บท 10: Nianjing Pavilion (4)

Luo Hua giggled at her childish response.

"Alright, alright. Aren't we going to Nianjing Pavilion? Let's go, let's go." Yue Luo pouted as she walked over. Seeing this scene, Sung Ming wanted to cry. 'I am the manager, ah! Howe come everyone's ignoring me now? Where did the respect displayed a few minutes ago disappear to?! Were they messing with me? Is that why they never listen to me?' A million thoughts ran through Sung Ming's mind before he was pulled back to reality by his Master's call.

"Manager Sung, what are you spacing out for? Let's go!" He looked over to see that the people previously gathered in the room were already leaving through the front door with Mu Shenchou, Shen Tianyu, Yue Luo and Luo Hua lagging behind looking at him.

"Coming, coming." He mumbled somewhat dejectedly.

"Manager Sung, what's wrong? You look so down. Today's my first day, if you frown like that, you're going to give me bad luck." Shen Tianyu said upon seeing his dejected look.

"Nothing, nothing. I was just thinking about something." Sung Ming responded.

"Well, we're going to celebrate now. So smile!" She looked ahead of her at the increasing gap between their group and the rest of the crowd. "Ah! We're falling behind. Hurry, hurry!" She warned as she ran off.

The two men sighed while the two women giggled as they followed after her.

At Nianjing Pavilion.

As the crowd from the Lavender Palace entered, the whispers in the restaurant multiplied and heightened in volume.

"Hey. Aren't they from Lavender Palace?"

"Lavender Palace? What's that?"

"You idiot. You don't even know what Lavender Palace is? Are you even human? It's the strongest force on this continent right now. Not only does the royal family have to defer to them, there are rumors that they were only created 5 years ago!"

"Eh? Really? What kind of place is it?"

"Believe it or not. It's actually a brothel. Speaking of which, all the women there are so alluring... Not to mention it's novel service of... what was it? Pole-dancing? Eheheh... The most popular courtesan, Luo Hua comes from Lavender Palace. Eheheheh"

"Oh! Are you talking about THAT Luo Hua? So she's from someplace like that?"

As the big group walked past, countless whispers about the prostitutes and Lavender Palace itself arose. Manager Sung was able to squeeze to the front as he greeted the astonished little servant in charge of welcoming customers.

"Greetings, young one, we are here to dine as a group tonight. This one is wondering if there's a room available for us. There should have been a servant that made a reservation earlier today."

'Young one?' Shen Tianyu restrained herself from rolling her eyes. 'This servant boy seems to be about 18 or so. You're not that old yourself. Who are you calling young one? If you're old, what about the Old Master and all the other elders of this world. Would they be immortal monsters?'

The servant broke out of his reverie and hastily bowed. "Yes, yes. There is a reservation for Lavender Palace from earlier today. Please follow me." The servant indicated without looking up. The happy, chattering group followed the servant boy and their manager.

As they sat down, everyone started talking about what to order.

"I heard their Beef Noodles and Mutton Stew are quite delicious!"

"Their Dumplings are quite delicious, too."

"I heard their Yak Meat Dumplings is a regular favorite."

Seeing the group discuss, Shen Tianyu turned toward the waiter. "Excuse me, what do you recommend?"

The nervous waiter stuttered an answer. "U-uh. T-This... Our Fried Mashi is also quite popular... I think you should also add that to your list..."

Shen Tianyu turned towards the slightly black-faced Sung Ming. "Then, we'll have Mutton Stew, Fried Mashi, Beef Noodles, Dumplings, Yak Meat Dumplings..."

While Sung Ming kept silent, the waiter quickly wrote down her order. After getting everyone to quite down, she had the waiter read the order to the group to see if there was anything else to add. Afterwards, the little waiter retreated to place their orders with the kitchen.

As the waiter left, the large group turned towards each other and started chatting among themselves, excluding Sung Ming and Shen Tianyu. People kept throwing, what they thought was subtle, glances at the two, trying to guess their relationship. After all, new workers at Lavender Palace, were entrusted to and guided by older workers of the same profession and were introduced by the trusted seniors to everyone else whenever they passed someone. Of course, the Manager and vice-manager got along with everyone quite well. They would even greet the servants in the hallways. It was just, such a task was too tedious and would take too much of their time, which should be used for more important things, like managing Lavender Palace. Not to mention Manager Sung, even Sir Mu, the vice-manager of Lavender Palace, never personally introduced a new worker to someone else, much less gather everyone to introduce them as soon as they woke up. 'Who was this little girl?