Chapter 10: The Destruction of a Nation Caused by Dragon Fruit

Zhou Kun quickly finished the last mouthful of rice in the food container and consumed the wintermelon pork rib soup in a single gulp. He rolled the money in the food container into a roll and stuffed it into his pocket, thinking that he would return it to his uncle next time.

He accepted his uncle's kind intentions, but he could not bear to accept the money. After all, Zhou Kun's family had yet to reach the point where they were struggling to make ends meet. Besides, now that he had the mysterious passage that would lead him to another world, Zhou Kun believed that he would definitely make a lot of money out of it. 

After getting busy for a period of time, he settled down and began to study, in a bid to figure out what the passage was all about. 

By the time Zhou Kun was ready to set off to the other world once more, it was already three days later.

During those three days, he carefully studied the laws of the passage and discovered that the lower the temperature of the cold storage warehouse, the more stable the passage.

According to the current temperature of the fruit cold storage warehouse, which was at 2 degrees Celsius, the passage can be maintained for about 20 minutes.

He would at most have twenty minutes to sell his goods. Otherwise, the previous situation, where he was suddenly bounced back to the cold storage warehouse, might happen again. 

The sudden event that happened previously made Zhou Kun feel uncomfortable for three days. It was only a few hours ago that he started feeling normal again. As such, he was rather afraid of the passage malfunctioning. 

This time, Zhou Kun similarly prepared dragon fruits. He had found the wooden cart that his parents used for setting up their stall a long time ago and prepared to sell dragon fruit in bulk.

In order not to attract attention, he also deliberately changed into a set of medieval-style clothes that were originally meant for cosplay. 

Zhou Kun, who thought he was ready for everything, took a deep breath and stepped into the passage again.

It was similar to the previous time he entered. The streets were still in medieval style, but this time, Zhou Kun's appearance and his cart of dragon fruit did not cause a commotion, because there were two vendors who were manning two stalls and touting, not too far away from him. 

"Hurry, take a look at the fresh dragon fruit that I've just harvested from the manor this morning. It's the magical fruit that came from Pilux's lair. Don't miss it when you pass by..." 

The vendor on the other side decided to show his dominance as well as he yelled, "Come and take a look at these fragrant and juicy dragon fruits. They're magical fruits that are full of vitality. Sir, would you like to have a try?" 

"How much are these dragon fruits?" 

"One for three copper coins and three for ten copper coins."

"So cheap? Give me three. "

Zhou Kun was confused. Why are dragon fruits being sold everywhere on the streets when they had just been snapped up by those few big families when I came three days ago?

The two dragon fruit stalls were close to each other, but the strange thing was that one of the stalls was doing much better than the other which had no customers at all. 

Seeing that there was no business at his stall, the vendor glanced at Zhou Kun and said, "Brother, are you here to set up a stall to sell dragon fruit too?" 

"Huh?" 

"Yeah!" Zhou Kun didn't know what to say for a while.

"Your dragon fruit is not fresh. It doesn't seem to have been harvested today." 

"Uh..." Zhou Kun looked at the dragon fruit in his cart. Although they were still succulent and fresh, they did look much more inferior than that of the stall vendor. 

"The prices of dragon fruit really change every day. Ten days ago, they were sold for one silver coin each. Today, I can't even sell a single one at three copper coins each. To think that at the auction three months ago, the Sade Family and the Clauren Family spent more than 20,000 Dragon Crystals to get the dragon fruit seeds."

"What did you say? Three months?" asked Zhou Kun who spotted the anomaly in the vendor's words. 

"You know about the first auction of dragon fruit that happened three months ago, don't you?"

"Huh?" 

"What did you say? Three months ago?" 

"You're actually selling dragon fruit? It's no wonder your stock isn't fresh. Let me tell you..."

Although the vendor beside him was rattling on and on about the auction three months ago, Zhou Kun did not listen to a word he said. 

His mind was filled with thoughts as he wondered how it had been three months since he left the place even though it had clearly only been three days for him. 

He thought, 'No wonder I always felt that something was wrong previously. It's because I had missed out on the issue about the time difference between the two worlds.'

Last time when he met Luke and left the auction, there were at least five or six hours in between. It was still midnight when I returned to the cold storage warehouse. 

Recently, he had been in a trance due to the after-effects of the malfunction of the passage. Accordingly, he did not discover that issue immediately.

Three days became three months, which meant that time passed nearly thirty times faster in the other world and than the real world. 

After some observation, he discovered that the passage would remain stable for about twenty minutes, which meant that he could stay in the other world for about 10 hours. 

In order to confirm his conjecture, Zhou Kun waited patiently for about ten minutes, but he didn't discover any signs of being bounced back into the passage. 

"Hey, brother, you can't do business in such a boring manner. You can only attract customers by touting and exclaiming every now and then." 

The vendor of the stall beside Zhou Kun decided to give him some reminders enthusiastically after seeing that Zhou Kun was remaining silent. 

"I'm not afraid of getting laughed at by you. This is the first time I'm setting up a stall to sell fruits. I only saw dragon fruit stalls in the city recently and thought that it must be lucrative. Tell me about the dragon fruit and the auction, so I can say something about it later," Zhou Kun said half-truthfully. 

The vendor of the stall beside him looked like a friendly and enthusiastic person. Besides, neither of them had any customers. Hence, they began to talk about what happened in the past three months.

"You know the two established nobles and the upstart of Lan City who attended the auction three months ago, don't you?"

Zhou Kun nodded to express that he knew. 

"The Sade Family spent a total of more than 29,000 Dragon Crystals to purchase two pairs of dragon fruits, while the Clauren Family spent 18,000 Dragon Crystals to purchase the other pair. However, to my surprise, the mysterious adventurer who brought the dragon fruit suddenly disappeared, and the Bansai Auction House did not manage to find him." 

Hearing that, Zhou Kun's expression became a little unnatural and he thought, 'The seller you're talking about is right in front of you, listening to you brag.'

However, the eloquent vendor did not notice the expression on Zhou Kun's face. He continued, "Originally, the two big families wanted to monopolize the dragon fruit business, but they had underestimated the value of the dragon fruit."

"The nouveau-riche Birmingham Family, who you mentioned before failed to bid for the dragon fruit, and they bore a grudge since then. Hence, they reported to the church that the two major families of Lan City were prepared to monopolize the dragon fruit business and nurture life elements." 

He continued, "After that, the church quickly announced that the dragon fruit that had been brought from the evil dragon's lair contained evil powers. Consequently, they waged a Holy War against the Orchis Empire."

Zhou Kun asked, "Holy War?"

"That means the unilateral declaration of cooperation with the Orchis Empire. Within less than a month, the Orchis Empire declared its submission to the church. The two major families in Lan City were destroyed, the Bansai Family evacuated and left the Orchis Empire overnight, and all the dragon fruits were taken back to the church. "

"What… Is there such a thing?" Zhou Kun asked. 

He thought, 'Isn't this too much of a fuss for a dragon fruit?' 

Zhou Kun did not expect his carton of tiny dragon fruit to trigger such a serious matter like the destruction of a nation. 

Since dragon fruit is so precious, how can it be reduced to being sold everywhere on the streets?