Chapter 286: You Didn't Kill Me? I'll Count That as Being Civilized
The "local" who wiped the smile right off Miss Qin the waitress's face was, of course, Shinji Matou.
Before his reincarnation, he had been a native of Lin'an, so he knew all too well how shady some so-called "local specialties" could be.
To Shinji's mind, Longjing Shrimp was worse than simple stir-fried shrimp with a cup of Longjing tea on the side, and West Lake Vinegar Fish couldn't hold a candle to the explosive flavor of flash-fried eel slices.
But hey, that wasn't unusual—plenty of locals held a skeptical view of their own region's signature dishes.
Shinji had some friends from Tianjin, and not a single one of them would praise Goubuli buns as delicious.
Still, for a long-standing, high-end restaurant like Tower Beyond Tower, there was no question about the chefs' skills.
As long as you ordered carefully and avoided the traps, you were guaranteed a great meal.
Otherwise, Shinji wouldn't have picked this place to treat his guests.
'But the staff recommending all these rip-off dishes, well… whatever. Fifteen years later they're still doing it, so I guess it's basically company culture at this point.'
Seeing the waitress walk away with a stiff, sulky face, Shinji gave a faint shake of his head.
Actually, the dishes he'd ordered just now weren't cheap at all—it was just that Qin Yang felt she'd somehow been played, so her mood took a turn for the worse.
"Onii-sama, what did you say to that waitress just now? Her face changed in an instant!"
Sakura asked, curiosity sparkling in her eyes. She couldn't even understand standard Mandarin, let alone the Lin'an dialect.
Shinji chuckled slyly.
"I just told her I'm a local, so she'd think twice about trying to rip us off."
Sakura gave a sarcastic little laugh.
"Onii-sama, you've been enjoying being a Chinese citizen way too much, haven't you? Why not just stay here forever and forget about going back to Japan?"
"Haha, no way."
Shinji took a sip of tea.
There was still a mountain of business waiting for him in Japan—there was no way he could stay in China for too long.
With the closing of the Shanghai International Film Festival a few days ago, Shinji's current stay in China was entering its final phase.
There wasn't much to say about the closing ceremony itself. As a film festival determined to expand on the international stage, the final awards banquet was basically just a big cake-cutting operation.
The prize distribution was so even and polite that Shinji wondered if his own film, Super 8, had entered the competition, maybe it could have snagged a couple of trophies too.
After attending the closing gala dinner, Shinji's schedule in Shanghai was officially wrapped up, just as planned.
The last two events of his stay in China would both be in Lin'an:
First, a negotiation with local magical forces.
Second, a lecture at Zhejiang University of Technology.
Because of scheduling, the lecture would have to wait until tomorrow, so Shinji decided to negotiate first with the local magical powers about potential collaboration.
Compared to Japan or Britain, China's mystic circles were much more low-key—these folks genuinely treated the study of the arcane as their true vocation.
In a sense, they resembled the Wandering Sea, diligently devoting themselves to research instead of endless politicking like the Clock Tower.
The only difference being, the Wandering Sea was all gathered in one place, while China's arcane world was scattered across the entire country.
But unlike those cave-dwelling shut-ins at the Wandering Sea, China's magi still kept some ties to official institutions.
For example, they established martial-and-cultural academies all over the country, openly recruiting students from every province.
The purpose of these enrollments was the same as the Clock Tower's—to find promising successors for their own traditions, selecting talented youths from the applicants for intensive training.
Since the recruitment was voluntary, of course, there were still some gifted children who never got the chance to come in contact with the arcane, and would end up living their whole lives as ordinary people.
For example, Li Ri'ang from the Type-Moon China branch was exactly that kind of person—if he hadn't applied for a job at Type-Moon, he might have gone his entire life without ever knowing magecraft existed.
But to China's mystic circles, that wasn't any big deal. They believed everything depended on fate. After all, with so many people in China, there was never a shortage of applicants for their schools.
'I wonder which faction would've tried to recruit me if I'd grown up here?'
Shinji had a pretty solid idea of his own talents—if he'd been raised in China, no doubt several powerful groups would have fought over him.
Knock knock knock
Suddenly, someone rapped on the private room door. Shinji snapped out of his daydreaming and got up to answer it.
Standing outside was a man in his early thirties, wearing a black suit and black-rimmed glasses, looking scholarly and refined.
When he saw Shinji open the door, he immediately offered a polite greeting.
"Hello, Mr. Matou—I'm Qian Xuliang, we spoke before—"
Before he could finish, Qian Xuliang abruptly swallowed his words. His gaze had fallen on Sakura inside the room, a hint of confusion flashing across his face.
This young lady… she can't be another agent, can she?
"Hello, please come in," Shinji said with a friendly smile, stepping aside and gesturing him in.
"It's my honor," Qian Xuliang responded, but his eyes were still fixed on Sakura.
Maybe noticing Qian Xuliang's puzzled look, Shinji quickly added an explanation:
"She's my sister, Sakura Matou."
"Ah, I see. Your sister truly has remarkable beauty."
Qian Xuliang let out a relieved breath.
For a second there, he'd been afraid this girl might be from some rival faction, here to swoop in and snatch away his business.
Shinji sized up this China fangshi—a Taoist adept—making mental notes.
On paper, the man's public identity was a miao zhu (temple warden) at the City God Temple of Lin'an, but on the mystic side, he was effectively the local coordinator of Lin'an's arcane forces.
Of course, Qian Xuliang's "manager" role was far more nominal than, say, Rin Tohsaka acting as Fuyuki's supervisor in Fate/Stay Night—his influence was practically paper-thin.
Besides having a title and a bit of fame in the community, he really couldn't boss around the other fangshi much at all.
Still, having that status was better than having none, and for a negotiation like this, he was the perfect man for the job in all of Lin'an.
Once they'd all sat down, Qian Xuliang wasted no time flattering Shinji.
"Mr. Matou, you certainly know how to order—you must be quite familiar with Tower Beyond Tower."
As a local temple warden, Qian Xuliang had eaten at Tower Beyond Tower more than a few times.
He knew exactly which dishes were affordable, which ones were flashy, and which looked impressive for treating guests.
One glance at Shinji's choices—clearly focused on flavor above all else—told him that Shinji had done his homework on Hangzhou cuisine and Tower Beyond Tower's specialties.
Shinji laughed lightly.
"How could you come to Lin'an and not eat at Tower Beyond Tower? This place is hands-down the best restaurant in town, don't you think, Mr. Qian?"
Sure, if you look around, you could probably dig up a few dozen better restaurants somewhere in Lin'an, but Tower Beyond Tower was a local institution—a symbol of the city's culinary pride.
So when Shinji put it that way, Qian Xuliang's smile grew even wider.
"Mr. Matou, you're too formal. Just call me Xuliang."
"Fair enough. Then you can call me Shinji, too. My full name's kind of a mouthful, don't you think?" Shinji replied after a moment's thought.
Hearing that, Qian Xuliang felt a spark of joy in his heart.
Always addressing each other as Mr. Matou and Mr. Qian was polite, yes, but it also kept a certain distance between them.
Now that they'd switched to first names, it meant the gap had narrowed—and showed that Shinji Matou was serious about these negotiations.
Still, Qian Xuliang didn't jump right into the actual business. Instead, he brought up movies.
"Super 8 was a great series, truly. You foreign magi really have guts—nothing like our old fossils here, always fussing about rules, rules, and more rules."
'Heh. Well, your old fossils would probably get along great with the Clock Tower's crusty old geezers.'
Shinji chuckled to himself.
Apparently, magical societies all over the world were the same: a rigid, unchanging older generation, and a younger crowd eager to shake things up.
But Qian Xuliang didn't stick to that topic for long. Instead, he gently steered clear of any further discussion about mysticism.
Shinji didn't mind. Over their meal, the two of them chatted casually about the entertainment world instead, one sentence at a time.
Qian Xuliang turned out to be surprisingly interesting. Movies, TV, even music—he could hold his own on every subject.
When Shinji mentioned investing in Spy Among Spies, Qian praised the genre's thrilling action and spectacular stunts.
When Shinji said that China's local mythology was a goldmine of stories to film, Qian agreed—though he sighed that unlike Shinji, they didn't have the skills or the resources to make it happen.
When Shinji joked that maybe one day he'd come shoot a movie in Lin'an, Qian practically thumped his chest in pride, promising that if that day came, he'd personally ensure Shinji had access to all the most beautiful scenery the city had to offer.
That flattery went down easy—natural, seamless, and clearly well-prepared. Shinji could tell Qian Xuliang had done his homework.
At last, once most of the food on the table had been cleared away, Qian Xuliang carefully broached the real topic.
"By the way, Shinji—would you mind sharing a hint? About this cooperation you're proposing with Type-Moon. What exactly is your company thinking?"
"That depends on what you all are willing to discuss," Shinji replied with a relaxed smile. "But the content of any collaboration is usually one of two things: either resources, like leylines, or human talent."
He said this with a perfectly pleasant face—lying through his teeth without blinking.
There's no way he'd actually show his hand in the first round of the game.
"Talent, huh… I heard from Mr. Kariya that Type-Moon is currently raising a new generation of magi from scratch?" Qian Xuliang hesitated, but still carefully asked.
"That's correct," Shinji didn't deny it. "We need a fresh pool of magi to maintain the arcane side of our company's operations."
"But…" Qian Xuliang sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, as if struggling to put something into words.
Shinji beamed.
"Brother Xuliang, feel free to say whatever's on your mind. I won't take offense."
Qian Xuliang froze for a moment—that Brother Xuliang made his hair stand on end.
But Shinji didn't see anything wrong with it. After all, it was his own side that was acting out of line by recruiting magi like this; if anyone ought to feel awkward, it should be Qian Xuliang.
What Type-Moon was doing was basically like setting up a taekwondo dojo right in front of a karate dojo and poaching their students—an open act of provocation.
Frankly, the fact that these people hadn't come storming out to beat him to death already was proof enough of their civilization and restraint.
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