Published: March 12, 2025
Chapter 119: Discussing Cooperation (1)
Kun Zheng shook his head, and Laura understood that it meant he had never seen such dishes before, which made her even more curious.
Zhao Hai looked at Laura and smiled slightly, "Come on, Miss Laura, Mr. Kun Zheng, and this must be Miss Ni'er, right? Give these a try; these are our specialties that you can't find anywhere else."
Laura smiled slightly and said, "Then we won't stand on ceremony. To be honest, this is the first time I've seen such large firefly fish."
Kun Zheng smiled slightly and said, "Miss Laura's favorite is firefly fish, but I didn’t expect to see them here. Mr. Zhao Hai seems to have quite a knack for raising firefly fish, doesn't he?"
A test!
Kun Zheng was testing him, and everyone was aware of it. However, Zhao Hai was not angry; he was actually waiting for such a test. So he just smiled and said, "It's okay, I chose this place mainly because of the hot springs; I really enjoy soaking in hot springs, so I decided to stay. Raising firefly fish was something I thought of later. I had the right feed for them, which is why I started raising them. Hehe, but we can't raise too many here given the environment."
Not many raised? When Kun Zheng and Laura heard Zhao Hai say this, they couldn't help but recall the countless firefly fish heads they had seen in Wen'er Ditch, feeling a bit dizzy; this humility was a bit over the top and seemed hypocritical.
However, Kun Zheng furrowed his brow and said, "Mr. Zhao Hai, may I ask bluntly, even if you have feed for firefly fish, where did you get those firefly fish? I remember when I came to Rubble Mountain before, there were only a few small firefly fish in the hot springs, but now there are suddenly so many. You haven't been here for long; it’s impossible that you raised them yourself, right?"
Laura perked up when she heard Kun Zheng's question. She knew he had hit the nail on the head; Zhao Hai had not been in Rubble Mountain long enough to raise so many firefly fish. The ones he had must have come from somewhere else. Where did they come from? Perhaps from his answer, she could learn something about his background.
Zhao Hai glanced at Kun Zheng, shook his head, and said, "I'm sorry, Mr. Kun Zheng, but that's a secret."
Zhao Hai did not say much more; he simply made it clear that he was not going to tell him, and that he should refrain from probing further.
Kun Zheng and Laura were taken aback, and Kun Zheng immediately said, "I apologize, Mr. Zhao Hai; I was rude." Zhao Hai waved his hand and smiled slightly, "It's nothing; come, let’s taste the dishes before they get cold."
Laura and Kun Zheng were not polite and picked up their forks to try the dishes on the table. They were both natives of Ark Continent, where knives and forks were used for dining. Zhao Hai had never seen anyone use chopsticks.
However, Zhao Hai was using chopsticks now. He simply couldn't get used to the knife and fork, so when he learned some Chinese dishes from Merlin, he switched to using chopsticks. Although Galen found it strange, he didn’t say anything.
Previously, Galen might have commented that Zhao Hai was acting too strangely and didn’t seem like a noble. However, since Zhao Hai obtained a space, Galen rarely mentioned it. In the Black Earth Wilderness, even if you acted like a noble, no one would see it. Outside the Black Earth Wilderness, if Zhao Hai behaved too much like a noble, it would be counterproductive and could easily lead to his identity being exposed.
Zhao Hai was now a dark mage, a very special profession on the continent. In everyone's impression, dark mages were eccentric. If a dark mage were too normal, people wouldn’t believe he was a dark mage.
Laura and Kun Zheng noticed Zhao Hai's chopsticks, which he made himself from a long branch of the nut oil tree, carved with a knife and polished. The reddish-brown wood grain and shiny color were quite beautiful.
Zhao Hai did not remove his veil. The design of this magic robe was quite interesting; the size of the veil could be adjusted. As long as you didn't mind the trouble, you could make the veil larger and eat with it on. But usually, common mages wouldn’t do this; it was too cumbersome.