Noticing Chen Zhaoming staring at her shield, Hoshiguma gave a lonely little smile.
"Boss, you saw me carrying this thing and still dared invite me in for noodles?"
"First of all, I'm not treating you—I'm letting you buy on credit. Second, you were leaning against the wall just now, so I didn't see the shield."
Chen Zhaoming answered honestly.
"Besides, now that you're the one eating my fishball noodles, the one who ought to be worried should be you."
"Haha, fair enough."
If Chen Zhaoming's shop had been in some remote backwater instead of right here in the lower city of Lungmen, Hoshiguma really might have suspected that he had ulterior motives.
These days, being a good person was hard. Yet here was an ordinary fishball shop in Lungmen's lower city, willing to let her have a bowl of noodles on credit. That was already a rare thing.
"Here."
Because of Hoshiguma's size, Chen Zhaoming had piled this bowl especially full. He did not mind her eating a bit more. Using a single bowl of noodles to build some goodwill with the future police superintendent of the Lungmen Guard Department could hardly be a bad investment.
"Boss, I just arrived in Lungmen. Is there anywhere I can find work?"
Hoshiguma set her shield aside and slurped at the noodles as she asked. Higashi-style noodles and Yan-style noodles had very different flavors, but when you were hungry, anything tasted good—let alone fishball noodles this delicious.
"Do you have residency papers?"
"No."
"Then your only options are unloading cargo at the docks, doing off-the-books labor, or joining a gang."
"That's not much different from Higashi."
"That's how the world usually is."
Chen Zhaoming spoke with calm frankness. Even more than ten years later, Lungmen still would not be able to treat everyone equally—never mind the Infected, who suffered discrimination as a matter of course. Wei Yenwu was not incompetent, but from the very day Lungmen was founded, the city had been destined for blood and storm.
"You look capable enough. If you really want to make something of yourself in Lungmen, then the gang route is probably your only path. Some of Lungmen's gangs are basically the dirty-glove enforcers for important people on the official side. If you don't have residency papers and you want to become a real Lungmen citizen, the only way is through those gangs."
"Boss, you've got connections?"
Hearing that, something flickered in Hoshiguma's heart.
"Nope."
Chen Zhaoming rolled his eyes.
"If I had that many connections, would I still be here selling fishballs?"
In truth, he did have some avenues. Spending all day in the lower city selling fishballs meant dealing with every sort of person under the sun. He could definitely find her some work that would at least keep her fed.
But at most, it would only keep her fed.
Would Hoshiguma need that?
After hearing Chen Zhaoming's answer, Hoshiguma fell silent for a while, then laughed openly.
"Thanks for the fishball noodles, Boss."
She set down her chopsticks. By the time she stood up, there was already resolve in her eyes.
Chen Zhaoming did not ask what she planned to do. Hoshiguma had probably long had her own ideas—she just had not fully made up her mind yet.
She had once been the wakagashira of a yakuza organization in Higashi—in other words, the second-in-command. Unless she was willing to debase herself, with her abilities, joining a gang was essentially her only real option in Lungmen.
And the leader of Lungmen's biggest underworld organization was the Rat King. With Hoshiguma's ability, she was more than enough to catch his eye.
After finishing her noodles, Hoshiguma suddenly turned back before leaving.
"I still haven't asked for the boss's name."
"What need is there to know each other, just because we happened to meet?"
Chen Zhaoming waved a hand and grinned.
"If you've got the heart for it, then come back next time for fishballs, settle today's tab, and I'll tell you then."
At his words, Hoshiguma was taken aback for a moment—then burst out laughing.
"A promise?"
"A promise."
"..."
Hoshiguma left, brisk and carefree, not taking a single cloud with her.
But someone's mouth had already puckered enough to hang a vinegar bottle from.
"Brother, who was she?"
Chen Zhaoming had not expected Chen Zhaoqian to come back so quickly. She had arrived just in time to see him saying goodbye to Hoshiguma.
"A customer from the shop."
"But I've never seen her before!"
"There are so many customers in this shop. Don't tell me you recognize every single one?"
"But when Brother talks to other customers, you never smile like that..."
Chen Zhaoqian muttered in a small voice.
The little girl suddenly felt a sense of crisis. She had always assumed that the reason her brother was still single at his age was, first, because the family had dragged him down, and second, because he was focused on making something of himself and had no mind for marriage.
But now she had seen him smiling at a girl—and not just any girl, but a very tall one.
Chen Zhaoqian started to panic.
Could it be that her brother liked tall girls?
Luckily, Chen Zhaoming had no idea what Chen Zhaoqian was thinking, otherwise he would have found it both funny and exasperating.
He had simply wanted to maintain a relationship with a future police superintendent. At the very least, once Hoshiguma made a name for herself in the gangs, maybe she could look after their little shop a bit, so they would not have to handle every problem personally.
What on earth was Chen Zhaoqian imagining?
That said, just because he had recently come out of an unhappy marriage did not mean Chen Zhaoming was afraid of women. If the chance came, he would absolutely get married and have children again.
Only this time, he would definitely choose someone he liked—and who liked him back.
It would be even better if there was more than one.
Fortunately, Chen Zhaoming did not know what Chen Zhaoqian was thinking, and Chen Zhaoqian did not know what Chen Zhaoming was thinking either.
Otherwise, she definitely would have bitten him hard.
You shameless brother—eating from one bowl while eyeing the next! Yan might not forbid multiple wives and concubines, but you should at least finish the food already in your own bowl first!
Chen Zhaoming turned the conversation to the results of Chen Zhaoqian's errand.
"I went to three grain shops, but only one was willing to sell us a thousand jin of rice and flour. The other two would only sell five hundred jin each, and only if we picked it up ourselves today."
"Only two thousand jin?"
"The shopkeeper at Youji Grain Store said that was only because it was for you, Brother. If it were anyone else, they could only buy a hundred jin at a time, no more than that."
Chen Zhaoqian's words made Chen Zhaoming's expression turn serious.
That meant Lungmen's authorities had already imposed purchase limits. Even shopkeepers like them, who ran food businesses, were only supposed to be able to buy a hundred jin at a time—let alone ordinary people.
Chen Zhaoming quickly made his decision.
"Two thousand jin it is. We'll close early today. Besides rice and flour, we should buy extra oil and salt too. Once we have grain in hand, then no matter what happens next in Lungmen, it won't affect us."
In Terra, perhaps there were no true earthbound immortals who could single-handedly suppress an entire nation. But there were absolutely many great powerhouses who could fight an army alone and rampage through a mobile city as though no one could stop them.
Chen Zhaoming and Chen Zhaoqian naturally could not compare to those monsters. But Chen Zhaoming had at least trained in swordsmanship, and Chen Zhaoqian had spent some time studying at the Celestial Masters' estate. As long as nothing utterly absurd happened—like Reunion launching a full-scale invasion in the future—they were more than capable of protecting themselves.
"Mhm!"
Chen Zhaoqian brightened again. She was not the sort who longed for chaos, but if they went out at night, Chen Zhaoming would definitely take her along. Ever since they opened the shop, the two of them going out together had become something that felt like a long time ago.
Nothing particularly unusual happened from noon to afternoon. Lungmen's food price surge had only just begun, and most people had not yet connected it to a coming food crisis.
After seeing off the last batch of customers, Chen Zhaoming closed the shop, hung up the Closed for Rest sign, and dragged their vehicle out from the storeroom.
Calling it a vehicle was being generous. It was basically just a three-wheeled motor cart: the front half was a motorcycle-style seat, while the back half was a cargo bed. Powered by Originium, hauling two or three thousand jin was no problem at all.
Back when they had lived in Yan's capital, never mind a three-wheeler—even those famous foreign landships were things they had ridden before. Yet both Chen Zhaoming and Chen Zhaoqian were still rather excited.
Chen Zhaoming was excited because he had finally cast off the identity of a princess's consort and won his freedom. From now on, he would never again have to live by the mood of Yan's imperial family.
Chen Zhaoqian was excited because she was going out together with Chen Zhaoming. The moment he climbed into the driver's seat, she sat down behind him without hesitation, wrapped her arms around his waist, and flushed bright red.
"Let's go!"
Unable to see Chen Zhaoqian's expression, Chen Zhaoming smiled as well when he heard her cheerful shout.
"Hold on tight."
Under Originium power, the three-wheeler rumbled to life and drove toward the grain shops.
...