Work Prophet
Chapter 171 - 19: Unexpected Gains

Chapter 171: Chapter 19: Unexpected Gains

Qin Shen and Zhou Xi had completely different personalities, one mature and steady, the other free-spirited and unrestrained, but they were both actually quite easy to get along with.

Especially when Li Yu took out the extra beef sandwiches to share with Zhou Xi who hadn’t eaten breakfast, it earned her high praise from the latter.

"Your sandwiches taste pretty unique, totally different from anything I’ve ever had at Subway, but they’re really good."

"Yeah, because I added some stewed vegetables inside, the recipe was given to me by an old chef, and I’ve made some of my own modifications to it."

"You even know a big-time chef," Zhou Xi clicked her tongue in wonder, "What cuisine does he specialize in? Sichuan, Cantonese, or Huaiyang? If he can make a sandwich with such flair, everything else he makes must be delicious too."

"Uh, actually aside from a few dishes that taste good because of their quality ingredients, most of his stuff isn’t that great, and there was one time I had to save a banquet he was hosting. This recipe was actually his way of thanking me afterwards."

After hearing this, Zhou Xi turned to Qin Shen and Zhang Yanlin, "See? Next time don’t keep saying I’m the one who boasts, this guy is the real heavyweight!"

The group continued on their way with lots of laughter and talk, arriving at the guesthouse they had booked by around one o’clock in the afternoon.

After a simple farm meal, they started to climb the mountain.

To avoid the large number of tourists on Saturdays and Sundays, Zhang Yanlin and the others deliberately chose a relatively secluded and less popular small mountain to climb, which was somewhat challenging.

It took about five hours to go up and down, and by the time they descended, it was already dark.

Zhou Xi ran the fastest of them all, bounding up and down at the beginning like Sun Wukong returning to Huaguo Mountain, but her energy was the quickest to deplete, and afterwards, she just hung limply at the back of the group, completely drained.

Since Qin Shen always sat in an office, his condition wasn’t much better and he was sweating profusely after climbing for a while.

On the other hand, even though Zhang Yanlin appeared frail, she had practiced dancing for a long time and had strong legs, so even after three or four hours, she still looked effortless.

As for Li Yu, his perseverance in exercising had paid off. Even though his back was soaked with sweat, he was able to keep up with Zhang Yanlin at the same pace.

This surprised her, "It’s been over a month since I saw you, and you seem much more energetic than before!"

"Yeah, I’ve been working out lately," said Li Yu.

"Really? I thought your new job would keep you busy, so I didn’t dare to contact you these past months."

"It is quite busy, but there’s more time for rest and personal matters, allowing me to do some of my own stuff."

"It shows. You can even cook now, which is unimaginable from before. I remember at the office you used to always order vegetarian clay pots to save trouble. I secretly counted once, and you probably ate vegetarian clay pot for more than twenty days in a row. Everyone was wondering when you would switch to something else."

"Yeah, because vegetarian clay pots are lighter in flavor, have less oil and salt, and also allow me to eat some greens, whereas other takeout is usually too rich," Li Yu said, then glanced at Zhang Yanlin.

"What is it?" Zhang Yanlin blinked.

"Nothing much, I’m just a bit surprised. I thought you would want to forget about that part of your life."

"I did think of doing that, but unfortunately, my brain isn’t a hard drive without a delete function, and then my therapist told me that if I really can’t forget it, I should try to accept it. After all, even the worst memories hide some wonderful moments.

"I thought about it, and felt she made some sense. If I hadn’t worked there, maybe I wouldn’t have met you... guys." Zhang Yanlin smiled as she finished speaking.

"How’s the new job search going?" Li Yu asked.

"I’ve interviewed with a few companies, but the salary is still not quite what I was hoping for... But I don’t want to drag it out any longer. After all, I’ve been out of work for over a year now, and staying home all the time has almost made me moldy. By the way, your new company seems pretty good. Are they hiring?"

"Turnover at The Third Era is pretty low, so they rarely recruit, but I can ask HR for you when I get back."

"Thanks, I really appreciate it. It’s embarrassing to keep troubling you, especially since I’ve already asked for favors so many times," said Zhang Yanlin apologetically.

"Don’t worry, it’s really no big deal."

The two didn’t say much more after that because Zhou Xi and Qin Shen, supporting each other, had finally caught up from behind. Then Zhang Yanlin and Li Yu also slowed their pace and continued walking down the mountain.

Once back at the guesthouse, Qin Shen borrowed a grill from the owner, bought a bag of charcoal, and took out various meats and vegetables they had stored in the fridge.

The four of them grilled, ate, and drank beer.

During the meal, Zhou Xi, feeling merry, did a little performance. Li Yu thought she would imitate the poet Li Bai and drunkenly compose poetry or perhaps paint, but instead, she stood up and did a Tianjin rapid-fire talk, fueled by alcohol.

After eating their fill, the four played cards for a while.

But things were not like the old university days; everyone had long since lost the stamina for burning the midnight oil. By eleven o’clock, Zhou Xi and Zhang Yanlin were yawning and headed off to bed.

Li Yu and Qin Shen also washed up, then lay down in their respective beds.

After a whole day’s trek, both clearly felt their bodies’ fatigue. It wasn’t long after lying down that they fell asleep, but Li Yu hadn’t expected the scholarly-looking Qin Shen to snore—and rather loudly at that.

In the middle of the night, Li Yu was woken up by his snoring and couldn’t get back to sleep afterward.

Li Yu glanced at Qin Shen, who was sleeping soundly, and decided not to wake him up. Instead, he quietly got dressed and left the room.

Since he couldn’t sleep anyway, he casually followed the village path for a walk and unconsciously made his way to the reservoir.

He hadn’t seen a soul on his way here, but when he arrived at the reservoir, Li Yu noticed faint lights shimmering on the distant water surface.

At first, Li Yu thought they were maintenance workers patrolling the reservoir, but he soon realized something was amiss.

They looked sneaky, with one keeping watch on the shore and two others in a rubber dinghy.

Li Yu crept closer and saw plenty of fish belly-up near the dinghy.

Noticing the battery on the boat and the gear of the two men, including long poles and a net, Li Yu immediately understood—they were secretly electric fishing in the reservoir.

Li Yu didn’t intervene or shout; there were three of them after all.

And they had electric rods.

He simply slipped away as quietly as he’d come and called 110 to report the illegal fishing.

After hanging up, Li Yu suddenly realized that the problem that had been bothering him seemed to have resolved itself as well.

Inadvertently, he had found the best solution to restrict that ’Dragon’s’ movements.