Chapter 30: Ten Thousand Affairs, No Affairs
The next day, as soon as dawn broke, Liu Sheng woke up with a splitting headache.
This was her first day on duty as a Menshi.
She really shouldn't have been so impulsive; although she gained a lot, she almost fell to her death.
After washing up, she put on a pink dress and went to the dining hall for breakfast.
Along the way, she noticed people looking at her strangely, but she didn't know why.
The breakfast at Qinghe Weaving Institute was quite good: two golden, fragrant beef patties, a bowl of millet porridge, and a small dish of pickled vegetables.
However, it was a bit uncomfortable when people kept secretly pointing at her, whispering and exchanging glances while she ate.
When she arrived at the Ten Thousand Affairs Hall, she also saw Su Yanjun looking at her with a pained and sorrowful expression.
Only after asking did she realize that it had spread throughout the entire Qinghe Weaving Institute: the new Menshi from Li County Weaving Institute, out of unwillingness, forcibly tried to commune with the divine, resulting in a backlash and spitting blood.
Although she had only arrived yesterday and people didn't know what she looked like, everyone recognized Su Yanjun, and seeing her unfamiliar face and her Ten Thousand Affairs Hall Menshi uniform, they knew she was the subject of this joke.
"Communing with the divine cannot be forced. There are no difficult things in the world; you just need to be willing to give up. Look, I can't commune with the divine either, but I still live comfortably and enjoy my food, don't I?"
Su Yanjun wanted to comfort Liu Sheng. She had just arrived and already became the joke of Qinghe Weaving Institute, so her mood must be bad.
But they still had to work together, and if a colleague was in a good mood, work would be more energetic.
She didn't want to face a gloomy colleague every day.
"It's nothing, I was just a bit too eager."
Liu Sheng wasn't entirely unconcerned, but she just felt there were other, more important matters.
Especially what she saw at the end.
She saw that in the far north, an unspeakable darkness was steadily approaching, and where the darkness encroached, it plunged into an endless Cold Night. In this lightless darkness, countless unknowable, invisible colossal beings began to awaken; they seemed to be lurking within the frost, holding their heads high, waiting, waiting for a certain signal…
What exactly this was, she couldn't explain, but her intuition told her it was real.
The Cold Night was coming. She didn't know when, nor what it would be like, only that it would be a catastrophic disaster.
Before that, she had many things to do. She needed to prepare, needed to become stronger to survive, to protect her family, her friends.
More importantly, she wanted to tear off that mysterious facade, expose the darkness hidden beneath the light, and understand the true nature of this world.
In fact, by now, Liu Sheng no longer felt she was trying to commune with the divine; she seemed to be blaspheming.
Even so, she still couldn't help but want to continue down this Dao.
"Perhaps I am the one who is right," Liu Sheng murmured softly to herself.
"What did you say?" Su Yanjun thought Liu Sheng was talking to her.
"Nothing. Now, do we need to do anything?" Liu Sheng quickly changed the subject.
Su Yanjun sat behind the counter, patted the newly moved chair beside her, and said, "What we need to do is wait."
Then she took out a plate of osmanthus cakes, a jar of peach blossom honey, and picked up a storybook, reading it with great relish.
Liu Sheng was speechless. She could only sit down as well, take out a copy of "Five Years of Formations, Three Years of Complete Solutions," and, like Su Yanjun, openly slack off.
...
After about an hour, the first person finally came through the door.
By this time, Su Yanjun had finished her osmanthus cakes and was sound asleep, using the storybook as a pillow.
Liu Sheng quickly got up to greet her, but then remembered she knew nothing, so she quickly nudged Su Yanjun with her elbow.
It was an Old Woman, dressed simply, with the marks of time etched on her face, carrying a small cloth bag in her hand.
"Excuse me, Old Woman, how may I help you?" Su Yanjun woke up, quickly tidied herself, and asked with a polite smile.
A hint of expectation appeared in the Old Woman's eyes: "I heard you can help find people and things here."
"Yes, may I know the specific details of the person you wish to find? I will determine the corresponding solution based on your situation and arrange for a dedicated person to follow up," Su Yanjun was very familiar with the dialogue.
The Old Woman's eyes became moist: "I want to find my Que'er, about three years old, and has been missing for three days..."
A three-year-old child missing for three days was a major case.
That would probably require notifying the county yamen and arranging for a constable.
Su Yanjun was quickly brainstorming.
But then she heard the Old Woman continue: "Que'er is about half an arm long, with tortoiseshell fur, four snow-white paws, a tuft of white fur on her tail, and her two eyes are like green gems..."
"Wait, Old Woman, is your Que'er a person?"
"How could she be?" the Old Woman asked in surprise, "Que'er is my little Li Nu!"
Her eyes seemed to show disdain for Su Yanjun asking such a question.
Li Nu means cat, but who would name a cat after a little bird!
Su Yanjun suppressed her inner urge to go wild and smiled at the Old Woman, saying, "Please wait a moment."
Then, she called out loudly, "Gao Yisheng!"
Liu Sheng was still wondering who Su Yanjun was calling; there were only the three of them present.
Then she saw a side door in the back hall of the Ten Thousand Affairs Hall open, and a thin man with sleepy eyes walked out, his carefree scarf askew on his head.
So someone had been there all along, just sleeping, completely unnoticed.
"What's wrong?" Gao Yisheng asked, still looking half-asleep.
"Your client wants to find a Li Nu."
Gao Yisheng immediately became energetic, as if he didn't mind at all that it was just a small case. He simply took the Old Woman's hand, led her to a small partitioned room set up next to the hall, and said gently, "Come, Lu family Old Madam, let's talk over here."
"Okay, that day, my Que'er went to catch sparrows, and then..."
Their figures and voices gradually disappeared behind the screen in front of the partitioned room.
Liu Sheng asked, "Is this the retainer of the Ten Thousand Affairs Hall?"
"Yes, he is Gao Yisheng, the retainer on duty this morning. This type of incident can be resolved by a retainer."
"Do these cases earn much?"
"Naturally, not much, but every little bit helps, doesn't it? They usually have other jobs and just work here part-time, so they earn what they can."
Su Yanjun pursed her lips, pointed at the screen, and said, "Like Gao Yisheng, he was originally a scholar heading to the capital for the imperial examination, but he got addicted to card games on the way and spent all his travel money, so he stayed here to work."
Liu Sheng was speechless.
After a day as a Menshi, besides the first case of finding a Li Nu which she didn't quite understand, she gradually got the hang of it later on.
In the afternoon, she also helped receive a case where a son ran away from home after a tantrum. Since the child was only six years old, a document was sent to the yamen to arrange for two constables to search, and he was quickly found. They also received three Lingtual in commission.
Indeed, as Su Yanjun said, this job wasn't too busy or too difficult, suitable for idling away one's life.
For Liu Sheng, this leisure time was very suitable for contemplation.
Su Yanjun would read storybooks or sleep whenever she found an opportunity.
Liu Sheng, on the other hand, would start reading, daydreaming, or having a spiritual conversation with her "mother" whenever she was free.
Currently, her "communing with the divine" or rather, "blasphemy" attempts had hit a Bottleneck. After yesterday, she temporarily dared not try again.
Not only was there no progress, but there might also be severe sequelae.
She needed to think carefully about what to do next.
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