Looking at the dishes being set down on the table—
—even Su Lan was taken greatly aback.
They were, one and all, dishes made from natural ingredients.
There was black-egg stir-fried with six-legged pork at 200 star coins a plate; there was vinegar-braised three-legged duck at 300 a plate; there was flame-fish broth, a specialty of the Flame star system, at 500 a bowl; there was a fruit platter at 1,000.
There was the Augut star system's specialty three-piece set at 5,000 a serving.
……
And all of that was beside the point. It was the bottle of wine set down among them—
—that had even Han Tianwang wincing inwardly.
It was a certain famous fruit wine, worth as much as 13,000 star coins! Near enough to match the whole rest of the table put together.
Before he could get more than a glance at it, Zhao Chen had already filled the glasses of himself and the three beauties beside him.
"Oh dear — all poured out. If Senior Han would like a drink, just order a few more bottles yourself." Zhao Chen looked at Han Tianwang with a smile.
"No… no need… I don't drink." Han Tianwang's mouth twitched. In this restaurant, there was only the one bottle of that particular wine! There'd be no ordering more however much he wished to.
"Hey — you've ordered such a lot. Are you really sure it's all right?" Zhao Wan'er leaned in close to Zhao Chen's ear, muttering under her breath.
"Eat up and don't fret. Food this good is a world better than that artificial stuff. Miss this village and there's no such inn again — not eating it is throwing it away." Zhao Chen was already sweeping through the food like a whirlwind.
That was right — a whirlwind was the only word for it.
At first Su Lan and the others had kept some regard for table manners, but at the sight of the food about to be licked clean by Zhao Chen, they set aside their scruples and quickened their own pace — though, to be sure, their manner of eating was worlds more refined than Zhao Chen's.
Food this lavish, this extravagant, was something even Su Lan and her companions had never had; at most they'd sampled a few of these dishes before.
A single meal like this, after all, might well cost the lifetime savings of 100 ordinary families.
An ordinary person's yearly wage came to a mere 40 star coins — but those 40 star coins could just barely keep a family of three alive, and eating artificial food, of course.
Zhao Chen, who'd spent the past month and more eating nothing but artificial food, finally felt at this moment that his tongue still had a sense of taste after all.
Han Tianwang watched Zhao Chen eat like some ravening beast, and several times made to open his mouth and speak, only to find no opening. In the end he gave that up too and threw himself into the ranks of the eaters — for if he didn't, this whole tableful of food might well be gone. Food this lavish was something even he, Senior Han, rarely had the chance at.
The most pitiable of all was Zhang Haoran, kneeling this whole while. Not only did he have to kneel there in his shame; now he had to endure, on top of it, the manifold torment of smell and taste and sound.
And his heart, besides, was bleeding.
Because this meal was, in name at least, on his tab.
After an hour of whirlwind eating—
—Zhao Chen patted his own belly, swollen out several rings; were it not that the clothes on him stretched to fit the body's size, the buttons likely wouldn't have closed.
Off to the side, Zhao Wan'er and Su Lan were in no better state — wearing the satisfied look of people who couldn't manage another bite.
Han Tianwang hurriedly stopped Zhao Chen. "Junior Zhao Chen — now that we're fed and watered, isn't it time we settled the matter we agreed on? Please, apply to the academy to cancel the penalty against Junior Haoran."
"Oh, right — very nearly forgot. We haven't discussed the real business yet!" Zhao Chen settled back into his seat and laughed. "Forgive me — a small-timer like me has never eaten food this good. Don't laugh at me now, don't laugh."
Watching Zhao Chen's shameless little act, even Su Lan couldn't help but laugh.
Zhao Wan'er, for her part, stared at her brother. How had she never noticed before that this brother of hers was so dark-hearted a schemer?
"Out with it, then — what conditions are you prepared to offer, to have me let Zhang Haoran off?" Zhao Chen asked in earnest.
Han Tianwang gave a start, and looked at Zhao Chen in surprise. "Conditions? But the meal you just ate…"
"Senior Han surely didn't imagine one meal would be enough to settle this whole matter, did he?" Zhao Chen said with feigned astonishment.
Han Tianwang's mouth twitched. By now even he had the urge to give Zhao Chen a good thrashing. He forced down his anger and smiled. "Then Junior Zhao Chen, name your conditions outright."
"Straight to the point — I like that." Zhao Chen raised a hand and held up five fingers. "My starship toiled through a whole battle. The combat wear, the personnel strain, the return to port for repairs — all of it costs money."
Zhao Wan'er rolled her eyes. Please. That five-minute battle — I doubt your ship's energy consumption came to even 1%. Combat wear, my foot; Zhang Haoran's T2 Bald Eagle never once landed a hit on your ship from start to finish, never mind returning to port for repairs — repairs on thin air!
Everyone could see that Zhao Chen was shaking them down.
"50,000 star coins, is it? I think that's…" Han Tianwang looked at the five fingers Zhao Chen held up.
Zhao Chen cut in at once, grinning. "Not 50,000 — five hundred thousand!"
500,000 star coins!
This exorbitant demand had even Su Lan's eyes going wide.
"500,000! This is robbery!" Zhang Haoran couldn't help but spring up — and, perhaps from kneeling too long, went straight over face-first onto the dining table, the leftover food he'd been smelling all this while now smeared across his whole face. Mercifully the round table was fixed in place, or he'd have cut a still sorrier figure.
"Robbery? Well, if that's how you see it, then it seems there's no need for us to talk. I can do without the 500,000 — and you can choose to clear off out of Northstar." Zhao Chen spread his hands and rose as if to leave.
Rage and despair warred in Zhang Haoran's breast. He roared, "I can compensate you — but I truly don't have 500,000 star coins!"
"You do," said Zhao Chen.
Zhang Haoran looked at him in bewilderment.
"That T2 Bald Eagle-class Light Interstellar Cruiser of yours may be badly damaged, but if you move to sell it quickly, 500,000 or 600,000 star coins is no trouble at all." Zhao Chen looked at Zhang Haoran with a smiling squint.
A demon!
This fellow was a demon.
He'd planned the whole thing out before he ever came.
Every person present had their impression of this Zhao Chen turned clean on its head.
"Oh, right — I have one more condition. I seem to recall hearing a friend of yours say that, if you'd won, you'd have magnanimously let me kneel before you, kowtow, and call you grandfather? And that then you'd have considered sparing me the withdrawal. So."
Zhao Chen's smile, in Zhang Haoran's eyes, was the very face of a devil!
"My time's rather valuable. I'll give you 10 seconds." Zhao Chen drummed his fingers on the table.
In that moment, everyone present looked toward Zhang Haoran — for all the world as though, each of them, they'd begun silently counting down.
At the last, Zhang Haoran knelt down upon the floor.
That one kneeling had already told them all the answer.
"Grandfather Zhao Chen… I was wrong." Zhang Haoran's forehead knocked against the floor.