Volume One: Days in the Shantytown - Luo-Style Lazy Stewed Rice (Part Two)

"Hey!" Pei Sefei was furious. This man had rudely left her standing outside, and now he was staring at her without a shred of restraint. It was infuriating. No man had ever treated her like this. She had entered the competition purely for fun, never expecting to win it in one stroke!

The champion's halo had settled on her, but it had not gone to her head. She knew how dark the entertainment industry could be. She had done nothing "extra," so how could she possibly have won? She had used a few little tricks and easily found two addresses that had mailed in huge numbers of ballots. By her rough count, the ballots from those addresses must have cost at least several million yuan. That was nothing to Pei Sefei, but she did not want to owe someone a favor for no reason.

The second address belonged to a temporary rental. Its tenant had long since moved away, leaving no trail to follow. The first, however, was in a residential complex. Pei Sefei could not help wondering who had helped her in secret. If he wanted something from her, why had he not contacted her, even after the contest had ended and she had held that endorsement contract for so long?

She had only half a foot in the entertainment industry, but she had heard plenty of "showbiz Cinderella" stories. Usually, on the night a contest ended, a mysterious golden invitation would arrive. Beneath dim lights, perhaps on a yacht or in some romantic French restaurant, a middle-aged or elderly "prince" would appear, his belly bulging or the top of his head gleaming...

Perhaps "lord" would be a better word?

Pei Sefei grew more and more curious about this mysterious man and could not resist coming to look for him again and again. According to the information she had gathered, the owner had not sold the apartment recently, which meant he might well return. So she dropped by every few days. Eventually, whenever she appeared, the helpful aunties in the neighborhood gave her knowing looks.

Deep down, Pei Sefei harbored a hazy hope. A young woman in her twenties was at the age for dreaming of love, and even she could not help imagining her prince appearing in the most unexpectedly romantic fashion. To her, nothing could be more romantic than a prince who had loved her silently from the shadows all along, then seized his chance one day to appear with a great bouquet of fiery red roses. He would kneel before her, his voice soft and deep, and tell her of a longing as bitter as black coffee.

A surprise would fall from the sky.

Certain circumstances made her tread carefully, like a cat on thin ice. She had encountered the tactic of playing hard to get before.

Yet she could not rein in her thoughts. They galloped through her mind like a rouge-colored mare with its reins cut loose, and so she appeared outside Luo Qian's hideout time after time.

Alas... the vase had shattered after all. Pei Sefei's beautiful dream had been broken within five minutes of meeting Luo Qian. He seemed impatient to get rid of her, his gaze indifferent and distant. Never had a man given her such a cold reception. The way he looked at her was nakedly appraising, as though he were examining a work of art. Yes, examining. It was nothing like the infatuated gaze of ordinary men.

Luo Qian had been captivated by her sprite-like air, but he was not infatuated. He had never imagined he would become entangled with a girl from the Mortal Realm. This whole situation was entirely Du Lengning's doing. To borrow the most fashionable theory of the day, Du Lengning was the butterfly's wing in the Immortal Realm. One flap had delivered a sprite-like girl right to Luo Qian's door.

Pei Sefei made up her mind: she would get her answer and leave. Her pride had been badly wounded. "Why did you help me?" Luo Qian decided to hold the line. "Help you? What are you talking about? I don't even know you. Why would I help you?" Pei Sefei gave a cold snort, her wariness stirring again. "This act of yours is unusual, I'll give you that, but it won't work. I've seen tricks like it before. I came here to make one thing clear: spending several million on me won't make me feel anything special for you. Don't get any foolish ideas."

With that, Pei Sefei turned on her heel in what she considered a dashing fashion and strode away with her head high. Luo Qian curled his lip. "What was that about...?"

He made no attempt to stop her. As her heels clicked sharply down the stairs, he shut the door and shook his head. Then he remembered her charming cheeks and could not help smiling. "That Du Lengning has an eye for beauty after all."

Pei Sefei left the building, but Luo Qian still had not come after her. She was a little surprised. Did I get it wrong? Does he really want nothing from me? That can't be. He isn't stupid. Why would he throw away several million for nothing? She looked back at the aging building and frowned. He doesn't look like someone who can toss around several million. Could there be someone behind him?

Lost in thought, Pei Sefei left the complex and turned a corner. A black Mercedes was waiting for her in the shade of the trees.

She picked up the car phone and dialed a number. "Hello, Uncle Xiao Liu. Sorry to trouble you again. Could you look into something for me...?"

H County lay in the southeast of Qinghai Province. Its soil was poor, its climate dry, and it had no notable local products. Its residents' standard of living was far below the national average. The only reason such an impoverished place had drawn the great Immortal Luo there in person was the prospect of a hundred pieces of High-Grade Immortal Jade.

The small mountain his mysterious cousin had mentioned lay within H County, still some distance from the county seat.

Floating in the sky, Luo Qian searched the location his mysterious cousin had given him. Sure enough, he found a rock shaped like a roaring tiger. Delighted, he drifted down and smashed the stone tiger with one punch. A burst of golden light faded away. Someone had clearly placed a Sealing Art there deliberately. But a Sealing Art from the Mortal Realm was as fragile as a sheet of window paper to an Immortal. Even a Tribulation Immortal like Luo Qian could break it without blowing a speck of dust from his sleeve.

Since someone from the Immortal Realm wanted this thing, it surely had something to do with cultivation in the Mortal Realm. A Sealing Art or two was nothing strange.

He swept the rubble with Immortal Spirit Energy. A speck of white light shot out, and Luo Qian caught it. It was indeed the Dragon-Phoenix Double-Pattern Jade Pendant. The flecks of blood-red in the dragon's and phoenix's eyes seemed almost alive...

Luo Qian smiled faintly, tucked the pendant inside his robe, and used a secret art to leave the Mortal Realm. His objective was complete.

He knew little about terrain and its hidden forces. A half-trained Immortal like him could not see that this was an exceedingly rare "Three Yang" point, or that the stone tiger had stood at its heart. Anything suppressed in a place like this could not be simple. Not long after Luo Qian left, several streaks of clear light arrived from different directions. The newcomers all knew one another. At the sight of the shattered stone tiger, they cried out together, "Who could have broken the Tiger-Slaying Sun-Crossing Formation and stolen the Jade Demon Primordial Soul?!"

Bang! Once again, Luo Qian plunged headfirst from the sky. As he struggled to right himself, frustration burned in him. I really ought to put some effort into cultivation. I'm a Tribulation Immortal, and the gains may be pitifully small, but little by little they'll add up. I should at least scrape my way to second-rank Immortal. This Sky-Leaping Vault is far too unreliable. I mustn't become the first Immortal in the history of the Immortal Realm to fall to his death!

With the precious pendant worth a hundred pieces of High-Grade Immortal Jade tucked away, Luo Qian returned to his cave residence on Toad Mountain. He sent out a Jade Talisman to contact Ling Xiaose, then waited at home for good news.

"Old Luo, are you back yet...?" Du Lengning called from outside. "I'm back. Come in," Luo Qian answered loudly. A figure flashed through the doorway. Du Lengning turned his palm over, revealing a pile of power-supply boxes. "Old Luo, I picked these up from Xiao Xiangzi. I borrowed those twenty-four pieces of High-Grade Immortal Jade from my fellow disciples. Speaking of which, when are you going to let me control the purse strings for once?"

Luo Qian chuckled and handed him twenty-four pieces of High-Grade Immortal Jade. "Don't even think about it. You know how much we're making. You'll get your share, don't worry. Your timing's perfect, though. There's something I want to discuss with you."

Du Lengning frowned. "That smile of yours is getting more wicked by the day. This can't be good." "How could you say that?" Luo Qian protested. "I've thought of another way for us to make money." Du Lengning perked up at once. "Tell me, tell me! I knew you had plenty of devious ideas."

"Why does that sound so wrong?"

"Are you going to tell me or not?" "All right, I'll tell you. Let's open an apothecary and use Rice Cookers to refine Immortal Pills. We won't have many varieties, and they won't be high-grade, but they'll be good and cheap, and we'll have a steady supply. What do you think? I also want to develop some new Elixirs by cooking different kinds of immortal rice together. We might get a surprise!"

Du Lengning's eyes gleamed like gold. He clapped Luo Qian hard on the shoulder. "Ha! I knew you had plenty of devious... harebrained ideas." Luo Qian frowned again. "Neither of those is a compliment."

"Then it's settled. Get to work developing new Elixirs, and I'll prepare the shop. My father knows someone at the People-Benefiting Institute. A few Immortal Pills should get all the permits handled quickly," Du Lengning said eagerly.

Du Lengning was impatient by nature. Ready to act at once, he turned to leave, but Luo Qian caught him. "Wait. I'm not finished. Where should we open the apothecary?" "The busier the place, the better, of course," Du Lengning replied without thinking. "But we're short on funds right now. The really prime locations might..." He glanced at Luo Qian and caught on. "Oh, so you've set your sights on a spot on our Ningyuan Mountain. And you took such a roundabout way to say it."

(We made the rankings, and it's all thanks to you! Thank you, everyone! A little burst of updates today: three chapters, ten thousand characters. This is the first; the second will come this afternoon, and the third tonight.)

(Dizzy as I am, I haven't forgotten to ask for votes...)

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