“Lord Father, those buns are delicious. I want to eat more, especially the big meat buns.” Gale said. He no longer had the discontent that he had when he first entered the city.
“Okay, we’ll go and buy some later. You’ve already eaten more than enough,” Solo said, looking at Gale’s bulging stomach. The meat buns were delicious, and the cheap price of three copper coins¹ per bun was a really deep hole that was extremely hard to get out of.
If it wasn’t because West Sun City was really far from the capital, he would have bought hundreds of meat buns to bring back to the capital to sell to the gluttonous nobles. Unfortunately, because it was so far, the buns would have long gone bad by the time he took to travel from West Sun City to the capital.
“Okay, that’s what you said. I want two, no, I want three meat buns,” Gale said. He put up two fingers and immediately put up another finger.
“Okay, we’ll buy as many as you want,” Solo said, stroking Gale’s head. He scanned the surroundings but still couldn’t find the Public Bathhouse.
“Lord Father, what are you looking for?” Gale asked.
“A place where we can take a bath,” Solo responded. He had heard that the merchants were going to take a bath in the Public Bathhouse, so he had been searching for one the whole day, but he still hadn’t found it.
“Lord Father, why don’t you go and ask someone?” Gale asked.
“Hh…” Solo didn’t know what to say. He had already asked others for help, but he just couldn’t find the Public Bathhouse. He wasn’t going to admit that he was directionally challenged. Sigh. If I knew that this would happen, I wouldn’t have sent the servant away. Now I can’t even go back to the inn.
“Lord Father!” Gale tugged on Solo’s sleeves and pointed at a building not far behind them. “There’s a lot of smoke coming from that house.”
“A lot of smoke?” Solo turned around and immediately saw the sign on the building, which read: Public Bathhouse.
It was the exact building that he was looking for!
Didn’t I just walk past that building? Why didn’t I see it? Could I be blind? No, that can’t be it. It must be because the sign was too small to see. Yes, that must be it!
“Come on. Let’s go over there!” Solo said, running to the Public Bathhouse while pulling Gale along. “Huff… We’re here!”
Solo looked at the three-meter wide sign above his head and turned his head away. “This sign is too small!”
Solo and Gale walked in. There was a counter with two men and women behind it, and they all seemed to be in their thirties. They were currently folding towels.
A female attendant looked up just in time to see Solo and Gale, and she quickly asked, “Guest, are you here to take a bath?”
“Yes,” Solo said, nodding. I finally found the right place!
At this moment, a man came in with a clean set of clothes in his hands.
“Guest, are you here to take a bath?” a male attendant asked.
“Yeah. My mother-in-law just kicked me out of the house because I’m too dirty,” the man said.
“He he… Being able to take a bath at the end of the day was unthinkable in the past, wasn’t it?” the male attendant asked.
“Yeah! It was unthinkable! It’s all thanks to Lord Liu Feng,” the man nodded.
“Ok, do you want the public bathroom or the private bathroom?” the male attendant asked.
“I’ll use the public bathroom. The private one is too expensive,” the man said, taking out an ID card from his pocket and handing over three steel coins.
The male attendant looked at the ID card carefully and then nodded. “Okay, go to public bathroom number 1. A group of customers had come in earlier and we changed the water after they finished.”
The man took back the ID card and felt that it was strange. That’s weird. They don’t usually change the water during this time of the day.
The female attendant looked at Solo and asked, “Guest, do you want to use the public bathroom or the private bathroom?”
“Pulich bathroom,” Solo said.
“Okay, do you have an ID card?”
“ID card? What’s that?” Solo was confused. You need an ID card to take a bath?
“It’s the proof of identity of citizens in West Sun City. It’s fine if you don’t have one. You can still take a bath at five steel coins per person.”
“Didn’t that person only get charged three steel coins?” Solo asked. Why are you raising the price so blatantly?
The female attendant laughed. “You can take a bath for three steel coins if you have an ID card. That’s the benefit given to the citizens of this city by Lord Liu Feng.”
“..” Solo didn’t know what to say, and could only take out a copper coin and hand it to the attendant. “Two people!”
“Okay!” the attendant said, taking the copper coin. “You can go public bathroom number 1.”
Solo walked inside and saw two doors. One had the word “male” while the other had the word “female”. Solo took Gale inside the male door, looked around, and saw a door marked with the number 1.
“That should be public bathroom number 1.”
Solo pushed the door open and saw the man from before. The man was undressing and was soon naked. He stuffed his clothes into a wooden box and walked into a door with the wooden box.
“…” Wait, we undress here? Solo turned his head and looked around. Good, no one here! Solo soon stripped Gale and then stripped himself. He copied the man and stuffed his clothes into a wooden box, and walked inside the door.
Solo looked inside the room, and there were three pools inside, each about a dozen meters long.
The man from before was inside one of the pools and was currently rubbing his body. He saw the naked Solo and Gale and smiled at them kindly.
Solo nodded at him and led Gale into another pool. “So comfortable!”
The warm water made him extremely comfortable, but Solo immediately became embarrassed. The water around him had turned murky. How dirty am I?
Solo silently moved to somewhere else in the pool, and the water became murky again. Just like that, Solo had to move three times before the water stopped becoming mirky. Huh. For those merchants that didn’t bathe for three months, would the water have to be changed as soon as they take a bath?
…
Half an hour later, Solo took the dizzy Gale out of the bathroom. If an attendant hadn’t been urging them to get out, they probably would have stayed in the pool until they fainted.
Outside, Solo turned his head and looked at the door of the Public Bathhouse. He was envious. This bathhouse is so good. Why isn’t there one in the capital?
“Quick! Lord City Lord is going out to crush the horse thieves and is now preparing to go out of the city. Let’s go and take a look!”
Hearing the shouts, Solo turned and saw a group of people running.
“City Lord? The noble of West Sun City?” Solo’s eyes lit up and he pulled Gale as he chased after the group of people. I need to take a good look at the genius noble who could invent public restrooms and public bathhouses. I need to see what he looks like. Is he an old scholar with a beard or a wise old noble with white hair?
Translator’s Notes:
¹ I am pretty sure that the author had set a different price in one of the previous chapters.