Thanks to Little Shopkeeper Wu’s extraordinary wisdom, the Nametoo-Long Inn went from an obscure little establishment on Qihua Road to the hottest, most sought-after inn in the entire city—so popular that every room was impossible to book!
The inn had only five guest rooms, yet they were already fully reserved through next month.
A game room cost five taels of Tongxuan silver. On Qihua Road… or even throughout Meishan City, that was by no means a cheap price.
But providing cultivators with food and drink that could improve their cultivation was never going to be an inexpensive service.
A bowl of fire-prawn noodles at Xihua Restaurant cost two hundred copper coins—and that was only because fire prawns were the slow-witted shrimp most easily caught in the Suwen River.
As for the rooms at Yuelai Inn, which could nourish a five-colored spirit root, you couldn’t even afford to stay there without at least a tael of silver.
Really, if you didn’t have money, why bother cultivating?
And so, under these circumstances, Little Shopkeeper Wu’s five-tael rooms were, in fact… not that expensive.
At five taels of silver per room, all five rooms reserved through next month had already brought Wu Guanyue a total turnover of one thousand taels of silver. Naturally, the inn’s popularity had long since exceeded one thousand as well. In other words—
The inn had leveled up!
[Inn Level: LV.3]
[Inn Popularity: 5,003\10,000 (Your inn has earned a modest reputation in the city)]
[Inn Turnover: 1,050\10,000 (Your turnover is now calculated in units of silver taels)]
[Shopkeeper Details]
[Shopkeeper: Wu Guanyue]
[Level: LV.3 (Your strength is closely tied to the fate of the inn)]
The increase in both the inn’s level and her personal level naturally came with new rewards!
First were her personal proficiency skills.
[Acquired: [Proficiency Skill · Game Editing]!]
[Game Editing: Your game rooms have made your inn a success. You can now modify the games you already own according to your own ideas!]
[Acquired: [Advanced Pickpocketing]!]
[Advanced Pickpocketing: You have a dream—to become a superstar of the underworld! All that lockpicking has made you deft of hand… You can now pick the pockets of higher-level NPCs!]
She had gained one new skill and one advanced skill!
Pickpocketing was, of course, Wu Guanyue’s favorite skill. After advancing, her success rate against higher-level NPCs had increased considerably, making it an extremely useful ability.
However, Wu Guanyue only now realized that breaking into someone’s home by picking the lock and leaving them a gift used the Pickpocketing skill…
Hmm… Could that be why Wenren Ying didn’t like her showing up at his door that way? It probably counted as a hostile action, didn’t it?
Little Shopkeeper Wu cupped her chin in her hands and pondered solemnly.
Oh, well! His favorability hadn’t decreased anyway!
The second proficiency skill was [Game Editing]. As soon as Wu Guanyue selected it, the Cat Mario game interface appeared before her. She could freely move all the bricks, mushrooms, and traps around on the screen…
…but why would she want to do that?
Apart from Chu Yingfeng, no one had cleared the entire game yet. At present, the appeal of Cat Mario lay in mastering precise controls and finding ways to complete the game faster…
Wouldn’t suddenly changing the levels just be a complete trap for everyone?
She had a feeling that, after making changes, she would become the kind of game planner cursed by thousands of players…
It felt… like a rather useless skill.
Oh, well. She could leave it for now. Maybe it would come in handy someday?
And then there was the new mode unlocked when the inn leveled up!
[Unlocked: CG Mode!]
[CG Mode: Unforgettable memories! Heartwarming moments! And all the countless instants you want to record… You can now record your very own CG moments in the inn~~]
Ohhh—it was for collecting CGs!
She had actually been meaning to ask for a long time… Why didn’t this game support taking pictures? She hadn’t expected it to be an upgrade reward!
…Er, wasn’t this a little too stingy?
It was really… hard to comment on.
Still, Wu Guanyue didn’t particularly care. After all, the LV.3 reward wasn’t the main event.
Her main quest, [Lotus Contest], required the inn to reach LV.4 before it could be completed. LV.3 was merely a transitional stage.
LV.4 required both popularity and inn turnover to reach 10,000. Popularity was easy enough. Ever since she launched the Cat Mario Fun-for-All event and the Cat Mario leaderboard, the inn had developed a lively competitive atmosphere. Every day, it attracted curious people who came in to take a look.
On top of that, she didn’t stop the other merchants on Qihua Road from selling food at the inn. Everyone was making money thanks to Cat Mario, so of course they were happy to help promote it!
Just the other day, Wu Guanyue had even spotted the old man running the tea stall at the crossroads enthusiastically recommending Cat Mario to his customers…
Anyone who didn’t know better would think he owned shares in the place.
And so, the inn’s popularity increased every day. Reaching ten thousand popularity was only a matter of time.
The problem was the turnover.
No matter how popular Cat Mario became, Wu Guanyue still had only five guest rooms…
With all of them booked through next month, she had reached the limit. Many of the wealthier guests had come from out of town, and once the Lotus Contest ended, they would be leaving. Why would they stay here after that?
As for those who lived in Meishan City year-round… Poor itinerant cultivators couldn’t afford to stay here, while the wealthy…
She Wenjie had made a spectacular fool of himself here. If the disciples of Cuiyun Grotto-Heaven still wanted to maintain a superficial relationship with him, they wouldn’t set foot in the inn at a time like this.
Besides, the Cat Mario Fun-for-All event was an important way to expand her influence, so she couldn’t charge high fees.
The event was bustling and lively, but as for the turnover…
It was still only one-tenth of the target.
How was she supposed to get her hands on more money…?
Wu Guanyue stood in the back courtyard with her arms folded, looking extremely serious.
“What are you thinking about, Little Shopkeeper Wu?” Wenren Ying asked casually as he passed by on his way to the kitchen to ladle himself some water.
“I’m thinking about how I can pull off a really big score!”
Wu Guanyue’s voice was ringing and forceful—and especially loud.
Wenren Ying: “Pfft—cough, cough, cough!”
He spat out all the water in his mouth.
Wu Guanyue didn’t think this had anything to do with her at all. Instead, she hurried over with concern and pulled out of her robes…
the golden plum blossom he had given her.
Wenren Ying: “…”
Wenren Ying: “……”
For some reason, Wenren Ying couldn’t help laughing again. He casually accepted the little golden flower and even pretended to examine how to use it to wipe his mouth.
Then he looked up and saw Wu Guanyue staring at him as though he were an idiot.
“Did the game glitch? Hey, Brother Wenren, what would you do without a player to look after you…?”
Wenren Ying: “……”
He wanted to say that if “being looked after” meant someone picking the lock, breaking into his home, and leaving gifts behind, then he really could do without it…
At that moment, sweet Little Shopkeeper Wu had already pulled a handkerchief from her robes and leaned over to wipe Wenren Ying’s chin.
She only came up to his chest, so she had to rise up on her tiptoes…
Speaking of Wenren Ying, he was the type of carefree, unconventional wanderer who lived by his own rules… So under normal circumstances, his robes weren’t fastened especially tightly. At moments when his muscles tensed like this, a small glimpse of the deep cleft between them would show…
Hmm? Why were his muscles tensing…?
Just as this thought sprang into Wu Guanyue’s mind, Wenren Ying suddenly reached out and snatched the handkerchief from her hand. He wiped his chin twice in a haphazard fashion and mumbled, “Yes, yes, yes. Many thanks for looking after me, Little Shopkeeper Wu…”
Wu Guanyue: O-O
Wu Guanyue seemed a little disappointed. “I haven’t had the chance to look after you yet…”
Wenren Ying: “…………”
Another ellipsis bubble appeared above Wenren Ying’s head… Who knew what he was thinking?
He turned his head away and said, “I’ll wash the handkerchief and return it to you.”
Wu Guanyue was still a little disappointed. “Oh…”
Actually, that scene just now would have been perfect for a CG. What a shame she hadn’t thought of it in time… Now the opportunity was gone.
Darn this game that didn’t let her reload!
Wenren Ying’s Adam’s apple bobbed… He seemed about to say something, but at that very moment, his expression suddenly turned cold. Frowning, he said, “What’s going on?”
His gaze was fixed on— the Seven-Treasure Pine.
Chu Yingfeng had come to Meishan City in the first place to search for Daoist Master Songfeng. On the very first day he arrived at the inn, he had asked Wu Guanyue about Daoist Master Songfeng’s whereabouts… After Wenren Ying learned of this, he gave her the merfolk pearl he used for concealment. As long as it was buried in the soil, it would immediately hide the aura of the Seven-Treasure Pine.
The Seven-Treasure Pine had originally only sprouted a tiny shoot, concealed among the weeds in the rear courtyard. Even an Earthly Immortal wouldn’t have been able to spot anything unusual.
But just now, during the brief moment they had been talking, the Seven-Treasure Pine had suddenly shot up from the ground and grown into a tree as tall as a person!
And at that very moment, Chu Yingfeng’s footsteps sounded from the front hall. He was making his way toward the rear courtyard and was about to push open the courtyard gate!
Chu Yingfeng was a hardcore gamer. Ever since he started playing Cat Mario, he had shut himself in his guest room every day to play. After clearing the game, he moved on to trying to beat it in an even faster time… He had practically forgotten his own actual mission…
But “practically forgotten” was one thing. Wu Guanyue certainly didn’t believe that he could remain unmoved when a fully grown Seven-Treasure Pine suddenly appeared right in front of him!
The player’s affection level was only at two hearts. It was nowhere near high enough to complete the quest without a fight!!!
Wu Guanyue: “!!”
Two huge red exclamation marks appeared above Wu Guanyue’s head!
She absolutely had to stop him from coming in! She couldn’t let him see the pine tree that had suddenly grown up!
What should she do?!
Wu Guanyue’s mind raced at top speed!
Just then, Wenren Ying suddenly moved.
He abruptly leaned his entire body heavily against the rear courtyard gate, and a long… sigh escaped his throat.
That’s right—a sigh.
It was as though some deep, almost impossible-to-satisfy longing had suddenly been relieved, or as though his tightly wound muscles had finally been submerged in a pool of sweet, soothing hot spring water…
He suddenly reached out and pushed against the courtyard gate again and again, making the wooden door creak violently.
Wu Guanyue: O-O
Wu Guanyue: o(*////-////*)q
The scale of this is way too intense, Brother Wenren!
