Chapter 455 – Killing Intent
The next morning, Zhao Hai and the others sat inside their carriage and progressed towards Carson City’s Eastern Market. The Eastern Market was Carson City’s largest bazaar. It was a market purposely built for selling goods. The City made this for retail, sporting a lot of cheap products sold by small businesses. Because of this, the place was the commoners’ most visited area in the city.
When Zhao Hai’s carriage arrived at the Eastern Market’s vicinity, it couldn’t progress any further. Zhao Hai looked at the amount of people present and shook his head. He suddenly thought about the time when he attended a temple fair back on Earth. Looking at the volume of people here, Zhao Hai thought that the two were the same.
Zhao Hai turned to the group and said, “Let’s walk, the carriage definitely couldn’t progress any further. Shue, you look after the carriage here.”
Shue nodded, then Zhao Hai and the others got off the vehicle and slowly walked towards the market. The people gathered all looked at Zhao Hai’s group with curious eyes.
Zhao Hai looked around and noticed the problem. There were indeed a lot of people on the streets, but none of them wore any n.o.ble clothing. Most of them wore civilian ones, even servants didn’t dress up.
Zhao Hai turned to Megan and said, “Megan, why am I unable to see any n.o.bles? Look at those people looking at us.”
Megan smiled and said, “Big Brother Hai, you don’t know but n.o.bles in the continent don’t buy things personally. They have some people specifically tasked to buy things in this market. The n.o.bles would just tell them what to buy, they don’t need to buy it themselves.”
Zhao Hai nodded, then no longer cared and walked towards the Eastern Market. It was currently still winter. Even if the Rosen Empire was warmer than the Prairie, the four seasons were still quite distinct here. On the doors of shops were piles of goods waiting to be sold. People on the shops were coming and going, the place was very lively.
Before long, Zhao Hai’s group stopped following the crowd and started looking around the shops. Blockhead and Rockhead were on their sides with Shun leading in front. When commoners see them from afar, they couldn’t help but get out of the way.
While walking, Zhao Hai was suddenly attracted to a shop. The shops in Eastern Market were very beautiful, they also have some sort of uniformity between them, and were two-stories. The shop that Zhao Hai saw was a bit different, it was three-stories. And most importantly, this shop was quite alone, no other buildings were nearby. Moreover, there were no people coming and going to this shop.
Zhao Hai looked at the scene and couldn’t help but get curious, he turned to Megan and said, “Megan, which family owns that shop? How come n.o.body went there?”
Megan looked at the shop and smiled, “This is the shop of the Robert family. Their family is the largest seller of general merchandise in Rosen Empire. They don’t handle retail and everyone knows it, that’s why commoners rarely go to this shop.”
Zhao Hai nodded and said, “Let’s go there and take a look. I want to see what things this shop has to offer.”
Megan smiled and said, “I’d also like to come to this shop. They have the most complete set of products among all shops in the Rosen Empire.” While they were talking, they entered the shop.
Just as they arrived inside the store, one of the servants inside greeted them. The guy loudly gave his respects and said, “Sir, Miss, please come inside.” The servant can see that Megan and the others were still unmarried judging by the clothes they wore, so he decided to just call them ‘Miss’.
Zhao Hai nodded and continued on to enter the store. When they are inside, Zhao Hai’s eyes couldn’t help but sparkle. The furnis.h.i.+ngs inside were similar to what Zhao Hai saw in the cities in his previous life. On the shelves were samples of the products along with their description and price. Zhao Hai looked at the products and saw that they were cheaper than those sold outside.
One could see a counter upon entering the door, an old attendant was behind it. When the attendant saw Zhao Hai, he didn’t care too much. But when he noticed Megan, he couldn’t help but open his eyes and immediately left the counter and went forward, “It’s actually Miss Megan, forgive me for being slow and neglecting you. Little Five, go lead Miss Megan’s group to the resting area and send them the best tea in the shop.”
The servant immediately led Zhao Hai’s group along and directed them towards the back of the shop. The attendant whispered a few words to another servant as they followed Zhao Hai to a small room.
This was the first time that Zhao Hai came across this kind of business. These small rooms in the store aren’t like hotel rooms. There aren’t any tables inside but instead there was an ornamental sand pool in the middle of the room. There were also flowers suspended on the walls as well as beautiful oil paintings. The room looked very elegant.
When Zhao Hai and the others sat down, the servant immediately came and served them hot tea. Then the store attendant gave a bow and said, “This one is very glad to see Miss Megan.” Then he turned to look at Zhao Hai and said, “Can I know who this gentleman is?”
Zhao Hai smiled faintly and said, “This one is Zhao Hai. Megan told me that this shop has the most complete inventory of goods in the entire market. Today, I happen to need some things, so I came here to take a look.”
When the attendant heard Zhao Hai’s introduction, he immediately understood who he was. Zhao Hai’s ident.i.ty wasn’t a secret in Rosen Empire, all of the Great Clans knew about him.
The attendant immediately answered, “Miss Megan really praises us, but we indeed have the most complete inventory of products here. May I know what items Mister Zhao Hai needs?”
Zhao Hai smiled and pulled out a list and said, “These are the things I want, I’ve also listed the quant.i.ty. I want to know how long it will take you to prepare them.”
The attendant received Zhao Hai’s list respectfully and gave it a quick scan, then he looked at Zhao Hai and said, “We have all of the things that mister needed. If mister wants it today, we can have them ready in three hours.”
Zhao Hai nodded and said, “Alright, please prepare them, in three hours I will come back and take them.” The attendant nodded as he turned around to leave.
Seeing the attendant leaving, Zhao Hai turned to Megan and said, “Megan, the attendant seem to be quite familiar with you, do you know them?”
Megan smiled and said, “We do, the friends.h.i.+p between the Robert family and the Calci family spanned for generations. I used to visit them in the past, so their people should know me. I just don’t know much about them, just like how I don’t recognize that attendant.”
Zhao Hai nodded, then drank his tea before saying, “Since they need to prepare the good for three hours, we cannot just wait in here the entire time. How about we head to the West Market and have a look?”
Megan agreed, “Right, there are a lot of delicious things in the West Market. That’s the gourmet area of the capital. There are dishes there that are unique only to Carson City, no other place served them. We might as well have a try.”
Zhao Hai nodded, then the group went out of the shop after bidding the attendant goodbye. Then they left the east bazaar and headed to the West Market.
The West Market wasn’t very far from the East, it was only quite a ways away from the main road. Because of this main road, the city was divided into East City and West City. Which also gave the two markets their current names of East Market and West Market.
Since the East Market held priority to selling goods, there weren’t a lot of restaurants present in the area. There weren’t a lot of choices for those who wanted to eat a meal here.
On the other hand, the West Market gave priority to the food sector. The place was divided into the snack street, the food street, and the kitchenware street. There was needless to say that the food street would have almost all of the ingredients on the entire continent. They even had some seafood, but compared to those that Zhao Hai supplied, their quality was naturally much worse.
Aside from kitchen-related products, the kitchenware street also sold some goods. However, their selection wasn’t as diverse as those found in the East Market. Additionally, one could see that those sold here were much more expensive. In fact, many of those goods sold here were just bought from the East Market and resold here for a higher price.
Zhao Hai’s group weren’t interested in kitchenware. They first went to the food street and bought some ingredients that weren’t present in Zhao Hai’s s.p.a.ce. Of course, Zhao Hai bought some living creatures, for example some magic beasts that he still didn’t have. But after those things were transferred, Zhao Hai became disappointed since they didn’t manage to nudge the s.p.a.ce’s upgrade requirement.
The food street wasn’t short, from beginning to end, one needed to walk one hour to completely walk along it. Zhao Hai and the others bought no less than 100 beasts. But all of them didn’t manage to upgrade the s.p.a.ce, further disappointing Zhao Hai.
After finis.h.i.+ng their trek along the food street, they immediately went to the snack street, where their initial purpose was. The food in Carson City were all very famous, and all of them were concentrated on this snack street. With all of these foods present, naturally, Zhao Hai and the others decided to give some of them a taste.
There were a few people walking the streets bringing along some snacks with them. But in this area, the sight was very common, therefore, the group didn’t seem so strange.
Zhao Hai not only ate some food, he also bought a lot to save them for later, these things are only available here, not anywhere else. After that, they strolled around for another hour before taking their carriage and returned to the East Market.
Zhao Hai’s carriage stopped in front of the Robert family’s shop. At this moment a young man stepped out of the store. He didn’t seem to see the others as he headed straight for Megan, “Megan, you came. Why didn’t you tell me? When did you come back?”
Megan looked at the young man and smiled, “Big Brother Terry, I just came back yesterday. I accompanied Big Brother Hai today to buy some things.” She said as she slightly leaned her body towards Zhao Hai.
Zhao Hai stared and looked at Megan. Currently, even though Megan had a smiling face, the smile seemed to be quite distant. If one looked closely, they could even see a disgusted mood on her eyes. It was obvious that she wasn’t very glad to see the young man.
Zhao Hai understood what happened, then he turned his head to the young man and smiled, “h.e.l.lo, this one is Zhao Hai.”
The young man looked at Zhao Hai, still wearing that smile on his face. Although he looked quite charming, his eyes flashed a small killing intent, something that Zhao Hai was very keen on noticing.
Since Zhao Hai had fought a lot of battles, he was very sensitive to any hostility towards him. He can immediately feel from Terry the sense of not only opposition, but also a murderous aura.
Zhao Hai’s mood couldn’t help but sink. He understood what the other party was thinking, but he didn’t express his discontent with the situation. Terry also didn’t feel a change in Zhao Hai’s mood, he continued to smile to Zhao Hai as he said, “h.e.l.lo, Mister Zhao Hai. Your name surely is a thunder to the ears. Sir is very young and is already very promising. Even I have heard about my uncles talking about you.”
Zhao Hai smiled faintly and said, “Mister overpraises, this Zhao Hai is still a very small character. How could I compare to the enormity of the Robert Family’s a.s.sets. This one is ashamed.”
Terry smiled and answered, “Mister is too modest. Right, let’s not talk outside, let’s head to the rooms and continue there.” Then he sized up Laura and Meg, he only glanced at them and didn’t say anything.
Seeing his expression, it was impossible for Zhao Hai to not understand what was going on. It seems like Terry likes Megan, and seeing Megan happy being with Zhao Hai made him express a murderous aura.
After the group entered a private room, a servant served them tea as per usual. Terry didn’t touch his cup, he looked at Zhao Hai and said, “Is mister spending the holidays in Carson City? I heard that the Calci Family’s banquets are very lively every year.”
His words didn’t sound strange at first. But it seems to be not that simple. Zhao Hai himself was a Patriarch of a Clan, this time, he went to the Calci Family for G.o.d’s Grace Day in order to accompany Megan, as well as see Charlie, and also form some connections with the n.o.bility of the Rosen Empire.
However, by the tone of Terry’s words, he made it sound like Zhao Hai specifically went to the Calci Family to smooch off of their food and drinks. It was necessary to know that the Calci Family doesn’t have a lot of relatives. But they still have some distant relatives that would come during G.o.d’s Grace Day and present some small gifts and in return, the family would give them some food and wine to consume. Terry seemed to group Zhao Hai along with these people.
Laura and Meg’s expression couldn’t help but change. Megan’s face wasn’t any better either. Zhao Hai acted as if he didn’t hear any of it as he smiled and said, “The Calci family had a lot of people, so it was natural that their banquets would be very lively. But this time, I mainly came to the family in order to discuss with Grandpa Randolph about the matters of me marrying Megan by next year.”
With Zhao Hai’s words, it was Terry’s turn to change his expression. But he quickly recovered as he still wore a smile on his face and told Zhao Hai, “That’s great, I will certainly offer you a toast of celebration when that time comes.”
Zhao Hai smiled and replied, “That will be very welcome. Seeing that Megan doesn’t treat you as an outsider, Mister Terry should arrive early.”
Terry’s face couldn’t help but twitch, but the smile on his face remained unchanged, he then laughed and said, “Alright, I will prepare a big gift.”
Zhao Hai miled, “Then we will wait for mister’s big gift. Right, Mister Terry, it looks like it’s already late. May I inquire if the things that we ordered have already been prepared?”
Terry immediately responded and smiled, “They’re already prepared. Mister can come and take a look.” Then he stood up and invited Zhao Hai over with a hand gesture.