251 Fatty Luo Metalware
Translator:Henyee Translations | Editor: JulesNye
As soon as the train doors opened, Wang Ling immediately gripped Sheep’s hand and hurried into a subway car. The auntie on the platform was rooted to the spot with shock at Sheep’s words, and actually forgot to get on the train! When she came back to her senses, the announcement for the doors closing had sounded and the train had already sped away…
Inside the subway, Wang Ling looked a little helpless as he held Sheep’s hand — her understanding in fact wasn’t wrong, but sometimes calling someone “dad” so suddenly could really scare a person into pissing their pants!
He didn’t understand how a pure and white virgin male like him could suddenly become a father.
This situation actually couldn’t be blamed on Sheep, as no one in the Wang family’s small villa had ever explained this to her. Because she was young, Pen and Rubber had banded together with all the goblins in the villa to set the rule forbidding anyone to tell dirty jokes in front of her. After a while, this bunch of crass-talking goblins started speaking to her less.
Wang Ling felt that he had to find time in the future to properly explain to Sheep some necessary things, in order to avoid causing unnecessary trouble.
…
The address for Boss Luo’s shop was No. 300 Amitayus Road in Songhai city’s old district.
This was an old street with a long history.
Wang Ling had once heard that the reason why the street was called Amitayus Road was that the Immortal Emperor Amitayus had once had a residence here, and it was said that the entire place had been built out of the legendary Amitayus godly wood.
In ancient times, the Amitayus tree had been a godly tree that could grow without end up into the sky. It was very unfortunate, however, that the last historical record of it showed that it had been destroyed in a civil war among several Almightys.
Wang Ling had seen the old, faded picture of that old residence which was still floating around on the Internet, but it was so weathered that he couldn’t determine the truth of this old residence just from a single image.
The only thing he could be sure of was that this old residence was definitely no longer on Amitayus Road.
Because back when Huaxiu nation had just been founded, every city block had undergone planned renovations, and the old residence left behind by Immortal Emperor Amitayus was rumored to have “died” in the hands of a demolition team…
Following the address, Wang Ling arrived at the entrance to a shop called “Fatty Luo Metalware.”
The architecture along Amitayus Road was pretty much all in the same ancient style, and nothing stood out. You could only find the place you wanted by following the door numbers.
After the demolition team had inadvertently pulled down Immortal Emperor Amitayus’s old residence, the government had followed up with renovation works, directly changing Amitayus Road into a city block and erecting a statue of Immortal Emperor Amitayus at the beginning of the street with his profile written beneath it.
Then, this whole street inexplicably became Immortal Emperor Amitayus’s former residence.
Wang Ling seriously suspected that even the person who had written the profile didn’t really know who Immortal Emperor Amitayus was…
…
When Wang Ling brought Sheep over to the shop’s entrance, he saw that the doorstep was unusually high at over half a meter tall.
He picked Sheep up and stepped across the threshold. As soon as he entered, he saw a fat man leaning back in a bamboo chair. He had a big head and was wearing a white undershirt and a large pair of underpants, and was fanning himself with a palm-leaf fan as he puffed on a pipe.
“Be careful when you enter; the shop’s doorstep might be made of wood, but it’s priceless. Do you know Amitayus wood? This is the last one of its kind in the world.” Fatty Luo sensed that someone had entered the shop, and he waved the fan without bothering to take a look as he spoke.
It was only when there was no response from his visitor for a long time that he slit his eyes open to take a look, upon which he immediately got up from his chair. “So it’s Ling Zhenren, sorry, sorry…”
Fatty Luo had never seen Wang Ling before, but he had seen Sheep. He knew that the legendary Ling Zhenren would be bringing Sheep over for maintenance today, so he could deduce this teenager’s identity from Sheep’s presence.
Because of the way Grenade-Throwing Senior Immortal wildly lauded Wang Ling, the people in the chat group all had the utmost respect for the latter. Though Fatty Luo wasn’t in the group, he was still a member of the organization. When people from the chat group came to his shop to get their magic weapons serviced, a fair number of them would mention Ling Zhenren’s glorious deeds.
Luckily, Wang Ling wasn’t in the habit of casually bragging about his friends to other people, otherwise this would have been the legendary “professional tooting of mutual horns(1.This refers to the way some celebrities praise each other for the products they endorse or the films they star in as leads).”
Today was the first time that Fatty Luo was meeting Wang Ling.
Given the way he was dressed, this fatty looked a little sloppy, but Wang Ling’s first impression wasn’t one of disgust; conversely, he thought that the other man seemed very amiable.
Fatty Luo rummaged around in his large underpants for quite a while before finally checking another pair of underpants hanging over the back of the bamboo chair and pulling out a slightly yellow business card which he gave to Wang Ling. “Ling Zhenren, this is my business card. If you need me for anything, call me in advance.”
Wang Ling read the profile on the card: Fatty Luo Metalware Store Manager, Luo Chuang.
Putting the business card away, he began to look around the shop carefully. It actually wasn’t very large; there was a wooden counter at the door and next to it was the deck chair which Fatty Luo used whenever he took a break. On both sides of the counter were two large wooden cabinets that looked very heavy.
Each cabinet had hundreds of drawers densely packed together. At first glance, it looked a little like the cabinets used in the old Chinese medicine shops which specialized in the traditional treatment of psoriasis.
“The shop’s a little messy, don’t mind it, Ling Zhenren.”
When Fatty Luo saw Wang Ling’s expression, he laughed. “This left cabinet contains the magic weapons that have already been serviced and which are ready for customer pick-up. The right cabinet contains those that are still being serviced or repaired. There are queue numbers on the cabinet, and I fix a few each day according to the numbers.”
Hearing this, Wang Ling’s eyebrows twitched despite himself. He hadn’t expected Fatty Luo, despite his stout build, to be someone who was good at planning.
“I’ve known Grenade-Throwing for a long time, and we’re all like real brothers. Before Ling Zhenren came, he called me especially so that you wouldn’t need to wait in the queue.” Fatty Luo waved the palm-leaf fan and smiled. His eyes were very small and only as big as mung beans. When he smiled, they became slits and his pupils couldn’t be seen.
“Will it take long?” Instead of speaking, Wang Ling asked his question telepathically.
“Not long, not long. Ling Zhenren, sit here for a while. I’ll take Sheep inside for repairs, it’ll be quick.” Fatty Luo looked at his watch, then called for Sheep to move further into the shop. On the way, he suddenly pulled open a drawer at the counter. “There’re some small snacks in here which I’ve prepared. Ling Zhenren, feel free to help yourself to them.”
Small snacks?
Wang Ling walked closer to take a look.
Good fellow… this entire drawer contained crispy noodle snacks in all sorts of flavors!
This fatty was very sensible!