Who turned Hua into a troublemaker?

The response left Xianyu baffled.

Was Teng Xiao planning something earth-shattering? Was Hua afraid of getting dragged into it?

[No replies outside work hours: Don't worry, I'll be fine.]

[Hua: No, I mean don't scare him.]

Xianyu fell silent.

Hua, could you take another look at Teng Xiao's wardrobe-sized build and say that again? Who was supposed to be scaring whom?

He was just a clerical worker! How could he possibly scare Teng Xiao? Was the general really that fragile?

[Hua: Incidentally, do you really have to discuss how to bribe the general right in front of me?]

Xianyu: "..."

Oh, crap. He had been too focused on settling his debt of gratitude.

Xianyu quietly unsent his messages.

He had speculated about Hua's identity before.

Back then, following Aha's hint, he had only caught a blurry glimpse of Hua from behind. All he knew was that Hua now had long gray-blue hair and looked rather short and slender beside hulking men like Teng Xiao.

People on the Xianzhou liked to wear their hair long regardless of gender, and their builds varied too, leaving Xianyu with no way to tell Hua's gender.

Xianyu had tried searching for the news clip that had aired. He had scoured the internet but never managed to find it.

He had also pinned his hopes on forums, thinking someone might have posted a photo. He had searched and searched without finding a single one.

Even if there were no pictures, surely he could settle for a post describing the Marshal and the entourage?

As it turned out, Xianyu had been far too naive.

No one had revealed so much as a detail online.

The Xianzhou's higher-ups had locked down all information about the Marshal's party.

Xianyu could only try to work out Hua's circumstances from the little information he had.

He himself had served as a general, so Hua's position certainly couldn't be low. If Hua had accompanied the Marshal to the Luofu, perhaps Hua was a trusted aide?

But Hua's reaction was a little strange... Surely Hua hadn't jumped straight to being the Marshal.

The more Xianyu thought about it, the more absurd it seemed.

How could he possibly have raised a Marshal? Wait-

His smile froze.

Could Hua really be the Marshal?

A very unpleasant possibility suddenly occurred to Xianyu.

If Hua was the Marshal... what about him? He hadn't been promoted, had he? How many years had he worked on the Yaoqing? Surely he had retired without a hitch after a few decades?

He didn't want to dig any deeper and began inventing explanations for the obviously problematic timeline.

He had been a general on the Yaoqing before it received the blessing of Abundance, which put it at least five or six thousand years ago... So how could he have adopted Hua, who was still alive today?

...Anyway, he must have traveled through time!

He must have encountered some special phenomenon that could send him through time and space, like a starquake.

As for getting promoted from general to Marshal and working for five thousand years...

Impossible. Absolutely impossible!

[No replies outside work hours: I was just a general, right?]

[Hua: Heh. Take a guess.]

Xianyu: "..."

Who had corrupted Hua? How had Hua turned into a troublemaker just like Jing Yuan?!

That "take a guess" left him itching for answers. Just how many years had he spent as a general? When had he retired?

Xianyu had a stomachful of questions he wanted Hua to answer.

But Hua disappeared again. No matter what he sent, all he got was the same automatic reply.

Xianyu quietly opened his Jade Abacus, searched for tactful wording, and began drafting his Transfer Application.

Once he learned the truth, he would teach that cryptic nuisance a proper lesson!

With his Jade Abacus in front of him, he cobbled together nearly eight hundred words from stock phrases and finally finished the application.

At the end, he added his name and the date.

Xianyu checked the time. He had plenty of time left.

Diviner Xiao Lin was decisive and rarely wasted words, whether he was holding meetings or speaking with subordinates.

Even factoring in the time needed for a conversation with the Diviner, he had more than enough.

Barring any surprises, he could get it all sorted before the lunch break.

Application in hand, he knocked on the door to the Diviner's Office. After receiving permission, he pushed it open and went inside.

Diviner Xiao Lin sat with a vacant stare, holding a book in one hand and a pen in the other, jotting down who knew what.

Only upon hearing Xianyu's footsteps did he belatedly look up. His voice was weak. "What is it?"

Xianyu handed over the application.

Xiao Lin closed his eyes, unable to bear looking. He had stayed up all night revising drafts! After rushing through two more versions that morning, Teng Xiao had rejected them both...

He had never put on airs as a superior. He disliked bureaucratic jargon and flattery, and was especially casual with his subordinates.

The Diviner shook his head and sighed. "I can't bear to read another word right now. Just read it out."

Xianyu acknowledged him, skipped over the eight hundred words of formalities, and got straight to the point. "Since you're busy, I'll sum it up in one sentence. I'd like to request a transfer to the archives."

"The archives? If you want to transfer back later, it won't be so easy."

Xiao Lin didn't think Xianyu had been rude. Instead, he frowned, considering the matter on his behalf.

"Is this because of the rumors? Or are you worried about that test result? There's really no need to worry. Plenty of other people had problems with their results too. You're very talented. Sending you to the archives would really be..."

Xiao Lin was torn.

Being called away by the general to work overtime was bad enough. Now one of his own promising recruits insisted on transferring to the most idle post...

But he had always respected his subordinates' wishes, so he could only agree.

"It's Friday, and the weekend's almost here. Transfer over next Monday, then."

His voice full of regret, Xiao Lin reminded him:

"Everyone else tries everything they can to transfer out of the archives, but you... If you ever want to come back, just let me know."

Had anyone else said those polite words, Xianyu would have simply nodded without taking them seriously.

But his Diviner was different. He kept his word, followed through on his promises, and never played games with people.

A boss like that was almost impossible to find. He would never fire Xianyu for arriving and leaving on time, making him ten thousand times better than a boss who did nothing but dump messes on others.

Moved, he sincerely thanked the Diviner.

When he left the Diviner's Office, his colleagues were all packing up and gathering in small groups. Some were heading to the cafeteria, while others had placed a group takeout order.

The Six Commissions and the Cloud Knights each had their own cafeterias, free to their staff, a blessing for many cash-strapped workers.

Of those, the Sky-Faring Commission and the Cloud Knights had the best benefits.

The former handled foreign trade and had ample funding, so the cafeteria ladies never skimped on portions.

The latter's work was special, so even without prompting from the Cloud Knights, the cafeteria made sure to serve them a varied menu.

As for the other departments' cafeterias, the less said, the better.

The flavors were bizarre, and the dishes were downright surreal.

When Xianyu first joined the Divination Commission, he had followed the crowd and gone to the cafeteria with his colleagues.

One look at the food, and the cafeteria staff's culinary creativity knocked him flat.

Stir-fried strawberries and celery, mandarin oranges with snow peas, red dragon fruit with shredded potatoes...

What kind of combinations were those?

Xianyu got some rice, avoided those three dishes, and picked a few small steamed buns and a meat dish that looked like braised pork with potatoes.

When he bit through a bun's outer layer, he discovered a potato filling.

The diced potatoes seemed to have been seasoned with chili bean paste, and the flavor was barely acceptable.

Xianyu then picked up a piece of potato from the meat dish with his chopsticks. The moment it entered his mouth, the flavor blasted him two miles away.

The potato wasn't a potato. It was a snow pear.

The kind of pear people stewed with rock sugar.

Xianyu was stunned. That mouthful of salty fruit was so overpowering that it left him dazed.

His colleague took it in stride, even looking faintly pleased, as if delighted to see someone else suffer alongside him.

The colleague made a show of comforting him:

"You guys are pretty lucky. You didn't run into the mooncakes stewed with tomatoes or the stir-fried corn and glutinous rice balls. Oh, almost forgot-the cold-dressed sunflower seeds too. The kind still in their shells."

Xianyu: "..."

Compared with those three dishes, braised pork with snow pears didn't seem quite so bizarre... No, wait. It still wasn't remotely normal!

After eating at the cafeteria once, Xianyu never went back.

No matter how extravagantly his colleagues praised it, he refused to go.

He had long since seen through those workplace veterans' tricks. They just wanted to drag one more person down with them!

Xianyu usually ordered takeout with his colleagues, and today was no exception. The colleague organizing the group order was handing out the meals.

He took his meal box from his colleague, thanked them, and returned to his desk. Opening the lid, he picked up his Jade Abacus as usual to find a video to watch while eating.

The moment he unlocked the screen, he saw messages from Jingliu.

[Jingliu: I received a package. I asked my friends, but they all said they hadn't sent it.]

[Jingliu: Did you send it?]