Chapter 95: The Old Prices

The first eastbound traveler appeared shortly after breakfast the next morning.

Lin Yuan noticed the man because he spent several minutes asking Qiao Ren about the safest road toward Green River before entering the tavern. A pack animal waited outside with two bundles tied across its back. Judging from the dust covering both traveler and beast, they had already been on the road for several days.

Lin Yuan retrieved the two sealed messages from beneath the counter. One was addressed to Master Han, while the other was for Clear Pattern Formation Shop. He had considered sending them with anyone heading east, but after everything that had happened around Blackstone, trusting important messages to the first stranger who appeared seemed unwise.

The traveler eased his concerns by producing several trade receipts bearing stamps from shops Lin Yuan recognized in Green River. That was reassuring enough.

"You’re going all the way to the city?" Lin Yuan asked.

"Unless the road decides otherwise."

Lin Yuan glanced toward the man’s pack animal. "That sounds reassuring."

"It wasn’t meant to be."

The traveler accepted the messages and tucked them inside an oiled pouch. Lin Yuan paid a modest delivery fee rather than asking for another favor. The caravan that had carried his Association report had earned that favor during the raid. This man had not.

"When should I expect these to reach Green River?"

"If my pack animal behaves, nobody robs me, and I don’t decide to become a farmer halfway there, a few days."

Lin Yuan stared at him until the traveler smiled and repeated, "A few days."

"That answer was much better."

"I thought so too."

Once the man left, Lin Yuan crossed two items from his list. The repairs were no closer to being completed, but at least the people capable of handling them would soon know they were needed. For the moment, that was all he could do.

The next few days were quieter than Lin Yuan expected.

The new night watch reported three unusual events. The first involved a traveler arriving well after dark and complaining because nobody had warned him that two men holding lanterns would ask where he was going. The second was a pack animal that broke loose from a merchant’s rope and wandered close enough to the western boundary to frighten one of the watchmen.

The third turned out to be Qiao Ren returning late from checking stock at his shop.

Qiao Ren found that one considerably funnier than Lin Yuan did.

"You should be pleased," he said the next morning. "Your watchmen are observant."

"One of them nearly sounded the alarm because you were walking home."

"That proves the system works."

"It proves you need a better lantern."

Despite the complaints, Lin Yuan preferred false alarms to another raid. The watchmen reported no further trouble along the western road, and Lin Yuan received no reports of suspicious activity near the restricted site. The broken formation post remained exactly where it was. Until someone from Clear Pattern Formation Shop arrived, the watchmen continued observing that section manually.

Lin Yuan’s injuries improved slowly. His thigh stopped bothering him first, and the shoulder wound began closing without trouble, although Su Mei still changed the dressing each morning. His ribs remained painful whenever he twisted too quickly, while his right wrist proved to be the most stubborn injury.

He could use the hand for light tasks again, though Su Mei caught him testing whether that included carrying a water jug. It did not. Afterward, she moved the larger jugs farther from the counter, and Lin Yuan chose not to comment on the insult.

The temporary repairs also held. The tavern entrance creaked occasionally but remained usable. Merchants rearranged the surviving market stalls so the damaged section did not block the road, and several traders began using tables until proper repairs could be made.

Blackstone looked less like the site of a battle with each passing day, although it still resembled a badly organized construction project in places. Lin Yuan considered that an improvement.

The larger surprise was how quickly the customers returned.

Three days after the raid, six of the eight guest rooms were occupied before sunset. The following day, seven were taken. On the fifth evening, Su Mei approached the counter while Lin Yuan was checking the room ledger.

"All eight."

Lin Yuan looked up. "All eight what?"

"Rooms."

He checked the ledger and found that she was right. Every room had a name beside it. Two belonged to merchants staying for several days, three had been taken by a small traveling group, and the remaining rooms had gone to individual cultivators passing through the wasteland.

"When did the last one fill?"

"About half an hour ago."

Lin Yuan glanced toward the dining room, where a man near the entrance was trying to convince Xiao Lan that sleeping at a dining table should count as renting half a room. Judging from her expression, the negotiation was not going well.

"He arrived after the last room was taken," Su Mei explained.

"Did you tell him he can sleep downstairs if he doesn’t disturb the tables?"

"Yes, but he wants a bed."

"That part I understood."

The man eventually approached the counter himself.

"Owner Lin, are you certain there isn’t another room?"

"Unless someone built one upstairs without telling me."

The traveler glanced toward the stairs. "I’ll pay extra."

Lin Yuan looked at the ledger again. All eight rooms were occupied or reserved.

"How much extra?"

Su Mei turned toward him, while the traveler hesitated, perhaps surprised that the question had worked.

"Another spirit stone."

Lin Yuan considered the offer, then closed the ledger.

"It wouldn’t help."

"Why not?"

"Because every room already belongs to someone for the night. Paying more doesn’t make another one appear."

The traveler sighed. "Do people really fill this place that quickly now?"

Lin Yuan looked around the tavern. Several tables were occupied, and more customers were outside near Qiao Ren’s shop and the remaining market stalls.

Apparently they did.

"If you want the dining hall, Xiao Lan can find you a place against the wall after closing."

The traveler reluctantly accepted and returned to the dining area.

Su Mei remained beside the counter, watching Lin Yuan with an expression he couldn’t quite read.

"What?" he asked.

"I was wondering how long it would take you."

"To do what?"

She tapped the room ledger.

Lin Yuan looked down at the rates written beside the room records. They were the same prices he had been charging for quite some time.

"You think they’re too cheap."

"I didn’t say that."

"You didn’t have to."

Su Mei pulled out the stool beside the counter.

"When we first started using all the rooms, people didn’t know whether anyone would even come this far into the wasteland. Now merchants arrive expecting to stay here."

Lin Yuan flipped through several earlier pages of the ledger. Occupancy still varied from day to day, but more travelers were staying overnight, repeat customers were becoming common, and the rooms were filling far more often than before.

The market had changed things, as had the improved road traffic. Even the rumors surrounding the buried structure had attracted curious travelers, although Lin Yuan wasn’t sure he wanted to consider that a business strategy.

He glanced at the unchanged room rates. Blackstone had grown busier, but his prices hadn’t changed with it. He had been too occupied with everything else to notice.

Qiao Ren entered during the discussion and immediately noticed the ledger.

"What did I miss?"

"Lin Yuan discovered his rooms are popular," Su Mei replied.

Qiao Ren looked surprised. "I assumed the tavern owner already knew that."

Lin Yuan turned the ledger toward him. "I’m talking about the prices."

Qiao Ren read the figures, glanced at Lin Yuan, then looked back at the ledger.

"How long have you been charging this?"

"That reaction isn’t helpful."

"It answers the question."

Lin Yuan took the ledger back. "I don’t want to raise the price just because one traveler offered more."

"Then don’t." Qiao Ren pulled out a chair. "Raise it because the rooms fill regularly, the market brings more people here, and Blackstone isn’t the same empty stop it was when you set those rates."

That was harder to dismiss.

Lin Yuan looked toward the staircase. Increasing the room rate too aggressively would be a mistake. Travelers still had limited reasons to stay in Blackstone beyond resting, trading, or satisfying their curiosity about the settlement.

The tavern also wasn’t exactly in perfect condition. One door was temporarily reinforced, part of the warning formation was broken, and several market stalls still looked as though someone had thrown them down the road. Charging luxury prices would require considerably more imagination than Lin Yuan possessed.

But leaving the rates unchanged forever made just as little sense.

"I’ll review the prices."

Qiao Ren and Su Mei both nodded.

Lin Yuan frowned at them. "Why does that feel like the two of you planned this?"

"We didn’t," Su Mei said, hiding a smile.

Qiao Ren leaned back. "I would have suggested charging more."

"That is exactly why I didn’t ask you."

The pricing question stayed in Lin Yuan’s mind through dinner. After the dining room quieted, he reviewed several weeks of records. The increasing occupancy wasn’t simply the result of one busy evening. More travelers had been staying overnight, and some had already begun accepting places downstairs when the rooms filled.

He wrote a note beside the room ledger.

Review lodging prices after repairs.

Lin Yuan stared at it, then crossed out the last two words. Waiting until every repair was finished could take weeks, depending on how quickly Master Han and the formation shop responded. The damaged market hadn’t stopped customers from arriving, and neither had the raid.

He rewrote the reminder.

Review lodging prices.

Better.

Anyone who had already reserved a room would pay the agreed rate. Changing someone’s price after accepting their booking would be unreasonable. New bookings could use the adjusted rate once Lin Yuan settled on one.

He didn’t decide the amount that night. For once, he wanted to examine the figures properly before inventing a number and regretting it later.

The following afternoon, another practical problem presented itself.

A traveling cultivator who had spent several days on the road approached the counter after securing one of the remaining rooms.

"Do you have somewhere I can bathe?"

Lin Yuan looked at him, unsure what answer the man expected.

"We can heat water."

"I meant a bath."

"We can heat more water."

The traveler glanced toward the back of the tavern. "No bathing room?"

"No."

The answer had never seemed strange to Lin Yuan before. People staying at the tavern washed with heated water, basins, and cloth. It worked well enough for ordinary travelers, but nobody would mistake it for a proper bath.

The traveler accepted a large basin of heated water and went upstairs without further complaint.

Xiao Lan, who had overheard the conversation, immediately approached the counter.

"We should build one."

Lin Yuan already knew what she meant. "A bathhouse?"

She nodded enthusiastically. "With a big pool."

"No."

"A small pool?"

"We’re not building anything today."

"I didn’t say today."

Lin Yuan narrowed his eyes, but Xiao Lan only smiled.

He opened his list again. There were already repairs, formation work, security improvements, and several other things requiring money. A bathhouse wasn’t urgent, although he had to admit it wasn’t a terrible idea.

Travelers crossing the wasteland arrived dusty, tired, and usually willing to pay for comfort. Proper bathing facilities might become another reason for them to stay at Blackstone instead of continuing along the road.

He added a small note near the bottom of the page.

Bathing facilities — later.

Xiao Lan leaned over the counter.

"You wrote it down."

"That doesn’t mean we’re building it."

"But you wrote it down."

Lin Yuan closed the list. "I regret letting you see that."

More than a week had passed since the raid when someone from the Association finally appeared in Blackstone.

By then, the market looked almost normal from a distance. Up close, the patched timber made the damage obvious, but merchants had stopped complaining about where they had to place their tables. The night watch had also settled into a routine, and the western road was monitored each evening.

Lin Yuan’s shoulder no longer needed a heavy bandage, and his wrist had improved enough that Su Mei allowed him to carry smaller objects without following him across the tavern. His ribs still ached occasionally, but the pain was far less troublesome than before.

He considered that progress.

Shortly before noon, one of the watchmen came in from the road. He approached at an ordinary pace, without any sign of alarm.

"Owner Lin, there are people coming from the east."

Lin Yuan looked up from the ledger. "Merchants?"

"I don’t think so." The man glanced back outside. "They’re wearing Association robes."

Qiao Ren, who had been examining a box of medicinal herbs near the doorway, immediately stopped what he was doing.

"How many?"

"Two."

Lin Yuan stood. His ribs still objected slightly, but far less than they had several days earlier. He walked outside with Qiao Ren to see who had arrived.

Two figures were approaching along the eastern road. Even at a distance, Lin Yuan recognized the colors of the Merchant Association.

As they drew closer, he recognized one of the men as well.

Zhao Wei.

The Foundation Establishment cultivator was at the front, with another Association member following several steps behind.

Qiao Ren glanced at Lin Yuan. "That was faster than I expected."

"I didn’t expect him back so soon either."

His report must have reached Green River. More importantly, someone had decided it deserved a response in person.

Lin Yuan looked briefly toward the restricted site north of the tavern. He had spent more than a week waiting for the Association to return, and the questions he’d prepared were still unanswered.

When Zhao Wei reached the tavern, Lin Yuan had several questions ready for him.