Chapter 40: Stealing Fish

“Is… is it really this crazy?”

Bian Chunzhou looked at the crowd of customers nearly breaking down his threshold. He was starting to wonder if he had hired a million-dollar marketing team to drum up hype. Otherwise, how could there be so many diners the moment he opened his doors?

Even if his hotpot restaurant smelled amazing, there shouldn’t be this many customers. They were practically overwhelmed!

But who cared? Only an idiot would turn down money. Boss Bian flitted about like a busy butterfly, his time to entertain his friends cut shorter and shorter.

After finally surviving half a day of frantic work, the kitchen was completely out of ingredients. It was a question whether they could even open for the evening.

“I’m exhausted, absolutely exhausted!”

Bian Chunzhou sat down and chugged a large cup of water before speaking with animated excitement. “I had no idea the cultivator brand would be this effective. It turns out so many customers came today because I offhandedly mentioned it when I had people hand out flyers a couple of days ago…”

Wen Xu silently refilled his cup. “Talk less. Your voice is already hoarse.”

“…It really is hoarse,” Chen Zui agreed, nodding beside him. As a tough guy who could practice his saber strikes for a month straight without stopping, he had actually grown tired just sitting there watching the other man talk.

His mother was right. Earning spirit stones really was hard work.

Bian Chunzhou, however, was completely oblivious. “It’s fine! For the sake of sweet money, I could go for another whole day!”

“If you were this diligent in your cultivation, why would you…”

“Suddenly my throat is sore. It hurts.” Boss Bian clutched his chest and weakly slumped onto the table.

This acting couldn’t even fool the honest Chen Zui. More accurately, after being fooled a few times, even the honest guy had learned his lesson.

For the evening service, Gongshang Bistro continued to operate as usual. However, with the experience from the lunch rush, the manager and the shop hands were getting the hang of things, so Bian Chunzhou, as the owner, wasn’t quite as busy.

This was the beauty of the cultivation world. If they needed ingredients in an emergency, they could just use teleportation talismans to restock in minutes. Aside from burning through spirit stones, everything was great.

Even so, he made a massive profit today. No wonder people said that any long-time capitalist deserved to be strung up on a lamppost. Truly, who wouldn’t be tempted by this kind of profit?

Of course, the high revenue today was also due to the various grand opening promotions he had introduced. For instance, free milk tea and drinks for the opening, a fifteen percent discount for winning mini-games, coupons for spending a certain amount, and instant VIP Gold Cards for topping up a certain balance. In short… he had used every trick in the book.

With the backing of cultivators, there were actually quite a few wealthy patrons topping up their accounts.

“Huh? Takeout? Wouldn’t it be easier to just eat here? Eating hotpot alone is so lonely.” Bian Chunzhou clacked away on an abacus. In truth, he didn’t really know how to use one, but it made him look the part.

Wen Xu: “…It’s for my master.” He had wanted to mention it long ago, but he had been busy researching the Wind-stacking Array, and Chunzhou had been occupied with setting up the shop, so it had been delayed.

Bian Chunzhou’s abacus instantly went silent. Not only did it stop clacking, but he also nearly dropped it. “For… for… for whom?” Had he just hallucinated?

“…Chunzhou, you’re stuttering,” Wen Xu pointed out sharply.

“N-n-no I’m not!”

Chen Zui: “Yes, you are.”

Wen Xu leaned in. “Do you have some kind of…”

“N-n-n-no! I would never dare to blaspheme the divine dragon!” Wow, he finally managed to get the words out smoothly. “Wen Xuxu, don’t misunderstand. I’ll go fry up the hotpot base myself right now!”

“Yourself? Isn’t there extra in the kitchen?”

“How could that do!” The divine dragon deserved a custom-made batch! How could he eat the standard bulk base?

Wen Xu: …Chunzhou really admires Master.

“Alright, then do you want to come with me to meet my master? I think you two-“

Before Wen Xu could finish, Bian Chunzhou shook his head like a rattle. “No, no, no, no need. I’m not mentally prepared yet.” He was still a weakling right now. He had to at least wait until after next year’s sect tournament. Otherwise, he would just embarrass his friend.

The divine dragon was great, but Wen Xuxu was his best friend. There was no need for a weak Qi Refining rookie like him to go pay respects at the peak of a Body Integration stage powerhouse. No need at all.

“Mentally prepared?”

“Exactly, mentally prepared! Don’t ask. If you must know, I’m off to fry the base! Wait for me, I’ll definitely outdo myself!”

Wen Xu: …Whatever makes you happy.

When Xia Ying arrived at Gongshang Bistro, Bian Chunzhou had just finished frying the best hotpot base of his life. In all honesty, his Water-Fire Spiritual Root was the absolute perfect match for frying hotpot base. He could control the heat with absolute precision.

“Senior Sister Xia Ying! What an honored guest. Please, come inside.”

Xia Ying glanced at the crowded restaurant and said, “I wonder if we could speak in private?”

Bian Chunzhou nodded. “Of course. Wen Xu and Chen Zui are upstairs. Do you mind…”

“I don’t mind. I actually have something… perhaps you all can help me analyze it.”

Huh? Analyze what? Don’t tell me it’s about Tinghe Villa again?

Yesterday, after descending from Yonglu Mountain, Xia Ying had gone to find He Minzhi, a Foundation Establishment cultivator from a branch of the He family. He Minzhi was a cultivator with four spiritual roots, meaning his talent was average at best, but within the He family, he naturally held a status second only to He Gan.

However, Xia Ying was the city lord’s niece. Unless He Minzhi was completely foolish, he wouldn’t want to offend her.

It was precisely because of this that Xia Ying’s trip yielded nothing. He Gan had no intention of marrying A’qing to He Minzhi, and He Minzhi had long since married and had children. Furthermore, he and his wife were deeply in love, which did not seem feigned.

Yet A’qing had indeed gone missing, and the protective talismans Xia Ying had left on her had all failed.

“Senior Sister, do you suspect that something has happened to the eldest young miss of Tinghe Villa?”

Xia Ying hated to harbor such suspicions, but she couldn’t think of any other explanation. “Indeed. Today, I went to Tianji Pavilion^[1] specifically to ask the resident senior brother to cast a divination. The reading was very unclear.”

“What?”

“So I wanted to ask you all to recall carefully. When you went to deliver the pills back then, was there really nothing unusual about Tinghe Villa?” Xia Ying knew she was asking for a lot, but three months ago, she was absolutely certain A’qing was still at Tinghe Villa. Back then, she had even received a congratulatory gift and a handwritten letter from A’qing.

Xia Ying had an intuition that her friend had definitely not been lured away by some wild man. If such a man really existed, she wanted to see what he looked like. Could he possibly be even more handsome and elegant than the Little Grand-Uncle Master standing before her?

Besides, compared to seeking information from those who were on good terms with Tinghe Villa, she naturally trusted her fellow sect members more. So even though she knew this visit was a bit presumptuous, she had still come.

Chen Zui was the first to speak. “Sorry, I don’t remember.” He had always been indifferent to anything other than his blade.

“I don’t have anything to add either.” Bian Chunzhou was the second to raise his hand.

Xia Ying couldn’t help but turn her hopeful gaze to Wen Xu. As for Wen Xu… he actually had noticed a few things, but he wasn’t sure if he should speak up.

In truth, Wen Xu was a pragmatist who preferred self-preservation. In the past, he would have chosen silence without hesitation, because even if he kept quiet, no one would blame him.

But if he spoke too much, offering deep advice to a casual acquaintance, and things took a turn for the worse, he might end up being the target of someone’s displaced anger. It wasn’t as if this had never happened to him before.

“Someone in Tinghe Villa is likely suffering from a critical illness beyond the reach of medicine,” Wen Xu said, organizing his thoughts. “In the medicinal fragrance that day, there was a very clear scent of aged ginseng. When my adoptive father was bedridden, he also used two slices of life-saving ginseng. Combined with the other medicinal scents, most of them were for prolonging life, nourishing vitality, and relieving pain.”

Wen Xu listed a few medicinal ingredients he could identify, none of which were cheap. The only actual masters of Tinghe Villa, besides Villa Master He Gan, were himself and his only daughter, He Qinqing. Xia Ying had already guessed yesterday that her friend might not be doing well, and now, hearing this deduction, the worry in her eyes became palpable.

The cultivation world was different from the Mortal Realm. Although many spiritual pills and miraculous medicines could only be endured by a cultivator’s body, there were still a small number of pills that could treat illnesses and ward off evil for ordinary people. Tinghe Villa was immensely wealthy and had friendly relations with cultivators. If the eldest miss of the He family was sick, why would they prioritize ordinary medical treatments when money was no object?

This was highly unreasonable, and it was precisely because he had noticed this anomaly that Wen Xu had signaled Chunzhou to leave early that day.

He hadn’t expected that the boomerang would still find its way back to him today.

“You mean A’qing is gravely ill, and it might even be related to cultivators?” To make He Gan try every means to hide it from her, even making up the nonsense that his only daughter had eloped, and not even daring to invite a Mystic Physician to keep the news quiet, only daring to use ordinary medical methods first… Just where was A’qing?

Xia Ying was burning with anxiety. She tried hard to calm her mind. There were many ways for a cultivator to find an ordinary person, but if He Gan was deliberately hiding A’qing, then ordinary methods wouldn’t work at all.

She had tried. The senior brother from the Tianji Pavilion said he needed her birth details or blood as a medium, neither of which she had.

“Little Grand-Uncle Master, you’re smart. Can you help me think of a way?” Xia Ying had also thought about begging her uncle, but he happened to be in secluded cultivation recently and wouldn’t see anyone easily.

She had also asked Aunt Bing to keep an eye out for her, but Tinghe Villa was not a cultivation family after all, and the City Lord’s Mansion rarely paid attention to intelligence regarding ordinary people.

Wen Xu shook his head apologetically. “Sorry, I’ve only been in the cultivation world for half a year, and I don’t know Langyuan City very well.”

Right at this moment, the anxious voice of the shopkeeper came from outside the door. “Boss, something terrible has happened!”

Bian Chunzhou immediately jumped up to open the door. “What happened?”

“The fish in our kitchen have all been stolen! Not a single one is left! What should we do?”

“Fish? That was three whole barrels of fish!” Bian Chunzhou’s eyes widened. You’ve got to be kidding me. Was business competition in the cultivation world really this underhanded and absurd? Stealing fish?

“Exactly! Those barrels are half a man tall, the workers have to climb a ladder to scoop the fish out, and now they’re completely empty! Please think of something quickly, the customers downstairs are already clamoring.”

Bian Chunzhou was speechless. Give me a break!!! Who on earth stole the fish? They had better not let him catch them!