37. Smallville/Gotham: Iceberg Restaurant
45.
Before going to Zuzu City, Aria wants to settle her calf.
If the barn door is not opened every day and hay is not added in time, the calves inside will starve. Although the calves can continue to grow in a hungry state, the farmer still feels sorry for the second family member who has just arrived and is hungry.
Aria ran to the barn and opened the door. The white and grey calf mooed twice in its padded nest, then stood up and walked towards her.
This calf had just left its mother and was now dependent on people. The farmer skillfully petted it thoroughly and watched it grazing on the wide lawn in front of the shed. After much thought, she decided to use a fence to circle the barn and enclose some of the lush weeds. This way, even if she was away from home for a few days, the calf could safely go out of the barn to find weeds to eat.
After spring is over, Aria will have to consider buying some grass seeds to plant lawns for the animals she will raise next. Of course, there is a more cost-effective way - she can use a lightning rod to press down a grass to prevent animals from eating it, so that the grass can continue to grow into a continuous patch, and she can even save the money to buy grass seeds.
Although the farmer had a little money in his pocket after selling some of the strawberries, the initial construction costs were high, so he had to spend it wisely. Aria quickly counted on her fingers, thinking of many ways to save money, and she was almost thinking of picking up waste paper, newspapers, and mineral water bottles in Zuzu City as a new livelihood.
...Actually, it's not impossible if you think about it. People often litter the streets and alleys of Zuzu City. If she picks up all these things and throws them into the recycling machine, she can harvest a lot of refined quartz, iron ore or coal - these are all good things!
Thinking of his smooth road to wealth, the farmer touched the white spot on the cow's forehead with a smile, and expressed great expectations for making money from cheese.
I'd heard that some ranches play classical music for their cows to increase their yields, so Aria followed suit, using the tune and improvised lyrics. She approached the calf, lifted one of its ears, and sang like a mantra: "Silver Star, Venus, Iridium Milk~Silver Star, Venus, Iridium Milk~Silver Star, Venus, Iridium Milk~~"
When the little cow came back, she shook her ears in the shed, closing her auditory system that had been forced to open. She lowered her head and took a big bite of grass. She flicked her tail and turned around to point her butt at the farmer. She didn't have any sudden realization about her song about the chicken and cow, but at least she was completely indifferent.
"..." It doesn't matter. Aria clenched her fist silently. Raising an animal is a process of cultivating feelings. She touches it every day, and there will always be a moment when she comes back to the shed and produces a dozen bottles of high-quality milk.
Determined to never look back on the road to wealth, Aria began to pack the things she needed to take to Zuzu City.
She had been coveting the wide sewers and port in Zuzu City for a long time. This time, in addition to helping Lewis collect taxes to prevent him from being beaten to death by angry shopkeepers or gangs that suddenly appeared from nowhere, the farmer also planned to bring back some seafood from Zuzu City - she used wood and smelted iron ingots to make a lot of crab cages and put them in her backpack, preparing to find a deserted water area in Zuzu City to put them in to make some extra money. Even if she couldn't catch any crayfish, at least she was helping Zuzu City clean up the garbage.
Unfortunately, Lewis did not fully appreciate the farmer's gratitude. Not only did he fail to praise Aria for her upcoming contribution to the purification of Gotham's waters, he was also somewhat critical of the workers' proposed compensation for injuries.
"If you got hurt on your way home from get off work, you should still have some injuries, right?" Lewis put his hands on his hips, determined to maintain the orthodoxy of redeeming lottery tickets, to prove that no one could illegally obtain them from him. "I see that you're fine now, you don't look like you're in trouble."
That's because she was so unlucky to faint, Aria thought to herself. Seeing that this approach was a dead end, she decided to use other means to defend her legal rights: "If you have trust issues even regarding whether I have a work-related injury, I will be very sad..."
Aria lowered her eyes, tears glistening in them. "I'll probably go insane, abandon myself, put on my purple shorts again, and run around the world..."
"Stop, stop, stop." Lewis put his right index finger on his left palm to try to stop the farce, and his whole body revealed the fatigue of an adult - perhaps this is the price he must pay after becoming mayor.
"Are five enough? Otherwise, eight... no more. Any more would ruin the fairness."
Aria suddenly smiled like a sunflower, without a trace of tears. "Thank you, Mayor! You are so wise and powerful!"
…
The Iceberg Restaurant is located on the outskirts of Gotham. Although it is called a restaurant, it actually seems to also serve as a hotel.
The farmer, not very skilled at searching for information about the Iceberg Restaurant online, saw several travel posts praising it. The restaurant's geographical location far from the city should have put it in an embarrassing situation of having no customers, but its avant-garde decoration style and excellent chef team became popular for a while once discovered by netizens, and everyone had heard of it.
Several posters mentioned the commonality of Iceberg Restaurant, praising its exterior as resembling "a soothing, shimmering glacier" and its interior as "a bit pricey, but safe and free of rioters." If Lewis had to choose a business to tax first, Iceberg Restaurant would certainly seem like a good choice.
The farmer put away her phone. She had always been a fan of Lewis's decisions—as long as there were lottery tickets and rewards. But Aria stood on tiptoe and looked around, but only saw the two of them. She couldn't help but feel confused. "Mayor Lewis, where are the police you called in? Where's the IRS you brought in? Why don't I see anything?"
The man's face flushed red as he muttered something like, "You don't understand the mayor's business," "Taxes and laws," etc., which made Aria suddenly realize, "...everyone tried to dissuade you, but you insisted on having your own way and still sneaked here on your own."
"That's impossible!" Lewis refused to be maliciously speculated: "I have been collecting taxes in Pelican Town for many years, and not once was I unsuccessful." The assassination attempt he had just experienced not long ago was like the thinnest gauze in the world. It fell on Lewis and easily wiped away his fear of death. He became unprecedentedly confident.
"No matter how rampant Oswald Cobblepot is, he is still in Gotham. When he is in Gotham, he must abide by the rules of Gotham." The new mayor twirled his mustache and said, "The new rules here are—"
"Pay taxes according to the law. If you don't pay, beat them up and make them suffer a little?"
"...No, we educate them according to the law." The mayor of Gotham patted the farmer on the shoulder and said earnestly, "Xiaoya, fighting and killing are not good. We are the army of justice."
Aria blinked and said nothing, acting quite innocently. It was hard to tell that she had killed a lot of monsters in the mine yesterday. If the monsters had not turned into dropped items after being killed, those corpses could have been used to build a mausoleum.
Aria didn't say anything, which showed that his teaching was quite useful. Lewis took out a lottery ticket with satisfaction and placed it in the farmer's hand, and immediately received Aria's verbal support.
"No problem, Mayor. You have the final say."
…
At the beginning, the Iceberg Restaurant did not accept individual customers. It was just a cover for the Penguin Man to cover up his crimes. Anyone on the street only needed to give the Penguin Man's invitation to the waiter, and they would be invited to a secret corner to get a "special menu".
The Penguin Man shows his skills on this menu. Whether it is intelligence, arms or introductions to people in the gray area, as long as the price is right, Cobert will serve you wholeheartedly.
The reason they later opened to individual customers was because the mercenary Penguin realized he could blend his illegal gains with his regular profits. The Iceberg Restaurant became his own personal money laundering machine—black money goes in, white money comes out. Money, money, money can buy all the good things in the world, but if Batman discovered his illegal income and beat him up and threw him in jail, it would be a waste of time.
For this convenience, the Penguin people are much more friendly to others than before. For example, today, a celebrity who came to eat asked to take a photo with the owner of Iceberg Restaurant, and Copperhead also pinched his nose and did it.
"One, two, three," the heavily made-up male internet celebrity leaned close to the Penguin. The glitter on his cheeks fell off a little as he laughed, and Cobert almost wondered if it would fall onto the food on the table: "Cheese!"
The flash shone on Cobblepot's face, successfully capturing the Penguin's awkward smile. After the photo was taken, the influencer with a New Jersey accent wanted an autograph: "Mr. Cobblepot, may I have the honor of having you sign my menu?"
The influencer pretended to wipe the corner of his mouth with a hot towel and said: "I really admire the chef here. To be able to hire such an excellent chef, you must have an extraordinary sense of food."
Veins popped out of Cobblepot's shiny Mediterranean hair. He had brains, traveled to Gotham, and was an internet celebrity—surely, only two of these three traits could coexist. But in front of the camera, the Penguin restrained his temper, flashing a businessman's standard, regretful smile: "I'd love to, but unfortunately, I don't have the right pen with me today..." So, forget it.
Perhaps Cobert hadn't been active in his underground kingdom recently, so outsiders had forgotten the terrifying nature of this smiling businessman. The male influencer rarely gets turned down, but now, after being told no by the Iceberg Restaurant owner, he felt a bit embarrassed. To improve the video and increase traffic, he insisted, "It's okay, you can sign on my device..."
Cobblepot sneered. When he was forcing himself to smile, he seemed somewhat friendly. But once the businessman was unwilling to continue the game, his hooked nose that looked like a bird's beak brought him endless sinisterness: "I still have to give you an electronic signature, right?" Will this man have to borrow money from Gotham Bank using the name Oswald Chesterfield Cobblepot next?
Thinking of money, Cobblepot irritably turned the wooden handle of the long umbrella in his hand, and poked the black marble floor with the tip of the umbrella, making a loud thudding sound - what he could get from this social interaction was visibly decreasing, and the other party's arrogant attitude greatly reduced Cobblepot's sense of gain. The Penguin was even considering whether to find an opportunity to make the other party disappear from Gotham after the end of this promotional cooperation, and give the Iceberg Restaurant a bloody large-scale Internet appearance.
The subordinate, dressed in a pure black waiter uniform, was a master at reading people's expressions. Seeing the boss's impatience, he guessed that he was anxious to get away. He approached Cobblepot and passed on the latest news to him: "Sir, it seems that the new mayor of Gotham is coming to visit you."
————————
Now let's welcome our new target for bushi persecution: Penguin
There was no update on August 1st, so I will give some red envelopes to the top 20 commenters in this chapter. I will make up for the previous updates later (bow
Thank you to the little angels who voted for me or provided me with nutrient solution between 2024-07-31 23:56:33 and 2024-08-03 00:00:04~
Thanks to the little angel who threw the rocket launcher: 1 glass peacock;
Thanks to the little angel who threw the grenade: 2 glass peacocks;
Thanks to the little angels who irrigated the nutrient solution: Longlonglong (10 bottles); Keguazi (9 bottles); Caiguliang's Little Mushroom, Yuebai, and Buhui (5 bottles); Verity (4 bottles); Geluzi Neu and Sichen (2 bottles); Axing, Achang, Crispy Persimmon, Feather, That Qizi, Yongsi, and Round and Cute (1 bottle);
Thank you very much for your support. I will continue to work hard!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
