A Trip Around Long

As we leave the dumpling shop, Wei asks, "Should we go do the shopping you wish to do or do you want us to show you all around first?"

"Since pretty much every city is the same, isn't showing us around simply a matter of explaining which shops are where? We can just do both if that's the case, saves a bit of time too," Lia says.

"*Sigh* Wei, this is why you aren't the one who plans out our operations. You couldn't even come to such a simple conclusion," Shuren says.

"Haha, but I don't need to plan out the operations when I have you at my side," Wei says, laughing off Shuren's previous remark.

"Oh, Wei..."

"For some reason, I feel like very dissatisfied watching them," Wanjing says.

"Me too, it feels like I got force fed a bunch of sugar," Aurelia says.

"I don't see the problem," Lia says.

"Yeah, neither do I," I say.

"I never expected either of you two who have a fulfilling love life to understand. But lets get back to the previous topic and get moving, we don't have all day after all," Aurelia says.

"Ahem, you're right, we don't have all day so we should get started," Wei says as he begins to take lead and explain a bit about each of the buildings we pass.

Much like every other city in Shenzhou, Long has the same square district layout with the exception of the centre being several times larger than every other city. The dumpling shop that's run by the Scarlet Wings is located on the far fringes of the commercial district, away from most important facilities and other government related buildings.

One of the surprising things about Long is that despite its large size, there is a noticeable lack of slums or any similar areas. Most large cities have some kind of rundown area, but Long, from what we've seen, is very well maintained with high public security. This isn't to say there is no underground society in Long, the presence of the Scarlet Wings is evidence of that, but Shuren mentioned that there is significantly less compared to other cities.

After a while, we made our way to a store where we can buy some furnishing and pick up a few beds of a much higher quality than what is currently being used, unfortunately, paid for out of our own pocket.

After storing away the beds in Wanjing's ring, Wei and Shuren continued our little tour around the city. Lia had asked about the shops related to tailoring while Aurelia wanted to if there way a public library and if so, where it was. Lia's request was easy for them to fulfil, allowing Lia to stock up on some new cloth for her to weave. Shuren told us about the libraries in Long, one is in the centre and requires certain permissions to enter while there was a more public one located in the residential district but it's on the opposite side of the city. One location was restricted while the other was too far away making it better to visit on another day.

I only asked about the various places to eat and stopped at every street vendor we passed by adding a bit of time to our trip around the city, but apparently, Yue had already told them about my eating habits being similar to hers so Wei and Shuren had already been aware this could happen.

Wanjing on the other hand had previously been to Long on several locations when she was still travelling around with her father, so there wasn't anything she particularly wanted to see.

As the day went on, the sun eventually began to set and to the surprise of Lia, Aurelia, and I, the sides of the streets were suddenly brightly lit.

"What's this? They seem a bit similar to street lights?" Aurelia asks.

"They are light stones, most of the buildings in the centre as well as every street in Long has these. The stones, after being exposed to a lack of light, will begin to shine. If they were easy to work with then most of Shenzhou would use them, it's unfortunate that the stones are artificially made and difficult to create," Shuren explains.

"I'd like to get my hands on them for research purposes. Back home in Lausiel, we have similar inventions to illuminate the darkness, but much like these light stones, they aren't easy to produce. Cordelia, do you think if you ate one, could you reproduce it?" Aurelia asks.

"I might be able to, I can recreate alloys and those aren't usually something that's naturally formed so I would assume I can as long as there is nothing else other that makes them up other than what I can manipulate," I say.

"If you want to get your hands on a light stone we might be able to do something about it. We have an upcoming operation in the next couple of days and you might be able to get some then, but I can fill you in on the details later. For now, let's return, I think Big Sis should be on her way back right about now," Shuren says.