Drunkard Guards

The two were finally knocked out of their daze when two guards inappropriately entered the room. These two guards looked very drunk.

"So you see, my wife is better than your stupid wife!"

"No, my wife is!"

"Hahahaha!"

They had an extremely unintelligent conversation, talking about whose wife was better.

Hou Ju almost snapped and punched them! These guards, what are they doing? She then thought of an idea. They were in her office, which means they should have fallen under the effect of the "Scary Formation, Phase II"! She planned to ask them why they were so drunk early in the morning.

"Men!"

The two drunk guards heard this terrifying voice and slowly turned their heads to look - it was Boss Hou! They were weirdly more frightened than usual.

"B-Boss Hou! Hehehe..."

One of the drunk guards immediately went sober and laughed wryly, as if they had nothing to do with the incident concerning themselves. The other was still drunk. The sober guard was anxious that his drunk friend would do something stupid.

Hou Ju found the guards' reactions quite amusing. The "Scary Formation, Phase II" actually works! She felt like she had all the power when inside this room. She sat down on one chair, leaving Li Bai near the entrance.

"Sit down."

The sober guard saw Boss Hou being more frightening than usual and sat down instantly. Unfortunately, there were only two seats around the round wooden table and Hou Ju was already sitting on one of them.

The drunk guard thought of a way to sit and got an idea. He pushed the sober guard off and sat there himself. The sober guard got angry and stood up, taking a stance to punch his drunk counterpart, but he remembered that the boss was watching them. He then just cursed at his drunk friend in his mind and kneeled on the ground with both his knees to match the sitting people's heights.

Hou Ju almost laughed when she saw the scene unfold in front of her. She now didn't know if it was the "Scary Formation, Phase II" or her presence that was making them act this way. But she found a flaw in this formation. So this doesn't work against drunk people, eh?

Knowing this, Hou Ju asked the sober guard instead of the drunk one. Why would she ask the drunk one? It would be a futile effort.

"Why are you drunk so early in the morning?"

This straightforwardness made the sober guard terrified! Even the drunk guard got uneasy. The sober guard slowly opened his mouth, when the drunk guard covered it with his hand and put a finger of his other hand over his lips, a gesture to keep quiet.

"Shhh, don't tell her."

Hou Ju foretold that this would happen as the guard was still drunk. She almost burst out laughing again. This drunk guard, how shameless would he be if he was sober?

However, even though Hou Ju thought it was funny, this was also disrespecting her. She would be sure to fire this drunk guard. As for the other guard, she would punish him lightly.

Li Bai was getting fed up with this slapstick duo of guards. He started to stomp his feet impatiently in hopes that Hou Ju would notice. Even though inside he was mature, he would act like a child when he needed to. After all, his body is still young.

Hou Ju noticed Li Bai's mini-tantrum but dismissed it as he was trash. He was there because she allowed him to be, why would she give him any special treatment?

Hou Ju ignored Li Bai and continued interrogating the two guards. Her mind was intoxicated with power right now, being inside this room, that she didn't notice that Li Bai wasn't affected at all!

Li Bai himself didn't know why he was unaffected, but he guessed it might have something to do with his weird mark.

.....

After a lot of waiting, the guards were sent off, both with depressed faces. One was even more downcast than the other, being fired. The other had a slight feeling of luck inside. He felt like he was lucky that he went sober instantly.

After the guards exited her office, Hou Ju scanned the room for Li Bai. He was leaning on the wall with his eyes closed. How did this kid sleep while standing? She got a feeling of wanting to play with this kid. He was a well-known trash, but he was also just a kid. She felt like he wasn't as bad as the rumors made him be. Still, this mischievous kid was taking up her time, and her time was the most valuable belonging that she had.

"Li Bai!"

Li Bai, as calm and composed as he is, would, like any normal person, be startled by a sudden awakening. His sleep was very light, he didn't have any dreams, so a shout like the one Hou Ju just made would easily wake him up. He couldn't control his balance after this surprise and fell on the floor face first.

Hou Ju saw this scene before her very eyes and couldn't help but sneer. The trash is indeed trash! She quietly cursed him, while covering her mouth with her hand. She turned away, not wanting Li Bai to see her mocking him. She didn't want him to snitch on her with his sister.

Li Bai stood up, thinking about how rude this woman was. She's not polite after all. He walked towards the chair on the opposite side of where Hou Ju was on the table, the one where the drunk guard seated and sat down. He furrowed his brows and crossed his arms.

Hou Ju turned around behind her and opened a drawer. The drawer contained many items, for example, contracts and cards. She got two cards: one platinum and one golden. These cards were the currency should the number of coins be too much to carry by hand.

The card was an interspatial storage designed specifically for money. Only high ranking nobles have cards like these; it would be inconvenient for them to carry around all their money in a pouch as they have too much.

The golden card specifically can store up to 999 gold coins, only one short of a platinum coin. Likewise, a platinum card can contain up to 999 platinum coins, one short of a diamond coin, and so on.

The only problem was that a golden card could only carry around gold coins, and not anything lower ranked, like silver and bronze coins. The same applied for the platinum and the diamond card too.

Silver and bronze ranked cards didn't exist. In the past, they did exist, mass-produced for commoners and nobles alike. But they discovered that the materials used for these interspatial storage cards were rare. Soon after, it was declared that commoners weren't worthy enough to have their own cards, and the nobles have no use for measly cards like those. They halted production for them soon after.

Hou Ju put the two cards in the center of the wooden table. Li Bai's hands were too short to reach them. Hou Ju saw this and laughed. No matter how trash this kid is, he's still young. She got an unexplainable feeling of wanting to mess with him.

Li Bai's impression of this old hag was getting even worse. Why is the old hag messing with me? Why doesn't she just give me the money and get over it? Doesn't she value her time? Even though he had all these complaints, he didn't voice them because the old hag might take up more of his time to lecture him. He had more experience than anyone on this continent! Why would he need lectures? He turned his head as if to indicate annoyance.

"Li Bai trash! Can't even reach the center of the table..."

Li Bai was stunned. Why is she even insulting me? This is a huge waste of time. He clicked his tongue in vexation. No matter how he looked at it, Hou Ju was more childish than him! She should be the one in the childish body.

Hou Ju continued to laugh until she noticed something. Her face turned grave when she did. This Li Bai kid is clearly not drunk, why doesn't the "Scary Formation, Phase II" affect him? She thought about it some more and brushed it off as just a kid putting up a front.

Li Bai suspected this too, why didn't the "Intimidation Formation" affect him? It should be able to affect anyone below Second Level Mark! Unless... He thought about it too, and maybe this formation had a whitelist.

Whitelists rarely appeared in formations, but when they did, the people who engraved their names and supplied their aura into the scripture would be exempted from the effects of the formation should the formation be an area of effect type.

But this couldn't possibly be the case. Why would his name be engraved on the formation when he wasn't even born when it was made? Or maybe he was, but he didn't know about this city. Besides, he wouldn't have supplied his aura without knowing it.

He then dismissed it and just associated his mark with this peculiar situation. For now, he wanted to get back to the subject at hand - his cards. He couldn't reach them.

Hou Ju's slight happiness was now gone, that one thought disturbed her sense of peace. She wanted to quickly get rid of this weird kid in front of her. The formation was supposed to be hidden but this Li Bai found it. He was also unaffected by said formation.

Hou Ju quickly grabbed the cards in the center of the table and put them closer to Li Bai, who had his arms crossed. He looked to be sulking. But in truth, he was contemplating about the different happenings since he got here.

Of course, Hou Ju had no way of knowing this and concluded that he was annoyed by her, and was considering telling her sister that his treatment within the Hou Auction House was the most unpleasant experience he had so far.

Crap! I forgot that this brat's sister is Li Bao! Hou Ju had completely forgotten what Li Bao had said: her brother, Li Bai, was the one who made the pills.

"Um, Li Bai, the cards are now closer to you..."

Hou Ju awkwardly informed Li Bai about the change in position of the cards. Li Bai was taken aback by the drastic change of attitude of this old hag. Is she bipolar? However, after this initial reaction, he was quite amused. He looked at Hou Ju teasingly, a wide grin visible on his face.

"Hmm? What's this?"

Li Bai was naturally mentally older than Hou Ju. But his body was not. If one were to see this scene right now, it would look very weird, with old hag Hou Ju acting timidly while small kid Li Bai was teasing her.

Hou Ju was fed up with Li Bai's antics, and snapped! She stood up suddenly, hands on the table.

"Just take the cards and go!"

What a hypocrite. Li Bai was unsatisfied but he had no excuse to stay further now that Hou Ju had already handed him the cards. He slowly walked towards the door and looked back at the last step.

Hou Ju saw the kid's small but smug face. He was humiliating her! Humiliating!