Waiter, bring the milk!

The sun sank in the west, and the Imperial Capital, a city that never slept, blazed with lights.

Yet the street named Chaoyang-"morning sun"-was nowhere near as bright.

Lin Ke walked behind Butcher Zhang, catching the thick stench of blood wafting off him.

The two of them emerged from the cellar.

"Safe travels, young fellow!" Butcher Zhang grinned and patted Lin Ke on the shoulder.

"Will do!" Lin Ke nodded, left the cellar, and headed toward the restaurant with a paper-wrapped chunk of meat.

After two steps, Lin Ke suddenly sensed something and whipped his head around.

In an instant, a face wearing an ambiguous smile filled his vision, barely a hair's breadth away. Their eyes met.

It was a woman's delicate, fair face!

"What is it, young fellow?" The woman gently covered her mouth and laughed.

"Nothing." Lin Ke scratched his head, turned back around, and kept walking.

Halfway there, Lin Ke looked back again. The woman was nestled beside Butcher Zhang, and both nodded toward him, their faces full of warm smiles.

A few more steps later, when Lin Ke turned back, the woman had vanished without a trace.

By the time he reached the restaurant entrance and looked back, no one remained behind the butcher's shop. It was utterly empty, as though it had been that way since time immemorial.

"What are you looking at?" The shopkeeper came out and craned his neck alongside Lin Ke. "There's nothing there. What are you looking at?"

"Nothing."

Lin Ke tugged at the clothes clinging to his skin, soaked with cold sweat, and followed the shopkeeper into the restaurant.

Back inside, Lin Ke saw Bai Zhantang topping up customers' tea in the dining hall.

"Hurry up, give it here!" Unable to wait, Shopkeeper Tong took the wrapped meat from Lin Ke's hands.

"You're cooking personally, Shopkeeper?" Lin Ke raised an eyebrow.

"Does this grand restaurant of mine have anyone else?" The shopkeeper shot Lin Ke an exasperated look, then hurried into the kitchen.

Lin Ke chuckled despite himself.

Fair enough.

Just like that Immortal Realm Painting Studio, the Tongfu Grand Restaurant had "grand" in its name, but it really wasn't very big.

It was like those people who always said, "Mine's huge, just bear with it."

The "grand" in Tongfu Grand Restaurant might refer to its grand profits, the shopkeeper's grand belly, or perhaps its grand rule against drinking alcohol.

But it certainly wasn't reflected in the size of the premises.

There were only two floors in total. The second held living quarters, while the first was a place to drink alcohol and eat meat... no, the first was a place to drink milk and tea!

There was hardly any meat, either. The nearby residents rarely came here to eat meat. They were all poor, after all. Who had money to eat meat whenever they pleased?

Even today's meat was only being bought because guests had come. The shopkeeper had specifically sent Lin Ke to buy it-no, to get it on credit.

So most customers on an ordinary day just ordered a few simple dishes.

Bai Zhantang handled stir-frying those little dishes.

That was why Lin Ke had only learned today that the shopkeeper was actually a cook!

"How's the shopkeeper's cooking?" Lin Ke asked curiously as Bai Zhantang approached.

"Come help me out, Lin Ke." Bai Zhantang wiped away his sweat, handed Lin Ke the teapot, and glanced toward the kitchen. "The shopkeeper's cooking is second to none!"

"Oh?" Lin Ke raised an eyebrow. "Second to none? I heard the shopkeeper belonged to Servile Status by imperial pardon, didn't he? A cook should belong to the middle-tier miscellaneous registry, right?"

Shopkeeper Tong was a pardoned convict!

What did "pardoned" mean?

Simply put, someone had committed a crime, then the Sage Emperor celebrated a birthday, felt happy, was greatly pleased, or something along those lines, and released a batch of criminals whose offenses weren't too serious.

Although those criminals were released from prison, they were saddled with the "pardoned" classification of Servile Status.

Cooks, on the other hand, belonged to the miscellaneous registry, one of the six middle-tier classes. They were commoners who could do all sorts of work, not lowborn.

"That's because... Shopkeeper Tong himself has Servile Status." Bai Zhantang watched the kitchen cautiously as he whispered into Lin Ke's ear.

Shopkeeper Tong himself had Servile Status?

No, wait...

Shopkeeper Tong himself had Servile Status?!

Lin Ke was suddenly startled.

Generally speaking, a person's registry status was tied to their mother's. Whatever registry the mother belonged to, her children belonged to as well.

In most cases, however, a mother could also leave her registry with the father's help.

For example, Minister Lin's other wives and concubines all belonged to Noble Registries such as Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism, or at worst one of the six middle-tier registries. Only Lin Ke had Servile Status.

That was because Minister Lin had loathed people with Prostitute Status all his life, so he had never removed Lin Ke's mother from it!

But what about the shopkeeper?

The shopkeeper himself had Servile Status...

That meant he didn't have Servile Status because his mother had it. He had become a "pardoned" holder of Servile Status because he had committed a crime and gone to prison!

Well, damn. I'm working under a criminal... Lin Ke didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

The illustrious Minister Qi of the current court actually mingled with all manner of people from the Three Teachings and Nine Schools on this street. If word got out, he would probably be condemned to death by criticism.

"Just keep this to yourself. You're the only one I've told this secret to. Don't tell anyone else," Bai Zhantang whispered to Lin Ke.

Lin Ke immediately glanced at him and mentally slapped a label on Bai Zhantang.

Bai Zhantang, male, waiter, a mouth that leaked like a sieve-in other words, a bigmouth!

Incapable of keeping secrets!

"No problem. I absolutely won't tell anyone else." Lin Ke promptly nodded.

"Good, good, good." With that, Bai Zhantang went back to work.

Lin Ke began surveying the customers, ready to top up their tea or milk.

Two occupied tables? Business isn't bad.

One table held the original three customers, who looked like minor officials from somewhere in the area.

The other held just one person: the elegant young gentleman Lin Ke had encountered when he first went out.

But after casually glancing over these people, Lin Ke found something rather odd.

The people at each table were more lavishly dressed than the last.

Clothing that splendid had no business appearing in a poor neighborhood.

After all, this wasn't the world of later generations, where even Sicong would eat at tiny hole-in-the-wall eateries tucked down alleys.

Here, places like Chaoyang Street, where sewage flowed everywhere, filth and disorder reigned, and supplies were scarce, rarely attracted dignitaries.

Nor were there any time-honored establishments or specialty shops here.

At that moment, the young gentleman was opening a folding fan in his hand and examining the writing on it.

He might as well have written "I'm here to experience ordinary life" across his face.

The young gentleman had a rosy complexion and looked full of vigor. Although he was looking at the fan, his gaze wandered, and there was no telling what he was thinking.

The other three were silent as well, each drinking his own milk, though their eyes all held a sharp edge.

Lin Ke paid more attention to those three middle-aged men, each with a different build.

He could tell that they were probably officials of relatively low rank.

But as the saying went, the King of Hell was easy to meet; it was the little devils who were hard to deal with.

Minor officials like these were the hardest to serve.

Just then, the young gentleman at the other table spoke softly. "Waiter, bring the milk!"

"Coming!" Lin Ke answered, turned to fetch the milk pitcher, and went over to refill the young gentleman's cup.

All this time, he had only chopped wood, fetched water, or cleaned. Today was his first time waiting on people. He felt a little unaccustomed to it, but that was no great problem.

He brought the milk pitcher to the young gentleman and called out, imitating Bai Zhantang, "Here you are, honored guest! Your milk!"

The young gentleman smiled and nodded at Lin Ke, apparently hoping to display his gentleness and refinement.

Paired with that childish face, however, it only looked incongruous, a little like a child pretending to be a grown-up.

Once the milk was served, the dining hall grew much quieter.

The table of three occasionally urged them to hurry with the food, while the young gentleman called for more milk now and then.

Before long, the food was ready!

"Lin Ke, Bai Zhantang, serve the food!"

"Coming!"

"On my way!"

Bai Zhantang's voice rang out from the rear courtyard. As it turned out, he had gone to the privy earlier and had been squatting there until now.

Lin Ke and Bai Zhantang, who hadn't washed his hands, served all the dishes. Both tables had ordered the same food. To be fair, the Tongfu Grand Restaurant barely had any dishes to offer, and both tables had ordered everything on the menu.

"Honored guests, all your dishes are here. Enjoy!"

Bai Zhantang called out the greeting, then, after setting out the dishes, the two headed toward the kitchen together.

"Lin Ke, why does tonight's meat smell so good? Has the shopkeeper been holding back before?"

As they walked, Bai Zhantang asked quietly, "It never smelled this good before! Could the shopkeeper have been lying when he said his best dishes were the ones he used to make?"

Isn't that obvious... Lin Ke smiled. The shopkeeper was such a miser. Why would he make his best dishes for Bai Zhantang?

Then he replied, "Probably not. The shopkeeper treats you like his own brother, his own son. Of course he'd make his best dishes for you... maybe the meat's different today."

"Brother is fine. You're the son..." Bai Zhantang rolled his eyes.

"You're saying I'm the shopkeeper's son?" Lin Ke rolled his eyes even harder. "My father is the Minister of Rites. Quit kidding around."

"You? You? Then my father's the Sage Emperor!"