Chapter 545: Back to the Hotel

[Huh...aight, how would you rate the maestro’s...inspirational talk? Because I give it a three out of five, that lesson made no sense.]

[Three...out...of...five...]

[Agreed, the director could’ve been a bit more articulate with his words. Maybe throw in some weird poetry to get his point across.]

[Really? I thought it was fine and made sense.]

[Did it?]

[He wanted to inspire them to become stronger so that they could be the rescuer more often instead of the rescuee...right?]

[Oh...okay, I did not get that at all.]

[Think...they...got...it...though?]

[Probably.]

[They’re smart youngsters, now then...am I the only who feels silly for thinking we’d need to divide and conquer despite knowing these two are related and probably stay in the same estate?]

[Honest...mistake...]

[Wait...doesn’t that mean that spy we shanghaied into helping us is also here?]

[...oh yeah...]

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"Well...that was exhausting," Zhen Liu sighed as he removed his disguise in the comforts of his room.

Shortly after "dramatically" walking away from his cousins and disappearing out of sight with the help of a certain magic key, Zhen Liu, Nepherage, Rianna and Jin Fang returned to his hotel room in order to remove their disguises.

They would’ve done it in the library, but Zhen Liu wanted to maintain his alibi as tightly as possible. As such, they made use of a room divider in order to give each other privacy...mostly.

And it should also be noted that only Zhen Liu, Rianna and Jin Fang had to change back to their original outfits. Nepherage just transformed back into being a jade bracelet on Zhen Liu’s wrist. Apparently she was done being active today and just wanted to take a nap.

"Not gonna lie, Zhen Liu, this disguise and lying thing you do is weird," Rianna pointed out.

"Wouldn’t it be easier to be honest with them at this point and tell them about the kaijin, the library and the fact that you’re a Grandmaster, or at least the equivalent of one?"

Zhen Liu had a flat grimace on his face in response to Rianna’s comment. Not because of what she was saying, but how she was physically saying it.

"You say the disguises are weird, but you still haven’t removed the one Jin Fang gave you."

"Hey, this is my first time having a tan and honestly...I look good."

As a reminder, Rianna was an incredibly pale, six foot something jungle woman with silver-ish hair that went well with her pale complexion and naturally ruby red eyes.

Through some unknown methods that Zhen Liu was unfamiliar with, Jin Fang had somehow transformed Rianna into a more...textbook definition of an amazon, complete with sun-kissed skin that rivaled her own and dark, black hair that would make the night sky jealous. The only thing she hadn’t change was Rianna’s eyes, which were still a shocking shade of red.

After returning to the hotel room, Rianna had changed her hair back to her original color, but had yet to remove whatever effect changed her skin tone. In fact, she was busy admiring how her tanned skin look in the full sized mirror that came with the room.

"I’m fairly certain if I tried to do this naturally I would get sunburned, but...might be worth it," Rianna muttered in appreciation.

"Right..."

"Although, I could do without the change in the color of my-"

"Hey!," Jin Fang interjected, "stop messing around and wash that stuff off already. If you don’t the changes will be permanent."

"Why do you know that?"

"A long story involving a guy who now looks like a panda bloodliner, minus the fur."

"Oh..."

"I...really need to ask what mother has you do for her...," Zhen Liu whispered to himself.

Once Zhen Liu and the girls proceeded to change back to their usual outfits and looks, Nepherage suddenly perked up with an unusual announcment.

[Someone’s at the door.]

’Huh? Who?’

[I think it’s one of your cousins?]

’Oh. That’s not too bad.’

*WHAM!*

"ZHEN LIU, WE NEED YOUR MEDICAL KNOWLEDGE AND I THINK WE NEED YOU TO DO BRAIN ZAPPY THING!"

"Dafuq??"

[Say what now?]

_____________________________________________

Moments ago...

"Well...that was weird," Zhen Hai commented as he stared in the direction that Zhen Liu’s weirdo master and Amazonian disciples disappeared into after the latter had dropped some questionable pearls of wisdom.

A part of him felt like he understood what the fuck the old guy was trying to get at, but at the same time, it sounded incredibly convoluted.

Remember the feeling of being rescued, so you’re inspired to be the rescuer?

What the fuck did that mean?

Whatever it meant, it didn’t change the fact that conflict with that crazy Zhen girl was over and they could just now go back to the hotel and-

"Uh...guys? This is gonna sound weird, but aren’t bloodied bandages supposed to dry out after awhile?"

"Oh fuck."

_____________________________________________

Literally after that previous moment...

"Damn, looks like I got bit overexcited about having new guests after so long...," Gao Ren muttered to himself as he stared at the still three-quarters full pot of stew.

"Then again, maybe the younger generation will come back from the festival with empty bellies."

Due to it being the first time in a really long time he had guests stay at this establishment, Gao Ren decided he would go all out and make this first night for his guests something truly special...that was in his budget.

While he couldn’t do anything like give them an expensive memento or a rare aether art as thanks for showing up, he could prepare for them a damn delicious dinner. Which in this case meant making his grandmother’s famous "Mud Mutton Stew", and buying several dozen chunks of hardy bread from his baker friend.

The stew’s name didn’t sound appetizing, but it is a dish that had withstood the test of time.

Over the years, back when they first moved to the Pearl Scale Empire and established the hotel, his family had adapted a number of recipes that originated from their homeland to make use of the ingredients found only in Roaring Tide.

While there wasn’t a big difference in the taste of mutton acquired from a Float Sheep or a Rock-Wool Sheep, there was a big difference when it came to the vegetables.

Apparently the first time they tried to use Silt Carrots as a substitute for Wild Flower Carrots, the resulting stew was saltier than seawater.

After many, many attempts however, Gao Ren’s grandmother eventually managed to complete the recipe, and the "Mud Mutton Stew" became one of the oldest and most staple dishes to the Cozy Maple’s menu.

It also probably helped that all of the ingredients were cheap as hell to get and the dish had very little prep time, meaning that he managed to make enough stew to feed over a several dozen people in a very short amount of time.

"Hmmm. I think at this point the majority of people have finished their first serving and might be need in of seconds. I should go to the dining hall and che-"

*BAM!*

"What the fuck?! Why are you guys holding a dying slave girl?"

"Sorry Mister Gao Ren," Zhen Yue called out, "but we need an unoccupied table!"

Just as Gao Ren was about to go and see to his guest’s possible additional dinner needs, the children of the aforementioned guests suddenly came busting in through his kitchen door with an unconscious, probably dying slave girl with them.

At least he thought the girl was dying, judging from all the bruises up and down the poor girl’s body...and the blood dripping from her finger tips.

"Oi put her down here."

"Sorry again!"

"Ey, yo what?!"

Before Gao Ren could protest the usage of his kitchen counters as a makeshift hospital bed, the large one known as Zhen Feng and the pretty boy known as Zhen Guo proceeded to just lay the girl down on it.

"Hey wait, if you’re going to bring in an injured girl at least bring her into the-"

*Swish*

"Oh that’s a lot of blood..."

Acting fast, Zhen Yue proceeded to use some aether and quickly remove the slave girl’s clothing, essentially the girl’s tattered clothing into rags and exposing the girl’s body for all to see.

The girl’s darkly bruised, bandaged covered body.

What parts weren’t bandages showed the presence of broken scabs that appeared to be as fragile as butterfly wings, with drops of blood slowly pouring and bleeding as if they were freshly made.

The Zhen Clan scions were used to blood and gore thanks to their family business...but something about this particular sight made their stomachs uneasy.

"Oh shit," Zhen Tai cursed, "I think we’re out of our depth on this one...there’s clearly something wrong with her, but none of us are alchemists, let alone doctors."

As soon as Zhen Tai said the word doctor though, Zhen Hai looked as if he was struck by lightning.

"No...but I think I know someone who technically counts...y’all try to stem the bleeding. I’m going to get my brain zapped."

"Okay, we’ll-wait, what?"

But before the others could ask Zhen Hai what he had meant, the man had bolted.

’Please be awake, please still be awake...’