The three arrived at the Peace Hotel. It was still a while before lunch, and the kitchen was busy preparing the food.
The Peace Hotel now offers a different lunch almost every day, as the territory has expanded, leading to a greater variety of crops and livestock. Meat that was once unavailable is now a rare treat.
Lunch was ready in no time; today's meal included fresh fish soup. Perhaps due to the recent good weather, the fish was caught in Dongting Lake. The old housekeeper is handling all these matters now.
It seems that the old butler has recently taken a child by his side. I heard he's Eric's child, but Ed doesn't know his name yet.
Ed's lunch consisted of a bowl of fresh fish soup, a loaf of black bread—a very authentic black bread, and his loaves were quite large—and some dried roasted meat, though he couldn't recognize what kind of meat it was.
Ed looked at today's lunch and felt it was still too monotonous, lacking some vegetables. He had come several times without getting any vegetables; he'd ask the old butler what was going on.
There's no fruit yet, so we'll have to find more fruit trees to plant later. Although Ed planted grapes a few days ago, the amount was only enough for his own consumption. He plans to find a place around the new castle to build an orchard.
We should also make some desserts in the future, but the sugar might be hard to come by. There's probably no sugarcane available now, and even if there were, who knows where it might be? Getting here would be the ultimate luxury.
I guess I'll have to use honey. Oh well, I'll treat this dessert as a luxury! I'll make it once in a while, and then we'll see when I find the right sugar.
"Wow! We get fresh fish soup today!" Carly is always eating and drinking happily.
Seeing the fresh fish soup reminded her of the salted fish her Uncle Grandet had given her. "What a miser."
"Does Carly need help?" Ed asked, noticing that Carly hadn't spoken yet, assuming her hands were still too weak.
"No, I can pick up the spoon now. I was just thinking about a nasty person."
"What kind of despicable person is he?" Ed had become curious too.
"He's the one who gave me a salted fish," Carly said angrily.
"How salty is it?" Ed was really bored.
"Ah!" She really didn't know how salty it was, because she was captured by the robbers not long after, and she didn't get to eat the salted fish.
"It must be very salty, I haven't eaten yet." Carly took a sip of the fish soup.
"Hehe!" Ed chuckled, watching Carly drink her soup and couldn't help but sigh: It's so good to be young. She was still drinking porridge with her mouth in the morning, and now she can pick up a spoon.
Adelaide is much better now; she's no longer shaky and can accurately put food into her mouth.
Ed also wanted to make the saltiest salted fish. He took a sip of the delicious fish soup and thought, "Hmm, not bad." Although it only contained salt, it was fresh and delicious enough.
Gradually, people started arriving at the Peace Hotel for lunch, and the lobby became quite lively. However, Ed was unaware that they were enjoying their meal in a private room.
"Elm, hurry up! The Peace Hotel is just ahead. We can have a free lunch there," Cedar urged Elm.
"This road is so wide and smooth!" Elm was truly amazed. No wonder the cedar tree said this territory was excellent.
On the day he arrived in this territory, Elm saw his son, Elm Gecko. The boy had grown up a bit and was really not smart at all, which made Elm very angry.
(We'll talk about the father and son later.)
"Ah! The inside of the cedar tree is so big and beautiful!" Everyone who came with the cedar tree was amazed by the sight inside.
Looking at the surprised crowd, the cedar tree felt a sense of pride.
"There's something even more shocking to come!"