The next day.
A gentle wind swept across the land of Mondstadt, and clear spring water rushed down the rapids of the river gorge toward the lake.
It was early morning.
A long line had already formed outside the bookstore.
"Finally, finally, we've waited long enough for today. If you ask me, they ought to reassign every editor at that publishing house to hauling water. I saw the Traveler bring Fang Qiu's book over from Liyue days ago. I figured we'd have it the very next day, and instead those editors insist on waiting for some official release date. Guess they don't care about earning Mora, huh?"
"Right, right! For all we know, everyone in Liyue finished reading it days ago! Inazuma too, probably! I hear their editor-in-chief really knows how to work a market."
"They're so hopelessly rigid. Could the chief editor over there maybe try to understand how a market actually works? Honestly, I think this is worth taking up with Acting Grand Master Jean. She could get in touch with the publishing house and have them skip the whole proofreading step."
"Good point! An excellent story shouldn't have to wait! As the finest bard on the entire Teyvat continent, I refuse to allow such a thing to happen!"
Mona frowned at the chatter buzzing around her and turned her puzzled gaze on the person ahead of her in line: the bard who had just peeled himself off the ground after a nap and was already holding forth like a statesman.
She had once tried to divine this youth's identity by astrology.
She had barely begun before a gust of wind scattered her water divination basin, and blew off her hat and clothes for good measure.
So she had concluded that this idle, good-for-nothing bard was absolutely no ordinary person.
What baffled her was that last night, when she came here to queue with her cushion and folding stool in her arms, she had found the fellow flat-out drunk and sleeping in the bookstore doorway.
Mumbling something about wanting three copies of Weathering With You from the shopkeeper.
And something about selling them cheap, only two hundred Mora apiece.
This guy was exactly like her: scraping out a living by queuing up to buy books for other people...
Could someone like that really have some unfathomable background?
She very much wanted to try a reading on him again.
But the last attempt had cost her rather dearly...
Better to let it go.
Prying into one bard's secrets could hardly compete with taking the Mora she earned from queuing and finally, finally eating a proper meal with meat in it.
So what should she get?
Steak?
Mondstadt Grilled Fish?
Chicken-Mushroom Skewer?
Sweet Madame?
It had been the Lantern Rite season in Liyue lately, and Fang Qiu hadn't released a book in ages.
She hadn't tasted meat in ages either.
Just thinking about it made her mouth water.
She wasn't actually drooling, but Mona wiped the corner of her mouth anyway and swallowed.
Release days without a Fang Qiu book were poor earnings.
Oh, there were still long lines on ordinary release days, but everyone wanted something different.
Whether you were reselling or queuing on commission, the clerks burned enormous amounts of time hunting down titles, which left everyone further back in line waiting forever.
When there was only one book to buy, though, the clerks barely lost any time at all. They just had to count out the copies.
So apart from Fang Qiu's books, she never came here to earn Mora holding places in line.
Come to think of it, she had considered actually reading one of Fang Qiu's books. But when it came down to a choice between selling it and reading it, she picked selling it and eating well.
This time, though, maybe she'd keep one copy of Weathering With You for herself.
Her own manuscript had been accepted, the repair fees for her instruments were settled, and she'd paid off the balance on the orrery she'd reserved.
Money shouldn't be quite so tight for a while...
So she'd read it, then.
And if it came to that, she could always resell it at half price afterward.
Ugh.
Why couldn't the publishing house think to put out some kind of limited collector's edition?
Then she could queue up, snap one up, read it, and still flip it to someone else at a markup.
Mona sighed and looked up at Venti ahead of her, still busily debating the publishing house's stubbornness with the people around him.
And right then.
The bookstore doors opened.
Venti, mid-impassioned-speech, fell silent on the spot, turned around, and produced sixty Mora.
Staring at the sixty Mora in his hand, Mona nearly laughed out loud.
Sixty Mora...
Was this guy really that broke?
She gave Venti a sidelong glance and proudly produced two hundred Mora of her own.
Ten copies in total.
One for herself, the rest to be sold at a healthy markup.
Logically speaking, if she was the second seller on the scene, sixty Mora a copy wasn't unreasonable, was it?
That would leave her with a net profit of nearly four hundred Mora.
Although as for the exact price, she might as well see what that idle bard was charging.
Hopefully he wouldn't undersell.
Soon enough the bard had bought three copies of Weathering With You and made straight for the back of the line.
She handed over her two hundred Mora, took her ten copies of Weathering With You, picked up her stool, and followed after him.
It didn't take long for the bard to pick out his mark.
A young man in expensive-looking clothes.
"Excuse me, sir, would you happen to be here to buy Weathering With You?"
"What is it?"
"I've got two spare copies right here. I could let you have them cheap."
"Oh? How much per copy?" the young man asked.
Mona tensed at the question.
Please, bard, don't lowball it.
"Heh heh, you seem like a man of good fortune, so I'll give you a bargain. Two hundred a copy. How's that? Quite the deal, isn't it?" Venti said with a wink.
Mona went blank.
That price. Ten times the cover price?
Sheesh...
The man wasn't an idiot. There was no way he'd agree.
"Isn't that a bit steep? That's a tenfold markup," the young man said, shaking his head.
"Ah, but you can't look at it that way. Think about it. A successful young man like you, with such a bright future, surely earns a good deal more than two hundred Mora in a single morning. And that's before we count the tedium of standing here all morning to wait."
"Tell you what," Venti said. "Let's call it the start of a friendship. Three hundred Mora and both copies are yours. How does that sound?"
"Hmm... fine, all right."
And just like that, the deal was struck.
Watching Venti trot off toward the Angel's Share, Mora in hand and his last copy tucked under his arm, positively glowing, Mona fell deep into thought.
Then she sought out an equally well-dressed young man of her own and sold him a copy for a hundred Mora.
With that first buyer's steep price already setting the standard, her hundred-per-copy rate found takers fast.
Before long, all nine copies of Weathering With You were gone.
Mona stared at the nine hundred Mora in her hands, thrilled.
A net profit of seven hundred Mora!
Fang Qiu was a saint!
Thank you, Fang Qiu.
If Fang Qiu ever came to Mondstadt, Mona would treat her to a proper meal!
Well...
She'd treat her to a delicious plate of Satisfying Salad!
Full of gratitude toward Fang Qiu, she made her way to the Good Hunter and splurged on an order of Steak.
Sitting in her chair with the morning breeze on her face, savoring the long-lost sensation of meat juices spreading across her tongue, Mona opened Weathering With You.
The story began with a boat.
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