Chapter 56: Shutting Down The Hall

Wang Ji was an old fox, experienced in scheming. He didn’t lash out, nor did he venture inside to reprimand Lin Jin. Instead, he turned around and left the place.

“This Lin Jin is just asking for it. Despite the mess he caused, he still feels entitled to take up consultations. To think that he even hung up a ‘Model Appraiser’ plaque! Even I wouldn’t have the courage to bear that title. He’s just provoking everyone else that way. Since you want to die so badly, fine, I won’t stop you,” Wang Ji muttered to himself with a dark expression on his face.

After casting another glance at the secluded hall, Wang Ji stormed back to his own hall.

“Call the general affairs department’s manager over!” Wang Ji instructed.

As he waited, Wang Ji inadvertently recalled the evaluation reports he had burned yesterday morning.

Truth be told, he was quite shocked back then. In his eyes, Lin Jin had always been unskilled and borderline useless. But those evaluation reports on the mutant eggs came like a ringing slap across the face.

Wang Ji had to admit that he himself couldn’t produce such a high-quality report. However, it was impossible for Lin Jin to come up with that too. After carefully thinking it through, the only plausible explanation he could think of was that Lin Jin had come across a similar case before.

It was only possible for Lin Jin to come up with those reports if he had seen evaluation reports on other mutant eggs. In other words, this was ‘plagiarism’ in a way.

Of course, this Lin Jin was still too naive. How could he phrase his conclusions so ‘firmly’? It was taboo when writing up evaluation reports. No one could ever be a hundred percent sure that their appraisals were correct.

Hence, there was the need to be ambiguous. One could only say it was a prediction, and there had to be more than one example to support each statement. That way, you could weave your way out of trouble in the future.

When Wang Ji plagiarized Lin Jin’s work, he merely took Lin Jin’s content and theories and paraphrased it. Overall, his evaluation report still sounded fairly ambiguous.

In other words, Wang Ji refused to believe that Lin Jin’s conclusions in the evaluation report would be what the mutant eggs would hatch into. It wouldn’t be exactly the same as what Lin Jin had written.

If it were, then Lin Jin must be a god or something.

However, Lin Jin wasn’t completely good for nothing. Even now in his desolated state, he still managed to cause some ripples and got some people to purchase his consultation tokens and present him with a plaque as a gift.

“You want to turn the tides? Like hell, I’ll give you that chance.” Wang Ji was dead set on defaming Lin Jin and kicking the latter out of the association.

Zhou Xiu of the general affairs department arrived.

Wang Ji immediately said, “Manager Zhou, I called you here because there’s something I need you to do.”

“Chief, please give your instructions.”

“Headquarters have begun their investigation on the accident caused by Lin Jin’s dereliction of duty. During this period, he is no longer suited to continue providing consultations, and to do otherwise would be downright irresponsible. With the general affairs department’s name, inform him that before the investigation results are out, his tokens will be removed and his consultation hall will be temporarily shut down.”

Despite Wang Ji’s casual tone, in Zhou Xiu’s ears, it was filled with nothing but murderous intent.

Zhou Xiu mused, ‘You’re just trying to kill Lin Jin this way. You know full well that the investigation hasn’t begun yet and to shut down his consultation hall means that you’re sentencing him to death before all else.

It wasn’t that hard to imagine that after this blow, it would become near impossible for Lin Jin to reopen his hall again, nor could he take any more consultations. Furthermore, the appraisal accident was a fact. Lin Jin was destined to shoulder responsibility for the mishap after the investigation results were out. If Lin Jin showed decent performance during this period and received praise from customers, he might get a chance to keep his title. The inspector from headquarters might show him mercy. But if his hall was shut down, that left him no opportunities to redeem himself.

Even if Zhou Xiu had been giving Lin Jin trouble all this while, he felt that Chief Wang Ji was going too far with this.

Zhou Xiu’s pet beast had contracted a severe hidden illness and it was Lin Jin who pointed it out back then. Although Lin Jin humiliated him in public, he still gave Zhou Xiu a prescription to save his pet beast’s life afterward.

Green dew grass, ground root leaves, and white peony flowers, five copper coins worth of each. Deer blood and ginseng, ten copper coins worth of each. Mix them with three copper coins worth of saltpeter powder and boil them with beast bones. Pelletize it using the method recorded in the third book of Li’s Pelletization, chapter six.

After that, Zhou Xiu had prepared the medicine accordingly and fed it to his yellow dhole. His pet beast did get better and had almost recovered after two days.

No matter how reluctant he was, Zhou Xiu knew that it was Lin Jin who saved his pet beast. His animosity for Lin Jin was almost gone and he stopped trying to give Lin Jin trouble after that. But now that Chief Wang Ji had personally issued this order, Zhou Xiu could do nothing but comply.

Back at the general affairs department, Zhou Xiu contemplated for a bit before arranging his men to take action. But during the operation, he messed with it a little.

According to the chief’s orders, he was to shut down the hall immediately. But Zhou Xiu told his men to do it during the afternoon break time. Simultaneously, he sent someone to inform Lin Jin so the latter could make some preparations. At least he could clear off his pending tasks. Otherwise, it would be utterly humiliating to have his hall shut down in front of his customers.

“Lin Jin, consider this a favor returned,” Zhou Xiu muttered to himself after he made the arrangements.

Once the general affairs department had delivered the notice, Lin Jin was stunned when he read it.

Zhao Ying and Lu Xiaoyun noticed something was off so they hurried over to ask about the situation. Lin Jin passed the notice to them before carrying on his task and treating the remaining few pet beasts.

After reading the notice, Zhao Ying and Lu Xiaoyun were trembling in anger.

“Contain your anger. Let’s not make a fool of ourselves. There are still a few customers left. We’ll talk after serving them. The general affairs department has also said they would only send people over in the afternoon.”

Lin Jin sounded composed as always. Although he was borderline choking from anger, he had to endure it.

Otherwise, wouldn’t it just aggrieve those near to him and make his enemies glad?

Han Dong seemed to have something on his mind so he was quiet the entire morning, focusing only on helping out obediently. When he sensed that something was wrong, he too went over to inquire.

Lu Xiaoyun handed him the notice and said, “Take a look at it yourself. They’re just too much. I definitely won’t let them get away with this.”

Lu Xiaoyun was tearing up from anger. Zhao Ying was the same.

When Han Dong read the notice, he was so shocked that his fists were tightly clenched. Even he felt that something like this was too much.

If Appraiser Lin was truly hopeless and incompetent, that would have been alright. But the problem was, after staying with him, Han Dong could feel how ‘selfless’ Appraiser Lin was. The integrity he had displayed as a beast appraiser far exceeded everyone else he knew.

Han Dong had witnessed with his own eyes, no matter what kind of customers and sickly beasts came through the door, Appraiser Lin would serve them earnestly. Never once did he seem annoyed and every evaluation report was written in great detail. He wouldn’t simplify it just because the illness wasn’t anything major or if the patron did not have a high social status.

In terms of knowledge and skills, he wouldn’t lose to the chief or Appraiser Gao either.

The man kept a low-profile, endured humiliation, and didn’t participate in the struggle for fame and profit. How could such an honest man be treated this way? Everyone knew that having their consultation hall shut down was the biggest humiliation. Even if an apprentice made a mistake, they wouldn’t receive a punishment to this extent.

Had it been him, no, had it been anyone else, they would have struck back immediately. At the very least, they wouldn’t be as calm as Lin Jin was right now. But for the sake of preventing unrest in the customers, Lin Jin carried on to complete his duty as a beast appraiser.

It was easy to tell who had a noble character and who did not.

At that moment, the shame in Han Dong’s heart intensified and his eyes immediately turned red.