The wind rises from the tips of duckweed

After leaving the task of expanding into new business to his employees, Lin Bai left the Chef God Restaurant.

As long as his Negative Emotions and Incompleteness Points kept increasing, making money was secondary to Lin Bai. The shop's earnings could never keep pace with his fundraising.

Relying on a shop to make money was ultimately an inferior approach.

What Lin Bai needed were resources, connections, and a growing crop of chives to harvest.

As he walked down the street, Lin Bai heard the maddening song everywhere: "You love me, I love you, the Chef God Restaurant welcomes you."

Aside from listening to songs in entertainment houses, Jiamao City had almost nothing in the way of entertainment.

So the brainwashing song spread with astonishing speed.

Simple lyrics and a maddening melody—hear it twice at most, and you could remember it.

As long as someone nearby sang it, people would involuntarily want to sing along. Even while working, they would suddenly remember it and unconsciously start humming.

No one could resist the song's magic.

At first, people felt shy about singing it, but once everyone was singing, it became commonplace, even bringing a tiny hint of pleasure.

But after hearing it too often, that pleasure turned into irritation.

The singers would grow sick of everyone around them humming those lyrics, and sick of themselves for being unable to stop singing them...

And so.

Lin Bai's supply of Negative Emotions poured in without end. His Negative Emotions tree grew rapidly, producing a green fruit in less than a day. He estimated that it would be ready to harvest before nightfall.

For now, it was only one little Jiamao City. Lin Bai believed that, as people traveled between cities, this song would sooner or later spread to every corner of the continent, bringing him even more Negative Emotions.

As for the Flawed Creation System's task of making three thousand people experience incompleteness, the incomplete lion dance troupe roaming the streets and alleys was making fairly quick progress too.

Lin Bai reckoned it would be more or less finished by nightfall.

But the rewards the Incomplete System gave him always felt a little lacking.

He felt he ought to speed up his collection of Incompleteness Points and grow stronger quickly, so that he would no longer have to hold back when dealing with small fry like Qingfeng Daoist.

"Good morning, Master Zhang."

After knocking on the carpenter's shop door, Lin Bai cupped his fist in greeting to Zhang Achun.

Zhang Achun froze briefly at the sight of Lin Bai. Unpleasant memories welled up, and he could not help snorting.

Still.

Lin Bai had promised to pay his wages in full, and his son, who had helped out at Lin Bai's place yesterday, had brought home one tael of Bai Yin in wages. So he did not give Lin Bai a sour look.

Putting down his plane, Zhang Achun returned Lin Bai's greeting. "Shopkeeper Lin, why have you come here instead of attending to guests at your shop?"

Lin Bai strolled into the carpenter's shop and said, "Master Zhang, I've come to bring you money."

Zhang Achun looked at Lin Bai in surprise. "Shopkeeper Lin, are you here to settle my wages?"

"Those wages are small change." Lin Bai smiled. "Work out how much is still owed, Master Zhang, and let Zhang Bao know. You can get paid in full anytime. Today, I've come to bring you wealth and prosperity."

"What wealth and prosperity?" Zhang Achun immediately grew wary.

"Allow me to keep that a mystery for now. Master Zhang, honestly, before I bought that shop, did you ever imagine I could make the business flourish?" Lin Bai asked.

Carpenter Zhang said sullenly, "That's because you have the ability to subdue Ghosts. An ordinary person would have been scared off by Old Song's Family long ago."

"And without the Ghosts? Do you think I could still make the shop a success?" Lin Bai asked again.

Carpenter Zhang fell silent for a moment, then said, "Shopkeeper Lin, you're good at stirring people's hearts and have a talent for business. Naturally, you could."

"Yesterday, I heard Blacksmith Zhang say that Jiamao City has a Blacksmith Association. Is there a Carpenters Association as well?" Lin Bai asked with a smile.

"Of course," Zhang Achun said.

"Then your wealth and prosperity have arrived, Master Zhang," Lin Bai said, smiling.

"I don't understand." Zhang Achun frowned.

"I intend to create an incompleteness model and promote the Chef God Restaurant's way of doing business. I need your help, Master Zhang, and that of the Carpenters Association behind you," Lin Bai said.

"What do you mean?" Lin Bai's words had already gone beyond Zhang Achun's understanding, leaving his head a muddled mess.

"I want to make incompleteness Jiamao City's calling card, use it to spread the city's fame, and turn it into Jiamao City's cultural symbol," Lin Bai said. "Whenever people mention incompleteness, they'll think of Jiamao City. Whenever they want to appreciate the beauty of incompleteness, they'll want to come to Jiamao City and experience it.

"Then the common people will no longer be limited to earning money from their own little patch of the city. Instead, they'll draw in wealth from all corners of the world and ultimately achieve prosperity together."

"What exactly are you trying to say?" Carpenter Zhang's brows knitted tightly.

"Let me put it plainly. Here in Jiamao City, a single Chef God Restaurant with an incomplete sign and mismatched couplets has already caused a sensation across nearly half the city. What if every household did the same?" Lin Bai said. "I don't know how many carpenters there are in Jiamao City, but what if yours were the only shop with a piece missing from its sign?"

"Then they'd think my workmanship was poor, and no one would come through my door again," Carpenter Zhang said darkly. "My reputation would be smashed too."

"..." Lin Bai choked on his words. Looking at Carpenter Zhang, he shook his head. "Master Zhang, you don't understand a businessman's mind. Without the Chef God Restaurant, perhaps things would turn out as you said.

"But it's different now. You can advertise far and wide, telling people that you made the furniture for the wildly popular Chef God Restaurant. That's a success story.

"It's an incompleteness package you deliberately designed. Your carpenter's shop, for example, could copy the Chef God Restaurant and hang a couplet by the entrance: 'A carpenter's square can shape vessels round and square,' 'A straight line fashions pillars and'..."

"Pillars and what?" Carpenter Zhang's eyes had lit up when he heard the couplet, but the second line suddenly came up one word short, leaving him with a fishbone stuck in his throat, too uncomfortable to sit or stand still.

"That's it." Lin Bai spread his hands and smiled. "The same approach as the Chef God Restaurant, the same style. Isn't it appealing?"

"I don't find it appealing. I just find it irritating." Carpenter Zhang looked at Lin Bai. "Besides, if everyone does this, your shop will have no reason to exist. And the things in your shop aren't very practical. Shopkeeper Lin, even a carpenter like me understands that, let alone anyone else."

"Master Zhang, small-scale dabbling naturally won't amount to much. That's why I want you to contact the Carpenters Association and have every carpenter's shop in Jiamao City introduce this package at the same time, using the Chef God Restaurant as the spark to ignite a trend," Lin Bai said. "This is a more sophisticated way of doing business. If it succeeds, you can make a fortune..."

"Shopkeeper Lin, I think I understand what you mean now." Carpenter Zhang looked at Lin Bai as though he were an idiot. "For something like this, you should go to the City Lord, not a carpenter like me. Besides, I really can't see any wealth or prosperity in it..."

"Naturally, I'll speak to the City Lord too." Lin Bai smiled and took a banknote from inside his robe. "But before that, I need some bargaining chips worth showing.

"One little Chef God Restaurant is nowhere near enough, and an incompleteness package introduced with your Carpenters Association's cooperation won't be enough either. Next, I'll go to a printing house and have an incomplete poetry collection carved into printing blocks, published, and distributed, so the world can appreciate the true beauty of incompleteness."

Lin Bai pushed the banknote toward Zhang Achun. "Master Zhang, the wind rises from the tips of duckweed. Creating a trend begins with little things, one by one. Get aboard early, and you can fill your pots and bowls to the brim. Wait until everything is on track, and you might not even get a mouthful of hot soup..."

A poetry collection?

Carpenter Zhang stared at the banknote Lin Bai had pushed toward him. A bead of cold sweat slid down his forehead. "Shopkeeper Lin, this poetry collection you're talking about... it won't be missing passages and words too, will it?"

"What do you think?" Lin Bai smiled and cupped his fist. "Master Zhang, sorry for the trouble, but I'll leave the Carpenters Association to you. In just a few days, you'll see my poetry collection published. It's destined to be a collection renowned throughout the world!"

As he spoke.

Lin Bai stood up and strode out with easy grace beneath Carpenter Zhang's astonished gaze.

So you'll only give me cultivation techniques and internal energy if I make the world experience incompleteness?

If I'm going to play, I'll play big!

I'll show you what it means for your task assignments to fall behind the pace at which I create incompleteness...