Well, I could certainly see all choices working, except possibly D because sneaking in doesn't make much sense if we are looking for information. In A we sacrifice our cash for information. B could work as well - we sacrifice some of our time instead to get what we need. C too - if there is any market for this, it's here. And they are already using something similar, Yao has only improved on it (or so he says).
I think I'm going with B for now, provided that servant means hired muscle and not "servant". We are strong, excellent fighter, reasonably bright and with considerable medical skills - I see no reason we shouldn’t be able to get a job here. My reason for B is that it gives us the most time in there to find what we are looking for.
This is a very good point in favour of C. If there's one place to use Yao's patented sheath, it's this place. And, as
Random Word said, we have reason to believe that the madam of the brothel and Yao both know each other, so this could very well be a decent option. The product has problems in that it probably won't work
as is, but that doesn't mean that there isn't potential here. However, trying to sell a product that is
potentially useful could be setting ourselves up for trouble; you can't really knock on someone's door as a complete stranger and sell them a product that isn't useful to them immediately.
Maybe it'll be more tolerable with some perfumes to mask the scent, but this really sounds like a shaky business proposal. Look at this way - we're going to attempt to enter an establishment with a huge cover charge for free (designed that way to keep losers out) in order to sell a product that has huge, obvious flaws that aren't easy to hide.
The time investment of B does make me a bit wary of it. If it's a choice between going broke and getting a stronger lead on the WiB's
now versus investing a few months of our time here investigating, I am fine with burning all of our winnings here as a shortcut to more information. Of course, I'm simplifying here, but I'm just trying to point out that information is more precious than money is.
Moreover, the Madame of such a spot is definitely a busy woman and won't have time for a two-bit peddler selling a stanky condom, when a place like this definitely has their own in stock (
treave, correct me if I'm wrong, but the Chinese were making fancy silken condoms by this period, right?). And they definitely can afford to tell us to fuck off, they're swimming in cash, and other things, to be choosy about their clientèle.
Jing was a good bullshitter back in the day, and I doubt he would be able to pull it off then, but after spending eighteen months on an island punching tigers and learning from a sexless, batshit recluse, I think his barely existant conning skills are gone by this point. Honestly, this isn't the savvy rabbit rogue.
They have their own condoms:
“This is my latest medical creation, based off the preventive caps they hand out in the brothels. Of course, it is far superior to those little toys. I call it Yao’s Protective Sheath. The special ointment makes the lamb’s intestine a lot more reliable for vigorous use without compromising on sensitivity. It also wards off illnesses a lot more effectively. I think it will be a good addition to the herbal wares we have.”
Yao's condom is actually much, much better than what the brothel here has. If you don't mind the smell, of course.
Also, I'd like to point out that Jing's diplomacy skills haven't really atrophied or decreased. He's still as charming as ever if you look at the character sheet. It just seems that a valid point against C is that this condom is a very hard sell to a place that like this. Maybe they have a perfume that would eliminate or mask the scent, so it could work out, but unless that happens, our personal charm isn't going to make this smelly cock-sheath into a more palatable business venture.
And let's not oversell Jing's stealth skills. Yeah, with the Kuanglang Step boosting his ability he's decent, but without it, he isn't much of a sneak. If you want to sneak in a night later, A does provide the best method of casing the place. Working as a servant here could allow us to do that as well, though of course we'd need to invest more time into the matter.
The biggest drawback with A is the money we'd need to lay down. It costs us a quarter of our money just to get in, so imagine how much money it's going to take to get into one of the VIP rooms where we might find clues as to who some of the previous courtesans here might have been. It could be more money than we even possess in the first place.
, but I'm thinking about the face control. To them, we're a guy in his twenties selling a reeking intestine in a stanky marinade.
