The world has turned into Hell's Game, why should I stay human?
Chapter 458 - 375: Bowing is Also a Profound Science_2

Chapter 458: Chapter 375: Bowing is Also a Profound Science_2

Thirteen Mahjong spoke with a serious face.

"What do you mean by accuracy?"

He could grasp the other concepts, but accuracy was truly beyond his comprehension.

"What kind of bow do you consider effective?"

Thirteen Mahjong retorted.

"Showing enough sincerity?"

Liu Zheng pondered and then replied.

"Then what kind of bow conveys sincerity?"

Thirteen Mahjong asked again.

"The deeper the bow, the greater the sincerity, right?"

Just like the bow that Thirteen Mahjong and Elder Qing had just performed, they almost bent their heads to their buttocks.

"Wrong. The depth of the bow must match the severity of your offense. A bow that’s too shallow or too deep both show a lack of sincerity."

Thirteen Mahjong shook his head.

"For example, if during a massage, you make a face of disgust because of the guest’s body odor, you should immediately kneel and prostrate yourself. Because you’ve committed the crime of insulting the guest, even if it eats you or kills you on the spot, the bathhouse won’t compensate you at all."

"But if it’s just that your massage technique was poor and the guest felt discomfort, then you only need to stop right away, bow to about 150 degrees, state your master’s lineage, and admit that you’ve shamed your own school."

"If you prostrate completely or bow with even more vigor in such a situation, it would instead make the guest think that you’re overdoing it, as if you’re looking down on its capacity to endure."

He spoke with conviction.

"Such complexity in just bowing, that’s quite enlightening."

Liu Zheng said sincerely.

"In other places, it’s naturally not so complicated because they don’t have the ability to enforce it. But in our bathhouse, hehe."

Thirteen Mahjong let out an odd chuckle.

"Do you know how long our bathhouse has been in existence?"

He asked.

"I don’t know, I’ve only heard that our bathhouse is the oldest on Bathhouse Street, being the leading one ever since there was a Bathhouse Street."

Liu Zheng answered.

"Wrong."

Thirteen Mahjong shook his head.

"It’s not that Bathhouse Street has existed since the beginning of the Hundred Ghosts, but rather that Bathhouse Street began with the existence of the Hundred Ghosts."

"Hundred Ghosts isn’t just a lifeless building; it has its own set of rules. As long as you abide by its rules, you can be under its protection. The rules of bowing are just one of them. But well..."

A fleeting peculiar expression crossed Thirteen Mahjong’s face, but he did not continue.

"But what? Manager."

"Nothing. It’s not the time for you to know yet. Shut your mouth and continue walking."

Thirteen Mahjong chided.

"Oh, alright."

Liu Zheng feigned disappointment, but his mind was clear as day.

It was merely a ploy of feigned retreat. If he didn’t want to tell him, he wouldn’t have said so much already.

It was nothing more than an attempt to plant a seed of curiosity in Liu Zheng’s mind, waiting for it to sprout on its own.

As for why not to reveal everything outright, perhaps it was because he still didn’t trust Liu Zheng’s loyalty and capability, or probably because information uncovered through one’s own exploration was more trustworthy.

The two of them then walked towards the fork to the right and arrived in front of three elevators.

The elevator doors were also made of wood, carved with three different masks: a crying woman, an angry man, and a laughing old man.

Whether the figure was a man, a woman, or an old person, their faces were painted with thick white paint, and their teeth were painted black and were sharp fangs, numerous more than a normal person.

They looked more like ghosts than human beings.

"As I said before, there are many rules inside the bathhouse. Now, take a guess, what could the rule for riding the elevator be?"

Thirteen Mahjong said, pointing at the three elevators in front of him.

"Is there any reward for guessing right? Manager."

Liu Zheng inquired.

"There is none. But there will be punishment for guessing wrong."

Thirteen Mahjong shook his head.

"...Okay then."

After a brief pause, he shrugged.

One rank higher in officialdom can crush a person; this was something Liu Zheng had fully realized during his time at Bloody Restaurant.

Speaking of which, Liu Zheng was actually quite curious who was stronger: Thirteen Mahjong, the manager of the Massage Department, or Niu Ma, the manager of the delivery department?

Considering the status of Bloody Restaurant in the underworld, it seemed that Niu Ma would be the stronger of the two.

He shook his head and focused his attention on the elevator in front of him.

There were two clear points, which were the genders and expressions of the three masks.

Man, woman, and old person.

Anger, sadness, and joy.

Combining the two points to create a rule is possible, but it’s unlikely that a rule is formed by the combination of two points.

"Does the mask correspond to physiological gender or psychological gender?"

Liu Zheng asked.

"Huh? What do you mean?"

Thirteen Yaos was a bit confused by his question.

"For example, a person, whose physical structure is undoubtedly male and has all the physiological abilities of a male, but he feels that he is a female. So, would the mask judge him as male or female?"

He said, giving an example.

"Of course, male."

Thirteen Yaos said without hesitation.

"You city folks might play around with these concepts, but us country folks only recognize physiological structure. If a pure male claims to be female and wants to enter the female hot spring pool, isn’t that just blatant hooliganism?"

"What if he feels that he’ll be taken advantage of while in the male hot spring?"

Liu Zheng asked.

"If you have money, book a private room; if not, just soak at home. You can be whatever gender you want, nobody cares."

"Dreaming of special treatment with just empty words, what a joke."

Thirteen Yaos said, clearly annoyed.

"Minister, have you encountered this before?"

He asked curiously.

"Indeed, I have. Not long after I started in the Massage Department, I came across a troublesome client. It was clearly a male Kappa, but insisted it was female and demanded a female masseuse."

"That wasn’t impossible, so I found it a female masseuse."

"Then it claimed to be some extreme purist, refusing to be touched by other species, and asked me to find it a female Kappa masseuse. Where was I supposed to find that?"

Thirteen Yaos was still somewhat frustrated as he spoke.

"So how was it resolved in the end?"

Liu Zheng asked.

"Of course, I reported it to my superior at the time, and then we threw the guy out. By the way, I also peed into the bowl on its head. Hehe."

Thirteen Yaos gave a smug smile.

"Uh, didn’t that affect the reputation of the bathhouse?"

"That wasn’t my problem to consider at the time."

"What about now, if it were you?"

He asked again.

"If it were me now, I’d probably give a small gift and then kindly but firmly show the person out. Sigh, I’ve gotten old. If it were back in the day, would I need the excuse of needing incense to create more chances to meet with Elder Qing? I’d just bring flowers and have someone deliver a candlelit dinner, and chat the night away with her."

Thirteen Yaos sighed.

That once spirited and uninhibited young man, who charmed his way from the Massage Department to the boiler room, had finally become a mature, steady, yet boring old leader.

"Forget it, I’ll just tell you. First, the elevator judges by emotion. If there’s no corresponding emotion, then it considers gender."

He said, sounding disinterested.

"Then what gender does the old person mask correspond to?"

Liu Zheng asked.

"That doesn’t correspond to gender, but to seniority. Employees who have worked for over thirty years or are part of the management level above department head can directly use this elevator without considering other rules."

Thirteen Yaos said.

"I see."

"So, which elevator do you think you should take?"

Thirteen Yaos threw out the question.

"I should take the one in the middle, right?"

He said, pointing at the mask of the angry man.

Sadness, anger, joy, he has none of these emotions at the moment, so he has to consider gender.

"If you’re sure, then go ahead and take it. Get in and press for the 7th floor. When you arrive, wait for me at the elevator door and don’t wander around."

Thirteen Yaos instructed.

"Minister, aren’t you going to ride with me?"

"If it were just now, I could take the same elevator as you. But now, you can only rely on yourself."

Thirteen Yaos shook his head and walked toward the mask of the sad woman.

Search the lightnovelworld.cc website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.