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Rare Taste Building is one of the few restaurants that operate in West-Resisting City. As the saying goes, no matter how poor a region is, there will be no shortage of local tyrants. In the past, Rare Taste Building was a place for noble masters to wine and dine as well as enjoy the pleasures of life. But after this place’s former local tyrants moved their entire families over to another place, they were intercepted by bandits and lost their lives. In tears, I reclaimed their properties and purchased all sorts of farm tools and necessities so that I could distribute them back to the people.

Even though these local tyrants were no more, the populace was gradually getting wealthier. In particular, this year’s harvest was excellent, so the majority of the people had some surplus money on hand. Following that train of thought, Rare Taste Building changed from serving luxurious dishes that only noble masters could eat to providing price-friendly meals to commoners and viewing commoners as potential customers. This change garnered wide-spread positive evaluations and even though the money gained wasn’t as effortless as before, the degree of popularity wasn’t inferior in any aspects to its previous look.

Moreover, it was impossible for there to never be new nobles inside of West-Resisting City. As a matter of fact, even if all the money in the world was to be divided evenly, the disparity between the poor and the rich would gradually increase again. Due to the Demon Cultivation Industry, early industrial development, and continuous trade with Yun Hai Territory, there were already a group of new nobles formed. It’s just that this group of people were even more obedient and knew how to step in my and Moon’s footsteps, thus causing basically no troubles for us. These new nobles would also occasionally come to Rare Taste Building to have a large and sumptuous meal, so many of the famous and valuable dishes still had a market.

I brought Moon with me over to Rare Taste Building, but most likely due to the attendants by the door not recognizing me, they told me some “we’re sold out today”. The boss, who had already hurriedly rushed over, pushed them to the side.

Rare Taste Building’s boss is called Shawn and is unlike the typical pot-bellied boss that generally comes to mind; he’s quite the lean, tall and sturdy man. This Rare Taste Building is his solo business and even up until now, he has personally received many customers with statuses. He originally was someone with high metabolism and with how it persists in working hard every day, it’s only natural that he would maintain such a great figure.

After seeing me, he slightly smiled and rubbed his hands as he said:

“The people working under me aren’t sensible, I ask that you don’t lower your level to their level. The outside locations have been more or less fully occupied, but there are still two private rooms remaining. I will immediately arrange one of them for you, please follow me.”

Because I would frequently sneak out to have an extra meal during the time Aleya only made stewed radish with cabbage, I was quite familiar with the boss of this establishment, so I returned with a smile:

“Alright.”

Moon and I entered Rare Taste Building. The originally bustling with activity and lively restaurant gradually quieted down. As soon as we were walking up the wooden stairs, it was already absolutely silent. In front of other people, Moon still gave me a lot of face by smiling as she followed behind me. Once we entered the private room, however, she picked up the menu, gave it a glance, and asked me:

“How much do you have in your secret stash?”

I gulped down a mouthful of saliva and answered:

“Enough for a meal.”

Moon nodded, then turned to face the boss and earnestly said:

“I’ll be troubling you to bring one of each of the 10 most expensive things on this menu.”

I sprayed out the tea in my mouth onto the floor.

Shawn glanced at me with a weird look in his eye, but nevertheless nodded his head and said:

“No problem, please wait a moment.”

He withdrew from the room after saying these words. I asked Moon with helplessness apparent in my voice:

“How could you order dishes like this, aren’t you supposed to take a look at whether or not you’ll like the food?”

Moon spoke seriously:

“Eating is for the purpose of having a good time. Since the dishes we’ll be eating are expensive, we’ll be happier the more expensive it is.”

Indeed, I couldn’t win an argument against him. Without any better option, I ruefully commented:

“You’re still upset.”

Once these words came out of my mouth, Moon instantly opened her eyes wide and her long, shapely eyebrows slanted towards her nose as she angrily ranted:

“Don’t you know that I had written up plans for these three cities during this period of time? There’s a thick pile of them! Every day, I would wish to the stars and moon for there to be more people and land. Every day, I would repeatedly count the coins we have as if I were patrolling those three cities. With so many days passing by like this, I had already considered every brick in those three cities as something inside West-Resisting City’s purse; I considered them to be the treasures of our family. In the end, you told me out of nowhere one day that these things were gone, all gone! I’m aware of Fang Thirteen’s importance and if you told me in the beginning that we would have to exchange three cities for her, I definitely would have been willing to agree to this deal. After all, we do need a strategist and it’s an important step in completing the jigsaw puzzle in the grand scheme of things. But this time? At that time, her little brother was already in our hands and she was also clearly inclined towards West-Resisting City, so why did you return those three cities?”

As Moon spoke, both her hands were in his sleeves. She then remarked gloomily:

“I’ve always felt that you were a little too considerate to Fang Thirteen. I told you before that you can have as many women by your side and I wouldn’t care, but you cannot favor just one person since doing so will influence your basic judgement.”

I scratched my head:

“Not at all. I just think that doing things this way makes me appear more handsome; giving what I said I’ll be giving shows how bold I am.”

Moon glared at me.

I obediently shut my mouth.

Moon gazed at the scenery outside the window. The pedestrians coming and going were all still whispering into each other’s ears while the voices of the guests inside the restaurant gradually grew louder and the item of many people’s discussion could be vaguely heard.

As for the remarks they were making, it was naturally dissatisfaction towards me in the majority.

Moon looked back over at me and asked:

“Hear that? Everyone’s treating you like an idiot.”

I grinned.

Moon leaned forward and used both her hands to pinch my cheeks, then resentfully said:

“And you’re still smiling?!”

I replied:

“If they’re laughing at me, then let them laugh. I, Li De, am the magnificent City Lord of West-Resisting City, do I need them to teach me how to do things? Besides, even if I’ve made a mistake, don’t I have you to expose them to me? You can just act as if you’re following a wastrel and someone forcefully raised the difficulty of the game. Now doesn’t it suddenly feel like a challenge?”

Moon pulled on my cheeks here and there, hurting me until I started grimacing. Moon then released me and sat back down into his seat with a smile finally on her face:

“Sometimes, I think to myself that I’m not worth as much as I thought I was. Yesterday evening, I burned the development plans I had for the three cities in a fit of anger, dug a hole, and buried the ashes. I told myself then that it was only natural for me to have the fate of working hard. That I was fated to be your bull, your horse, that the little bit of advantage that I had eked out had been spent like this without a second thought.”

Moon sighed, then mocked herself:

“Never mind. In any case, it’s fallen into Fang Yuan’s hands, so we haven’t made a loss. Him gaining those three cities is the equivalent of receiving the entirety of the formation Fang Thirteen had arranged back then, the one that can attack, defend, and retreat. It was supposed to be that the Overlord of Zhao Chen would retaliate against us after we attacked Sky Star City and abducted both Fang Thirteen and Fang Lita. But now the situation isn’t so bad since we have Fang Yuan in the north helping us shoulder this burden. With Fang Thirteen’s property in his hands, it won’t be quick even if he loses. I’ll just treat it as us spending money to buy our safety, sigh.”

The things Moon spoke of were things that I had thought of long ago.

Fang Thirteen’s formation is only complete when the parts are made a whole; only when the ten cities are together will they form a whole. If I really took those three cities, the remaining seven cities would be missing the formation eye and would be unable to cooperate with each other.

The dishes came up.

The rising steam created a partition between me and Moon and as the clouds curled up, Moon abrupt asked:

“Fang Lita, didn’t Fang Yuan send him over? How do you plan on handling him?”

I took a bite of the food before I gave him an ambiguous reply:

“First, I’ll find some casual place to raise him. Fang Thirteen’s little brother can’t be killed just like that. If he’s to be killed, then Fang Thirteen should do it herself, but do you think she’s willing to do so?”

After a spell of silence, Moon responded:

“There’s no need to insist on killing him. But I want Fang Thirteen’s name certificate to prove that West-Resisting City is more important in her heart compared to this little brother. Only then will I feel relieved in handing over military authority.”

I swallowed the mouthful of food and smirked:

“Just wait a bit……we will have it.”