At Starskiff Haven, inside the Sleepless Earl teahouse.
Adrian sat comfortably, enjoying a wonderful morning tea time.
"Yawn~ Customer, you're up way too early." Mengming rubbed her eyes, looking like she hadn't fully woken up yet.
"Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy... The owner should understand this principle better than I do." Adrian blew on the steaming tea. "An apple a day keeps the Alchemy Commission doctors away."
"Uh... why did we suddenly start talking about health preservation?"
However, considering that Adrian's age was still unknown, she didn't think too much about it.
Adrian smiled. The moment the tea touched the tip of his tongue, a refreshing fragrance swept over his taste buds, as if the fresh greenery of spring mountains was spreading before his eyes.
"This tea..."
Perhaps because he drank too much milk tea usually, he was a bit unaccustomed to drinking this authentic Xianzhou tea now.
Mengming's eyes lit up. "Ah! Customer, you tasted it? Based on Sister Tingyun's suggestion, I improved the varieties of Scalegorge Spring, Shade Hills Green, and Dewy Sprout, and created a new tea drink."
"The taste is sweet, refreshing, and lingering. I specially named it after my sister, calling it [Cloud-Halt Song]."
"Sigh~ I didn't expect Sister Tingyun to encounter such a misfortune... No, no, that sounds so strange!"
Mengming shook her head. Tingyun was perfectly fine now... A few days ago, she heard Mr. Xiyan tell the story of the Luofu crisis.
A Lord Ravager actually wanted to disintegrate the Luofu from within and even attacked Miss Tingyun, temporarily replacing her for a while.
Thinking that the Miss Tingyun who came to the Sleepless Earl before was disguised by a Lord Ravager, Mengming felt a wave of fear.
Fortunately, with the assistance of the Astral Express and the Church of Eternity, the crisis was quelled. Congratulations all around.
As for Tingyun, due to the busy work of the Whistling Flames merchant guild, she didn't have time to taste Mengming's new tea drink.
Since she couldn't enjoy it, Mengming invited Adrian to have this cup. Unexpectedly, upon hearing there was a free tea tasting session, the other party came to find her early in the morning.
Even Mr. Xiyan hadn't come for storytelling yet, but Adrian ran over first. Really early.
"Wait, customer, you don't wake up this early every day, do you?!" Mengming just realized.
Seeing Adrian nod, Mengming understood why she hadn't seen Adrian open his shop for a long time.
So you choose such ungodly hours to open shop every day. No wonder the customer flow is so low. You perfectly missed the prime opening hours and specially chose times when no one patronizes. In this situation, having one customer is considered good.
"Financial freedom is really nice..."
"Cough cough cough~ Hearing such words from the little owner feels truly strange."
"Let's not talk about this. How does this cup of tea taste?" Mengming got straight to the point.
"Mmh~ Like clouds and rain entwining the tongue, a refreshing feeling like a fledgling drinking sweet dew. Such a fine product... without charging me any Strale or credits. If the little owner's teahouse doesn't become popular, it would be intolerable by heaven's law!"
Adrian held the teacup high, treating this cup of [Cloud-Halt Tea] as a treasure. Just as he was about to continue praising...
"Did you catch all my Faunus Red-Haired Sheep!"
A sudden quarrel tore through the surrounding tranquility. His hand paused, and the teacup brought to his mouth froze in mid-air, the clear tea soup swaying a few times.
"Ah! They're arguing!"
Hearing the sound, Adrian rushed to the scene, only to see a familiar figure here.
"Wow... March didn't deceive me; I really ran into a big shot." Stelle came to Adrian. She just wanted to come out for breakfast, but ended up seeing such a dramatic scene.
After exchanging glances, they stood openly beside the two arguing people and started watching the drama up close.
"Stop pestering me here. Careful or I'll go to the Realm-Keeping Commission and sue you for slander." The shop owner with fox ears crossed his arms, very dissatisfied with the woman in purple who came to cause trouble.
"What?! You didn't catch my Faunus Red-Haired Sheep? Then why are there so many more mutton dishes in your shop recently?"
"This is the season for Floating Sheep to go to market! I brought in a lot of high-quality Floating Sheep, so of course there are many more mutton dishes."
"Besides, there are plenty of shops on the Luofu with mutton dishes. Why are you pestering me here?" The shop owner couldn't understand why there were customers deliberately picking fights.
He worked from dawn to dusk to tidy up the shop, and the first customer was like this. Just his luck.
" The mutton there isn't as delicious as yours. How can I believe that yours is just ordinary Floating Sheep meat!"
"A shop with culinary taste like our [Aurum Alley Delicacies] would never catch wild sheep of unknown origin to cook."
"It's not 'wild sheep of unknown origin,' it's Faunus Red-Haired Sheep!" The female debater emphasized repeatedly.
"I don't care what Faunus or what sheep, anyway it has nothing to do with me. Don't cause trouble here... Hey, have you seen enough?" The shop owner's gaze shifted to Stelle and Adrian.
"Seen enough."
The shop owner was stunned by this sudden sincerity. After pondering on the spot for a few seconds, he left cursing.
"Sigh~ My poor Faunus Red-Haired Sheep. Only a few days after leaving the cruel pen, before they had time to live a few days of free and unfettered life, they... Sigh~ Merciful Lord of Abundance, please don't confiscate my merit for this."
Seeing the strange woman suddenly start praying, Stelle thought she was another member of the [Disciples of Sanctus Medicus] undercover in Starskiff Haven and directly took out a mimicked baseball bat.
"Hey hey hey ah... what are you doing? Are you a thug sent by that guy?!" The strange woman was obviously startled.
"Hard to imagine I can hear someone say the words [Lord of Abundance] on the Xianzhou."
"Shh shh shh! Can you keep your voice down? Although there are only a few of us nearby, I am a law-abiding Outworlder living here, and have absolutely nothing to do with the [Disciples of Sanctus Medicus]."
She hurriedly explained. If she didn't clarify the situation, that gray-haired girl would beat her with a bat!
"Hello, my name is Benna. In my spare time from work, I release some small lives with a few Outworlder friends." Benna tried to salvage her image and politely introduced herself.
"Let me tell you, I'm different from those bad guys who kill and rob under the banner of [Abundance]. On the contrary, my friends and I are practicing the benevolent side of the Path of [Abundance] with practical actions!"
In a corner unnoticed by Benna, Adrian and Stelle simultaneously turned on their phone recorders.
"Then why were you pestering that shop owner?"
"Because the Faunus Red-Haired Sheep I released are lost! Those little red sheep are on the verge of extinction in their hometown. I bought a huge bunch at a high price and wanted to release them into Scalegorge Waterscape..."
"Where?"
Hearing this, Stelle unconsciously rubbed her earlobe with her fingertips, paused for a moment, and her gaze slowly turned to the other party as if regaining focus.
"Scalegorge Waterscape... Do you want that group of Faunus-something sheep to return to the embrace of the ocean?"
Because the scene of a bar of soap falling into the water was vivid in her mind, the legendary life of the Galactic Baseballer almost fell that day!
"It's Faunus Red-Haired Sheep!"