Chapter 386 – It’s Not Impossible, It is a Certainty
Smith was currently in his own study, writing a letter to his elder brother. He wanted to explain Zhao Hai’s situation in detail, he wanted the family to change its ways in approaching Zhao Hai.
Smith knew that the most important thing for the family was Zhao Hai, those fire fishes only came second. Money cannot compare to what Zhao Hai could bring. Smith wouldn’t even hesitate to exchange the entire Sky Water City for Zhao Hai’s loyalty, but this was naturally impossible.
Smith also knew that Zhao Hai wasn’t the type of person that could be lured in with money. Although it seems like Zhao Hai loved money, every single coin he got was rightfully gained. Even when he robbed Grand Duke Lionheart of all his belongings, Zhao Hai did it with his own ability.
Smith also knows that Zhao Hai took sentiment heavily into account, this was why Smith has been taking care of Ruyen all this time. Although Ruyen’s family hadn’t sent someone to pick her up yet, she was very safe inside Sky Water City. She can go around and play without worrying about her own safety.
Although Zhao Hai rarely visited Ruyen, Smith took care of her very well. He wanted Zhao Hai to know that he had been helping him secretly. This was so that Zhao Hai could develop even a small trace of grat.i.tude towards Calci Family, which may be taken into account if ever the family would need his skills in the future.
But Smith’s painstaking efforts were destroyed in this one move by the family. Smith understood that if this matter wasn’t handled properly, Zhao Hai wouldn’t work with the family anymore. This loss is too great.
Smith didn’t believe that Zhao Hai was afraid of the Radiant Church. With his att.i.tude towards the church, how could he be afraid of it? In addition, Zhao Hai was a crown prince back at the Beastman Prairie where the Radiant Church couldn’t reach their hands. So even if the family didn’t place any importance to Zhao Hai, he could still hide inside the Prairie. At that time, there would be no way for the Church to deal with him.
At this moment, Phil came in. Only Phil was able to enter Smith’s study without notification. When Smith saw his Phil, he looked at the paper on the other’s hand and asked, “Uncle Phil, what’s the matter?’
Phil calmy gave Smith the paper. Seeing Phil’s expression, Smith knew that something must have happened. He immediately received the paper and read its contents, then his face turned very ugly in an instant.
Bang!! Smith slapped the surface of his table, then stood up. He walked around the room as he mumbled, “This doesn’t make sense, why would he do this? Why is he making things very difficult for me?”
Phil knew that Smith wasn’t talking about Zhao Hai, but Juwan. Juwan almost pushed Zhao Hai to the opposing side. Fortunately, Zhao Hai was patient, and just taught Juwan a lesson. Otherwise, things would have been very bad for the Calci Family.
Smith wasn’t angry about how Zhao Hai treated Juwan. On the contrary, he felt relieved. These past few years, Juwan had been extremely annoying. But because he needed to consider his father’s face, Smith didn’t say anything. Juwan was getting more and more excessive, it was about time that someone taught him a lesson.
At this point, Phil’s serious voice can be heard, “I already arranged the people who will meet the fifth young master. Young Master, you must prepare and solve this matter as soon as possible. Or else, the fifth young master might create more troubles when he comes back.”
Smith nodded, “It’s not a just a possibility, it is certain. With Little Hai giving him a lesson, I think that he will certainly incite the clan to deal with Zhao Hai when he gets back. This matter should be taken care of, otherwise the family would certainly suffer. I always have this feeling that Zhao Hai had a lot of secrets and what he showed us was just the tip of the iceberg. We cannot push him to become our enemy.”
Phil was in approval with Smith’s view. He had a quite a lot of interactions with Zhao Hai so he had made some sort of understanding about their visitor. Just like what Smith said, Phil also thought that there were too many secrets that Zhao Hai has not yet revealed. It was certainly unwise for the family to turn him into an enemy before they knew everything about Zhao Hai.
Phil nodded and said, “We still have a few days time. But I’m currently worried about the fifth young master’s safety. Now that the young master had been thrown out at sea by Zhao Hai, there may be some people who’ll develop thoughts of attacking him. Don’t forget, we have a lot of enemies.”
Smith shook his head and smiled, “No need to be worried, Little Hai already had that covered. It can be seen that he still didn’t want to have a falling out with us. I’m sure that he should have sent someone to guard Juwan’s safety.”
Phil nodded, then Smith sighed and said, “Uncle Phil, make sure to get him back safely. There’s no other acceptable outcome.”
…
At this time, Zhao Hai was sitting on the deck while observing Juwan’s situation. He couldn’t have Juwan suffer an accident, otherwise, he wouldn’t have anything to say to Smith. He also wouldn’t be able to cooperate with the Calci Family anymore.
Thus, he could only insure Juwan’s safety. He also wanted to see how the family reacts to this scenario. But he really didn’t worry too much. This area was still under Sky Water City’s domain, the Calci Family’s influence here should still be quite strong.
And just like what he expected, a Calci Family s.h.i.+p came to pick Juwan up after three days of sending the letter. Zhao Hai felt relieved, currently, they were now approaching Ape Island.
When Zhao Hai returned to Sky Water City, he didn’t go and see Ruyen. He knew that she didn’t want to meet him, and from Laura’s inquiry, Ruyen was already living happily in the city. Zhao Hai didn’t want to disturb her.
Naturally, he knew what Smith was secretly doing. Zhao Hai really put to heart what Smith just did, this proved that Smith truthfully regarded him very high deep in his heart.
…
This time, Zhao Hai obtained 10 additional s.h.i.+ps. Adding on to the three he obtained earlier, the Swordfish, and the Haven, he now had a total of 15 s.h.i.+ps.
Fifteen s.h.i.+ps wasn’t a small number, most clans wouldn’t necessarily have this many s.h.i.+ps. Although these s.h.i.+ps’ ability to store cargo wasn’t as good as freighters, Zhao Hai still thought that these s.h.i.+ps were still useful.
In five days time, they finally arrived at Ape Island. They could actually arrive at an earlier time, but Zhao Hai didn’t want to be suspicious, so he just went with the normal voyage towards the island.
Zhao Hai’s purpose in returning to the island was mostly for studying Little Jin’s way of brewing beer. For this matter, he brought over a few beastmen. Since these beastmen had a bit of experience in making liquor, they should be able to learn quite easily.
Ape Island was still the same, when Zhao Hai and the others came down from the s.h.i.+p, Little Jin’s tribemates were already waiting for them. Zhao Hai and the others weren’t polite and immediately rode on the backs of some gorillas as they headed back to the lair.
This was the first time that the beastmen came to the island, so they were frozen at the sight of the huge trees. They didn’t imagine that there were such huge trees that existed in this world.
Then, Zhao Hai introduced them to the Bread fruit. He just planted the trees in the s.p.a.ce, so there hasn’t been any fruits that were produced yet.
…
After staying at Little Jin’s place for a while, Zhao Hai took some Bread Fruit and Beer before going back to Iron Mountain Fort.
Even though they hadn’t returned for quite some time, there were no major changes that occured on the fort other than the fact that Blockhead and Rockhead recently retired for some time. They were striving hard, hoping to break through their bottleneck.
To be honest, Blockhead and Rockhead’s apt.i.tudes weren’t that great. But they were willing to work hard, which was rarely seen in some people. Zhao Hai adored this quality,
When Zhao Hai’s group arrived at the fort’s living room, Green, Merine and Kun were present. When he saw the group appear, Green smiled and said, “Oh?! Got bored of playing and decided to come home?”
Zhao Hai smiled and said, “A bit. Sky Water City is very nice, I also went to find us some slaves. I figured that it was time to increase the number of people we have here. Right, Grandpa Green, I have some good things here.” Then he took out a Bread fruit and a bottle of beer.
Green looked curiously at the bread fruit. Zhao Hai smiled faintly as he opened it. When the fruit was opened, the flesh inside immediately inflated. Green was startled when he tasted the fruit, although it looked strange, it was quite interesting, it is also very good.
Then Zhao Hai made him taste the beer. Although Zhao Hai informed him that he would be taking away some liquor makers, Green wasn’t informed about what liquor they would be making. Now that Zhao Hai brought some samples back, Green was curious and tasted it.
However, the taste was quite disappointing. And it’s true, the state of the beer was very sour because of the current method of fermentation. It was not a very good thing to drink at the moment. Green didn’t understand why Zhao Hai wanted to brew this stuff.
Green placed the gla.s.s down and turned to Zhao Hai as he said, “Young master, do we really need to make this time? To be honest, this is not tasty.”
Zhao Hai smiled and replied, “It is certainly not tasty at present, this is because Little Jin didn’t take good care of it. If we ferment it properly, the flavor will certainly very different, im sure. Also, I’m preparing to start growing some bread trees here. Although it is a tree, it has a higher yield that bamboo rice. What do you think?”
Green nodded and said, “This thing is truly good. It might even change the continent’s staple food. It is a good thing to plant these. But young master, this tree grows on an island, its climate is very different compared to here. I don’t think we need to plant them large scale, we should do so in small batches and see if they can survive in this environment. If it can’t then we have no choice than to forget about it.”
Zhao Hai thought for a moment before nodding. Because of the s.p.a.ce, he had forgotten about the effects of the climate. It seems like the situation here was the same as back on Earth. There were some southern fruits that couldn’t be planted on northern soil because of the differing climate.
But Zhao Hai had already decided to plant some Bread Trees inside the s.p.a.ce. The yield of this tree is too high. If the s.p.a.ce grew them, a Bread Tree’s one season of harvest could beat three seasons of Bamboo Rice.
When this Bread tree produces fruit, he could sell it to the beastmen. Zhao Hai believed that the beastmen would certainly love it very much. The fruit was very convenient to carry and can be instantly eaten after being opened, moreover, it can be stored for a long time. For beastmen, this was the type of fruit that they wanted to obtain.
Merine happily laughed and said, “Young Master, it would certainly be good to plant this tree. It can be prepared very easily. If we plant a large number of it inside the s.p.a.ce, we can sell it to the continent as well. You mentioned that the bread fruit can be subst.i.tuted with grain to sell to the beastmen. But you don’t know how popular this food will be when also sold to humans. This fruit is just like grain, since it could be easily eaten and prepared.”
Zhao Hai stared, then he scratched his head, “I actually forgot about this point. You’re right, Grandma Merine. Come take a few of these fruits and try cooking with them.”
Merine nodded, “Very well, I’ll give it a try.”
Green looked at Zhao Hai and said, “Young Master, it’s currently winter. You can’t do anything here right now, we can’t go to the mountains and scour for stones either. How about you go find some islands and see whether you can take some stones there and bring it here? Otherwise, we will have to wait for spring before continuing with our plans, and I think that it would be too late at that point. What do you think?”
Zhao Hai thought about Green’s words then said, “Good, I’ll go find some small uninhabited islands and bring its stones right here. Also, this way, we wouldn’t have to destroy the Back Wasteland in the future.”
Green nodded then asked, “How is the situation at Sky Water City?”
Zhao Hai told Green and the others about the happenings back at Sky Water City. He didn’t hide anything from them. This time, the matter with the Calci Family has two sides, one is good while the other is bad. The good one involves them being able to continue cooperating with the family. The bad thing involves them retreating, and making their position on the continent require more firmness. Zhao Hai hopes that Green would prepare for both scenarios.
After listening to Zhao Hai’s recollection, Kun sighed and said, “No matter where, struggle for power exists. This time, Little Hai did a good job. We should let the Calci Family know that we are not pushovers, only then will they respect our standing.