Chapter 53: Guests

“You’re ready?” Fatty Lou asked.

“I’m about as ready as a mouse gets when it’s about to secure some cheese for its family,” Lei said, glancing at the line waiting before the entrance door.

He could feel the nervous expectation of the pair standing beside him. Xie Yanyu still tried to maintain a professional smile on her face, but Brother He was literally shaking. So much for his story about serving a cultivator some months ago.

It’s the best we can get.

“What the hell does that mean?” Fatty Lou arched an eyebrow at him.

“You know, it’s got a family to feed and all that.” Lei smiled slightly. “Gotta get that cheese, no other way around it.”

“You mean it’s desperate.” Fatty Lou looked thoughtful for a second before he nodded. “Guess that makes sense. But I’ve told you it’s going to be risky.”

“Can’t stay behind that stall and hope something happens, right?” Lei shook his head. “You always say we have to grasp fate by its balls. That’s me now, reaching for that future. Just pray we at least survive enough to see the light at the end of the tunnel.”

“Huh,” Fatty Lou said. “Our Heavenly Cook’s nervous. Who would’ve thought? I hope you’ve cooked your best today. These people are no joke.”

“I’ve cooked my best alright. In fact, I might’ve cooked a little too much,” Lei said, shifting his feet.

“What?” Fatty Lou turned to him and stared him down. “Don’t tell me—”

“No,” Lei said. “It’s not like that. The food’s not going to get them high like us. But the Spirited Fried Rice might kick them at least a little. Don’t know why, but there’s something about that dish that I couldn’t quite understand. It’s different…”

“Different how?” Fatty Lou asked. “Bloody delicious, I hope, is what you’re talking about.”

“It’s your fault that you’ve come right before the opening.” Lei rolled his eyes at him. “You should’ve tasted the food. It’s not like I can describe the taste of it to you. But don’t worry. It’s not too strong.”

“Too strong? Brother Lei, you—”

Footsteps sounded beyond the door.

Fatty Lou shut his mouth and reached for the knob, turning it slowly as the door opened with a creak. The night breeze cooled the inside through the opening, soft and dreamy on Lei’s skin. Jiangzhen was having a cloudless night, and that was usually a good omen.

“Straighten up!” Lei said, staring back at the server pair. His eyes lingered on their shaking new recruit. “Brother He, focus on the job. Don’t talk, just serve the plates and let the food do its thing. Speaking from experience, guests like these don’t like the servers pampering them too much. Stay a good three or four steps back.”

Brother He nodded sheepishly, clasping his hands behind his back. They were all dressed up today. The robes were of a bright color, red cloth lined with golden threads. Beyond the server pair, the main hall of the restaurant looked spotless.

They’d removed most of the tables for the night’s occasion and instead placed the cushions around the floor tables in a circular pattern. Soothing smoke wafted from the incense holders, gliding lazily right below the wooden ceiling of the first floor. The light from the red lanterns mixed beautifully with the dreamy fog of the incense.

All things considered, they managed to give this family restaurant an ethereal feeling. Though Lei hoped nobody would try to ascend into the heavens while eating his dishes. That would be a pain to deal with.

“They’re here,” came Fatty Lou’s voice.

Lei turned back and raised his chin.

The first of the group strolled in. It was a middle-aged man who had a thin mustache glued over his pale lips, sparing a glance at the line with half-opened eyes. His silken robe was a boring, simple brown, adorned with a single locket that shone dimly under the lantern lights. He looked rather doubtful when he gave a look at the line.

“Welcome to Red Dragon, esteemed guests!” Fatty Lou bowed, and with him, the rest of the line joined the effort as they greeted the group strolling in through the doors.

Uh, that name…

Lei tried not to show his thoughts on his face as he sighed. Brother Lou insisted they needed something big, something that’d evoke a sense of awe. Just that, Lei thought Red Dragon might’ve been a little too much.

But from the looks of the cultivators’ faces, it seemed they didn’t mind it. That was good.

They perhaps had to bow more than a dozen times by the time the last guest stepped into the hall. Xie Yanyu immediately went into action, showing the guests to their places as Brother He tagged along.

Meanwhile, Fatty Lou brushed past Lei and took a teacup from one of the tables, raising it toward the crowd. He waited for the guests to be seated before he started.

“Such an honor that we have the pleasure of serving the best of our dear Jiangzhen! It was through your heroic efforts, your constant care that the folk of this city still breathe. We’ve been blessed, I daresay, with your presence today. Now, if I may?”

He took the first sip, as he played the host today, and the guests joined him not long after. The red tea was mild in aroma, prepared to serve as a palate cleanser right before the real feast started. It also had a soothing effect, which these cultivators definitely could use from the strict and tense air they carried about them.

But it was not this air that piqued Lei’s interest. No, there was something here, a tingling round his scalp that made him feel odd. It was his Spiritual Sensitivity skill. It was the first time it had gotten triggered to this rate.

A spiritual anomaly…

He studied all the faces, two dozen of them, all sitting cross-legged quietly round the floor tables. To be honest, Lei was rather disappointed, as they all seemed your average folk at first glance. But the more he looked at them, the more he came to see the silent confrontation in their ranks.

I wonder if that’s why the skill triggered? They certainly don’t look like they’re all good friends.

On the contrary, they were clearly disturbed by each other’s presence. Lei guessed his spiritual cookies played a big part in that. It could be that these men got hooked solely by the spirituality in those cookies and had decided to attend the opening event, not knowing the others would come as well.

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That could be a problem. He didn’t want to watch some cultivators fight it out on the first day of his real business. And to make sure of that, there was only one thing he could do.

“Best we start now,” Lei said as he passed by Fatty Lou, giving him a hard look. “They don’t look too happy.”

“But they’re here, eh?” Fatty Lou said with a beaming smile. “And that’s a job well done, I say. But you’re right. We want to keep them fed and happy. Roll the first dishes out. I’m quite curious about what you’ve prepared.”

“You know you don’t get to eat, right?” Lei chuckled and clapped Fatty Lou on the back before making his way to the kitchen. As always, his brother-in-arms knew how to ease the tension with a few words. He was glad to have someone he could depend on.

Alright, we’ll start straight with the wings.

……

Sun Hu breathed deep. There was something strange about this place. He felt like he was home, by the side of his mother, waiting for the maids to serve dinner. He couldn’t remember the last time he got a feeling like this.

Being out in the wild, as his father put it, wasn’t easy. For years he’d been treading the numerous cities of the Empire in hopes of learning the job from the Great Master Ren. It hadn’t taken him too long to understand what kind of man he was. Therefore, it was mostly through his personal efforts that he had to learn the way of it.

And today, he was doing just that—dirtying his hands and hoping to get a clear understanding of the strange air that had taken hold of Jiangzhen.

The faces around him looked cold. Unfriendly. Strict. A single glance at them showed him a clear picture of the disturbance in their ranks. According to what little information he’d managed to get from Ding Yan, there were three factions working under the Governor.

One of them was decisively loyal to him. The head of the City Guard, the man sitting at the edge of the table, was supposedly their leader. He seemed oddly young, perhaps no older than thirty years. But there was a sense of pride in the way he carried himself. Clearly, this Jin Longewi fellow was a man of ambition.

His kind could be dangerous.

But Sun Hu paid him little heed, instead focusing on two middle-aged men conversing right beside him. Mao Hu, with that thin mustache over his lips, didn’t seem like much, but he had a thing for control. He was in charge of Wordcrows and the post office. They said nothing in this city could escape his keen eyes.

It was not three days ago that Sun Hu had tried to speak with him and was rejected by his close guards. Those guards were all Body Tempering Stage cultivators.

The fellow who sat before him was equally secretive. Dai Aiguo was the Head Scribe, but he was known as the Hand of the Governor. The Governor used him as a third limb, to the point that the others were careful with the words they used around him. They feared him like a pig feared a tiger.

This man was the real leader of the loyal group.

The second group were the opportunists. It was easy to tell them apart from the others, as they liked to make a show of their wealth. They were clad in brightly colored, deftly embroidered robes. Their belts were large, starkly conspicuous against the more simple and elegant wear of the loyalist group.

Ding Yan yearned to join their ranks. He bought a mansion, filled his closets with silken robes and golden belts. But you could only get so far with appearance alone. Sun Hu knew from the moment he’d first laid eyes on Ding Yan that he wasn’t a man of means. He was a hack, a desperate fool trying to find a big enough umbrella to fit his pig head.

So then, it was no wonder why Ding Yan had to settle for being seen as a member of the third group. Sun Hu called them the outcasts. They took most of the seats tonight, easily a dozen strong. Now and then, they tried to start a conversation, made stupid jokes, and laughed like little girls trying to get the attention of Young Masters.

It didn’t work, which made them look desperate.

So what’s my plan now?

Sun Hu shook his head. Ding Yan’s reputation would be a pain in the ass if he wanted to get close to this loyalist group. But he had no other choice. Whatever the hell had happened here had to do with these people. Or at least, they were his only way to get close to the Governor.

I wonder who’s pulling your strings? Or are you just an ambitious fool, trying to bite off more than you can chew? Is that it?

Sun Hu leaned back, pinching the bridge of his nose.

“For the first meal,” came the fatty’s voice, pulling Sun Hu from his deep thoughts. He was the one who delivered the cookies and the invite to his door. “We’ve prepared a set of chicken wings, marinated for hours in our secret mix, and massaged with spiritual ingredients.”

The pair of servers placed ceramic plates on the tables. Their gestures were curt and simple. They never got too close to the guests, keeping a good distance so as not to disturb the flow of the table. Though Sun Hu caught a little tremor in the man’s eyes when he passed by him.

It must be terrifying for them.

They’ve probably never seen more than a handful of cultivators in their lifetimes.

Sun Hu reached for one of the chicken wings on his plate. He had to admit to being a little shocked after tasting that spiritual cookie. It wasn’t as spiritual as the food back in the capital, but that was only normal, considering they’d cooked with Qi Condensation Stage or even Foundation Establishment Stage beasts.

But as far as he could tell, those cookies were made from simple ingredients. It shouldn’t have been possible for them to be that spiritual, so Sun Hu was more excited than he showed to try other dishes from the restaurant.

They probably used some sort of herb mix. But other than the forest berries, I couldn’t taste anything different in those cookies. Strange…

Taking a look at the wing, he brought it gingerly to his mouth and gulped down before he took the first bite.

It exploded in his mouth.

People gasped near him.

A man choked.

…….