Chapter 147: Treant Monster

"Why aren't you dead yet, get down there and work! This tavern doesn't feed idle loafers..."

White Lotus wore a smile sweet enough to kill, cursing Li Changluo in the gentlest tone imaginable...

"Boss, could you please knock next time you come in?"

"No."

"..."

Li Changluo looked up and covered his face, truly at his wits' end with this female boss of his.

After washing up, Li Changluo swaggered, preparing to head downstairs.

Suddenly, however, something occurred to him...

Just before reaching the hallway, he deliberately hid to the side to observe the situation. Seeing that the stubborn contrarian monster was not lurking there, he finally breathed a sigh of relief and stepped into the hallway...

Yet...

Some things you just can't guard against...

Try as he might to avoid it, Li Changluo still failed to escape this bizarre calamity...

It seemed that whenever he passed through the hallway, he was bound to crash head-on into that red-flowered contrarian monster.

He never could have imagined that this time, the creature would drop straight down from above without the slightest warning...

It collided squarely with his head, crashed to the floor, pointed a finger at Li Changluo with a look of utter reluctance, and fainted with white foam bubbling from its mouth...

To avoid Li Changluo, the creature had even resorted to crawling along the upper staircase, but carelessly slipped and fell from above...

And still crashed right into Li Changluo.

Could this be one of nature's inescapable laws?

Li Changluo felt as though his demon power value had dropped by another negative increment, down to minus 102...

Why the hell was it a negative demon power value anyway?

Was it reverse growth?

Ha, go screw your reverse growth...

He angrily stomped over the body of the contrarian monster and went down to the second floor...

Inside the tavern, a few scattered monsters sat about, looking quite desolate.

If this were how business usually went, the boss would probably have vomited blood from financial losses long ago...

However, this was no ordinary tavern; this was the Monster Tavern.

"Morning. Did the boss...?"

At that moment, by the tavern counter, Lin Dandan was sitting upright in a chair, flipping through a book. Seeing Li Changluo descend unscathed and in high spirits...

He looked at Li Changluo with some surprise.

"Little kid, go do your homework instead of worrying about things that are none of your business day in and day out..."

Li Changluo patted Lin Dandan on the head and walked away...

Lin Dandan pushed up his glasses, and a rope inside his schoolbag eagerly wriggled out. Other than the boss, no one else had ever touched his head...

He felt anger...

He felt shame...

He felt that Li Changluo's head-pat felt oh-so-good...

He wanted him to do it again.

Li Changluo noticed Xiao Qing sitting alone at an eight-immortals table, staring blankly out the window...

He sneaked up behind Xiao Qing, intending to cover her eyes and play a sweet little game with her...

"Guess who I..."

The moment Li Changluo's hand rested on Xiao Qing's eyes, he felt his body lift off the ground, soaring right up into mid-air...

A wave of intense pain coursed through his entire body, making him feel as though every bone had been shattered...

Xiao Qing had thrown him directly into a shoulder throw. He lay flat on his back, staring up at the ceiling, groaning in agony...

He just wanted to spice things up a little...

He just wanted to play a cute little game...

Guess who I am?

Ha, and look at this now...

Guess if I've got any broken bones?

"I'm sorry, are you okay?"

Xiao Qing blinked her round, cute, blank eyes and looked at Li Changluo with deep concern.

"Put me down first, I'm begging you..."

Yet, faced with Xiao Qing's concern, Li Changluo felt utterly mortified. Red-faced, he glanced around the room...

Fortunately, there were very few customers about, and no one was paying attention to him...

Right now, he was being tossed about left and right by Xiao Qing just like a little child...

Lifted up, flipped over, lifted up again, flipped over once more...

Xiao Qing was earnestly checking to see if Li Changluo was injured...

This posture was just like when a child falls while playing and a mother runs over anxiously...

Picking you up and saying, "Don't cry, baby, let mom see where you fell?"

Li Changluo was being manhandled by Xiao Qing just like a toddler...

"Please, put me down, I'm fine..."

Nearing a nervous breakdown, Li Changluo covered his face, consumed by shame and unable to show his face in public...

Thud!

Xiao Qing finally realized that holding Li Changluo like this to inspect his body might be somewhat inappropriate, so she dropped him back onto the floor...

...

"Are you really alright, Changluo?"

Xiao Qing asked again with genuine concern.

"I'm fine, really. Just leave me alone, let me crawl for a bit..."

Xiao Qing had rattled Li Changluo's legs until they went numb. He crawled laboriously across the floor, desperate to escape this unpretentious powerhouse of a woman...

Desperate to find a stool to sit on...

Early in the morning, I came down feeling refreshed and clear-headed...

Now, I'm covered in bruises...

Life is so hard.

"Heh, look at you two lovebirds, so affectionate."

As Li Changluo crawled along, a pair of pristine embroidered shoes appeared before his eyes. He looked up and saw none other than the boss, White Lotus...

"You seem a bit uncomfortable. Do you need help?"

White Lotus looked at Li Changluo sprawled on the ground with a look of deep concern, slowly crouching down like a gentle neighborly elder sister, eyeing the fallen little brother with heartache and wanting to offer him her tenderest assistance.

She extended a fair, tender jade hand, as if intending to pull Li Changluo up.

"I..."

Faced with such tender care from White Lotus, Li Changluo was deeply moved. He slowly reached his hand out toward her...

"You can do it! I know you can stand up all by yourself, believe in yourself!"

"You can do it, you can do it, you can do it..."

White Lotus withdrew the hand she had meant to use to pull Li Changluo up, made a cheering gesture instead, and encouraged the sprawled Li Changluo with a sweet, sugary voice.

"Qing'er, I have to step out for a bit. You two carry on showing your affection."

White Lotus winked at Xiao Qing, her face brimming with the warmth of a sympathetic confidante.

"Mm, alright, Sister Bai."

Xiao Qing smiled slightly at her and nodded.

And then...

Then, White Lotus actually stepped right over Li Changluo's body and walked away...

Li Changluo's wonderful early morning mood had been thoroughly and utterly ruined by these two female demons...

He managed with great difficulty to pull himself up from the floor, took a seat some distance away from Xiao Qing, and massaged his numb legs.

Xiao Qing also returned to her stool, resting her chin in her hands and gazing out the window...

"What are you looking at?"

Li Changluo asked curiously.

"Look at him, just sitting by the window, gazing out into the distance..."

Xiao Qing blinked her large eyes and pointed curiously toward the window.

Li Changluo looked in the direction she was pointing and finally noticed a tree monster sitting by the window, staring blankly outside with a preoccupied expression...

This tree monster looked very much like Groot from the Avengers, with a patch of lush green branches and leaves sprouting from its head...

"He's been sitting here all day, just staring blankly out the window like that..."

"Do you think he's lost himself, too, just like me, not even knowing who he is?"

Xiao Qing gazed at the treant with a trace of melancholy...

"Shall we go help him?"