Chapter 63: A Simple Task

The dishes began to be served one after another.

When it came down to it, they were all ordinary dishes; there was no bamboo shoot made with the bone marrow of a hundred black-bone chickens, no minced meat stuffed inside bean sprouts, and certainly no rare delicacies on the verge of extinction that one couldn't find elsewhere. At most, the ingredients were slightly better than home-cooked meals, the preparation was a bit more attentive, and the presentation was a little more pleasing to the eye.

The taste was still acceptable, above average.

Generally, in places like this, as long as you aren't hosting a banquet for dozens of tables and are instead ordering small stir-fried dishes in a private room, it might not be incredibly delicious, but it is rarely bad.

Chen Shu ate everything clean, even using the broth from the seafood-braised tofu to soak his rice. He also finished the blueberry osmanthus wine, wiped his mouth, and said to President Ning, "Let's go. I'll accompany you to inspect the situation upstairs; it's a good way to aid digestion after a meal."

"Mm."

President Ning stood up to pay the bill.

The two walked upstairs one after the other. Hearing that they wanted to discuss business here, the waiter enthusiastically took them on a tour and introduced the facilities.

Qingqing and Xiaoxiao remained in the private room.

The second floor was a teahouse combined with a chess and card room.

The third floor was a conference room.

The fourth floor had indoor sports like billiards.

The fifth and sixth floors were for steam baths, bathing, and massage, and also offered accommodation.

The seventh, eighth, and ninth floors were for regular accommodation, open to the public, and rooms could be booked on all major software platforms.

President Ning had actually wanted to head back once they reached the fourth floor, as he wasn't very interested in what was above, but Chen Shu said he was stuffed and wanted to walk more, adding that people nowadays liked to have baths and massages when meeting clients, so he didn't say anything further.

He didn't care about any of these things.

Today, President Ning was dressed in formal attire. Though he was middle-aged, he didn't look old at all and possessed a natural air of distinction; one could tell at a glance that he was no ordinary person.

The waiter naturally did their best to provide an introduction.

They walked all the way to the ninth floor.

Chen Shu poked his head out to peek at the corridor: "The rooms on this floor are the best, right?"

"Yes, they are."

The waiter smiled broadly: "We provide one-stop service. If you feel tired after discussing business downstairs, you can come up here to rest. If you book in advance, you can do so through review and group-buying apps for a discount."

"Is there another floor above this?"

"There is."

"What is that used for?"

"That floor is..." the waiter said tactfully, "for providing services to VIPs."

"Is it expensive?"

"Standard pricing, fair to all customers."

"Oh... can we go up and take a look?"

"That... wouldn't be very convenient. They are all VIPs, and we cannot afford to be held responsible if they are disturbed," the waiter said. "If you were consuming services here, you certainly wouldn't want to be disturbed either, would you?"

"That's true, privacy must be guaranteed."

"You can rest assured on that point; we absolutely do it properly!"

"Alright, thank you."

"You're welcome, you're welcome. If you, boss, would like to come and consume our services, you can look for me. I will definitely provide you with attentive service."

"This is the real boss."

"Both of you are bosses!"

"Haha..."

The two walked slowly downstairs.

President Ning gave Chen Shu a faint look but said nothing.

Chen Shu chuckled, not minding at all.

Returning to the restaurant's private room on the first floor, the two sisters were staring at each other, neither saying a word, while Taozi was crawling around the table, sniffing everywhere.

"Xiaoxiao."

Chen Shu beckoned to the young girl: "Do you want to go out and play with us tonight?"

"Yes."

"Is it alright with your teacher?"

"It is."

"Are you sure?"

"Mm."

"Alright then."

Chen Shu grabbed his jacket and walked out, saying to President Ning with a beaming smile, "Uncle, you can just head back on your own. We're going to walk around a bit, and I'll drop Xiaoxiao off at the hotel later tonight."

President Ning only glanced at him before walking out of the restaurant, hailing a taxi, and leaving.

He didn't even say goodbye.

Tsk tsk...

It's a good thing my Qingqing and sister-in-law aren't like him.

Once President Ning's car was far away, the young girl looked at Chen Shu and asked curiously, "Brother-in-law, what's on their top floor?"

"Just what I said."

"Massages? Are they legitimate?"

"They should be legitimate, right?"

"Brother-in-law, you mustn't go!"

"Legitimate massages aren't anything..."

"I know," the little girl said in a tone just like an adult's, "it looks legitimate, but in reality, it's all tainted with a bit of that..."

"You..."

Chen Shu patted her head and hailed a taxi.

They arrived at Ning Qing's small courtyard.

It was already dark.

Ning Qing turned on the lights in the yard, as well as the light strips circling the courtyard wall, illuminating the yard brightly—she had cleared away the withered branches and rotten trees, and the remaining plants had been carefully pruned by her, but the yard still appeared somewhat empty, with many flower beds left vacant; she wanted to save them to plant her roses.

Although the little girl was curious, her face remained calm, showing no particular expression, only rolling her eyes to look left and right.

Chen Shu led her around to introduce the place to her:

"Look, a persimmon tree."

"Mm."

"The dried persimmons we made."

"They look like lanterns."

"They haven't been flattened yet; once they're flattened and frosted, they'll look like dried persimmons. I don't know if they'll taste good."

"Mm."

"There are two sparrows that are always coveting our dried persimmons."

"Let Taozi eat them."

The white cat named Taozi followed them as they walked; Chen Shu pointed at the persimmon tree, and it followed his gaze to look at the persimmon tree; Chen Shu pointed at the dried persimmons and the treetops, and it also turned its head to look where Chen Shu was pointing, its expression just like a human's.

This was a spirit cat, not an ordinary cat; the main difference between a spirit cat and an ordinary cat was that it was expensive—it had cost over a hundred thousand to buy back then.

"There are many rooms. If you do well in the competition, you can come stay at Sister's place in the future, and I'll have Sister tidy up a room for you."

"Will Sister let me stay?"

"Of course."

"She isn't saying anything."

"She's a fool right now, after all."

"Oh, right."

"Actually, Sister misses you a lot too, she's just too shy to say it."

"Is that so?"

"Of course."

The two of them talked as they walked into the room, while Ning Qing followed silently behind them, but both of them seemed to act as if she didn't exist. Only Taozi stayed close to her heels, walking inside with her, nearly getting stepped on several times.

"Brother-in-law, where is your room?"

"Brother-in-law doesn't have a room."

"Then where do you sleep? Do you sleep next to Sister?"

"I sleep on the sofa."

"How miserable."

"Yeah."

After touring Sister's new home, sitting for a while, and watching some TV, chatting about what had happened during this time, it was about enough.

Chen Shu sent the little girl back.

The next day.

Chen Shu received the package sent by the group owner, which contained the bugging devices he had processed, two in total, as well as two pieces of Forbidden Drug, Muxian Incense.

Grandma always said she was very thoughtful.

Chen Shu was in no rush; he went to Tanxi Building to eat a meal again, ordered the seafood braised tofu that tasted good yesterday, then went upstairs to drink a cup of tea, and by the afternoon, he booked a 288 Martial Artist Massage Package, the kind that targets acupoints on a massage chair, enjoying the service of a female technician.

288 is the price for a normal massage, after all.

During the process, he inquired about the market.

To a newcomer like him, young and shy, looking decent and not short of money, the female technician judged him to be a potential high-quality client, so she introduced the normal consumption situation of Tanxi Building to him in detail.

It was soliciting business, after all.

The legitimate massage at Tanxi Building was just like this; some shops might hint to customers about special services during the process, but Tanxi Building would not.

Yujing had not been strict in its management over the past two years, but it wasn't loose either; they would check on average once a year.

It hadn't started yet this year.

For shops like this, it wasn't about how much background they had, but they did have some connections. Some could get news in advance when a check was coming; during a crackdown, they would temporarily close such services, or they had their own circles. After all, police resources were limited and they couldn't check all shops at once; there was always an order of priority. Whichever shop got checked would pass the news along, and the rest would immediately behave, basically allowing them to muddle through. It wasn't like it was murder or arson, anyway.

That was why there were always some shops that everyone knew were doing this kind of business, yet they never went under.

But every year, there were also many shops that couldn't get the news in advance, and they basically went under as soon as they were checked. Or if they encountered a particularly strict time when the higher-ups attached great importance to it, your connections might not necessarily leak the news to you. If the first shot landed on you, then you just had to consider yourself unlucky.

Tanxi Building was still timid and wouldn't promote or hint.

Only when a customer took the initiative to ask would the waiter inform them of the details at their discretion.

The price wasn't expensive either, just the normal rate, but there were two tiers—the first tier was where you opened a room in the restaurant and the technician came to provide service. The other tier was the top floor, like the popular courtesans of ancient times; you had to go to the girl's room yourself to receive service, and each girl and the room they were in had been given a pleasant and elegant name.

"Boss, do you want..."

"Forget it for today..."

"Alright, look for me next time!"

"Sure, sure..."

Chen Shu left the place after his massage.

The next day, he went to mooch off Jiang Lai's Martial Artist class, leaving himself sore and aching all over, so it was the perfect time to get another massage, and he called for the same young lady from yesterday.

The young lady had a good touch.

I'll stay here today; I booked a room on the ninth floor, compared three different booking platforms, and chose the cheapest one.

In the middle of the night, Chen Shu went out for a late-night snack, and when he returned around five in the morning, he pretended to be drunk and ran up to the tenth floor to take a look.

There were no surveillance cameras installed in the hallway.

There was only one attendant on duty, waiting to serve the patrons coming up; seeing him go to the wrong place, the attendant didn't think anything of it, remained courteous and polite, escorted him back to his room according to the room number on his key card, and even tucked him in and took off his shoes.

It felt like the mission was still quite simple.

After all, this was just a service establishment, not the Yiguo Intelligence Bureau.

The simplest and safest way would be to pay for a service in the rooms of these two young women; that would certainly allow for installing the bug, but that was obviously out of the question.

Even if it wasn't "that kind of thing," it still wouldn't do.

He had to show enough respect for Qingqing.

No matter how much Qingqing trusted him, and no matter whether Qingqing could verify the truth of the matter through Secret Sect Secret Art, this was a matter of attitude.

"Emmm..."

Chen Shu lay on the bed, eyes fixed on the ceiling, and he inexplicably began to wonder if that silly group member was also too embarrassed to go upstairs for a service, and just found an excuse to hand the task of installing the bug here to him?

"Spirit Eye!"

Chen Shu activated a Spell, and strange light began to flicker in his eyes.

For a moment, he could only see the Spirit Power of the world—

The world changed appearance in his eyes; everything was empty and hollow, turned into nothingness, and this nothingness of the world was covered by a thin layer of light, which was Spirit Power. And in front of him were bright or dim points of light, which were the ordinary people and Cultivators on the floor above.

Ordinary people also had Spirit Power fluctuations, very small, but unlike the evenly distributed Spirit Power in the natural world, they were easy to identify.

Cultivators, on the other hand, had more or less Spirit Power leaking out.

That attendant was a Cultivator.

Grandma Always Says that the young women in the two provided rooms were both ordinary people, but only one of the rooms had a guest, who was also a Cultivator.

As for what rank, he couldn't tell.

This Spell could only see the slight Spirit Power fluctuations naturally leaking from a Cultivator's body; it could not observe another person's Spirit Sea, and if the other party used some method to deliberately hide these Spirit Power fluctuations, they could not be observed.

If he learned infrared observation later and combined them, it would be the principle of the basic reconnaissance equipment and reconnaissance techniques commonly used by the military.

Chen Shu maintained the Spirit Eye, his Spirit Power consuming rapidly.

About half an hour passed.

Just as his Spirit Power was about to hit bottom, the attendant took the elevator down to the first floor, not knowing what for.

Probably to use the restroom.

Isn't the opportunity here now?

Chen Shu came to the room on the left that had no guests; to be safe, he still pushed a piece of Muxian Incense through the door crack, activated it, waited half a minute, held his breath, and opened the door to enter the room; the door was unlocked.

Inside, only one young woman was sleeping.

He quickly hid the bug and walked out openly, heading downstairs, just as if he were a customer.

One room left.

No rush, no rush.

Chen Shu had already memorized the room number and decided to wait until that young woman had no business, to avoid her customer being of too high a rank, rendering the Muxian Incense useless.

He opened the Ancient Cultivation Group.

Qingcai Keke: @Grandma Always Says

Qingcai Keke: Senior Brother, are you asleep? My friend and I are still staying up late installing bugs!!

Qingcai Keke: One is installed now, you can receive the signal, right?

Qingcai Keke: Senior Brother, you must be sleeping very soundly, right?

Qingcai Keke: There's one more, I'll install it in a couple of days; it's not good for my friend to go too frequently, she says her autonomic nervous system can't take it.

Qingcai Keke: I'm going to sleep too.

Qingcai Keke: Goodnight, Senior Brother, sweet dreams.