Chapter 155: Elopement

Transporting spiritual beasts and materials was originally the simplest method via the transport gate. But Wang Liuzhi and the others were busy unifying the counties under Qiufeng Mansion and had no time to act as porters. Even if they had time, there were only five loyal helpers in total—using them as porters to save on shipping costs would be utterly cruel.

Moreover, Ma Chun and Xiao Tianchi were still unaware of the transport gate, so Lin Dong had no choice but to return to Xilan City once more. After obtaining some spiritual beast materials from Zhang Ye, who was in charge there, he rushed back to Qiufeng City and knocked on Xiao Tianchi’s door.

Xiao Tianchi naturally had no reason to refuse such a small request. The tricky part was getting him to lie to Ma Chun, claiming that these materials had always been stored in his storage ring as emergency supplies.

To this end, Lin Dong racked his brains for various excuses before knocking. Yet he miscalculated—Xiao Tianchi wasn’t even surprised when asked why. For him, there were far too many inexplicable things about Lin Dong, so such a minor matter couldn’t arouse any curiosity.

After wasting half a day coming up with no excuses, Lin Dong resigned himself to his bad luck.

Returning to his room, he sat cross-legged, placed the spiritual stone on his leg near his dantian, and soon immersed himself in the sensation of his spiritual energy surging rapidly.

In about four days, the warm flow stored in his meridians vanished after taking the cyan-blue fruit, and its medicinal effects also completely wore out.

Undeterred, Lin Dong took another cyan-blue fruit. Compared to before, the amount of warm flow entering his meridians was about 30% less. He had been prepared for this, as Old Ding had told him that if taken separately, the more of each type of cyan-blue fruit consumed, the weaker its effect would become—five being the maximum limit; beyond that, it would be pointless.

Once the cyan-blue fruit fully transformed into warm flow, Lin Dong continued practicing day and night.

Time flew by, and six days later, the medicinal effects of the cyan-blue fruit vanished again.

Checking his progress, he realized he could achieve a breakthrough in just half a month. In total, it would take less than a month to advance from the seventh level of the Lingdong Phase to the eighth.

Such speed was even beyond what peak experts could match.

Unfortunately, it’s impossible to maintain this speed for long. Even if both types of Qinglan fruits are taken simultaneously, according to Old Ding, although the medicinal effect is increased by dozens of times and taking both fruits still has a remarkable effect after each breakthrough when the meridians are strengthened and expanded, it can only be used five times per major realm. With a medicinal effect dozens of times stronger, taking both fruits at once during the Lingdong period is sufficient to support one from the first level all the way to 90% completion of the Lingdong period. But in other major realms, its effect gradually weakens. The stronger the realm, the more time one must spend without the aid of Qinglan fruits.

Bang! Bang!

A few days later, while Lin Dong was practicing in his room, there was urgent knocking at the door. When he opened it, Ma Chun stood outside, looking extremely excited.

“Boss, great news!”

Lin Dong immediately perked up and asked eagerly, “What great news?”

“An absolutely amazing news!” Ma Chun waved his fists, excitedly saying, “I guarantee you’ll be very happy once you hear it.”

Lin Dong was speechless and after a long pause, he said slowly, “Can you stop teasing me? If you weren’t the head manager of Lin’s Inn, I’d guarantee I’d kick you half to death as a warning to keep me in line.”

Ma Chun’s face stiffened for a moment before he forced a smile and said, “Boss, today alone, we had over eighty tables on the second floor.”

“Over eighty tables?” Lin Dong was surprised. A few days ago, when he asked about the inn’s business, there were only about thirty tables per day on the second floor. How did it suddenly increase so much?

“I guarantee there will be even more tomorrow,” Ma Chun said cheerfully, clearly forgetting Lin Dong’s earlier warning.

Fortunately, Lin Dong also forgot and asked casually, “Have you found out why?”

“Yes, we found out. Yi Yi, the top dancer at Yingfeng Tower, ran away with someone. Rumor has it it’s the only son of the owner of Kelaibai Restaurant—Wang Bin, whom we met at Yingfeng Tower last time.” Ma Chun grinned eagerly, “Just today, Yingfeng Tower’s madam, Yingchunhua, sent people to cause trouble at Kelaibai Restaurant three times. Although Wang Shuangxi, the owner of Kelaibai Restaurant, is kind-hearted, he’s furious that his only son was lured away by a girl from Yingfeng Tower. After suffering losses due to insufficient guards in the morning, he went to the Wang family, with whom he has a good relationship since decades ago, at noon. By afternoon, all the guards sent by Yingfeng Tower to cause trouble were thrown out.”

Lin Dong was stunned. Yi Yi and Wang Bin had run away together?

Taking a deep breath, Ma Chun continued, “Both families have similar backgrounds. Once we bring them all out, they’re all from prominent families and influential officials in Autumn Wind City. If this escalates, everyone will suffer heavy losses, so peace is definitely the best option. But the losses at Guest Arrival Restaurant and Wind-Facing Pavilion are already significant. The more trouble there is, the better chance we have of drawing those two out. In my estimate, this won’t stop unless it goes on for ten or eight days. Even if it does stop, Wind-Facing Pavilion can’t recover its top performer, and Wang Shuangxi from Guest Arrival Restaurant has only one son, so he’ll be too busy searching for him and will also be greatly affected.”

Waving his fist, Ma Chun chuckled, “With one go, the north of the city will become the domain of our Lin Family Inn.”

Lin Dong let out a long sigh. This was indeed great news. But it wasn’t as certain as Ma Chun claimed.

Although he hadn’t spent much time at Wind-Facing Pavilion, Lin Dong could tell that Wang Bin wasn’t that unfilial. He must have chosen to elope with Yi Yi because she couldn’t bear it any longer there, or because she was harassed during toasts beyond her tolerance.

In the short term, since Wang Shuangxi disliked brothel girls and Yi Yi’s contract was still in Ying Chunhua’s hands, Wang Bin might not dare bring Yi Yi back to Guest Arrival Restaurant. But once they were settled, he would surely send someone to inform Wang Shuangxi that they were safe.

Regardless of whether Wang Shuangxi could find Wang Bin and Yi Yi through the messenger, having that message would at least put him at ease. With their morale restored, Guest Arrival Restaurant could gradually recover.

Compared to Guest Arrival Restaurant, Wind-Facing Pavilion wasn’t far behind. Without Yi Yi, its business might be greatly affected, but as long as Ying Chunhua was willing to invest, finding another top performer who excelled in both music and singing might be difficult, but finding someone from another household or in Lingnan Prefecture who was first-rate in appearance, playing the piano, singing, and dancing wasn’t too hard.

Given time, Wind-Facing Pavilion’s business might not be as good as when Yi Yi was there, but it could gradually recover a bit.

Of course, that was only if both Wang Shuangxi and Ying Chunhua had the courage to continue operating despite the pressure from Maple Forest Restaurant.

“Tell the staff to work hard. Get ready for red envelopes at the end of the month.”

Lin Dong patted Ma Chun’s shoulder. Whether Wang Shuangxi and Ying Chunhua had the courage or not, Lin Family Inn could dominate the north of the city for at least a month or two. With that time, it wouldn’t be hard to cultivate a group of regular customers from wealthy families.

With such regular customers, whether it was Wind-Facing Pavilion, Guest Arrival Restaurant, or Maple Forest Restaurant, Lin Family Inn would have the strength to compete.