Pah.
When Lawrence turned the corner, he collided with a hurried scholar.
Both of them steadied themselves, and the scholar looked at his stained white robe with a slightly darkened expression. Just as he was about to say something, he looked up and saw Lawrence, instantly changing his expression and taking a step back.
“Lawrence? You’re back from the Shattered Lake Prison? Sorry for bumping into you just now, my apologies.”
“It’s nothing. Where are you going now?”
“To the Wine Cafe. It’s the 15th today, and the Blood Moon Trial is more exciting when we watch it together.”
“Haven’t you seen enough when you were working at the prison?”
The scholar chuckled, “Guess who’s on the prisoner list announced this morning? – Wakas Ur, the former elf scholar from Camon University!”
Wakas?
Lawrence was slightly surprised. Wasn’t he the patient he treated yesterday…
“Do you want to come with me? It’s been a while since everyone has seen you. Your appearance at the Wine Cafe will definitely surprise them-“
“Sure.”
The scholar’s expression stiffened slightly. It seemed that he didn’t expect the usually reclusive Lawrence to agree. He had only invited him out of politeness…
“Um… then follow me. Do you want to change your clothes and treat your injuries before going back?”
Lawrence looked at his blood-stained clothes. “Doesn’t the Wine Cafe have Blood Wine? It can be used for treatment. Or do you think it’s inappropriate for me to go in like this? Will you mind?”
The scholar immediately shook his head. “No, no, how could that be? I actually think you look pretty cool and trendy like this. Walking on the street, you’ll definitely turn heads…”
Lawrence sneered inwardly.
As the only Blue-Scaled Fishman at the institute, how could he not know that the other scholars secretly discriminated against and excluded him?
But he didn’t care before. He single-mindedly pursued power and was happy to be excluded, not participating in any collective activities.
After all, under the restrictions of the “Racial Equality Act,” no matter how many grievances these people had, they could only keep them to themselves.
On the surface, they even had to maintain an attitude of “I respect you” and “I don’t discriminate against you.”
Otherwise, once Lawrence caught them and reported them to the Racial Committee, they would directly ruin the discriminator’s future prospects.
But Lawrence was in a really bad mood tonight. Faced with the insincere invitation from his colleague, he suddenly had a mischievous thought and agreed.
But soon, Lawrence regretted it.
He had never been to the Wine Cafe before.
The neon lights of blue and purple, the ambiguous and melodious music, the mingling Blood Saint scholars… everything made Lawrence feel uncomfortable, even nervous to the point where his skin began to secrete mucus.
“Is that… Mr. Lawrence?”
“Congratulations to Mr. Lawrence for completing the Blood Bonding Ceremony and coming back!”
“Come on, let’s have a drink!”
After a cheer, everyone returned to their own circles. Even the scholar who brought Lawrence didn’t show any intention of introducing him to his circle and promptly disappeared.
But Lawrence also breathed a sigh of relief. He found an empty table, ordered a glass of Melancholic Blues, and soon the bartender brought a cocktail of crimson and azure blue.
“You ordered the Melancholic Blues, 20% human infant blood, 30% Blue-Scaled Fishman infant blood. Enjoy.”
Lawrence drank it all in one go and licked his lips. The rotting wound on his body began to heal rapidly.
He observed the Wine Cafe and felt that it was not much different from the fishman bar in the slums – there, pregnant women were drinking at the bar, here, orcs and humans were reproducing in the booths. There were also people overdosing on Moon Sugar, twitching and rolling on the ground like dogs.
But the topics of discussion here were different from those outside the Wine Cafe. Everyone here was discussing “whether there will be results,” “one day we will slaughter the administration,” and “this is the last year of promotion or dismissal.” These were all adult issues that made people unhappy even when drinking.
A shadow of gloom flashed through Lawrence’s scarlet fish eyes – now that the Blood Bonding Ceremony was over, he also had to sign a contract as a junior researcher with the institute.
With his current blood quality and the atmosphere of the institute, he would most likely have to participate in the competition for “promotion or dismissal.” If he couldn’t produce the required results within the time limit, he wouldn’t be promoted to associate professor and would be dismissed from the institute, either going to the Hunting Hall or starting his own business. It was impossible for him to advance further in the institute.
But the problem was that there were only a few associate professor positions, and there were dozens of Blood Saint researchers competing for them… It was said that there was a research institute in the Outer Sea City where 30 researchers competed for 0 associate professor positions. When the twenty-year probation period was over, they said that none of them passed and sent them directly to society, making them work for free for twenty years.
Lawrence took a sip of his drink and lowered his head to flip the drink menu to the other side, where he found familiar advertisements. It listed the prices for organ recovery within the Blood Saint community, with the recovery agency being the “Red Mist Organ Exchange.”
“Human Blood Saint: Heart – 80 silver coins, Lungs – 50 silver coins, Kidneys – 40 silver coins, Eyes – 30 silver coins…”
“Blue-Scaled Fishman Blood Saint: Heart – 44 silver coins, Lungs – 23 silver coins…”
The prices for organ recovery within the Blood Saint community were obviously lower than the market price, naturally because their organs mutated after becoming Blood Saints. Therefore, the organs of the Blood Saint race could only be sold to the same Blood Saint race, and the market was small.
However, since everyone could recover through blood therapy, the demand for organ trading was low, so the prices were lower.
If it were a normal race, the selling prices would be at least two or three times higher. However, it took too long for a normal race to regrow organs, and it greatly affected their lives.
At the poorest time of his life, Lawrence sold his fish bladder and a few thousand milliliters of blood to earn some extra money.
Lawrence suddenly thought, ‘Now that I’ve lost my job at the prison, the institute’s subsidy has been greatly reduced. It’s getting more and more difficult for Grandma Yann. I should sell some organs to raise some money and send it over…’
Grandma Yann was the head of the Blue-Scaled Foster Home and the guardian who raised Lawrence.
The Blue-Scaled Foster Home was one of the few foster homes willing to accept fishmen.
After Lawrence became an adult, he would usually send half of his salary to Grandma Yann to help ease the financial pressure of the foster home. After all, if the Blue-Scaled Foster Home went bankrupt, several hundred young fishmen would die every year.
In a free economy and market, babies who were not accepted by foster homes would naturally have to be reincarnated.
Anyway, he didn’t have any hobbies. He didn’t like stock trading or consumption. He ate and lived at the institute, and that little money couldn’t buy any good Artisans. It was better to use it to give the little fishmen at the foster home an extra meal.
While Lawrence was thinking about what organs to sell, a light screen suddenly appeared in the center of the Wine Cafe, allowing all customers to see the live broadcast.
“It’s starting, it’s starting!”
“Boss Snake, come and open the market!”
“Hey, when will we have another ‘Battle Royale’ mode? That was so exciting to watch.”
“I think the ‘Computer’ mode is the best to watch. The scene where electricity jumps out of the eyeballs is so cool.”
“It’s not a special mode today since it’s not a holiday… Stop thinking about it. It must be the classic mode tonight. I love watching the classic mode. It’s ordinary but still thrilling.”
When the light screen lit up, even Lawrence, who wasn’t very interested in the Blood Moon Trial, couldn’t help but look over.
The Blood Moon Trial, begins.