Cohabitation with Sword Spirit-Chapter 345 - 82: Square Faces Never Get Lost
February 20, 2018
The City Lord’s centennial birthday banquet is drawing closer.
The days leading up to the banquet are both painful and joyful for Shen Jinghai.
The pain lies in the exhaustion beyond limits, operating around the clock 24 hours a day, coupled with more than 50 hours of overall time-space fractures, working over 70 hours a day, and most of the time multitasking, handling several aspects of official duties simultaneously. The daily work of the Deputy City Lord, appeasing the public after the Outer Courtyard race, and most importantly, organizing the birthday banquet, each requires his full attention... If the Shen Family were to select the best role model recently, Shen Jinghai would undoubtedly win unanimously.
But on the other hand, Shen Jinghai is also happy. He anticipated, more than a year ago when planning for the banquet began, that the workload would be incredibly intense in the final preparation stage... In fact, he deliberately arranged the work to be this intense. As the right-hand man of the Lord City Lord, the busier the work, the more it reflects the trust he has from the City Lord. If everything were delegated to others, how would the value of a right-hand man be demonstrated? The harder the work is now, the more genuine joy Shen Jinghai feels.
This happiness in persistently practicing the core values of Shen City is even more fulfilling than his in-depth daily discussions with Cai’Er during lunch breaks.
If there’s anything that’s been causing Shen Jinghai a headache recently... it’s probably the unexpected tasks assigned by the City Lord some time ago.
Two things: the first is to set up a private box on the second floor of the banquet hall on the day of the birthday banquet, to arrange for Wang Jiu and Li Xinyu to develop a relationship there... Objectively speaking, this task is quite challenging. From Shen Jinghai’s understanding of Wang Jiu, even if it’s just based on the few glimpses he had previously, he can judge that Wang Jiu is quite a noble character, and it’s hard to bring his aesthetic standards down to a base level. But the tasks assigned by leadership must be carried out to the end, no matter how far-fetched.
So, Shen Jinghai specially borrowed a few veteran War Elephant experts from the Outer City Patrol Team to collaborate on the design of the private box. From the menu of the day to the decor style of the box, from the preparation of Enchanting Fragrance to the selection of War Elephant promotional images, Shen Jinghai and several War Elephant masters made quite detailed arrangements, based on experts’ assessments, there’s over a 95% possibility that even two unrelated passersby might spark a War Elephant-like chemistry if put in this room.
In this regard, Shen Jinghai quite trusts these experts. The War Elephant Legion is renowned in Shen City not just for its strong combat power bred from deep camaraderie, but also for its well-known infectious ability, which once even affected the city’s birth rate. So, next is to see how much this War Elephant incubator will influence Wang Jiu and Li Xinyu.
The second task assigned by the City Lord, which truly makes Shen Jinghai’s head hurt to the point that even Cai’Er’s morning kisses are hard to soothe...
——
"Jinghai, about Qingming’s marriage, I have a rough idea, come over for a discussion."
One morning, Shen Jinghai was directly called from his desk to the City Lord’s Mansion with this sentence.
And upon meeting Shen Ruoshi, Shen Jinghai realized that the City Lord was already well planned; there was really no room for discussion, and as a deputy, executing was all that was required.
"This Zhao Jincheng, after some examination, seems a good candidate. Find a way to let him and Qingming develop feelings."
At that moment, Shen Jinghai’s facial muscles involuntarily twitched, and internally, he knelt directly; how was he supposed to cultivate this?!
Could it be he was also to arrange a private box for the two to enjoy exclusively on the banquet day?!
Shen Ruoshi frowned: "What nonsense? On the birthday banquet day, Qingming should sit next to me, where would there be a private box?"
Shen Jinghai nodded, suppressing his facial muscles from a second twitch.
With just one sentence from the City Lord, the painstakingly arranged banquet seating chart can be discarded... But no matter, let Secretary A work overtime, boost the elemental magnetism of the office chairs, and quickly produce a new version for him to review.
"Developing feelings might be too late by the banquet day; the itinerary of the Zhao family’s emissary group is set, and they will return shortly after. So, in these few days, let the two find opportunities to meet, and design the scenarios well to make the first impressions good."
Of course, Shen Jinghai remembered the leadership’s instructions word for word. Then as he returned to his desk, he felt a splitting headache.
Designing scenarios and creating a good first impression... easy to say, but the specifics are utterly elusive. And this sort of thing can’t be discussed with just anyone.
This is not the first time Shen Jinghai has encountered such a situation; in his long career as a right-hand man, he has dealt with similar predicaments many times, but each time has been accompanied by large doses of stomach and headache medicine.
"Cai’Er, help me prepare a medicine pack," Shen Jinghai said as he prepared to enter a meditative state, fully squeezing his brainpower.
"Is there another headache?" The gentle girl asked as she skillfully prepared medicine in the lounge.
Shen Jinghai hesitated, the official business was not convenient to speak of directly, but he could give a brief overview without mentioning the key details.
After pondering for a while, Shen Jinghai said, "Now, I must design a heart-stirring first meeting for two complete strangers. It’s quite troublesome to execute."
Cai’Er nodded: "Stirring first meetings are indeed difficult. Most people fall in love over time unless they deliberately go on blind dates. Achieving a heart-stirring meeting requires the perfect conjunction of timing, environment, and people."
Shen Jinghai smiled wryly: "If it weren’t so, why else would it fall to me to worry?"
Cai’Er, exhibiting great tact, didn’t delve into the details of his work, and simply said, "But there are many classic scenes to refer to. For instance, ’hero saves the damsel in distress.’"
"Oh?" Shen Jinghai glanced at Cai’Er curiously.
"For instance, when some villainous characters are giving a girl trouble, and the male protagonist arrives just in time to save her, that’s a great first encounter."
Shen Jinghai was intrigued: "Any more?"
Cai’Er tilted her head: "Most classic chance encounters are of a similar nature, usually where the girl gets into trouble and the boy steps in to resolve it. Otherwise, you can create a standout scene for the male protagonist using contrast, like when there are plenty of grotesque faces around, but the male lead is strikingly handsome..."
Upon hearing this, Shen Jinghai instinctively imagined such a scene: a room with seventeen or eighteen sharp-faced Wang Jius either standing or sitting, serving as foils. In contrast, Zhao Jincheng’s square face shines brightly among these Wang Jius.
A disastrous scene indeed...
Cai’Er continued, "Apart from that, there’s the suspension bridge effect, which implies that men and women in tense situations often trigger feelings of affection. That’s why, in many stories, the male and female leads develop feelings during adventures, and a day or two of intense adventure can turn strangers into inseparable lovers."
With this, Shen Jinghai felt enlightened all of a sudden.
This is indeed a strategy!
Trying the traditional love-at-first-sight route with Zhao Jincheng’s traits is quite challenging, especially with Wang Jiu as the amazing foil beside Shen Qingming...
But if you choose the adventure path, then anything is possible! Compared to the traditional hero-saves-the-damsel and ephemeral infatuation, an adventure story cultivates mutual interaction and affection between both parties, a perfect plan!
Thinking this, Shen Jinghai felt that neither stomach medicine nor headache pills were necessary anymore, as the burden on his heart completely evaporated, and a slight smile crept onto his face.
"Cai’Er, where did you learn about these tropes?"
Cai’Er’s smile was a bit shy: "From a book, about the adventure story tropes, it was from the one you gave me some time ago."
Shen Jinghai instantly remembered that when he and Cai’Er got engaged, Lord City Lord had sent a congratulatory gift...
Little did he think that the answer to this problem was recorded in that very gift!
In hindsight, this was a blatant oversight of the deputies’ duties. Over the years, he knew Lord City Lord’s personal preferences, but the latter was very secretive about them, so Shen Jinghai never tried to inquire, even deliberately keeping himself ignorant to avoid inadvertently crossing any boundaries.
Looking back now, it seems this approach was too extreme. It would be better to take some time to fill in the gaps in understanding from the past. Books that swept across the Xiangzhou Continent must have unique traits worth studying, surely yielding substantial insights...
But for now, the most important task is quickly designing the adventure platform and weaving together a full-fledged adventure story, allowing Shen Qingming and Zhao Jincheng to quickly develop romantic feelings.
This matter not only involves the Shen Family but also concerns key figures of the Zhao Family, and any slight error could lead to a political incident. Meticulous attention to every detail is imperative...
With this mindset, Shen Jinghai began knitting his brows and closing his eyes, deep in thought.
——
By the time Shen Jinghai completed the comprehensive plan, there were only 5 days left until Lord City Lord’s birthday feast.
Time was extremely tight. His designed ’Surprising Encounter Adventure Three-Day Tour for One Man and One Woman’ needed to allow some buffer, and now there was only barely over a day of buffer time left.
After finishing the plan, Shen Jinghai immediately dispatched someone to invite Zhao Jincheng to visit Red Leaf Mountain at the city’s west to witness Shen City’s renowned winter red leaves. As one of Shen City’s popular attractions, Red Leaf Mountain had indeed hosted many prestigious figures.
Therefore, upon receiving Shen Jinghai’s notification, Zhao Jincheng agreed without hesitation, confirmed the meeting time and place, then assured the messenger to rest easy and return.
Half a day later, Shen Jinghai personally led a team, waiting at the foot of Red Leaf Mountain for Zhao Jincheng. However, they waited for the better part of the day, and even as darkness fell, Zhao Jincheng was nowhere in sight.
When Shen Jinghai finally realized something was amiss and sent someone to find the Zhao Family people, he received an answer that made his head spin.
Zhao Jincheng had enthusiastically set out alone in the early morning. After asking a passerby for directions at the hotel entrance, he headed directly south of the city and has now been missing for several hours...
