Cohabitation with Sword Spirit-Chapter 322 - 59: Transitional -
After Wang Jiu’s eloquent speech, everyone finally gaped in astonishment at the revelation: this guy had long since noticed that this top maid’s biological gender was male, yet he saw no need to inform anyone, and just let the situation unfold as it did!
"I really don’t see anything that needs special mention," Wang Jiu said, "In my view, Miss Cai’Er is female, just with an extra organ compared to the average woman. However, to decide someone isn’t female just because of an extra organ seems rather unfair. Otherwise, those born with six fingers or with bone spurs wouldn’t be women either. Besides, in terms of appearance and demeanor, most women can’t compare to Cai’Er as the ideal female."
Several ordinary women were deeply ashamed.
"Moreover, Miss Cai’Er holds the highest value in the highly competitive maid circle of Shen City, a testament to her excellence as a woman."
"I think this shows that the maid market in Shen City has started to develop abnormally..."
"Any highly mature market will eventually develop abnormally and achieve breakthroughs amid that abnormality."
"...Even if what you say makes sense, didn’t you think about how Shen Jinghai would react?!"
Wang Jiu replied, "Given Shen City’s unique gender culture, I didn’t expect Shen Jinghai to make such a big deal out of such a trivial matter. The War Elephant Legion of the Shen City Outer City Patrol Team deviates more from traditional gender norms than the issue with Cai’Er, yet the people of Shen City take it in stride. This shows the inclusiveness of the local gender culture. I think Shen Jinghai, as the Deputy City Lord, should possess advanced ideological consciousness. Now it’s probably just the seasonal change, with the Heaven and Earth Spirit Wind causing emotional fluctuations. If he thinks rationally, he has no reason to get stuck on a gender issue."
"...Good rational thinking."
However, despite Wang Jiu’s logically sound arguments, they did nothing to help the present situation.
After preparing for more than half a month and expending significant resources and effort, they aimed to break through their current dilemma using Shen Jinghai’s matchmaking clues. Now that Shen Jinghai had fled in shock, it was clear that this half-month had been a complete waste.
The group remained silent for a while before Shen Qingming sighed and said, "This clue is probably completely cut off. With Shen Jinghai like that, it seems impossible for him to help us..."
Shen Ying shrugged and said, "It’s the first time I’ve seen him so flustered and out of sorts. Don’t mention helping you; now I’m more worried he’ll retaliate in anger."
Even Shen Ying, the gossip queen of Shen City, who knew countless secrets, made such a pessimistic judgment, causing everyone to feel their future looked bleak.
Li Wanqing said, "Sorry, I overreached. I really thought this path would work..."
Shen Qingming consoled, "It’s not your fault. If it weren’t for Ah Jiu that fool... we would have really had a good chance."
"It’s not Mr. Wang Jiu’s fault, either. If not for him, we wouldn’t have been able to answer Shen Jinghai’s tricky questions. I’d say he deserves to be single for life, haha." At the end, Li Wanqing could only laugh self-deprecatingly.
"Should we consider going back to Cyan Cloud now?"
They exchanged bewildered glances, feeling conflicted.
At the start of January, they had set out from Cyan Cloud City full of ambition, carrying the important mission of resolving the two families’ grievances. A month later, apart from tasting all kinds of delicacies in Shen City and purchasing a battlefield simulation system produced by Lingshan, they had nothing else noteworthy to show for it. They hadn’t even seen Shen Ruoshi in person, let alone reconciled with the families using Shen Ruoshi’s birthday celebration as an occasion.
Indeed, there was some intentional obstruction from the Shen City people, but the group’s inability to work effectively and lack of ability to tackle challenges were undeniable facts.
Ultimately, it was Li Chaolu who proposed an idea: "Why not write to the family for help? Although there are many unreliable people at home, there are still a few wise ones who might provide us with some advice. At this point, we have nothing to hide."
After considering, they agreed it seemed their only option.
So, for the next half-day, they all gathered to jointly draft this letter requesting assistance from the family.
The letter briefly recounted the group’s various experiences after entering the Shen City territory.
Starting with the Demon Essence and War Elephants seen outside Yulin Village, then upon entering Shen City, the visiting cards and Shen Ziyu’s family letters only elicited a spat response. Following the tourist guidebook, they nearly ended up at a scam store. Subsequently, they got into a big fight with Shen City soldiers at a barbecue stall in the east of the city, which led to encounters with Shen Zicheng and Shen Jinghai. Under the latter’s arrangement, they entered the Shen Family Outer Courtyard, attempting to establish prestige among the young generation of cultivators.
With the assistance of Wang Jiu, the journey through the Outer Courtyard went smoothly. The group stood out among the hundred-plus Shen Family members and toured the Lingshan of Shen City—here, at Li Xinyu’s strong request, the matter of his enormous collateral loan to buy the Array Map was concealed. Afterwards, with Wang Jiu’s help, Li Wanqing successfully defeated the most talented of the Shen family’s younger generation, Shen Feihong and Shen Qing, completely clearing the Outer Courtyard checkpoint.
Then the situation completely reached a stalemate, with the Shen Family refusing to make any further response, only leaving the group hanging. To break this deadlock, the group actively conducted intelligence work. With the help of the local Shen Ying, they caught Shen Yueying’s weakness and subsequently exchanged it for clues about key figures like Shen Jinghai.
After that, a joint effort targeted Shen Jinghai, successfully uncovering damning evidence of his long-standing abnormal matchmaking. However, when further utilizing this weakness for a breakthrough, a major operational error occurred, causing the work to fall into a passive situation...
After writing down a work summary, Li Wanqing and others were simply amazed to find out all that had happened in the past month, realizing they had indeed achieved considerable work results. As for the current stalemate, it was truly not their fault in battle...
Once a letter was finished, it was sent back to Cyan Cloud City in the blink of an eye. About half an hour later, the reply from Cyan Cloud City reached the group.
The reply was from Lu Xin, and its content was very simple: "It’s surprising the Shen Family is so shameless. You should return soon and not endure mistreatment over there."
Shortly after, Zhao Yan’s reply arrived: "When it comes to friendly relations between two families, one-sided willingness is the biggest taboo. Now that the Shen Family shows no intention to improve relations, any further efforts we make will only appear as a joke to them. Doing too much carries the risk of backfire as well. You’ve already worked hard in the first half, but the cold reception after the Outer Courtyard is enough to prove the Shen Family currently has no intention of improving relations between the families. After that, your efforts risk being excessive."
Compared to Lu Xin, Zhao Yan’s reply seemed more reasonable, and her suggestion is also to return to Cyan Cloud soon, not to waste any more time in Shen City.
After reading the two replies, Li Wanqing sighed, "Alright, since Sister Xin and Sister Yan both said so, let’s pack our luggage quickly and prepare to go home. Anyway, we’ve seen most of what Shen City has to offer these days through eating and drinking."
Wang Jiu nodded and said, "I somewhat miss the Drunken Immortal Tower in Cyan Cloud City."
——
Just as the Li family prepared to return home in disappointment, in the Inner City of Shen City, Shen Jinghai also finally calmed his anger, once again putting on that perfect, flawless pose as the Deputy City Lord.
Being the right-hand man of the Lord City Lord, bringing personal emotions into work is one of the greatest taboos. Shen Jinghai has served as Deputy City Lord for decades, never making such a mistake, and today is certainly no exception.
Even though he had just endured the greatest humiliation in his fifty years of life, Shen Jinghai quickly regained his rationality.
Shen Jinghai did not react with anger and revenge as the Li family expected. For someone who values perfection, private revenge is the most disgraceful act, something he would certainly not do.
Although he indeed found those Li Family people quite unpleasant, they should be about ready to leave by now, thus not requiring any external disturbances from him.
After enduring a month of cold reception in Shen City, the Li family members have shown quite resilient spirits to stick it out. But now it’s mid-February, merely days away from the City Lord’s birthday banquet. Once the banquet commences, and the Li Family does not receive an invitation, even with their thick skin, they should learn to retreat.
Rather than wasting energy dealing with a group of Li family members who are about to leave, the priority now is dedicating himself to the preparation of the City Lord’s birthday banquet in half a month.
Thinking about the banquet in half a month, Shen Jinghai frowned slightly.
Organizing such a grand event is rather troublesome, especially with the goal of achieving excellence, it is mentally exhausting. Shen Jinghai has already worked tirelessly for over half a month for it, even temporarily pausing his Immortal Cultivation—for scarce breaks, he has used them for matchmaking—now, he has finally achieved something worth reporting to the Lord City Lord.
Since the year Li Fengyun swept through Shen City with the sword and abducted Shen Yue’e, City Lord Shen Ruoshi gradually became reclusive, no longer appearing on the front stage, delegating power to two Deputy City Lords, while he secluded himself in his own cave dwelling, not seen by common people for months.
Nowadays in Shen City, only a few people have the privilege to visit the City Lord anytime, anywhere. Shen Jinghai is naturally one of them, but is sensible enough not to bother the City Lord with trivial matters. Apart from weekly work reports, only very important work justifies a temporary request for the City Lord’s instructions.
A moment later, when Shen Jinghai, holding the work report, arrived at the entrance to Shen Ruoshi’s cave dwelling, he suddenly sensed an air of impatience and irritation ahead.
The Lord City Lord isn’t in a great mood... Shen Jinghai mused, glancing at his report, deciding to temporarily withhold discussion of the more troublesome issues, lest he adds fuel to the City Lord’s mood.
After mentally reorganizing his speaking notes, Shen Jinghai donned a graceful and poised smile, reached out to touch the entrance, opened the door to the cave dwelling, and carefully walked inside.
