Didn't you go to Teyvat to earn money to support me?

"It's very comfortable, and the fabric is a type I've never seen before. It must be very precious." Coral Palace Kokoro was not wearing a maid outfit or her usual formal shrine maiden dress, but a nightgown for sleeping. She recalled for a moment, "But I am a shrine maiden after all. It feels like something is missing if I don't wear my shrine maiden dress... I feel empty."

“That outfit is clearly much thicker than your shrine maiden outfit.” Shen Liang rested her hands behind her head, leaning comfortably against the raised bedding, and said leisurely, “I’m hungry.”

"Huh? This...it's so late, where am I supposed to find you something to eat?"

"Can't meals be delivered to the mansion?"

“Coral Palace doesn’t have the spare money to take care of the mansion right now. All the meals in Coral Palace are the same; you eat at the same time and on the same menu as us.” Coral Palace was very troubled. “The priestesses who are in charge of cooking have already gone home and gone to bed. It’s not good to trouble them…”

Shen Liang remembered that he had eaten lunch at Liu Ge's bedchamber in the Coral Palace. To be honest, he didn't expect that the food of a dignified human goddess priestess was not so good.

A plate of pan-fried eel, a plate of grilled eel, a plate of oyster sashimi, and a plate of sea bream miso soup. Served with some appetizing pickles, all that's left is a bowl of white rice.

There was also a pot of fish soup. Shen Liang used the fish soup to soak rice, following the custom of the people of Haiqi Island. Then, the last bit of the fish-tasting food disappeared.

It's not that it's not refined, but Shen Liang really couldn't stand the plate full of fish and meat. If he had been living a hard life in an orphanage when he was a child, he might not have cared, but now he has been living a comfortable life for several years, and his pickiness about food has become ingrained in his heart. Because of this, he has become a very good cook himself.

Japanese cuisine has always been at the bottom of the hierarchy of disdain between Eastern and Western chefs. Shen Liang has always felt that a style of cooking that lacks seasoning, cooking skills, and even knife skills, and only focuses on the "original flavor of the ingredients," has never been a style at all.

And who can accept eating a table full of fish?

"Gurgle—" Both of their stomachs growled. It seemed they had only eaten a reluctant lunch and hadn't had time to eat dinner, so now that it was night, they were both hungry.

"It's decided!" Shen Liang stood up, gave Coral Palace Heart Sea a thumbs-up and grinned, "Let's have hot pot!"

"Eh!"

Chapter Thirty-Six: We Will Become Sea Serpents

The nights on Haegeishima Island are still a bit chilly, and the sea breeze is especially biting at this time.

Sangokami Ryuka, draped in a dark red cloak, slept soundly in the carriage. The elderly coachman looked back at the carriage and suddenly remembered how he had served this shrine maiden when he was young. Back then, she was only twelve or thirteen years old, and she wouldn't have sat so solemnly and elegantly in the carriage. Instead, she would have taken his place, laughing and whipping the horse, her long hair billowing in the wind like banners fluttering on a battlefield.

At that time, although Umijima Island was poor, the war had not yet reached its climax. The young shrine maidens gathered together to play hopscotch and rope skipping, but Sangomiya Ruka preferred to ride, shoot, and hunt with the young soldiers. The adults scolded Ruka for not being ladylike, but Ruka put her hands on her hips and said that she didn't want to be a shrine maiden in the future, but a great shogun, and then she would go and steal the handsome men of the shogunate to be her male lovers.

The groom gazed at the ethereal priestess, her long eyelashes drooping, her skin fair, her face serene. She was no longer young, yet she maintained such beauty; one could understand how many young generals had secretly admired her in her youth.

But the world changes. One after another, the boys who secretly loved Ruka Sangokami died on Hachiyū Island. The girl who once vowed to become a general stepped into the Sangokami and put on the most magnificent and noble shrine maiden's robe.

Twenty-five years have passed like a dream.

—But it's okay.

The coachman thought to himself.

"I will always stand by your side."

"Even if you don't understand what I'm about to do?" Before anyone knew it, Ruka Sangokami had woken up.

“Even so,” the coachman said, “we have arrived, Lord Coral Palace.”

This is a military camp.

Coral Palace Ryuka took out a row of small wooden boxes from the space of the Eye of God, which floated in the air. Soon, about seven or eight figures appeared from the jungle in front of her, all kneeling before her.

"Distribute the Evil Eyes, preferably disguised as something dropped by bandits during a bandit raid and confiscated by you. If someone actively requests an Evil Eye, give it to them directly. More strength is more good." Coral Palace Ryuka ordered expressionlessly. "The production of the Evil Eyes is limited, so give them to those who have an urgent need, preferably those who harbor great hatred for the enemy."

"clear."

"If anyone dies because of the Evil Eye, give him a proper burial and spread the word throughout the army. Make sure that most people realize that the Evil Eye is the best way for him to seek revenge against the Shogunate army when he has no other choice."

"clear."

"Many generals deeply resent the Evil Eye; you should remain hidden."

"clear."

“Always remember, I’m watching everything you do,” Coral Palace Ryuka said softly. “If you are exposed, I will consider you traitors to the Fools, and you will be nailed to the pillar of shame. Umijima Island will despise you, the gods will not bless you, and you will go to hell… But it doesn’t matter, I will too, we will go to hell together.”

The soldiers laughed. They were all officers, with few sergeants, but what they had in common was that they were all quite old, mostly over thirty, and had unshaven beards.

Although Ruka Sangokami was of the same generation as them, the beautiful shrine maiden was like a daughter to them.

"Lord Coral Palace, those who are afraid of death should not be soldiers. Soldiers are not afraid of death. If I am not afraid of death, why would I be afraid of being wronged?"

"The kids may be naive, but don't think we're naive too. If we had this back when we fought the Shogunate, would we brothers still be alive today? Hahaha! We would have dragged a dozen Shogunate members down with us by now!"

"We're all veterans, don't you know us, Coral Palace Lady? If we didn't have this mindset, we would have already... developed Battle Cry Jade Syndrome!"

Coral Palace Ryuka curled the corners of her lips into a smile.

"That's called post-war depression. Morishita, read more books."

"Hey, what's the use of studying? Does studying change your destiny? I'm just a roughneck, I don't believe in that."

"No, reading is for changing the world." Coral Palace Ryuka looked around at the group of veterans, her smile still on. "I recently met a young fellow whose mannerisms and speech clearly indicate that he has read a lot of books. Despite being born in a peaceful era, he can speak of many profound truths that I admire."

"What's the use of grand principles? Do you think you can win a war by reasoning with people?"

"Shut up, you big brute! You're always looking down on scholars. Do you even know why Prince Xinhai was able to become the powerful palace official?!"

"Isn't it just because she's Lord Coral Palace's niece...?"

The person next to him gave this guy a hard slam, "I told you to study more! Princess Xinhai manages both domestic and foreign affairs perfectly. At only fifteen years old, she has the entire younger generation of priestesses in the Coral Palace following her lead. Now, even many people in the military are convinced by Princess Xinhai's orders! She is the next generation of the Coral Palace Lady, you know that? The reason she is so amazing is because she studied. She has read more military strategy and domestic policy books than you have eaten fish!"

Coral Palace Ryuge straightened her cloak and sat down on the ground, as did the veterans.

She looked around at the group of familiar veterans, and for a moment she felt as if she had returned to twenty-five years ago, when everyone was sitting casually on the grass in the breeze.

The only difference is that now they can only hide in this remote place. They are all old and scarred, and only a few familiar faces remain.

“That little guy’s name is Shen Liang,” she said.

"Liyue people?"

"That child was also a girl?"

"The man, although very beautiful, almost as beautiful as my niece," Coral Palace Ryuka said with a smile. "He sold us a kind of rice that can grow in seawater, and made a promise that the rice could solve the livelihood problems of our Haizhi Island."

"This is incredible!"

"Could it be a scam?"

"Then he saw the Evil Eye, and guess what he said?"

"It'll probably be the same old thing again."

"What can you say when you see the Evil Eye? This thing is like a demon or monster; who wouldn't be afraid of it?"

“He said it’s a good thing, something even better than the Eye of God.” Coral Palace Ryuka smiled. “Old folks, he said every power has a price. Wanting independence and peace, that’s the price. Nothing could be fairer.”

The veterans were stunned for a moment, then burst into laughter in unison.

“How long has it been since a young person on Umijima said something like this?” Sangomiya Ryuka gazed at the opposite shore, where Futsuna, belonging to the shogunate, was located. “Everyone is thinking about how to stop the war. Even fighting is for the sake of achieving a ceasefire. No rice, no diplomacy, no trade doesn’t matter. As long as we can stop the war and survive, that’s the ultimate goal. It’s as if we’ll have everything once the war is over.”

The veterans remained silent.

"But is that really the case?" Ruka Sango asked, as if she were asking herself.

"Does a ceasefire really mean we'll be better off? We rely on imports for our rice, and all our industrial products depend on the shogunate. We have to do whatever the shogunate tells us to do, and even our taxes can change three times a year. On Hachiyun Island, our god died, and to this day, the shogunate is still mining his body to make sand for steelmaking—can all of this just disappear with a ceasefire?"

"What do we want?" asked Ruka Sango.

The veterans' cultural background was insufficient to answer such questions, so they all fell into deep thought and silence.

“It’s about dignity,” the coachman replied.

“Dignity, yes, dignity.” Coral Palace Ryuka’s voice gradually filled with anger. “We had dignity when the Great God of the Sea was alive, but now that the god is dead, we can only rely on ourselves! The people of the Sea deserve more, instead of relying on a few nets of fish every day!”

“You say Xinhai will replace me, yes, sooner or later... but not now. Xinhai is the embodiment of ‘guardian.’ She is the priestess who protects our school of fish. She believes that the weak fish must unite to become a surging school of fish and have the right to resist.”

"But she didn't understand that this only saved the whale the effort of catching it."

"If you want to protect these fish, you can't just protect them; if you want peace, you can't just rely on peace! The resistance of the weak is ultimately still the resistance of the weak... What the fish want is not the weak, but the ability to face the terror of whales, for example, a highly venomous sea snake."

As her speech quickened, her words became increasingly angry, and her eyes seemed to burn with intense fire. The veterans looked at this magnificent and beautiful war witch and saw hope in her.

"Rest assured, Lord Coral Palace," the veterans stood up and saluted, "we will become sea serpents."

Chapter Thirty-Seven: Winter calls for a nourishing and stomach-soothing congee hot pot!

Shen Liang is cooking porridge.

This is the congee base for hot pot. When people talk about hot pot, they usually think of the bright red Chongqing hot pot or the lamb spine hot pot of old Beijing. Few people know about the congee base hot pot of Guangdong.

First, boil water in an earthenware pot, then put the rice in the pot, add some dried bean curd and tofu skin, and simmer over high heat to make porridge. Then, take out the rice, grind it, and continue to simmer to make porridge. Repeat this process several times until the rice is almost invisible. Then, skim off the remaining solid rice, leaving a pot of clear porridge.

This type of congee, where the rice grains are barely visible, is called "mu mi zhou" in Cantonese. Adding some chicken broth to the congee makes it the base for hot pot.

Afterwards, Shen Liang moved the porridge base from the kitchen to his own hot spring courtyard. Only after he finished cooking did he notice that Coral Palace Xin Hai was wearing an apron and still slicing raw fish with great effort.

The little witch had never done this kind of work before, but Shen Liang was her master, and she had to do as he asked her to do in the middle of the night.

After instructing her to cut the ingredients, that little rascal left without caring whether she would cut her hand!

Now that Shen Liang has entered, Coral Palace Xin Hai feels both wronged and dissatisfied, and she cuts the knife even more loudly!

"Not finished cutting yet?" Shen Liang was clearly unhappy. "How come you're even more embarrassing than Rosalia?"

Although Rosalia is a bit of a fool, she's still pretty good at helping him out. She finished off these few fish and some vegetables in no time!

You, Coral Palace Xin Hai, are supposed to be observing the people's conditions every day, yet you can't even handle this small matter properly and you're throwing a tantrum. Do you really think you're some kind of princess?

Who is Rosalia?