Book 15: Chapter 111
“Like a turning wheel, life never stops moving. If all affairs and things in the world were painted onto a single scroll, it would lack flavour due to the different materials, colours, speeds, connections and disconnections. Every accident would have been more accurately defined as a manifestation than an accident, a synthesis of coincidence and inevitability that nobody foresaw, but the consequences of each event were already planted beforehand. Despite lacking the ability to view everything and mull over everything simultaneously, when the teeth of the gears turn and click, mankind can surprise the world even if not always in interesting ways.” – “The Wheel of Karma”, Black and White Reflection, 238th Edition.
Ming Feizhen took Elise back to Dongpo after waiting it out for a while.
Dongpo served customers from all walks of life, and everybody had to respect their policies, such as lining up obediently, regardless of their identity, but their business boomed from day one and was virtually universally reviewed glowingly.
The majority of netizens had no place knowing who backed the restaurant built so high up in the capital, but everyone knew that nobody with their head screwed on right should have tried to pick a fight with Dongpo.
It was believed that Dongpo’s proprietor had no connections to Emperor’s Entourage. Ye Yun started using it as a meeting point with people in the pugilistic world long ago, reserving the same room each time. He later leveraged his post to become an investor in the business. The proprietor basically turned a blind eye to him no matter the circumstances. After learning of its secret from Zero, Ming Feizhen decided he had to investigate the establishment, which was the impetus for his first free meal from them.
Ming Feizhen learnt that the reason Dongpo surpassed the long-standing Eight Deities and top restaurant in the capital because of their backer, positive reviews, or the proprietor being fantastic at business but simply because their dishes were unbelievably tasty! The more he ate, the merrier he felt. The more he ate, the less motivation he had to leave. Their chef was able to provide him with new and novel dishes every meal. Nevertheless, no matter how close they might have been as soulmates, the bills still needed to be paid. That triggered Ming Feizhen’s first serious – but not his most serious – debt crisis.
Upon finally checking his tab, Ming Feizhen discovered he had never seen a larger number in his life, although he managed to settle the tab in the end – not without a whole series of fiascos. Regardless, he continued showing up to eat pork shoulders whenever they were available. Thanks to his diligence and appetite, he was Dongpo’s second most frequent customer after Ye Yun. The reason Ming Feizhen was able to ban certain folks from entering the establishment was not thanks to blackmail or benefits he provided; the reason was solely attributed to him being a long-time-frequent customer.
Getting rid of Ye Yun was the same as getting rid of all the agents. While meeting with Ye Yun was not ideal, it was the marginally better alternative to confronting all the agents who convened in the restaurant. Ming Feizhen had the confidence to escort Elise out of the capital, but he had no means of explaining how he suddenly vanished from their sight. Rather than let people connect the dots between his disappearance and Elise’s appearance, having Ye Yun hush his own subordinates was easier – which was not to say that it was the perfect solution.
The toughest part about dealing with Emperor’s Entourage was that they were not unshakably loyal to Ye Yun. From their inception, they were a group loyal only to His Majesty – a fact that not even Ye Yun could change. A number of the agents already had their suspicions about Ming Feizhen, which meant that they would report his disappearance to His Majesty. As for how Ming Feizhen was going to explain it… Well, that could wait.