Chapter 27: 'Extreme Makeover' of the Ticket Office, a Bewildered Sun

Chen Yan had just arrived at the ticket office. He was holding a rag, planning to wipe the glass of the ticket window, but when he came out, he suddenly noticed a small storefront had appeared next to the ticket office out of nowhere!

This was just a small empty plot yesterday. Now, however, a wooden counter with a style similar to Qinghe Street had appeared. Behind the counter was a wall full of wooden grid cabinets. Some of the cabinets were open, revealing copper coins inside that gleamed with a metallic luster. And above the door, a relatively small wooden plaque was hanging—[Tongyuan Money Shop: Exchange].

"Is this the auxiliary facility the system mentioned?" Chen Yan muttered in his heart, frowning slightly as he looked at the small storefront that seemed to have appeared out of thin air, especially with the Tongyuan Money Shop plaque hanging above the door.

"Boss!" Just as he was muttering to himself, a man in his early forties suddenly popped his head out from under the counter, smiling as he bowed and cupped his hands in greeting. The man was slightly chubby, with a round face, small eyes, and fair skin. He wore a clean, dark-gray short tunic and held a rag in his hand, just like Chen Yan. He was likely in the middle of cleaning.

"You are...?" Chen Yan asked subconsciously, taken aback as he looked at the kind-looking man with a wealthy, smiling face.

"I am Xu Ping, but everyone calls me Old Xu. I work under Shopkeeper Yan. Early this morning, Shopkeeper Yan sent me here to look after things. He said that from now on, exchanging copper coins will be done here." Faced with his inquiry, Xu Ping answered fluently, clearly having been trained beforehand.

Hearing this, Chen Yan understood in his heart. If nothing unexpected happened, this Xu Ping, just like Si and the others, should be a companion resident who unlocked along with the shop.

"Then... Old Xu, can you explain the general exchange process to me?" After a moment of thought, Chen Yan asked the biggest question on his mind.

In his view, whether they were companion residents or native residents, they all strictly followed the Song Dynasty lifestyle. They had no understanding of modern facilities and were unwilling to come into contact with them. The problem was, people making a living inside the street could indeed avoid these things, but Xu Ping could not. He was the first hurdle tourists would face when entering the Ancient City to experience Qinghe Street: exchanging cash or scanning a QR code for copper coins. So, whether he wanted to or not, he had to know exactly how this process worked.

"Shopkeeper Yan already explained this to me before I came." Nodding, Xu Ping took out a coarse cloth bag from under the cabinet and opened it for Chen Yan to see. "When guests bring cash, we give them copper coins at a one-to-one ratio and put them in the bag. When they leave, if they haven't spent all their copper coins, they can return them for a refund, also at a one-to-one ratio.

"Every transaction must be recorded in the ledger. In the evening, the totals are tallied up and handed over to Shopkeeper Yan. Rest assured, Boss. I've worked in the old shop for over ten years. I couldn't make a mistake with money exchanges even with my eyes closed."

Seeing Xu Ping answer so fluently, Chen Yan still had two questions in mind.

"What about the copper coins? If guests come to exchange money, you need to have copper coins to give them, right?" After some thought, he asked his first question.

"When I came, the shopkeeper already allocated ten thousand copper coins. The shopkeeper said these were originally in the Money Shop, and he told me to use them first. Once you have enough cash flow later, Boss, you can just make up for it." Inviting Chen Yan into the shop, Xu Ping pointed at several open sacks on the ground.

Looking at the several strings of unopened copper coins in the sacks, Chen Yan suddenly chuckled.

Previously, he had been thinking that whenever a shop on Qinghe Street was unlocked, the system would include a batch of starting materials. Li's Tea House's starting material was a batch of tea leaves. Yu's Guduo got a few bags of top-quality white flour, cooking oil, and some essential seasonings. Even Su's Fragrance and Medicine Shop and Zhang Family Iron Shop, which had just unlocked this morning, were filled with a room full of spices and pig iron respectively. They were basically ready to move in and start business immediately.

Only this Tongyuan Money Shop left him stumped as to what the system could possibly gift. Now, he finally knew.

Shopkeeper Yan had made it very clear; these ten thousand copper coins were already in the shop. Although he said that Chen Yan would have to replenish them once his cash flow freed up later, the problem was, weren't the copper coins returned to the Money Shop still his anyway?

"You're too generous, System!"

Unlocking the Money Shop actually allowed him to get ten thousand copper coins for free. According to his earlier observation, these ten thousand copper coins equated to ten thousand wen, which, based on the system's exchange rate, was exactly ten thousand yuan! To others, ten thousand yuan might not seem like a lot, but to Chen Yan, this money truly solved his urgent need.

Reluctantly pulling his gaze away from the pile of copper coins on the ground, he thought for a moment and didn't rush to ask his second question. Instead, he went straight to the ticket office, opened a drawer, and dug out a small portable speaker printed with a payment QR code.

Returning to the exchange counter, he waved the small speaker in front of Xu Ping and asked, "Do you recognize this?"

"To answer you, Boss, I have never seen it before." Cupping his hands with a confused look, Xu Ping continued, "However, the shopkeeper instructed me that once I arrived here, I should follow your arrangements, Boss, and there is no need to ask too many questions no matter what I encounter."

"Mm." Seeing that he knew what to do, Chen Yan didn't waste words. He directly scanned the QR code on the speaker and paid one yuan.

"WeChat Pay received—1 yuan."

As the prompt for a successful payment came from the speaker, Chen Yan said to the dumbfounded Xu Ping, "Remember my steps just now. The guest scans the code, pays, and once you hear the payment prompt, you just need to give the guest copper coins at a one-to-one ratio. Understand?"

"I will remember it. I guarantee I won't make a mistake," Xu Ping hurriedly cupped his hands. Although he completely failed to understand the intricacies of this device, he strictly remembered the shopkeeper's instructions: do not inquire, follow the Boss's arrangements in everything, and do whatever he was told.

His mind whirring, he suddenly turned around, took a copper coin from the wooden grid cabinet, carefully placed it into the coarse cloth money bag from earlier, and handed it to Chen Yan.

"I just heard the payment was one yuan. A one-to-one exchange means one wen. Please take it, Boss." Handing the money bag to Chen Yan, Xu Ping flashed his signature kind smile and cupped his hands again.

"Very good." Chen Yan nodded in sheer satisfaction, sighing emotionally in his heart. Although the origins of these companion residents were unclear, their IQs and EQs were incredibly high. They practically understood things the moment they were pointed out, saving him from wasting so much breath.

Holding the coarse cloth money bag Xu Ping handed him, Chen Yan felt another weight lifted off his mind. He was just about to return to the ticket office when he suddenly heard a flurry of hurried footsteps behind him.

"Boss!"

Looking back, he saw Sun wearing a work bag, rushing toward the ticket office and waving at him as he ran.

But soon, as Sun reached him and saw the newly added antique-style small storefront next to the ticket office, his eyes widened. Before he could even catch his breath, he hurriedly asked, "What... what is this? There didn't seem to be anything here yesterday, right?"

"This shop was already built during the previous construction of Qinghe Street." Facing Sun's astonishment, Chen Yan had long prepared his excuse. "We took advantage of the quiet last night to move it over overnight. It's completely normal that you haven't seen it."

"You can do that?" Stunned, Sun felt his brain couldn't quite process this. He glanced at the wooden counter and suddenly noticed a person standing behind it. "Then who is this...?"

"Xu Ping, a newcomer. This was also decided early on. Today is his first official day at work, and he is solely responsible for exchanging copper coins for customers from now on." Chen Yan briefly introduced Xu Ping's main duties to Sun, still keeping his origins vague.

"A pleasure to meet you, Brother Sun. Please take good care of me from now on." Just as Chen Yan finished his introduction, Xu Ping gave a slight bow across the counter.

"A p-pleasure, a pleasure! Brother Xu, please take care of me too!" Utterly bewildered, Sun hurriedly tried to cup his hands in return. Unfortunately, as a modern man who had never performed this gesture since birth, his attempt looked rather comical.

"Alright, it's getting late. The Ancient City is about to open, and we should get to work." Interrupting Sun's clumsy cupped-hand gesture, Chen Yan waved at him.

Hearing this, Sun was finally freed from the awkward atmosphere. He was about to follow when he suddenly remembered something. With a face full of excitement, he ran into the ticket office to find Chen Yan again.