Chapter 150: Patience Brings Calm Waters

"Old man, are you alright..."

Li Changluo wore an expression that winced with sympathetic pain as he asked the elderly man who had just been shaken out of a coffin and dropped at the tavern entrance by four black toothpaste monsters...

"I'm fine. I just need to go inside and give them a good thrashing. Spare the rod and spoil the child, you know..."

The old man was already bruised and battered from the fall. Leaning on his cane, he limped into the tavern...

Li Changluo and Heiwa quickly followed behind, eager to see what kind of formidable entity this was.

However...

The moment Li Changluo stepped into the tavern, he felt a gust of wind blow past...

He turned around to look, but outside the tavern, besides a scattering of fallen leaves on the ground, there was nothing at all. Was it just the autumn wind rising?

Not giving it much thought, Li Changluo hurried in with a light jog...

"Would..."

"You..."

"Let..."

"Me..."

"Strike..."

"You..."

"Once?"

At that moment, outside the tavern doors, a treant monster stood with a face full of fury, slowly raising its vine-like arm that had just slammed into the ground...

It had waited from morning until afternoon, finally seeing Li Changluo emerge through the doorway. It had mustered all its strength to raise its hand, wanting to give Li Changluo a slap to teach him a lesson...

Yet, it was still a step too slow, letting Li Changluo slip away...

How infuriating.

Like a slow-motion video played at a fraction of the speed, it slowly, ever so slowly, retracted its hand. If you didn't look closely, you would have thought it hadn't moved at all.

"Where is the proprietor of this establishment, Bai Xiaoni?"

The white-haired old man tapped his cane against a table and demanded of the various demons inside the tavern.

"Respected elder, wouldn't it be better to get down and talk?"

Li Changluo gently patted the silver coffin resting on the Eight Immortals table and spoke with utmost courtesy to the white-haired old man sitting inside.

How could he not be courteous?

He had originally intended to simply shove the coffin straight off the table...

But before he could even make a move, those four silver-boxed guards had unscrewed the caps on their heads, each aiming a toothpaste-bottle nozzle directly at him...

Taking on the posture of someone ready to spray him in the face at the slightest hint of trouble...

Who wouldn't be terrified?

"Young man, you must be a staff member of this tavern. Was it Bai Xiaoni who made you do what you did last time?"

The white-haired old man pointed his cane at Li Changluo, questioning him just like a schoolteacher reprimanding a student.

"No, I'm just a diner..."

Li Changluo denied being a staff member of the tavern without a moment's hesitation...

Damn it, who would dare admit to that?

Wasn't it obvious this person was here looking for trouble?

He had seen this trope play out far too many times in movies...

The boss causes trouble, and the enemies come seeking revenge...

They would beat up the first talkative employee they found, completely without reason...

He wasn't an idiot, damn it...

On his very first day of work, he needed a good start...

Go to work happily, return home safely.

"Oh, well then, go sit over there and crack open some melon seeds, just watch the show..."

The white-haired old man waved him away with his cane.

"No, mister."

Li Changluo firmly shook his head at the old man.

"What's this? Are you going to draw your sword and rush to the rescue?"

The old man smiled, a very kind smile...

From the heads of several toothpaste monsters, toothpaste was already bubbling over, aimed straight at Li Changluo.

"Mister, I am an exemplary student excelling in both character and academics, a three-good student of my class every single year. How could I ever engage in such a despicable and shameless act as rushing to the rescue? I just wanted to tell you..."

Li Changluo straightened his arm and pointed toward Zheng Qiguai, who was currently swaying his waist and preparing to make a run for it...

"Mister, he is Zheng Qiguai, a staff member of this tavern. He is a warm and hospitable person; if you have any instructions, feel free to direct them at him..."

With that, Li Changluo turned on his heel, trotted over to a nearby Eight Immortals table, and genuinely began cracking open melon seeds.

"Hey, don't walk so fast. Come back, come back..."

The white-haired old man pointed his cane at Zheng Qiguai, beckoning him to return...

However, Zheng Qiguai acted as if he hadn't heard a thing, continuing to sway his hips as he tried to scurry away from this place of right and wrong...

Faced with monsters coming to pick a fight, Zheng Qiguai was actually brimming with joy on the inside. He held no good intentions toward the proprietor, something everyone knew...

Therefore, it wasn't that he was afraid of the old man; he simply didn't want to meddle in this unsolicited business.

"Hey, I'm talking to you! You little girl, why don't you understand plain speech? Bai Xiaoni really needs to clean up this tavern; a rude female waitress like you should have been replaced long ago..."

The white-haired old man angrily pounded his silver coffin with his cane, nagging at Zheng Qiguai...

However, upon hearing the old man's nagging just as he was about to head upstairs, Zheng Qiguai abruptly twisted his hips and stormed back in a fury...

"You old fogey, who the hell do you think you're talking to? What 'little girl'? Are you blind?!"

Zheng Qiguai placed his hands on his hips and, acting like a shrew, pointed straight at the white-haired old man sitting in the silver coffin and hurled abuse back at him.

"Oh, I do apologize, little comrade demon-human, my eyes deceived me. This old man is going to ask a favor of you—call your Proprietor Bai out here for me, I have some questions for him..."

The white-haired old man treated Zheng Qiguai like a junior, bossing him around.

"Little comrade demon-human? You have the guts to call me that again!"

"Don't think you're the only one who knows how to curse!"

"You motherf—"

Zheng Qiguai's face flushed red with anger, and he pointed at the old man, letting loose a stream of vitriol...

Li Changluo and Heiwa watched the spectacle from the sidelines, laughing so hard they nearly split their sides.

"Hey, now, now, now. If you can argue, there's no need to throw blows. If you guys keep acting out of line and ignoring instructions, I'll replace you—sooner or later, I'm replacing all of you..."

Hearing Zheng Qiguai's disrespectful remarks, the white-haired old man's four black subordinates could no longer hold back. Gritting their teeth, they prepared to show Zheng Qiguai a bit of "color"...

However, they were held back by the old man himself.

"What kind of act are you putting on?!"

Zheng Qiguai pinched his fingers into orchid gestures, drew a long saber from his waist that was taller than he was, and without another word, thrust it straight toward the old man in the coffin.

"Whoa!!!"

Yet, before Zheng Qiguai even reached the coffin, he let out a strange cry and hurriedly squatted down to the ground...

Li Changluo initially thought Zheng Qiguai had been injured by the old man and something had gone wrong. But who could have predicted that this fellow would actually...

Squatting on the ground, he began picking up a scattering of small accessories that had rolled across the floor...

There were hair clips adorned with small plastic flowers, hair ornaments for meatbun buns, pearl hairpins, floral earrings...

Every single one of them consisted of little trinkets for young girls...

"See that? How many times have I told you? Whenever you can avoid fighting, don't fight. Not everything needs to be resolved through brute force. You must keep the old man's teachings etched in your hearts—patience brings peace..."

The old man was lecturing his four black toothpaste minions while holding a string of obviously cheap street-market trinkets, continuously tossing them out onto the floor toward Zheng Qiguai...

Zheng Qiguai was overjoyed, picking up the small accessories he favored with fussy, squeamish orchid fingers...

Li Changluo was left utterly dumbfounded. Just like that, Zheng Qiguai was conquered?

What happened to the battle that was supposed to ignite the entire venue?

You're picking up lollipops right now; we are in the middle of a battle, damn it...

The crucial part is, you're putting on hairpins as if nobody else is even here...

And your technique is so practiced, too...

Have you no sense of shame at all?