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

"Ah, no, I was just thinking about what price to set." Shen Liang was interrupted by her, and he had already made up his mind. He smiled and said, "Miss Xin Hai knows that I am a businessman, here to make a fortune. You want seawater rice, and I want money. We are both willing, but I have been thinking about it. Your island's current situation seems to be unable to afford the price of such a divine object, right?"

“If Ryoko really wants to make money, she should understand the principles of long-term development. Coral Palace always repays kindness, especially such a great one. To be honest, in terms of general value, Coral Palace really can't afford the cost of seawater rice. But if Haizhi Island escapes famine and war and gets back on track, it will only repay your investment double!” Coral Palace breathed a sigh of relief. She wasn't afraid of Shen Liang's demands. Any businessman could see at a glance that Haizhi Island was poor, so his willingness to do business with Haizhi Island must mean he had something to gain!

I'm afraid you'll run away, why would I be afraid you have ulterior motives?

"If Haiqi Island loses, you'll all perish, and I'll end up with nothing. If we win, you won't need my money—Miss Xinhai, you've got a good deal in mind." Shen Liang laughed. "You can't do that. In Liyue, there's a saying: 'get something for nothing.' That's a big no-no for business partners."

The little witch smiled too. The more Shen Liang put on airs, the more at ease she felt. "So, what requests does Liangzi have? I will personally represent Coral Palace to try my best to fulfill them."

She felt incredibly shameless; to build rapport, she'd stopped calling him "Mr. Ryoko" and started simply calling him "Ryoko" instead of "Mr. Ryoko." To resort to such methods to deal with a boy younger than herself—oh, Ryoko, don't blame me for being despicable.

Shen Liang had been waiting for her to say those words.

“I do have a request, and it’s not difficult.” Shen Liang stood up, his eyes clear as he gazed at the pure and lovely little witch in white silk clogs. “Miss Xin Hai, I want you—”

Coral Palace Heart Sea turned pale.

Lu Zi was horrified. "No, no, no, you can't! You can seduce her, but you absolutely can't take her away. Xin Hai is the next person..."

"Be my maid for a year."

Chapter Twenty-Two: The Teleportation Curtain Opens in the Bathroom

When they finally returned to the Coral Palace after a long and arduous journey, it was already late at night.

After arranging for Shen Liang to stay at Nangong's guest residence, Coral Palace Xin Hai first sneaked back to her own room. As soon as she entered, she immediately closed the door and collapsed onto her soft, comfortable bed in a fit of frustration.

Why should I agree to this little brat?!

She came back to pack her belongings, because starting tomorrow she would have to move into the guest mansion to be that arrogant brat's maid! The dignified Queen of the Coral Palace, the next current human goddess priestess, actually agreed to be the maid of a boy younger than herself!

If this gets out, the entire island of Haiqi will probably storm into the Coral Palace, drag him out, strip him naked, and set him on fire!

But for the sake of seawater rice, this disgrace is not humiliation, but greatness and glory! For the impoverished Haizhi Island to obtain such a divine object that can determine the fate of the island, what is a little loss of face? Coral Palace Heart Sea has no doubt that not only she, but even if the High Priest himself were to choose her, she would not hesitate to put on the maid outfit!

Based on Coral Palace's understanding, the current priest is not only willing, but she'd probably even be willing to sleep with him to keep such a distinguished guest! All talk of a priestess's purity is nonsense. If she could get Ryoko to wholeheartedly support her, she wouldn't mind not becoming a priestess! And if she could leave a child in his belly to force him to take responsibility, that would be even better!

Let me, the Coral Palace Heart Sea, take responsibility and at least not dishonor the Coral Palace!

Coral Palace Xin Hai tried to comfort herself and relax. Then, she lay on the bed with her small face showing and couldn't help but recall her promise to Shen Liang.

"What's the point of your request other than humiliating me?!"

"Comrade Xinhai needs some education. How is being a maid humiliating? There are so many maids in the world; it's clearly a normal and promising profession. Do you look down on maids? Don't the priestesses of your Coral Palace have maids?"

"You're so glib! You know perfectly well it's different!"

"So what if it's different?" Shen Liang's smile annoyed Coral Palace Xin Hai. "Even if you know I have ulterior motives, do you think you could get my support by such an easy price as becoming a maid? Miss Xin Hai, we're not children."

Coral Palace was speechless. Yes, if this request hadn't been made with ulterior motives, or even if the motives were obvious, how could it have yielded such unequal assistance?

Rather, it's more accurate to say that on this impoverished, pristine, and clean Haiqi Island, the only thing Shen Liang could be attracted to was her stunningly beautiful face, which she could be proud of.

Coral Palace Heart Sea did not want to use her beauty to serve others, nor did she want to exchange her body for any benefits... But now there is nothing left to trade on Sea Island. If this body could fetch a good price, there would be plenty of people who would want to be her! She had the means to do so, and to refuse would be irresponsible to everyone on Sea Island.

She often reads novels, and many of these stories contain similar plots. In those stories, the authors would offer answers such as, "If a country needs the sacrifice of a young girl to be saved, then such a country might as well be destroyed."

However, Coral Palace Heart Sea always scoffed at this kind of plot because she never put herself in the shoes of ordinary people; she knew she should put herself in the shoes of the leaders.

A leader who discovers that a nation can be saved at the cost of a single young girl must do everything in his power to complete this incredibly lucrative deal, even if it is sordid and rife with sin. Because for a leader, all values ​​are measurable, and the difference in value between a nation and an individual is so readily apparent that it requires no thought whatsoever.

If the girl were herself, the choice would be even simpler—since she holds the power of a leader, she should fulfill the duties of a leader.

Ignoring Ruko's anxious advice, Coral Palace Heart Sea calmly said, "I can be your maid, but firstly, before I am your maid, I am first and foremost the chief priest of Coral Palace and the priestess of Umiji Island. If your request seems to me to be against the interests of Umiji Island, I have the right not to do it, is that alright?"

"I have no opinion."

"Secondly, I won't do anything that violates my moral bottom line, is that okay?"

“The concept of a bottom line is very broad. I can only promise you that I won’t ask you to do things that you would obviously strongly resist.” Shen Liang tilted his head, making a cute gesture with his face. “Don’t worry, I’m not some kind of devil. All I need is you personally.”

Coral Palace Heart Sea accepted reality.

"My third question is, why do you trust me? Aren't you afraid I'll abandon the seawater rice project once I get my hands on it?" But she was still somewhat unwilling and asked him with her neck stiff.

“You can try,” Shen Liang said nonchalantly, “if your Haiqi Island dares to.”

Genetically modified rice cannot be reused through seed saving. Even disregarding the fact that most harvests show infertility, these special hybrid seeds often experience declining yields and adaptive degradation generation after generation, eventually reverting to normal rice varieties. Therefore, the seeds needed each quarter must be purchased from the seed market, and Shen Liang has no concerns whatsoever about Haiqi Island abandoning him after using him.

Of course, he didn't need to explain these things to Haiqi Island. If Haiqi Island was really such a short-sighted place, he could just earn less and watch the place die a horrible death.

So, while Ruko was shouting "No, Master Kokoro!" without making any attempt to stop her, Kokoro lifted her skirt, took a deep breath, lowered her head with a forced posture, and said through gritted teeth, "From now on, Kokoro is your maid, Master."

"Aaaaaaah, this is so embarrassing!!!!"

Coral Palace Xin Hai screamed and rolled around on the bed, then jumped down fiercely.

—Start making the bed.

—Tomorrow I'll really be working like a slave for Shen Liang.

----------

Meanwhile, Shen Liang was examining the interior decoration of the Coral Palace Mansion.

Although it's obvious that Umijima Island is desperately poor, it seems that Coral Palace, as the residence of the shrine maidens and the core area of ​​the theocracy, still had a reasonably generous renovation budget.

The mansion is divided into many independent courtyards. Shen Liang's courtyard has two side rooms, one is the master bedroom and the other is a side room for the maids. It is said that the other courtyards are not like this. His is VIP treatment. Because Coral Palace Xin Hai also needs to stay, Lu Zi approved the best room for him.

The courtyard features a small bridge, flowing water, and covered walkways, reminiscent of Liyue gardens. Steam rises from the pond because it's winter and the boiler is used for hot springs. Guests no longer need to go to the mansion's large public bathhouse for bathing, as some non-Inazuma female guests don't have the habit of bathing together in public bathhouses.

However, since Umijima Island is currently under blockade by the shogunate, it is said that there are no envoys or guests at the residence.

It seems the Coral Palace isn't particularly extravagant. As a residence for receiving foreign envoys, it doesn't even have waiters or maids to greet them. It's unlikely that the Coral Palace itself would have such "servants." The leadership of a regime consisting of a group of priestesses can't possibly be very luxurious.

The creed of these witches is purity, innocence, and innocence. They don't even seek out men during their term of office, so Shen Liang finds it hard to imagine that they would have desires for power, money, or other such things.

—Am I being too harsh on that little witch?

—She may indeed have a prejudice against "maids" because there really are no maids here. Everyone is equal in terms of personality and there is no concept of "serving others".

—What kind of ultimate form of utopia do I rely on?

Shen Liang looked up and saw that the sky was turning white. He wasn't used to sleeping in another world, so he took off his shoes, rolled up his pants, tried the hot spring in the courtyard, and then opened the teleportation screen.

The location where the teleportation light curtain opens on the other side is selectable; you don't have to return to the same place you left. The selection range is roughly within 100 meters of the location where the teleportation light curtain opened when you last left.

It's inconvenient to activate the teleportation screen on Earth because there are cameras everywhere, so he can usually only activate it at his own home.

Usually, it's located in the bathroom because people often walk on grass and soil in Teyvat, and their shoes get muddy. They can wash them directly with water when they get home, or even take a shower before coming out. If they don't have a towel or bathrobe, they can ask Rosalia to bring them clothes.

So this time he opened it in the restroom as well.

Chapter Twenty-Three: How Many Sisters Do You Really Have?!

One of the core problems of teleportation, which most works avoid discussing, is that you don't know what's on the other side of the teleportation screen.

Shen Liang had been used to living alone for several years, and even the arrival of the Arlin sisters did not constitute a "private space" for him, because the Arlin sisters were almost closer to him than siblings. Therefore, he had no concept of "there would be a problem if the teleportation screen was opened at home".

He only realized the problem after stepping out of the light curtain.

A beautiful high school girl with long, white hair that reached past her waist was raising her hand, trying to take off her high-necked white knit sweater. She was halfway off, revealing her fair, smooth, and beautifully curved waistline. Half of her head was inside the sweater, with a pair of bewildered eyes staring at Shen Liang.

Shen Liang's gaze unconsciously slid down from her slender waist. Unfortunately, she hadn't had time to take off her skirt yet, so her overall figure was still relatively intact, the kind that could pass censorship on online novel websites.

Oh no, I shouldn't say regretful, I should say fortunate.

"landlord?"

"Oh, good morning, are you taking a shower?"

"Uh...right."

"You got up really early, that's good."

"Hmm... I played games all night yesterday, and I'm still not asleep."

"Then take your time washing, I won't disturb you, I'm leaving now." Shen Liang unlocked the door and walked out quickly.

He then took off his shoes, plopped down on the soft sofa in the living room, and looked up at the ceiling.

The sound of Kiana showering could be heard from the bathroom. Both of them were silent. Shen Liang was stunned, his heart filled with torment.

How to do?

Bronya was right, renting the house to outsiders was bound to cause problems sooner or later! But I didn't expect "sooner or later" to come so quickly; it's only been a day since I traveled through time!

Shen Liang had considered various methods, including but not limited to calling Rosalia and Lilia to capture Kiana now, lock her up, and hide her in the basement to ensure she would never leak secrets again; contacting Bronya to have the Russian mafia humanely dispose of Kiana; contacting Cocolia to have her take Kiana directly to the orphanage in Oymyakon, away from the human world in the icy wilderness...

He then discovered that none of these plans were feasible.

Putting aside whether it's morally right or not, Kiana is the daughter of the long-established European financial family, the Shaniat family. Financial family, financial family, what does it mean? Only those who have mastered both the black and white worlds for generations are qualified to be called financial families. Do you think it's too slow to kill someone's daughter?

I'm afraid the Yamaguchi-gumi will come and kidnap me and send me to Germany themselves!

Shen Liang was still calmly staring at the ceiling, his expression composed, but his mind was racing.

At that moment, his phone received a video call invitation. Since he had returned to Earth and reconnected to the internet, his QQ status immediately showed him as online to Bronya—his QQ was always set to invisible, only visible to Bronya—and theoretically, it was nighttime in Bronya's time zone, so seeing him online meant she knew he had traveled back in time.

After hesitating for a moment, Shen Liang did not turn on his own camera, but instead turned on Bronya's camera.

Bronya looked like she had just taken a shower; her long, wet silver curly hair hung down. She was wearing loose bunny pajamas, sitting in front of the computer drying her hair with a towel, her face still bearing its usual cold expression.

"Why don't you turn on the camera? Is it inconvenient, brother?"