When dinner is finished, Nie Huaisang says in English, "come to my room so I can measure you to tailor your clothes."

"- Oh, all right." Masozi glances over at Lan Xichen for approval of this, he's not sure if he was expected to be on lookout duty or something, but he didn't have other specific plans tonight so this seems fine. 

Lan Xichen nods slightly.

Then Masozi will follow Nie Huaisang so he can get his clothes modified to fit better! (He has never experienced this process before and is very curious about what it involves.) 

Nie Huaisang does not give the impression of having the best situational awareness in the world, so Masozi is extra careful– well, more accurately, he goes back to his previous default level of careful about looking for mals. 

"I'm Nie Huaisang, I don't think we've gotten a chance to talk really? I'm an artist. I do a little bit of everything-- some drawing, some sewing, some writing-- used to do photography and painting but supplies for that are harder here--"

That seems like a weird skill for someone to prioritize in the Scholomance. "Is that your affinity?" 

"Yep! Visual art. Not very useful for survival but I think it's important to have those little pleasures that make life worth living, don't you?"

Nie Huaisang has mastered the art of watching for mals while apparently focusing on his conversation partner.

Masozi has no idea how to respond to that comment, so he just makes a noncommittal sound and keeps following Nie Huaisang.

Nie Huaisang chatters about drawing until they get to his room. Masozi might incidentally wind up learning a lot about shading techniques.

This is actually pretty interesting and Masozi pays attention despite himself. He doesn’t really have anything to add in this conversation.

Nie Huaisang's room has a sign in front that says in both English and Mandarin:

Nie Huaisang's Goods, Oddments, and Little Luxuries

Currently available:
-Commissioned sketches
-Commissioned stories
-Visual pornography
-Tea
-Perfume
-Tweezers
-Scented candles
-Scented soaps
-Dry shampoo
-Chapstick
-LED strips
-Mana
-Mana storage bracelets
-Stimulant pills
-Nicotine
-Alcohol preorders
-Makeup preorders 
-Ask and we'll see if we can get it!

Hours:
-Weekday work periods
-Saturday and Sunday afternoon
-Evenings by arrangement

Please check back for updates on our stock!

The room itself is decorated as if by someone who is very determined to make it look pretty but who has also had only two days and a supply run with which to do so, and also is running a store and not allowed to have drawers. This is as it happens the case. 

A crumpled picture of a bird has pride of place over the desk.

Masozi carefully reads through this entire list. He's not a fast reader even in English. He can proudly point out about four total characters that he recognizes on the Mandarin half and make wild guesses based on which line items match up with the English version. 

Nie Huaisang corrects him about the meaning of the various characters, and also keeps a watch out for mals.

Masozi has caught on to the fact that Nie Huaisang actually has much more situational awareness than he appears to on the surface, and is correspondingly way more relaxed than he was at the start of their walk. 

...They're here for clothes, though, not Mandarin lessons, and also he can't reasonably take notes while standing in the hallway. So they should probably go into the room, and then...hopefully Nie Huaisang will give him instructions on his involvement in the process here? 

His involvement in the process is that Nie Huaisang is going to take a ribbon with numbers on it and hold it up to various parts of Masozi's body while muttering to himself and occasionally scratching down numbers in a book.

...Sure? This is confusing but Masozi patiently holds still for it and tries not to distract Nie Huaisang. 

"I am going to get so much mana for this," he says, "see, you're already contributing to us surviving graduation."

"...Good?" Masozi says uncertainly. And then stops and frowns. "- How does getting mana now help with graduating?" 

He holds up his power-sharer. "Mana goes in here, the seniors can draw on it during graduation."

Masozi goes very still. 

"...You can do that?" he breathes, a long moment later. "That's - so amazing - how hard is it to make one, I need to make one of those -" Maybe he can find a book on it in the library, and hopefully if he shows up extra-early for Monday morning shop, he can scope out safety first and decide if it's worth risking digging for supplies before the others show up...

"If you graduate you can get one. --In the short term you probably want to make mana storage, that's a project a freshman can do."

Okay now he has EVEN MORE reasons to be determined to graduate. "How do I make one? Are there books in the library with instructions?" 

"You'll probably get instructions in shop, everyone gets that at some point."

"I don't want to wait for the shop to give me instructions, I want to do it now! Maybe I can go to the library and find a book and then - can you go to the shop on weekends, is that allowed -?" 

"Yes, but it's low down and no one else will be there and you might die."