Who Let Him Cultivate?! (WX)-Chapter 96: Long Vacation

“I have received a message from the inspecting officer. He said that he had long heard of the Spring Harvest Festival and has brought forward his agenda to arrive in Yanjiang Commandery during the festival. You need to be mentally prepared; don’t be timid in front of the inspecting officer.”

“Understood.”

When Lu Yang was leaving the Yanjiang Branch, he saw other administrators like Wang He and Bai Zifang walking in his direction. They nodded at him slightly in greeting. This newly promoted administrator, Lu Yang, is Branch Leader Chu’s favorite; we mustn't offend him.

Wang He and the others had worked in the branch for several decades and were thus privy to certain matters. They speculated that Branch Leader Chu had directly appointed Lu Yang and the other two because of their impressive performance during the selection trials, especially Lu Yang, who might have received the highest appraisal among the three.

Wang He muttered, “The branch leader has always been a materialistic person who doesn’t rise early if there are no profits to be gained. It’s very likely that he is aware that Lu Yang will rise to greatness in the future, so he wishes to build a good relationship with Lu Yang before his prominence to attain better chances of promotion.

They knew that the branch leader’s biggest ambition was to rise in rank to become the branch leader in an economically prosperous region. Hence, he placed particular significance on the upcoming visit by the inspecting officer.

“Perhaps the reason for summoning us this time is related to the inspecting officer.”

“Speaking of which, the branch leader still lacks a criterion for promotion, right? Has he reached the Nascent Soul Stage?”

Not only was one’s faith in the Everlasting Immortal an important metric for promotion, the Everlasting Creed also paid attention to one’s cultivation.

“Who knows? Maybe he has already long reached the stage but simply didn’t tell us. He never explains to us what he does, and we also don’t know the intentions behind his actions.”

Branch Leader Chu’s style reflected the whole diabolic creed’s style—steeped in distrust. Although Branch Leader Chu seemed to trust Lu Yang, in reality, he had never revealed any information about himself to Lu Yang.

Lu Yang hardly knew anything about Branch Leader Chu.

~~~

The Spring Harvest Festival arrived, and the barbeque shop’s customer traffic peaked. Many foreign merchants had already discovered business opportunities with the barbeque shop and proposed to Lu Yang to open branches. Lu Yang would provide the recipe, while they would provide the funds.

Without any exception, Lu Yang shooed them away with a stormy expression.

There were also cultivators who wanted to dine and dash, but when they saw the three silk banners hanging on the wall, they swallowed their unrealistic ideas and paid up obediently.

With the help of the automatic barbeque array, the two tiger-henchman ghosts had more time to skewer. This allowed the barbeque shop to operate smoothly despite receiving more customers than usual.

“One More Time Barbeque Shop...yes, it’s this one! My aunt told me that the food here is especially delicious and that if I come to Yanjiang Commandery, I must try it at least once!”

“Look, this shop is also running a promotion.

With every purchase in our shop, you can collect a voucher and receive a 10% discount at the tofu shop on Qianmen Street. Spend one silver to participate in the spin-to-win wheel once; chances can be accumulated with no upper limit. Prizes are limited and available on a first-come first-served basis.

“Come on, let’s try it.”

The two lined up at the back of the snaking queue, unsure how long they had to wait.

At the entrance of the barbeque shop, Meng Jingzhou was extremely busy working on the spin-to-win wheel. The lucky wheel read “One More Time,” “Third-Tier Prize,” “Second-Tier Prize,” “First-Tier Prize,” and “Special Prize.”

“Congratulations to this customer for winning the second-tier prize. You can enjoy 60% off your current bill! Let us give him a round of applause!” Meng Jingzhou clapped enthusiastically, looking even more jubilant than the prize winner.

“A first-tier prize has appeared! This customer’s entire bill is on the house!”

“Special prize! Someone actually won the special prize!”

The customer was surprised to have won the special prize and asked gleefully, “What is the special prize?”

Meng Jingzhou held the customer’s hand and ardently said, “Congratulations, you’ve won a chance to experience being a waiter at our shop! Others have to pay for the experience and joy of working as a waiter here, but you’re very lucky. You get to experience it for free!

“Considering that the smoky and scorching backyard may be an unpleasant environment for you, our professional staff will carry the skewers to the entrance of the backyard for you so that you won’t have to go to the backyard!” Meng Jingzhou had an expression that said “No need to thank us for our thoughtfulness.”

The customer asked, “...Can I exchange this for the first-tier prize?”

“No.”

The customer rejected the special prize.

Up until now, Meng Jingzhou still hadn’t successfully duped anyone into accepting the special prize, but he enjoyed the process of trying to dupe others.

Inside the barbeque shop, Lu Yang carried a tray as he weaved in and out among the customers. His steps were light and his movements agile. With his stable lower body, the tray with the skewers remained steady and upright, never bumping into customers, as if he could traverse through a garden of flowers without touching a single leaf. After more than a month of training as a waiter, his footwork had improved by a large margin.

“Advisor Ma, Registrar Chi, how’s the food?” Lu Yang greeted the two customers with a smile. The two customers were commandery officials who often came here for some skewers and drinks.

“Delicious as ever! Shop Owner Lu, if you ask me, your skills are wasted here; you should open shops in larger commanderies. I guarantee that you’d make more than you do now!”

“Jeez, stop talking nonsense. Didn’t you hear that Shop Owner Lu isn’t even opening a branch? It’s clear that he opened the shop out of interest and not in it for the money.”

Lu Yang could only smile apologetically, “Hope the both of you enjoy the Spring Harvest Festival.”

The two were clearly tipsy, their cheeks flushed red. Advisor Ma poured out all his grievances, “Just speaking of the Spring Harvest Festival makes me angry. It was originally a seven-day holiday, finally a long vacation, but I don’t know whose brilliant idea it was to cut it down to just three days!

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“What can you even do in three days? They even have the nerve to palliate it by calling it a ‘short long vacation.’ Just listen to that! Does it even make sense? When the word ‘short’ is added before ‘long vacation,’ does it still count as a long vacation?

“I wish whoever came up with this term ‘short longevity!’”

Registrar Chi hurriedly covered Advisor Ma’s mouth. “You can’t casually say things like that! You came late, so it’s understandable that you don’t know, but this was Commandery Governor Li’s idea!”

Advisor Ma scoffed. “So it’s him. Not much ability but plenty of ideas!”

Registrar Chi was more informed and shared, “Keep your voice down! You can’t speak ill of Commandery Governor Li now. I heard that he has found a path for himself and apprehended three vicious diabolic cultivators in the commandery. With such a great meritorious achievement, he is bound for promotion soon. Chief Constable Fang Qingyun will be taking over his position!”

Advisor Ma’s mouth twitched in disdain for Commandery Governor Li. In any case, Commandery Governor Li wouldn’t care about a small fry like me. “A few days ago, a coworker was complaining to me that Commandery Governor Li randomly issued an order for the yamen bailiffs to work overtime in the wee hours, demanding that all small flags be set up in one night with not a single mistake in their positions. He even put on an act by personally acting as the supervisor to oversee them. He doesn’t need sleep as a Golden Core cultivator, but others do! Many of the yamen bailiffs fell asleep while working!”

Lu Yang poured wine for the two. “I’ll be attending to other matters.”

“Go ahead, Shop Owner Lu, you don’t need to worry about us.”

On the first night of the Spring Harvest Festival, the four people and two ghosts were completely drained.

Before sleeping, Man Gu recalled something. “If I'm not wrong, ghosts don’t need to sleep. Should we arrange work for them at night too?”