337 – The Auction House
The waiter said: “Our roasted bird shop mainly roasts chicken meat, such as chicken gizzards, chicken hearts, chicken breasts, chicken legs, etc. But as for the signature dishes, I recommend you try chicken skin. Our grilled chicken skin is widely praised by the public. We use the best butter spring chicken produced in Tiandou City. Those chickens are elevated by exclusively eating sunflower seeds. Their meat is very tender and the chicken skin plump. If you squeeze it with your hand, the chicken oil will pour out in the form of a transparent gel, very nutritious and smells especially good.”
“Stop talking, I can’t stand it anymore, come on. Let’s take 20 skewers first, five skewers each.” Qian Lei couldn’t bear it anymore after hearing the waiter’s description.
Lan Xuanyu said, “Four more chicken legs. And also some juice.”
“Okay, please wait a moment.” The waiter went off to arrange for the dishes.
Lan Xuanyu and Qian Lei sat on one side, and Dong Qianqiu and Lan Mengqin on the other side. Lan Mengqin smiled and said: “This waiter’s description is really amazing! Hearing it, I immediately worked up an appetite.”
Qian Lei stretched his neck and looked at the direction of the back kitchen, already well past his limits in terms of patience.
After a short time, a metal tray was brought up, four cups of juice, plus a plate of grilled chicken skin and drumsticks were on it.
Suddenly, a strong aroma assaulted their noses. The grilled chicken skin was ruisseling of meat juice and looked glossy. The golden chicken skin was slightly burnt in a few places, but it was even more tempting, with a slight “chi, chi” sound. After smelling the rich aroma, the four of them could not resist anymore, they shot out at almost the same time, each grabbing a skewer and began the feast.
One bite down, the burning hot chicken skin immediately made them gasp for air, but soon, a strong aroma mixed with the scent of roasted meat filled their mouths instantly. The chicken skin was crispy on the outside, tender on the inside. The crispy taste coupled with the rich aroma caused their eyes to light up.
Almost like a windstorm, a plate of grilled chicken skin with chicken legs was wolfed down. The tender and juicy meat was very delicious. It blended well with the aroma of the chicken skin and complemented each other.
“Another round, or change to another place?” Qian Lei looked at Lan Xuanyu eagerly.
Lan Xuanyu said: “I’m fine either way, let’s listen to everyone’s opinion.”
“Then let’s eat more and then change !” Dong Qianqiu said with a smile. In fact, none of the four had enough.
By the time they left this Roasted Bird shop, they had tried everything that was on the menu.
“Ahem, I don’t think there is any need for a second shop. The auction is about to start. Let’s eat again next time.” Qian Lei said embarrassingly.
The four looked at each other and smiled. The meal was really satisfying, and their mouths were full of oil. After a meal, the relationship between them became obviously closer.
Lan Mengqin suddenly raised her finger and said, “I suggest that we come to the Gourmet Street to eat once a week from now on. Next time we must not eat so much in one shop. Ah, the grilled fish in front looks so tempting! Look! There are a lot of hot peppers on that promotional pamphlet. I like spicy food the most. A shame I’m already full.”
“Agree, once a week.” Dong Qianqiu also smiled.
“Okay!” Lan Xuanyu licked the oil on his lips. Today’s meal of roasted chicken was really very satisfying.
Crossing Gourmet Street without eating anything should be hell for anyone, but for the four of them who had already eaten enough, they were not feeling it so much anymore.
After finally exiting the street, the sky was already dark and the beginning of the auction was not far. The group of four couldn’t care about admiring the surrounding buildings anymore, and accelerated their pace and went straight to the auction site with the help of navigation.
Ten minutes later, they hurriedly arrived and finally saw the destination of their trip. From afar, the Shrek City Auction House looked like a huge theater. The façade was completely made of a jade-like stone. A human figure was carved on the outside. Each sculpture was human shaped but all somewhat different. On the front side alone, there were more than fifty sculptures, each of which was over ten meters high.
The front door of the auction house was very wide, and a red carpet extended from the door, spread through a long staircase that led to the bottom. Multiple persons standing at the door checked the identity of the visitors. From their gaze and aura, one could easily guess that they were soul masters, and quite strong at that.
The four of them stopped at the bottom of the steps and checked the time. Fortunately, they were on time.
Walking up the stairs quickly, the persons in charge of checking visitors’ identity at the door saw tiror school uniforms, and the expressions on their faces suddenly became very warm, “Students, please show your Shrek communication device.”
They stretched out their wrists, and the guard swept it with an unknown device, and immediately confirmed their identity. “Please come in, the position in the front row is reserved for Shrek Academy, you can sit there as you like.”
Lan Xuanyu asked: “Uncle, how many areas is the auction house divided into ? We are here for the first time and we are not very familiar with the place yet.”
The man smiled and said: “The auction hall is very large and divided into multiple areas. The common area is the largest and can accommodate three thousand people at the same time. Each person needs to pay a certain deposit to receive a number plate to enter. In addition to this area, on the second and third floors there are VIP rooms. The auctioneers who don’t want to reveal their identities or the most influential ones will choose these private rooms, but the price of the deposit is very high. Your Shrek Academy has a dedicated area, in front of the common area, of course, you can also choose a private room, but in that case, you need to pay a deposit. The Shrek Academy deposit can be replaced by a purple badge. It will be returned to you after the auction.”
“Ok, thank you very much.” Lan Xuanyu immediately understood the general rules of this place, teachers and students from Shrek Academy who participated in the auction were given preferential treatment without a doubt.
“Then do we need a number plate?” Dong Qianqiu asked.
The guard said: “You don’t need it. You will receive it when you enter the area dedicated to Shrek Academy. There is no need to pay a deposit in the common area either. After all, the guarantee of the academy is better than anything else. The private room requires an additional deposit because of its privacy. There are many different kinds of auctions in our auction house. Today is the most common type, held once a month, and it’s also the largest. So there will be a lot of participants and lots of items, and the auction will last until late at night. The value of the items will start from from low to high. The later the lot, the higher its value.”
“Usually we also have some basic auctions here, as well as interesting auctions such as guessing auctions. You can all pay using Shrek Academy’s emblems. The badge is absolutely a hard currency here, and with a certain degree of advantage.”
Qian Lei said with some excitement: “Then what is the exchange ratio between emblems and federal currency?”
The gatekeeper replied : “A white emblem is equal to 10,000 federal coins, a yellow emblem can be exchanged for 200,000 federal coins, and a purple emblem for two million federal coins. I don’t know for the higher level.”
There was a factor of twenty between the yellow emblems and purple emblems ? Moreover, even the most common white emblems could be exchanged for a full 10,000 federal coins! The value of federal currency was supposed to be quite impressive. Lan Xuanyu vaguely remembered that his father Lan Xiao’s monthly salary seemed to be only around 70,000 and 80,000 federal coins, which was already considered a high-end salary. His mother seemed to only range from 30,000 to 40,000, right ?
Calculating the amount of emblems he had on him, without taking into account the black rank emblem Teacher lent him, Lan Xuanyu had the equivalent of a huge sum of millions of coins. This was simply unimaginable before.
The gatekeeper said patiently: “Emblems are our most welcomed currency, because Shrek Academy has many good stuff, even more than the auction houses. Those good things cannot be bought with money and can only be exchanged against emblems. You can exchange for federal coins at any time, but you can’t buy Shrek emblems with federal coins ! It can only be exchanged against you students. If you want to change, the ratio used through less official exchange can even go higher than what I said. “
