Jie-Ming's Bling

[Kwokinator]

Li Sheng Village is not a large city by any means, it is not even a large village.  Still, there are the essentials, like the market and a few restaurants.  Today, passerbys take the time away from their daily grocery shopping to stare at the young man travelling alone.

"Hey, who are you?" one man asks behind a butcher knife. "You're not from around here."

[Jeram]

Jie-Ming looks up.  "Me? Just a wandering traveler replenishing my supplies."  He smiles.  "I don't suppose you have anything you might have for a low price?"

Jie-Ming carefully inspects the surroundings, and looks back to the butcher.  "Perhaps a few cuts of meat you planned to throw away?"

[Kwokinator]

"I don't trust you," the butcher replied, with a wave of his butcher knife. "We don't trust strangers around here, so why don't you just head on out."

"Don't mind him, dear," an old woman called out from behind a few baskets of vegetables. "He's always like that to strangers."

[Jeram]

Jie-Ming smiles slightly.  "Ah, thank you, sir and madam."  He gestures to the vegetables.  "I don't suppose you have a small task I could perform in exchange for a few pieces of dried meat.  Perhaps a something requiring martial arts skills?"

Jie-Ming shrugs and attempts to smile beatifically at the couple.

[Kwokinator]

"Not right now," the old woman smiled at Zhu-Lin. "There is a bad man who comes here and demands money from us, but he hasn't been by for a few days now."

[Jeram]

Jie-Ming frowns.   "A 'bad' man? Demanding money? He's not working for the governor, is he?" Jie-Ming straightens his shoulders and narrows his eyes.  "Regardless, my course is clear.  I must confront this nefarious individual and stop his grevious attacks on you!"

He stops.  "If that's okay with you... perhaps I could help in exchange for some food?"

[Kwokinator]

"No, thank you, dear," the old woman replied, with a hint of fear in her eyes. "Thanks, but no thanks.  And he's not working for the governor."

[Jeram]

Jie-Ming nods, frowning.  "Well, fair enough.  Be careful, friends."  He walks away, looking around for possible places to hide.  He thinks, "I should keep watch for this villian plaguing those good, if naive, villagers.  And perhaps if I help them, they will offer me some supplies...?"

Jie-Ming stretches and then checks his current inventory.  "Hmm," he murmurs.

[Kwokinator]

Jie-Ming finds out he has loads of money. All the silver tael and bronze coins together, he has a total of eleven tael of silver.

[Jeram]

"Ah, good," Jie-Ming says to himself.  "But still, I can not forget these harried villagers."  Jie-Ming walks down the street away from the butcher shop, keeping an eye out for potential evil-doers.

[Kwokinator]

Jie-Ming did not see any "evil-doers" along his walk.  Instead, he sees a number of inns and restaurants, a small clinic and a pawn shop along the street.

[Jeram]

Jie-Ming walks over to the pawn shop, thinking "Maybe I can ask around about that thug threatening the butcher...  But I'll have to be careful, you never know who's working together."

[Kwokinator]

The owner of the pawn shop greeted him, from behind metal bars three feet above Jie-Ming's head.

"Can I help you?"

[Jeram]

"Hello, sir."  Jie-Ming peers through the bars.  "Um, this may sound like an odd question, but why the need for bars? Surely you are not concerned with theft in this small village."

[Kwokinator]

"You never know," the man replied. "All pawn shops everywhere are built like this, we stand higher than the client and behind bars, just in case.  You never know, these days."