The Guide to Capturing a Black Lotus

87

The seats in the main hall had already been filled to the brim, people shuffled their way between tables by slowly inching their way through. As the diners dined and drank, any slight movement could cause them to touch the people sitting behind them.

There was merely a single waiter and their hands were absolutely stacked to the high heavens with plates. In fact, he even carried one more platter on his head. In this maze-like hall, he was still able to agilely make his way around the tables. Probably as a result of having to deal with too many people, there wasn't even the slightest hint of a smile on his face but rather, impatience.

"Brother Li, this restaurant is pretty good but why does it have the character 'Zhe'1 in its name? It sounds bad." The sound of conversation between two people came from behind them. Everyone had to shout in order to get others to hear what they were saying properly.

"You don't know about it but this building was originally Wufeng Town's biggest brothel! Their motto was 'When given a beautiful flower, one has no choice but to break it' or in other words, 'Live everyday as if it was your last'.... Just think about how many countless young masters and nobility traveled from afar to Wufeng Town for the sake of fattening up Huazhe's pockets." His conversation partner also strenuously forced his high-pitch voice into a holler, "Why else did you think they came here other than to see the elegance and styles of the 'flowers' here!"

"Are there still any girls here?" He leaned forward, obviously excited all of a sudden.

His partner's reply was to wave his chopsticks around in the air, not even raising his head. "No more, not for a long time. After this place changed its boss 4-5 times, it stopped being a brothel long ago."

"Oh...." He was somewhat disappointed as he gulped down a mouthful of wine.

"However, there's still one event they've never forgotten." The young noble drew out the climax, "I won't say it. You'll find out real soon."

The entire scene was already a scene of chaos. The hall, filled to the brim with people, felt like a pot of fire and thistle. Our main characters saw that the waiter couldn't be bothered to come over to help them so they could only look for an open table by themselves. On top of that, they had to pour their own tea. Mu Yao picked up the menu on the table and handed it over to Miaomiao.

Miaomiao looked at the menu and found it to be covered with a thick block of small characters. They were even written in vertical columns and immediately she felt dizzy. Thus, she simply stuffed the menu towards Mu Sheng: "You order."

Mu Sheng paused for a moment before lowering his lashes: "What do you want to eat?"

She couldn't think of anything that she'd want to eat so he was extremely considerate to lower his voice and read out the menu: ".....salted duck, assorted sauteed vegetables, osmanthus cake, fermented rice with ice, red bean rice dumplings..."

"This." She shouted.

He paused: "Which one?"

"Red bean rice dumplings."

"Ok." He nodded and closed the menu, handing it to Mu Yao.

Ling Miaomiao obstructed him with her hand, her bright apricot eyes landing on him, "You're not ordering?"

Mu Sheng paused for a moment: "There's no need."

Miaomiao blinked twice, "There's nothing you like to eat?"

His dark pupils trembled like waves, seemingly a little absentminded.

"Then I'll order another one." Ling Miaomiao studied his expression then grabbed the menu from his hands without pretending to have any manners. She dramatically swept her eyes across the menu, "Apricot Cloud Cake." As soon as she finished speaking, she slanted her eyes at him, to see what his reaction was.

... more sweets.

Within the memory fragment, Concubine Rong had brought a platter to him, saying that the food on it was what he loved to eat when he was young.

When Mu Sheng heard her, his eyes didn't show the slightest ripple, only revealing a hint of suspicion: "I didn't say Apricot Cloud Cake just now."

Ling Miaomiao's act was immediately ripped apart. Her face turned red as she stuffed the menu back into his hands, sharply calling out, "I just really wanted to eat it! You go look and see if there's anything you want to eat."

Mu Sheng lowered his brows, speedily glancing through the menu to actually find a little dot drawn above the 'Apricot' word in the cake section, like it was one of the recommended items.

The youth's eyes flashed with a hint of mirth — She really knew how to eat sweets. His fingertip stopped on the little dot: "I do."

"Then order it."

Mu Yao suddenly let out a gasp of surprise. Miaomiao raised her head and discovered that at some time, a dark clothed Liu Fuyi had appeared. He looked extremely travel-worn and thirsty, even having to drink three cups of tea before slowly making his way over.

After downing the tea, he finally started to criticize Mu Sheng: "Ah Sheng, I burnt up so many transmission talismans to contact you but why didn't you reply to any of them? I had to run so much that I feel like my legs are about to break."

"Ah Sheng?" Mu Yao was shocked as she spun her head around to look at Mu Sheng. He hung his head low, turning a deaf ear to them. The shadows casted from the lanterns by the angle of his lashes seemed to give him a charming but cold aura, secretly mocking them.

However, Ling Miaomiao was very excited: "Brother Liu! Are you and Sister Mu finally going to get married tomorrow?"

"Ah?" Liu Fuyi nearly spit out a mouthful of tea.

Mu Yao's gaze then turned around back to Ling Miaomiao and the two of them looked at each other with dismay.

Suddenly, the sharp sound of a clapper came from behind them and in the blink of an eye, the entire hall turned silent. It was as if a button had been pressed to silence everyone.

A red-nosed old man wearing colorful rags sewn together from many different materials into a gown walked to the center of the hall. He stood in the center in a flashy posture as he struck the clappers with one hand while using the other to smooth his stark white beard: "Everyone, we meet again."

Nobody ate the food before them, placing down their bowls and chopsticks to raise their hands, their cheers immediately loud enough to be deafening.

The old man's eyes turned into a slit from his grin as he nodded nearly imperceptibly. His voice echoed through the entire hall: "Today, the story I'll share with you all is between Wufeng Town's Mu Rongshi and the Zhao clan's Young Noble Zhao."

Before he even finished speaking, the entire hall was suddenly filled with a wave of applause akin to that of a wave on the seas. In addition to the whistling, it felt as if a great celebrity had arrived.

The two at the table behind them lowered their voices as they spoke. His tone was full of pride as he smiled: "You see? This is the only event that they've never given up."