Chapter 75: Misunderstanding

“You two still aren’t running?” A vegetable-toting auntie pointed at the entrance of the alley. “Take care not to be caught by city enforcement.”

Only then did Fu Li realize that the setting up stalls was not allowed at this place. He had assumed that it was a marketplace for people to freely trade since there was a large number of people. It turned out not to be the case?

He picked up the two buckets with a single hand and took off in a mad rush, his other hand dragging Zhuang Qing along. Faced with everyone’s gazes, using an illusory skill really was out of the question, otherwise they wouldn’t be any different from tricksters.

“Aiyo, young people really have good physical strength.” The auntie watched the two frantically-fleeing figures and turned to speak to her daughter, who was accompanying her to buy vegetables, “See that? If you don’t study well, you’ll only be able to set up a stall and sell vegetables after you grow up. For the sake of saving that few market-management dollars, you’ll even need to hide from city enforcement.”

“But they were wearing branded clothes,” The girl felt that she ought to speak up for the two handsome brothers. “They could have set up a stall for the life experience?”

“Come on, who knows whether they’re authentic or fake?” The auntie watched a city enforcement officer chase after the two handsome men. “Watch less of those boring television dramas. Where in this world are there rich people who are so bored that they sell fish for money without finding the fish dirty?”

“You two, stop!”

The city enforcement officer failed to catch up to Fu Li and Zhuang Qing despite putting forth the energy of a baby drinking milk. Panting, he supported himself with the wall and complained, “Such good physical strength, but they don’t want to participate in track and field and instead run to this place to set up a stall. Are they sick in the head?”

The water in the bucket had splashed all over the ground due to the overly-quick speed at which they ran. Fu Li turned around and saw that the city enforcement officer had long been thrown off. Dragging Zhuang Qing to a hiding spot behind a wall, he then looked down at the bucket. Not only was the fish there, they were still alive. He instantly heaved a sigh of relief. “Great.”

Zhuang Qing was silent, an unpleasant expression on his face. He had already been rendered speechless. In these many years, he had traveled the skies and seas extensively. There was nothing he hadn’t seen and no dangers he hadn’t experienced. But this was his first time being chased by a city enforcement officer so pathetically.

“Turns out setting up stalls at that place isn’t allowed, let’s switch locations,” Fu Li manifested several leaves and threw them into the bucket containing the fish. “Nothing will go wrong this time for sure.”

“Hand.”

“Ah?”

Zhuang Qing retracted his hand and said with a stiff face, “What’s with two men holding hands?”

His palm was burning hot and sweat had even seeped out of it. He turned his head self-consciously, feeling that the way he looked now was extremely embarrassing, though he himself didn’t know why he had such a strange thought.

“I forgot about it,” Fu Li smiled. “I saw that you blanked out just now and didn’t react, so I just dragged you along while I was at it.”

“Let’s go.”

“Where?”

“I’ll take you to a place where you can set up a stall.”

Applause sounded from time to time at a certain remote corner of a free-trade market.

Under the twinkling rays of bright white light, a fat and tender fish turned into filleted fish in a blink of an eye before automatically flying into a plastic bag for containing fish. Fish scales and internal organs formed a tiny mountain at the corner. It was evident that business was booming.

“Your fish,” Zhuang Qing put down his knife, wiped his hands on a towel, and then handed the fish to the man who had ordered it.

“Handsome, with your knife work, you can be a professional chef. Killing fish at a market is a huge waste of your talent,” The man took the plastic bag and glanced at Fu Li, who was clumsily weighing fish at the side. “This kind of thing can be done on your own, there’s no need for you to have a partner.”

“Thank you. Your total is 89.5 yuan,” Zhuang Qing was expressionless.

“Forget about that 0.5 yuan?”

Fu Li was about to nod when Zhuang Qing interjected, “It’s a small business, earning money isn’t easy.”

“Ai, who does business like this? I won’t buy from you again,” The buyer reluctantly took out 100 yuan, and Zhuang Qing returned him 10.5 yuan.

After the man left, Fu Li handed the fish he had weighed to Zhuang Qing. “Didn’t we agree that we won’t take the 0.5 yuans?”

“Others are fine, but not him,” Zhuang Qing slit open the belly and removed the scales. Dirty fish blood and scales entered the clean, neat slit.

“He’s not to your liking?”

Zhuang Qing silently filleted the fish with a lowered head.

“You were right not to let that money go then,” Fu Li nodded. “We won’t spoil him.”

The two people had outstanding looks, sold fat and tender fish, and set reasonable prices. Coupled with the attention of many passersby that Zhuang Qing’s superbly-artistic knife work attracted, they very quickly sold all their fish. Fu Li squatted on the ground and counted their money multiple times before merrily informing Zhuang Qing, “We earned a lot of money.”

Zhuang Qing had just returned from washing his hands and was greeted with Fu Li smiling so broadly that his eyes became mere slits. “So happy?”

“Of course, let’s go. We’ll go eat crayfish,” Fu Li fished out a few large banknotes. “Let’s donate this amount.”

“To who?”

“There’s that charity event to provide nutritious meals for impoverished children in the mountains – let’s donate to them,” Fu Li stuffed the wads of cash into the pocket of his jacket. “What do you think about that?”

Zhuang Qing nodded.

After arriving at the aid post, Zhuang Qing looked at the pictures of the children on the wall. Many of the children had large eyes, thin and weak faces, and bright smiles.

While Fu Li went to the toilet, Zhuang Qing took the opportunity to give the relevant staff member a check for two million. Only at this moment did several staff members recognize him as the boss of Chang Long Biotechnology Company. The other party was covered in the smell of fish and was dressed in casual attire, so they momentarily couldn’t relate this image to his usual impeccably-attired, elite-looking appearance.

Fu Li came out of the toilet and discovered that Zhuang Qing had disappeared. Only after circling the hall did he catch sight of a few people smiling from ear to ear as they walked out of a small house with Zhuang Qing.

Zhuang Qing gestured for these staff members not to send him any further and then strode to Fu Li. “What are you doing standing there foolishly? Didn’t you want to eat crayfish?”

“You know them?” Fu Li walked shoulder-to-shoulder with Zhuang Qing. “Is our bureau’s business really profitable?”

“If it isn’t, where would the material benefits and supportive policies in the cultivation world come from?” Zhuang Qing stuck his hands into the pockets of his pants. “The equilibrium between the cultivation and human world was achieved partially because everyone wants peace, but also because our cultivation world can accomplish things some humans can’t.”

Fu Li recalled that when he was working at Affinity Moon Hotel, many girls were fond of the skincare and makeup products produced by Chang Long. However, because the products were too expensive, they would often just discuss it vigorously to satisfy their desires, and occasionally buy one or two products.

It was no wonder that Chang Long was this highly-esteemed. These were the insights on skincare that innumerable yao and ghost cultivators had acquired over countless years after all. It was only natural for the effects of these products to satisfy people.

While the both of them were digging into crayfish, a video titled was posted on the internet.

The man slaughtering fish in the video had an imposing presence and handsome facial features. The way he slaughtered fish was direct and efficient, while the fish slices he filleted were all of equal thickness, as if they had been measured by a ruler. In the current era of masculinity-consumption, the video was swiftly forwarded many times on the internet.

When the management bureau’s communications department saw this video, their first reaction was to marvel that there was actually someone in this world who so closely resembled their boss. But when they saw that the man beside him was identical in looks to Fu Li, they knew that it wasn’t a coincidence. This really was their boss.

They hadn’t expected their boss to be so frugal as to even spend a holiday selling fish for money. But even if he had to sell fish for money, why did he need to bring Fu ge along to do bitter work? He couldn’t treat Fu ge as free labor just because the other party was easy to talk to, right?

They didn’t know how to handle this video, so they could only send a report to their higher-up. Thus, the report landed in Zhang Ke’s hands. After internally scolding Zhuang Qing for being a Grandet, Zhang Ke pushed this report to Chu Yu.

By the time Chu Yu finished watching the entire video, all his three fish views had disintegrated. The boss was capable of doing anything for the sake of money now; he would even sell fish on a holiday. Wasn’t this good now? The entire yao race had now lost their face on the internet. Who knew whether other cultivators had already seen it?

After a period of contemplation, he claimed publicly that the boss and Fu ge had disguised themselves as fish sellers at the free-trade market to capture a group of thieves. This reason wouldn’t be believed by those within the management bureau, but the outside world was very amenable to such things.

Who would have thought that the dignified boss of the management bureau would run off and sell fish for some extra income?

The cultivation world had just settled on the method to resolve this, but the human world’s internet went up in an uproar first. A netizen had realized that this fish seller with lightning-quick knife work was the boss of the globally-renowned Chang Long Company.

At first, some netizens felt that this was merely nonsense. However, a netizen’s professional comparison of their face shapes led them to realize that this person squatting in the marketplace and slaughtering fish really was the boss of Chang Long Company. The person selling fish with him seemed to be an employee of his company.

Netizen A: The boss is even more practiced than the employee at slaughtering fish. An employee who can’t slaughter fish isn’t a good employee.

Netizen B: I thought that fishing was the only fish-related hobby wealthy people had, but it seems I’ve seen too little of the world. Turns out the truly wealthy people have a hobby of slaughtering and selling fish.

Netizen C: A melon seed-eating netizen at the scene said that a customer asked Boss Zhuang if he could waive the remaining amount, and Boss Zhuang said something about it being a small business and that he couldn’t take any less. The grand boss of Chang Long is actually so in touch with the common people. Even if he wasn’t the boss of Chang Long company, I think he would still be able to make a lot of money just by selling fish.

Netizen D: Am I the only one who feels that the brother at the side who’s so clumsy despite only weighing fish is more like the boss? Slaughtering fish is the most dirty and tiring task, but it ended up being done by the boss.

Netizen B: Boss Zhuang might like slaughtering and selling fish. One glance at his knife work is enough to tell that he’s trained before.

“He wields a sword, of course he’s trained before,” Zhang Ke threw his phone onto the table and looked at his junior brother practicing boxing in the courtyard. He leaned out the window and asked, “Junior brother, does every tiger know the move ?”

“Of course,” Wei Cang moved out of his boxing stance and wiped the sweat on his forehead. “The fox race’s Charm, the tiger race’s Roar, the dragon race’s Might, and so on are all innate.”

“Is there a tiger yao who can’t use the Roar?”

“Impossible,” Wei Cang didn’t hesitate. “Unless he isn’t a part of the tiger race at all.”

At a certain jungle in the north, a gigantic spotted tiger leaped out of a cave. He shook his fur and let out a long, majestic roar. After cultivating for nearly three hundred years, he had finally attained the Dao.

When he reached the human world, there would certainly be endless livestock for him to eat!

But after running out of the jungle with much difficulty, the shock from seeing speeding metal boxes on the highway rooted him to the ground. What were these things?

Some drivers seemed to have seen him. Someone very quickly called the police and informed them about discovering a tiger at so-and-so location.

Three hours later, the tiger with self-acknowledged high cultivation and who could eat cows, goats, and even virgin males and females in the human world, was successfully taken down by a tranquilizer.