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nChapter 453 – Side Dishes

nAfter returning to his courtyard, Zhao Hai sat down and let out a long breath. When Laura saw Zhao Hai, she immediately gave him a cup of hot tea and said, “Brother Hai, what happened? You seem very tired, what did you talk with Smith about?”

nZhao Hai forced a smile and said, “He didn’t say anything wrong, he was very polite. But being with them is very tiring, I feel even more tired than I did while fighting.”

nWhen she heard Zhao Hai, Laura couldn’t help but smile, “Of course it’s more tiring than being in a battle. When fighting, you just stay behind and common the troops, it’s really not that exhausting.”

nZhao Hai gave Laura a look which caused him to laugh. At this moment, Megan also came in. When she saw Zhao Hai, she smiled and said, “Big Brother Hai, it seems like they are very impressed by you. It’ll be great if my uncles support you. This way, we won’t be facing any obstacles in the future.”

nZhao Hai smiled and said, “It’s not really that good. When I had dinner with your uncles earlier, they didn’t discuss any matters of the family and just did small talks. This meant that they are still on guard with each other. If we get into such great trouble, I don’t’ think that they will be supporting us that much.”

nMegan sighed when she heard Zhao Hai’s words. She knew that Zhao Hai’s words were real. She knew that even if his uncles are now friendly with each other, when it comes to the battle for the seat of the Patriarch, they would surely be impolite.

nWhen he saw Megan’s expression, Zhao Hai comforted her and said, “Well, it’s alright, you don’t need to think too much into it. I know that all your uncles still place the Calci Family first. Uncle Smith also told me about the arrangements of the family. You don’t have to worry too much.”

nMegan nodded, but one could still see that she was quite unhappy. Zhao Hai couldn’t do anything about this family struggle, this kind of scenario happens in almost all families.

nZhao Hai thought about shifting the topic as he said, “ We’ll send Grandpa Gan some seafood later. God’s Grace Day is in two days, so I’m thinking we should take a stroll around the capital and play around. This period of time, various products should be converging inside the city because of the holidays. We must go around and find some good things to bring back.”

nMegan looked at Zhao Hai and smiled, “Alright, let’s go to the city tomorrow and have a good look. What does Big Brother Hai want to buy?”

nZhao Hai smiled and said, “At this point I don’t know, but I still want to take a look, maybe I’ll find some things I like. Let’s also go to the slave market tomorrow, I think we still need quite a few more slaves back at the territory.”

nMegan nodded and said, “Alright, but Brother Hai, do we really need to buy more slaves? Don’t we have 100 thousand slaves coming from the prairie?”

nZhao Hai smiled and said, “Rest assured, I didn’t forget about that. But those Beastman slaves cannot farm. We need to buy some Human slaves and have them teach the Beastmen the basics of farming. Moreover, Humans can make simple houses, while the Beastmen cannot, they are already quite used to living in tents, it’s a matter of habit. Because of this, I thought that it would be better to get more Human slaves.”

nMegan nodded, “Right, but the slave market isn’t inside the city, it’s outside. I think the slave market would be more busy after the holidays and also have more slaves, it would be a good idea to head there at that time.”

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nZhao Hai replied, “Why would it be busy at that time? And if it would be busy by then, won’t we be unable to select the good ones?”

nMegan smiled and said, “During the holidays, Great Nobles would be too busy to go buy some decent slaves. After the holidays, they would go find some slaves to help them manage their matters. If those slaves do well, then they would be living a good life. Moreover, they also lost a lot of slaves because of exhaustion and sickness, so the nobles would also look for new ones by then. But Brother Hai doesn’t need to worry, there are a lot of slaves in the market, it would be impossible for us to not find some good ones.”

nZhao Hai frowned and said, “Where did these slaves come from, why are there too many?”

nLaura smiled and answered, “Brother Hai doesn’t know, but those slaves are commoners who were unable to pay their taxes, some are also those who borrowed money and wasn’t able to pay it back. Some are generational slaves, children of other slaves. There are also some elderly slaves who are not needed anymore. Because of this, there has never been a shortage of slaves in the continent.”

nZhao Hai sighed, he cannot say anything. He knew that with his present ability, he has no way of changing this custom of the continent. He could just do his best in order to help those he can.

nMegan also knew about Zhao Hai’s thoughts. When she first heard about Zhao Hai releasing slaves and restoring the commoner status, she was startled. But she was also a good person, when Meg explained to her about Zhao Hai’s intent, she immediately approved of Zhao Hai’s methods. Now that she saw Zhao Hai looking quite unhappy, she shifted the topic to something else, “Big Brother Hai, how about you give Grandpa Gan the seafood right now? This will also give him more time to prepare them.”

nZhao Hai nodded, then he stood up. Laura stood up as well and said, “We’ll go explore Dark Soldier Fortress in the meantime, I want to see what makes it different from Iron Mountain Fort.”

nMegan smiled and said, “Alright, but Dark Soldier Fortress has some areas that are forbidden. Only some places are allowed to be explored, I’ll go lead you there.” Then she went with Laura outside, Zhao Hai smiled helplessly as he followed right behind them.

nWhen they left the courtyard, they were immediately greeted by some servants. Megan asked one of them to lead them to Gansu. Gansu held special status in the family, even Randolph held some sort of respect to him. Gansu is someone who never limits the things coming out of his mouth and was generally quite impolite. But although he had an explosive temperament, he was actually quite kind to the servants. Because of this, the servants in the family gave him very high respect. If they made any mistakes, Gansu would just scold them a bit and then forget about it later.

nZhao Hai quickly found Gansu, who at this time was in the kitchen. Since God’s Grace Day is approaching, there was a massive need to prepare some food, especially in a place like Dark Soldier Fort. Since banquets were happening, it won’t be good for the family’s face if they were to run out of food.

nAt this time of the year, Gansu was in charge of keeping everything in check inside the warehouse of the kitchen. Gansu didn’t have any impatient expressions, he carefully inspected everything.

nZhao Hai couldn’t help but stare when he entered at the warehouse. The things inside were simply numerous. There were even some ingredients that he had never seen before. All of them were neatly placed inside the warehouse according to their classifications.

nAt this moment, the servant arrived at Gansu’s side and whispered a few words. Gansu stared for a moment before he turned to look at Zhao Hai. Gansu’s impression of Zhao Hai was very good, so he immediately stepped forward and laughed, “Liitle Hai, Little Megan, why did you come here? You want to have some delicious stuff? Don’t worry, if some arrive I definitely won’t forget you.”

nMegan ran up to Gansu’s side and held his arm, “Grandpa Gan, Big Brother Hai came here to deliver some stuff. You better receive them or else you will certainly regret it.”

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nGansu stared, then he turned to Zhao Hai and said, “Little Hai, you have some good things? What are they? Can I see them?”

nZhao Hai smiled and waved his hand, making a big pile of products appear on the floor. One could see some swordfishes and crabs among other things. Moreover, their sizes aren’t very small.

nThese are the things that Zhao Hai asked Cai’er to cultivate. With how large they look, they would certainly be eye-catching.

nGansu looked at the products and couldn’t help but be surprised. His eyes turned bright when he saw the swordfishes as well as the crabs. These are very rare in the continent, even if one saw them, they were very hard to catch. If these are made into dishes and shown to others, their banquet would surely have high attendance.

nThese past few years, there were no new dishes that were served in these banquets. Everyone just ate the same things, there was nothing new. But with these things present, the Calci Family’s banquet would surely be very good.

nThe things that Zhao Hai took out were all dead and frozen, but it still baffled Gansu. They would generally cool the products inside cold storage areas filled with magic arrays, this way, they would last a long time, and may even allow them to be consumed in the summer.

nGansu stared at the pile for quite some time before he turned to Zhao Hai, “Good, boy, you really have good things. With these seafood, we could make the Buda Clan shine this year. Good job.”

nWhen she saw Gansu’s reaction, Megan smiled, “See, Grandpa Gan? I said that Big Brother Hai has some good stuff. Go get some people to take them away quickly, or else they would melt. Alright, we’ll be going now, I’ll go lead sister Laura and the others to explore the fort.”

nGansu didn’t stop them, he nodded and said, “Go, go. Little Hai, since you won’t be joining the ladies, come with me. Let’s have a drink between grandfather and grandson.”

nZhao silently nodded and stayed. Megan and the others chuckled as they went away. Gansu wasn’t polite with Zhao Hai as he directly brought him to the kitchen. He had the cook make some side dishes for them as he took out a pot of wine and sat with Zhao Hai to drink.

nIn the past, Zhao Hai would drink some wine with his old friends. He wouldn’t drink too much and would just enjoy the chat and the company, it felt great. But when he arrived in the Ark Continent, he wasn’t able to experience such opportunity. And now, Gansu made him remember the old times, this gave Zhao Hai a warm feeling.

nGansu and Zhao Hai leisurely drank wine and ate some of the side dishes, they had a very good time. Even if it was the holidays, and everyone in the fort were quite busy, Gansu was an exception. He would just delegate the tasks to his subordinates and would just check their progress from time to time. Because of this, he wasn’t that busy. Moreover, the servants that were under him were the children of the slaves, they didn’t have much negative feelings towards him, making Gansu’s life quite at ease.

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