The atmosphere in the Immortal Wine Shop was strangely oppressive. Unlike the second and fourth floors, the first floor was eerily silent. Even the faint sounds of someone sipping wine from a pot sounded jarring.
The reason was the masked woman behind the counter, exuding an icy aura. She wore a long black dress and sported a distinctive forked sword emblem. That alone was enough to silence everyone.
This is a cold and beautiful rose with thorns.
Ziyan, who once represented kindness, beauty, and purity, has now changed drastically, becoming unfathomable and unapproachable. Especially striking are the greedy, lustful gazes of men, which evoke extreme disgust.
"Which distinguished guest is looking to book a long-term meal? I am Zhang Guodong, the manager of Wanxian Wine Shop. I apologize for not greeting you sooner!" Zhang Guodong strode down, looked at the masked woman's nose, clasped his hands and smiled.
Ziyan frowned and turned around.
"I've heard that Wanxian Restaurant has first-class food, so I came to see for myself. If it's true, the mansions of several bigwigs in the market will be ordering meals here regularly!" Ziyan glanced at Zhang Guodong and said coldly.
"What? Several noble families have made reservations at Wanxian Restaurant?" The moment the words left his mouth, the diners on this floor erupted in excitement.
Although Wanxian Restaurant was initially booming, it had not yet established a real reputation. But this woman came and said that several noblemen would also be dining here—what an honor!
Even the monks dining here felt an immense sense of honor in consuming such a meal.
Zhang Guodong looked surprised. But he quickly composed himself, his eyes darting away, avoiding Ziyan's gaze.
"Damn it, what's this woman doing here? And ordering food?"
Zi Yan's face was covered, and her demeanor changed drastically, but Zhang Guodong recognized her at a glance, and his expression became very abnormal.
Fortunately, Ziyan didn't realize that the man in front of her was the one who had taken her body; otherwise, she would have taken out her magic weapon and hacked Zhang Guodong to pieces.
A soft exclamation came from behind Zhang Guodong; it was Li Jing's voice.
The girl let out a soft cry and dashed upstairs. By the time everyone looked over in confusion, she had already vanished.
Downstairs, Zhang Guodong was dealing with Ziyan, while upstairs, Li Jing was panting heavily, muttering, "Senior Sister actually came here, ha, I almost got recognized!"
Despite wearing a mask and other magical artifacts that concealed her aura and altered her appearance, Li Jing was still uneasy, especially avoiding eye contact with Zi Yan, fearing that she would be recognized.
"Miss Zi, how about we try some of our restaurant's dishes and wines first?" Zhang Guodong said with a smile, having calmed himself down.
"Alright!"
To secure this long-term business deal, Zhang Guodong invited Ziyan to sit on the fifth floor. In the final days of the trade fair, many cultivators were making a final, frantic push. Therefore, few seats in the restaurant remained vacant for extended periods.
Xiao Hu was in charge of everything in the kitchen. Once the instructions were given, the food was brought out in no time. Zhang Guodong gestured for them to leave.
Watching women eat is always an awkward experience.
On the third floor, Zhang Guodong found Li Jing hiding there, and looked at her with a knowing smile.
"Little girl, do you perhaps know Lord Zi?" Zhang Guodong asked.
"I don't know him!"
"What was that shouting about just now? Do you have a reasonable explanation?"
Li Jing opened her mouth for a moment, then immediately said, "That sister is so beautiful! I feel inferior in front of her!"
Depend on!
It's a riddle, you can even answer that.
Zhang Guodong looked annoyed, but he knew what was going on in his mind. Could this little girl be a princess from some noble family? Otherwise, why would she sneak away as soon as she saw Ziyan? Since the little girl didn't want to say, he might as well pretend he didn't know.
With a young girl in the restaurant, it's at least safer.
After chatting with Li Jing for a few minutes, Zhang Guodong gave up the investigation.
About fifteen minutes later, Ziyan finished tasting the dishes and called Zhang Guodong up. As for the wine, you could basically tell just by smelling it.
"I'm basically satisfied. Let's settle the bill for this table first, and then we can discuss the task of supplying the five prefectures!" Ziyan said calmly.
"I'm glad you're satisfied. It's an honor for our restaurant to have your eye on Lord Zi, hehe. I wonder how many people are in the Five Prefectures, and how often we supply them? Once we have these statistics, we can assess our supply capacity," Zhang Guodong chuckled. He adopted a business-like demeanor, with a hint of cunning.
Ziyan frowned, seemingly disgusted by Zhang Guodong's appearance. However, she had to complete the task assigned by her master. After thinking for a moment, she said, "The restaurant's prices are a bit high. We must lower them. For five households and thirty-three people, once every five days, it will cost a total of one thousand ordinary-grade crystals per month! Four meat dishes and four vegetable dishes!"
Ziyan was ruthless in her bargaining, quickly reducing the price by several hundred crystals. Zhang Guodong looked troubled and said, "The price is low, but barely acceptable. However, there's one thing we need to make clear!"
"explain!"
“The production of wine is limited. One table of dishes will only be served with five jugs of wine. As Lord Zi said, the total monthly cost will be one thousand low-grade spirit stones, otherwise Wanxian Restaurant won't make any profit!” Zhang Guodong said. “If you want more wine, it will remain five low-grade spirit stones per jug!”
Five jugs of wine weren't actually that much. Each small jug held only about three ounces; if you drank in big gulps, you'd finish it in one go. The food was a small expense, but the wine was the main one, and Zhang Guodong didn't want to be taken advantage of, so the wine supply had to be limited per table.
"Okay!" Ziyan thought for a moment and then agreed.
Zhang Guodong's discount of 260 yuan on low-grade crystals is already quite substantial.
The two parties reached a supply agreement, and Ziyan paid the bill for that table before getting up and leaving. The supply would begin the day after the trade fair ended.
After seeing Ziyan off, Zhang Guodong hurried up to the fifth floor. He wasn't in a rush because of the supplies; he had other business to attend to.
Xiao Hu can manage the restaurant; all he needs to do is provide the ingredients.
Time flew by, and it was the last day of the trade fair. In the afternoon, in one of the thousands of buildings, Liu Zhengyuan finally stepped out. His complexion had regained its rosy hue, and his aura was overwhelming; it seemed his injuries and cultivation had both recovered.
"Junior brother, have you all recovered?" Liao Tian asked.
"Hehe, not bad, it's just a pity about that woman."
Liao Tian frowned and warned, "You can't seem to shake this lecherous habit. The other person is someone above the level of a deacon disciple. If this gets out, we're all doomed!"
"Senior brother, you're being too cautious!"
Seeing that he couldn't persuade Liu Zhengyuan, Liao Tian said, "We should go. Things could get complicated if we wait any longer! With the opening of the Cultivator Guild in the Southwest City, you can imagine a new wave of people searching for ancient ruins. It's not safe for us to stay there."
Liu Zhengyuan stretched and said lazily, "Alright, you can leave anytime!"
Both of their belongings were in their personal storage bags. There was no need to pack. Their rental period for the courtyard was over, so they could simply leave.
About an hour later, the two left the Southwest City one after the other, and met up again when they were dozens of miles away from the city. The two breathed a sigh of relief, unaware that a mile away, several figures were following them, moving through the forest.
"Judging from the direction they went, they're heading out of the mountains. Perfect timing, it's time to head back to Peach Blossom Abode." After settling things at the restaurant for Xiao Hu, Zhang Guodong set aside ten days to finally step out of the Southwest City. "I didn't expect that besides me, someone else would be following these two!"
Zhang Guodong was trailing behind, already two miles away.
It's too close; I'm afraid the people in front will notice. He's not the only one following Liao Tian's brothers this time. Things are getting a little complicated.
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