CHAPTER 96: CHAPTER 96: MARTIAL ARTIST MEET-AND-GREET

The bathroom didn’t have a bathtub, so Chen Shouyi could only fill the sink with some warm water.

He took off the Shell Lady’s clothes and threw them into the trash.

"My clothes!" the Shell Lady cried out in heartache.

"I’ll buy you new ones next time," Chen Shouyi said.

"I want them to be as pretty as these!" the Shell Lady demanded.

"Alright, alright!"

Once Chen Shouyi agreed, she didn’t wait for him to urge her and went to the edge of the sink to sit down, and then slid down the porcelain wall like a slide into the basin, splashing water everywhere.

She dove into the water, submerged for about ten seconds, then surfaced and spat a mouthful of water at Chen Shouyi.

She walked around in the sink, constantly splashing and playing, occasionally doing the dog paddle.

After all, she’s a sea creature, how could she be afraid of water?

Looking at her petite yet shapely figure, Chen Shouyi felt no emotion.

What’s the use of having those?

"I want fragrant bubbles!" she said loudly after a while.

He had no choice but to get some bath gel, tear open the packet, and pour it into the sink: "Stop playing and hurry up and wash!"

...

After a dozen minutes, Chen Shouyi dried the Shell Lady’s body and dressed her in new clothes.

Then he turned on a cartoon and ignored her.

Meanwhile, he bitterly took his briefcase and began cleaning meticulously.

He felt like picking up the Shell Lady was like having a daughter.

...

Hedong Grand Hotel.

A famous five-star hotel in Hedong City.

Today’s Martial Artist meeting is arranged here.

"Welcome!" Two greeters dressed in qipao said in a coy voice.

Chen Shouyi walked straight through the door, his gaze unwavering. To look more formal, he specifically bought a suit, which made him appear a lot more mature.

He pressed the elevator button and soon reached the fifth-floor hall, which was already quite bustling.

The representatives of the provincial capital from various counties and cities in Jiangnan Province had already set up their exhibition stands.

Except for the fact that the number of interviewers far exceeded the number of Martial Artists, the place was akin to a job fair.

Chen Shouyi spotted the Dongning City representative’s stand among them.

"Here he comes!"

"Yes, indeed!"

The greeting was from the same group of Martial Artists, the two casually exchanged pleasantries before passing each other to seek out their intended targets.

Chen Shouyi noticed that they weren’t the only ones attending the meeting, there was another group of around twenty to thirty people, but compared to the nearly fifty to sixty representatives here from various counties and cities, it’s still an imbalance of supply and demand.

Among them was a representative from a county-level city who, finding no inquiries for a while, decided to stand up and shout:

"Choosing us Louhua City is the best choice. Although our city isn’t as developed as Hedong Ningzhou, we value Martial Artists differently. Anyone who comes to Louhua City gets a settlement fee of five million and a villa..."

Seeing Louhua City being so shameless, a neighboring county-level city’s representative started to loudly promote: "Our Luoshan City offers even better conditions. I’ve come with the mayor’s orders to recruit Martial Artists at any cost. Five million is nothing; our Luoshan City offers six million, also a villa, and if you come to Luoshan City, all conditions are negotiable!"

"We Ping Hill City also offer six million with the same conditions..."

Chen Shouyi found himself puzzled:

"Didn’t Director Fang say the highest settlement fee in Hedong City was three million? How come a city just offers six million, and if willing to negotiate, the settlement fee might even be higher?"

But thinking about the chaos in Dongning nowadays, Chen Shouyi suddenly understood.

With the supernatural powers invading from another world, satellites losing contact, mobile signal outages, communications except for landlines nearly cut off, most counties and cities are even still in power outages, with regional surveillance virtually useless.

The ability of counties and cities to defend against the supernatural plummets, a few rampant Barbarian invasions are enough to leave them utterly baffled and in chaos.

The role of Martial Artists immediately stands out.

...

The last two stands belonged to two Martial Artist Departments.

One was the Third Category Affairs Investigation Bureau, a department that appeared when he first encountered a cult ritual incident.

The other was the Martial Arts Certification and Discipline Inspection Office, which Chen Shouyi was familiar with.

"Hey, Chen Shouyi, come over here!" Director Fang, keen-eyed, immediately called out to Chen Shouyi upon seeing him.

Chen Shouyi felt helpless and had to walk over.

"Have you thought it over?" Director Fang asked.

Beside him sat a young, beautiful assistant, who curiously glanced at Chen Shouyi.

Chen Shouyi gently replied, "I haven’t decided yet, I want to take a look around.".

"Tell me, what’s puzzling you? I can help analyze it," Director Fang suggested with a sly smile.

Chen Shouyi was about to respond when the voice suddenly came from the Third Category Affairs Investigation Bureau’s stand next to him: "Hey old Fang, you’re abusing public privilege here!"

Soon, a middle-aged man with a square face came over with a smile:

"Young man, what’s good about going to the Certification Office? It’s so boring there, you’ll be busy to death every day. You’re better off coming to our Third Bureau, where nothing happens unless there’s an accident."

If someone valued enough to be recruited by the Certification Office doesn’t need saying, they’re definitely the best talent. Moreover, this young man, with a youthful look on his face, must be quite young, and youth itself symbolizes potential.

"Go away, every time it’s you, your department’s one incident is a big one, with the highest mortality rate," Director Fang sneered.

"You think yours is much better? You sacrificed two people just last year!" the square-faced man retorted, then said: "We have the best benefits and the highest subsidies. Besides the city’s settlement fee, our department will also resolve housing issues."

"You can resolve housing?" Chen Shouyi couldn’t help but ask; this issue has become a major family concern.

The square-faced man smiled triumphantly: "Indeed, our department has self-built communities that are directly villas."

"Your place is practically rural; what’s there to brag about? Moreover, you might be dispatched to county-level cities, making returning difficult," Director Fang said with a cold face: "We’re different, except for short-term business trips, the work is mostly in Hedong. As for housing issues, besides the normal settlement fee, our department will give another ten million."

"You’re just arguing, aren’t you?" the square-faced man said with a darkened face.

"You’re the one arguing!" Director Fang lightly tapped the table, standing up.

The two started getting aggressive, causing the atmosphere to freeze.

Seeing this, Chen Shouyi quickly said: "Thank you, leaders, for your favor. Let me say this: considering I’m still a minor and have no plans for work yet, neither department is suitable for me. I’ll look around elsewhere first!"

He stood up and swiftly made his exit, not wanting to get involved in the dispute between two bigwigs. Agreeing with one would offend the other, and although the conditions were tempting, they weren’t so easy to attain.

Watching Chen Shouyi leave.

Director Fang snorted, his face darkening, glaring at the square-faced man as he sat down.

The cooked duck somehow flew away.

...

Chen Shouyi breathed a sigh of relief, soon arriving at the Hedong City representative’s stand, only to find it unoccupied, surrounded by quite a few Martial Artists nearby.

"What’s going on here? No one’s around!"

"The Hedong City representative is on the phone trying to get a higher settlement fee," explained a Martial Artist in the know.

So that’s it!

It used to be that the Hedong City representative’s settlement fee was the highest, but unexpectedly today this Martial Artist meeting has become so popular, with various counties and cities directly inflating the prices, disrupting the market order, making the three million settlement fee somewhat unpalatable now. If they adhere to the previous standard, Hedong City might not recruit anyone this time.

Before long, the Hedong City representative hurried back.

Without waiting to catch his breath, he took out a correction fluid and whiteboard marker, quickly modifying the fare on the stand.

"Eight million, Hedong City’s settlement fee changed to eight million."