Chapter Eight: The Cat and the Fish

"Despite adding so much sugar, it’s not cloying at all!"

In the Ice King’s shop, the slightly chubby Lu Nanxing took a sip of the grape taro ball bubble tea with sugar and couldn’t help but comment. He was a bit overweight and rarely drank anything so sweet.

Chen Shizi, dressed in a trench coat, finished one cup and immediately ordered another. “Because this is ‘here’!” he said.

Without the Ice King’s milk tea, it would have been difficult for him to tell whether this place was reality or a dream.

‘Here’ felt overwhelmingly real.

No wonder many people came here deliberately; by forgetting the past and treating this dream as reality, they could begin a new life.

Chen Shizi glanced at the files in his briefcase, his expression unchanged.

It was just information on a few thousand companies. His first task was to filter out suspicious ones, then investigate and probe them one by one.

How to investigate?

How to probe?

Naturally, by working for them.

The fastest way to understand a company was not watching promotional videos or listening to the bosses, but joining as an employee and chatting with people inside for a few days.

That would give a fairly good understanding of the company.

When he might finish investigating all these companies was unimportant to Chen Shizi; in this dream, he had plenty of time.

Besides, it was the only way.

“I’ll handle the companies,” Chen Shizi said. “You investigate something else.”

Lu Nanxing chewed on his taro balls and asked, “What’s that?”

It was his first time trying this snack, and its texture was surprisingly unique.

“What’s more important than investigating companies?”

Chen Shizi lowered his voice. “Have you ever heard of the ‘Divine Sect’?”

“Only vaguely,” Lu Nanxing replied.

Chen Shizi whispered, “There’s a secret cult here claiming the entire world is a dream created by a drunken old cat. In this world, fish are supreme; only those permitted by the old cat may eat fish!”

Lu Nanxing said, “At first, I thought it was nonsense until I noticed many restaurants had no fish.”

Chicken, fish, meat, and eggs were the most common dishes in eateries.

No banquet without chicken; no feast without fish.

How could an ordinary restaurant lack fish?

But here, fish were mysteriously absent.

“So, the Divine Sect’s story is true?” Lu Nanxing asked again.

“Not necessarily,” Chen Shizi said. “Maybe the local customs just don’t favor fish, and the cult exaggerates.”

The cult’s absurd creation myth was hard to believe. Some suspected it was just a prank by a few people.

But Chen Shizi knew better. Investigators like them were specially trained to sense anomalies intuitively.

If they sensed something was wrong, it definitely was.

It was precisely this special ‘ability’ that qualified them as investigators.

“Good! Leave it to me,” Lu Nanxing nodded. Their responsibilities were clearly divided.

There were too many secrets here; each one brought them closer to understanding this place.

After finishing their tenth grape taro ball bubble tea, He Ping, the Ice King’s employee, called out, “Gentlemen, anything else? I’m about to close.”

His tone implied it was time to leave.

It was nearly eleven o’clock. Normally, he closed at half past ten.

Since no customers had left, he couldn’t just kick them out.

Only after they finished did he gently speak up.

Chen Shizi stood and said, “Sorry to keep you.”

The young man in front of him, barely in his twenties, worked until eleven at night, no less hardworking than them.

It made Chen Shizi feel a bit guilty.

So the two of them moved to the door and let He Ping tidy up and close the shop.

He Ping thought they were strange, coming to discuss mysterious things late at night.

Don’t they have homes?

But when he overheard them mention the ‘Divine Sect,’ he perked up.

While cleaning, he listened intently to their conversation outside.

The quiet street at this hour made it easy to hear.

Chen Shizi said, “Life is just a dream after getting drunk. Don’t care too much, just drink. That’s what I understand the cult’s doctrine to be.”

Lu Nanxing said, “Sounds like something a drunkard would say!”

The ‘drunkard’ was known for extolling the virtues of alcohol, but both Chen Shizi and he seldom drank.

Drinking dulls the senses, which would impair their judgment and work.

In reality, Chen Shizi would have scoffed at such talk, but this was the ‘City of Dreams’—anything could happen.

Old cats, dreams, the world—these keywords inevitably sparked associations.

“Go back. I’ll finish reviewing these here,” Chen Shizi told Lu Nanxing. “Tomorrow morning, I’ll try joining a company.”

Their predecessors had operated here for a long time, allowing him unrestricted entry into any company.

“Right here?” Lu Nanxing asked.

They had a place to live in this city, no need to study files on the street.

“Right here! Time is abundant, but I won’t waste it on meaningless things,” Chen Shizi said.

His work ethic was such that in reality, he could stay up all night for a single task—let alone here.

In this place, staying up late only caused hair loss, not sudden death.

“Stone brother, you work so hard, you’re putting pressure on me!” Lu Nanxing said.

Chen Shizi smiled. “Don’t think like that. Think of it this way: if I work more, you work less, doesn’t that solve it?”

Work is there regardless. If one person does more, others naturally do less.

If everyone works more just because one does, there’s definitely a problem somewhere.

“Alright! I’m off!” Lu Nanxing said.

“Safe travels!” Chen Shizi nodded.

After watching Lu Nanxing leave, Chen Shizi sat on the curb a short distance away, leaning toward the porch light and streetlamp as he studied the company files.

Nearby, He Ping finished cleaning the Ice King’s shop, pulled down the shutter, and left.

On the way, he accessed the shop’s surveillance footage on his phone and sent it to ‘Yellow Catfish’ within the Divine Sect, adding a message:

“There are two weirdos investigating us.”

‘Yellow Catfish’ replied promptly: “Noted.”

Then he went to a nearby food stall and ordered a midnight bowl of noodles, some skewers, and two bottles of beer.

The great and almighty god had once taught them:

One should have a drink and a feast once a week. Better still, with friends.

If alone, one should still enjoy the feast.