Looking at the dazzling array of dishes on the menu, Firefly—who had originally felt a tiny spark of excitement in her heart—suddenly wilted a little.
The reason was simple: among all the restaurants in Penacony, the prices of the various desserts and sweets at Clockie Restaurant might not be the absolute highest, but they certainly belonged to the extremely expensive category.
This was her first meeting with Yun Fan, and moreover, he was her 'life-saving benefactor.' If she simply let him treat her just because he had pinched her cheek earlier, wouldn't that feel a bit…
A myriad of thoughts flashed through Firefly's mind. After hesitating for a short while, the girl's slender finger finally stopped on a picture of a dessert on the menu.
"One Oak Roll Cake, and a glass of Pika White Grape Soda, thank you."
In the end, Firefly only ordered one dessert and one glass of soda.
Clearly, she was trying to help Yun Fan save a little money. And our Mr. Yun Fan naturally saw through the girl's intentions. But when inviting a girl to eat, how could he possibly be stingy? Moreover, the youth was far from short on credit points.
Leaving aside the massive amount of credit points in his Interastral Peace Corporation account on his phone, here in Penacony, he had his future brother-in-law Sunday backing him up. Back then, the other party had personally promised that all of Yun Fan's expenses during his time at the Festival of Stars would be fully covered by the Oak Family.
"Never mind. Give me the menu."
"Ah? Mm, okay. But Yun Fan, you really don't need to order too much—just enough for the two of us is fine."
Yun Fan took the menu from Firefly's hands. Seeing that the girl still seemed a bit restrained, he picked up the pen. Under Firefly's disappointed gaze, he crossed out the Oak Roll Cake and White Grape Soda that she had just selected.
Quickly scanning through the menu, Yun Fan ticked off about five or six dishes that looked particularly troublesome at first glance, such as:
The sliced cake "Stargazing," one of Penacony's most famous snacks—but honestly, Yun Fan found it a bit hard to accept. What kind of normal person would put such a massive fish head on top of a cake?
Or the "Sour Dream" brand gummies, with their astonishing sourness that could jolt someone awake from a dream just by thinking about it—enough to make one's teeth ache.
"Sir, are you sure you want these items?" The waiter looked at the selections ticked on the menu, his expression turning slightly strange.
Leaving aside how bizarre some of these dishes were—even as a native of Penacony, he found some of them hard to stomach.
Moreover, even if you added up the prices of these dishes, they would only come to a few tens of thousands of credit points at most. Yet just renting this private room they were currently in cost 100,000 credit points. Wasn't this a bit…
"Of course not."
Yun Fan shook his head. "Aside from the ones with ticks on the menu that I don't want, give me one of everything else."
...
"Whew! You scared me for a second—I thought you were about to flip the table."
At the entrance to the Family Library, Herta began working on cracking the password lock on the door. She glanced at the two guards beside her—who looked as if someone had pressed the pause button on them—and couldn't help but complain.
"Oddity #1437: Stasis Gun. I even commissioned the Astral Express to help me search for this oddity back then. I never expected it to be in your hands. Tsk tsk."
"Just a twist of fate. If you're interested, once matters in Penacony are settled, I can lend it to you for study for a while."
Shaking her head, Ruan Mei put the oddity away and spoke in her cool, detached voice.
"Hm?"
Ruan Mei's words made Herta furrow her brows. The latter blinked suspiciously, asking uncertainly.
"Are you serious? No conditions at all?" Herta still had some understanding of Ruan Mei's personality.
People like them in the Genius Society were, in a way, quite similar to those in the Interastral Peace Corporation—they never acted without some benefit in sight.
Although her relationship with Ruan Mei was usually pretty good, as the saying goes, even brothers should settle accounts clearly. If Ruan Mei had proposed some condition in exchange for lending her the oddity for research, Herta probably wouldn't have thought much of it.
But now that Ruan Mei hadn't asked for anything in return, it actually made Herta feel a slight twinge of suspicion inside.
"Hm?" Seeing Herta's 'there's something fishy about you' expression, our Miss Ruan Mei tilted her head, seeming a little hesitant. After a long pause, she asked uncertainly.
"Are you saying you want me to set a condition? Mm… then just send me a copy of the research results."
Ruan Mei had never been particularly interested in research outside the domain of life forms. That was precisely why this oddity had been in her possession for many years without any research records being made.
"Deal." Herta accepted Ruan Mei's condition without the slightest hesitation. It was just a set of research data—nothing major.
With the transaction complete, Herta returned her full focus to cracking the door's password. It had to be said—the Family had some real skill here.
The library doors were encrypted using numerous cutting-edge technologies from across the galaxy. Even for a Genius Society member like Herta, deciphering the password would take some time.
"Got it!"
With a series of operations from Herta, streams of data flowed into the password lock on the door. A crisp click sounded, and the lock on the door promptly opened.
"We've been expecting you, ladies."
The doors to the library swung open. However, unexpectedly, what greeted their eyes—aside from the vast collections of books filling the shelves left and right—was, right in the center among the many bookcases, a young man who had clearly been waiting here for some time.
The youth had blue-gray hair, a pair of gray-white wings growing beside his ears, a golden halo above his head, and a pair of pristine white gloves on his hands.
Worth noting was that, at this moment, the youth was holding a book in his hands. Upon closer inspection, it was precisely the very book that our Lady Herta had 'borrowed' not long ago.
At his words, Herta and Ruan Mei exchanged a glance.
'Hm? There's actually an expert here?'
"Lady Ruan Mei, Lady Herta—two geniuses of the Genius Society. I have been waiting here for quite some time."
"Sunday, head of the Oak Family, extends greetings to the two geniuses on behalf of the Family."