Fei Rui shook his head. “I am Fei Rui from Saint Nazaire now. I am no longer the Prince of Bridges.”


  Gu Mengmeng shot a guilty glance at Lea, and then at Elvis. She didn’t dare to speak.

  Satisfied with Gu Mengmeng’s response, Lea waved his tail and said, “When did you join our Saint Nazaire tribe? Why was I not aware of this?”


  Fei Rui blinked pitifully and looked a Gu Mengmeng. He sounded like he was about cry, just like a little puppy-dog. “Messenger…… am I not part of the Saint Nazaire tribe?”


  His query tugged at Gu Mengmeng’s heartstrings. She pulled Lea’s arm and pouted pleadingly at him.

  Lea took two deep breaths. “Suit yourself.”


  Gu Mengmeng smiled. “Bridges is also a part of Saint Nazaire. So you can be both the Prince of Bridges and a member of Saint Nazaire. You are of the ocean race and different from the land beasts. Forcing you to stay here in the winter is too cruel. Go back to the ocean if you wish. You can come here again anytime you want. Saint Nazaire will always welcome you.”


  Fei Rui smiled and his two eyes narrowed into two crescent moon shapes. He nodded and looked extremely pleased.

  “Well……” Gu Mengmeng hesitated, but still spoke up. “There’s something which I should inform you about.”


  “Mmm?” Fei Rui tilted his head like a naive little kid as he gazed at Gu Mengmeng.

  Gu Mengmeng took a deep breath. “Dora is dead.”


  Fei Rui was obviously shocked. His eyes dimmed and he lowered his head. He only uttered an “oh” in response.

  Gu Mengmeng didn’t try asking how Fei Rui was feeling, and didn’t probe him on what had happened between Dora and him. After all, it didn’t matter now who was in the right or wrong. Gu Mengmeng felt that since Dora was already dead, all past grievances should be wiped clean.

  Gu Mengmeng sighed before smiling again. She wanted to ask Fei Rui when he was going leave.

  But Fei Rui looked up first and took out a small pouch. He walked over to Gu Mengmeng and opened it. “Oh yes, Great Messenger, take a look. Do you have any use for this?”


  Gu Mengmeng glanced downwards. It looked like salt but was much more coarse than the granules that came from Saint Nazaire’s salt lake. She dabbed a little with her finger and tasted it. It was indeed salt.

  Gu Mengmeng’s eyes lit up as she asked, “Sea salt?”


  Fei Rui nodded. “Yeah, the Mermaid Tribe is able to distill salt from seawater, but we have never observed the land beasts using it. Nevertheless, I saw Mister Lea using something like that when he was cooking yesterday, and so I returned to the ocean last night to distill a little for you to try. If this is something you have a use for, I will distill more this winter and bring it back during the monsoon season next year.”


  Saint Nazaire’s salt lake was limited in its production of salt. The tribe had already used up a large portion of the salt to preserve the foodstuffs for the winter season. At their current rate of use, the salt lake would be depleted within five years’ time.

  It must be said that Fei Rui’s discovery was a great help to Gu Mengmeng. Hence, she immediately nodded. “Yes this is definitely very useful to us. Without this, we will die!”


  “So important!” Fei Rui was shocked, before immediately clapping his hands over his mouth. He continued in a small voice. “Great Messenger, don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone else. When I return next monsoon season, I will bring a lot of sea salt back for you. I guarantee that you will never lack for salt.”