Chapter 415: Chapter 415: The Special Shrimp
Roman Rhodes silently pulled his sleeve free from Ronan Rhodes’s grasp. He paid his brother no mind, his gaze locked on the computer screen before him.
The screen displayed the file he’d commissioned on Gene Young and Yvonne York.
According to the file, the couple had been married for many years and had a son and a daughter. Their family had run a restaurant before the cataclysm, but it went out of business afterward. Beyond that, they had no criminal record. It was hard to imagine how such an ordinary family could be connected to the Advent Sect.
Roman Rhodes had no time to worry about the Arcadia Shop right now. His mind was consumed with what Melody Summers had reported today about the Advent Sect.
The Cult, known as the Advent Sect, had previously launched a terrorist attack in Anworth that resulted in countless civilian casualties. Roman Rhodes loathed these people to the bone!
He had originally thought the cult had been completely wiped out in a previous operation, but to his surprise, so many had slipped through the net.
The cult’s leader hadn’t died in the earlier takedown. Instead, he was still at large, engaging in illegal and criminal activities.
This was far too dangerous!
The top priority now was to find a way to capture all these remaining fugitives and bring them to justice as quickly as possible.
Seeing Roman engrossed in his work, Ronan didn’t dare disturb him further.
He quietly picked up his jacket and headed out alone, intending to check on the fingerprint analysis results. He never expected to run right into Carter Jennings the moment he stepped through the door.
The suites on this floor all belonged to the Rhodes Family. Ronan looked at Carter Jennings and asked, "What brings you here? Is something up?"
Carter Jennings "tsked" upon seeing Ronan. He feigned annoyance and said, "You brat, you sent a bodyguard to cause trouble for me earlier, didn’t you? That seafood supplier is an important partner for our hotel. Don’t you dare ruin my partnership!"
Carter Jennings had only just learned that when the hotel staff went to receive the seafood delivery today, the Rhodes Family had sent a bodyguard to confiscate the delivery drone!
Luckily, the owner of the Arcadia Shop hadn’t made a big deal about it. Otherwise, Carter Jennings was genuinely afraid he would get angry and cut off the seafood supply to the Nimbus Hotel.
Hearing this, Ronan knew he was in the wrong. Fearing the news would leak, he hadn’t given Carter Jennings a heads-up.
Ronan patted Carter Jennings’s shoulder apologetically. "Alright, my bad this time for not letting you know beforehand. How about this: I’ll talk to the sales department and get you a month’s worth of free supplies for the hotel. Consider it compensation for the trouble."
Hearing this, Carter Jennings nodded in satisfaction and replied with a grin, "Now that’s more like it!"
Ronan gave a helpless smile and joked, "So, did Mr. Jennings come all this way just to give me a piece of his mind?"
Carter Jennings shook his head, his expression turning serious. "I’m here to see Professor Paige Walsh."
Since her messy divorce from Bernard Simmons, Paige Walsh had moved out of her old suite. She was now staying in one of the Rhodes Family’s spare suites.
Ronan was taken aback. "What’s wrong?" he asked. "Did something else happen?"
Carter Jennings replied, "Just now, while the kitchen staff was sorting today’s seafood delivery, they found a very strange prawn!"
"The prawn is blue, and it has scale-like patterns on it! I’ve never seen a prawn like it before. I think it might be a new species, so I wanted to ask Professor Walsh to come take a look!"
******
Meanwhile, the Summers Family was also starting dinner.
Tonight’s dinner was a lavish spread. In the center of the table was a large platter of steamed Blue Scale Prawns, emitting an enticing aroma. Surrounding it were dishes of braised crispy duck, cabbage in clear soup, pickled cabbage stew with pork, stir-fried water spinach, and a tureen of rich, milky-white fish soup.
Melody Summers peeled a Blue Scale Prawn, popped the succulent meat into her mouth, and chatted with Sophie Thorne as she chewed.
[Vanassa: I can’t take it anymore. Ronan Rhodes is getting more and more unhinged over this Arcadia Shop business.]
[Summertime: Didn’t they already come up with a plan to confiscate the drone and check its brand and model number?]
[Summertime: Once they have the brand and model, they can just look up the sales records, right?]
[Vanassa: Don’t even get me started. They confiscated the drone, but there’s no brand or model number at all.]
[Vanassa: Because it’s made of wood.]
[Summertime: Huh?]
[Vanassa: You know how it is. Ronan Rhodes is a materialist. He thinks his whole world is collapsing right now.]
[Summertime: Can’t blame Ronan. That really is weird.]
[Summertime: Maybe the shop really is run by aliens.]
[Vanassa: In any case, it’s pretty pointless to get hung up on it.]
[Vanassa: We’re in the middle of a cataclysm that science can’t explain, so why can’t there be aliens?]
[Summertime: So what’s Ronan Rhodes planning to do now?]
[Vanassa: They’re studying the wooden drone right now, trying to lift fingerprints from it.]
[Vanassa: If they get prints, they can run them through the database, and... you know the rest.]
[Summertime: Oh, I see.]
Melody stuffed another piece of prawn into her mouth, thinking, ’Lift away. I’ll be shocked if you find anything.’
From chopping down the tree to building the drone, she had worn gloves the entire time, and even a mask for good measure. Forget fingerprints—it was impossible that even a single shred of DNA was left on the drone.
Not only that, she had also worn gloves while packing and shipping. She refused to believe Roman and Ronan Rhodes could possibly find anything.
’Getting my identity exposed? Not a chance. Not in this lifetime!’
[Vanassa: Ugh, enough about him.]
[Vanassa: Oh, by the way, let me tell you something interesting. Today, when the Nimbus Hotel staff were handling the seafood, they found a really weird prawn!]
[Vanassa: I just went over to take a look. The prawn is actually indigo! I’ve never seen anything like it.]
After reading these messages, Melody Summers froze completely. The soup spoon in her right hand fell into her bowl with a sharp CLINK.
’A very special blue prawn? Indigo?’
’Isn’t that a Blue Scale Prawn!’
Looking at the message from Sophie Thorne, Melody felt a headache coming on.
She had worried that a Blue Scale Prawn might jump out of the conch shell during harvesting and get mixed in with the seafood, so she had been extra careful when packing the shipment. She never imagined one would still get mixed in...
Melody thought for a moment, then replied:
[Summertime: What blue prawn? Is it a blue velvet shrimp?]
[Vanassa: Nope, this prawn is bluer than a blue velvet shrimp, and it’s bigger too.]
[Vanassa: It also has a kind of scale-like pattern on its body. It’s really unique. I think it might be a new species.]
[Summertime: Has it been confirmed as a new species?]
[Summertime: I mean, could it be a genetic mutation in an existing species that caused it to turn blue?]
[Vanassa: Not sure. Miss Walsh is studying it now. She’s an expert in biology, too.]
[Summertime: Oh, I see.]
[...]
