Volume One: Days in the Shantytown - Our Shop (Part Two)

Given Pei Sefei's standing, she had no business throwing her weight around so fearlessly. But her family connections ran deep. Even the agency that held her contract dared not do anything to her. All the way there, her agent tried to talk her out of it, while the photographer and advertiser begged and pleaded. Pei Sefei ignored them all. If they had not kept pestering her, that piece of cloth would not have been tucked under her skirt.

Pei Sefei smiled slyly. "Want to know why?" Luo Qian nodded. "I can tell you... but in exchange, you have to tell me why you helped me." Luo Qian thought for a moment, then agreed. "Fine. Someone asked me to." "Who?" "I can't say." Luo Qian added, "He can never meet you, so it makes no difference whether you know."

Pei Sefei misunderstood him. Thinking the person who had asked him was no longer alive, her eyes reddened. Young girls did love their romantic fantasies.

"Now, can you tell me why you want to work for me?" Luo Qian asked. The girl blinked. "Because... I feel like it."

Pei Sefei stood in the doorway. The moment she finished speaking, she darted out and slammed the door. Luo Qian bristled. "Hey, that's cheating!" Outside, Pei Sefei grinned like a little fox. You rotten fellow, I finally got one over on you. Her rather ample chest swelled with satisfaction as she strode off, head held high. She had barely left the building when her agent, personal assistant, bodyguards, and driver swarmed around her. Her somewhat effeminate male agent groaned, "Oh, my little princess, please don't pull that again! You stood up the advertiser. Our company has to pay them over six million..."

"Pfft!" Pei Sefei said disdainfully. "Your company isn't exactly small. You're crying over six million?" Her agent dared not argue. Of course you don't care about a little money like that. But if every artist on our books acted like you, we'd have shut our doors and been living on the northwest wind long ago.

Pei Sefei considered it. "Don't worry. Since I caused this, I won't let the company take the loss. I can endorse their second-generation product for free to make up for it. How's that?" Delighted, her agent punched in a number on his phone and nodded. "No problem. I'll contact them right away..."

Behind the door, Luo Qian breathed a sigh of relief and grinned. "Heh. Saved myself a month's wages." An inconsequential "secret" had saved him five thousand yuan. Not a bad deal. Luo Qian was a fox himself. On either side of the door, two smiling faces formed a mirror image, with the door as their axis.

Cradling his Electronic Scale, Luo Qian returned to the Immortal Realm.

Du Lengning had spent the past few days chasing the approvals for the medicine shop. Luo Qian took the opportunity to work out all the formulas. With a precision measuring instrument, his experiments progressed steadily. He had already given up his headless-fly research into Luo-Style Lazy Stewed Rice. Rather than blunder around without direction, he would use the time to pin down the formula for the Three-Color Pill.

Hard work did not disappoint. Nine days later, Luo Qian finally found the problem. As he had suspected, the two half-parts needed a slight difference in quantity; they could not be exactly equal if he wanted to refine the Three-Color Pill.

With the formula in hand, Luo Qian immediately went full tilt refining pills. He wanted to stockpile a batch before the shop opened.

Du Lengning had already given up on his connection to Qi Rongwei. He had asked a friend to introduce him, by way of another acquaintance, to the son of a deputy commissioner at the People-Benefiting Institute. The man's price was fifty pieces of High-Grade Immortal Jade. Just as Du Lengning was wincing at the cost, Madam Qi came to Ningyao Mountain in person, bringing the good news that their medicine shop had passed its review.

Good fortune had dropped from the sky. Du Lengning knew how to return a favor. He promptly fetched fifty Spirit-Accumulating Pills from Luo Qian and asked Madam Qi to take them back, promising a yearly supply sufficient for three people from then on. Madam Qi left thoroughly satisfied, and Du Lengning's father, Du Zhongping, began to see his son in a new light.

The People-Benefiting Institute was a lucrative office. Even one of its commandants put on more airs than the commissioner of another institute. Qi Rongwei was a friend of Du Zhongping's, but the two had never been close. Du Zhongping thought Qi Rongwei too pompous, while Qi Rongwei thought Old Du a miser. Yet Madam Qi had come calling in person. That was an enormous honor. Du Zhongping had only just spoken to Du Lengning and told him he ought to learn to "take an interest" in such matters. He had not expected his son to make such an important connection so soon. For the first time in his life, Old Du felt that, yes, he truly was a "tiger father with a dog for a son"!

In his delight, Du Zhongping paid little attention when Du Lengning brought up a plot of land. Old Miser Du was so pleased with himself that he agreed offhand. It was not until dinner that he suddenly remembered. "Lengning, you said this afternoon that your friend wanted to buy land on our Ningyao Mountain. How much did you say he'd pay?"

"Father, ten pieces of High-Grade Immortal Jade. I've already given him your answer. That young master is very grateful for your generosity..." Du Lengning made his report respectfully, head bowed. His face was already crinkled with glee, and his father would have spotted it at once if he had looked up.

Du Zhongping was like a mute who had swallowed bitter coptis: he suffered, but could not say a word. Regret churned inside him. Twenty million pieces of standard Immortal Jade, gone just like that! I must learn my lesson. Never get so carried away with myself again... Old Du's mouth tasted bitter. He could not taste a thing at dinner.

The shop banner, of course, had been commissioned from Xiao Xiangzi, the artifact-crafting prodigy favored by Luo Qian and Young Master Du. Du Lengning had originally budgeted twenty pieces of High-Grade Immortal Jade for the land. For some reason, his father's mind had been wandering that day. Perhaps he had made great progress in his immortal cultivation, for he had agreed to ten, saving Du Lengning a tidy sum. The banner's budget rose accordingly. Paid well, Xiao Xiangzi worked hard and soon produced a magnificent banner.

It had a green field with yellow edging. Its pole was made from a Diamond Moon Laurel Tree grown in the Broken Moon Realm; its cloth was woven from Emerald Silk Silkworm silk from the Gourd Realm, with a border of yellow coral cotton from the Dreamshatter Realm. At the top, two dragons fought over a pearl. Beneath them, more than ten thousand pearls spelled out the shop's name: Luo Family Medicine Shop. At the very bottom, a small line read: Ningyao Brocade Shop.

Du Lengning shouldered the enormous, eye-catching banner. Looking like Monkey King carrying that fake plantain fan, he flew to Luo Qian's cave on Toad Mountain, huffing and puffing. "Old Luo! Old Luo! Come out and have a look. What do you think?"

Luo Qian drifted out of the cave. "Not bad, I suppose."

Du Lengning had found a spot at Beautiful Water Cliff near Ningyao Mountain. For just two pieces of High-Grade Immortal Jade, he bought a sizable plot and built a medicine shop there, right beside Xiao Xiangzi.

After making so many generator boxes, Xiao Xiangzi had grown skilled through practice. His "production speed" had risen sharply of late, and another ten boxes were soon ready. Luo Qian opened the Toad Mountain Underground Palace and moved all twenty-one rice cookers belowground. Concealed by the Seven Luminaries Desert-Heaven Formation, with Green Toad Peak rising a thousand fathoms overhead, the place hid its large stock of "contraband" so well that even someone from the Immortal Apprehension Office standing at its entrance would sense nothing.

"Old Luo, I asked my uncle to find us an auspicious date," Du Lengning said as he rummaged through Luo Qian's medicine jars. "He said opening on that day will bring money pouring in." Luo Qian had just refined a "pot" of Three-Color Pills. Other people measured pill-refining by the furnace; Luo Qian measured it by the pot.

"Have you sent opening invitations to the merchants on Ningyao Mountain?" Luo Qian asked. Du Lengning shook his head. "I don't want to make a big fuss. I've invited a few fellow disciples. We'll play some music, and that'll do."

Luo Qian set down his work and rapped Du Lengning on the head. "Idiot! You're a big shot on Ningyao Mountain. If you open a shop, those merchants will have to give you a little something, won't they? Say one piece of High-Grade Immortal Jade each. There must be at least eight hundred or a thousand shops on the mountain. How much is that? Once we've collected their gifts, we can send them on their way with a banquet at the Rock-Viewing Pavilion. A fortune for next to nothing!"

Du Lengning's eyes lit up. "Old Luo, you're as devious as ever..."

Luo Qian picked up the rice scoop to whack him. Laughing, Du Lengning dodged and floated out of the cave. "All right, I'll prepare the invitations right away."

Each invitation was a slab of white jade three fingers wide and a handspan and a half long. Simple patterns were carved on the front, while a line on the back read: "Luo Family Medicine Shop will open on the eleventh day of the ninth month in the thirty-seventh year of Heavenly Might. Proprietor So-and-so is cordially invited to attend." It was signed: "Du Lengning, second proprietor of Luo Family Medicine Shop."

Heavenly Might was the current Immortal Emperor's third era name.

Such an ordinary invitation was commonplace in the Immortal Realm. One could be bought for less than a single piece of standard Immortal Jade. Now every shopkeeper on Ningyao Mountain held one in his hands.

The invitations might have been ordinary, but the man sending them was not. Who on Ningyao Mountain had not heard of Young Master Du? The gesture seemed routine, but the implications were anything but simple.

Once an invitation arrived, they had to give something. Too little, and Young Master Du would surely be displeased. Too much, and they would become a target for every merchant in their trade.

Thus, the shopkeepers of Ningyao Mountain suddenly grew much friendlier and began visiting one another far more often. Luo Qian had merely opened a shop, yet he had greatly strengthened cooperation among the mountain's merchants—something he had never anticipated.

On opening day, Du Lengning brought a group of fellow disciples with him. Beneath the enormous, bright banner fluttering in the wind, they beat gongs and drums, played instruments and sang, holding a lively, noisy opening ceremony.

Luo Qian did not show himself. He set a stone table off to the side, sat down, and collected the congratulatory gifts one by one.

(Everyone, go leave a review on Feeding the Gods and I'll feature it. This is a new book, so I'm out of featured-review slots here. Heh, but keep voting for this one. Shi San thanks you...)

(Chirping like a lark to ask for votes...)

(Is this cuter than the crocodile? Haha.)

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