Chapter 127: I Want to File a Complaint
Chapter 127: Chapter 127: I Want to File a Complaint
"Now, Uncle Hua, don’t get mad at what I’m about to say."
Cheng Yang gave a dry laugh. Only after seeing Uncle Hua nod did he stammer,
"I went grave-robbing."
"Grave-robbing? Whose grave did you rob?"
Uncle Hua’s voice shot up. He stared at Cheng Yang in astonishment, truly not expecting this honest kid to be capable of such a dark deed.
"My own grave."
The heart that had leaped into Uncle Hua’s throat began to settle...
Cheng Yang smiled sheepishly. "And yours, Uncle Hua."
...and then it shattered.
"You little brat! I’m gonna kill you!"
Without another word, Uncle Hua rained blows down on him. Knowing he was in the wrong, Cheng Yang didn’t dare fight back and could only scamper off while covering his head.
Only when the two of them were far from the main group did Uncle Hua stop.
"Alright, stop pretending. I wasn’t even hitting you hard."
Back at the savory crepe stall, the many villagers had paused their weeping because of the duo’s "friendly exchange." But looking at their faces, they were as pale as ghosts.
’Oh, right. They’re already ghosts.’
’Never mind then.’
"Kid, how many Spirit Stones are left in my grave?"
Uncle Hua asked, his heart filled with a mix of emotions.
"Still a lot. I didn’t take much." Cheng Yang made a small gesture, earning an exasperated laugh from Uncle Hua.
His laughter trailed off, and he fell silent.
He stood there quietly. The savory, saucy flavor of the crepe seemed to linger on his lips and tongue, and his heart filled with the relief of waking from a long dream, along with an indescribable sense of loss.
"We ghosts shouldn’t be causing trouble in the mortal world."
"Making trouble for people every day... I’m not that thick-skinned."
"Take me to the graveyard."
Uncle Hua let out a long sigh and mustered what little energy he had to follow behind Cheng Yang.
He planned to dig up the remaining Spirit Stones from his grave. Every single person from the village had to get a savory crepe.
How could he not share something so delicious?
When a man gets ruthless, he’ll even dig up his own grave.
The food stall was bustling.
The customers first poured out their woes to Lu Wu, then hoped she would add more fillings to their savory crepes.
Lu Wu found their dramatic stories quite entertaining, but adding extra fillings was out of the question.
Treating everyone equally, Lu Wu ignored the customers’ teary-eyed, pleading looks.
"Feng Dao You, this garlic sauce is seriously potent! One bite is a real kick. Don’t believe me? Take a whiff."
After finishing his garlic-sauce crepe, a troublemaking male customer sidled up to a female cultivator and began speaking loudly, breathing in her direction.
Waves of the pungent odor drifted over. The female cultivator, who hated the smell of garlic, slapped him square across the face.
"I will be back!"
WHOOSH!
The male customer went flying, leaving behind a classic, famous line.
Batter was continuously ladled and spread, and the fragrance of wheat lingered in the air.
One after another, golden, crispy savory crepes were handed to the customers, who then compared with one another whose chosen flavor was more delicious.
Lu Wu’s newest creation, wasabi sauce, received unanimous praise.
The sauce was a vibrant green, ground entirely by hand, with no weird additives or chemical tricks.
The finely textured sauce had a fresh, herbal fragrance, capturing the hearts of many female cultivators with its looks alone.
But only after they actually tasted it did they feel the full impact of the wasabi sauce.
It was an extremely fresh spiciness. While your taste buds were still savoring its exquisite flavor, the pungent sensation had already shot up from your sinuses straight to the crown of your head.
The wasabi’s heat didn’t burn the mouth like chili peppers, and the spiciness didn’t last long, but it was incredibly intense.
The customers trying wasabi sauce for the first time shed glistening teardrops for it.
Look at that, it’s so good it’s making them cry.
The novel sauce gave the cultivators of the Green Origin Realm a little shock. Lu Wu was thoroughly pleased with the outcome.
When Cheng Yang and Uncle Hua returned, they saw several cultivators munching on savory crepes while wiping away tears and hissing.
’These people aren’t from Little Sea Village, though.’
Confused, the two of them saw only a few people left in line and hurried over to queue up.
The two had been grunting and straining at their work for half the day and were now covered in dust and grime.
To avoid being looked down on by the other customers, they stood at the back, but unexpectedly still drew strange looks.
Again, and again.
Standing in the sunlight, Cheng Yang was scrutinized by numerous customers, and he inexplicably felt like he was being shamelessly gawked at.
"What are you looking at?"
Uncle Hua, who wasn’t nearly as good-tempered, demanded angrily.
’We’re already ghosts, what’s there to be afraid of from humans?’
"You guys don’t know?"
A kind-hearted customer said, then explained after seeing their two blank faces.
"The reason there are only a few people left in line is because Boss Lu ran out of batter. Even if you keep waiting, you won’t get anything."
That’s right. Lu Wu had once again underestimated her customers’ appetites.
These people were all clamoring with a thousand bizarre excuses to buy more savory crepes: one wasn’t enough, two couldn’t fill them up, three weren’t enough to share, four meant they’d miss lunch...
In short, they came up with all sorts of bizarre excuses to buy more savory crepes.
Later on, even when Lu Wu limited each person to five crepes, she couldn’t keep up with the sheer number of customers.
On the third day of her business, even customers from the farthest reaches had arrived.
The stall’s popularity far surpassed that of the previous two days.
Her reserves running low, Lu Wu was so busy her back ached. When she looked up, she was met by two faces that looked like the sky had fallen.
It was none other than Cheng Yang and Uncle Hua.
The two launched a spiritual attack on Lu Wu with their resentful glares, and for a moment, she couldn’t take it.
Her hand trembled, and a ladleful of batter fell to the ground.
SPLAT.
The previously noisy crowd of customers quieted down considerably.
Seeing the corners of the last customer’s eyes turn red, Lu Wu quickly tried to remedy the situation.
"Ahem, my apologies, that was my mistake. Come back tomorrow—tomorrow—and I’ll give you two savory crepes for free, how about that?"
She’d been running this stall for so long and had rarely done business at a loss.
"Then what am I supposed to do?"
"Five savory crepes! One for my wife, one for me, and one each for my parents. Now I can’t divide them evenly."
"I want to complain! I’m filing a complaint!"
The customer rubbed his eyes, his voice choked with sobs.
A grown man, crying at the drop of a hat.
What was he supposed to do? If he didn’t give one to his wife, he’d be sleeping in the study tonight. If he didn’t give them to his parents, he’d be scolded for being unfilial.
Lu Wu opened her mouth, wanting to say that if he just ate one less himself, it would all work out.
But seeing the customer’s blubbering state, Lu Wu didn’t dare say it.
If a customer filed a complaint, things could get serious.
’I have to find a way to fix this.’
Lu Wu sent out a silent plea for help to the surrounding customers. She remembered many of them had bought five crepes all for themselves; maybe one would sell a crepe back to her?
As Lu Wu looked over, those customers tacitly averted their gazes.
’It’s not that we don’t want to help you, Boss Lu.’
’If it were about money, that’s easy. We’d pull out handfuls of Spirit Stones. But asking for a savory crepe? No way.’
"Um, I’ll give you mine."
In the end, it was Uncle Hua who, with an embarrassed expression, pulled a perfectly intact savory crepe from his robes.
Beside him, Cheng Yang’s expression changed.
’Since when was Uncle Hua so sneaky? He even kept a secret stash.’
"I just hadn’t had enough to eat earlier."
Uncle Hua explained in a low voice. It was their fault for startling Boss Lu and making her drop the batter. Otherwise, he never would have revealed his secret.
With the complaint properly resolved, the customer immediately retracted his crocodile tears, picked up the savory crepe, and started eating.
The remaining four were already packed up.
He’d just go back and say he only managed to buy four. That way, his family would never know he ate an extra one.
’What a genius I am!’
MUNCH, MUNCH. A hard-won crepe really is the tastiest!