Trafford's Trading Club

Chapter 1422: Chapter 149: Harmonious Companionship

When I woke up in the morning, the maid had already prepared everything, including today’s breakfast.

The breakfast wasn’t chosen from the hotel chef’s menu but was personally cooked by the maid herself—the room was equipped with a kitchen, and even the ingredients were fresh.

“Mr. Jin called to say the car is ready, we can leave at any time.”

Boss Luo was sipping milk while reading the newspaper. He nodded upon hearing this, folded the newspaper, set it aside, and smiled, “I wonder if Da Zhe and Nero have been getting along well during this time.”

The maid said, “They’re both very charismatic people, so I think they should be getting along harmoniously.”

“That’s good then.”

After a simple breakfast, it marked the official end of the brief stay at the Grand Hotel. Boss Luo met Jin Zhongyuan in the hotel lobby, and then followed his arrangement to board the car heading to Saint Andrews.

Before leaving, the maid secretly dropped a letter into the opinion box in the hotel lobby before returning to her master’s side.

“What did you put in?” Boss Luo couldn’t help but ask curiously.

The maid smiled slightly and said, “Just a small suggestion.”

Boss Luo blinked but didn’t delve further; he merely rolled down the car window and extended the camera lens out to capture the front view of the Grand Hotel.

“Let’s drive.”

Luo Qiu said to Jin Zhongyuan.

…

The Alec Grand Hotel places great importance on customer opinions… There’s usually a dedicated concierge responsible for collecting the letters from the opinion box, making it convenient for the hotel management to promptly identify areas needing improvement.

This service attitude is one of the reasons why it has been always highly regarded.

Currently, when several letters extracted from the opinion box were delivered to the review room, an employee wearing bifocal glasses, reportedly having worked in the review room for forty years, suddenly stood up.

Only to see this veteran dash out of the review room with a hundred-meter sprint speed, then rush into the elevator, accidentally bumping into two food carts along the way, and finally arriving at the hotel manager’s office door, hurriedly pushing it open.

At this time, the manager of Alec Grand Hotel was leisurely chatting with Attorney Zieg. Seeing someone barge in, his face naturally showed displeasure.

But Attorney Zieg, being quite familiar with this veteran employee from the review room, casually greeted him, “Old John, old buddy, what’s up?”

“Oh! Attorney Zieg, you’re here too!” Old John was panting heavily, “I didn’t expect you to be here as well, just as well, because I think there’s a letter here that both of you definitely need to see.”

Old John placed the letter onto the manager’s desk.

The two looked simultaneously… it was just an ordinary white envelope.

However, when the envelope was turned over, revealing the fire seal on the seam, both men who could sway the hotel’s fates held their breaths.

The manager looked at Attorney Zieg, and Attorney Zieg calmly took out a small knife, opened the envelope, and read it carefully.

For quite a while, Attorney Zieg didn’t speak, even showing a somewhat furrowed brow, prompting the manager to ask, “Old Zieg, what does the letter say?”

Attorney Zieg looked up, with some confusion, “It doesn’t say anything extraordinary, just requests to rebuild the small stage in the restaurant that was dismantled previously… also commends Mr. Berg, saying his culinary skills are quite good, and finally asks him to slightly change some minor bad habits in the kitchen.”

“Oh?” The manager was startled, then slowly exhaled in relief, sitting down with an instinctive remark, “As long as it’s nothing major… wait a minute!”

The manager suddenly stood up again, “Does this mean the owner visited? When did this happen?”

Attorney Zieg smiled wryly, “How would I know, after all, even I have never seen…”

Indeed, no one has ever known the identity of the mysterious owner behind Alec Grand Hotel—even Attorney Zieg, as the agent lawyer, communicates with this enigmatic owner solely through written correspondence.

And Attorney Zieg has been this agent for fifty years… when he was just a novice, hired by no one, even ostracized, a black-skinned lawyer.

…

…

Saint Andrews town, on the outskirts, a tranquil manor.

Roughly over twenty days ago, this manor was overgrown with weeds and uninhabited… but from some point on, from the surrounding areas to the interior, it has become clean and tidy.

The lawn in the manor courtyard was even meticulously trimmed… in the morning, sunlight scattered, and a rainbow caused by refracted sunlight could still be seen—it seems the area had been freshly watered.

Inside the manor’s kitchen, a young man, always wearing a scarf wrapped around the lower half of his face, was at this moment closing his eyes… simultaneously holding a sharp kitchen knife in his hand.

A block of tofu was thrown into the air, and as the young man wielded the knife, the tofu blocks cut evenly fell like scattered petals, automatically aligning without the need for plating.

Just like the unrealistic knife skills seen in Cooking Master Boy.

Hmm!

At this moment, the young man carefully lifted the tofu pieces from the cutting board, then transferred them into the boiling pot on the rear table.

In front of the table, a girl with short white hair was drooling while holding chopsticks, eyeing the tofu pieces falling in, even her eyes sparkled with stars—until the young man covered the pot again, then she slumped onto the table like a wilted eggplant, staring fixedly at the flame from the gas stove.

Da Zhe and Nero.

“Why make it so complicated?” Nero frowned at this moment.

Da Zhe, while sitting upright, responded indifferently, “It’s because you said you wanted to eat sukiyaki yesterday.”

“Yesterday was yesterday,” Nero complained, “You should’ve cooked it yesterday, not today… especially at breakfast time! Brother Da Zhe, I seriously doubt you’ll ever find a girlfriend!”

After nearly a month of getting along, they were probably quite familiar… knowing this character, Da Zhe merely grabbed the chopsticks with a swift motion and sharply knocked the hand that intended to uncover the pot lid.

“I want to duel with you!” Ms. Nero suddenly slammed her foot on the table and drew her Yama Sword.

Da Zhe looked at Nero expressionlessly and slowly cracked a fresh egg into his bowl, “Boss and Ms. You Ye will probably be back around noon… Are you sure you want to go through with this? If you wreck this place again, there won’t be enough time to fix it up. Just a reminder, you’ve already wrecked this place three times… and this is Ms. You Ye’s property.”

Ms. Nero wilted again, grabbing her hair in pain and said, “Can you please not mention this sad thing in front of me…”

She still hadn’t finished copying the book as punishment—to copy a book is impossible, absolutely impossible! She wouldn’t copy it even on pain of death… Anyway, she couldn’t die right now!

“It’s about ready to eat.” Da Zhe opened the pot lid and started eating on his own, completely ignoring her.

Nero’s whole body went limp like a caterpillar, crawling from the floor and finally onto Da Zhe… She had mastered the Black soul envoy’s miraculous body transformation skills to perfection.

She used a voice that could disgust Da Zhe to death, saying, “Brother Da Zhe, you won’t tell anyone, right! I know you’re the best! Come on, Brother Da Zhe… I can do some naughty things with you~!”

“You’d better save those tricks for the boss.” Da Zhe gently exhaled, directly flicking the caterpillar Nero off his body.

Nero stood up, patting the dust off and muttered, “I’m afraid that the maid might secretly silence me.”

Da Zhe gave her a ‘you-know-it-well’ look… Nero crawled back to her seat, picked up her chopsticks, and started eating as if she’d forgotten about the impending fear of the boss and the maid coming home—or perhaps she was just carefree.

“Finish eating, then quickly go and complete your unfinished punishment copying,” Da Zhe put down his chopsticks and reminded her, “You should at least try to help yourself.”

Nero stuck out her tongue and made a face, “I’m beyond saving, anyway, I can never finish it; if it doubles, I’ll still never finish! Debt piled high doesn’t compress!”

Da Zhe shook his head with dissatisfaction, “I’ll go to town later to replenish some ingredients… If you’re not copying, then clean up around here, you know Ms. You Ye doesn’t like dust.”

Nero pitifully replied, “Brother Da Zhe, I can’t do cleaning work, how about I go buy things?”

Da Zhe only thought for a moment before agreeing… He really didn’t trust Nero to do the cleaning—before she became a Black soul envoy, she seemed to spend all her time fighting rather than doing anything else.

A dozen days ago, he indeed had a pointless fight with Nero over some trivial matter… If not for the Zhan Lu Sword, he might not have been able to suppress all of Nero’s explosive combat power.

“Well then! I’m off!”

After scarfing down six-sevenths of a pot of sukiyaki like a whirlwind, Nero excitedly transformed into a wisp of black smoke and left—since being rubbed into the ground by Da Zhe last time, she had been grounded for ten whole days and was bored out of her mind.

Watching Nero’s excited demeanor, Da Zhe couldn’t help but shake his head with an amused smile, “So full of energy.”

But perhaps it was for the best, Da Zhe thought… He still remembered when she had adamantly stated she wanted to become a Black soul envoy, holding onto life so tightly.

He stretched lazily, cleaned up the table, and then picked up a broom to start cleaning… This current life was actually pretty good.

…

…

In the [Unhuman Domain], at the Headquarters of the Magician’s Association.

A stone coffin was placed in the usual meeting spot of the Tower Masters… The lid of the coffin was already open, revealing the Secret Steel Tower Master’s body lying quietly inside.

As for the werewolf’s legendary hero Kuluo Luoya, he stood silently beside the coffin… The atmosphere here was perpetually dead silent.

Aside from a few Tower Masters and some deacons from the Secret Art Tower, there were also others listening… though they did not appear before everyone.

Long Xiruo and the lady with butterfly wings stood behind the screen representing the First Tower Master Dazzle—not because she requested it, but because Dazzle arranged it.

The Thunder Tower Master was examining the body of the Secret Steel Tower Master… Only now did he heavily sigh. Despite the sorrow still in his eyes, he solemnly said, “I’m afraid… we can’t use the resurrection potion.”

At the level of a Tower Master, the death of the body does not mean true death… As long as the spirit remains, there are several methods to revive the body—the key is that the Spirit Fire must not extinguish.

The Thunder Tower Master’s assessment made the faces of several deacons in the Secret Art Tower very displeased… While the Crimson Flame Tower Master couple both frowned simultaneously.

The Thunder Tower Master shook his head, “The Spirit Fire of Secret Steel… is gone.”

“How is that possible? Gone?” The Crimson Flame Tower Master was the most impatient, he hurriedly asked, “Thunder, what do you mean by gone? Are you sure it’s gone… and not extinguished?”

“It is indeed gone,” the Thunder Tower Master said seriously, “Even if it were extinguished, there would be traces remaining… but I couldn’t find any remnants on Secret Steel… His Spirit Fire seems to have been forcibly dug out.”

Whoosh—!

A raging fire erupted from the Crimson Flame Tower Master’s body, like a furnace blown by bellows, filling the room with a torrential heat wave… He even stared fiercely at the legendary hero, Kuluo Luoya.

The old werewolf leader was not afraid of the Tower Master’s gaze, “Crimson Flame, are you suspecting me?”

The scene became slightly tense, but as the First Tower Master, Dazzle, remained calm, tapping the floor with his magic wand… He didn’t even use a sliver of magic power.

Kuluo Luoya and Crimson Flame both quieted down, each snorting at the other but managing to remain temporarily calm.

Dazzle slowly said, “Kuluo Luoya, repeat everything about this incident from the start… Be thorough, including your conversation with Bylegang.”

Kuluo Luoya nodded, not intending to hide anything, beginning with the incident of Huang Jinglong attacking the Werewolf Domain… Everyone listened silently, their expressions growing increasingly grave.

Because… that place, they.

Behind the screen, the little butterfly monster sleepily leaned to Sister Long’s ear and asked, “Sister Long, what is this Spirit Fire they are talking about?”

“It’s basically what we in China call a soul,” Long Xiruo casually replied, “Although the paths are different, these magicians can reach the level of soul projection described by Taoists by igniting their Spirit Fire… Which is more powerful is hard to say, each has its pros and cons. Taoism has three thousand paths, and all roads lead to the same destination.”

The little butterfly monster still had an adorable, confused look—she was never very interested in cultivation matters.

The true dragon of China didn’t bother lecturing the butterfly with a big chest but wasted potential and who seemed likely to ruin a good hand.

What caught her interest was what Kuluo Luoya was saying, wondering… if this incident might have something to do with Luo Qiu.