Chapter 168 Extra New Year
According to Yan Shi's understanding, the Otherworld does not celebrate the Spring Festival.
There are too many long-lived species; it's not unusual for a living being to have countless New Years in its long lifespan.
Moreover, different tribes and territories have numerous different beliefs in gods, and the customs and traditions they follow are also quite different. Therefore, each has its own celebrations.
For example, when Yan Shi had just taken office and was still unfamiliar with everything, he signed an invitation to go to the Fox Clan to watch the Flower Festival.
It was a very beautiful flower, placed outside her window.
Yan Shi curiously opened the window and brought it in. The flower bloomed automatically, and a roll of silk of excellent quality floated out from it.
The silk opened automatically, revealing characters that Yan Shi didn't recognize, with flowing brushstrokes. At the end, a quill pen was tied to one end of the silk.
Yan Shi blankly picked up a pen and drew a line on the silk. Then the silk automatically rolled up and disappeared into the air.
Only that one flower was left.
Yan Shi: ?
The next day, when Sheng Chunqiu came to her office to submit the report, he told her in a tactful way: "Director Yan, the Fox Clan has recently been negotiating with the Dragon Clan on a ceasefire in their conflict. The Bureau of Different Management generally does not explicitly participate or express its opinion."
Yan Shi nodded: "Mm."
As a neutral official body, the Foreign Affairs Bureau naturally cannot make a clear statement. The statement itself is acceptable.
"Then you...?" Sheng Chunqiu organized his words, "Today, the Foreign Affairs Office came to me to discuss your specific itinerary for your trip to the Fox Clan to participate in the Flower Festival."
"The Fox Clan's Flower Festival celebration is taking place on the same day they signed a ceasefire agreement with the Dragon Clan."
Yan Shi: "Mm."
What does the Flower Festival, the ceasefire agreement between the Fox Clan and the Dragon Clan have to do with her?
Yan Shi didn't quite understand Sheng Chunqiu's logic, but he could barely make out from Sheng Chunqiu's hesitant words that Sheng Chunqiu seemed to think that Yan Shi was going to this Flower Festival.
Yan Shi doesn't know any Hu Hu people, so what is she going to the Hua Zhao Festival for?
Then Yan Shi belatedly realized that he suddenly remembered the flower on the windowsill yesterday and the inexplicable silk inside.
The flowers are still on her desk.
Yan Shi: ...
I was tricked.
I definitely didn't go to the Flower Festival; the timing was too sensitive.
Although theoretically signing the invitation meant she agreed to go, the Bureau of Foreign Affairs ultimately rejected the invitation again, citing Director Yan's busy schedule and a scheduling conflict on that day.
This inexplicable agreement caused Yan Shi to spend the entire week trying to justify her signing the invitation despite "understanding the fox clan's invitation and knowing about the ceasefire agreement."
It was incredibly memorable.
The Fox Clan's Flower Festival is in October.
Later, the Dragon Clan also sent Yan Shi an invitation to the Hatching Festival, but this time she was much more careful.
In the office, it's better to treat any documents you can't understand as junk files and shred them than to sign your name on them.
Having learned all this, Yan Shi was bewildered when he received the Spring Festival celebration arrangements from the Foreign Affairs Bureau.
After handing her the program, Sheng Chunqiu observed Yan Shi's expression and explained from the side, "This is the most important festival of the year for the Eastern race."
"During this festival, the entire Eastern people will gather together as a family to eat a large meal and watch performances."
Yan Shi: "Mm."
Of course she knows about the Spring Festival.
But it feels like Sheng Chunqiu is treating her like an old woman who knows nothing.
It must be an illusion.
“For the surface world, this is even more important,” Sheng Chunqiu continued. “The General Administration is located in the surface world, and all the surrounding institutions and units are on holiday, so the General Administration will also have a seven-day holiday on this day.”
"Before the holiday, the bureau will hold an annual meeting, and each department stationed at the General Administration will put on a performance. This is this year's program."
No matter the reason, a holiday is always a good thing!
Yan Shi's gaze was fixed on the holiday date, and she had already begun to plan what she could do during the seven-day holiday, completely ignoring the other arrangements that Sheng Chunqiu was making next to her.
As a result, Yan Shi, wearing his work uniform, stood at the entrance of the Foreign Affairs Bureau's grand banquet hall, feeling out of place in the world.
In the banquet hall, almost everyone was dressed in their own unique and flamboyant style.
Yan usually works at the Bureau of Alien Affairs. When she walks through the various offices, she assumes that all her colleagues are human.
It now appears to have been just an illusion.
Humans only make up a portion of the population; the other half are non-humans.
The Eldar revealed their lively ears and tails, while the Fantasy Race even revealed their true forms. Furry creatures curled up upon each other, their scales and armor overlapping each other.
It was a chaotic mess.
Not to mention wearing uniforms.
Yan Shi was the only one among everyone present who was wearing a uniform.
Yan Shi: ...
Before she could decide whether she should go out and change her clothes before coming back, or go in and find a seat, the lights in the banquet hall suddenly went out.
In the corner, a white ball of unknown race had its tail tip explode into a fluffy snowball.
Yan Shi suddenly felt a chill on the back of her neck. She looked up and saw that the jellyfish's tentacles rose and fell with each breath, and water droplets condensed at the tips of the tentacles and dripped down.
"Three, two, one!"
A countdown sounded from inside, and the banquet hall lit up again. This time, however, the luminous balls had been replaced by intricately crafted gilded lamps. Around the lamps, bas-reliefs of blue dragons coiled, each holding a luminous pearl in its mouth, their shimmering light resembling flowing silk.
Yan Shi then noticed that the ceiling of the banquet hall seemed to have been specially decorated, resembling a dark blue night sky with tiny stars slowly moving within it, which should be the jellyfish in front.
"Because the annual meeting is quite special, many employees brought their elders and even the youngest members of their clan to join in the fun." Sheng Chunqiu, unusually not wearing her uniform but instead dressed in a long red cheongsam, walked in from the doorway.
Gui Gemu, standing next to her, was eager to try: "Come on, this is the most interesting day of the whole year for me at the Bureau of Extraordinary Affairs!"
No sooner had the words left his mouth than a dark red firework exploded in the sky.
Setting off fireworks and firecrackers indoors...?
Yan looked closer and realized it wasn't fireworks at all, but rather the tail feather of some colleague, which was covered in flames. As it fell, it was frozen by a mouthful of frost from who-knows-where, leaving it in a burning state before finally drifting down to the buffet area.
Below, a beast cub, who was secretly eating pastries, accidentally inhaled a falling tail feather and sneezed loudly. White mist billowed from its nostrils, freezing the entire plate of pastries into ice blocks.
The orc cub looked at the block of ice in front of it and burst into tears.
Sheng Chunqiu was very relaxed, while Gui Gemu chuckled: "Did the Logistics Department arrange the seating for interns this year? Zhuque and Jiaolong are sitting at the next table."
Lu Jian passed by carrying a plate of snacks: "I heard that the logistics department has prepared a complicated event this year to welcome Director Yan. They started preparing two months in advance."
"I think it's unlikely," Gui Gemu scoffed.
During the conversation, a circular curtain was raised in the center of the banquet hall, and in the center of the curtain was a floating stage.
At that moment, the sound of chimes resounded from behind the stage. A blue phoenix, carrying a golden flower, swooped down from a great height, kicking up a shower of glitter. As the last chime faded, a horned lion slowly stepped onto the stage, its speech manuscript held between its paws.
"They really put their heart into it." Gui Gemu's eyes lit up. "They even found a Pixiu to be the host. I hope that in the new year, my salary will increase significantly and I'll wake up to a fortune."
"Ladies and gentlemen," Pixiu's voice rang out, and after a few seconds of silence, the room erupted in noise again. Pixiu, unfazed, continued reading from his prepared remarks: "On this joyous occasion of the Spring Festival, welcome to the Bureau of Extraordinary Affairs' Spring Festival Annual Meeting. I am your host for today..."
Yan Shi wasn't very interested in what the Pixiu was saying; she was standing next to the dessert table, contemplating which small cake to eat first.
The small cakes on the dessert table were all beautifully made.
"Want to try a fortune telling?" A woman dressed as a shrine maiden approached. "Eat the dessert corresponding to your divination result, and you can predict your fortune for next year."
Yan Shi picked up a plate of pudding, and as soon as he touched the surface with his spoon, the pudding suddenly spread out into a thin "pudding pancake" with a carefully drawn starry sky inside.
The Greedy Wolf star position is like strawberry jelly, the Broken Army star position is like double-skin milk, and when she tries to poke the grape tart on the Purple Star position, the whole star chart rolls up into the shape of pudding again.
No wonder the plate is so big.
Yan Shi: ...
The woman next to her exclaimed with delight, "Wow, you actually got a seven-star pudding! This is the only SSR tonight, which means you're incredibly lucky this New Year!"
What a fancy pudding!
Yan Shi had just silently taken a half step back when her lower back bumped into something hard. She turned around and saw a nine-headed demon, each head holding a different snack. The one in the middle mumbled, "Excuse me, could you help me open this spicy snack packaging? I can't open the serrated edge with the tip of my tail."
"Xiangxi, this is Director Yan." The woman next to Yan Shi said with a smile, her left hand already clenched into a fist without saying a word.
"Oh, sorry to bother you." The nine-headed demon immediately curled its tail around the snack wrapper, grabbed its treat, and left.
Yan Shi: ...
As time went on, the scene became increasingly chaotic and disorderly.
The Eldar and the Fantasy races had already revealed their true forms, while the dwarf, drunk and slumped over the table.
Mermaids and sirens are singing karaoke, several foxes and dragons are shrinking and fighting, and in one corner, the execution department is having a prize-winning martial arts competition, where Sheng Chunqiu has won twelve rounds in a row.
The food was delicious, a blend of specialties from various ethnic groups in the Otherworld. Yan Shi didn't participate in the song, dance, or magic performances on the central stage, nor did she participate in any department's team-building activities. No living being dared to ask her to interact, so she just focused on carrying a plate around and eating by herself.
"Director Yan." As Yan finished finishing the seventh plate of desserts, she heard someone calling her from the side.
"Hmm?" Yan Shi turned his head and found that Sheng Chunqiu had a rare smile on his face and a trophy hanging from his waist.
After Sheng Chunqiu called out to Yan Shi, he slipped a lit incense stick into her hand.
Before Yan Shi could react, a gong suddenly sounded from the center of the stage, announcing, "Time's up!"
All the lights went out again. The dome was now just an empty expanse of deep blue night sky; the jellyfish had been removed.
The incense in Yan Shi's hand shone brightly, and the floating smoke outlined the contours of Mount Buzhou in perfect proportion.
"Five! Four! Three!"
As the countdown resounded through the sky, Yan Shi discovered that the Spirit Race and Fantasy Race members in the scene had somehow sobered up again and leaped directly into the "night sky" above their heads, turning into specks of light and becoming new stars.
The humans in the banquet hall all looked up in awe.
"Two! One!"
The young Nian beast blew its first horn, and the whole world resonated with it.
The incense smoke in Yan Shi's hand dissipated, then transformed into a beam of light that detached from her hand, before instantly expanding into a pillar of light reaching the sky. Fireworks rose from all directions, and strangely, amidst this New Year's festivities she had almost never experienced before, she felt a warm and joyful feeling.
"Happy New Year," she said softly.
Author's Note: Actually, this is a New Year's Eve extra chapter. I've been procrastinating on writing it until today. Happy New Year everyone!!!
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