Brother Chen, Can You Stay Away From Me? - Chapter 18
Chapter 18: An Expert in Taking Care of Mundane Affairs
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Qing Ming Peak.
In the Grandmaster Hall at the mountaintop.
This was the place where the Sect Leader of the Qing Yu Immortal Sect handled the daily affairs of the sect.
The current Sect Leader of the Qing Yu Immortal Sect, Spiritual Master Qing Ming, sat in the hall. He was staring at the statues of the previous generation Grandmasters enshrined in the hall, lost in thought.
According to the custom of the Qing Yu Immortal Sect, every person who inherited the position of Sect Leader after the first generation Sect Leader, the Immortal Qing Yu himself, would receive the Dao name of “Spiritual Master Qing Ming”. The difference was which generation of Spiritual Master Qing Ming they were.
The current Spiritual Master Qing Ming was already the fifth of his name.
Besides the Sect Leader, there was also a young-looking disciple standing in the Grandmaster Hall.
He respectfully stood on Spiritual Master Qing Ming’s right hand side, waiting for the Sect Leader to speak.
But he did not hear any sound coming from the Sect Leader even after a long time. He could not stop himself from taking a peek at the Sect Leader. When he saw that the Sect Leader was lost in a daze, he had to fight back the urge to rub his forehead.
He had been at his master’s side ever since he joined the sect, so he had long been familiar with his master’s temperament.
His master was kind, profound in cultivation, fair… it could be said that every aspect of his master was good.
Except for one thing – he would often get lost in thought. No one knew what he was thinking about.
Like now, for example. His master’s mind had wandered to god-knows-where.
“Master. Master. Master…”
He had to call his master several times before Spiritual Master Qing Ming actually came back to his senses. He looked at the disciple standing next to him, pondered for a moment, then looked down at the small piece of paper in his hand and asked, “What were you saying, Guoyun? These little pieces of paper that are being posted everywhere, where did they come from?”
“I’ve already investigated it, Master. The ones who posted these little pieces of paper are the servant disciples of the lower court.”
Guoyun coughed once and reported his findings.
“The lower court? The servant disciples?”
Spiritual Master Qing Ming was puzzled, “Why are they posting these little pieces of paper everywhere?”
Guoyun replied, “Apparently, the Book Depository has recently gone through a reorganization and is no longer messy and chaotic like before. Therefore, in order to inform everyone within the sect of this, the servant disciples posted these everywhere. They called these…ads. To advertise to a wider audience.”
“Ads… to advertise? Not bad!”
Spiritual Master Qing Ming read the words on the small ad. He was still a little cynical of the “beauty” and “wealth” mentioned in the ad. He asked, “Have you gone to Qing Zhu Peak to take a look? What does the Book Depository look like now?”
“I have indeed gone to take a look, Master.”
Guoyun told the Sect Leader what he had seen and heard when he visited the Book Depository, as well as the new rules of the Book Depository that he had found out from the servant disciples.
“In that case, the Book Depository has indeed changed for the better.”
Spiritual Master Qing Ming gently rubbed the small advertisement with his fingers.
He had not been to the Book Depository for many years, but he had gone there before when he was young. The condition of the Book Depository… was difficult to embody in a single sentence.
Surprisingly, after being sorted out and with some new rules in place, it was now like a completely different place.
After a brief pause, Spiritual Master Qing Ming asked, “Do you know who’s in charge of reorganizing the Book Depository? And who made these new rules?”
Guoyun bowed and answered, “I have also investigated this, Master. The servant disciples all said that Grandmaster Qing Zhu was the one who told them to do it.”
“Grandmaster Qing Zhu?”
Spiritual Master Qing Ming was a little surprised. He turned his head to look at the direction of Qing Zhu Peak in thoughtful silence.
Guoyun waited for a while, looked up at his Master, and had to fight the urge to rub his forehead again. His Master had once again fallen into a daze.
“Master. Master. Master…”
Several calls later, Spiritual Master Qing Ming finally came back to his senses again.
Spiritual Master Qing Ming patted his knee a few times and said, “Go invite Grandmaster Qing Zhu over.”
Guoyun looked at Spiritual Master Qing Ming in puzzlement, then answered “Yes” and turned around to leave the hall.
Spiritual Master Qing Ming turned around to stare at the white clouds outside the Grandmaster Hall, thinking. He was once again lost in thought.
After a while…
“Master. Master. Master…”
Guoyun’s soft voice summoned him back to reality.
In what seemed to be a mere blink of an eye, Guoyun had returned with someone by his side. That someone was naturally Grandmaster Qing Zhu.
Spiritual Master Qing Ming stood up from his seat and bowed to Grandmaster Qingzhu.
“Uncle-Master Qing Zhu.”
(TL: Uncle-Master = The Senior or Junior Brother of one’s master.)
Grandmaster Qing Zhu quickly returned the salute. “Sect Leader.”
Spiritual Master Qing Ming pointed to the seat next to him and motioned for Guoyun to help Grandmaster Qing Zhu sit down.
Only after Grandmaster Qing Zhu was seated did Spiritual Master Qing Ming speak, “Take a look at this, Uncle-Master Qing Zhu.”
As he spoke, he gently moved his hand, and the small advertisement in his hand floated windlessly and straight towards Grandmaster Qing Zhu.
Grandmaster Qing Zhu took the piece of paper and read it. Then, he looked up at Spiritual Master Qing Ming and asked “What’s this, Sect Leader?”
“Tell Grandmaster Qing Zhu everything, Guoyun.”
Spiritual Master Qing Ming gestured at Guoyun. Guoyun immediately told the Grandmaster where the small advertisement came from, as well as what he had found out about the Book Depository.
“Oh, so that’s what happened…”
After listening to Guoyun’s explanation, Grandmaster Qing Zhu took another look at the small advertisement, then shook his head and laughed lightly, “I never thought that kid would actually go around flaunting my name.”
“Uncle-Master, could it be… this matter has nothing to do with you?”
Spiritual Master Qing Ming asked curiously.
“It does have something to do with me, I guess.”
Grandmaster Qing Zhu shook his head and told the Sect Leader the whole story of how he met Chen Shaojie at Qing Zhu Peak one day and how he asked Chen Shaojie to reorganize the Book Depository.
This time, Spiritual Master Qing Ming and Guoyun finally understood what had happened.
Although Grandmaster Qing Zhu did ask that servant disciple to reorganize the Book Depository, the actual reorganization work and the subsequent weird rules that were put in place were not done by Grandmaster Qing Zhu.
Spiritual Master Qing Ming had been in charge of the Qing Yu Immortal Sect for many years. All sect affairs, big and small alike, would pass through his hands.
Guoyun too had always been helping his Master deal with sect affairs. Both master and disciple were very perceptive people.
After listening to Grandmaster Qing Zhu’s story, they only had to put in a little thought to understand what that servant disciple was thinking.
He flaunted Grandmaster Qing Zhu’s name to make sure people would obey the new rules he put in place, so that the Book Depository could be run according to these new rules.
As for these “ads”, they were meant to spread the Book Depository’s name in order to attract more people there, so that the Book Depository would no longer be ignored by the sect.
After giving it some thought, Spiritual Master Qing Ming could not help but laugh. “This disciple called Chen Shaojie seems to be an expert at taking care of mundane affairs.”
Grandmaster Qing Zhu nodded. “It’s a pity his talent level is so low that he couldn’t even join the upper court and has to waste his time in the lower court. Otherwise, the sect would have gained a new disciple who can do things.”
Spiritual Master Qing Ming told Guoyun, “Check the entrance test record of this Chen Shaojie. If he’s a good talent, I wouldn’t mind giving him a Foundation Building Pill to help him along.”
“Yes, Master,” Guoyun bowed and accepted the order.
Grandmaster Qing Zhu glanced at Spiritual Master Qing Ming and stroked his beard without saying anything.
