Confidential Delivery

Zhou You had just logged into his Immortal Cultivation Forum account when two messages popped up. 【Your friend Ji Sen (Stir-Fried Bamboo Shoots and Pork) has gifted you 15 spirit jade.】 【A stranger (I Won't Talk) has gifted you 5 spirit jade.】 Zhou You blinked. The first one made sense—payment for helping Ji Sen. But where had the second one come from? Had some kind soul seen how pitifully poor he was and tossed him five coins? Then it came back to him: "I Won't Talk" had posted a request for help, asking about body-refining methods, and Zhou You had replied with the mosquito body-refining method. "Looks like it actually helped him." Zhou You felt warm and pleased inside. Those five spirit jade he'd earned with his own knowledge—a completely different thing from completing some ordinary bounty. Looking at the 22 spirit jade in his account, he immediately went to the Heaven Market and ordered two spirit stones. He ran into a bit of trouble while placing the order. "Confidential delivery?" Zhou You was baffled. Buying spirit stones wasn't illegal—did it really need confidential delivery? Then he saw the note below: If you live with your family, and your family doesn't know you're cultivating, please select confidential delivery. "So I'm supposed to choose confidential delivery?" Zhou You checked the confidential delivery option as instructed, curious to see just how confidential it could be, and filled out his address—not only the apartment number, but even which room. His balance was back down to a lonely 2 spirit jade. "Might as well buy a couple of books too, spread a little knowledge about the cultivation world." Zhou You remembered that books in the Heaven Market were cheap—1 spirit jade each. His balance hit zero, and Zhou You kept browsing the Heaven Market as a penniless window-shopper. "Qi Refining Stage Mosquito. Item description: A byproduct of cultivating Foundation Establishment Stage mosquitoes." "Huh? What a bizarre item." Zhou You shook his head. These cultivators really had ideas—they were actually breeding mosquitoes up to the Qi Refining stage. The same realm as him. After half a day of broke browsing, the prices marked in the bottom right corner of each item stabbed at his eyes. He stopped looking. "Might as well read some posts." 【Bounty post: Whoever gave the elder that idea, I can't even beat a mosquito now!】 The original poster poured out his misery on the forum. "No seriously, is something wrong with them? The Punishment Hall elder got this idea from somewhere and raised a bunch of mosquitoes that have cultivation. Originally they were for interrogating prisoners—the bites itch like mad and no ointment helps, so the interrogation results were great." "Then the Punishment Hall elder decided our sect disciples have been living too comfortably lately and slacking off in their training, so he proposed releasing some cultivated mosquitoes in the mountains, saying it would spur us on. Only when you cultivate to a realm higher than the mosquitoes will they stop biting through your skin." "And the sect master actually approved this (expletive) method." "When I was a mortal I got bitten by mosquitoes—why do I still get bitten now that I'm a cultivator?!" "Our sect disciples talked it over and pooled 200 spirit jade for a bounty, to find out who gave the elder that idea!" Zhou You leaned slightly back in his chair. Even through the screen, he could feel the resentment boiling up to the heavens. He had a pretty good idea who had given the Punishment Hall elder that idea. Much as he drooled over those 200 spirit jade—he'd have to eat twenty Poverty Ghosts to earn that much—his own life was worth more. "Forget it. I won't turn myself in." The post became a hot topic on the forum. What everyone cared about most wasn't the poster's safety, but "Those mosquitoes won't get out, will they?" A fellow sect member clarified: "They won't. The sect has a mountain-protecting grand formation. We can't get out, and neither can the mosquitoes." That was a relief. So a whole crowd of spectators arrived. Zhou You read the post twice and kept feeling there was something familiar about it. Then it hit him: "The poster's name is Eats Glutinous Rice Three Times a Day? Isn't that Su Tingxue's account?" This didn't happen at Mount Longhu, did it? No, it shouldn't. Su Tingxue had been at school all this time, she hadn't gone back to Mount Longhu. Where would she get that kind of resentment? Zhou You forwarded the link to Su Tingxue: "Something from your Mount Longhu?" A short while later, Su Tingxue replied: "It's Mount Kunlun's business. The Mount Kunlun disciples wanted to complain on the forum, but they were afraid the higher-ups would use their permissions to trace who posted it, so they borrowed my account." Zhou You: "I see." Zhou You breathed a sigh of relief. If Mount Longhu had suffered this calamity, he would have felt guilty. As for Mount Kunlun—he didn't know them. Su Tingxue: "Speaking of which, I should thank you. That fellow Daoist from Mount Kunlun paid spirit jade to borrow my account. If not for you, I wouldn't have made this money either. Want me to split it with you?" Zhou You broke out in a cold sweat. Oh no. How had Su Tingxue guessed it was his idea? Zhou You: "Bowing and kowtowing, begging you to spare me. Consider that half the money hush payment—don't say it was my idea." Su Tingxue: "So it really was you. I was just bluffing." Zhou You: "……" In the villa, Su Tingxue lay lazily on the beanbag chair, looked at the string of ellipses Zhou You had sent, and couldn't help laughing out loud. "Rest is over. Back to practicing talismans." Su Tingxue stood up from the sofa. The walls, the table, the bed... the room was plastered with talismans, the fruit of her day-and-night training. She'd used up the whole box of yellow paper sent from Mount Longhu. "Ah—time to sleep." Relying on sheer willpower, Zhou You admonished himself not to browse the forum anymore and to go to sleep on time, or he wouldn't be able to get up the next day. At last, at half past midnight, he fell asleep. Bang, bang, bang... A continuous, grating noise sounded by Zhou You's ear like a demonic tune. His brows knitted tight, and he twisted painfully in bed like a cobra. What is that sound? My alarm doesn't sound like that... Zhou You thought hazily, forcing his sleepy eyes open. Then he saw a human-shaped shadow printed on the curtain. Trembling, he pulled the curtain aside—a huge figure was pressed against the window, like a ghost in the moonlight. It jolted him wide awake. This was the sixth floor! "Fellow Daoist, open the window. I'm the delivery man." The figure spoke quietly, muffled through the glass. Now Zhou You could see clearly: it was a cultivator on a flying sword, knocking on his window. The delivery man? Puzzled, Zhou You opened the window. The other party broke into a brilliant smile. "Good evening, fellow Daoist. Confidential delivery. This is your order." With that, he handed over a cardboard box. Zhou You glanced at the time on his phone; the screen's brightness stung his eyes. 3:30 a.m. "This is what you call confidential delivery?" The realization finally hit Zhou You, and his tone was less than friendly. The other party smiled brightly and explained: "It seems this is your first time choosing our confidential delivery service. Delivering it personally into your hands at this hour—your family absolutely will not notice. Isn't that confidential enough?" Zhou You: "...Fine." Early the next morning, Zhou You headed to school yawning nonstop, and happened to run into Su Tingxue, who was also arriving. Su Tingxue looked puzzled. A cultivator could get this sleepy? Weren't cultivators supposed to be bursting with energy? "What did you do last night?" Su Tingxue worried—had her teasing him last night made Zhou You think she was going to Mount Kunlun to rat him out, so he hadn't slept well? "Don't worry, I won't leak it." Zhou You explained between yawns: "Last night I bought two spirit stones and chose confidential delivery." Su Tingxue understood from the first sentence: "You should have just come to me for spirit stones. Why choose confidential delivery? Such a hassle. I have plenty of spirit stones—I'll sell you some at cost." "Thank you, then." Zhou You was grateful. He'd been worrying about how he'd buy spirit stones in the future—choose confidential delivery again, and have them delivered to his door at 3:30 a.m.? Too torturous. Su Tingxue had really done him a huge favor. Wei Hang passed by the two of them and caught fragments of the conversation. "...chose confidential delivery..." "...just come to me. Why choose confidential delivery..." "Huh?" Wei Hang turned his head, startled, and looked at the two of them with a strange expression. Was their relationship more intimate than he'd imagined? He quietly resolved that although he was president of the school newspaper club, he still had a bottom line. This sort of thing would not be spread around. He alone would know. Hiding on the rooftop, the Red King looked down over the whole school, holding everything in his grasp. He gave Nianshi his instructions. "Remember to hypnotize that Wei Hang every day and dig up intelligence."