Don't Smear Me Like That—Have You Ever Seen a Robber Give Away Grilled Fish?

Golden Gold Soul Coins spilled across the table with a clatter, gleaming dazzlingly beneath the afternoon sun.

Qian Chaoguang swept over them with his Divine Sense. A full sixty-two coins.

That student could no longer wait. He snatched up the fish and took a huge bite with a crunch.

The fish had been roasted to a golden yellow, with a faint sheen of oil still flowing over it, and a rich aroma kept bursting forth.

When his teeth met the Grilled Fish, the skin, roasted until crisp and fragrant, gave off a faint crackling sound. That crispy, tempting noise stirred the taste buds of every onlooker around them.

With just one bite, his eyes immediately went blank, bulging perfectly round. He did not even have time to praise it before he, too, began wolfing it down.

"Junior, you gave me too much."

"Keep it. Can you give me another one? This is just too delicious!"

That student was still immersed in the deliciousness of the Grilled Fish, but his gaze had already locked onto the four raw fish Huo Yutong had just taken out.

Qian Chaoguang glared back fiercely, his hands still guarding the four new fish as he roared angrily:

"Get lost! Not selling! This time, I wouldn't sell even if you gave me a hundred Gold Soul Coins! I was kind enough to spare one for you, and now you're actually eyeing my precious fish again!?"

"Junior, if you won't take a hundred, how about a hundred and fifty?"

A Shrek Academy student dressed in black squeezed to the front, pulled out a small heavy pouch of Gold Soul Coins, and placed it on the table.

The crowd that had long been watching from the side had already been driven half mad by the smell, and among them there were always a few rich second-generation types who had both cravings and money.

Clearly, this black-clad senior belonged to that kind—the sort who loved food and had money.

"No deal. I haven't had enough yet, and I already gave one away," Qian Chaoguang muttered.

"Two hundred."

"I said I'm not selling. Are you listen—"

"Three hundred."

"...I'll still pass."

"Four hundred."

"Fine, then."

He was simply offering too much.jpg

Qian Chaoguang deliberately put away the four large bags of Gold Soul Coins in front of him with a gloomy expression, making it look as if he had suffered some huge loss by selling a single Grilled Fish for four hundred Gold Soul Coins.

In contrast, that black-clad senior wore a victorious expression, looking down proudly at the surrounding onlookers like a champion returning in triumph.

Qian Chaoguang looked helpless on the surface, but inside, he had already laughed out loud. Right now, he was chatting with the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm, who had been woken by his laughter.

"You brat, your heart is black through and through! Four hundred Gold Soul Coins for one fish? Why don't you just go rob someone? Even if Brother doesn't know much about human society, Brother still knows you're outrageously black-hearted."

"Don't talk nonsense. How could robbery make money as fast as this?"

"This is robbery."

"Then just count it as robbery. I'm a principled bandit—I even give away a Grilled Fish when I rob people. How conscientious is that!"

"You really have no shame!"

"Thanks for the compliment."

Huo Yutong was focusing intently on grilling the fish, without any expression on her face.

She was already numb.

Two Grilled Fish had brought in four hundred and fifty Gold Soul Coins. Not counting miscellaneous costs, the net income was more than four hundred and forty-nine Gold Soul Coins. Was this actually real?

Was this what her brother had called... hunger marketing?

These two seniors did indeed look pretty hungry...

While they were waiting for the second round of Grilled Fish to come off the grill, that extremely smug black-clad rich second-generation senior finally managed to anger the others. Another black-clad senior charged out from the crowd.

Bang!

A huge bag smashed onto the small table, almost shattering the tabletop to pieces.

Small tabletop: I have borne a weight my size should never have had to bear.

The black-clad senior's gaze was cold, and even his voice was cold as he pointed at the grill.

"This is one thousand Gold Soul Coins. Those two are mine."

"Fine, fine... I can't afford to offend you seniors."

Qian Chaoguang put away the bag containing one thousand Gold Soul Coins with a helpless expression, his face full of bitterness.

"Want chili?"

"Pile it on."

As he spoke, this cold-faced black-clad senior looked provocatively at the smug one from earlier, making the other party furious.

If they had not both been waiting for Grilled Fish, the two of them probably would have started fighting on the spot.

The crowd of spectators at the side were all watching this utterly absurd scene unfold.

Two senior Shrek students had thrown around a fortune just for one piece of Grilled Fish.

Truly thrown around a fortune.

Just then, several female students in purple uniforms walked out from the gates of Shrek Academy.

The stunning female student at the very front drew countless gazes the instant she appeared.

"She's finally here."

The corners of Qian Chaoguang's mouth curved into the faintest smile, then vanished in an instant, his face returning to a look of irritation.

Gold Soul Coins were secondary. The main point was that plain Outer Court Senior's simp's... Mystic Water Pill.

That was the real treasure.

Sure enough, Jiang Nannan was drawn over by the smell of Grilled Fish, her gaze falling on Qian Chaoguang, who looked as if life had lost all meaning, and Huo Yutong, who was earnestly grilling fish.

The surrounding crowd of onlookers moved aside one after another, opening a path so she and her friends could walk up to the stove.

As luck would have it, the Grilled Fish finished cooking right then.

The two black-clothed senior students dug in without a care, enjoying this hard-won delicacy. Even though they were hissing from the heat, they did not stop, and neither of them spared Jiang Nannan so much as a glance.

Jiang Nannan glanced at the two of them in surprise, then looked at the last fish on the grill.

"Junior, how much are you selling this Grilled Fish for?"

"Five hundred Gold Soul Coins."

There were still plenty of fish in the Storage Bracelet anyway. He could just grill more for Tang Ya later; this one fish did not matter.

Jiang Nannan froze, then asked again in disbelief, "How much did you say?"

"Five hundred Gold Soul Coins. Do you want it or not? If not, I'll eat it myself."

"Why don't you just rob someone?"

A trace of anger appeared on Jiang Nannan's face.

"Can the cost of this Grilled Fish even reach three Copper Coins?"

Although Qian Chaoguang did have a slight favorable impression of Jiang Nannan, a girl with an unfortunate background who had always worked hard to improve herself, still...

He would not skip a single bit of the act he had to put on. After all, he was no simp, and Jiang Nannan had neither Mystic Water Pills nor Gold Soul Coins to give him.

His face instantly darkened. "Senior, making an arbitrary judgment based on experience before understanding the full story isn't a good habit. Three Copper Coins? You can take my Younger Sister's stove and ask the senior students and teachers of the Soul Tool Department. Forget the craftsmanship—ask them whether three thousand Gold Soul Coins would even cover the material cost of my stove."

At the side, the "lucky one" who had eaten Grilled Fish for sixty-two Gold Soul Coins sucked on the remaining fish bones while cutting in:

"Senior Jiang, this junior really isn't lying. I'm from the Soul Tool Department myself, and I know a little about forging. The stove this junior sister is using for Grilled Fish is entirely made from a rare metal more valuable than Flame Iron, forged in one piece by some unknown method."

Jiang Nannan: "?"

The lucky one, who had somehow provided perfect support out of nowhere, could not help sighing. "Even just a piece this large of unrefined Flame Iron would be worth over two thousand Gold Soul Coins. I've really never seen anyone willing to forge it into a grill before. It's too extravagant. That would be enough to inscribe ten core arrays, not to mention this is an even higher-grade rare metal than Flame Iron."

"And if you add in this junior sister's grilling technique and the special spices she blended, then for a seasoned foodie like me, even five hundred Gold Soul Coins would absolutely be worth the price. I never expected I'd get it for sixty-two. It's practically like picking it up for free. Heh, today really is my lucky day."

Thanks to the two patrons Falling Leaves Fill the Sky and Osiris Obelisk for the tips.