009
The Traditional Customs Garden and the Wealth Avenue Villa District were both located in Tanzhong City.
Wealth Avenue sat in the city center, with beautiful surroundings, tight security, and convenient transportation.
The tourist park, fully named the Tanzhong Traditional Customs Tourist Park, was specifically located about an hour’s drive southwest from Wealth Avenue in the city center.
There were two entrances at the park gate. One was right in the center for tourists, while a side door next to the main gate served as the entry and exit for park staff.
These two days were employee recruitment days, so the staff channel bustled with activity.
A lean man wearing a dark purple hat—with the park logo printed in the center—and an electric baton hanging from his waist sternly lectured the other new employees wearing gray hats in front of the channel.
He unhooked the baton from his waist, raised it, and waved it emphatically. “Our park is the largest in the entire city! The most complete facilities! The most professional! The one that best lets tourists feel at home away from home in a folk tourism park!”
“It must have the best security team!”
“You…” The lean man, who looked somewhat comical in his little purple hat, narrowed his eyes dangerously and scanned the group.
The new security team recruits at the Tourist Garden all straightened up, necks held high, striving to show their professional attitude. They resembled a row of gray mushrooms desperately trying to stretch themselves taller.
Only occasionally would a new employee’s gaze flick to the purple hat on their team leader’s head, revealing eyes filled with envy and longing.
They didn’t find the little hat comical in the slightest.
“Very good.” The security squad leader adjusted his hat, expressing temporary satisfaction, but he didn’t forget to threaten them. “If anyone causes trouble during work hours, I’ll tear off their skin!”
The purple ‘mushroom’ lectured the ‘gray mushrooms.’ A bit further inside the channel, another employee wearing a deep blue little hat was similarly lecturing another group of new recruits standing in front of him.
This group of new recruits didn’t wear little gray hats. They varied in height, build, gender, looks—clearly from a different department than the neighboring security team.
Though they lacked the little gray hats, they all had a gray park badge pinned to their chests.
In this park, employees had ranks too.
They followed the order of red, orange, yellow, green, cyan, blue, purple, gray—from highest to lowest.
The security team’s new recruits coveted their squad leader’s purple hat, and their squad leader would occasionally twist his head toward the neighboring blue hat, his face twisting with greed.
When Su Ximu and Su Jianglou got out of the car at the park entrance, a capable woman with a yellow little hat pinned in her hair immediately emerged from the staff channel, drawing attention wherever she went.
Su Ximu’s first glance toward the staff channel made him think a rainbow convention was underway, but he quickly corrected his attitude.
Maybe this was just the park’s unique culture.
When he had worked at the Amusement Park before, forget hats—he had swapped out rainbow-colored wigs countless times.
The Yellow Hat Woman walked up to the two men and showed great enthusiasm. “Welcome, welcome! The arrival of the two Mr. Sus truly honors our humble abode at the Tourist Garden!”
“What terrible timing—our Park Chief happened to be away on a business trip. Otherwise, the moment we got Mr. Su’s call yesterday, he definitely would have come out personally to greet you today.”
Though the Yellow Hat Woman called it unfortunate, she knew full well inside that ever since yesterday’s call, the Park Chief had been terrified this powerful weird might use it as an excuse to swallow him whole and take over the Tourist Garden. He was probably hiding in some corner of the park right now.
Su Jianglou nodded in understanding and gestured for Su Ximu to step forward.
“Hello.” Su Ximu had just begun his greeting.
The Yellow Hat Woman immediately praised him in astonishment. “Wow, as expected of Mr. Su’s younger brother. So young, yet already shouldering the family burdens. Don’t worry, I’ll make sure to arrange everything properly for the Little Young Master.”
A weird’s age couldn’t be judged by appearance, but the Yellow Hat Woman’s strength was clearly greater than those troublemaking kids from before. She could roughly gauge the boy in front of her.
He was most likely a newborn weird, unsuitable for anything too complex.
The woman rolled her eyes and beckoned to a nearby little blue hat. “Blue 242, come here.”
The young man wearing the little blue hat—looking sunny-faced and in his early twenties—immediately trotted over.
His code name in the park was Blue 242.
Right in front of Su Jianglou, the woman solemnly entrusted this “Little Young Master” experiencing life from their family to Blue 242.
Blue 242 was the squad leader of the park’s acting department.
He handled actor work assignments for the Modern Folk Customs Park 03 District.
The Yellow Hat Woman all but outright hinted for Blue 242 to assign this new recruit a decent acting job—one with little work and high pay.
Su Ximu, experiencing this kind of onboarding for the first time, had already gone numb, nearly lying flat.
Ever since ‘Third Brother’ said yesterday he’d personally drop him off at work, Su Ximu had roughly guessed tonight’s sequence of events before bed.
Finally, after a series of nepotism maneuvers, Su Ximu tilted his head back and felt ‘Third Brother’ pat the top of his head.
Su Jianglou made a phone gesture to the boy who had already boarded the park Sightseeing Bus.
Su Ximu nodded, pulled out his phone, and watched ‘Third Brother’ walk away.
At the same time, that faint, belated anxiety about his first summer job in this otherworldly place miraculously settled.
Then he turned his head and met the gazes of the other colleagues on the bus…
The boy, arranged in a front seat on the Sightseeing Bus, slowly lowered his head, feeling like he might have relaxed too soon.
Spotting the new recruit’s discomfort, Blue 242 swept stern gazes over everyone one by one, like knives scraping across their bodies.
Once he had scraped the other new recruits into silence, Blue 242 spoke to the boy beside him. “Our park is huge. Basically every themed scenic area lacks actors. In half an hour, we’ll reach your workplace.”
“Before that, I’ll take you all to the employee area to change into work clothes.”
Su Ximu listened quietly, thanked him occasionally, and cooperated fully throughout. He showed none of the arrogance or brutality Blue 242 had imagined from weird world connections who tore off skins at the drop of a hat.
Before heading to the employee area to change, Su Ximu received his actor script and employee handbook.
His workplace was in the eastern part of the park. According to the handbook, the eastern buildings were all in modern courtyard style, and all the courtyards together formed nearly the size of a small town.
He was assigned to the 【Wang Family Courtyard】 among them.
Qing stone bricks, glazed tiles, row after row of neat little courtyards—the script’s map page showed an overhead view of the entire Wang Family Courtyard.
A grand courtyard naturally needed people living in it.
The role he had to play was the Wang Family Courtyard’s Little Young Master.
The Little Young Master had returned from studying abroad, exposed to many progressive ideas. When he came back to this grand courtyard where he grew up, he saw the entire place as a symbol of decay and backwardness.
He disapproved of everything in the courtyard.
That day, he returned home with the family merchant caravan and heard the crackle of firecrackers and the blare of suona horns. The entire courtyard was decked out in lanterns and decorations once more.
It turned out his father, Lord Wang of the Wang Family, was taking yet another new concubine.
This time, it was the Ninth Concubine.
During the wedding procession, the Wang Family servants gossiped quietly that the Ninth Concubine’s family background wasn’t great, but because of her perfect pair of three-inch golden lotus feet, the matchmaker had spotted them at a glance and arranged the match for their Old Master.
The Little Young Master overheard it incidentally in the crowd.
Su Ximu’s script ended there for now, since he only needed to act up to that point today.
The last page of the script specially noted: To help scenic actors immerse better, tourists would watch their performances from places the actors couldn’t see.
At the same time, for a better viewing experience for tourists, please show your professionalism—stay in character during work hours, no breaking immersion.
Since his character was the Wang Family’s Little Young Master returned from abroad, Su Ximu didn’t even need a wig. He just spent two minutes slipping into a gray long robe, and he was ready to board another bus from the employee area.
On the way, thinking of the many tourists who would watch from unseen spots, he took the time to review his thin script a few more times.
The Sightseeing Bus drove another ten minutes or so before Su Ximu was the first employee to get off.
Not only was his acting part the shortest among all new recruits, but his workplace was also the closest to the employee rest area.
When the Sightseeing Bus was still a minute or two from the 【Wang Family Courtyard】, Su Ximu faintly heard the sound of firecrackers.
He even caught sight of the tail end of the wedding procession.
Realizing he was about to reach his workstation, Su Ximu took a deep breath, tucked the script into an inner pocket of his clothes, and smoothed the wrinkles on his costume.
A minute later, the Sightseeing Bus came to a stop. Su Ximu stepped off, trying to immerse himself in character in one second. At the same time, he brushed past the bride’s flower sedan.
By Wang Family rules, concubines could only enter through the side gate.
Inside the flower sedan, Rao Fei—who had just escaped the B+ Gardener Instance at dawn and plunged into the C-grade 【Deeply Secluded Courtyard】 group instance that morning—took a deep breath, also trying to immerse himself in one second.
“Ninth Concubine, dismount the sedan~~~”
A shout came from outside the sedan. Feeling it tilt, Rao Fei yanked the red veil over his head and stepped out of the sedan door.
Once down, someone immediately supported him.
“Step over the fire basin~~~”
Under the veil, Rao Fei ground his teeth. He crossed the fire basin at the side gate like a frail willow in the breeze.
Nearby, the ‘Wang Family Little Young Master,’ who had just arrived at the scene, stood by the gate, head tilted. He caught sight of the ‘Ninth Concubine’s’ chin, not fully covered by the veil.
On the chin, fresh stubble sprouted bluish, looking rather prickly.
