"These dishes were delicious, but there was far too little. I barely got a taste!"
Only after sweeping every plate clean did Jiang Lang lick his lips and make that remark. Beside him, Hui Mian clutched Yi Shuyuan's sleeve with his paws, seething but not daring to speak.
"To fill you up, I doubt even all the ingredients in Lakeview Tower would be enough."
As he spoke, Yi Shuyuan gave Jiang Lang an amused look.
"With all that regal splendor radiating from you, surely you aren't short of silver. Why don't you pay for this meal?"
"A trifling matter!"
Jiang Lang stood up at once, but after patting himself down, he looked embarrassed.
"Well, Old Yi, I do have pearls and fine jade on me, but you need gold or silver to pay for a meal here, don't you? I haven't any at the moment."
Yi Shuyuan sighed. Without another word, he called toward the stairs.
"Waiter, the bill!"
"Coming!"
A waiter from Lakeview Tower hurried upstairs eagerly. Only three or four tables on the third floor still had customers. He came up to their table with a broad smile.
"All our signature dishes, plus a plate of peanuts, a plate of bok choy, and four pots of wine-that comes to four thousand five hundred and twenty copper coins. Will you be paying in silver, sir?"
Yi Shuyuan nodded and handed over a five-tael silver ingot. The waiter cheerfully took it downstairs to weigh it.
Jiang Lang walked to the window and gazed out at Longwind Lake in the rain. Although his earlier remarks about having spent two hundred years here had made it sound as though he had had enough, he was still deeply excited.
"From now on, Longwind Lake is mine!"
After saying that, Jiang Lang turned sideways