.

He took a deep breath and exhaled. "I'll pay for the items, don't put it on their tab. Thank you for everything."

He paid for the stuff and gave her a 20k Mora tip for the information she shared with him.

"Alright. Thank you~ Have a nice day!"

Her smile was enchanting, but Yomite was already too exhausted to notice it.

(Nice day my ass...Looks like there is more stuff to do before the date...Why didn't Tao say anything? I would have helped immediately if something important to her was about to be closed down...The Wangsheng Funeral Parlor is her whole life...if it closes down, she would be devastated...)

***

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Returning back to his room, he found out that Fischl was frantically running around, while Hu Tao was sleeping on her bed peacefully after the beating she received from him yesterday night.

"I-I am not ready yet! Give me a few more minutes!" Fischl exclaimed from the bathroom.

"No worries, take your time. I will be out for a while. I need to resolve something. Let's say a couple of hours or so. After that, we can go somewhere."

"Okay!"

Yomite looked over at the sleeping Hu Tao and clicked his tongue in irritation.

"Just how many other things are you shouldering by yourself?"

Perhaps he was too harsh on her yesterday, she had her plate full with responsibilities and her premature retirement didn't help either, so occasional pranks may have been her way of coping with stress.

He sighed before grabbing the remaining pouches full of Mora he stole from Childe. Considering he gave away around 10 million to his party members, 90 million Mora should still be present.

(It's more than enough.)

With that, he bid farewell to Fischl and left the inn once more...