“Wow! It’s so beautifully drawn!”


  “Boss Hades’s daughter is indeed a genius illustrator! She made me look so good.”


  “This picture book is definitely going to be popular. Seems like our opera house is going to be popular too.”


  The Black Cat Opera’s actors gathered together to read the picture book. Mala sent it over to the maestro in the morning but they only got to read it during their break time and they were all impressed.

  It felt amazing to see the opera that they performed daily appear in the form of a picture book and completely exceed their expectations.

  Moreover, they had already found out that Mr. Hades had bought the exclusive right to use the picture book format of ‘Miss Black Cat’ with 5,000,000 copper coins.

  The theater was closed and was being upgraded for the past few days. They had been rehearsing in the backyard and would welcome their audience with a brand new look, after the theater had completed its upgrade.

  At first, they were still worried that the frequent closing of the theater after it opened would cause a loss of their audience.

  However, after reading this picture book, their worry was diminished. Instead, they began to look forward to the scene whereby the theater was filled with an audience again.

  “However, this picture book cost 2,000 copper coins per copy and Mala said that we have to sell 1,000 copies today, which means, it will earn 2,000,000 copper coins by today.”


  “Wow… Doesn’t this mean that this picture book could earn us tens of millions of copper coins?”


  “It seems that the maestro has made a not-very-smart choice,” all the actors murmured.

  Vicki walked over as she scolded them, “Why are you all gathering here?! Don’t you need to practice? The opera house is going to reopen in two days time and I’ll punish you if you fail to perform and disgrace me by then!”


  All of them quickly put down the picture book and dispersed.

  Vicki picked up the picture book and the corner of her mouth twitched.

  She knew even more information. Mr. Hades had sent a total of 10,000 picture books over to Eiffie. He priced them at 2,000 copper coins per copy and limited its sale to 1,000 copies per day.

  She saw that Mala had already finished her work when she was resting on the second floor earlier.

  The 1,000 copies of picture books were all snatched up in half a day. Its demand had far exceeded its supply.

  Which also meant…


  These 10,000 copies would be completely sold out in 10 days and earn Mr. Hades 20,000,000 copper coins.

  Without any publicity and with a steep price, ‘Miss Black Cat’ suddenly became famous just like that.

  It would be fake if she said she had no regrets. Right now, Vicki’s heart… was bleeding!

  Her initial anticipation was that Hades would release the ink version of the picture book in a few months time and with Annie’s excellent drawing skills and great storyline, ‘Miss Black Cat’ would have rather good sales.

  However, after deducting all the costs, given the black-and-white print’s meager profit, the annual earnings wouldn’t be too high.

  However, she had never expected that Hades was so efficient and finished the printing in just a few short days.

  What she even less expected was that he actually released a color printed version with a high resolution!

  She had read the original book and she actually couldn’t see that the picture book that she received in the morning was a copy.

  What she knew was that the Norland Continent’s printing technology was still in the black-and-white stage. Not to mention the advanced color printing technique, they hadn’t even figured out the basic theory of color printing.

  What Hades did was no different from cheating!

  “Perhaps someone has smuggled the color printing machine out from Underground City?” Vicki murmured to herself, feeling that it was rather unbelievable.

  That was the only plausible explanation.

  However, no matter what, the color printing had made the ‘Miss Black Cat’ book into a source of wealth.

  The picture book’s intricate drawing style and outstanding colors were perfectly preserved by the color printing, and the exciting story was much better than the majority of the picture books on the market.

  Vicki had already ascertained that ‘Miss Black Cat’ would definitely become immensely popular and bring Hades great rewards.

  And, she had the right to share those profits initially.

  “On the bright side, if the ‘Miss Black Cat’ picture book becomes very popular, more people will be willing to step into Black Cat Opera House to listen to the opera’s version of ‘Miss Black Cat’.” A smile appeared on Vicki’s lips.

  Mr. Hades’ 5,000,000 copper coins wasn’t a bad deal for her. She used that sum of money to do a complete makeover for the theater and transformed it from a circus to a real professional opera house.

  The opera house could accommodate 1,000 audience members and huge opera productions could be performed on the stage. She even hired a few new staff members for the theater.

  She didn’t dare to think about all these things before but now she had achieved them all in one shot.

  All she needed to do was to remember Mr. Hades’ kindness to her.

  Meanwhile, the success of the ‘Miss Black Cat’ picture book was mainly due to his excellent mind in business and operation.

  She even decided not to ask Xi to investigate the color printing.

  If the printing machine indeed came from Underground City, to conceal any traces of Underground City, Xi would most probably kill Hades right away.

  “However, I could still find out more when I meet Mr. Hades again. After all, it’s better to keep a low profile with this thing,” Vicki mumbled to herself.

  ***

  Mag didn’t expect that someone would link the color printing to Underground City. However, he was indeed much more relieved after making the Night Elves his scapegoat.

  As long as someone asked about the matter of color printing, he would get them to go out and turn left to look for the Night Elves.

  At the dinner table, Babla held onto an escargot with furrowed brows. “Is it impossible to suck out the escargots if we don’t drink alcoholic beverages?”


  The other maidens had similar facial expressions too. They looked at the escargots in their hands helplessly.

  It was today’s new product and Mag fried a helping for all of them during dinner.

  However, after smelling the spicy escargots and sipping a mouthful of the spicy soup, the ladies were stumped.

  “Slurp!”


  “Slurp!”


  “Slurp…”


  After sucking out three escargots in a row, Amy put down the shells, chewed on the meat and said to everyone as she shook her head, “No. You can still suck it out even if you don’t drink. Escargots are so delicious.”


  Everyone looked at one another, feeling their faces heat up.

  “At a moment like this, brute force will create a miracle.” Irina took out a hammer and a chopping block out of the blue. She put the escargot on the chopping block and slammed the hammer on it.

  The shell shattered and a complete escargot flesh was left behind.

  Irina smashed a few more times before eating them with chopsticks.

  Mag smiled as though he expected their predicament. He picked up an escargot, sipped a mouthful of gravy first before holding the escargot with two fingers and demonstrated as he explained, “Actually, there is a technique when it comes to sucking the escargot. Put the escargot in your mouth and cover it with your lips. Take a deep breath and when the escargot isn’t paying attention, suck gently. The escargot will naturally end up in your mouth. The escargot will only have a soul like this.”


  “The escargot’s tail is already processed, so only the head is left. Everything inside is edible, so you can suck them without any worries.” Mag reminded them.