Chapter 978: Smooth Operator, No Operation.
[Last I checked, that trio and their beaus were summoned to another city. I forget the name, but I do know that they’re travelling by carriage.]
[Huh…I guess their package wasn’t received with the warmest regards,] Hurricroak mused at the plight of those wannabe human traffickers. [Now that I think about it though, how did those three managed to afford a carriage? I thought they were broke as a joke by now.]
[They were, but it turns out that the Bell Belles are very good at hunting and other such jobs.
[Sweet…wait a minute, Bell Belles?]
[They insisted on a name change after I had visited them and they had further refined their identities.]
[Ah…well, that’s adorable.]
[It is.]
[Anyways…so how much longer do you think this feast is going to last?]
[Probably another hour or so. That said, I think our lord is getting scolded again.]
[Because of the leg?]
[Because of the leg.]
…
The eel feasting lasted for quite sometime, eventually stopping when most of the ingredients were exhausted from Zhen Feng’s cooking.
Surprisingly though, people were not yet sick of the taste of eel despite having eaten at least a dozen or so different dishes containing the stuff.
Whether that was a testament on how tasty [Luminescent Wolf Eel] meat was or Zhen Feng’s skills was a bit up for debate, but most people attributed the evening to Zhen Feng and his talents in the kitchen.
Regardless, as a result of the feasting, a good chunk of the people at the Zhen Clan estate were more or less comatose from all the food in their stomachs.
That said, there were still quite a number of people that were conscious for one reason or another.
For example, some who had actually benefit in an unexpected manner from all the eel dishes had to cultivate like crazy because of the rich aether not flowing through their veins.
“If I actually break through after eating nothing but eel for the past hour, who the hell would believe me?”
Others, who still had to plan for the future, did their best to fight off the feeling of fullness from their stomachs.
“Oh…maybe I should wait till tomorrow to finish these reports.”
While a more specific individual was doing his best to placate their girlfriend after coming home from a trip with a busted ass leg.
I’ll give ya one guess as to who this was.
…
“Xiao Fang…are you pulling my cheek because you’re mad at me, or because you’re relieved that nothing worse happened to me?”
“Yes.”
“That tracks.”
At this moment in time, Zhen Liu and Jin Fang were having a moment alone together, which was unexpected.
Bellona and Alicia had to go and reconvene with their respective families, as was the way of the upper class, while Jinju Ren was still in the middle of training with Hermit Zhong Wei and a certain demonic dragon monkey thing. As for Rianna, she was still being trained by Daria Narissa-Zhen.
What exactly that entailed, was better left unsaid.
Either way, this was fine by Zhen Liu, because this gave him a chance to tell Jin Fang everything he had learned while in the Endless Swamplands.
Including the diary/journal of a certain Storm Queen.
“Alright…I’m done being mad at you,” Jin Fang said before releasing her grip on Zhen Liu’s cheek before kissing it. “But I’m still gonna be forever worried that you’ll come back to me with even worse injuries.”
“Well…you could also come along and make sure that doesn’t happen,” Zhen Liu suggested.
“Hmmmm, maybe,” Jin Fang agreed while idly fiddling with the hairpin that she received from the [Library of Nowhere]. “Perhaps when I’m at least on the same level as the elders.”
It should be noted that technically speaking, Jin Fang was at the peak Aether Master and just needed a little push to get into the Grandmaster rank.
Granted, that push entailed a lot of aether and the ability to determine what her convictions were, exactly.
But that said…Zhen Liu did have something that could help with that. The only question though was whether or not Jin Fang was okay with what he had in mind.
“Jin Fang. I already told you about everything that occurred with those Strange Blood guys and well…the illusion of the Storm Queen.”
“You mean my surprise birth mother from eight hundred years ago?”
“I’m starting to realize my irreverence to decorum and bluntness might be a bad influence on you.”
“Too late,” Jin Fang teased while sticking her tongue out at Zhen Liu. “As you were saying?”
“Well…”
From his pockets, Zhen Liu pulled out the journal of the Storm Queen, still sealed as when Chief Tusk had given it to him.
The book in question didn’t radiate any aether or [Chaos], as far as Zhen Liu could tell, but the sight of it was still enough for Jin Fang to suddenly squirm in discomfort.
Zhen Liu knew that now probably wasn’t the best time, but he had to least know if she was open to the idea in some capacity.
It was technically her book first.
“Jin Fang. I know you made it clear before that you’re happy with your present now and have little to no desire about wanting to dig into a past that never really was, but if you ever want to find out…”
“Zhen Liu,” Jin Fang said in a serious tone of voice. “I appreciate what you’re doing but…I don’t think I’m ready to go down that particular rabbit hole just yet.”
“Ah…”
This would normally be the part where Zhen Liu would try to convince her to change her mind about not wanting to learn more about her past, or he’d say something mildly thoughtless that would cause her to explode into a rant…but he didn’t do either.
Instead, he said this.
“Okay, I get it.”
“You…you do?”
“Sort of,” Zhen Liu answered while keeping a certain fact of himself locked away in his brain. “It’s surreal to find something like this, a journal belonging to someone who you don’t know but was instrumental to your existence. It’s enough to drive most people mad.”
As Zhen Liu continued talking, he made sure to put the journal back into his pockets.
“Perhaps you’ll change your mind the next day, perhaps it’ll be never. Either way, I still love you for you, and if you don’t want to find out about the Storm Queen or your past that’s all up to you. Just know, that if you ever change your mind, I’ll be there to support ya. No matter what,” Zhen Liu said with a supportive tone and a gentle smile
Staring directly at Zhen Liu’s genuinely supportive face, Jin Fang couldn’t help but feel a bit…romantically hot and bothered.
“…godsdamnit, no wonder you seem to charm every girl you come across.”
“Wazzat?”
“Nothing, just…shut up while I kiss you.”
“Eh?”
The next thing Zhen Liu knew, Jin Fang had grabbed him by the collar in order to pull him in for a kiss.
I’m a sharp contrast to Jinju Ren’s forcefulness, Jin Fang was a lot gentler and sweeter.
Either way, Zhen Liu could feel that Jin Fang wanted to do a bit more than kissing…but was restraining herself.
Which made sense, given that the man’s leg was still broken.
In fact, Jin Fang stated as much…in a very subtle manner.
“So…how long until your leg gets fixed up?”
“Imma go see Logos and Pathos about it. See if they got anything.”
“Tomorrow?”
“Tomorrow.”
“Good.”
And with that, the Feast of the Eel’s ended and everyone went back to their own rooms.
Well…almost everyone.
“Jin Fang? You know you don’t have to help me to my room.”
“I know. I just need to mark my scent on your things.”
“Say what?”
____________The Next Day…______________
With the help of the kaijin, Zhen Liu made his way back to the [Library of Nowhere] and immediately subjected himself to Logos and Pathos’s brand of questionable medicine.
Luckily for him, it wasn’t as bad as he thought.
=Well…the good news is your leg will heal a lot sooner thanks to your cousin’s alchemical meals.=
“Sweet.”
“Seriously?”
=Normally we’d do an operation of some sort to readjust your leg bones while removing the [Chaos] tainting it, with recovery taking about two weeks. But your cousin’s cooking has…kind of done all that for us. It just needs time to rest and relax.=
“Boo…”
Please note that while a broken leg takes awhile to heal in certain realities, having a broken leg take a week to heal in a world with literal magic medicines was a bit…annoying.
Then again, perhaps this was what Zhen Liu needed.
He had been running around like crazy and hasn’t really taken the time to digest all his recent gains, so a broken leg was perhaps what he needed to stop.
As fucked up as that statement sounded.
Regardless, now that he was back at the library and had to recover anyways, he decided to address some things he had been neglecting.
Such as…
“I haven’t done this in ages, how’s our inventory doing?”
“On materials or cores?”
“Yes.”
Book keeping.
